text: They cried, they cheered.   Their faces expressed joy, triumph, pride and perplexity.  The world watched in anticipation --  We were mesmirized by the images of the TV, expecting something new at every moment and not wanting to miss it --  I remember that day it was the only topic of conversation at school: "Have you heard?", "I can't believe it!", "After all this time!", "I never thought it would happen."  We all felt that we were living one of those historic moment that you read about in a history book and were proud to be a part of it --  It was November 9, 1989, the day that the Wall fell in Berlin-
  	Within a few weeks, the excitement had died down and people had turned their attention to more recent news.  But for me, this had been the start.  It was the start of what our now as-President Bush likes to refer to as "our" winning of the Cold War --  It was the event that gave the people of the Eastern Bloc countries the hope that their efforts were not in vain --  For 40 years, the people had suffered under a communist regime that had not allowed them to express themselves freely or to leave their homelands in search of a new life --   Many people had tried to escape. Some had been executed --  I had a classmate whose father had escaped from Hungary --  He had left his family and friends, his whole life and had set out for Western Europe with little money.  I had asked him once if he hadn't been scared, scared of what he would find once he left --  He told me that nothing could compare to the way he had been forced to live his life there --  Even though I had lost touch with this classmate, her father's words were with me as I watched the events unfold in Germany --
  	Bolstered by the Germans' success, the people of Hungary, Tchekoslovaquia, Poland and Roumania rose against communist regimes as well --  Now, three years later, communism as we once knew it no longer exists.  Whether the people are happier or not, I cannot say --  However, they will have at least seen the "other side".  Their struggles and hopes of forty years will not have been in vain --  Without the "events of Berlin Wall" history probably would not have taken a very different course --  Eventually, I think that things would have turned out as they did --  However, history cannot be rewritten and as things stand the Fall of the Berlin Wall actively contributed to the resurgence of hope and struggle in the rest of the Eastern Bloc --  As such, it was the catalyst force that led to the end of the Cold War and therefore, though we may not always remember the other significant events, we will always remember the day the wall fell --
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