I was born in 1980, which was 35 years ago. The dominant geo-political drama in the world 35 years ago was the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. In and around the year 1990, quite unexpectedly, the Soviet Union collapsed, and nearly every nation that had been a part of it converted rapidly from communism to some form of democracy. That was a historical shock! Nobody in 1985 was saying that the Soviet Union would be gone soon. It was exciting when the Soviet Union fell, it made you feel good as a human being to see it dissolve, to see democratic demonstrations succeed, to see the Berlin Wall smashed to bits by giddy, euphoric Berliners. It made you feel like there was hope for the world, for humanity — that good was destined to triumph over evil. It was, for us in the United States, a triumphant and beautiful time. We had been right, our values had prevailed, freedom rang louder and brighter across the globe, democracy marched forward inevitably. Our shining city on a hill would lead the way forward for them. Albeit, we weren’t perfect. Albeit, we had problems of our own. But our faults were relatively small, even our former enemies admitted that; we had no skeletons in our closet to compare to the likes of Stalin. Continue reading →