The world's media are busy mourning the death of the Princess Diana ten years ago. But while they are mourning the fact that they lost a ready-made newsmaker who shared many of their goals, they have forgotten to remember the anniversary of a far more important event than the death of the former wife of Great Britain's heir to the throne. As I was reminded by Lead and Gold, today is the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Polish communist government agreeing to the demands of striking shipyard workers. This surrender by the Communist leadership of Poland presaged the breaking loose of the satellite nations of the Soviet Union's Iron Curtain and led directly to the fall of the U.S.S.R. As Lead and Gold writes,
The strike marked the beginning of the end of communist rule in Eastern Europe. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are, rightly, given the greatest share of credit for winning the Cold War. But Lech Walesa and John Paul II played indispensable roles. ... In the long twilight struggle against Stalinism, the workers of Poland were the first light of sunrise.
Yes, they were. But you won't see a murmur of this immensely important day in the mainstream media. True, this is an odd-year anniversary, but is it so insignificant that as of this writing, there has been not a single mention of this anniversary on the sites of CNN, ABC News, MSNBC, CBS News, Yahoo News or the New York Times? We are aware that many MSM reporters have little if any knowledge of history and thus might easily miss such a story. However, I believe that this runs deeper than mere ignorance. For some journalists, I believe it is an major inconvenience that those darn Poles had to begin the march toward freedom from the chattering classes' preferred political system. And I suspect that many of them regret the fact that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, proving so many of them spectacularly wrong. So they continue to blather about Diana's death and try to ignore remembering things far more important.
Cross-posted on StoneHeads. Hat tip to Instapundit.
