President Obama may not be attending the ceremonies in Berlin today, but students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have been celebrating the fall of the Wall. My friend Jon Pitocco led students to build a mock wall, which stood between two sides of campus all last week:
“The events are designed not only to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also to embrace the ideals of freedom in aspects of our lives unrelated to physical walls,” Pitocco said.
The project also sponsored four documentary screenings and a panel discussion examining the views on Germany and its relations with other European countries over the last 20 years. The panel featured various experts on the subject, including John Kornblum, former U.S. ambassador to Germany; Victor Ashe, former U.S. ambassador to Poland; and Luc Veron, minister counselor and head of the Political Development section of the delegation to the European commission in Washington, D.C.
This is an encouraging sign that the millennial generation may not be as tone-deaf to the importance this world-changing event as some may think. Read more at InsideVandy.
– Michael Warren, a former Collegiate Network intern at National Review, studies economics and history at Vanderbilt University and blogs at Vandy Right.