In that same year [1949], the Communists sentenced my father's father to ten years hard labor for having a small American flag in his possession (by that time he had been a leader of the social democrats for some years). At his "trial" he was asked why he had the flag. Was he a spy? He replied that it represented freedom better than any other symbol he knew, and that he had a right to have it.
Schramm's parents fled to the U.S. when the Red Army crushed the 1956 Hungarian revolt. Schramm is a professor of political science at Ashland University and executive director of the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs.
Mark Peters on political history, in the St. Jerome parish bulletin.
We took this country through genocide, grew it through slavery and war, and maintain the status quo in part through class warfare and racism. Far from being exemplars of democracy, we have overthrown legitimately elected foreign governments, supported horrible dictators when it suited us (including Saddam Hussein), and failed to even try to stop genocides in other countries when we had the chance because we judged them to be of no strategic importance to our self-interest.
Peters is a parish consultant for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and founder of Catholics for Peace and Justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment