House Proceeding 11-06-09 on Nov 6th, 2009 :: 1:08:35 to 1:13:15
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1:08:21 to 1:08:43( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: the speaker pro tempore: 16 1/2 minutes. mr. mcmahon: i yield four minutes to the gentleman from tennessee. the speaker pro tempore: the gent recognized. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. and i want to thank the gentleman for yielding the time. i had planned on doing a one minute on the berlin wall. i think the 20th anniversary of the falling of the berlin wall is an historic occasion.

1:08:35 to 1:13:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Stephen Cohen

1:08:44 to 1:09:04( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: and a story about freedom and oppression and people having the opportunity to have that freedom. i had the opportunity to visit berlin before the wall came down and after the wall came down. and the contrast in east berlin and west berlin when the w was up was about as stark as the debate is from this side of the aisle and the other side of

1:09:05 to 1:09:26( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: the aisle. there was the idea of life and freedom and action and caring and just life on one side. and the other side of the wall it was dark, negative, gray, and when i traveled

1:09:27 to 1:09:50( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: it was just startling to me to experience it. -- for me to experience it. the main street in west berlin was a street of people and musicians and all kinds of life and freedom. an as soon as the people went home

1:09:51 to 1:10:14( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: and the communist style, stalin-esque buildings were on, there was no one out. and the waitresses that waited on us to us. she yerned to visit the west anaround the world. didn't know if she had that opportunity. we tipped her handsomely. i hope she used at money sometime to make her trip

1:10:15 to 1:10:35( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: across to the free world. when we wept to chkpoint charmy, i gave the guard there, it was one of the most ominous experiences i've had, a combination of a police person, a border patrol person, german, and i say that in the greatest respect to germans, and communist checking you through

1:10:36 to 1:10:57( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: checkpoint charlie and it was rather stern and officiallike and intimidating. and i slipped him an elvis presley swizzle stick which he looked askance and toohi and guided into his hands and stuck his poc moved his eyes from looking forwa i was happy to pass elvis along

1:10:58 to 1:11:18( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: and while i agree with the gentleman who spoke earlier about president reagan and some of the things he did in spending to help defeat the soviet union and bring down that wall, a lot of what broughtown that wall was the people and their need for freedom.

1:11:19 to 1:11:39( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: music and saw american life and they say blue jeans and they heard rock and roll, they herd elvis and the beat eventually that wall came down and they heard pink floyd and pink floyd played and the world listened and the wall came down. when i re berlin, i drove through the gate which i don't think i was

1:11:40 to 1:12:04( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: supposed to, but i did, and that was fun. i could do it. it was freedom. and i thought back upon the last time i'd been in east berlin and you couldn't do anything and it was such an ominous state. east berlin now is a fun, thriving, great place with great restaurants and art scenes and freedom and people.

1:12:05 to 1:12:25( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: it's become more happening than the other areas in the west which are happening as well. but it was a great day when that wall came down and the museum has three portions or four portions of the wall here in washington. i went there it last week. and i encourage everybody, mr. speaker, to go to the museum which is a great, great, great museum, a museum about history

1:12:26 to 1:12:47( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: in america and the world. not just about news media but about freedom. the reason they've got the berlin wall there, freedom and the first amendment, the freedom of press, the freedom of expression and the freedom of association and you can learn about that and value it and you look at that wall and you see pictures of the peoe who died trying to get across and coming up with a tunnel ra over the wall or to leave to create some type of flyi

1:12:48 to 1:13:08( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: machine and all the different ways, inside of cars or under cars and taken it to freedom. many died, some made it. it's a great tribute to people's yearnings for freedom and their desires to overcome the barriers put before them. i wanted to speak today because that was a momentum occasion in my life, it to see the berlin wall, to go into east berlin and

1:13:09 to 1:13:16( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: see the difference between our soviet repression and then to go back later and see the joy that