OPINION:
Elfie Gallun sent a letter to President Reagan about her escape from East Germany.
She was moved by his 1984 acceptance speech and references to the people carrying the Olympic torch through our country. She was particularly touched when he said, “This is what America is all about.”
In her letter, Gallun, who passed away in 2019, explained her efforts to escape East Germany when she was just 19. On her first attempt, in 1951, she was caught by the authorities as she tried to cross the border.
She wrote: “As I walked all day, wondering what I should do next, I knew that I had to get across. I was so close and yet a million miles away but I had to try because I was in great trouble with the state. Late that night I knocked on the door and I asked for help, knowing full-well this could be the end of me. After having a meal and some rest, I instructed on how to accomplish my task. This is a very long story, so I will only say that when I finally got through the border (across the river) I ran for about 50 yards. By then my heart was beating and then it happened, that realization I have tried to explain again and again — I was free!”
Gallun went on: “There was something in the air, something wonderful, and I realized it, My God, even the air was free. There was freedom in the air! Only 50 yards, yet the air smelled so different. I wanted to shout, ‘I am free, I am free!’ but no words came from my lips because by then my heart was in my throat. There I stood in silence, having no one else to share that moment with me, and being lost in the wonder of freedom.”
These were powerful words, but it was what she wrote next that really touched me.
“In a little town just behind a hill two miles away, the lights were turned on. The Olympic fireworks of 1984, as spectacular as they were, could not compare to what I saw that dark night. Then I turned toward communism and it was so very dark, not one light. I had come out of the darkness into the light.”
This is a concept not understood by so many Americans — particularly young ones.
Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares now speaks for Young America’s Foundation. He regularly shares his mother’s amazing story of fleeing the oppressive regime in Cuba. Then he asks the students to take out their phones and search for an image of a satellite photo of North Korea at night.
The contrast between the darkness of North Korea and the lights all over South Korea is a visual reminder of the power of market-based capitalism over government-driven socialism or communism.
The contrast reminded me of a line from Elfie Gallun’s letter to Reagan: “I had come out of the darkness into the light.”
Daniel Di Martino is another remarkable speaker for Young America’s Foundation on campuses and schools across the country. He incorporates his own story and that of his family when explaining how socialism ruined Venezuela.
In the 1950s, Mr. Di Martino’s grandfather moved from Spain to Venezuela. At the time, the South American country was one of the most prosperous in the world. (It still has abundant natural resources, including major oil supplies, but that is not enough to save it.)
A warning here is particularly important for us today: The leaders of the oppressive regime that ruled for years did not take office by force. Hugo Chavez first came to power after a normal election.
As we have seen with other socialist and communist nations, the despotic rulers eventually moved to a dictatorship where the elites ruled and consumed the wealth, and everyone else sank into poverty.
History shows us that socialism and communism do not work. They take away the will to strive and succeed while opening the door to oppressors. This is why we need more speakers on campuses who can warn young people.
Reagan wrote back to Gallun.
“Those of us who were born free and have known freedom all our lives sometimes forget what a precious blessing it is,” he said. “Your experience in a totalitarian country has given you a special appreciation you can share with others. One look around the globe is enough to remind us how rare and fragile a thing freedom is and how each generation is called upon to make the necessary sacrifices to safeguard it. Examples like yours shine therefore as a beacon of hope for others. That path you followed from the darkness to light is truly the way to the future for all mankind. I pray that someday soon all nations may travel it together.”
It is critical for those of us who love freedom to share this and similar stories over and over again to preserve our republic for another 250 years.
• Scott Walker is a columnist for The Washington Times. He was the 45th governor of Wisconsin and launched a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He lives in Milwaukee and is the proud owner of a 2003 Harley-Davidson Road King. He can be reached at swalker@washingtontimes.com.
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