Students honor fall of Berlin Wall

Students punched and tore down a barrier of drywall to honor the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

UF’s Young Americans for Freedom, a student organization focused on freedom and capitalism, created a wall to represent the Berlin Wall on the Plaza of the Americas on Wednesday morning. The group invited students to spray-paint the wall in blue and red paint before tearing it down at 1 p.m.

Daniel Weldon, the president of YAF, said the group members wanted to remind people that socialism causes fear.

“We’re trying to help spread the message that freedom is better than socialism,” the 20-year-old UF political science sophomore said.

Some students walking by the wall stopped and asked Weldon if it was a representation of “Trump’s wall.” But he said their organization isn’t politically affiliated, and it was just for Berlin.

“We celebrate what’s called Freedom Week this week,” he said. “Students really should know that freedom is the way to go.”

Weldon said because their chapter is new, it was the first time the group celebrated the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. They plan to do it in the future, he said.

April Garcia, a 19-year-old UF food and resource economics sophomore, said she took part in the event because the wall coming down in 1989 represented democracy. It was also a fun way to take out frustration, she said.

“It’s pretty cool exercise to build the wall and write pro-freedom stuff all over it,” she said. “Tearing down the wall basically commemorated freedom.”

Daniel Weldon, a 20-year-old UF political science sophomore and the president of Young Americans for Freedom, stands in front of a commemorative wall for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on the Plaza of the Americas on Wednesday afternoon. Weldon said the event celebrated the triumph of freedom from socialism.