Word: state
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When they return home, though, East Germans now face an array of questions that seemed theoretical, if not downright irrelevant, only weeks ago. Do they want to build the future within the boundaries of the state as it presently exists? Would they be better off if the whole country were, in effect, annexed by Bonn? Could they hold their own in a partnership with West Germany? And perhaps most important, what are they -- East Germans or just Germans...
Still, the issue of identity nags: Is the G.D.R. a nation, a state, part of a country yet to be unified? "For 40 years we were just letters," says Christian Fuhrer, pastor of Leipzig's Nikolai Church. "G-D-R. But not German. Not democratic. Just letters. We are Germans, certainly. But our German history is submerged: 1917 is when it begins for our students. The people must develop an identity. Only then can we discuss reunification...
Perhaps the most cogent explanation for G.D.R. loyalty is that the existing state insulates the people against the shock of the outside world. "We look at the West, and it's a fairyland," says an East Berlin housewife. "Our attitudes are different. We grew up more modest. We missed out on a lot, but we make do. Over there it's all money, money, money. We don't have it." There , is the touch of an inferiority complex as well, and given widespread West German complaints about new burdens, it is perhaps justified. "Maybe it's best not to unify...
...harm you are doing by espousing the 'pro-choice' view will require great efforts to repair," San Diego Bishop Leo Maher wrote last week to Lucy Killea, 67, a Democrat running in a special election for California's state senate. He then applied a little used sanction that denies Communion to Catholics who "obstinately persist in manifest grave sin." Killea says she will abide by the decree but will not change her position. She is the first political candidate to receive this censure...
...week-old reformist government of Petar Mladenov, 53, which has been moving rapidly to harness the country's desire for change. For the first time ever, Bulgarians watched live television coverage of their National Assembly -- and listened to vicious denunciations of Zhivkov. After installing Mladenov as head of state, the legislature revoked the law that made it an offense to utter words "of a character to create dissatisfaction with the government." Mladenov seemed to be pushing Bulgaria further down the road to political reform when he declared that "personally, I am for free elections...