On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed — not literally, as the concrete-supported, machine-gun reinforced, 160-meter-wide "death strip" would remain in place for another three years. But on that day the wall was effectively leveled when East Germans were allowed to pass to the West unhindered. That opening ended the reinforced separation that made the East German regime possible, speeded up the process that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and merged the ideological division that had marked the world since the end of World War II.

Those events are a distant memory for many and "history" for many others. They should be a symbol of the power of the elemental yearning for freedom, and a reminder of how much our leaders have failed in the quarter-century since to build a world that better responds to that driving force.

The "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart," as the wall was officially named, was built in 1961 to halt the flood of emigrants who were deserting the socialist paradise of East Germany — the crown jewel of the Soviet empire — for the West. In the years before it was erected, some 3.5 million East Germans — one-sixth of the population — voted with their feet for capitalism, challenging, according to the leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht, the very existence of his country.