Throughout world history there have been events that caused America to cheer and events that caused America to cry and take action. Each person hearing the news about an event was affected in some way - by knowing someone involved, by having visited the place, or just by that feeling that connects each of us to the rest of the world. Christina Giacona looks back on some historical events. .
One of the dealings that affected Mrs. Giacona's life was the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was built to separate Communist East Berlin and "free- West Berlin. East Germany built the wall to prevent East Germans from emigrating to the West. On November 9, 1989, the East German government ended its restrictions on emigration and travel to the West by its citizens. This was unannounced and took the world by surprise. East Germans tore down the wall, with the eventual help of many Westerner, and soon reunited the city of Berlin. Mrs. Giacona was elated to see that the wall was finally being torn down, but also very surprised, as anyone else. There was no previous warning leading up to the event. She remembers watching certain television programs as a child, such as "Combat- and "Hogan's Heroes,"" always knowing that war itself was appalling, but not understanding why the fighting was going on. "It was the same way with Communism. You didn't have to understand it, but you knew it was wrong and that it held people back from living the lives they were meant to live. The Berlin wall was THE symbol of Communism and to see it go down was an especially good feeling."".
An additional event was the Tiananmen Square massacre. Even though the tragedy took place in far away China, it affected lives all over the world. As Mrs. Giacona remembers, she was home on June 4, 1989, watching the news. For many weeks, there had been reports of constant and peaceful protests by young Chinese students who would not leave Tiananmen Square, the largest in the world.
