Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why have we failed to teach America's kids about the horrors of communism?
Fox News ^ | 09/27/2012 | Paul Kengor, Grove City College

Posted on 09/28/2012 9:43:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

“What do you think of this?” So began a phone call from Todd Starnes of FoxNews Radio. Starnes called me for a comment on a shocking story: A band at a high school near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania performed a halftime show titled, “St. Petersburg 1917,” a musical commemoration of the Bolshevik Revolution, replete with hammers and sickles, military uniforms, and red flags.

“No way,” I responded. “Are you sure this wasn’t a joke, a parody?”

It wasn’t. And parents of the students aren’t laughing.

The superintendent of the school genuinely pleaded innocence. “It’s a representation of the time period in history, called ‘St. Petersburg 1917,’” she said. “I am truly sorry that somebody took the performance in that manner. I am.” She continued: “If anything is being celebrated it’s the music…. I’m just very sorry that it wasn’t looked at as just a history lesson.”

Well, as a history lesson, I give it a giant, red “F.”

To be fair to the superintendent, she sincerely doesn’t seem to understand what’s so bad about this incident, and why it’s in bad taste. In fact, therein is the basic problem: We have failed to teach the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution specifically and of communism generally.

Those horrors include over 100 million corpses generated by communist governments, starting with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917—that is, “St. Petersburg 1917.” For perspective, 100 million is twice the combined deaths of World War I and II, the two deadliest conflicts in history. Even then, 100 million dead, which is the estimate provided by the seminal Harvard University Press work, "The Black of Book of Communism," is a conservative figure. The latest research claims that Mao Tse-Tung was responsible for the deaths of at least 70 million in China,

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: communism; newoxford; pahighschool; schools; socialism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last
To: SeekAndFind

Communism has its tentacles tightly wrapped around the MSM, our educational system, court system, choice of immigrants and the dhimmocrap party.

All very important sections in our society.

While the GOP has its head stuck deep in the sand and is more interested in projecting itself as the respectable and upright party.


21 posted on 09/28/2012 10:25:17 AM PDT by 353FMG (The US Constitution is only as effective as those who enforce it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

While in high school in 1975 I picked up at the local bookstore a paperback copy of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. From that time until now I have never been less than 100% committed anti-Communist. If there was one text to choose from to explain the tyranny that is the Communist state to American students this is the one I would choose.


22 posted on 09/28/2012 10:29:22 AM PDT by februus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I heard the tales of Nazi Germany first hand from my German mother. Many of her generation are gone or going fast. There’s no one left to explain what happened.
One thing she said recently is that your neighbor will be the one to fear. When push comes to shove and it’s a matter of whether you’re inside or out, they will chose the path of least resistance.


23 posted on 09/28/2012 10:31:11 AM PDT by griswold3 (Big Government does not tolerate rivals.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

In my day, the schools were too busy teaching us about the evils of McCarthyism.


24 posted on 09/28/2012 10:34:52 AM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“Why have we failed to teach America’s kids about the horrors of communism?”

Because the teachers who are teaching the children are communists.


25 posted on 09/28/2012 10:35:21 AM PDT by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (I wanna start a Seniors' Motor Scooter Gang. Wanna join?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

he nation has not failed to teach kids about communism. It has succeeded in not teaching kids about communism. There is a difference.


26 posted on 09/28/2012 10:35:49 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

I’ve heard a lot about Nazis, but less about the beliefs of Fascism. It doesn’t seem like much has been written about it since WWII compared to the volumes written about Hitler. So, I don’t think fascism is dead by any means since most people don’t know how to identify it. When I was in grade school it was required that we watch Animal Farm and sit through holocaust studies, including a viewing of the films of the concentration camps that were made when US soldiers arrived. It all made a lasting impression on me, plus some nightmares that I still get sometimes. Nobody ever told me about it until then and I’m still astonished that people are capable of such cold blooded cruelty and heartlessness when they aspire to be gods over the rest of humanity.


27 posted on 09/28/2012 10:43:00 AM PDT by virgil
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: opentalk; All
We must teach our children and their children to look behind the words and to examine policies and actions. So-called "progressives" (whose ideas are truly regressive and oppressive) have been, and are, adept at using semantics to cloak their collectivist/socialist/communistic ideas, knowing that through their termite-like activities in the schools, they have conditioned minds who may not recognize "approaching tyranny."

This President is a master of such misleading semantic maneuvers, coupling that skill with an engaging smile and a folksy, sometimes preacher-like delivery, knowing that those who came before him have prepared a gullible audience, especially Partisan audiences, even among college and university graduates.

The following piece could help Americans to evaluate policies, proposals, and legislation:

"1. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, individual freedom and creativity?

"2. Does this legislation or idea increase, or decrease, the power of some citizens over other citizens?

"3. Does this legislation or idea recognize that the persons who will exercise the power are themselves imperfect human beings?

"4. Does this legislation or idea recognize that government is incapable of creating wealth?

"5. Does this legislation or idea authorize taking from some what belongs to them, and giving it to others to whom it does not belong?
If 'thou shalt not steal' is a valid commandment, can we assume that it is meant to apply only to individuals and not to government (which is made up of individuals), even if those persons in power pass laws which sanction such redistribution of the wealth of others?'

"6. Does this legislation or idea encourage, or discourage, the very highest level of morality and responsibility from the individual?
. . .when government makes actions 'legal' by some citizens at the expense of other citizens, the result may be behavior which would not be considered possible by individuals acting alone.

"7. Does this legislation or idea propose that the 'government' do something which the individual cannot do without committing a crime?"**

**7 principles drawn from James R. Evans book, "America's Choice: Twilight's Last Gleaming or Dawn's Early Light?" and reprinted in a Stedman Corporation (Asheboro, NC) booklet entitled "I'm Only One, What Can I Do?"

28 posted on 09/28/2012 10:44:37 AM PDT by loveliberty2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: virgil

Fascism looks a lot like government running GM indirectly to tell the truth


29 posted on 09/28/2012 10:44:49 AM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"Why have we failed to teach America's kids about the horrors of communism?"

Many of the young commie radicals from the 60's who spent their college days occupying or burning down admin offices organized a drive to infiltrate public education with radical leftist teachers to promote socialism and denigrate capitalism. They did a good job.

Meanwhile, we who fought it all the way trying to keep education focused on truth and traditional American values were ignored.

Goddamn the NEA.

30 posted on 09/28/2012 10:45:39 AM PDT by Zman516
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Let’s get this clear. The teachers are part of Teacher’s Unions. There is no middle ground when public employees can organize against the people and dictate policy. Teaching philosophy and curriculum can and will indoctrinate our children and make Nikita Khrushchev’s threat, “Your Children Will Bury You” a reality.

This is a wake up moment for the people and this election will determine our children’s future. There won’t be a second chance.


31 posted on 09/28/2012 10:48:29 AM PDT by Steamburg (The contents of your wallet is the only language Politicians understand.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PetroniusMaximus

with my own kids in public high schools, it seems to me the standard line in public schools is that Communism is “just another school of thought or way to organize society” along with all the others.

If there were millions dead in the USSR or China, it was because Stalin and Mao were bad guys.

Not good


32 posted on 09/28/2012 10:56:19 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Cause we naively thought it was dead and over with after the USSR Going Out of Business Sale.


33 posted on 09/28/2012 10:56:41 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Cause we naively thought it was dead and over with after the USSR Going Out of Business Sale.


34 posted on 09/28/2012 10:57:55 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"Why have we failed to teach America's kids about the horrors of communism?"

Because most Americans with incomes high enough to support appearances of wealth get those incomes from government debt/revenues in some way or other and are trying to keep other subgroups from moving in on their "piece of the pie." One political party is moving toward communism more in federal government, and the other, in local government.

IMO, sadly, we're past the point of seeing any large conservative constituency on any side for some years to come. Maybe after the debt process has run its whole course,...


35 posted on 09/28/2012 10:59:42 AM PDT by familyop ("Wanna cigarette? You're never too young to start." --Deacon, "Waterworld")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; opentalk; All
See my post above. Opentalk mentions O'Reilly's remark.

Such a remark reflects a remarkable lack of objective study, awareness, and depth of understanding of the well-documented strategies of the worldwide movement which may have changed its language and face, but not its goals and intentions.

As a parent, one would hope that a supposed opinion leader like himself might, in the interest of his own grandchildren's future, use his research resources and abilities to expose the players and their strategies, and help to turn back the certain tide of the movement which threatens the future of their liberty, and that of millions throughout the world.

What a waste of talent is he does not!

36 posted on 09/28/2012 11:00:12 AM PDT by loveliberty2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The public schools are too busy teaching about the joys of communism!!


37 posted on 09/28/2012 11:04:48 AM PDT by dalereed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: griswold3

I agree, thankfully the neighbors on both sides of me are older HMong that came in the first wave asylum seekers, I believe that they will be an early warning system. If I see them packing up I will follow suit.


38 posted on 09/28/2012 11:28:25 AM PDT by Docbarleypop
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
We have failed to teach the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution specifically and of communism generally.

Who is this "we" you speak of?

The union-controlled, government-run education system has failed in this and many other ways.

Why would the communists running the education system want to teach anything bad about communism?

Paging David Horowitz! David Horowitz, please pick up a white courtesy phone. (He wrote the flippin' book on the left and communism in education... Radical Son)

39 posted on 09/28/2012 11:34:35 AM PDT by TChris ("Hello", the politician lied.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

You’re right. That’s me ;and I was born right after WWII


40 posted on 09/28/2012 11:36:08 AM PDT by ncpatriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson