The End of Independence Day?
Back when I was in graduate school, on the last day of a seminar on Eastern European literature, the professor asked us what we thought characterized literature from that part of the world. We concluded that it was a sense of fatalism.
In fact, I think I was the one to first suggest that answer, for I recognized the fear and sense of futility. As an immigrant who came here at a young age with my parents from Slovenia, then part of communist Yugoslavia, I knew firsthand the difference in attitudes that marks the American character. It provided a source of conflict between me and my parents, who, like many immigrants, doggedly clung to security and obscurity — while I read and dreamed of becoming a famous writer, and in the American way studied for a Ph.D. in spite of my age and early educational track.
But this was not uncommon. The parents of my Ukrainian friends carried a look of worried fear. The mother of one of my friends made it a policy to sign no “papers.” Her refusal to sign a form denied my friend a scholarship to become a dental hygienist — her dream. My Polish friend Anthony Bukoski writes superb short stories that capture the sense of a proud and brave people brutalized by totalitarian regimes and then made refugees. Metod Milač, a Slovene, has written a riveting account of his experiences of imprisonment by the Italian Fascists and German Nazis. A friend, whose late father had been a member of the Slovenian Home Guard that had resisted the takeover by the communist Partisans, literally looked over his shoulder on the streets of Cleveland.
But those streets, once havens for displaced persons, soon were destroyed by the utopian plans of collectivists and their agitators who urged the mobs to violence. The neighbors of my working-class neighborhood in Rochester, New York, complained from their front porches of increasing taxes, as they watched their property values deteriorate from the urban “renewal” and social decay of Johnson’s Great Society program. While a job at Kodak or a stint at the community college was the aspiration for the graduates of Benjamin Franklin High School in the mid-seventies, we believed that nonetheless it was possible for someone of talent to make it big. Like the Partridge Family, they could take to the road, or at least enjoy owning a Camaro or Firebird — before the burdens of suburban family life took precedence.
“…but this naturalized citizen is looking over her shoulder on this Independence Day.”
Barack Obama is a fascist. He is trying to impose a benevolent dictatorship on the American citizenry. Is he intentionally doing so? Could it be that the president is so intellectually shallow that he cannot take his arguments to their logical conclusion? Whatever, Obama’s administration embraces fascism. This is the harsh reality one must confront on this 4th of July. We are living in a very dangerous era. Obama’s cap and trade legislation and so-called medical reforms must be defeated if American is to be saved. In other words, I’m saying the next two months may determine our fate. The deadline could be September 1st.
Your observation of the parallels with eastern Europe is right on.
Over the past several years, I’ve read many books published post cold-war and post-Communism which document that some of those populations still exhibit inward-turning political despair and cynicism. The hapless self-destruction of their economies and fledgling freedoms seems to recur fairly easily, absent the “habit of liberty”.
I am so angry with the assumption on the part of so many Americans that “it can’t happen here”, “this is America”, “it’ll be ok”. They ARE actually nervous. They know something is not right. But they apparently just can’t bear to face reality and FIGHT.
Thank you for this warning cry today.
On this Independence Day, it is quite alarming to note how much British agenda has been subversively drawn over American policy…from Obama of Arabia to the Kingdom of Iraq.
Most of the American “guilt” that is being stressed in African and the Middle Eastern context is derived from British Colonialisim…Not American Imperialisim…I find it quite disturbing American taxpayers are willing to subsidize such tributary ventures as their own imperatives or original endeavors. Seems far too brazenly
red of the coat or them…by terms of the pond.
Too far from our declaration…
Plus Harry Potter’s opening up this week-end. Cheeky.
Well said, Mary Grabar. . . You must possess incredible internal strength to have endured what you must have had to go through as a non-progressive to earn a doctorate in english at UGA. I live in Georgia, and a few months ago I had a conversation with a marketing professor at UGA. I was amazed as I listened to him express his disdain for America, and thought to myself, if a faculty member at the business school hates America so much, what must it be like in the other departments where you would expect to find such rabid views?
Anyway, let me get to the point that I originally intended to make. I was born during the early years of the Eisenhower administration, and it saddens me to think that within my lifetime our country has declined from that period of post-WWII prosperity with its strong traditional values to the current period in which spoiled baby-boomer political leaders are ensuring the demise of our economy and society with totally unnecessary self-inflicted wounds.
OBAMA “IS” a COMMUNIST, let me put it big, plain and simple, NOT a socialist, collectivist, urban reformer, etc., etc., HE IS A COMMUNIST – - GOT IT??!!
Great piece, Mary. I would like to add a piece smaller in scope but along the same lines.
This is unfortunately, the America I knew
People say that the Obama administration, with its self view of European socialist superiority, is foreign to our shores. Mostly I agree with that statement, but in my immigrant extended family, I have to say this administration has recreated an attitude about America that is all too familiar to me.
Growing up with European refugees in New York, I knew too many people who had no real concept of what America was other than a rich nation. I had one older cousin, a man in his fifties named Tsrulek. He had worked on a job and invested his money in real estate, having bought an apartment house in the Bronx. One day when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I visited his family with my mother. Tsrulek, in a moment alone with me, looked me in the face and said derisively, “You’re a richterker Amerikaner (real American).” There was no point in talking to this Old Country adult, as anything I would say would be met with his fat faced sneer. I should, however, have asked him why he came to America if he thought about as little of the country as did Barack Obama’s father did, but being around ten years old I was not confident arguing with adults, even when I knew they were wrong.
A few months later, my parents were discussing Tsrulek’s situation when they mentioned that his investment, the apartment house, had been badly damaged by fire. Although he had fire insurance, he did not think to take out a RENT insurance policy, so when the tenants weren’t then paying him each month and the mortgage was still due, Tsrulek could not stop the “richter Amerikaners” down at the bank from taking away the title to his apartment house. He had to start all over again.
So much for European superior thinking. It was, for my older cousin, a one way ticket to financial ruin – and I suspect the same for the Europhile socialists in the Obama administration who are also quite ignorant of how to run a business.
Many years later, I was visiting Israel and attended a boys’ soccer practice with my first cousin. Much to my amazement, one of the kids was named Tsrulek, an Old Country European name which I thought I’d never hear again. Some of the kids on the bench were razzing him when he took the field, calling out, “Tsrulek hoo ben zona.” In Hebrew that phrase literally means he is a son of a prostitute but its’ general meaning is a person with no upbringing or character.
I didn’t know the soccer kids were familiar with my old cousin from the Bronx.
Mary, you are right on my parents came here from Poland and I understand what is coming here to America. Many are still saying it can’t happen here. Well just look at what is happening. It is happening. Amendments to bills in the middle of the night, votes at 2 AM. Once it is gone it will be difficult to recover. Remember Poland was suppressed until John Paul II and Reagan stood up for them. Our way of life is changing before our eyes.
Mary, you are right on my parents came here from Poland and I understand what is coming here to America. Many are still saying it can’t happen here. Well just look at what is happening. It is happening. Amendments to bills in the middle of the night, votes at 2 AM. Once it is gone it will be difficult to recover. Remember Poland was suppressed until John Paul II and Reagan stood up for them. Our way of life is changing before our eyes.
We who cherish Individual Liberty over Collective Rights do seem to be a distinct minority with perhaps allies in the millions who have dropped out and seem not to care. But the Founders, Colonial Soldiers, militia and affiliated Patriots we a minority in 1775/6-many Americans were Loyalist and the fence sitters feared war over all.
The Patriots fought on, British ham handedness turned the fence sitters away and into Patriots and after the War we got to expel at least some of the Loyalist. This is our Legacy and History. As they resisted Mad George we must resist the Fascist Left.
Flying you flag this fine morning?
I will be attending the Tea Party at Peachtree City’s amphitheatre today at 4 o’clock. Come on.
The bigger the crowd, the bigger the statement.
See you there.
Glen Allen
Peachtree City
Bless you Mary and God bless our Republic, ‘if we can keep it.’ I want as much freedom and liberty as possible. My leftist friends want as much government control and goodies as possible. But we already know where that leads, as you so clearly and movingly have written today. Thank you.
“Barack Obama is a fascist.”
I disagree, nationalism is a necessary component of fascism, and Obama is about as anti-nationalist as they come. According to him there is nothing exceptional or noble about the US, our principles and our history, except for the “noble downtrodden” (eg the slaves, but never the men who died to free them) and the potential for the Constitution to be used as a “stepping stone” to achieve a truly protective and noble state.
No, he’s a socialist and a statist. I wonder, if we *must* be stuck with an extremist, if a fascist wouldn’t be better. At least then his bullying and misguided attempts to shape policy would be geared toward building us up, rather than tearing us down.
Don’t get me wrong, fascism is not a good thing, but then again neither is what we have…and what we have is virtually impossible to fight because people use it to give themselves the warm and fuzzies…
Thank you so much for this wonderful piece. Most of my life I have ignored the government, but this government cannot be ignored without losing everything our country ever stood for. Will we be able to survive until the 2010 elections?
Barack Obama will fail or America will fall.
The only way to protect freedom is to stand up for freedom. See you at the tea party!
Beautifully written!
If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President , our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!
Mary~
Hvala Lepa!
dittos…didn’t stop me from the Cleveland Tea Parties (at least not yet)
#17 Dave K…..
Don’t you mean thief in chief?
“Benevolent?” dictatorship?. Benevolent for whom?
Nationalism is a tool used by fascists, not an integral part of fascism.
In the end, dictatorship, fascism, statism, communism, socialism, Marxism are all exactly the same, not far left and not far right – just tyrannical governments run by the few having control over the many.
How can anyone think that a government that obviously wants total control can allow dissent? If the people do not willingly submit, then they will be forced to do so….for the “greater good” of course. In order to totally control, dissent cannot be allowed!
So forget the nuances with which you have been brainwashed. Either you want freedom under the rule of law (The Constitution), or you are willing to give up you freedom for a few bucks a month and “free” doctor visits. Ms. Grabar understands this. Far too many Americans and others do not. Mary Grabar knows what is happening and why, but even too many of those who say they want individual freedom are clueless. If they had been aware, it never could come to this. All the spending is not to “improve the economy”. It is not for getting out of the recession. It is to destroy the economy and make the population totally dependent on the government.
Good article. This once great country is being dismantled piece by piece by those in power who hate her greatness. And the moronic masses haven’t got a clue. After all, isn’t messiah DOH-bamma going to pay their mortgages, their doctors, buy their groceries, grant them a position in the government’s “mandatory /volunteer” civilian army ? Many ppl prefer slavery to freedom. Slavery is easy. Freedom takes work. I believe that the majority of the ppl in the former USA have grown fat and lazy and prefer slavery !!!
sodacrackers:
“Most of my life I have ignored the government, but this government cannot be ignored without losing everything our country ever stood for.”
What a great point. As Mary shows, people in commie Eastern Europe could not ignore the government. They couldn’t, in fact, escape it. Government/aka the Commie Party was everywhere.
As one hapless Romanian court poet (who was too old when he came to his senses) put it in verse every school child had to learn in the 50s and 60s:
Partidul e-n toate
si-n cele ce miine vor ride la soare
e-n pruncul din leagan si-n omul carunt…
Approximate translation:
The Party is everywhere and in everything,
and in those things that will smile in the sun tommorw.
It is in the babe in the cradle
and in the graying old man…
(The part about the babe and the old man reminds me of an Ahmadinejad speech of a few years ago in which he promised Iranians care by Government from cradle to grave if they adhered to Islam strictly).
I don’t remember the rest of the “poem,”, but it outlines more places where the Party could be found, such as wheat and corn grain.
The America I came to was precisely the one where I could ignore party and government, and get on with my life. Not anymore.
Mary,
Thanks. Superb piece.
Having been to Slovakia, I’d like to urge Mary Grabar to consult an optometrist. If America reminds her of Slovakia, she’s either ideologically obsessed or simply nearsighted.
#17 Dave K – Ha ha ha. Good one. Bush Derangement Syndrome in reverse!
Sorry but your attempts to mock conservatives is nothing but a joke. But I like the real conservative motto, “America, Love It or Leave It.”
BTW, Barry is not a President, he is a dictator (in his own mind). Commander in Chief? Don’t make me laugh. He couldn’t and wouldn’t attempt to even defend his own family without having a bunch of paid thugs to stand in front of him while he says as he is being restrained, “Hold me back! Hold me back!” Ha ha ha.
Too bad an idiot like you has the privilege of living in the good ‘ol USA.
If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President , our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!
Nice to hear from the “dissent is no longer patriotic” crowd on this fine 4th of July.
What is really needed is a declaration of independence from vermin like you.
The author of this article dares to compare Slovenia, a 3rd world country populated by Italian gypsies, to the US of A and I’m the bad guy here?
If she doesn’t like it here, there are other countries she can move to.
“America, Love It or Leave It”, indeed.
Been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt and wore it of. I hope I don’t have to see the dam T-Shirt again. See you at the Tea Parties.
Well said and well done!
Even on these outlets of comment citizens are not wise to write what they actually feel and believe about this President and administration.
Did you have that gut feeling in the Bush Years? Probably not, but it’s to be a whole new game today.
Today legitimate criticism is labeled racism, anti American, and nothing more than the irritating squeaking of the filthy, simple minded, masses.
Remember the 4th!
As a child, I remember growing up with comments from my family about the great Truman and the do nothing Ike. I had no particular opinion, and had no reason to doubt my elders. As an adult, I remember the touted greatness of JFK and the wonderful aspirations of Johnson. I did have a dog in that fight, and while sad at his demise did not figure we lost much when JFK died. I had stronger opinions about Johnson, since he decided I would be better off dodging bullets than my regular trade. Nixon was the capper. He decided how much I could make, how much I could spend and what was appropriate to say and do.
The Libertarian party formed then was in direct revolt to all the prior political ills, and since it is now a small “l” was successful. It has moved on to the fate reserved for political parties, getting elected instead of being the bulwark of freedom in an unfree world. Its legacy of the Reason Foundation, Cato Institute and many magazines that shape and shore up free thought keeps it from being a has-been.
Today we face a threat from the current regime that is a bit different from the past. Today the president isn’t the head of a movement, he is merely the mouthpiece. He does TelePrompt well. There are many behind that mouthpiece but not one single person to target. If you look at the presidential succession list, VP Biden would be an inept mouthpiece who hasn’t done anything notable in his long career in politics. Speaker Pelosi is a puppet for whoever can keep her in her lofty office. The cabinet, from Hilary Clinton on down, has no intellectual fire just mouths the expediency of the moment.
Do not believe that these people are dumb. They are not bringing a knife to a gun fight, they are bringing a knife to a fist fight. The way we can overcome them and their ideas is to turn it into a gun fight.
#23 Shef Rogers-She wrote about Slovenia
formerly a part of Yugoslavia not Slovakia
recently of Czechoslovakia
#17 Dave K.-were you as supportive of the
Commander-in-Chief one year ago? Somehow
I doubt it.
To Mary Grabar the Slovenian Home Guard
was a Nazi auxiliary unit commanded by
German officers that swore allegiance
to Adolf Hitler among other things.
These were not freedom fighters by any
stretch. You really had to watch over
your shoulder when these type of units
were around especially if you were
Jewish or Orthodox Christian.
This is not to excuse the communists
who of course were murdering b******s,
but this example is equivalent to siding
with Nazi Germany over the Soviet Union
because it was an evil entity. Yugoslavia
if I can use that name, was simply a place
of pure evil during WW2 with no sanctuary
for the innocent.
“If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President , our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!”
Didn’t we say this to the left all to be told how simplistic this reasoning is. Now the left parrots the very
same words about their Messiah but see none of the double think in their words.
# 26 Dave K.:
I wouldn’t venture to speculate about your mental capacity, though I can vouch about your ignorance of history and the principles upon which this country was founded. It’s ignorance such as yours that Obama and his commies feed on.
On the other hand, Mary and I know that, in commie Eastern Europe, there was no option like in “Love it or leave it!” You loved it or else. Use your mental capacity to understand what “else” meant. Start with Solzhenitsyn, and then refresh your knowledge of Cuba, the vast labor camp on a prison-island. Love it or leave it, indeed.
# 26 Dave K.:
One other thing that escaped your perspicatious mind: Mary loves this country, that’s why she speaks out.
Mary,……you and others have correctly observed many of the problems we now face. However, the one issue that has not been said or not enough is the fact that our country as of January 2009 has experienced a coup d’etat.If millions of Americans knew that Barry was born in Kenya not Hawaii then ceretainly everyone in political office republicans, democrats and independants plus the press knew and allowed a man to become president when he was not qualified as a natural born citizen to run for office much less be sworn in as our president. Obama most likely was born in Kenya where his paternal grand mother said she witnessed his birth. Obama was never vetted it was a COUP D’ETAT. ON WORLD NET DAILY there are more than 400,000 Americans who understand who else understands.
To Joe Bison: I would recommend that you read “Slovenia 1945″ “Long Life” by Nigel Richardson, and “The Slovenian Exodus of 1945″ by Joze Rant, as well as talk to some people who were there. You’re repeating the standard history that is taught in our government schools (on those rare occasions when this history is taught). It’s a bit more complicated than that. Let me know what you learn, but thanks for commenting on the geographical confusion. Mary Grabar
#17 might have been satire. The sad thing about our times is that nobody can be sure.
Mary Grabar knows some things pretty good but
unfortunately she points out very 1.insignificant details and 2.no-issues
There are 2 MAJOR threats coming from OBAMA
1.unprecedented increase of Federal Government powers
2.One way nuclear disarmament: kremlin was, is and will cheat on ANY disarmament deal, USA will NEVER adequately control
and we will face real bad extortion later or will be attacked with intention to kill every single american
like they did in Ukrainian villages in 1932-33 when food was confiscated by bolshevik army and 10 millions starved to death, like what Pol Pot did
the enemy killed 200 million living people in 20th century from Moscow to Beijing to Africa to Latin America
If Obama disarms US Nuclear forces as he plans to
we are finished: as a Nation, as a State, and as a People
and most likely will be attacked with wmd-s including biological and chemical weapons
likely under disguise of `islamist`
these people who promote a `islamic threat` myth must shut up and disappear now –
they will bare responsibility for every future american death from kremlin controled terorist forces
In my 36 years as a public school teacher, I often observed how children of immigrants had a special appreciation for the U.S. while native-born Americans often took their own country for granted. One exception, a boy of Czech parents, comes to mind. He was going through the usual spoiled brat, teenage angst period, so his parents thought he needed a little perspective check, no pun intended. They sent him to relatives in Prague for the summer. This was a decade before the “Velvet Revolution.” He returned a new man I barely recognized in the fall. He told me what it was like to live in constant fear that summer. Most Americans haven’t a clue. Thank you, Mary, for your insights. Another superior piece of writing.
33. Kristina:
It’s spelled ‘perspicacious’, btw.
@35. Mary Grabar:
I welcome you wholeheartedly because I also came to America from the Communist Eastern Europe by crossing the minefields during heavy snowstorm that covered my track from the guard’s dogs.
The classic, Historical, Free America is ceased to exist for good but this sad fact did not sunk into the consciousness of the people: the Russian Bolshevik revolution of 1917. trained our new rulers and they are formidable, cruel oppressors. They successfully inculcated large enough number of people to make the Socialist revolution immutable.
Whatever you and I or the great Solzhenitsyn say or said is a cry into the void: Americans voted for these tawdry scumbag and until a new, valiant generation maturing, America will succumb to Bolshevik dictatorship.
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength! (Do we really want that?)
Fred:
I’ve often noticed how Americans take their freedom for granted. At first I thought it was a cliche, but later I came to recognize it as a fact of everyday life. “Freedom” is so elusive philosophically, but when you are born without it and grow up being afraid at every step you take and every word you utter, you know it in your bones that’s not “freedom.”
There’s something incomparable, in the history of mankind, that the Founding Fathers’s thinking, the Constitution, and the great Americans that came after the Founding made “freedom” and “liberty” from tyranny absolute, metaphysical rights.
In a way, the Americans’ taking those freedoms for granted is a sign of the success of the Founders’ project. Those of us born under totalitarian systems and deeply fatalistic in outlook envy those “born free.”
# 39 David K.:
True. I also spell my name “Cristina”, not “Kristina.”
The good news is that me and my self-righteous and corrupt generation that came of age in the 60′s and 70′s will soon be dead. Will that occur soon enough for you younger Americans to retrieve your liberty and prosperity? I wouldn’t bet on it.
“I disagree, nationalism is a necessary component of fascism, and Obama is about as anti-nationalist as they come.”
Your point is well taken. Nonetheless, Barack Obama’s perhaps unwitting fascism has evolved to the point where a hoped for utopian universal government has taken the place of mere national boundaries. The term socialism is simply too vague. Fascism remains a more accurate description. Should we consider inventing a new term such as “universal fascism?” Does this make any sense? I’m not sure, but at this moment I think it best to describe Obama as a fascist.
@ 12 antaine
“Obama is about as anti-nationalist as they come.”
Anti American nationalist maybe, but think outside the box. What if he is going for a supra national back and muslim superstate. In the days before globalisation many of his heroes (you know the ones whose speeched he claims to have heard before he was born) were black seperatists, they wanted a black nation within the American nation. Could he be thinking of a nation beyond nations? It’s the logical extension of globalisation.
It is not nationalism at the heart of fascism but tribalism.
What if Obama’s egomania prompts him to see hilself at the head of a global supertribe including all the dark skinned races. MLK’s black consciousness? Fortunately there is more inter-blavk racism than there ever was between back and white.
The problem is Obama’s too dumb to have thought of any of this himself so who is doing his thinking for him?
Could it be that having experienced the entire gamut of liberty and oppression from A to C, most native-born Americans have no clue what D, F, M, etc. really are like? Probably that’s what Santayana was suggesting when he said that ignorance of history was always corrected by re-living the skipped lessons.
So be prepared to re-live the “tyranny” lesson unless you can first really take to heart what others have endured for you.
“I disagree, nationalism is a necessary component of fascism, and Obama is about as anti-nationalist as they come.”
Firstly, you cannot deny that Obama is a racialist, which is clearly a fascist trait. Moreover, don’t forget that Mussolini, a man who founded fascism was initially a card caring communist, a man celebrated by Lenin as a top-notch internationalist. And good old Stalin easily moved from internationalism to nationalism. All in all, Obama is in transition, so don’t be surprised if a few years from now he will be repeating slogans quite indistinguishable from “my country, right or wrong”, and “love it or leave it”. In fact, you already have internationalist liberals on this very site makes same claims.
Socialism and nationalism go hand in hand, as F. Hayek demonstrated.
Who’s at the teleprompter keyboard?
“Fascism” is a rubber word that means whatever the user wants.
Marxism is materialistic socialistic utopianism. Fascism is the same socialistic utopianism with the emphasis on social utopianism, rather than material. They’re both egalitarian in their goals, but social egalitarianism requires cultural monoculture.
Put another way, Fascism is monocultural socialism with the emphasis on social egalitarianism, and material distribution is just a detail.
Fascism as a synonym for authoritarianism is just linguistic laziness.
As a native Berliner who lived through the after-war period I take exception to your classification “Obama before the mobs in Berlin”.
Round about 70 thousand people taking the pains to walk through the Tiergarten park squeezing and getting squeezed into the narrowest spaces to greet and listen to a foreign politician should not be called a mob. Imagine that many of this “mob” probably have a personal history linked with East German dictatorship and probably have looked over their shoulders before talking openly about political matters.
I have great admiration like many Berliners for the American people and I wish you all a happy 4th of July
Wonderful article. The extreme liberal fringe that Obama represents are absolutely out to aggressively suppress anyone and anything that does not agree with their agenda, all the while pretending to be tolerant. The question is, how do we get the masses to see this, and to care?
I have really enjoyed reading both Mary Grabar’s excellent opinion piece as well as many of the thoughtful posted comments. I get bummed out by much of the political news I hear each day, and it really heartens me to see that I am not alone in my thoughts and concerns.
#35 To Mary Grabar-Don’t need to-My father is
Slovenian and lived through the war-his father
a non-combatant was taken away and murdered by
the Nazis and their allies-Grave never found.
Don’t whitewash Nazi collaberators-I know many
people got caught caught up in history being
between a rock and a hard place and I’m not
moralizing but that Home Guard was pro-Nazi
and anti-semitic. Again obviously not every
member of such organizations were driven by
such sympathies especially at the lower levels.
The Cossacks turned over to the Soviet Union
is another example of those who hated communism
and unfortunately fought with the Nazis and
then ended up screwed for it. The US and
Britain valued the goodwill of Stalin more
than looking at the circumstances of choice
low level people made especially young ones.
The goodwill of Stalin led to Soviet
involvement in violation of the pact they
made with the Japanese leading to the creation
of North Korea and the problems associated
with it.
One could almost say that at the time Nazism
and Communism were the two hands of Satan.
An excellent article! From the quality of many of the comments about it, it is absolutely clear that many of the authors of the comments above are completely ignorant of history and politics. Look at the confused ideas about fascism, for example. I suspect that if Obama is not assassinated, he will eventually make a move that is so egregiously unconstitutional (as the Honduran President has just done) that he will be removed from office. It’s quite possible that the issue of native birth may finally surface to sink this pathetic socialist. Whether or not either of those things happen, Americans must continue to resist America’s statists of whatever stripe and ideology they may be. Liberty will out!
Most in America have no clue what Freedom is because we’ve never experienced a lack of it.
We don’t have to have papers to drive to the next state or town. We can choose what we want to drive, or eat, or watch, or live. We have all of these choices that we almost never notice when a few choices are taken away here and there.
It is that slow reduction of choices and freedoms that has lead us to the Obama administration. Unfortunetly I don’t see a way to restore what we’ve lost. At least not in a civil maner.
Strawman:
The problem is Obama’s too dumb to have thought of any of this himself so who is doing his thinking for him?
Who’s at the teleprompter keyboard?
I would suggest that the answer to your question is…
the same people who King George 2 (George W. Bush) answered to.
Don Rhudy:
It’s quite possible that the issue of native birth may finally surface to sink this pathetic socialist
I think you over estimate, unfortunately, the desire of the people in this country to follow the United States Constitution.
I fear there would be serious civil disorder if DOH-bamma were to be ousted (legally or otherwise) before his term expired.
Unfortunately, history is repetitive…
It is not an internal struggle that is the biggest threat to the well being of the US under Obama. It amounts to the current levels of appeasement which are congruent to those of Wilson before WWI and FDR before WWII. If Obama continues on his current path of abstaining from international mediation, we may all be facing harms way in a relatively short period of time…
The latest writing on the wall…
Japan just requested the purchase of well over 150 F22′s which is contingent upon the approval of Robert Gates.
Translation: Japan darn well knows that Obama is spineless, as well as being very inexperienced, and because of these factors, Obama is extremely dangerous!
“If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President , our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!”
I think you mean imposter and thief, Dave. And the author, can see what is happening here in the USA. I think you are in serious denial.
I was thirteen when the first Hungarian refugees from the Budapest rising came to my city; one was the janitor of my grade school. In the years since I have known Ukrainians and Poles — and a Latvian who told me that Nazis were filthy inhuman pigs and the Communists were worse.
. At the close of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin made this observation:
I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
I fear that unless we wake up at once that day is currently upon us.
Thanks, Mary, for a great article.
# 56 Gozer
“We don’t have to have papers to drive to the next state or town.”
You reminded me of a long-forgotten story:
girl wants to leave her provincial town and settle in the Capital, but she can’t, because she wasn’t born there and doesn’t have the “papers”; boy’s parents die, leaving him alone in a large and beautiful rented apartment in the Capital; the Party says one person can occupy only that much space per square meter, and threatens to kick boy out of the apartment, even though boy pays his rent scrupulously; boy meets girl and strikes a deal, a marriage of convenience: girl gets “papers” to live in the Capital, boy gets to continue to live in his parents’ apartment. But Big Brother never sleeps. Somebody who covets the apartment writes an anonymous letter to the “authorities” saying that the marriage is a sham since he has never seen any female underware on the laundry line in the balcony.
End of story: just before Big Brother comes in to take over, the apartment, and the whole building, located close to Party and Secret Police headquarters, goes out in flames during a shoot-out, during a so-called revolution.
“Say what you want and ridicule me the way our president does, but this naturalized citizen is looking over her shoulder on this Independence Day.”
Europeans like you just can’t adapt right away. The luggage they carry is heavy. Stick to your ideals but forget your oppressive past.
This is something you wrote:
“I was a bit surprised to hear former Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge echo President Obama’s criticism of Rush Limbaugh by calling him “shrill” and “divisive” recently. Then Sen. John Cronyn joined in the Rush-bashing over Limbaugh’s use of the word “racist” for self-described “wise Latina woman” judge Sonia Sotomayor. I do not recall ever being enlightened or inspired by these politicians.
On the other hand, as I’ve driven to teach afternoon classes I’ve enjoyed the insights and wit from Limbaugh. I am always impressed by his ability to apply historical figures, ideas, events, and constitutional principles.
This is what I miss about my profession as a college instructor. Rarely am I able to discuss ideas with my colleagues; indeed, I dare not speak my opinion nor say anything positive about any figures on the left’s “hit list.”
Yes, indeed. You still cling to your oppressive past. It’s not going to help you. You still don’t know what freedom is.
People seem to forget that WE did this to ourselves.
It did not happen overnight. It has been going on for DECADES!
I might believe that maybe 200 or more years in the U.S.
We fled from England,then west and from the cities.
Always running.Watching the sickness spread,what happens when
there is nowhere to run to next? Always more are willing to serve
the state than to stand for their own freedom, it is a function of
a bell-curve,and education by the state feeds it.
Parents had NOT raised their children well enough,instead they
had cried:”There ought to be a LAW!” ,and law holds us bound
by force of Government. The chains that bind you, are by your hand.
When railroads were not safe in the beginning,we cried:”Make a Law!”
when we should have not ridden them.To look at the mining of coal,
dangerous to do,so we cried:”To law,fair labor!” because they would
not leave their job and town,we let them do it.
It repeated time after time,place after place.
This beast,thing of politics,power and money has always existed,many names
one appetite,one food:us.It is the predator we ARE the prey.
Machine politics,left or right is wrong,we must not enable it.
This thing feeds,in the past we fed it what was at hand,small was its
hunger,grown so large that today it consumes the future,our future and
the future of our children.We made it. remember that.
The laws are our chains, and we wrote ALL of them. Some might say that
we need laws like DUI,I say why do you teach your children to drive drunk?
You did,because it was not a “problem” at first.Socially acceptable?
It is the loss of ones equality of self towards others that becomes
an “I know better” or “I am better”.
The poison of better:The lesson of Swede Hollow
In St.Paul,MN there was a place called Swede Hollow, tar-paper shacks along
side a creek that was homes for the very poor.It was leveled in the name of
helping all in the city,better homes for the poor,heath and environment
(of the visual kind not the green).For good or bad history is still in judgment
on this.Now let us peek upon today’s mobile and HOA equipped village where
we do not know our neighbors yet vilify them for repairing their auto in the
driveway.So eager in our hate and greed (gotta keep up property values you know!)
we don the jack-boots to crush our foe,who we know next to nothing about.
We who are so impatient for “Justice” from the Empire, have now the HOA.
Who says that we did not do this to ourselves?
The main reason communism failed in Eastern Europe is because Eastern Europe is nothing but epic fail.
To expect a bunch of drunken Russians and thieving gypsies (but I repeat myself) to actually get something right was doomed to failure.
VIvo: What could an immature clown like you know about how “Europeans adapt” to anything? Too funny.
You have not even “adapted” to adulthood yet. But you can bet Adulthood is coming round the corner though, and you will not like it very much. But you know this, that is why you keep avoiding it.
But I can assure you that if you had lived in under Warsaw Pact Communism you would not have liked it even less than you do adulthood. I spent time over there in that period, and I can assure everyone that she is right on the button. I can also believe that you, vivo, would be the sort of immoral little to-bit informer to the local political officers too. You would betray decent people for an extra bit of cash. That is the sort you are. You know what happened to that sort after the Soviets left?
You are in complete denial and projecting your foolishness on someone that most definitely knows what she is talking about. A chld lecturing an adult about something he has absolutely no knowledge of. Is it possible for you to get just one thing right“? Ever? What an horses behind you are.
Dave K: That is right, you are a bad guy. A deeply immoral one.
The fact that you resort to insults rather than address her points wuite well shows what you are made out of.
You cannot be a decent person and support Obama the democrats and their designs on this nation. It is a moral absurdity.
Decent Americans do not consider people like you to even be Americans. Of course, you would not know what decency is, that is why you are a Democrat.
Of course she is right. That is just what is happening. The Democrats are nothing but either Marxists or the sort of opportunists that surround vermin like that.
That you support them definitely makes you a “bad guy”. How dare you try do “defend America” when you defend its enemies. Few things could be more immoral.
Dave K: No the reason it failed there is because it always fails in the end. Socialism always fails for it is based on thievery, lies and vanity. Its doctrines are perversely opposed to the very nature of the world.
Communism is a great evil–one of the greatest evils in history, and you would know that if you had decent education, a brain in your head and a even the slightest capacity for morality.
But you do not have any of this. This is why you are the barbarian that you are. The is why you stoop to insult all of Eastern Europe instead of learning from their generations of suffering. You are in complete denial and projecting you vileness onto them, not to mention quite comically showing complete ignorance of that part of the world. You should check out the contributions of Eastern Europe to the West over the centuries. Copernicus, Chopin, Liszt–the list goes on and on. It is rather impressive. You should get out of mommy’s basement once in a while. Try going over there with your insults, you will find that they are not sort of the wusses you and your “friends” are.
You have not the fainest notion of what you are talking about.
A boorish and immature ignoramus.
Mongoose:
Thanks for your spirited defense of Eastern Europeans–a conventional description that doesn’t cover Central Europeans or Southern Europeans who endured communism. They are such a vast and different lot that it boggles the mind how anyone can reduce them to “drunk Russians” and gypsies, and do it with a straight face.
I, for one, am not offended by someone like David K. He makes a nice rhetorical prop to get to larger, more meaningful issues, like the ones you raise.
Best to you, and hope you had a great 4th.
I cannot believe how politically correct everyone here is.
And if everyone in Eastern Europe is so smart, why did they screw up their nations so much then?
And I’ve been to Eastern Europe and was not impressed.
I prefer the US and, unlike the traitors on his board, I support The President, our Commander In Chief, and the Troops.
P.S. Eastern Europe has a lot more alcoholics and gypsies than the rest of the world. Just a fact.
Edit:
I cannot believe how politically correct everyone here is.
And if everyone in Eastern Europe is so smart, why did they screw up their nations so much then?
And I’ve been to Eastern Europe and was not impressed.
I prefer the US and, unlike the traitors on this board, I support The President, our Commander In Chief, and the Troops.
P.S. Eastern Europe has a lot more alcoholics and gypsies than the rest of the world. Just a fact.
@65. Dave K.:
I cannot fathom as to where these absolute primitive and ignorant people got incubated for saying this:
“To expect a bunch of drunken Russians and thieving gypsies (but I repeat myself) to actually get something right was doomed to failure.
From the Manhattan project through the Tesla’s AC current, John Neumann (computer) and the Hollywood movie industries, the H-bomb, inventor of Microsoft Word and Excel Charles Simonyi….all where the works of Eastern Europeans, Jews and non Jews alike.
You are the most despicable ignorant and primitive, uneducated Communist worm ever set foot on this blog. I said foot for you got no head.
Regards.
17. Dave K.:
If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President , our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!
Nice try, D. Your precious Obama is weakening our national resolve, whatever we have left. How’s that “hope and change” working out for ya? And you TOTALLY missed Mary’s point. The point she’s making is that she’s seen this movie before, in her native Slovenia. Only this is happening RIGHT HERE IN THE USA. Obama is turning the USA into the USSA, the United Socialist States of America.
It is truly sad that the ignorance and vileness of David K. is what is representative of many of the supporters of the present administration. In addition to the historic figures cited by Mongoose who made lasting contributions to our civilization, I am amazed by the number of brilliant scientists from “mitteleuropa” who fortunately emigrated to the US and provided much of the intellectual capital that has served us so well, including Leo Szilard , Edward Teller, Von Hoffman, the former CEO of Intel and last but not least Tony Curtis.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154822
Which one are you?
I incorrectly described John Neumann when I referred to Von Hoffman. He was so brilliant that prior to the age of 10 he could divide in his head six figures by six figures. When he was dying from cancer and would hallucinate,the federal government stationed security outside his hospital room to prevent his vast knowledge of the nation’s technical national security secrets being unintentionally shared with others. Fortunately he only hallucinated in Hungarian and no-one could understand him.
So all the smart people of Eastern Europe left for the US?
Gee, that is kinda my point.
It’s filled with alcoholics and gypsies.
And the smart ones left a long, long time ago.
USA >> Eastern Europe.
Give it up, you unpatriotic scum!
Acquiesce when you need to, but do so with an exit strategy.
Discussion question: which state gov’t will be the first to back a refusal by businesses to withhold federal income tax?
Nationalism is in decline; we live in the age of ideology. Our history (states exist first, then form a Union) will aid public recognition if/when an ideological parting of ways is needed. TX, OK, WY and UT are most likely to secede.
P.S.
It’s just a short history–in-between those short lines are destinies of poeople I know–one that can be digested by any ignoramus.
To get the long one, you’ve got to quit watchin’ Evening News and start reading the tomes, ’cause there’s no shortage of them in the Land of the Free.
Mary you are quite right, and we were warned about this by others:
“But as it is by comparison only that men estimate the value of any good, they are not sensible of the worth of those blessings they enjoy, until they are deprived of them; hence from ignorance of the horrors of slavery, nations, that have been in possession of that rarest of blessings, liberty, have so easily parted with it: when groaning under the yoke of tyranny what perils would they not encounter, what consideration would they not give to regain the inestimable jewel they had lost; but the jealousy of despotism guards every avenue to freedom, and confirms its empire at the expence of the devoted people, whose property is made instrumental to their misery, for the rapacious hand of power seizes upon every thing; dispair presently succeeds, and every noble faculty of the mind being depressed, and all motive to industry and exertion being removed, the people are adapted to the nature of government, and drag out a listless existence.
If ever America should be enslaved it will be from this cause, that they are not sensible of their peculiar felicity, that they are not aware of the value of the heavenly boon, committed to their care and protection, and if the present conspiracy fails, as I have no doubt will be the case, it will be the triumph of reason and philosophy, as these United States have never felt the iron hand of power, or experienced the wretchedness of slavery.”
-Centinal, Centinal No. 8, 29 DEC 1787.
Well and truly has this nation has not experienced the iron hand of power, no matter how nice the velvet glove and sweet words around it, that is still something we have tried to avoid. We did get it during war time by Lincoln… but then a Civil War is a different beast than normal wars… and by Wilson who really had no excuse and his apologists have been covering up how political opponents were jailed during WWI… outside of wartime, however, we have not experienced those things, nor did so even up to 1787. When civil government grew distant, officious and over-burdened the people with taxation, we declared Independence from it and took up Sovereignty to guid ourselves.
One can support a CinC and still criticize his domestic agenda and point out problems in his foreign policy and even offer constructive criticism on wartime concerns and how the war is executed. That is civil response that is guided by civility… when supporters of government become uncivil, want to hear no dissent, want to suppress liberty and engage in regressive taxation… well… then we start to look to Thomas Paine, because those supporters have run out of Common Sense.
To my fellow patriots,
Please tone down the personal attacks. Attack the philosophies not the people. Name-calling wins neither arguments nor friends. We must always remember that we have truth on our side. Ridicule is for the small minded or for those who, not willing to accept the truth, have nothing left (typical of socialism and communism). David K.’s immaturity, bigotry, and ignorance are self evident. Unfortunately, they are also typical results of the brainwashing which passes for education in today’s unconstitutional government schools.
Although Socialism and Communism are expensive, inefficient, unconstitutional, and always doomed to fail, that is not the primary reason to oppose them – though that alone is sufficient. The main objection to the socialistic system is that it does not fit reality. It has the wrong world view. The basic question is one of self ownership. Under Socialism the government owns everyone and, therefore, cares for everyone equally. Everyone is a slave to the State. But the State does not have the resources to provide for the people. Under Capitalism, everyone owns himself. A free person is responsible for looking out for himself and for helping those who, for circumstances beyond their control, need assistance. Many of us are Biblical Christians who believe that ultimately God owns us and has made us to be stewards of self and of the possessions He gives us. A voluntary Socialism can go with this as we freely give to God and to others.
Dear David K. – Can you please calm down a minute? No one here is a traitor. I for one, am learning a lot by these comments. Your comments show me someone who is ignorant of history or of the forces that shape various parts of the world.
I would like you to consider that in recent history “Eastern Europe” was under Soviet control until the fall of the iron curtain. East Germany was fortunate to be absorbed into “Germany” but even it still has many challenges recovering and progressing. Other Eastern European countries have, since 1989 been working to establish themselves. And they are trying to do this with the new and improved “Russia” messing with them every step of the way. Just like the efforts to free Iraq, the changes there will require a couple of generations to solidfy into a way of life. It doesn’t just happen in a decade no matter how tired you get of the investment.
Instead of criticizing them and calling them names and disparaging their heritage, good Americans would be supporting them and cheering them on.
Unfortunately, Our Fearless Reader, likes despotism (I particularly hate all the semantics about fascist vs. marxist vs. socialist, for the most part we all know what is meant!) and wants the same here in this country. My loyalty sir is to the Constitution, not to a man, especially an ignorant, self absorbed, egotistical fool who knows nothing about courage and honor. He is not willing to stand up for freedom around the world. That tells me a lot about the man.
So, I would recommend you study, try to think and put into perspective what history has to say. Simply blaming people as gypsies and losers who can’t do anything right is ignorantly simple. Life is not that simply, although I’m sure you believe it to be.
66. Mongoose: wrong as usual.
81. Gramps Cane.
God doesn’t own us.
we have “free will”.
If God owned us,
there wouldn’t be any democrats.
What would be the point?
Voluntary socialism?
Is that what it’s being called now?
Seems more like…
Eco-communislam.
dave k: so those drunken russians and gypsies could’nt get socialism to work. maybe it wasn’t the drunken russians and gypsies. what they needed was a lemon law. give it back to the manufacturer because it was defective in the first place. a design flaw.
way back in the day i took an oath to defend the constituion against all enemies foreign and domestic. never took an oath of allegiance to the president. Obama administration seems to be crooked as a dogs hind leg. to much of anything is not a good thing especially government.
oh yeah left this out… don’t mix the 2 issues about the commander in chief and the troops. so if a general isn’t doing the job he gets replaced right? what about the commander in chief? i got 3 blue stars, i most definitely support my troops. CIC not so much.
To John from cinncinatti:
The U.S. Armed Forced Oath of Enlistment:
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
So, yeah, you just forgot your oath, john from cinncinatti?
When liberals are in the minority opinion, they scream about minorities being oppressed by the conservative majority. When liberals hold the White House and both Houses of Congress, they yell, “We Won,” as they ignore the minority opinion of conservatives. It is time that conservatives stop listening to liberals, because “fairness” is a one-way street in the minds of liberals, do it their way or beware of being arrested for disagreeing with liberal opinions!
Trust me, Mary; these days the kids attenting Franklin are just hoping they manage to survive until graducation. Kids in Suburban schools such as Greece and Gates are only slightly less worried. A lot of them are looking at the ‘world outside’ and wondering if they’re going to have a country when they do graduate. And I should say that around half of them don’t graduate, so that point isn’t lost. Welcome to government schools.
Does anyone recall when Michelle Obama infamously told us all that once her Husband entered the oval office, she was proud of her country for the first time? I wonder now, after watching her husband in action, how many still feel proud of their country. I mean, aside from 10% unemployment and climbing, aside from countries that were supposed to love is the moment the Obamamessiah crossed the threshold of the Oval Office… aside from the quadrupling of debt Obama has loaded on our shoulders in the first six months of being in office… aside from a new bit of job killing legislation evey single week… is there anything… anything at all… this moron has brought that we can actually celebrate over?
89. Eric Florack:
To quote a great American statesman and philosopher:
“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
Now I know which side you’re on, terrorist!
88. Rev316:
To quote a great American statesman and philosopher:
“Elections have consequences.”
All I know today is I love this sign. I think it is up in the Houston area. What a great sign.
Check it out here.
http://ragingelephants.org/Images/MLK-Republican%20BB%20Lo%20Rez%20B.jpg
This man spoke at a tea party I attended and I liked what he said so much that I put him on my favorites list. His name is Apostle Klaver and he is a conservative radio host.
I assume the statesman and philosopher you refer to is Paul Krugman?
(Chuckle)
84. Sunglasses on a cloudy day.
Let’s not confuse ownership with obedience. Ownership does not imply the lack of a will. It does, however, imply accountability. The Bible teaches that God owns everyone by right of creation and doubly owns the Christians by right of purchase as well. It also teaches that every one of us will account for our lives before Him. That is ownership. I love discussing theology, but I digress from the topic at hand.
You expressed concern about the use of the term ‘voluntary Socialism.’ Perhaps it is a bad choice of words on my part. Let me explain what I meant and maybe someone can find a better description. When the government forces me to give them part or all of my wealth and they redistribute it to others as they see fit, that is mandatory Socialism. However, when I voluntarily give part or all of my wealth to the church, synagogue, or charity of my choosing for them to redistribute, that is what I called voluntary Socialism. The former is immoral, unconstitutional, and unscriptural. The latter is something that we should gladly do as we have means and opportunity. Neither communism nor Islam has that concept.
87. David K.
I do not know if you are a patriot but totally ignorant of the Constitution, the history of our country, and the real differences between Capitalism and Communism, or if you are just having fun playing the devil’s advocate. Either way the position you are espousing is untenable. Here’s my suggestion. Read the constitution – all of it. Read it slowly and carefully. Likewise, peruse the Federalist Papers. If you understand them, you will see the problem at hand. Our Armed Forces take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of The United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. But Mr. Obama and most of our current Congress are domestic enemies of the Constitution. Which part of the oath do they keep? This is not a rhetorical question. I fear (and desperately hope that I am wrong) that the time is soon coming when they will have to choose between obeying the Commander-in-Chief and obeying the Constitution.
1. David Thomson:
Day.”
Barack Obama is a fascist. He is trying to impose a benevolent dictatorship
~~~~
Change benevolent to malevolent and you’re there.
To Dave’s comment to Mary:
“If you don’t like it here, go back to Slovenia.
If you do not support our President, our Commander In Chief, in a time of war, you are nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!”
Recall that Senator Barack Hussein Obama openly, repeatedly, and vociferously did not support President G.W. Bush, our Commander-in-Chief, in a time of war. According to your logic, Senator Obama was “nothing more than a traitor who hates our troops!” Further, according to your logic, since Senator Obama did not like it here as a result of his failure to support our President, one can only conclude that Senator Obama should have gone back to Kenya.
And you are not alone!
To Joe Bison:
…the Slovenian Home Guard
was a Nazi auxiliary unit commanded by
German officers that swore allegiance
to Adolf Hitler among other things.
THE ABOVE SENTENCE INDICATES A LIMITED KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY OF THE HOME GUARD SITUATION. PLEASE READ BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY MARY GRABAR AS WELL AS METOD MILAC’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT AS A STUDENT BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER WORLD WAR II. I BELIEVE AFTER YOUR READING YOU WILL CONCLUDE: THAT THE COMMUNIST PARTISANS COLLABORATED WITH THE NAZIS BEFORE HITLER ATTACKED RUSSIA, AND THEREAFTER, FROM TIME-TO-TIME, AS WAS CONVENIENT FOR THE COMMUNISTS AND NAZIS; THAT THE SLOVENIAN HOME GUARD WAS NOT CREATED BY THE NAZIS; THAT THE HOME GUARD SPONTANEOUSLY AROSE IN THE VILLAGES AS AN INDISPENSABLE “HOME MILITIA” TYPE, SELF-DEFENSE RESPONSE TO THE VIOLENT ACTION OF TITO’S COMMUNIST PARTISANS; THAT THE VIOLENT OPPRESSION BY THE PARTISANS AGAINST THE VILLAGERS WAS FAR GREATER THAN THAT OF THE GERMANS AGAINST THE VILLAGERS WHICH COMPELLED VILLAGERS TO CHOOSE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES BY FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AGAINST THE COMMUNIST PARTISANS;
THAT OVER TIME THE HOME GUARD GREW AND BECAME MORE ORGANIZED AND RECEIVED ASSISTANCE TO DEFEND AGAINST THE COMMUNIST PARTISANS FROM THE GERMAN ARMY; THAT THE NAZIS ATTEMPTED TO HAVE THE HOME GUARD SIGN AN ALLEGIANCE TO HITLER BUT (AS I RECALL) IT WAS REFUSED BY HOME GUARD MEMBERS (SEE JOZE RANT’S BOOK FOR CLARITY);
These were not freedom fighters by any
stretch.
THEY WERE FREEDOM FIGHTERS TO THE EXTENT THEY PROTECTED HOME AND HEARTH. SLOVENIA AND YUGOSLAVIA WERE NOT MILITARY PRIORITIES FOR EITHER ALLIES OR AXIS POWERS.
You really had to watch over
your shoulder when these type of units
were around especially if you were
Jewish or Orthodox Christian.
PLEASE PROVIDE SOME REFERENCE FOR THIS STATEMENT. I KNOW THAT LJUBLJANA HAD A JEWISH SECTION BEFORE WWII, BEFORE THE NAZI OCCUPATION, AND BEFORE THE COMMUNIST REGIME. DOES LJUBLJANA OR SLOVENIA TODAY HAVE A JEWISH MINORITY? I DON’T THINK SO. WHAT HAPPENED TO IT?
AS TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS, I CANNOT COMMENT.
MY FATHER, MY UNCLE, MY FATHER-IN-LAW, MY COUSIN, AND MANY OTHERS I KNOW WERE MEMBERS OF THE HOME GUARDS. SOME HAD BEEN DECEIVED INTO JOINING THE PARTISANS WHILE OTHERS WERE FORCIBLY CONSCRIPTED BY THE PARTISANS. ONCE, HOWEVER, THEY SAW THE INHUMANE VIOLENCE, THEY ESCAPED AS SOON AS THEY COULD, AND WENT OVER TO JOIN THE HOME GUARDS.
MY FATHER WAS WOUNDED RESCUING HIS COUSIN IN A FIRE FIGHT AGAINST PARTISANS WHILE DEFENDING HIS VILLAGE. FURTHER, MY FATHER TRANSPORTED THREE DOWNED ALLIED AIRMEN WITH THEIR RADIO THROUGH A VALLEY THAT WAS INFESTED WITH GERMAN TROOPS. THE AIRMEN WERE SECRETED IN HAY ON A HAY WAGON. MY OTHER UNCLE, A TAILOR, WAS NEUTRAL. THE PARTISANS CAME ONE DAY, FORCIBLY MARCHED HIM AND A FEW OTHER LOCAL VILLAGERS A LONG WAY INTO THE MOUNTAINS WHERE THEY WERE EXECUTED. A LOCAL COMMUNIST, ARMED WITH A MACHINE GUN, CAME ONE DAY TO MY FATHER’S HOME, AND THREATENED TO KILL MY GRANDPARENTS AND AUNTS UNLESS THEY DISCLOSED THE LOCATION OF MY FATHER’S MOTORCYCLE WHICH HE THEN STOLE.
This is not to excuse the communists
who of course were murdering b******s,
but this example is equivalent to siding
with Nazi Germany over the Soviet Union
because it was an evil entity. Yugoslavia
if I can use that name, was simply a place
of pure evil during WW2 with no sanctuary
for the innocent.
CONSEQUENTLY, A PERSON HAD TO CHOOSE TO DEFEND HIMSELF OR DIE. THIS IS NOT CHOOSING THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS. RATHER, IT IS CHOOSING THAT WHICH IS GOOD – LIFE.
Interesting article. I like your insight.
I grew up hearing my parents and grandparents talk about what it was like living through the Great Depression. Americans today cannot even imagine what it would be like to live through that again.
My parents were in their early 20s. One taught at a country school and one worked in the oil fields. Due to lack of money, schools often had to pay the teachers in chickens and eggs, etc. Some days all my parents had was 25 cents and hamburgers were a nickel. Get the picture? How many 20 & 30 somethings could make it today? The later generations have gotten too soft.
But for my parents there was the opportunity to achieve a better life and through hard work they did. They have been gone over 20 years, but if they were here today, they would be very frightened for the freedoms we are giving up and the dreams we are losing.
I would argue most Americans don’t want Obama to “take care of them” as the author stated. I’d say most Americans want Obama and the administration to listen to them. Credit card reform and cigarette bills are two ways in doing so.
Obama and the world is watching and listening to what’s going on in Iran but it is not our place to take action or interfere. We’ve been doing that since 1953 and look what happened. And when the members of the administration say “we won,” it’s not the administration, it’s “we the people.”
94. Gramps Cane
Charity.
Hello Gramps C.,
Socialism, as far as I understand, is about eliminating the significance of people as individuals. Taking away their private property is just the economic part of the picture.
Christianity teaches that each individual is of great importance to the Creator of the Universe, as you know so well.
“I picture this may perhaps be various upon the written content… however I still think that it might be suitable for virtually any sort of content material, due to the fact it would always be fulfilling to see a warm and friendly face or maybe hear a voice when first landing.”
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Applied Physics