“It’s still the same old story, a fight for love and glory. A case of do or die”
There’s a memory I’d like to share with you –
While on vacation in 2000, I toured the Musée Jean Moulin located in the Montparnasse district of Paris. It is the national French resistance museum dedicated to honoring Jean Moulin and the other brave freedom fighters of World War II. While wandering through the rooms, I asked one of the security guards a question about an exhibit using my remedial French. It essentially boiled down to, "How was Hitler able to invade France?" He looked flustered, and in French told me he didn't understand me. Embarrassed, I tried again. After several unsuccessful exchanges, I gave up and moved to the next room.
I was in the museum that day to try better understand how the war and ensuing invasion of France really happened.
What I learned in high school history class was-
Germany was devastated after World War I, and the German Workers Party (the precursor to the Nazi party) elected a young Austrian who said he would "Make Germany Great Again."
"But,” he said. "The Jews are the problem."
So he segregated them, and marched them off to concentration camps. Europe didn’t speak up because it was just the Jews, and it wasn't happening to them.
Then he invaded Poland. This made Britain nervous, so Neville Chamberlain got Adolph Hitler's word that the German dictator would invade no further. It was easier than standing up to Hitler, and after all it wasn't happening to them.
Momentum took hold, and then the despot invaded Belgium, Holland, Russia, and bombed the Catalan nation in Spain.
France didn’t take action, it wasn't yet happening to them. And then one horrible day it was. Young French men were being deported to Germany, so they fled to the hills and formed the 'Maquis'-- a network of over 250 freedom fighting organizations.
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and then it was happening to the United States.
But let me get back to my trip to the Musée Jean Moulin-
Standing in the next room few minutes after I had spoken to the guard, a British citizen and fellow museum goer approached me.
"Your French is just fine," he said. "The guard is embarrassed to tell you the truth. Too many citizens were willing to look the other way until it was too late."
I got the message on that day in the museum. It's important, especially now as we head into the election, not to look the other way. Most democracies are destroyed by the targeting of specific groups- with total disregard for, and the intended decimation of their human rights.
We have symbols from our past, like the museum or an epic film like Casablanca, to remind us to enoble all that is decent about standing up for what is right. As we we go to the polls tomorrow to vote, remember, "The world will always welcome lovers, as time goes by."
Vote Your Heart
Vote your heart...