I think the year was 1988, still early in my engineering career, I was called to Herb, the engineering managers, office. Getting prompted to project lead was the reason for the meeting, but what I remember most about it, was Herb, now in his late 50s, telling me about his life. He was a Jew, born in Germany in around 1930. But his father saw the writing on the wall and decided to move his family to England when Herb and his brother were both young boys. He said they left behind their extended family and friends, who they never saw again, they were likely victims of the atrocity that was WWII. He told me about the struggle to learn a new language and of being an outsider, he wasn’t exactly thrill with his father’s decision at that time. It took some time before he could appreciate and understand what his father did. The writing on the wall was obvious, but his dad was one of the rare people to acknowledge what it said and to have the courage to act on his convictions. To that Herb owed his life.

Herb was the only person I’d ever met who lived in the Nazi version of a totalitarian society. But it is not so rare to meet people who lived or had exposure to the other totalitarian society, the Soviet Union.

I worked in the cubicle next to Mikhail for almost 10 years. He was born in Moscow around 1940 and lived in the USSR for the first half of his life. He preferred to be called Michael and was a hard working immigrant, still working past well into his 70s. One morning back around 2018, he was holding a newspaper in his hand and a disgusted look on his face. He told me, “Bob when I was in Russia, we had the Pravda, the newspapers here are now no better than the Pravda was”.

Around that time, blogger John Michael Greer, wrote that when he studied Russian in school, they often translated actual articles from the Pravda. He noted the same thing about the news media here, it was becoming very similar to the Pravda.

Earlier this year while I was collecting signatures for the Kennedy campaign while walking on a rail trail, I ran into a retired couple who had lived in Poland under the USSR. We talked for 20 minutes and they told me about how similar the actions we are seeing from our government and the media were to what they saw under the USSR. I never got their signatures, as they would not sign because Kennedy was at one time a Democrat.

As I look around I see things that I think might have been what Herb’s dad was sensing. Like him, what seems so obvious to me seems to be lost on so many others. But I’m starting to run into more people who are waking up. Then in September, a group of intelligent public figures with great integrity and heart put together the RESCUE THE REPUBLIC rally in DC. They see it too! I donated to the cause and Joined the millions who watched it streaming live or on replay.

The rally lasted most of the day and featured a variety of great speakers, comedians and musicians. Among the many talks, one of the few remaining Journalists who actually deserves that title was Matt Taibbi, a US citizen, who lived for a few years in the USSR as a young adult. He had experienced the USSR, so doesn’t take for granted what had made the USA a great place to live. He spoke against the creeping totalitarianism and censorship that he has been reporting on.

The writing is on the wall, if the country continues in the direction we are heading, we will all be living a totalitarian nightmare like the people did in Nazi Germany or the USSR that will likely last for decades.

I couldn’t live with myself if I don’t speak out with whatever reach that I have.

Please watch the rally at:

Home

After you listen to the final speech of the event by Walter Kirn you’ll want to listen to Pete Seeger sing this:

You’ll also want to watch Plandemic: The Musical, a great short movie about the great awakening we are having and the power of love to bring us together and reclaim our freedom!