EU-phoria

Those of us who huddled through the coldest years of the Cold War may still shake our heads at times in disbelief that it's truly over.

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Believe.

Eight former communist countries this past week formally joined the European Union, as the EU expanded from 15 to 25 nations.

There's no going back.

World terrorism, the war in Iraq, the U.S. presidential election - all the other news of the day may serve to obscure the historic transformation of Eastern Europe.

But those who fought to keep Western Europe free, and who came home to live, work, raise families and send part of their paychecks to finance the Cold War should not let this historic moment pass without notice.

This is your victory. The freedom symbolized by the new EU membership for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia was made possible because of the World War II generation and their progeny. The celebration in Eastern Europe is partly theirs.

How surreal it all is.

Of course, the euphoria isn't "eunanimous." There are skeptics in Eastern Europe - those who doubt freedom's ring - and worriers in Western Europe - those unnerved by the possibility of mass emigration to the West's greener pastures.

That's OK. Freedom isn't clean or easy. It's just best.

America, too, will be challenged by the new and improved European Union. That's OK, too. We can handle competition, as long as it's fair - which it hasn't always been.

For now, it's enough to enjoy this incredible turn of events. If someone had proposed the European Union's expansion into the Soviet bloc, say, 20 years ago, how much would we really have worried about the effects?

--From the Tuesday, May 4, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle