It happened at Harvard

Happy Saturday morning, I wonder how astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are enjoying their morning coffee on the Space Station while they watched their space capsule headed (limped) home empty. I hope that the thrill of being in space stays with them as they wait till February before the next ‘train’ comes to the station.

I’ll raise my mug of coffee to Boeing, a company which for years was both ‘Sunny’ and ‘Butch’. Hard to envision that for a single decade starting in the mid-sixties Boeing launched work on the space shuttle, the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and the first “Queen of the Skies”, the Boeing 747, was put into service. This is a serious question, what has happened to Boeing?

Herdenking – (Remembrance in English) This coming week it’ll be the start of the 80-years celebrations since The Netherlands regained their freedom from the NAZI occupation. A celebration to move beyond those occupation years and all the horror it brought. The little guy in the kid’s wagon and waving a Dutch flag, was me with my dad celebrating. We were by our home.

We housed a Canadian flyer for a little over a week. He’d been shot down and the fighting between our place and the Allies line made it best for him to stay put. Once the troops broke through, he reported back for duty and brought my parents gifts, nylons for my mom, toothbrushes for us, a Jerry can of gas and battery for my dad’s car (a whole story how he managed to hang on to it), soap, and some fruit (maybe some from Operation Market Garden?).

A World Split Apart – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn‘s 1978 Harvard commencement address was controversial (it was scorned) and now in 2024 we (all of the ‘enlightened’ western world) better pay some serious attention for Solzhenitsyn was spot on. Here are five quotations from that speech:

1) “Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death. “

2) “Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism; radicalism had to surrender to socialism; and socialism could never resist communism.”

2) “In our Eastern countries, communism has suffered a complete ideological defeat; it is zero and less than zero. But Western intellectuals still look at it with interest and with empathy.”

4) “Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”

5) “All the glorified technological achievements of Progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the 20th century’s moral poverty which no one could imagine even as late as in the 19th Century.”

Harvard laughed, mocked and ridiculed his speech. As if they knew better than Solzhenitsyn.

So Dirk, you ask; “why dig up this ancient trope today? What import does any of it contain for this day and age?”

Here are 4-reasons I picked from many, each from a different part of today’s ‘enlightened’ and ‘free’ world:

1) France – Pavel Durov, the billionaire CEO of Telegram (much like a secure Twitter or ‘X’), was arrested last Saturday evening at Le Bourget Airport near Paris and his private jet held. Reason? Failing to moderate illegal content – i.e. allowing dissenting speech on the Telegram platform (the first thing the NAZI’s did in the 1930s was to stifle dissenting speech). Saturday August 31, 2024

2) Northern Ireland – August 2024, Enoch Burke (a former teacher of the year) was jailed for refusing to kowtow to the current transgender movement by continuing to teach that all mammals, humans included, only carry male and female DNA. i.e. Shutting of both Free Speech and religious belief is that not what we accuse China of? Think of the 12 million enslaved Uyghurs rounded up in Xinjiang province.

Brazil – September 2, 2024 Brazil’s Superior Court upheld a ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform X – effectively shutting out more than 200 million people from using the app. Musk is also being fined $$millions. Additionally, Brazilians will receive a daily fine of almost $10,000 for using any out of country VPN to continue to be able to access apps as ‘X’ and Rumble. Musk’s Starlink has also been banned. The reason is to silence that new government’s push into Socialism and Communism i.e. North Korea ring any bells?

3) USA – August 2024 Former Congresswoman, presidential candidate, and Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard, Tulsi Gabbard discovered she is on a super-secret dark TSA Terror Watch List labeled “Quiet Skies”. Her crime? As a lifelong Democrat she spoke out to the very undemocratic (no vote was cast) selection of candidate Harris, and opposition to involvement in ongoing wars. This eventually ended up with her switching party affiliation. Is this not the kind of stuff we accuse Russia of doing?

Now go back to that Harvard Graduation speech of 1978 by Solzhenitsyn and see how we have ‘progressed’ in these 4 short decades. Pretty sobering, isn’t it?

Is the downward slope towards the abyss getting steeper by the day?

Pedestrian Safety – Has become a city talking point. Especially since a large city bus killed an 87-year-old lady crossing while with the light and in a crosswalk. So, here we go again, quick fix the problem in a manner that doesn’t begin to address the root cause.

Face it, we are an auto-centric nation, and our city is no different. Whatever ‘fix’ is implemented cannot in any way, form, or shape impede automobile traffic. The latest here is we’re spending hundreds of thousands installing ‘speed-cushions’ on various roadways.

Meanwhile, as a walker, I walk along sidewalks which on occasion will just end – willie-nilly. But I do have options, I can walk through people’s yards, or optionally, continue walking on a city street (pssst, that’s where I can compete with automobiles for space)

Lastly – This week’s Ramblings will have some confirm that, yes, Dirk is a curmudgeon. Maybe so, but veridically, when I hear stuff put forth in the media, often by politicians, senior sycophants, or paid off scientists (i.e. Fauci), I stop to just have a hearty laugh (OK, maybe more than one laugh). Hence, could it be that I am actually an optimist, a dreamer?

This week I had the privilege of manning the phone lines as part of WMKV 89.3fm radio fund drive (thanks Cathy ) and had a great time.

Offer prayers for Thelma’s family as they deal with her passing. Her journey here, 99 years, was a blessing to all .

Also, George was busily at work this week trying to catch up to me – age wise.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

After 9-11 we couldn’t allow security at airports to be managed by, and accountable to. each airport authority – NO – we needed a new all-inclusive federally managed agency, the TSA. Which is the ONE correct name for TSA in the following list.

1) “Too Stupid for Arby’s”
2) “Tear Suitcase Apart”
3) “Take Scissors Away”
4) “Thousands Standing Around”
5) “Transportation Security Agency”
6) “They Steal Anything”
7) “Total Sexual Assault”
8) “Three Stooges Audition”
9) “Tactics to Suppress Accountability”