I have no children but I hear from friends and see on the
news that the young
(20s-30s) people think it will be great for all to get free
health care and be
taken care of by the government. I even hear some of the young people even
think socialism is OK.
Common sense and
reality say there is no “free lunch.”
The fact is someone has to pay for it. Someone in power (whether it be the
government in a socialist nation or the Private Sector
Company Owners in a
capitalistic nation who worked hard to earn their money) will always have more than those who
do not work. Remember…. anything “free”
from the government is never
free, you have to give up some of your freedoms and the right to control your
own life.
A lot of us, and I am hoping it is the majority of us, still
prefer to be honorable, self-governed, civilized, English speaking citizens who
like to give something back in return
for the blessings of living in a free country where we can
stand on our own;
we do not like to have something taken from us and then have
the government decide
how to spend our
money. There is a need for Government
but only if they are
honest and working for the good of all the people in our
country and not just their own careers or their own party.
Those of us who have lived long enough know that every
freedom we enjoy
today was not free.
We had to fight and give our best people to
earn these freedoms and to keep them. We can only do it because the majority
of our people are honorable people. When we lose our sacred honor, all will
be lost.
It all boils down to the fact the government cannot do
everything for us.
Two planes were saved
by ordinary, honorable citizens, willing to risk their own
lives to save the lives of others. That is how it is in
honorable,
self- sufficient, self-governed, civilized citizens who take
care of ourselves , our
families, our communities and those who need help. We do this because we
want to, we do this because we have a civic duty to give
something back and not because the government says we have to. We do this because we are honorable, free
people who respect each other and the rule of law.
There will be those who say we are wrong.. These same people didn’t want to
believe the stories of the Holocaust during WWII. There are still some who say
the Holocaust never happened. There are people who will look you in the eye
and
lie to you. Know
your sources….trust only the honorable.
Following is a series of emails with my friend Herta
Pfeiffer. Her husband
Jacob Pfeiffer is also a friend and wonderful artist. I invite you to visit his
website to see his
extraordinary paintings……www.jacobpfeiffer.com
Subject: Re: 1938
Date: 1/14/2010 11:35:35 A.M. Central Standard Time
From: hpfeiffer@
To: janpolk
He says it is OK … hope it makes people appreciate what
they have in this country. Herta
On Jan 13, 2010, at 9:10 PM, janpolk wrote:
Hi Herta. Do you mind
if I post this info on my blog? I would
link to Jacob’s website.
Jan
In a message dated 1/13/2010 6:55:20 P.M. Central Standard
Time, hpfeiffer@ writes:
Note: My husband,
Jacob, who fled to
from Russian occupied
with his mother in 1948, fled to the
American Sector of Austria … the Iron Curtain separated it from the Russian
sector … Everyone who fled to freedom from the Communists knew to get to the
American sector of the country. Crossing
through the policed Iron
Curtain was usually a dangerous undertaking.
Jacob and his mom stayed (hid out) with a farmer on the
Russian side, where his mother worked for the farmer’s wife as cook and seamstress, and 12 year old
Jacob did chores around the house, or helped with the animals.
The farmer’s wife loaned Jacob’s mom her passport; she had to wear a scarf and dark glasses,
faking a tooth ache, in order to cross the bridge which separated the two
Austrias … she supposedly “needed to cross over to go to a dentist.”
The farmer’s daughter rode Jacob across on the handlebars of
her bicycle; the Russians allowed
children to cross over the bridge, but not adults. They reunited with Jacob’s father on the
other side of the bridge. (The war had ended in 1945,
when Hitler was finally defeated. However, the Russians held on to
“their” portion of
another 10 years.)
I guess that is why most immigrants to the
are such patriotic Americans. They know
who they have to thank for liberating them, and they know
how easily freedom can be lost. H.
Begin forwarded message:
Subject: Fwd: Fw: Fwd: FW: 1938
TOO OFTEN WE FORGET
BEWARE-We already have some similarities!
This is a fascinating account of politcal
You may see some similarities.
1938
–Land of “The Sound of Music” Story
Fri, 11/20/09, Marjorie Lynn Ferrell wrote:
Friends, I had the opportunity to hear Kitty Werthmann speak
at the Eagle Forum national conference a couple of months back. She told a powerful story about what it was
like growing up under Hitler.
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t
Let Freedom Slip Away
By: Kitty Werthmann
What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably
never heard or will ever read in history books.
I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took
tanks and guns; it would distort history.
We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American
publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler
just rolled in with his tanks and took
In 1938,
was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third
of our workforce was unemployed. We had
25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.
Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy
daily. Young people were going from
house to house begging for food. Not
that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed
in helping people in need. Every day we
cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people –
about 30 daily.
The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were
fighting each other. Blocks and blocks
of cities like
, and
destroyed. The people became desperate
and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they
wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north,
Hitler had been in power since 1933. We
had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high
standard of living. Nothing was ever
said about persecution of any group — Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was
happy. We wanted the same way of life in
. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment
and help for the family. Hitler also
said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms
back. Ninety-eight percent of the
population voted to annex
to
and have Hitler for our ruler.
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the
streets and had candlelight parades. The
new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were appointed, and
like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order.
Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work
was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married
Austrian women did not work outside the home.
An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support
his family. Many women in the teaching
profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been
required to give up for marriage.
Hitler Targets Education – Eliminates Religious Instruction
for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so
we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I
walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture
hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and
told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland,
Uber Alles,” and had physical education.
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory
attendance. Parents were not pleased
about the sudden change in curriculum.
They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff
letter of warning the first time. The
second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they
would be subject to jail. The first two
hours consisted of political indoctrination.
The rest of the day we had sports.
As time went along, we loved it.
Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our
parents about the wonderful time we had.
My mother was very unhappy.
When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me
in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do
that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly
any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate
it. Every once in a while, on holidays,
I went home. I would go back to my old
friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to
me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for
having a baby for Hitler. It seemed
strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great
deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic
philosophy.
Equal Rights Hits Home:
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was
established. All food was rationed and
could only be purchased using food stamps.
At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you
didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you
starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any
marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and
female, to give one year to the labor corps.
During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they
returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners
and participated in the signal corps.
After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the
front lines. When I go back to
visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because
they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was
severely injured in an air raid attack.
I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor
corps and into military service.
Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the
government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to
school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the
total care of the government. The state
raised a whole generation of children.
There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people
highly trained in child psychology. By
this time, no one talked about equal rights.
We knew we had been had.
Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government
Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the
After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the
people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived
at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time,
the hospitals were full. If you needed
elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was
poured into socialized medicine.
Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors
left
and emigrated to other countries.
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our
income. Newlyweds immediately received a
$1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the
government and college tuition was subsidized.
Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing,
and housing.
We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had
square tables. Government officials told
him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump
themselves on the corners. Then they
said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy
business with a snack bar. He couldn’t
meet all the demands. Soon, he went out
of business. If the government owned the
large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
We had consumer protection.
We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially
abolished. We had a planning agency
specially designed for farmers. The
agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what
to produce, and how to produce it.
“Mercy Killing” Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the
villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed
off with snow, causing people to be isolated.
So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15
mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual
work. I knew one, named Vincent, very
well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw
Vincent and others getting into a van. I
asked my superior where they were going.
She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach
them a trade, and to read and write. The
families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not
visit for 6 months. They were told
visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these
people died a natural, merciful death.
The villagers were not fooled. We
suspected what was happening. Those
people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.
The Final Steps - Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration.
People were getting injured by guns.
Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few)
was by matching serial numbers on guns.
Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police
station to register their firearms. Not
long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in
their guns. The authorities already knew
who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.
No more freedom of speech.
Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not
only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from
1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in
would have fought to the last breath.
Instead, we had creeping gradualism.
Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable
that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
After World War II, Russian troops occupied
. Women were raped, preteen to
elderly. The press never wrote about
this either. When the Soviets left in
1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the
process. They sawed down whole orchards
of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the
population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the
troops mobilized. Those who couldn’t,
paid the price. There is a monument in
to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is an eye witness account.
“It’s true….those of us who sailed past the Statue of
Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.
America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t
Let Freedom Slip Away
“After
, There is No Place to Go”
our common bond.
May you discover honor and peace within yourself.
Some of us need to make friends with our hair.
Some of us need to leave for appointments earlier.
keep them safe. They
are fighting for the right to
life for all people and to protect our American values
which allow us to be free people able to take care
of ourselves and each other.
Some words of wisdom from my friend Karen Owen:
“Love Many,
Trust Few, and ALWAYS Paddle Your
Own Canoe.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 ! ! !