ARBLANKE.JUN


THE BERLIN WALL

PAUL N. BLANKENBECKLER, 32
Scottish Rite Bodies of Savannah, Georgia
Verdun Road 945 A2, 7140 Ludwigsburg, West Germany

  As we look at the world today, many barriers to peace and freedom
seem to be on the verge of collapse.  The Berlin wall, long a
symbol of those forces that cast darkness over nearly one-half of
our world, has been breached from within.  The piece of mortar and
stone I sent to the Scottish Rite Bodies of Savannah, Georgia, is
from the wall.  It was not chipped away by some souvenir hunter or
bought from some moneyhungry entrepreneur, but was handed to a
young American soldier by an East German Guard through a hole the
East Germans were making.

  I asked that it be passed among the Brethren and placed in the
archives.  For many the destruction of the Berlin wall is an
answered prayer; for others it is an example that right will in the
end be victorious. For those who have stood guard or walked patrol
near this or other fences, it is a reward for sacrifices and
vigilance in the cause of peace and freedom.  For all of us, it is
cause for rejoicing.

  But, while we all should derive some joy from the fragment of the
Berlin wall, we must guard against assuming too much from it or the
actions and forces that created it.  As the old governments change
and the leaders who have dominated them fall, one tends to believe
that these forces flee as darkness before the coming dawn.  As
Masons brought from darkness into light should remember, the
smallest candle in a dark room seems at first very bright, but
shadows prevail, and from the distance it is only a spot of hope in
the gloom of darkness. We must observe these events with hope and
caution.  Our hopes must not blind us to reality.  This fragment is
proof of change, but the fact that unknown numbers were killed
trying to scale the Berlin wall is still a hard fact that must be
remembered.  Governments are changing, but the control of the
police and military remains firmly in the hands of the Communist in
most of Eastern Europe.  The motto of the KGB, "Sword and Shield of
the Party," still applies.  Those forces that totalitarian rulers
have always employed to maintain power, visible in the streets of
Romania and Panama as they were in China, stand ready in the
shadows.

  The economies of the Warsaw Pact nations are ruined.  Visitors
may buy only 100 East German marks in items; shoes and textile
products are more limited.  In the Soviet Union soap is in such
short supply that some hospitals have experienced outbreaks of
lice.  Polls indicate an increase in both the numbers of Soviets
who express no opinion, the historic safe option for Soviet
citizens, and those who urge a return to the hard line.  New
governments are under increasing pressures, and our liberation of
Panama was condemned by the United Nations.

  Just as charges are being filed against old guard leaders for
injustices of the past and others receive the sort of justice they
gave, new liberal governments may take the blame for the hardships
that seem not far away.  One is reminded of the Hebrews who just
days after their escape from Egypt longed for full bellies in
bondage instead of freedom.

  It seems that we, the United States and our Allies, have
preserved peace and freedom through vigilance and the maintenance
and use of prudent levels of military power.  Today many look at
this flicker of freedom in the darkness, listen to the words of an
untried few, and stand ready to abandon the course that has kept
our nation and our friends both safe and free over 40 years.

  A friend recently provided me with a quotation by D. Mauilisky
speaking to the Lenin School of Political Warfare in 1931:

        Our time will come in 20 or 30 years.  To win we shall need
        the element of surprise.  The Bourgeois will have to be put
        to sleep, so we shall begin by launching the most
        spectacular peace movement on record.  There will be
        electrify overtures and unheard-of concessions.  The
        capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice in
        their own destruction.  They will leap at another chance to
        be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash
        them with our clenched fist.
        
I, too, my Brothers wish to view the flicker of freedom as a flame
that will spread, but I wonder if these actions proposed by
Mauilisky and others were not just delayed in execution by the
unforseen impact of Hitler and World War II.

  My Brothers, as you contemplate the fragment of the Berlin wall,
sadly the product of the darker side of the operative profession we
symbolically emulate, I encourage each of you to thank the Grand
Architect for the blessings of freedom.  I also beg that you
contemplate our future and the role that we as soldiers of Scottish
Rite Masonry must play individually and collectively to preserve
these blessings for future generations from both the whim of the
mob and the heel of the tyrant.
 
The motto of the KGB, "Sword and Shield of the Party," still
applies.  Those forces that totalitarian rulers have always
employed to maintain power, visible in the streets of Romania and
Panama as they were in China, stand ready in the shadows.


Today many look at this flicker of freedom in the darkness, listen
to the words of an untried few, and stand ready to abandon the
course that has kept our nation and our friends both safe and free
over 40 years.


