Anchor: Well, it might not seem possible but it has been 20 years since the berlin wall fell ending nearly 30 years of a divided Germany. Today there will be a special event commemorating this historic event. Senator, good morning.
Cardin: Allison, pleasure to be with you.
Anchor: We will talk about why you are there in a little bit. you are standing in front of history. those watching who don’t know the significance, could you tell us how huge this moment in history was 20 years ago.
Cardin: The Berlin wall divided a city and state and a continent. it was the symbol of to tall tar — totalitarism. When a question was asked when the wall would be open and the firm responded saying it would be open that day, it changed the future of Europe. Today we celebrate that 20 years in which the wall has been down, but we dedicate ourselves to the fact that there are still walls up that deny people the basic rights that they are entitled to and we really dedicate ourselves to helping people whose voices need to be heard.
Cardin: You are at the museum. That piece of history is the largest chunk, if you will, of the wall outside of Germany and we have it here in our backyard. We do. I have a little piece in my office. I was in Berlin when the wall was coming down and the moment in history for me to be actually taking a hammer and knock down part of the wall.
Anchor: Wow. You are joining fellow members of congress speaking out in an event where walls still stand because the fight, as you said, for democracy, freedom around the world is not over. >> Absolutely. That’s what the Helsinki Commission, which I have the honor of chairing, one of our missions is to make sure that not just the 56 countries that belong to the Helsinki process but the entire world to live up to the basic human rights commitment to its people. >>
Anchor: This agency with the federal government, the mission is to fight for that.
Cardin: Absolutely. We are one of 56 countries that have signed on to the Helsinki accords which basically say we will respect human rights. We have the right to challenge human rights activities in any of our member states. We will work not only for security and prosperity but also for human rights because they are all linked together.
Anchor: For those watching and we talked about you could be in — we talked about this yesterday, we could have a child in college who might not have ever known about the significance of this. So, for those watching, what would you hope the message to resonate would be?
Cardin: I think we need to learn from history. I remember going through checkpoint charley which you had to do in order to get from West Berlin to East Berlin. It’s hard to imagine people being killed because they tried to escape East Berlin to go to West Berlin. Hundreds lost their lives. The wall was not just a division. It was a real differences between freedom and democracy. The lesson to learn is that freedom is something that everybody wants. We have to fight for it. It’s not free. We have to continue our campaign to make sure that every person, every country respects the rights of the citizens.
Anchor: In the meantime, we celebrate the shining moment in history. Thank you for joining us today.
Cardin: Thank you.
