(UNEDITED) As long as Bob Montanez is awarding prizes for those responsible for the fall of Communism, here are a few other nominees.
Let's start with Lech Walesa, who climbed a Gdansk shipyard fence in 1980 and entered history as he led Polish workers to their right to free trade unions. How about Vaclav Havel, who led Czechoslovak patriots in the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that brought freedom to their country, or the East German youths who actually climbed the wall that memorable night.
In 1989, a soft-spoken musician named Vytautas Landsbergis led his country, Lithuania, to declare independence from the Soviet Union - and two years later, thousands of unarmed Lithuanian youth stood firm and faced down KGB machine guns and tanks on a cold January night in 1991, singing folk songs while dozens of their fellows were cut down in cold blood. The moral courage of this assembly was so overpowering that the troops simply stopped firing.
And let's not forget the courage of Boris Yeltsin and the brave citizens of Moscow in 1991 who protected him, surrounding the Russian White House and protecting it with nothing but their bodies.
I hereby nominate the freedom-loving peoples of Eastern Europe for first prize in bringing an end to communism. This does not demean the contributions of Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. It simply confirms that love of liberty and courage are universal human traits. I am certain President Reagan would be the first to agree.
Steve Olsen
Plain City
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