Never again?…

It could happen here

I just watched a one-hour film produced and narrated by the travel guru Rick Steves: “The Story of Fascism in Europe”. To quote Steves, “while chillingly engaging and thrilling to watch — also has a practical purpose: to help us learn from Europe's experience and to show how, even today, would-be autocrats follow the same playbook in their attempts to derail democracies. It's a case study in how fear and angry nationalism can be channeled into evil, and how our freedoms and democracies are not indestructible…in fact, they are fragile.”

Although the show first aired in 2018 on PBS, it is as current today as it was six years ago, especially in today’s political atmosphere. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is using the same playbook that Adolph Hitler used to overthrow a fragile German democracy after World War I and the Great Depression. It is important that we don’t forget what happened then and also recognize what is happening here, now.

The memory of those dark times is as important today, more than it ever was because we have to recognize the specter of fascism that is rising in Donald Trump’s campaign. We mustn't forget the people who lived through the fascist nightmare with the destruction of Europe, the Holocaust and the Allied victory. They are like flickering candles keeping the memory of that horror alive today. We must not forget, because the rise of fascism took Germany and Italy by surprise — and it could take any nation by surprise today if conditions line up in the same way.

Take an hour out of your day to view the film and reflect on what it could mean to our democracy if Donald Trump and his jackals win and fascism takes hold in America. And then vote!

Man, that was some serious shit. So, on a lighter note: