Editorial

Editorial

Season of hope

We, with the rest of the world, have watched with wonder the events of the past week.

First came Election Day, Nov. 7, and the apparent ascendency of a black man to the governorship of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the heart of the old Confederacy. Though Lt. Gov. L. Douglas Wilder has downplayed the importance of his color during his campaign, and in his apparent victory , the achievement remains worthy of note. He will become, if his razor-thin margin of victory holds, the first black governor in the nation.

The country had hardly had time to catch its breath from the election, when the teletypes and satellite dishes began humming with headlines from Berlin and East Germany. Literally overnight, that most stubborn and recalcitrant of Communist regimes swept its hardliners out of office, replacing the old guard with reformers bent on modifying the country’s forty years of one-party rule.

But that was not the biggest news. The announcement that travel restrictions were being abolished was met with astonishment by leaders and citizens on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

All weekend, East Germans poured across the border in Berlin, just to prove to themselves that they could, indeed, travel to the West and back without retribution by their government. Television cameras filmed construction equipment manned by East Germans tearing chunks from the Berlin Wall.

As impossible as it seems, it appears that the world may be witnessing the collapse of the totalitarian regimes of the Communist world. Though their demise is not yet certain, it appears that their people, having been granted a breath of freedom, will not be content until their bondage is broken entirely.

What a Christmas present that would be for the West — and most of all to the people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

This year, the holidays will truly be a season of hope. I '— ---