Lessons From the World War II Museum

 The Beloved Spouse™ and I extended our trip to New Orleans for the Bouchercon readers’ conference by a couple of days to complete our tour of the World War II Museum. We went a few years ago when The Sole Heir was living in NOLA but, as advertised, you can’t do much more than scratch the surface of this museum in one day.

 

I’ll not go into everything we learned and enjoyed. The web site gives a good idea, but you really need to go if you’re interested in the war. What I will talk about today is the twenty-minute multi-media presentation we saw in the Freedom Theater.

 

From the web site description:

The Priddy Family Foundation Freedom Theater … offers audiences a multimedia experience focused on what was at stake during World War II and the meaning of Allied victory. The production… highlights how freedom almost vanished from the world in the 1930s and 1940s, efforts to protect and promote freedom during and after World War II, and how each generation has a responsibility to defend democracy, protect freedom, and advance human rights.

 

They should take this show on the road. Everyone needs to see it.

 

For those who wonder how what happened in the 1930s and 1940s relates to us – and there are apparently a goodly number who do – the parallels are striking. Events in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy so closely resemble so much of what is taking place here and now that I felt uneasy through that part of the presentation. Examples include:

·       Referring to people who were not members of the ruling demographic as ‘sub-human.’ (Nazis: Jews. MAGA: immigrants.)

·       Blaming all the nation’s ills on those people.

·       Policies based on demonstrably false statements that became more outrageous as time went on.

·       Denouncing anyone who dared point out these lies as ‘enemies of the people’; or ‘enemies of the state.’

·       Violations of the rule of law to consolidate power in an ever-tightening cadre of officials.

·       Claiming a leader with dictatorial powers is what the people want.

I could go on, but you already stopped reading if you don’t get the picture yet,.

 

Our fathers and grandfathers fought and died to prevent such an ideology from taking over the world. It sickens me to see how many of their descendants are not only accepting such an ethos, but welcome it. We stand at a precipice where, in the words of John Stuart Mill, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” Or, as Eldridge Cleaver said more recently, “There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem.”

 

The time has passed for thoughts and prayers. Chicago showed what can be done when the federal government, undone by a coup from within, overreaches. The irony of who must stand up to a repressive government hellbent on destroying our rights having been reversed 180 degrees from common conservative dogma cannot be met with mere acknowledgement. Action is required.

 

Different people will be called to do different things based on their abilities. Some are not physically able to march or demonstrate; others may not be able to subject themselves to possible arrest or tear gassing. Still more can’t afford to send money. That’s understood. Only about ten percent of an army faces the enemy. Everyone else is support, and yours is desperately needed.

 

Letters and phone calls are effective when sent in sufficient numbers. A hundred thousand emails and phone calls should be more productive than a single petition with 100,000 signatures.

 

There is no guarantee of victory. There is a guarantee of defeat if we stand by and let someone else take care of this for us. With a few exceptions, the Democratic Party has proven unable to meet the current challenge in any effective manner; we must pick up their slack. You’re either for the America we were taught we lived in, or you’re against it.