In 1949, Great Britain was still suffering from the terrible effects of World War II.\u00a0\u00a0The damage done by seven years of constant bombings from the Germans was still evident. \u00a0\u00a0The economic effort of waging a seven-year war of survival now required repayment.\u00a0\u00a0And the loss of the \u201cjewels of the British Commonwealth\u201d; India, Pakistan and South Africa; were just beginning to be felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Mom was British, and married an American during the War.\u00a0 \u00a0She came to the United States on a \u201cLiberty Ship\u201d in January of 1946, landing in a foot of snow in Portland, Maine.\u00a0\u00a0She then met my father in New York City, and they travelled together to his home in Cincinnati, where they would truly begin their married life.\u00a0\u00a0Mom\u2019s parents came over for a long term visit in 1949, to meet their new grand-daughter.\u00a0\u00a0Still, food was rationed in Great Britain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The family story goes that Mom, Dad and my sister drove to New York in a small car to pick them up from the ship. They then drove back across the Pennsylvania Turnpike with my grandmother straddling the \u201cstick shift\u201d in the front seat. \u00a0Dad bought a bushel of apples along the way, something that my grandparents hadn\u2019t been able to eat for close to a decade.\u00a0\u00a0They ate the whole bushel on the two-day journey home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile the world was poised on the edge of a new abyss, the possibility of nuclear war so damaging that civilization might not survive.\u00a0\u00a0 After winning the \u201cWar to End All Wars\u201d, World War I; then facing totalitarianism in a larger struggle two decades later in World War II; now an even greater threat arose, the Cold War.\u00a0\u00a0It was in this environment in 1949 that George Orwell wrote his seminal fiction novel about totalitarianism, set in the near future.\u00a0\u00a0It was titled\u00a01984.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the novel, three nations, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, all totalitarian dictatorships, battled each other for world domination.\u00a0\u00a0Orwell\u2019s story is set in Great Britain, part of Oceania.\u00a0\u00a0To control the population, Oceania\u2019s government had a \u201cMinistry of Truth\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The Ministry constantly fed the people propaganda, systematically designed to keep the population both supportive and passive.\u00a0\u00a0No opposition is allowed, and those that oppose face exile, imprisonment, and becoming an \u201cunperson\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Their lives are literally stricken from the records. They never existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oceania was constantly shifting alliances between Eurasia and Eastasia, with today\u2019s ally becoming tomorrow\u2019s mortal enemy.\u00a0 \u00a0When the alliances changed, the Ministry of Truth rewrote history so that Oceania was always aligned with the new partner, and always hated what, up until the week before, was a \u201clife-long\u201d friend.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We young political science majors all read\u00a01984\u00a0<\/strong>in the 1970\u2019s, carefully comparing Orwell\u2019s scenarios to the very real Soviet Union.\u00a0\u00a0 And as we approached the actual year, 1984, we gave a sigh of relief that his dystopian future hadn\u2019t arrived. We sighed too soon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the past three years, the United States has stood firmly beside the nation of Ukraine as it battled against Russian invasion.\u00a0 \u00a0We all held our breath as the seventeen mile line of Russian battle tanks, artillery and troop carriers came down the highway from the Russian border to attack Kyiv.\u00a0\u00a0And we all marveled, first at the tremendous courage of the Ukrainians, and also at the gross incompetence of the Russian Generals. They were picked off and killed by homing in on their private cell phone signals.\u00a0\u00a0The Russian fell back, the Ukrainians moved forward.\u00a0\u00a0Millions of mines were sowed into the earth between the lines of the two forces, and a World War I style trench warfare battle dragged on over the next years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most amazing thing of all was the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.\u00a0\u00a0 He went from a comedy star on Ukrainian television, playing the role of President, to election for the actual job.\u00a0\u00a0And he \u201cgrew\u201d into the new role as a Ukrainian, and ultimately, a world leader.\u00a0\u00a0President Biden, NATO, and Europe all lined up behind the brave Ukrainian people against the Russian incursion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battle grew old and ugly. Here\u2019s the Butcher\u2019s Bill today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here in the United States, our \u201cMinistry of Truth\u201d (the White House) is busy trying to rewrite history.\u00a0 \u00a0This week, President Trump told us that the clear Russian invasion of Ukraine, was started by Ukraine, not Russia.\u00a0\u00a0And that the elected President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, was an illegitimate leader, who stole the Presidency.\u00a0\u00a0We are in negotiations with the Russians led by a kleptocratic Putin, without even including Ukraine in the conversation.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Trump has told Ukraine, you better accept what we offer, or we\u2019ll cut you off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eurasia is our enemy. \u00a0\u00a0Eastasia is our friend.\u00a0\u00a0It has always been that way.\u00a0\u00a0And if you dare to question this (and are a Republican), Elon Musk will spend millions to make you an \u201cun-person\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pennsylvania Avenue \u201cMinistry of Truth\u201d is also busy telling us that the United States spent $50 million for condoms in Gaza (a lie) . That Social Security paid benefits for folks that are 150 years old (also not true).\u00a0\u00a0We now believe that tens of thousands of Federal workers are simply un-necessary.\u00a0 Millions of migrants are criminals. Round them up and deport them. Billionaires know what\u2019s best for us. They can’t be corrupt because they\u2019re so rich.\u00a0\u00a0And the biggest lie of all:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI alone can fix this\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOur Friend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Our Foe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Un-Persons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n