○  英语演讲：remarks at the brandenburg gate  ○

and feel and way of life -- not mere sentiment. no one could live long in berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. something, instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says "yes" to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. in a word, i would submit that what keeps you in berlin is love.

love both profound and abiding.

perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between east and west. the totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. the totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.

years ago, before the east germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the

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