For many years I worked in Germany. Over the years, I developed a strange ability. I could meet someone in Germany and know almost instantly whether they had grown up in the East or the West. I never understood how. I kept asking my friends why. They just smiled.

One February night, with the temperature about five below zero, they told me to get in the car. We drove to the end of an abandoned trolley line in the middle of nowhere. I asked what was going on. My friends just said, “Tonight you will find out.”

We walked a quarter mile through the woods and came to a building with a neon sign that read “Country and Western Bar.” Inside were about 100 Germans line dancing to a live country band, in perfectly straight lines. True German fashion.

My friend said, “Ask them why East Germans love Americans.” So, I did. Their answers stunned me. Even though it had been illegal, they all had listened to American Armed Forces Radio and Radio America. Those broadcasts meant freedom to them. They had all hoped for freedom.

We’ve had freedom for 250 years. Never forget how precious it is.

Jerry Gulley
Kittery