My World View - Amended

This has been a memorable few weeks. It has been filled with events of deep significance for us, beginning with the Christmas holidays when we spent a lot of time together with our family.

We had a special treat the first Saturday in January. Patsy had always longed for a sleigh ride with all the kids here at the Ranch, so I connected with Kim Richins out of Coalville, and he brought a matched team of black Percherons and hitched them to his twenty-passenger sleigh for two hours of fun. It was so great! Andrew and Jessica were taking some holiday time off from the rigors of medical school, and their visit was the catalyst for getting everyone here.

Next up was three weeks of business-related travel for Packsize that took us out to the Eastern Caribbean for the annual sales meeting aboard the Carnival Freedom cruise ship. Our ports of call included San Juan in Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Thomas, Nassau in the Bahamas, then on to Germany for a week of training with the sales team in the the European Business Unit at Herford. What a cultural feast this past month has been!

The day after our return last week, Jake and Heidi were blessed with yet another miracle baby, Vivienne, who was born three months early, weighing in at 2 lb. 6 oz. at a length of 13 inches! Mother and baby are doing well. You can read all about her and their journey through the vicissitudes of infertility and anencephaly by clicking the link to their blog.

When you travel, if you are like me, you spend a few hours in various ports of call and you come away with distinct impressions that last a lifetime. This last month for me was particularly meaningful because I got to return to ground I had not seen for 46 years!

My parents came to England in 1969 to pick me up from my mission. They had not seen Europe, and thought it would be a memorable time to make that trip, even though it was winter in early February. Our itinerary included England, Holland, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal. High on their list of things to do was to visit historical sights, including museums, cathedrals, and even a night at the ballet in Paris for me and Mom. Dad wasn't interested in ballet.

My purpose in recalling that memory has everything to do with my week in Germany last week. I had a chance to return to Berlin.

When I was there in 1969, Berlin was a divided city, and Germany had been partitioned after World War II. It was divided among the Allies who defeated Hitler to assure that Germany never repeated that debacle. The Berlin Wall was the iconic symbol representing the worst features of the Cold War raging between America and the USSR. We had just come from Amsterdam and Poland where we reviewed the history of the rise and the fall of the Third Reich, and it was a chilling and sobering chapter. We rode trains from Amsterdam to Poland, where the highlights included visits to Anne Frank's home and Auschwitz. We then went to Dusseldorf and Berlin on trains.

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

My youthful mind was filled with those images and, frankly, Germany scared me. As the miles on the crowded trains flew by with my parents I wondered if we would somehow get trapped behind enemy lines and never return to America. Remember, it's 1969, and nothing's really going on in Europe except the Cold War and there's a war in far-off Vietnam nobody cares anything about. I knew as I prepared to return home I would have to go into the Army, but I wasn't nearly as concerned about that as I was about getting out of Germany that day.

The memories of that visit to Berlin in 1969 persisted into my adult life. We went through the Berlin Wall into East Germany on a two-hour visit permit. The warning posted at the checkpoint, "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR," did nothing but chill me to the bone. On the other side of the Wall, it was so disheartening to observe firsthand the effects of Communism on the buildings, the people and the cold winter scenes we witnessed. People in the streets were huddled around barrels burning whatever they could find to stay warm and scrounging for food. Our guide drove slowly and ignored the pleas for help. "If you help one, you have to help them all," he informed us. Everything was old and dilapidated. There had been little progress under Communist rule since the War had ended. The oppression, the fear and the menacing overhang of soldiers everywhere was foreboding to me. The concrete tenement buildings for the workers were drab and uninviting. Today some of those tenements have been reclaimed and updated as upscale and pricey condominiums, but you get off the main thoroughfares and our tour guide talked about "open ownership" to properties that no one has claimed and they remain as dilapidated as they were in 1969 when I was there last. I couldn't wait to get back out of there. Freedom had never been so precious to me.

Brandenburg Gate today

Fast forward to last week. We picked up a tour bus on a Saturday morning. It was almost the same time of year, once again only two weeks different than my experience in 1969. It was still winter, and Berlin that Saturday morning was very cold with light snow in the air. But this time the difference was there were no soldiers, only their ghosts and my distant memories. We breezed through the streets of the old East Berlin with ease on the tour bus. Because we took that portion of the tour first, our guide let us stop and spend time wherever we chose to do, and we enjoyed that leisurely approach very much.

There are still stretches of the old Berlin Wall left. The tour guide spoke frequently of the "GDR" days and the days since under reunification that began when the Wall finally figuratively disintegrated overnight in 1989. In evidence everywhere is the slow but steady progress that has occurred since my first visit in 1969. However, my colleague in Packsize, Jan Spiekermann, who is a German citizen, informed me last week there is still a deduction from every one of his paychecks for the rebuilding effort that will be ongoing for many years to come.

The train travel has advanced dramatically. We were speeding along in ICE trains at about 125 mph during this visit, a stark contrast to the crowded and slower trains I remembered from my youth.

Victory Column, Berlin

A total of two days in a lifetime spent in Berlin does not an expert make. Let me make that declaration here and now. But the differences in what I observed then and now cannot be denied. These are the reasons I have lamented with amazement so frequently on these pages that America would intentionally embrace socialism and a socialist POTUS in recent years when they could have had Mitt Romney. Didn't we all learn the lesson that Communism was a dismal failure? Did we need any other reminder that socialism, as practiced in Berlin and the GDR in post-World War II years produced nothing but depression and dismal economic failure? Can't we all agree that politicians espousing such economic policies should be ignored and shunned at the ballot box? God help us all that when Barack Obama's term comes to a merciful end in November, 2016, that we never sign up for a repeat of THAT ever again in America.

If you believe there is merit in socialism in the least of its shades and hues to any degree, I'd suggest you study history, then make a visit to Berlin sometime. I think you'll come away from that exercise convinced that socialism offers nothing to those who love freedom. The promise of a better life to the masses by taking from the rich is a lie. It was then, it still is today.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Today in Berlin there are reminders everywhere of the horrors of war. I thought it was no more clearly illustrated than a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Its bombed-out skeletal remains stand next to the modern rebuilt sanctuary as a reminder that war destroys. Those modern memorials also remind Germans that, after all, Hitler was an Austrian in Germany only long enough to claim citizenship that enabled him to stay there legally. He has been totally disavowed by modern-day Berliners. Our past as nations and individuals can define and advise our future in very significant ways to find a more productive and prosperous way forward if we choose it.

Holocaust museums and memorials are abundant there. Germany continues to prosper under the democracy in place there as the anchor to the European Union. These facts alone should be ample evidence, sufficient to tamp down any thoughts of returning to socialism in any way. But government solutions tend to pop up everywhere despite the lessons of history. That reality dismays me, though I can do little but comment about it. I believe, however, the power of ideas related to freedom ultimately appeal to our Father in Heaven's children wherever they live on this earth.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

Sadly, however, mankind seems almost incapable of remembering and taking a different course. Conflicts around the globe today persist. We don't call them wars these days, and the current administration in Washington seems reluctant to admit we are in a war with a radical strain of Islam. Make no mistake, however, there are still people out there who would kill Americans if they could. The enemies of freedom will persist because Satan inspires some to think they can conquer and subdue the human spirit by compelling them into bondage that takes many forms. We may not think we are at war with them, but they have no other desire than to topple America and the freedoms she stands for around the world. The ancient and ever-present war between good and evil will always be with us.

It was my children in 1989, who informed me upon returning from school one November day that "some wall in Europe came down today." I said, "You mean the Berlin Wall?" "Yeah, that's it," was their answer. I was stunned. Overnight a miracle had happened, and just that fast the end of the Cold War came without a single shot being fired. The total collapse of the Soviet empire had come to an unbelievable, swift and merciful end.

Ronald Reagan, 1987

Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II had been right to confront the evil of their day. Reagan's bold demand at the Brandenburg Gate to Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," had been miraculously fulfilled. It was shocking. Berliners on both sides of the wall took to the streets in celebration. Freedom at last!

So based upon their tortured past with major wars in nearly every century of their history, let's take a lesson from the Germans - recovering from the effects of wars takes many more years than we can imagine, and the drain on productivity and progress is almost impossible to calculate.

A quick look back to discern the path forward. . .

There comes a time when it just feels right to take a quick backward glance and remember what the future might look like. 

I stumbled over this YouTube video of Ronald Reagan spliced and edited in against today's leading liberal voices.  The contrast is certainly stunning.

Don't underestimate the power and the intelligence associated with simplicity and a shoot-from-the-hip brand of honesty that characterized Reagan and other great leaders of our time.  Yes, even Reagan was tagged with the Iran-Contra scandal during his administration, certainly tarnishing his truth-telling reputation, but despite it he had what every President yearns for -- the almost universal love and respect of his countrymen.

Reagan for me was a pillar of strength and boldness.  When his advisors strongly urged him not to name the Evil Empire and associate it with the Soviet Communists, he said the words anyway.  When they urged caution as he stood at the Berlin Wall and challenged Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall," they cringed.

When asked about it later, Reagan simply explained, "I wanted to do some things differently, like speaking the truth about [the Soviets] for a change, rather than hiding reality behind the niceties of diplomacy."  Reflecting back on that speech he thought it was one of the most important things he had ever done in his life.  He followed his instincts.  He answered the urgings of his heart and soul.  He had a profound belief grounded in the faith he had in liberty and freedom.  He wanted to support "those fighting for freedom and against communism wherever we found them."

Before he gave what later came to be known as the "Evil Empire Speech," Reagan went to England and delivered perhaps the most energy-charged speech reaffirming the quest for freedom we have ever heard.  When he concluded the chamber erupted in sustained applause and a standing ovation for several minutes.  As he stood before a joint session of Parliament, he said these immortal words still ringing in my ears down through the years.  The words should supercharge our thinking today:

"During the dark days of the Second World War, when this island was incandescent with courage, Winston Churchill exclaimed about Britain's adversaries, 'What kind of a people do they think we are?'  Well, Britain's adversaries found out what extraordinary people the British are.

"But all the democracies (of that time) paid a terrible price for allowing the dictators to underestimate us.  We dare not make that mistake again.

"So let us ask ourselves, 'What kind of people do we think we are?' And let us answer, 'Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.' " 

The world was Reagan's constituency.  Some thought he would surely incite World War III with his passionate rhetoric.  However, combining forces with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and enlisting the moral support and suasion of Pope John Paul II, they ended the cold war together without a shot ever being fired.  Like George W. Bush years later of whom it was said he was "misunderestimated," Reagan had the rare quality that so endeared him to everyone -- common sense truths spoken from the heart.  Like the ancient Apostle Paul, Ronald Reagan knew and believed the truth could set everyone free.  (John 8:32).

His audience for the "Evil Empire Speech" was the annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983.  It was an instant classic, though it was panned and ridiculed throughout liberal quarters worldwide.  The Communists hated it, the liberals criticized it, and most Americans loved it for its courage and forthright declarations of what we all hold dearest.  He quoted C. S. Lewis:

"It was C. S. Lewis who, in his unforgettable Screwtape Letters, wrote:  'The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint.  It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps.  In those we see its final result.  But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. . .'

"Some would have us accept [the Soviets] at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses.  But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.  It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.

"So I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority.  You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the church.  So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride -- the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

"I ask you to resist the attempts of those who would have you withhold your support for our efforts, this administration's efforts, to keep America strong and free while we negotiate real and verifiable reductions in the world's nuclear arsenals and one day, with God's help, their total elimination.

"While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might.  The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith."

Reagan, ah sweet, sweet Reagan.  His words are like pure water to the thirsting soul today.  He mastered simple words with clear meanings.  He was totally honest in his expressions of what was in his heart.  He was trustworthy, as the Soviets eventually learned over time during his administration.  Soviet General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, became one of his greatest admirers, and had a front row seat at his funeral services, seated beside Margaret Thatcher.  What a remarkable journey those three leaders took together, aided by the moral compass of the Pope.  It was a golden age for freedom's gains.

Now, we are threatened yet again, but not by foreign powers this time.  Instead, our nation is threatened by the swift advance, not of armies upon our lands and cities, but by the enemy from within.  The speed with which it has happened, this invasion of our wealth as a nation and the ensuing diminished freedoms we have sacrificed individually to our shameful national debt, has been largely self-inflicted.  Osama bin Laden could not have done it better.  We are faced now with tough choices.

Anatoly Shcharansky was a Russian dissident incarcerated in Permanent Labor Camp 35 in the Ural Mountains when Ronald Reagan became President.  Shcharansky had a bad habit in Soviet Russia.  Like his counterpart, Andrei Sakharov, they simply couldn't stop telling the truth.  Reagan, when he began his series of bold speeches against the evils of totalitarianism and Communism inspired and gave hope to the prisoners of the Soviet regime.  They found their hope in Reagan, hope to survive, to live to fight another day for not only their lives, but for the freedom of their homeland.

Ronald Reagan loved the truth.  He thought truth was the only sure foundation upon which a society could be built.  Truth, he believed, would endure forever.  Lies would die.  For too long he thought lies had been told in the political world, and he saw them as a cancer that could only be eradicated in the naked light of the sunshine of truth.  For Reagan, the world was a very black and white proposition.  Forget nuances, he would have none of it. 

Peggy Noonan said, "He wanted to put words into the air that were honest and have them take the place of other words that were not."  Such a simple idea.  She used to write his speeches.  She knows whereof she speaks.

Shcharansky later changed his name to Natan Sharansky and moved to Israel.  He spoke of his time in the Soviet gulag prison:  "We would overhear guards, we would overhear radio attacks on Reagan, we would hear that Reagan was attacked in Pravda. . .  I think the most important step in the cold war and the defeat of the Soviet empire was his words and his actions at the beginning of his presidency."

Later after his release, urged and pressured upon the Soviets by the Reagan administration, Sharansky was invited to the White House to meet President Reagan.  "President Reagan understood the nature of a totalitarian regime.  He believed freedom is something that belongs to all the people, and if you encourage it and support it you can win.  He had very healthy instincts about it.  He was a fresh change after Nixon's attempts at detente and Carter, who talked well but couldn't link practical policy to his talk.  When it came to action there was nothing -- and then came Reagan, and Star Wars -- Star Wars was a way of talking to the Soviet Union!  And he linked the fate of dissidents to the policy of the United States of America."

Reagan simply refused to lie for expediency.  Nine months after Reagan left the White House for the last time, the Berlin Wall crashed almost overnight.  But it is wrong to say it "fell."  It was pushed.

You can fast forward thirty years to today now.  Substitute and update our foreign enemies as you will -- they certainly do exist -- but be forewarned.  Our domestic enemies are just as real today.  I have said before, and I say it again, the political pendulum swings to and fro, this way and that, left and right.  It will swing again this November.  In the aftermath of this flirtacious dance we have been doing for the last eighteen months with escalating entitlement programs and mounting unsustainable debt, do not lose faith in America's ability to surmount its challenges and right itself again.

All that's needed is a little truth telling and a handful of transformative and courageous leaders who will act on that truth.