Monday, August 14, 2017

The Rally In The Valley With The Clue That Is True


TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME 
Kander and Ebb - CABERET

The sun on the meadow is summery warm

The stag in the forest runs free

But gathered together to greet the storm 

Tomorrow belongs to me

The branch on the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me


Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says the whisper, arise, arise
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me

Now Fatherland, Fatherland, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come 
When the world is mine


Tomorrow belongs...
Tomorrow belongs...

Tomorrow belongs to me


Not sure? Watch the whole thing:


After this past weekend, I cannot get this song out of my head. It's replaying like a theme song from a monster movie. Oh, the lyrics sound harmless, innocent enough, but so did the language of burgeoning Nazi Germany. Yes, this is from a musical written well after the war. Still, it captures the essence of the beginning. 

Here's a series worth reading, from the Museum of Family History
[Copied, quirks and all, from the website]

From Ilse Gerngrofs of Leipzig, Germany
A series of letters written in
June and December 1933, July 1934 and May1936
to Bessie Faine, Stratford, New Zealand.
From a letter dated Leipzig, Dau 28 Dazamber 33:
Now I will answer you last questions. You want to hear of the political events in Germany. 
Adolf Hitler is the Chancellor of the Reich and the leader of National-Socialism. He has been nominated to the place of Chancellor by Reichsprasident v. Hindenburg … He is supported by the confidence and love of the whole German people. He never abused his power to persecute communists, democrats or Jews. I think, finally the other countries will understand it and will not publish such lies as: The Jews are crucified in Germany …. And those who have gone abroad and say they must fly, if they wouldn't be killed in Germany; those are, as our Chancellor said, thieves and ?trundlers, who knew that they did better to fly away before justice reached them. 
We have not very much Jews in Germany, only 2%. But they ruled over all. They had the banks, they were judges, they owned and did the theatres, the newspapers, no important place in Germany, where you didn't find Jews. Dear Bessie, if you understand, what a great difference is between German and a Jew, you can understand too, that we could not bear this Jews-regime any longer. The average Jew is in his feelings and in his estimation of everything a contrast to the average German. And a mixing of Jew and German is very dangerous therefore, because the children of them are heirs of both the qualities.
No Jew is hindered to remain in Germany, to have his business etc. here; but Jews are drawn back to the part in every position; which corresponds to their number in population. I think, that is a sound defence of a people against " Ubenfreunding", that's: been overflowed by a foreign people and drawn back from places where no foreigners settle. ... not in the meaning of persecution. It's only a spiritual defence, which has visible consequences, of course. [Some numbers: in Berlin in a hospital there were 60% [procent] Jewish medicins, in Berlin there were 75 or 80% Jewish solicitors, 40% of all Berlin medicines were Jews, but only 9.3% of all German inhabitants are Jews! ] You see that's no proportion. 
I really liked how Ilse signed her last letter, the one dated May 5th, 1936:
With best wishes and a friendly Heil Hitler, I am yours Ilse.
The really funny part? Ilse did not know her "Dear Bessie" was a Jew. 

Okay, not that funny.

The all-inclusive hate fest, Unite the Right,  that was held in Charlottesville left no one out. Blacks, immigrants, members of the LGBT community, Muslims, and Jews were all called out by the protesters...and I supposed it's twisted badge-of-honor that Jews took center stage on the posters. Armed with tiki-torches poles, posters, and weapons, these marchers made sure everyone who wasn't their kinda white was in their crosshairs. Oddly, the Daily Stormer, in their list of what not to bring to Charlottesville, included guns, knives, and anything else that could be considered a weapon. (The link to The Daily Stormer's article, Charlottesville: Why You Must Attend and What to Bring and Not to Bring, has been taken down...but not before I read it this morning.) That notice had little impact with the marchers.


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

You see, there were militias marching in Charlottesville. Not the National Guard or a state militia, but private armies, armed to the teeth with automatic weaponry. These guys are marching down the middle of the street and all I can think of is that it only takes one nervous guy discharging a weapon in the crowd.......

But instead of a weapon, a guy drove his car into a crowd in a crosswalk. 


The overall impact of Charlottesville has yet to be calculated. There were rallies held all over this country on Sunday to protest the events in Charlottesville. People gathered, not knowing quite what to do other than to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as a sign We, the People are stronger than hate.

I was at the rally in Apple Valley. There was a decent number gathered to light candles and talk about what happened and how we alter the trajectory. It was not a political event, but a few politicians were in attendance. Not, of course, our invisible Congressclown Jason Lewis who routinely hides from his constituents, but no one was talking politics. We were talking about fears and the new reality. Since the inhabitor of the Oval Putting Green could not be bothered to name the organizers of the event in his "condemnation" of their action, the overall sense was that We, the People, do so in his absence. His own party's condemnation of his condemnation was welcomed by all Americans as recognition that something major had happened and this president had, by his silence, been complicit in this approval, not disapproval of action at Charlottesville.

Some pundit said the great orange troll's refusal to call out the Alt.Right specifically was a dog whistle to those people that this is really okay. David Duke, that man-about-Klan, was real specific about White House. Before the UNITE THE RIGHT event, Duke stated,

This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back, we're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump, and that's what we believed in, that's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back and that's what we gotta do,"
After the lukewarm condemnation of "all sides" by the guy on the green, Duke tweeted,
 Make no mistake about Duke's message. However in or out of favor he is with Alt.Right,  the former head of the KKK makes very clear the expectations of that cadre. 

If you're still sitting around thinking this won't go anywhere and nothing will happen, fine. But that's what Germans did in 1932. 1933. 1934. Until it was too late.

Not everyone agrees with that particular position. 
At the Rally in the Valley with the clue that is true.  (photo - the WP)

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
You are not powerless if you are not silent. 
If not now, when?

3 comments:

  1. It's a scary time in America and in the world.Time to go to Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm fairly certain Jared and Ivanka forced their mentally ill father into finally naming names since they are in the crosshairs of the white nationalists due to their Jewish faith. He obviously sympathizes with white nationalists so I'm curious how he rectifies that with them. Does he think that since they're Trumps they'll be left out of their hatred? Or would he throw Jared under the bus and make Ivanka renounce her adopted faith?

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  3. That little racist twerp from Charlottesville DOES look like the Aryan heroine in the movie. Thanks for a little history about the Fatherland dreams of our home-grown Nazis.

    ReplyDelete