Hope you don’t mind that I’m checking back in. I grew up in a Republican household with working class parents who’d spent their childhood living through the Great Depression, their teenage years living through the Second World War, then they started fighting the Cold War in their mid-20s. I’m a Boomer, I’m old, and, wow, I was so lucky.
My parents had watched their older brothers and cousins volunteer or get drafted to fight in WWII and they weren’t going to let those sacrifices be forgotten by the next generation. My parents had no problem talking about democracy at the dinner table.
They were both working hard, but they were so grateful to be Americans, such fervent believers in free markets, free speech, freedom of religion. NO exceptions of American rights for people who didn’t look/speak/worship like us, because we were all Americans. My parents were practicing Christians who strived to live virtuous lives. Their three children were given clear priorities: God, family, neighbor, country. I was so lucky.
To so many of you young people in #WA, that must seem like a different world. Teachers were accountable to parents. Houses of worship made sure you stuck to the straight and narrow. Your parents knew who your friends were and (mostly) what you were up to.
I’d like you to take a look at the picture (below). This is a picture with a story. It was taken approximately 79 years ago, this month.
In mid-April of 1945, American troops liberated the Ohrdruf SS Nazi Concentration Camp in Germany, the first such Camp they’d encountered. First, see Generals Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley are there.
A prisoner is seen talking to them, explaining that there were thousands more men in the camp, but the ones who were able, were forced to evacuate the prison and force-marched to the next nearest one. Second, note that the SS were terrified their atrocities would be found out, so they tried to cover up the evidence, by tossing the ones who were too sick or too weak to run onto a large fire.
As you can see, the SS failed miserably to hide the evidence.
Third (and most important to me), take a look at all those uniformed men standing behind the generals. All those normal, everyday American men who had jobs, families, and decent, quiet lives back in USA, who left those lives (in many cases, volunteered) and since had their bodies and souls torn apart by the horrors of war. What are they thinking? This matters deeply to me, because these are the guys who were likely to be my uncles and my parents’ cousins. Were these members of your family?
Because I’m a Christian, I’ve always believed that human beings are capable of transcending their history. All those years, there I was, sitting in church in the weeks after Christmas, listening to the passage in Matthew about the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem. At the time, sitting in the pew, I’d think how distant and removed I was from such an atrocity—grown men murdering babies in the name of the state—believing that humanity would never do such a thing, not anymore, not after 1945.
And now I’m asking, post-10/7/23, why did they have to slaughter the babies? A baby can’t report you, it can’t testify against you in The Hague, it can’t hurt you when your back is turned—for what tactical reason did they have to kill the babies? And there’s only one answer: it’s because they were Jews.
And then, strangely, I began to feel as if eyes were on me, asking me how stupid I was expecting that all human beings would WANT to transcend history? Those eyes belonged to these American soldiers that liberated Ohrdruf and the American soldiers Eisenhower marched through those death camps, so that there would be thousands and thousands of eye-witnesses to contradict the deniers. And now, it is all happening again, God help us, and I have lived to see it.
Those of you who have Leftists you love: I realize they’re in a cult. But, try to get through to them. This isn’t a game or an academic exercise. It happened; it’s happening now. It was real; it IS real.
GROW UP, you spoiled, privileged children who are protesting in the streets, playing at being a revolutionary.
“Gays for Palestine,” as soon as you stop being useful, your new-found friends are going to turn and throw you on their body pile. “Women for Palestine,” when you stop being useful, they’re going to rape you until your pelvis breaks, then thrown you on their body pile. Stop this madness now, because everyday Americans are about to say a word you’ve never heard in your whole life: NO. Save your life and #WalkAway.
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