A Letter To The Editor:
“There is little difference between socialism and communism. Both control resources without private enterprise. In both, government has the first and last say on everything.” — Barack Obama
From 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall’s concrete barrier physically and ideologically separated West Berlin from communist East Berlin. The wall formed part of the Iron Curtain that divided the communist Soviet Union from Western Europe during the Cold War.
On Nov. 9, 1989, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the wall separating West Germany and East Germany fell. The next few years saw the collapse of several communist regimes in Europe, Central America and Africa.
On Dec. 25, 1991, with the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union was dissolved. The incoming Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, banned the Communist Party and communism soon ended in many other nations.
Unfortunately, this evil ideology and system responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million in the 20th century still exists in several miserable states, but the world at large rejoiced at its downfall and is thankful for the answer to its prayers.
Yet, by the looks of it, communism is trying to make a comeback. In the 2016 presidential campaign, “Democratic socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders won about a half-a-million more votes among those under age 30 than the two major-party presidential nominees combined (Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton).
Remember, socialism is socialism, whether it is Democratic or not. Hitler’s Nazis came to power on a socialist platform via the ballot box. The reason we see dictators rise to the surface in strong socialist and communist nations is that it takes this type of individual to impose and enforce such a thieving system on the people.
In 2018, two members of the Democratic Socialists of America (the largest socialist organization in the country) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and Rashida Tlaib (MI) — won prominent and powerful seats in the United States Congress. And just last month, another member of the DSA, Jamaal Bowman of New York, became a congressman.
The following list of “Communist Goals” was taken from the book, “The Naked Communist,” written by former FBI agent W. Cleon Skousen and published in 1958. The list was read into the Congressional record by A. S. Herlong Jr., Democratic representative from the 4th Congressional District in Florida on Jan. 10, 1963.
Read carefully to note if any these goals have been realized or are close to being achieved.
• Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
• Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
• Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under communist attack.
• Infiltrate the press.
• Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.
• Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. (An American communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.")
• Eliminate all laws of obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
• Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
• Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
• Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
• Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
• Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
• Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
• Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture."
• Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
• Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
• Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
• Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.
The only way the socialists and the communists can change the United States of America to a system that is so foreign to the nature of man is if they first destroy the moral ground upon which she has stood for centuries and cause us to forget our heritage and blessings from God.
So far, they have been very successful. Nikita Khrushchev, who served as the premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, said, "We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can feed them small doses of socialism, until they awake to find they have true communism."
All around us, we see things rapidly changing for the worse. We hear politicians saying that they want to “fundamentally transform America.” And if some of them get their way, they will change America, and we will never, ever recover. The only One that can help us now is the God of the Bible, and by going to the polls and electing public servants that uphold the Judeo-Christian values that this country was founded upon.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
— Rev. Robert J. Hawkins Jr.
Cleveland