A woman on the radio talked about revolution
when it’s already passed her by
Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about you
you know it feels good to be alive
I was stationed in West Germany at the time, and even though the collapse of the Warsaw Pact was imminent, there was no great trepidation or heightened threat-com, other than stay away from the celebrations and let the Germans have their moment without everyone else tailgating onto it. Trabis scattered along the road shoulders had been a common sight, and everyone knew the jig was up, and were just waiting for it to happen.
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
there is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
watching the world wake up from history
It was surreal to see, on the AFN broadcast of American national news, events that were playing out just a couple hundred miles away from base. The storming of the Stasi headquarters and the raiding/destruction of the personal files. The nightly demonstrations in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The anticipation, the waiting for it, the final countdown, and not one of dread, but one of hope, life, and freedom.
I saw the decade in, when it seemed
the world could change at the blink of an eye
And if anything
then there’s your sign… of the times
The 1980’s began with the age old fear of nuclear winter, mutually assured destruction, brinksmanship. We had a cold enemy ready to dish it out in droves, and who was on the advance throughout the world. But the staunch stand of the West, led by the great three, Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II, found a way to stop, then undermine and subvert, this evil.
And I was lucky enough to be over there at the time when we defeated yet another world threat, this time without a massive loss of life but for Romania. People forget what residents of the East went through. Getting shot trying to go over the wall, traveling 100’s of miles to soft spots in the border around Austria, hiding under cars going back to West Berlin. Registering their typewriters in case any dangerous pamphlets came up that could be forensically traced to the thumb print of their machines. Getting reported on by their neighbors and family.
Right here, right now
there is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
watching the world wake up from history
In italics, the song Right Here Right Now by Jesus Jones, about this night and all that went with it.
