O Hesperia!
One of my favorite stories from literature is the Aeneid. I am a lover of Roman history and have studied it much in my youth. The story begins in the ashes of Troy, after the Greek heroes of the Illiad had sacked it and destroyed it. A young prince, Aenaeas, of the Line of Dardanus, the royal line of Troy, predicted to survive and thrive, led the survivors on a quest. The quest was for the fabled land of Hesperia ("Land of the West").
Aenaeas led his Trojans across the sea, to many places, including Crete and Carthage, even to the Illyrian coast, where a miniature Troy was built. But the wanderers kept their eyes on the prize. They found their Hesperia- Italy, and Aenaeas' descendent Romulus founded his city-Rome and the Line of Dardanus lived on and thrived, and came to master the known world.
I think the Aeneid resonated deeply in me because I could identify with it on many levels. My grandparents' Lithuanian homeland, overrun by the Soviets, was burnt Troy, and our beloved new homeland, America, was Hesperia, the Golden Western land. My father came to America at the age of eight and loved this country deeply. He served it until his dying day.
America is a special place. It is different from the rest of the world. That doesn't mean America is perfect. It is just, by God's Grace, a place where people live in more freedom, with more prosperity and have all-around better lives than anywhere else in the world.
I lived over in Europe for a few years, back before the collapse of the USSR and Warsaw Pact. I witnessed the Solidarity demonstrations. And I longed to return to America, I was homesick. Given both my heritage and my own experiences, I came to appreciate America more than most do, I believe.
I came home to America, to the state of Massachusetts. I came home expecting my fellow Americans to love America and desire to help it for all they could. But what I saw instead was Liberals who hated America, held it in contempt and, in more than a few cases, preferred the Soviet Union to America. I am not saying all Liberals hate America, but a goodly percentage of them in Northeast undeniably do.
In reading Whittaker Chambers' book "Witness" about Communists in America in the 1920s and 30s, Chambers noted how the American Left went ga-ga when given the "honor" of meeting a Soviet Russian. I noted that and it hadn't changed by the 1980s. Oh they'd hate to meet a Texan or a Utahan, and more than likely would have treated someone from there with contempt. But a Soviet? Most Massachusetts Liberals would have fawned over one. And today they fawn over the Socialists of France and Germany. Nothing new under the Sun.
Our America, our Hesperia, was built by us as a refuge from the insanity that prevailed in Europe. This was a new place for freedom from whatever new slavery the Europeans managed to shackle themselves in.
Why then are our Liberal compatriots so eager to return to Europe's old ways? the 20th century was an education- it taught us one thing well- Socialism doesn't work. Europe and Asia are chock full of shallow mass graves of the victims of Socialism. From the crosses near the old Berlin Wall to the killing fields surrounding Phnom Penh, the blood of over a hundred million, perhaps two hundred million, innocents cries out that Socialism kills. It enslaves men, and does not make them free. It's one draw, equality, does not come about with Socialism either. The Party Elites became "more equal" than the people they "liberated."
And that is what the current culture war boils down to. Are we Americans, modern Hesperians, free in our New World, from the shackles of the Old? Or are we just going to bring the Old World, Old Europe here and make this just a carbon copy of it? I know most Liberals are loyal Americans who would drop Liberalism like a hot rock if they saw its true Socialistic nature. Of course there are many who would not. The Ward Churchills of the world are proud of their hateful sedition and revel in it. It is they who benefit from the efforts of the Liberal Activists and the Democratic Party.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. This is why we need to marshal ourselves and defeat the Left!!!!
Aenaeas led his Trojans across the sea, to many places, including Crete and Carthage, even to the Illyrian coast, where a miniature Troy was built. But the wanderers kept their eyes on the prize. They found their Hesperia- Italy, and Aenaeas' descendent Romulus founded his city-Rome and the Line of Dardanus lived on and thrived, and came to master the known world.
I think the Aeneid resonated deeply in me because I could identify with it on many levels. My grandparents' Lithuanian homeland, overrun by the Soviets, was burnt Troy, and our beloved new homeland, America, was Hesperia, the Golden Western land. My father came to America at the age of eight and loved this country deeply. He served it until his dying day.
America is a special place. It is different from the rest of the world. That doesn't mean America is perfect. It is just, by God's Grace, a place where people live in more freedom, with more prosperity and have all-around better lives than anywhere else in the world.
I lived over in Europe for a few years, back before the collapse of the USSR and Warsaw Pact. I witnessed the Solidarity demonstrations. And I longed to return to America, I was homesick. Given both my heritage and my own experiences, I came to appreciate America more than most do, I believe.
I came home to America, to the state of Massachusetts. I came home expecting my fellow Americans to love America and desire to help it for all they could. But what I saw instead was Liberals who hated America, held it in contempt and, in more than a few cases, preferred the Soviet Union to America. I am not saying all Liberals hate America, but a goodly percentage of them in Northeast undeniably do.
In reading Whittaker Chambers' book "Witness" about Communists in America in the 1920s and 30s, Chambers noted how the American Left went ga-ga when given the "honor" of meeting a Soviet Russian. I noted that and it hadn't changed by the 1980s. Oh they'd hate to meet a Texan or a Utahan, and more than likely would have treated someone from there with contempt. But a Soviet? Most Massachusetts Liberals would have fawned over one. And today they fawn over the Socialists of France and Germany. Nothing new under the Sun.
Our America, our Hesperia, was built by us as a refuge from the insanity that prevailed in Europe. This was a new place for freedom from whatever new slavery the Europeans managed to shackle themselves in.
Why then are our Liberal compatriots so eager to return to Europe's old ways? the 20th century was an education- it taught us one thing well- Socialism doesn't work. Europe and Asia are chock full of shallow mass graves of the victims of Socialism. From the crosses near the old Berlin Wall to the killing fields surrounding Phnom Penh, the blood of over a hundred million, perhaps two hundred million, innocents cries out that Socialism kills. It enslaves men, and does not make them free. It's one draw, equality, does not come about with Socialism either. The Party Elites became "more equal" than the people they "liberated."
And that is what the current culture war boils down to. Are we Americans, modern Hesperians, free in our New World, from the shackles of the Old? Or are we just going to bring the Old World, Old Europe here and make this just a carbon copy of it? I know most Liberals are loyal Americans who would drop Liberalism like a hot rock if they saw its true Socialistic nature. Of course there are many who would not. The Ward Churchills of the world are proud of their hateful sedition and revel in it. It is they who benefit from the efforts of the Liberal Activists and the Democratic Party.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. This is why we need to marshal ourselves and defeat the Left!!!!
posted by Cato Uticensis at 2:33 AM
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