The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

One of my German friends yesterday took me to a Joshka Fischer rally at Gaensemarkt, a plaza near the school. Joshka Fischer is the head of the Green party, and also currently the German foreign minister and deputy chancellor as a result of the coalition between his party and Chancellor Gerard Schroeder's currently-ruling labor party. He's a very popular politician because he's so very un-politician-like. As a result it's probably easier for him, more so than for other politicians, to be candid in his public statements.

He spoke for maybe 45 minutes, his voice somewhat hoarse from the intense schedule the campaign and his public duties have demanded over the last few weeks. But he patiently painted his picture of his view of Germany, of where it is and where he thinks it should be. He addressed the basics – economic policy, unemployment, the environment – and then he talked about America.

"It was very difficult to say 'no' to the US [when it asked about invading Iraq]," my friend translated him as saying. The mood in the crowd became somber and serious as people listened intently. "We will never forget what America did for us 60 years ago."

I listened to him say these things, standing in the middle of a city that had been almost completely destroyed by the Allies at the end of World War II. Everything around me had to have been rebuilt. Countless people lost their lives, and hundreds of years of history in architecture and artifacts were surely lost. And yet, the prevailing German attitude to the party that wrought all this destruction seems to be one of undeniable gratitude for having been saved, I guess you could say, from themselves.

But a true friend, Fischer continued, is one who can say "no" to one's friends when it needs to be said.