Today I covered the 20th anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall at a ceremony at UMSL. Two mock pieces of the wall were used in the ceremony. After the speeches, the two pieces of the wall were pulled apart and area high school students ran through the opening to “freedom”. None of the high school students who participated in the event were born when the real wall came down. It was, for me,  a moment filled with irony.

Twenty years ago the news spread that the wall was about to be torn down. I immediately went to the editor of the paper and said that I wanted to go to Berlin. I thought that it was important that we had our own images of the historic event. He said he would consider my request. After several high level meetings, it was decided that the paper would send three writers, but no photographer. The reason given was that I couldn’t get pictures back to the office in time. We were using film back then. We didn’t have all of this modern digital technology that we have now that allows instant transmission of pictures. I argued, unsuccessfully, that the pictures would be historic and have value for years to come. I don’t remember any of the words written about the event by our writers, but I’m sure they are stored in our files somewhere.

After the ceremony today, I watched the UMSL students carry off the two styrofoam versions of the wall. Somehow, it wasn’t quite the same as being in Berlin.