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JDinTX's avatar

Thank you for this, I think. The unnecessary horror that hate and power can cause. Not only to humans but to animals and the earth. No wonder that Ike made the survivors around the concentration camps take a look at what had been done in their name. And as he said, get all the photographs, the evidence because somewhere down the road of history, some fool will say that this never happened. He is spinning in his grave that the republicans are doing a repeat.

Side note. During civil war era, I had two extended family cousins who were murdered by vigilantes because they didn’t enlist with the confederates. Opposition or even non-compliance was not tolerated.

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TCinLA's avatar

Yes indeed, despite all the "Lost Cause" BS, it's important to note that a majority of southern men did not serve in the traitor army, and that over 150,000 served in the Union Army. It took every state except South Carolina more than one vote - with several having to resort to voter suppression - to pass their Articles of Secession, due to the strong oposition.

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JDinTX's avatar

I was surprised, I never heard it discussed growing up. Genealogy reveals much

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PaulaOH's avatar

Never heard that data before.

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Alec Ferguson's avatar

On the other hand, 1 May 1991 is my sobriety date. My liver had been swollen for fifteen years that I know of. It was time–the 100th anniversary of the original Labor Day. I read my first LFAA and your comment 22 May 2022. Love your work. Grateful I’m sober.

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TCinLA's avatar

Congratulations Alec!

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samani's avatar

Your true birthday now. Congratulations Alec.

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Dave Conant - MO's avatar

Congratulations Alec.

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Purobi Phillips's avatar

Great read. I have to read it again thus evening. Traveling from Novi Pazar to Nis. In 2025, May 1st, it is a other disappointing day in the obituary section.

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Diane Love (St Petersburg FL)'s avatar

Great account of what was happening to the true believers when their loss was evident Tom. It’s something I’ve never really thought deeply about.

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Stephanie H's avatar

I was in Berlin, Germany, a few days ago. I spent some time reading the stories of those killed by the Nazis. One was so much like Abrego Garcia it took my breath away, and another was a younger version of the 10 year old with cancer. I shed more than a few tears in my anger and rage.

I also visited the Potsdam area and the Wannsee Conference site. The outlines of the "final solution" to the Jewish and later Romani and Sinti ethnic groups were decided here, and the meeting "minutes" were translated into English. (What a banal word to describe what was decided there.) There were also some of the propaganda pamphlets and state pronouncements. Revulsion and a deep burning anger welled up within me. What made it burn even more was the realization that with only a few minor tweaks the current administration could put them out and their base would lap it up. I fear for humanity.

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Randall D Ainslie's avatar

Wow. Thanks again. I never understood that detail. It seems like a holiday we should celebrate.

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Dave Conant - MO's avatar

Really well done; excerpt or work in progress?

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TCinLA's avatar

excerpt from an article written a few years back.

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Dave Conant - MO's avatar

Thanks.

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Judith Matlock's avatar

This is the best account I've read of Hitler's final act, one probably influenced by Mussolini's ignominious death. Makes me speculate about final acts in the lives of Putin, Modi, Kim, et. al. Will Trump depart hanging from a MAL chandelier by his red tie with his hair coiffed and shellacked and face made up like a geisha, or will it be an inauspicious, feeble wave goodbye as he succumbs to boils and clogged arteries? Will these bad tyrants die alone? Will they be discovered by others, as were Eva and Adolf, others whose accounts will be critical to history? Endings are important, and backing your "camera" away to take in the smells, exhaustion, and the epic smoldering of life in the overrun city was as dramatic as the findings at the crime scene.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

Is history going to repeat itself in America?

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Ron McKenzie's avatar

So it seems, Gloria.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

😢

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PaulaOH's avatar

Hard to read. Thank God democracy won. Oh please, let us not have to fight such a war again.

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Dawn Erickson's avatar

Lots of information here I have never heard before. Thanks TC.

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Victoria Brown's avatar

Thank you Tom!

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