Mimi Johnson's Essay on the 30-Year Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

In other news around the globe, today marks thirty years since the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. I remember Peter Jennings reporting it on ABC news. I was in 4th grade and had a different understanding than most American children. You see, my mother and grandmother fled a third world communist country and even at a young age, I understood the significance of this wall coming down, uniting broken families and overthrowing a systematic, oppressive government.

Next month, it’ll be thirty years since Romania gained its independence from communist dictator Ceaușescu. The people and militia rose up against 50 years of starvation, lack of water, medicine, jobs, fear for their lives, women being taken against their will by the communist police and raped, having no clothes, shoes, standing in line for bread, milk, being rationed everything and having no free choice of anything; they finally had the courage to say ENOUGH, yet after all that, I cannot believe the global sentiments.

It’s amazing to me, how quickly we forget the pain and suffering millions of people endured and how hard they fought to eradicate totalitarian regime out of their lives. Yet here we are, at the end of 2019, and there has been a massive global wave wanting to bring back this horrific and failed system of government citing “justice for all.” The apropos motto would be “justice for none.”

I wish society viewed communism in the same vein that they view other atrocities, such as slavery and the holocaust; history must not repeat itself. My friends, think hard before you champion something like this coming to our shores. I implore you to talk with people who have experienced horrific tragedies and escaped to tell the story. There are many proud immigrants in this country that are seriously frightened about their existence here in their new chosen home land. Not because they will be deported, but that their haunting history will follow them here, feeling as if they could never escape the proverbial prisons in which they lived.

The U.S. is at a major crossroads and it’s evident every single day. The communist ideology has already snuck in. I watch video after video of people being beaten and spit on for their political beliefs, or losing friendships over opinions, no tolerance for anything that is different from their wavering thoughts. We have become a society of carnivorous animals waiting to pounce on innocent, unsuspecting prey. The offense monster is terrorizing a city near you. No one is civilized anymore.

We now have natural segregation occurring, yet still complain about race relations. If a member of one race attempts to ingratiate themselves into another, there’s an uproar! How dare you! The U.S. has gone beyond being a nation of multiculturalism, more over putting everyone into groups and not assimilating to our inherent value system that makes this nation so appealing to the masses. True multiculturalism is bringing the best things from your country and melding them with others, not segregating yourselves in cities where no one unlike you is allowed.

Our freedoms are disappearing under our noses, yet no one seems to care. Instead we idolize political leaders and follow them like rats to the pied piper. Political figures aren’t deities, yet we expect them to be. This is serious and dangerous behavior and thought.

Even terms like “open-mindedness” have become an oxymoron because the caveat is that you’re only open-minded if you think “this” or “my” way. We the people are responsible for our societal demise, not politicians. The inherent truth is that we are a melting pot of religions and ideologies, however, one message that resonates loudly in most religions is to love thy neighbor and do good unto others.

Let’s get back to that original premise.

Veterans Day 2017

(Written by my FB friend, Joe Keller, and posted with his permission)

 

Even though I am a vet myself, I have always assumed the work of veterans was appreciated by all Americans who live under the flag and enjoy the freedoms the veterans put their lives on the line to protect.  While it is nice to be recognized, being a vet is simply part of being an American who loves his country.

One of the reasons it always felt good to be a vet was to see sporting events, with their massive crowds, playing the Star Spangled Banner.  Out of respect to the flag, and all of the great things our country represents, everyone would rise to the National Anthem, face the flag and place their hand over their hearts, as a singer would try to reach all the notes of that dastardly song.  Whether they hit all the notes or not, when the song ended, an uproar from the crowd would erupt.

For this veteran, that was all the appreciation I ever needed.  It was an appreciation that was a tradition, but one I never took for granted.

And then along came a puny, insignificant little man with a cause. 

I despise puny,  insignificant people with causes.

In 2011, if memory serves correct, I got an email from a friend who asked for prayers for her nephew.  He had been hit by an IED in Iraq and suffered burns over 80% of his body.  He was on his way to the States for treatment.

I prayed. 

I thought about the “life” this boy was going to have.  I know the insufferable pain he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life.  His raw nerves exposed, everything was agonizing pain.  To get washed, to feel the sheets drop against his burned skin, even a gentle breeze would bring the most excruciating of pain.  I could see years of skin grafts he would need to endure.  After years and years of pain, it might subside.  He would still have a family that loved him but any semblance of a normal life was gone. 

He had sacrificed his life without dying. 

I cried.

Moments later I turned on the television and there was a puny, insignificant woman with a cause testifying before Congress.  She came from a wealthy family and went to an extremely expensive university in Washington, D.C.  She felt that no woman in her dormitory should have to pay for birth control.  That was her cause…birth control should be free to college women.   She was applauded and praised by the media as if she was the Second Coming.

I compared the bravery of my friend’s nephew and all of those soldiers and veterans who had died, suffered and served with this pathetic, sniveling excuse of an American woman whining on TV and being made a media hero all across the country.

And, I cried for hours.

Was this what my friend’s nephew sacrificed his life for? 

Over the space of a few minutes.  I had seen the best and the bravest this country had to offer in pain and ruins, to the attention of nobody.  And, I had seen the worst this country had to offer, someone who didn’t care about anything but her cause and self-importance.  A “giver” would live a life of pain and suffering.  The “taker” would get her law degree and champion other insignificant and selfish causes like her own.  She would no doubt become even more wealthy in the process. She risked nothing.  She showed no courage.  Self-importance is not courage.  Yet, to a misguided media she was the hero.

The juxtaposition of the two at almost the same moment caused me so much pain.  I knew he would leave the family emotionally and financially drained with years of care and support.

The thought crossed my mind was this a country even worth fighting for anymore?  Would I let my own son serve this kind of country?

And then this puny and insignificant man did one of the most horrible things a person could do to a veteran.  He sat down at the National Anthem at a football game, for a cause he must think rises in importance over all our nation stands for. 

Then he kneeled. 

Thick-headed members of the media painted this blockhead as courageous and his cause more important than the country.  This man wouldn’t know courage if it slapped him in the face.  Veterans know courage.  But, with the media leading the way, other players began to follow him kneeling in complete disrespect to our country and all the veterans who ever served to keep our flag flying.  With coaches all the way down to Pop Warner football teaching children that disrespect of the flag was acceptable, disrespect was becoming institutionalized.

And, the tears began to flow again. 

As much as I have loved the game of football for the past 55 years, to ease the pain, I have had to turn the games off.  Until the players who are participating in this assault against our flag and country realize their cause has hurt more people than it will ever help, the games will remain off.  Until they understand our country and veterans are worth spending one minute a week in reverent respect, their cause won’t get one iota of attention from me and, I hope, you.

The only way to appeal to the patriotism of these misguided players, with their causes, is to turn off the game and not attend at the stadiums.  The players shouldn’t have to be told to stand at attention.  When they see the response of all those who are offended by their actions, those whom they have hurt, I believe they will know to do the right thing.  Their cause is going nowhere until they do.  The future of the NFL is at stake if they don’t.

This Veteran’s Day weekend, out of respect to all veterans, please turn off NFL games.  Please do not go to games, even if you have tickets.  You can make a significant impact in just one week.  Those tickets you hold, you can look at in the future as a collector’s item as the day when you stood up for America and made a difference.

I feel like a puny person with a cause myself, but my cause is America itself.  It is worth fighting for. 

That is why I am a vet.