On June 12, 1987 former President Ronald Reagan spoke in front of the Brandenburg Gate at the Berlin Wall. In his speech he issued a direct challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union. Here are the best-known words from that speech: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Twenty-nine months later Mikhail Gorbachev did allow Berliners to destroy that wall, and soon after the Soviet Union collapsed. Tear down this wall!

“Something there is,” said poet Robert Frost, “that doesn’t like a wall. That wants it down!”

Long before the Berlin Wall was conceived, there was another famous wall …