Today marks the 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s ‘Tear Down this Wall’ speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. And this morning marked the dedication of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, which was commissioned by Congress and funded through a combination of taxpayer dollars and private financing. According to the Victims of Communism Foundation, more than 100 million have been killed by communism since the Bolshevik Revolution. Today more than 20 percent of the world population continues to live under communist regimes–the vast majority in the People’s Republic of China. Given that fact, it’s no surprise that the memorial dedicated today takes the form of the ‘Goddess of Democracy.’ Quin Hillyer recently wrote about the memorial:
Communism has not been completely vanquished, and though it is now largely rejected, authoritarian philosophies that elevate the collective over the individual are still going strong–in the Middle East and elsewhere. As we pay tribute to the victims of communism, we should not forget those who are still being killed by fundamentalist Islam.
