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2023 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 37
May 2, 2023 - Introduced by Senators JAMES, CABRAL-GUEVARA, FELZKOWSKI, NASS
and MARKLEIN, cosponsored by Representatives TITTL, ARMSTRONG, BINSFELD,
DITTRICH, EDMING, GUNDRUM, S. JOHNSON, KITCHENS, MAGNAFICI, MOSES,
MURPHY, MURSAU, NEDWESKI, NOVAK, O'CONNOR, PENTERMAN, PETRYK,
RETTINGER, ROZAR and STEFFEN. Referred to Committee on Senate
Organization.
1 Relating to: proclaiming June 12, 2023, as Ronald Reagan Freedom Day in
2 Wisconsin.
3 Whereas, on June 12, 1987, the United States had been in a cold war with the
4 Soviet Union for more than 40 years, and President Ronald Reagan was delivering
5 a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin; and
6 Whereas, during that 40-year period of Soviet power, many people faced
7 persecution and fled to the western European nations and beyond in order to escape
8 tyranny and find freedom; and
9 Whereas, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic
10 built a wall of barbed wire and concrete separating East and West Berlin, primarily
11 to stem mass defections from East to West; and
12 Whereas, the wall made it very difficult for people to escape Soviet Communism
13 in Germany and unite with their families in West Berlin, evidenced by at least 171
14 people dying trying to get over, under, or around the wall; and
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1 Whereas, during his speech, Ronald Reagan remarked to the Soviet president,
2 “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate; Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”; and
3 Whereas, on November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist
4 Party announced that citizens of the German Democratic Republic could cross the
5 border whenever they pleased, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall—some crossing
6 freely into West Berlin, while others hammered and chipped away at the wall itself;
7 and
8 Whereas, more than two million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin
9 that weekend, participating in a celebration that was, as one journalist described it,
10 “the greatest street party in the history of the world”; now, therefore, be it
11 Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the
12 Wisconsin Legislature hereby commemorate that historic speech and declare June
13 12, 2023, as Ronald Reagan Freedom Day in Wisconsin.
14 (END)