Tim,

I wonder if a parade on Red Square would get Obama going? Tanks rolling, troops goose stepping, anti-capitalist missiles going by?  

As a ten year old living in West Germany when the Berlin wall was built I remember the horrific influence the communist regime in East Germany had on all.  And it had nothing to do with supposedly superior education or dandy health care.  It was the most intense time of my life.

I vividly remember hearing the anxiety in fearful voices of otherwise strong adults and seeing the genuine concern in their eyes. West German nationals and others living there at the time were confident that the communists would follow-up on their public statements to expand communism. An attack on West Germany was a serious possibility and real preparations were being made to counter such an offensive.  The US military was on constant alert continuosly shuffling convoys of tanks, artillery and soldiers to different strategic areas.  Nuclear war was expected and prepared for.  Nuclear fall-out shelters were being constructed at record pace and civil defense drills were being carried out weekly.

Those living in West Germany were witnessing the horrors played out daily on those wishing to escape East Germany.  Many Germans living in Eastern Germany suffered unimaginable repression from the communist system resulting in more than 2 .6 million East Germans escaping to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 until 1961 when the Berlin wall was completed. Those that escaped brought their personal stories of brutality and horror with them.  Even the most rational person considered an invasion of West Germany to be imminent if for no other reason than to silence those outraged by the treatment of their fellow Gemans in communist East Germany. 

After the wall was constructed, the East Germans not fortunate enough to have escaped before the wall was finished suffered even more than previously. The East Germans were no longer able to obtain even the simplest of things such as seamless panty hose or toilet paper.  With the border sealed, healthcare was non-existant.  Education consisted of communist propaganda. Meanwhile, West Germans had now lived for decades in constant escalating fear of their communist controlled neighbor.

For any journalist or media personality to portray communism in any other fashion is to dishonor the memory of the millions that have been brutally murdered by agents of the communist state and those that continue to live in fear of being imprisoned, tortured and/or murdered by their communist government. 

Any attempt by the media to depict true communism as anything less than the wholesale dehumanizion of mankind is a lie perpetuated by those that could not possibly have had to endure the daily threat and fear that communism inflicts on the world.  If they had they would know better than to endorse communism. To promote communism as anything remotely beneficial is to endorse and consent to the ongoing suffering of millions of innocent people.   

Communism is dumb.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy

“For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. The literacy rate is 96 percent.”
— Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20, October 11, 2002.

That's right DaveS, Barbara was totally taken out of context..  the entire context was: 

"There are those closet commies among us in the States who would have you believe the lie that, For Castro, freedom starts with education, and those same people go even further in saying that the education system in Cuba is so good that if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth.. and then they acutally try to make us believe that the literacy rate is 96 percent.  We all know that is very unlikely." 

Yeah, she must really hate being taken out of context.