By Andrew L. Jaffee, June 23, 2003
Posted on 06/24/2003 10:07:49 AM PDT by forty_years
| Live from the New Europe: Reporting from Lithuania By Andrew L. Jaffee, June 23, 2003 |
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I've haven't been back to Lithuania in seventeen years. Lithuania: my mother's homeland. In typical American fashion, Lithuania is only one of my ancestral ties. But I'm so glad it is one of those ties. It has given me great strength and helped me to appreciate the great gift that is the United States.
After getting off the plane last Wednesday in Vilnius, the capital city, two things struck me. First of all, there are no more Russian/Soviet soldiers patrolling the streets. Second, the are no more statues of Lenin and no more communist propaganda billboards. In Soviet times, these massive, red billboards were everywhere. They were there to remind the Lithuanian people who was boss: the Russian communists. And if you didn't like it, there were plenty of Russian troops to convince you otherwise. KGB (Soviet secret police) headquarters was situated in the city center, as a not-so-subtle reminder to anyone who believed in Lithuanian self-determination.
Russians poured into Lithuanian under Soviet occupation in an attempt to ethnically dilute or overwhelm the indigenous population. They came not only because the Russian/Soviet government subsidized their emigration, but because life was better in the Baltic because Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians worked so hard, and had tasted democracy briefly from 1918 to 1940. Political decisions were made in Moscow or by trusted Lithuanian collaborators installed by their Russian/Soviet patrons. Dissent against Russian rule was punishable by death or expulsion to Siberian gulags. There was no free press and no free political system.
Sound familiar? Apartheid? The Third Reich? The British Raj in India? American dislocation of Indians during early U.S. expansion? Where were all the "Liberals" when Russians were squashing the self-determination of Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Moldavians, Kazaks, Turkens, Armenians, etc? Were "Liberals" espousing what the pigs did in Orwell's Animal Farm?--i.e., "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.". Sounds like discrimination to me.
The Russian occupiers have been thrown out. No more statues of Lenin. They were all torn down by jubilant but peaceful Lithuanian crowds (remind you of... Saddam?). No more communist billboards. All gone.
Now you only hear Russian spoken infrequently (and kids aren't forced to learn it in school). When you hear it, it is spoken by Russians who live here by choice or by Russian tourists who travel here by choice. And they are welcome because Lithuanians are a civilized people who have chosen to govern themselves through democracy. Notice I'm emphasizing concepts of free will in boldface.
Just yesterday, my Lithuanian relatives and I returned from Nida, a beautiful vacation resort on the Baltic Sea. While there, we enjoyed a Lithuanian folk festival held in celebration of the summer solstice. While there were many traditional Lithuanian folk performances, the festival organizers also invited Russian folk groups to participate. I thought it was mighty tolerant of Lithuanians to invite Russians to participate, especially knowing the history of Russian tsarist and communist aggression against their country.
There is a lesson in this for all peoples. The Lithuanian struggle against oppression was a peaceful one. Their democratic revolution in the late 80's and early 90's was fought with the pen, with meetings, with peaceful demonstrations, and with politics--even though the Russians responded with violence. Lithuanians didn't blow up buses full of Russian civilians. They fought the good fight.
Just think. Palestinians would've had a homeland a long time ago if they would've used their minds and not bombs. And they have been fighting a sympathetic and democratic "enemy." You know why that is? It is because Palestinian leadership (and unfortunately many Palestinian civilians) are not democratic nor are they interested in democracy. When will they learn?
I will try to continue reporting from Lithuania as best I can. Please check back to netWMD for further commentary.
There's a reason they are called crimes against humanity, because there is a greater moral-component to the atrocity, regardless of the individual criminal act. Our friend Destro would have us believe that the U.S. government, in its own self-interest, is now collaborating with it's "new" allies (now that's a laughable idea, E. Europe has been pro-U.S. practically forever) in order to sweep the Holocaust under the rug. Yet, with all his "marketing" expertise, by omission he implies that Soviet atrocities against the same Jews are not worthy of mention. Certainly there was any number of anti-Semitic Lithuanian collaborators in the Soviet régime that replaced the Nazi one. Certainly there have been any number of threads concerning the "warming" of relations between the U.S. and Russia. I would expect Destro, if he was consistent, to direct some of his "outrage" at the Russians (They're all Bolsheviks! They shipped Jews to the Gulag! The U.S. is sweeping it under the rug!). I am disappointed.
His neglect of the treatment suffered by the Jews at the hands of the Soviets suggests that Destro is still fighting the Cold War on the wrong side. More disturbing is the possibility that anti-Semitism itself doesn't trouble him very much. More important to him is to score points against what he perceives to be an "uppity" ethnic group or, gasp, those who he perceives to be "neo-conservative."
I used to think that racist attacks (and yes, I use the term deliberately) by people of Destro's ilk were primarily motivated by vengeance. I'm beginning to suspect that they are fighting a larger battle.
I need to start saving these "Lithuanians are Nazis" threads.
The buzzword of New Europe (as if Lithuania with its long history including being an empire is New) and the way Lithuanian history is "highlighted" to serve an agenda is telling to me.
The neocon technique which I studied in college is related very much to communist propaganda styles. They use one subject to really talk about another. For example the commies would write about aparthied South Africa and within the article they would mention the USA in passing. Those passing comments are the real meat of the article. The rest of the article serves as a set up for those "passing" statements.
For what it's worth -- likely no more than you paid for it -- I find it best to adopt a thick skin and ignore the ignoramuses when they spout their ignorance. (Though, all too often, I find myself re-testing the alternative.) If you'd rather tangle with them, that's your right.
It just reminds me of the saying about trying to teach a pig to sing, "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." At least if you succeed in annoying the "pig," it's not a total waste. However, I'm convinced some pigs are incapable of being annoyed. When that's the case, it's truly a waste of time.
But when someone comes on to a thread and calls all geezers Nazis, I would expect that, as a new one you would take offense.
If you cannot understand the above, I'm willing to drop this exercise altogether.
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