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On Omelets, Eggs, and Statistics

Today is the First of May, which is celebrated by Communists world-wide as a day to celebrate workers and all that Communism brings them. Parades in Moscow’s Red Square, where all of the rhetoric of a peaceful people’s revolution is on display, still happen even 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Please forgive me if I don’t partake. In fact, just pass me by with the opportunity to celebrate that particular cause.

My stance on Communism, Socialism, or whatever you want to call ‘What’s yours is mine, and how dare you object to that?” comes from multiple sources.

It comes from a woman I knew growing up who escaped East Berlin a day or two before the wall went up, but her husband didn’t.

It comes from holding a friend while she cried her eyes out after her cousins were murdered in Tiananmin Square.

It comes from a Ukrainian woman who taught me Russian, whose earliest memory is of hunger and death during the Holodomor.

It comes from my Russian instructor from Moscow who remembers his father being dragged out of their apartment one cold night, and never coming back.

It comes from seeing the monuments to the people killed by Stalin’s purges sprinkled liberally across Russia.

It comes from seeing multipile countries on multiple continents where the exported terror of Communist or Socialist causes brought death, and in some cases, worse than death, to millions of people through war, famine, and a brutality that cannot be imagined unless you’ve seen its aftermath.

It comes from camps, and trains, and basement prisons, and statues to genocidal dictators, and tee shirts emblazoned with the ugly mug of a homophobic mass murderer, and to lonely graves in cold, dark forests filled with the ashes and bodies of enemies of the people.

So, spare me your platitudes about a better, kinder future through common effort and common reward. Go wave your red banner somewhere else. I’ll be here remembering the dark past of your bright future.

Today’s Earworm

Today’s Earworm

Picture of the Day

Seen on the interstate just south of Louisville

Shoutout to all of the drivers in South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri today

Picture of the Day

Made a side trip while we were trying to slip south of interstates that were still closed due to deep and blowing snow.

Musings

  • As we drove across the Midwest the other night, we hit a pretty ugly thunderstorm. I switched over to AM radio to see if I could find a weather station. I knew things were bad when the clearest station I could find was nothing but a woman praying the Hail Mary over and over again.
    • It must have worked, because we made it through OK.
  • You know the “Balkan Cafe” you’re having lunch at is authentic when the older gentlemen sitting at one of the couches are wearing Adidas running suits, white tee shirts, gold chains, and enjoying a Fanta with their coffee.
  • On the south side of the Iowa-Minnesota border, there were spots of snow in shaded areas, but otherwise, it was spring. Everything north of the line was under a foot of snow, demonstrating that the Good Lord loves Minnesota, but has a general dislike of Minnesotans.
  • We settled in with family in North Dakota just in time for 6 to 8 inches of powdery snow with high winds to set in. I take this as a sign that I need to stay here for an extra day or two. Maybe I’ll look at real estate. You never know how long it will take for the snow to melt, dontcha know?
  • Irish Woman is not impressed. She’s back in Kentucky digging in the garden while I shovel snow up here.

Today’s Earworm

Going home for a few days. Driving into thunderstorms on the way there, will stay through a blizzard, then drive home when the roads reopen.

Musings

  • The Young Prince and I got home last night from a mission trip to Appalachia. About half the boys in his class spent a couple of days helping out with cleanup and rebuilding at a home that was damaged in recent flooding.
  • The area we went to is an old coal-mining area. My memories of rural Russia and parts of Latin America kept jumping up as we drove around.
  • For Boo and his classmates, we may as well have been driving around on Mars.
  • Most of these kids are significantly higher on the socio-economic ladder than the folks we met, and I think they got quite a bit out of it.
    • A couple of them, on the other hand, wouldn’t know humility if it wore a “Hi, my name is: “ name tag.
  • I’ve worked with small explosives, been shot at, and been on multiple aircraft who decided to see what was going on 3,000 feet lower in about 2 seconds, and I’ve never been more nervous than the first time I watched these boys use a circular saw.
  • Day one was all new and fun. Day two was sore muscles and ‘let’s get this done!’
  • It helped that a group of girls from their grade had gone on the same trip a few weeks before, so they had a goal to get more accomplished than the ladies.
  • In 3 days, we went through all 4 seasons. It was chilly and rainy on Wednesday, warm and sunny on Thursday, and pouring down rain on Friday. The trees were even changing colors.
    • The boys seemed to roll with it, although a couple had to be reminded that they were not made of sugar and would not melt.
  • Thursday evening, we went to a bluegrass music performance. The look on these young men’s faces was comical when we walked in.
    • Apparently, mandolin and banjo were not on their list of previous experiences.
    • Over time, they got into it and a few went to the dance floor to join the crowd.
    • A few of them even danced with females.
  • The ministry we worked with provided very nice facilities for us to stay at. I had my own small room, which was worth its weight in gold because it was far enough away from the boys that I couldn’t hear them for a few minutes.
  • It only took 3 times of me asking the nice lady running the dining facility if she needed any help and being being told, nicely, no, for me to get the hint. It was then that I remembered that I was in Appalachia, not Louisville, and that was her kitchen.
    • I may be assuming a bit here, but I seemed to be more than welcome to partake of her fare, and to even make a pot of coffee using her pre-measured coffee portions, but she was emphatically in charge of cooking and cleaning.
    • I knew I was going to be working with a matriarchal system, but I forgot it was that kind of matriarchy.

Today’s Earworm

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