LRB-2729/1
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2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
2023 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTIO N 39
May 8, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives TITTL, ARMSTRONG, BINSFELD,
DITTRICH, EDMING, GUNDRUM, S. JOHNSON, KITCHENS, MAGNAFICI, MOSES,
MURPHY, MURSAU, NEDWESKI, NOVAK, O'CONNOR, PENTERMAN, PETRYK,
RETTINGER, ROZAR and S TEFFEN, cosponsored by Senators JAMES,
CABRAL-GUEVARA, FELZKOWSKI, MARKLEIN and NASS. Referred to Committee on
Rules.
***AUTHORS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***
Relating to: proclaiming June 12, 2023, as Ronald Reagan Freedom Day in
Wisconsin.
Whereas, on June 12, 1987, the United States had been in a cold war with the
Soviet Union for more than 40 years, and President Ronald Reagan was delivering
a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin; and
Whereas, during that 40-year period of Soviet power, many people faced
persecution and fled to the western European nations and beyond in order to escape
tyranny and find freedom; and
Whereas, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic
built a wall of barbed wire and concrete separating East and West Berlin, primarily
to stem mass defections from East to West; and
Whereas, the wall made it very difficult for people to escape Soviet Communism
in Germany and unite with their families in West Berlin, evidenced by at least 171
people dying trying to get over, under, or around the wall; and
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LRB-2729/1
CMH:emw
2023 - 2024 Legislature
Whereas, during his speech, Ronald Reagan remarked to the Soviet president,
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate; Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”; and
Whereas, on November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist
Party announced that citizens of the German Democratic Republic could cross the
border whenever they pleased, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall—some crossing
freely into West Berlin, while others hammered and chipped away at the wall itself;
and
Whereas, more than two million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin
that weekend, participating in a celebration that was, as one journalist described it,
“the greatest street party in the history of the world”; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the members of the
Wisconsin Legislature hereby commemorate that historic speech and declare June
12, 2023, as Ronald Reagan Freedom Day in Wisconsin.
(END)
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