The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

Man, it's hard to believe that 30 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those few years were so exciting, so energizing, as people rose up and took control of their own destinies, from the shipyards of Gdansk eastward ...and stopped cold at Tiananmen Square. Sigh. The Berlin Wall has been torn down longer than it was up, and both those events happened in my lifetime, which makes me feel ancient. 

The Iron Curtain illustrated what common sense tells us: people will always tend to migrate to a better place. If you must restrict your own citizens from leaving, that tells everyone that you aren't good enough to keep them.