Soap Box

I remember as a child seeing the newsreels at the movie houses about the Second World War and the inhumanity and cruelty of Hitler and his Nazis.

I remember the huge holes full of the naked, skeletal bodies of Jews - men, women and children - who had been murdered and were being buried in mass graves because the furnaces where they usually burned the bodies couldn’t keep up with the amount of prisoners the monsters put to death.

This is an evil the world should never forget, the wanton killing of six million living, breathing human beings. The fact that our school children, when they reach an age they can comprehend it, are not being taught that it happened is a big mistake, not to acquaint them with the evils of fascism, especially since the word has been bandied about by so many people, who don’t have any idea what it means, and the younger generation needs to know the true meaning of the word and its cruel political ramifications.

The same is true of communism, or it’s less offensive choix de nom, socialism, which has taken down every nation who has fallen prey to its siren call, the utopian promises of fairness, level playing fields, free social services, bringing the rich to heel, curbing the unfair employment practices of industry, guaranteed jobs and fair wages for all.

One has only to look as far as Venezuela to see the devastation socialism, or more accurately, the promise of socialism brings. Venezuela should, by all indications, be a rich and prosperous nation, teeming with natural resources and agricultural advantages, but is - at present - totally destitute, currency disastrously devaluated, with little food and no hope.

The result of true socialism is always a totalitarian government, where, no matter how well-intentioned the originators may be, to stay in power means having to promise more and more benefits, and as the central government takes over an ever-increasing share of industry, puts inept bureaucrats in charge, industry starts to fail and soon, factories close, workers go on the dole, which increases to impossible levels and it takes strongarm tactics so prevent outright anarchy.

And so, the nation turns into just another failed socialist state, under the thumb of some dictator who spends on guns instead of butter and the conundrum goes on until perpetual civil war ensues and they go from one ambitious despot after the other.

It has happened over and over, the pattern never changes, nor can it, because the cornerstone of socialism is a monolithic central government whose philosophy is, in the words of Karl Marx, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” In other words, your ambition, work ethic, or creativity mean nothing, and your rewards are the same as some lazy bum who puts nothing into his job and never had an original thought in his life.

Socialist nations, by nature, become anti-religious, as the state’s ultimate goal is to become the only answer to all problems, the central clearinghouse for all information, all policy, in essence, replacing God as the judge of what is right or wrong.

Would it have been a fallacy for America to attempt to keep the fact that we once had legal slavery in this country a secret, that men, women and children were kidnapped from their native Africa and pressed into forced labor, traded like animals, their children separated from their parents and sold like cattle, most of them never seeing their families again?

Should this inhuman practice have been hidden from the succeeding generations, buried under the guilt and shame of such a dark period in our history?

Of course not. It should be forced out into the light of truth, exposed for monstrous practice that it was.

The mistakes and evil undertakings of governments and individuals should be brought to the light of day, exposed to the crucible of truth, so that the generations who follow can see the evil and avoid the same pitfalls.

At the same time, the good that mankind has done should also be brought forth and both should be presented in bare facts so that it will not be burnished nor belittled so that it might be judged by ramifications, not the whims of those who tend to spin history for their own benefit.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Nothing less will do.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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