FREEDOM: OR SOMETHING LIKE IT. Yesterday was a national holiday in Czechia, one that used to stir much more passion in early nineties. On November 17, 1989, Communists finally gave up and let people own the streets and, later on, the palaces as well. The so-called "Velvet Revolution" was anything but a revolution; unlike in Romania, there was no retribution. And no closure, either.

I was 13 when it happened, and I still remember how I envied my older friends who were students at the Conservatory in Prague and could participate in student protests. My town had less revolutionary glamour, and there were only a few meetings in front of the local theatre and the municipal hall. Yes, and the teacher told us not to call her "Comrade" anymore. I consider myself lucky to still remember it; my younger friends have barely crawled out of the stroller when I was wearing a flag pin on my shirt.

Non-violence was the leading idea of the time. We are not like them, the new leaders said. Well, I used to think that the velvet way of dealing with the 40-year long crime was OK as long as the criminals who had run it never got a chance to regain credibility. But they did, and now they're openly planning a comeback. Perhaps the Romanian way had its benefits, if for nothing else than to prove a point.

Yes, if we hung everyone responsible on a lamp post, there would be long lines before everyone has got his moment of justice. It would be just for show, but perhaps it would slow down the communists' return for a bit longer.

How it happened that you can't found a Nazi party but the Reds are sitting in the European Parliament is symptomatic. The whole European discourse is skewed to the left, which makes the Far Left much more legitimate than even the moderate Right; how it contributes to the ongoing traumas of the Union is for everyone to watch and judge.

I am grateful to God that I could reach adulthood in a liberal, if not truly free, society. I've managed to steer my career in a competitive, merit-based environment, and I am on my way to the middle class. That wouldn't have happened if I was born forty years ago. Having recognized that, I do not believe staying in Europe is a sound option: even if Central Europe escapes the early stages of the coming civil war, our children will see it consume the whole continent. As Mark Steyn says, you can't argue with demography, and we've been heading towards the Eurabia for many years now.

Until that happens, make sure to visit Prague. If the last time you did was in 1989, you wouldn't believe how amazing it has become. And read Adriana's account of how concurrent revolution in Slovakia affected her.