You come by your name honestly, goodlady.
Bagster
I believe there has been a decades-long communist threat from within that has found fruition in the Democrat Party, the media, education, etc.
I found this thread on FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts which lists the 45 goals of communism that were read into the Congressional Record in 1963. Interesting to read and think about. I find it sobering.
I believe that as our country has moved away from our Judeo-Christian heritage we have become more susceptible to the ideas of/within communism, a system in which government is god.
Have to say, I do appreciate your thinking out-of-the box. Bravo. I usually bounce a little bit better with out-of-the box thinking.
Ya hit one of my buttons. I had the experience of traveling behind the Iron Curtain before the wall came down. The experience stays with me. No food in the small stores opening to the street. Americans were told never to buy groceries there. Food was scarce.
Ambling past a storefront open to the street, one could see the empty shelves. Lines for a piece of bread. Weary ppl waiting. Silent. Interacting with the grayness of it all. Even the sky was often gray. Stones in the street without joyous reflection— perhaps a warning that the journey was to nowhere.
Studying the flat, pebble-filled street was the fate of turned down faces. Regrets turned the shoulders down to examine hope lost. Still, once in a while...someone was not quiet. They stirred our souls and we remembered the other way to live.
Scarves for hats. Many scarves. No richness of color in the clothes. Hoping the line would move so one could shuffle the feet and keep the blood circulating. Hands clasping a purse close with regimentation. A rote, ruinous recitation written to counter the creative. The sameness of it all.
Admittedly, I was already convinced it was a poor system that robbed the soul.
However, to see it up close, even somewhat, had a profound effect. It wasn’t just academic thinking.
Never, ever felt the breath of freedom so deeply as when I crossed back to the West. The beautiful West.
The grocery stores. Cars built with steel. Wardrobes to reflect the person. How much better ppl looked. Color in their cheeks. Ppl moving with purpose and plan. The dance of democracy. A symphony hall spilling over into the street and filled to the rafters with melodies of men free, punctuated with a catchy capitalist beat. No apologies.
When the wall came down, I and a friend with whom I traveled felt the ripples of deliverance cross the oceans. How we wished for a stone of the wall to touch. We offered praise to the God Who says the king’s heart is like a river in His hands. A miracle had happened.
The bondage I felt behind that curtain was deeply spiritual. Physical. Emotional. Affecting my mind as if I were partially wrapped in some invisible blanket not big enough to protect from the hopelessness that had crippled a generation. I couldn’t hide behind the covers.
Unreal.
Anyway... I will continue to pray for President Trump as he meets with Putin. May our incredible POTUS be empowered to accomplish even more... for us, for Russia. As God wills.
You come by your name honestly, goodlady.
Bagster
Note to self. This needs a rewrite.
They’ve already accomplished far too many of those 45 goals laid out in the congressional record.
Beautifully written, you carried me there with you and I saw what you experienced. Positively exceptional writing. Thank you for sharing.
Your description helps me to realize what I never should have desired to experience.
I am glad that is over.
Bookmark
I found this thread on FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts which lists the 45 goals of communism that were read into the Congressional Record in 1963. Interesting to read and think about. I find it sobering.
**********
Even more so, when one realizes that Socialist/Communist goals have merged with Islamists goals. all aimed at the destruction of our Republic.
Dictators, whether Socialist or Islamist, always have a unflinching loyalty to the destruction of individual freedom, and the supremacy of the state.
musicnart wrote:
“I believe there has been a decades-long communist threat from within that has found fruition in the Democrat Party, the media, education, etc.
I found this thread on FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts which lists the 45 goals of communism that were read into the Congressional Record in 1963. Interesting to read and think about. I find it sobering.
I believe that as our country has moved away from our Judeo-Christian heritage we have become more susceptible to the ideas of/within communism, a system in which government is god.
Have to say, I do appreciate your thinking out-of-the box. Bravo. I usually bounce a little bit better with out-of-the box thinking.
Ya hit one of my buttons. I had the experience of traveling behind the Iron Curtain before the wall came down. The experience stays with me. No food in the small stores opening to the street. Americans were told never to buy groceries there. Food was scarce.
Ambling past a storefront open to the street, one could see the empty shelves. Lines for a piece of bread. Weary ppl waiting. Silent. Interacting with the grayness of it all. Even the sky was often gray. Stones in the street without joyous reflection— perhaps a warning that the journey was to nowhere.
Studying the flat, pebble-filled street was the fate of turned down faces. Regrets turned the shoulders down to examine hope lost. Still, once in a while...someone was not quiet. They stirred our souls and we remembered the other way to live.
Scarves for hats. Many scarves. No richness of color in the clothes. Hoping the line would move so one could shuffle the feet and keep the blood circulating. Hands clasping a purse close with regimentation. A rote, ruinous recitation written to counter the creative. The sameness of it all.
Admittedly, I was already convinced it was a poor system that robbed the soul.
However, to see it up close, even somewhat, had a profound effect. It wasn’t just academic thinking.
Never, ever felt the breath of freedom so deeply as when I crossed back to the West. The beautiful West.
The grocery stores. Cars built with steel. Wardrobes to reflect the person. How much better ppl looked. Color in their cheeks. Ppl moving with purpose and plan. The dance of democracy. A symphony hall spilling over into the street and filled to the rafters with melodies of men free, punctuated with a catchy capitalist beat. No apologies.
When the wall came down, I and a friend with whom I traveled felt the ripples of deliverance cross the oceans. How we wished for a stone of the wall to touch. We offered praise to the God Who says the king’s heart is like a river in His hands. A miracle had happened.
The bondage I felt behind that curtain was deeply spiritual. Physical. Emotional. Affecting my mind as if I were partially wrapped in some invisible blanket not big enough to protect from the hopelessness that had crippled a generation. I couldn’t hide behind the covers.
Unreal.
Anyway... I will continue to pray for President Trump as he meets with Putin. May our incredible POTUS be empowered to accomplish even more... for us, for Russia. As God wills.”
Excellent, excellent article !!!
You paint a picture with your words, such that one is right there !
My military son was proactively smuggling people out of East Berlin just prior to the wall coming down...His life ended when his car exploded...
We traveled there a bit later in the late 90's. The mood was a bit lighter I think, but much of the authoritarian mood and it's trappings remained.
One thing that really sticks out to me was the lack of personal choices. For instance, we stayed with a host family in Moscow. It was mid-September, and cold. Our hostess, who has since immigrated to the U.S., noticed that I was cold but said that the heat hadn't been turned on yet.
She didn't mean in her apartment, or in her building, but in the city itself. They didn't turn the heat on in the city until October. She told us that it was piped in like the water, and the closer you were to the source the hotter your building was.
Another thing - alcoholism was rampant. It may still be that way. Many children were in orphanages due to that fact, and many of them were afflicted with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
One of the cities we traveled to was Rybinsk, in the Yaroslav Region, between Moscow and St. Petersburg. A picture we took still breaks my heart when I look at it. There's an unpainted slat fence in front of an orphanage with children halfway visible on the other side, their hands gripping the slats and parts of their faces peaking through the fence.
I don't know if Trump will begin negotiation for the opening up of adoptions from Russia again. I remember that the moratorium on adoptions occurred some years back in retaliation for our punishment of human rights abuses in Russia. With all of the stuff we're finding out about the Obama administration I'm wondering if that was truly the case or if something else was going on.
As usual - I've done a real "slide"and gotten way off on a rabbit trail. Here is my picture: 
Love your posted description of life behind the Iron Curtain.
I was blessed with a Venezuelan friend who took me home to visit her family in the 90’s. I’d met several of her family members when they’d come to visit her in Texas. They always invited my daughter and I to visit. So we went, spent almost a month in pre-Communist Venezuela.
It was beautiful. A capitalist’s paradise. The people were open, gregarious and loved meeting Texans. The markets and stores were full to overflowing. Street vendors peddling treats thru residential areas, much like when I was a kid and we chased the ice cream truck. But they were many, with all kinds of portable goodies. Always smiles on the faces of people we met.
Our weeks there covered just past Thanksgiving till after New Years. We experienced pre-Christmas buying, driving to see a myriad of amazing Christmas lights, community worship servicea, buge Christmas and New Years parties and we were with middle class Venezualans.
The family knew I loved the outdoors so friends of the family invited us to their vacation cabin in Andean foothills. I got to wade in a river in the Andes, this made everyone laugh that my daughter and I had that wish. They said most Americans are fearful of the water there due to piranha stories. (Which aren’t native to those waters)
We went fishing one day. Caught fish I couldn’t identify but they knew which to keep and throw back. Had fresh fish with yucca root and seasoning, wrapped in big leaves they found cooked over a fire for supper. Laughter, music, dancing... beautiful.
We also went to a small farm my friend’s brother owned one day. Hunted rabbits. But we had a pig cooked in the ground for lunch. Best BBQ pork ever.
I kept in touch with the family via email until about 2003. Then there were no replies. Nothing. They weren’t wealthy, just middle class. But Communism happened. They stay in my prayers daily but I have known nothing else for 15 years.
I actually considered relocating to Venezuela after my visit. Venezuelan women were just becoming interested in participating in hiking, backpacking and fishing trips without men along. As Bagster would say #NoHomo. Just outdoor women activities. I was recently widowed, just shy of 40 and the offer was there from my friends to help me get started as a guide for ladies. I prayed about it and there was a big check in my spirit. God knew Chavez was on the way to power and I’m thankful I wasn’t there. All the more reason to defend my beloved Texas and USA.