Tuesday, December 14, 2010

What Communism Feels Like


By Alan Caruba

Recently I received an email and requested permission to share it. It says a great deal about the danger of a government inclined to ignore the Constitution. December 15th is Bill of Rights Day; time to read them if you have not done so already.

The text below has been lightly edited for continuity and is published with the permission of its author..

Dear Mister Caruba,

I want to thank you for your Warning Signs blog. I want you to know that I am scared out of my wits with everything that is going on...

I was born, raised, and grew up in Communist Poland. I presently reside in the USA since June 1983. I love the country and love Americans. Every time the national anthem is played I tear up with happiness to be lucky enough to live in The Greatest Country on Earth!!

What I see happening all around us is very troubling, since Obama's election and the great number of people looking forward to change and hope to get us on track to build a better tomorrow. The light at the end of a tunnel, however, has turned out to be a TRAIN!!

Of course, as everyone, I have my opinion just about everything...

I am not the sharpest tool in a shed, but I call Obama "The Closer" just like the TV show I watched a few years ago. Over the years our society was brainwashed and socially conditioned

I've experienced it back in Poland when our party Leaders were feeding us utopia, talking about the greatness of our country, how proud we shall be, how lucky we are, how together we shall build it even stronger, work harder, save more, and as one we will overcome the BAD AMERICA!!!, the source of evil, racism and slaves!. All the time they kept us with no freedom and communist propaganda in the newspapers and on TV.

I remember as a young child---maybe 9 or 10---my Father and I would wake up at 2:00 AM to listen to 'Free Europe" (BBC station) a one-hour broadcast on the radio. The transmission was very much interrupted with static, but religiously we were finding out some truths. Our window was covered with a heavy blanket (we did not want to take any chance with neighbors or passing police patrol noticing any activities.)

Even when we talked about it later and I had some questions it was always done in such way that my 6-years younger sister couldn't be near for fear of her saying something to someone.

I remember when Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. The whole school was gathered by the main road, we were given Russian paper flags and were told to wave at the moving tanks and heavy military trucks and yell "hello" and clap and be happy that we have such good help in the Soviet Union to protect us from the 'evil movement' that had spread over Czechoslovakia that they said put us all in danger.

My late Father always told me "Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut and if you ever have an opportunity to escape safely don't even take a second to think about it. Just go for it and make a better life for yourself in a free world where you can talk without blankets in a window"

Sadly I see my country, the country that gave me the opportunity to enjoy freedom in all aspects slowly becoming a closed-door agenda, anti-American bills and policies not upholding the values on which it was established and for which thousands died to keep it true.

I am offended when Obama is not holding his hand over his heart when the anthem is played.

I am offended when he called me an enemy.

I am offended when he bowed to the Saudi Arabian king!

I am offended with his lies so obvious and bold that a deaf person could hear it!

As far as I am concerned he is not my president.

--End--

I am concerned we increasingly live in a society where everything we say or write can be fodder for those who think the Bill of Rights was written for a different age or people and no longer applicable.

On Bill of Rights Day it is useful to recall that several of the original States refused to ratify the U.S. Constitution unless the Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments, was included.

If America is not about personal, individual, political, and spiritual freedom, than it is not America. It is about the rights reserved to the States and the People. Without them, life in America will be no different than the Communist Poland from which my correspondent escaped.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

7 comments:

LarryOldtimer said...

I once had a migrant from the Ukraine working under my supervision, as a civil engineer, and his wife was Ukrainian as well, an electrical engineer in the private sector. I got to know both well, and the true stories they had to tell demonstrated the horrors of living in the USSR, a communistic system. Socialism is but communism lite, and communistic systems always fail badly, as do socialistic systems of government.

When I worked for CA Div of Highways, in the 1960s, most government employees were very productive. Over time, the productivity on average diminished, until at last, there were very few government employees doing productive work, producing that which would be of value to future America.

Governments were required to hire the unproductive and incompetent. When I went from government to the private sector, government quotas for "minority" owned subcontractors forced many engineering firms to sub out engining services work to many times incompetent companies.

Some "minority" owned engineering services companies were very competent, having excellent personnel, but those were companies which had begun a good many years before, and not companies hastily formed to take advantage of of the requirement for quotas of "minorities".

I went back to being a state employee in 1989, Senior Engineer level, and within 6 years ran out of productive work to do, and retired because I could afford do so.

Carolyn said...

Hi Mr. Caruba! While I can't claim to know anything about living the way this proud American came from- I can totally understand how much immigrants (at least the legal ones) love the freedom and ideals of what America once stood for. I can understand the fear many who do come from communist or socialist countries because they have already had to endure so much, and were able by hard blood, sweat and many tears to escape to the last bastion of freedom, only now if America falls, there is no where else in the world to flee.
I have so much of the same feelings this person describes. I do pray that those who are in power and hate everything good and great about America will lose thie positions in and during the next couple of years-but more so I pray it won't be too late by then.
I have thought for so long that progressives will use any means necessary to hold onto their power, even if it's by subverting (?) the Consititution.
God Bless and thank you, and thanks too to the person who e mailed this incredible letter!

Alan Caruba said...

@Carolyn: Of late I have begun to sense that public opinion has turned against Obama to such an extent he will be limited in his options for the next two years.

Most surely, he will not be able to assume dictatorial powers or anything like that of foreign regimes.

If anything, he has awakened a renewed patriotism in Americans who have seen the threat he represents and will resist it.

Dedicated_Dad said...

Would that Dear Reader - _resident o'bama - was the threat we needed to fear. Sadly, he's just a puppet. It's the bunch with their collective (pun-intended) arm up his backside that we need to be worried about. As they're unelected, they're not going ANYWHERE.

It's time we recognize that our differences are not a matter of polite disagreement over political matters. We are in reality engaged in a literal war for the future of our Republic -- and thus of all mankind.

Make no mistake - if Liberty dies here, it dies everywhere.

Collectivists of all stripes ("liberals", "progressives", "socialists", "communists" et al) are in fact The Enemy -- and it's long past time we started treating them as such.

There was a time in our great Republic when espousing collectivist views would rightly earn one the righteous scorn of the rest -- we need to return to those days.

McCarthy was RIGHT.

What these people espouse is the death of our Republic - and thus of our way of life. They've controlled our schools and media -- and thus the minds of entire generations -- for decades, but they CAN be stopped.

To do so will require us to take off the "polite" gloves, and join them in fighting the dirty, ugly street-fight they've been fighting against us for decades.

Refuse to be cowed by "political correctness" or their other sick semantic games -- if you play, they win. Period. So refuse to play.

Shun them.
Fire them.
Boycott them, and anyone who hires or does business with them.
Refuse to associate with them in any way whatsoever.
Refuse to be silenced -- oppose them at every opportunity.

If they were child-molesters, looking to corrupt and molest your children, what would you do?
If they were thieves, looking to rob your children of their birthright, what would you do?
If they were slavers, looking to enslave your children, what would you do?

They are all of these, and worse!

They are The Enemy -- and it's long past time we start treating them like it.

DD

Alan Caruba said...

@ Dedicated Dad:

I fear there are at least two generations who have no idea what Communism was or is.

I am encouraged, however, by the Tea Party movement as a reaction against the Communist takeover of the nation.

joetote said...

Alan,

Something I wrote back in August as to a close friend of mine and on this very subject.

"A good friend of mine here in Vegas is from the old Soviet Union. He was lucky to get out years ago and loves his new country dearly. When we talk about this, he always asks the same thing. “Can’t we as a country see what we are doing to ourselves? Can’t we learn from past history? Could it be that we as a country now do not believe in our own principles?

He asks this and states as follows. “I lived the horror in Russia. I’ve seen what Marxist Socialism can do to a people. I have seen it rob the will to succeed and in fact the will to live! When I lived there, the U.S. was the beacon of hope. Now, I fear that the “I wants” of our country have lost track of that.”

He went on to say that the leadership he is witnessing now is every bit as deplorable as where he came from. He sees the beginning of the same lies, the same anti-free speech rhetoric and the same despite for free will now, in this country, as he did then. Funny, isn’t it? A lecture from someone from another country who loves our country more then her native born citizens! In all reality, it’s a harsh indictment on this Anti-American administration and it’s sheer ignorance of our basic principles.

Joanna said...

@joetote
I absolutely can second the opinion of your friend, his frustrations and fears...
it is not to take anything from anyone but it is a whole different view when one lived under communist rule...
it gaves the feeling of a nightmare and anger toward those who are dealing AMERICAN future like in a cheating game of poker..every morning I check the news and hold my breath to see what other cards they are pulling out from their sleeves...
...it hurts to see the elected politicians to turn their back on the very people they were to protect and work to their benefit..what it will take to get their attention?...