Voyage of the Damned

I ruminated on Facebook, the other day, about the great tragedy of sending all those children from Central America, who had illegally crossed into America over our border with Mexico, back to their homelands. How sad for all those kids. I just thought America should be greater than that and I invoked the engraved words on the statue of liberty (from a poem by Emma Lazarus): “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
by Charlie Leck

A Facebook friend responded and asked me if I remembered “the boat full of Jewish children during the 2nd World War?” I didn’t remember. Unsettled, I looked at a couple of sources to find out what she was talking about.

Ah ha!
A children’s book, “So Near, and Yet So Far; Klara’s Voyage,” tells the story of the journey of a luxurious German ocean-liner in 1939 that was loaded with hundreds of Jewish refugees. The ship’s destination was Havana. It left from Hamburg on 13 May 1939 with 938 passengers on board. It expected to drop anchor in Havana and to unload its passengers who would then begin to carve out new lives for themselves – far, far away from Adolph Hitler. At the time, however, it seemed that Jews were the most unwanted race on the face of the earth. The ship and its passengers were turned away from Cuba. Was this to be seen as a justification of Hitler’s extermination policies? The passengers ranged from countesses, medical doctors, academics, entertainers and the rudimentary and ordinary types of European Jews – along with many, many children.

Gustav Schroeder captained the S.S. St. Louis. He appears to have been a man of integrity and great conscience. He tried everything to convince the Cuban government’s leader to allow the passengers shelter and safety in Cuban. He couldn’t do it. He sailed with his passengers up the coast of the United States and began conversation with U.S. State Department officials about bringing his Jewish passengers to someplace in America. He initiated the same conversations with the Canadian Ministry of Citizenship.

In the little children’s book, eight year old Klara stands beside her father as the ship passes near Miami. Klara sees the grand city with her own eyes. With a sigh, her father says to her: “So near, and yet so far away!”

Most Jews in Germany had seen the handwriting-on-the-wall as early as Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), a night of prolonged and frightening violence against Jewish property in Berlin. The voyage of the S.S. St. Louis was only one of many attempts to move Jews out of Germany and into safer conditions. But, even on the day that the big ship pulled out of the harbor at Hamburg, the owners of the S.S. St. Louis knew their passengers might have a difficult time finding someplace to go ashore. Cuba was struggling with the great depression and was still not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. The nation certainly could not allow more competition for the few scarce jobs that there were. A large anti-Semitic demonstration took place in Havana on 8 May, just five days before the St. Louis sailed. The gathering drew more than 40,000 spectators. Many thousands more listened to the rally on the state-run radio.

Upon the ship’s arrival in Cuba, 28 passengers were allowed admittance to Cuba (22 were Jews who had valid U.S. visas). No others (908 passengers) were not allowed to leave the ship. Stories about the ship and its homeless refugees ran in newspaper all around the United States. On 2 June, the Cuban government ordered the ship out of its waters. The St. Louis sailed toward Miami and the eastern coast of the United States. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was contacted by several Americans who were sympathetic or connected with passengers on the ship. None of them received a response from the president.

America had strict immigration quotas. Those for German-Austrian citizens was quickly filled at the very beginning of the year.The nation was still experiencing the ravages of the depression and it had very little room for sentiment and kindnesses. Roosevelt could have intervened and he could have generated a special, executive order, but he did not. Robert Wagner (Senator from the state of New York) introduced a bill to raise the limit by another 20,000, but the legislation failed to pass.

Failing to get Canadian support, the big ship turned back toward Europe. Before arriving in Germany, the ship’s captain received word that England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands had agreed to divide the passengers among their nations.

In 1976, the story of the sailing of the S.S. St. Louis, was produced as a movie (Voyage of the Damned) starring Faye Dunaway and Max von Sydow.

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Suffer the Little Children!

Sarah (pain-in-the-butt) Palin wants to impeach the President of the United States because Central American children are being pushed across the border into the United States. The woman has once again engaged her mouth without using her brain.
by Charlie Leck

Sarah Palin is one of the least tuned-in people in America. I’m trying not to tell you she’s ignorant (because she’s probably not); however, this woman learns only what she wants to learn.

For instance, the former Governor of Alaska is blaming President Obama because child-smugglers are bringing small children from Central America across the southwest border and dropping them off in a land where there is some hope that these kids might survive and thrive. One has to assume that these are desperate acts by desperate parents who have no way to support their children.

What Palin doesn’t get is that the President is breaking no laws (which is a significant standard for impeachment). One of the final laws that President George W. Bush signed was the “William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.” The law gives wide ranging protections to children entering the U.S. alone and who are not from Mexico or Canada by guarding against sending them back too quickly to their nation of origin. The children, by this law, are granted the right of counsel and advocacy and they are to be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services. That agency is directed to put the children “in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child” and then to look into the possibility of reuniting the children and their families.

A whopping 50,000+ children have been gathered up at the border since October 2013. As Diane Feinstein has pointed out, the President has the power to act and the law instructs him what to do. The problem, of course, is that there is not enough money to carry out the instructions of the law. The President is seeking those additional funds.

Now, granted, this is a complicated issue and it is not one that any reasonable person would expect Sarah Palin to understand. Nor, I expect, is she likely interested in understanding it. Palin never engages her brain before rattling off with her mouth. The entire American public understands that of her.

Republicans want the President to strengthen the border so that such crossings can’t occur. The President and Democrats want that, too, but they want the Congress to authorize the funds to enable this to happen.

“Use the National Guard,” many Republicans counter.

In fact, it would be extraordinarily expensive to use the Guard and it would be an inappropriate usage as well. It would be less expensive to provide the proper number of border guards for the job at hand.

Loud mouth Palin has shot herself in the foot again – as she has so many, many times. Is it any wonder that John McCain stood no chance to be elected to the White House?

Oh yes, by the way…
I came across this interesting sign posted on Facebook today…

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Find out about Rhonda Sivarajah for the Sixth District

It’s not the easiest lastname in the world to deal with, but it might be somewhat memorable if she can win the August 12 primary over Tom Emmer.
by Charlie Leck

We can wildly hope that conservatives in the Sixth Congressional District want a real conservative and not a right-wing-nut-job; for Rhonda Sivarajah sounds like a stable, solid conservative who is ready to give Republicans some leadership and not just negative opposition.

An August 12th primary in the Sixth Congressional District will test whether Ms. Sivarajah or any sane Republican can get the nod from GOP voters in that district.

I’m a Democrat. I would not pretend otherwise, but I hope Republicans will give this woman a bit of consideration. She sounds like a reasonable and hard-working person to me. I wish her nothing but the best of luck.

And you folks over in the Sixth, prove to me you are reasonable and rational and that you want good government.

I heard from people who back Ms. Sivarajah following my blog about Tom Emmer. You want to know something? They were kind, reasonable, cogent and properly concerned citizens. It proves to me that the Sixth can rise above Michele Bachmann.

Keep your chin up, over there, Ms. Sivarajah, because Tom Emmer has a history of imploding and self-destructing and he just might do it again. If you have any debates with him, meet his rudeness and anger with good cheer and politeness. It’s something he doesn’t understand!

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My Impression of Tom Emmer as Candidate for Congress

For a short time, Tom Emmer served as a city councilman here in the town in which I live. I attended a number of meetings of the City Council during that time and I have a clear memory of Tom Emmer being a bully. I shared that sentiment a number of times with my wife and friends here in the community.
by Charlie Leck

Whenever anyone stood up to speak against a proposal that Mr. Emmer favored – or for a proposal that he did not favor – he would virtually shout that person down with very ill-mannered comments and behavior. I remember, once, having to stand up and ask Councilman Emmer not to be so rude to people who wished to speak because it tended to frighten community residents and it discouraged them from speaking when we should be doing quite the opposite. Mr. Emmer glowered and smirked at me.

Now Mr. Emmer is running for election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Oh, my! I am saddened by this because I do not think he has the manners and/or the patterns of behavior that are generally expected of one who serves in such a distinguished position.

I chatted with a lawyer who has been looking into Tom Emmer’s behavior in a number of matters. Here’s what he told me…

“Tom Emmer’s history of questionable behavior in our community and in the neighboring town where he now lives bears serious inquiry before sending him to Washington. His suitability for elective office has to be measured by his conduct, not just by his self-professed conservative credentials. Emmer arranged for expensive landscaping at his home by Tony Poppler, a local small businessman. When it was time to pay, Emmer refused and defended the lawsuit Poppler was forced to bring by claiming that Mrs. Emmer had signed the contract for the Emmer home improvements so he had no personal liability.  There are rumors of other local businesses that have unpaid obligations due from Emmer, although folks are reluctant to discuss specifics, leaving so many of us in the region shaking our heads in disbelief. Emmer’s criminal record includes charges of careless driving and driving while intoxicated. Of less serious nature, but perhaps an indication of an ‘above the law’ attitude are a number of more recent speeding and serial parking violations. Emmer deflects any questioning about his run-ins with the law by referring to them as mistakes in the system and not in his behavior. I’m no saint, but I know lots of qualified candidates for esteemed positions whose conscience is deservedly clear about their business dealings and who are not so familiar with law enforcement.”

This fellow is correct about Mr. Emmer’s strange attitudes and I hope the public takes a close look at this guy’s every day behavior before deciding to vote for him.

I’m not a resident or a voter in the district in which Mr. Emmer is running. I’m just down the road from it, however, and I’m familiar with many people there who know Tom Emmer and have deeply-felt worries about him being their congressional representative. The vast majority of folks, however, have not gotten to know Mr. Emmer and they will learn of him only through a campaign that will try to glamorize him and cover up his boorish and bullying behavior.

Tom Emmer was not a good state legislator. He was not a good city councilman and he will not be a good legislator on the national level. He is not a reasonable man who is willing to think things through thoroughly before giving his opinion about those matters. He has placed himself out there on the far right and that is where he intends to stay. Tom Emmer is not just a conservative, but he is a radical conservative with a closed mind. The people of the 6th district should reject him.

By the way, I have here, on my desk, a couple of the court documents related to the suit the above lawyer refers to in the case of Tony Poppler vs Tom Emmer.

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World War Two – 73 years ago!

Seventy-three years ago the insane leader of Germany sent armed forced into the Soviet Union in an attempt to take over that immense nation (or union of nations). It was a strategic mistake that would enable the world to conquer the Nazi maniac.
by Charlie Leck

In 1941, before I was a year old, German armed forces (das Wehrmacht) invaded Soviet Russia. The attack was awesome and carefully planned. The Germans captured large divisions of the Russian army. Many of those men were held as severe casualties and most would die before the end of that year. Nearly 3 million men died in captivity. The invasion that began on June 22 was called Operation Barbarossa. Hitler threw nearly 4 million soldiers against the USSR. The front was near 2,900 kilometers long. Are you grasping this?

It is amazing that this action in 1941 was to end up being one of the deciding factors of the Second World War. In fact, it probably decided the victor of this war. Get this: 95 percent of all German Army casualties that occurred between 1941 and 1944 occurred in this invasion.

Can you imagine what might have happened had Hitler left the Soviet Union alone and concentrated exclusively on conquering traditional Europe? There are many war historians who say America and Britain would have had no chance against the massive German forces that Hitler lost in Russia (and we would likely have gotten little assistance from Russian in such a war).

I read a history of Operation Barbarossa written from a German historian’s point of view. Remarkable! Hitler’s mistake is regarded as one of the most obvious and determinative errors in the history of modern warfare.

I think of this event in relation to my own history – my age at the time and where my life might have gone had Hitler achieved his idiotic and frightening goals.

No military operation in the history of the world, in terms of the size of the forces and the number of casualties, was larger than Operation Barbarossa. How Hitlerian!

I remain amazed that this extraordinary war, which finally ended in 1945, was decided in 1941.

German forces took nearly 3 million Soviet prisoners of war. They had no idea about how to contain, shelter and feed them. Certainly, the protections stipulated by the Geneva Conventions were not afforded these prisoners. Far more than half of them never returned to their homeland alive. Hitler’s forces purposefully starved most of these prisoners according to an arrangement that he called his “hunger Plan.”

Hitler had suggested as early as 1925, in Mein Kampf, that such an invasion would occur. The Germans, after all, need Lebensraum (living space or living room).

Who of us knows what incredible successes Hitler would have attained had he not attacked Moscow – had he left the eastern front alone! Nor do we know how different the world might be today had Germany been the victor in that war.

73 years ago! Oh, my!

How did Hitler happen?
A political party of crazed radicals far from the center on the political spectrum
became enamored with Adolf Hitler and allowed him to rise to power and then gave him free rein. When they realized how radical and how crazed was this leader, it was far too late to remove him from power.

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Right and Wrong over Left and Right

Bill Moyers – the venerable and brilliant, Bill Moyers – wrote this week about how we need legislators to vote for right over wrong and to forget about right and left. How terribly true!
by Charlie Leck

The Senate tried to put together some sort of bill in the last week or so to help students reduce educational debt. It would have required the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes. The Senate managed to come up with 56 votes to pass the bill over to the House, but, as you know, 60 votes are needed in the stupid Senate these days to avoid the filibuster. (Democracy is broken and the good old Republic isn’t working well these days).

Passing this bill would have been a very compassionate act on the part of the Senate and it would have asked for very little of those of us who can afford it.

Well, I thought you’d like to know the names of the 37 Senators who actually voted against the bill. Think about these rascals when you go to support your Senator next time.

Lamar Alexander (TN)
Saxby Chambliss (GA)
John Cornyn (TX)
Michael Crapo (ID)
Michael Enzi (WY)
Charles Grassley (IA)
Orrin Hatch (UT)
James Inhofe (OK)
John McCain (AZ)
Mitch McConnell (KY)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Jefferson Sessions (AL)
Richard Shelby (AL)
Roy Blunt (MO)
John Boozman (AR)
Richard Burr (NC)
Jeff Flake (AZ)
John Isakson (GA)
Mark Kirk (IL)
Robert Portman (OH)
Patrick Toomey (PA)
David Vitter (LA)
Roger Wicker (MS)
John Thune (SD)
Thomas Coburn (OK)
Daniel Coats (IN)
Dean Heller (NV)
John Barrasso (WY)
Mike Johanns (NE)
James Risch (IN)
Marco Rubio (FL)
Rand Paul (KY)
John Hoeven (ND)
Mike Lee (UT)
Ron Johnson (WS)
Deb Fischer (NE)
Ted Cruz (TX)

Three Republican Senators did stand with the Democrats and they deserve praise for their courage. To them it was a matter of doing the right thing and not considering the left or the right in the Senate. Thanks to Susan Collins of Maine, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Harry Reid’s no vote was just a procedural thing. His place on the dissenting side allows him to bring the issue up for future votes.

You can read Moyers column about this vote at http://billmoyers.com/2014/06/17/the-37-senators-who-voted-for-millionaires-over-students/

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Dick Cheney’s Big Trap

Dick Cheney has always troubled me. There is something about the man that is deeply troubling. He cannot, I think, recognize reality. He was wildly wrong about going to war in Iraq and he is crazy wrong now about how we should handle it. I have always been suspicious that personal economic concerns motivate him.
by Charlie Leck

“His whole legacy is wrapped in wrong!”
[Charles Blow, writing about Dick Cheney in the New York Times]

Dick Cheney is saying terrible things about the President of the United States. When one watches him talk, in his television appearances, he strikes one as a man with an agenda. He seems almost always to spread venom. You almost expect nasty profanity to come from him. I find him the most insincere politician in America. I have a hard time having any faith at all in his patriotism and good will. When he speaks for the Republican Party he piles more and more manure upon the good party’s reputation and standing.

He should have no place in the current debate about what is to be done in Iraq. He disqualified himself by and through the decisions he made when he was Vice President. Dick Cheney was the lead salesman in pushing the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) concept. In order to close the sale, he was willing to lie. It is that lie then that disqualifies him now! The WMD lie cost America dearly – trillions of dollars and thousands and thousands of deaths and injuries to good and loyal soldiers.

Dick Cheney, shut your big trap and go away! Let reasonable and honest men make the decisions regarding Iraq.

However, Charles Blow, in a brilliant column in the NY Times quotes something that Dick Cheney said in 1994 that was precisely right on about the problems that might be created by over-throwing Sadam Hussein in Iraq. They now reverberate loudly as we read them…

“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, and took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq you can easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have to the west. Part of eastern Iraq, the Iranians would like to claim, fought over for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It’s a quagmire.”

This is exactly the problem that the lies of the Bush administration created. There were no WMDs. There were never any WMDs. The WMDs were a fantasy created by George W. Bush and his Vice President in order to sell a war that was really about protecting the flow of oil to America. Now the Obama administration has got to try to clean up the terrible mess that Dick Cheney helped to create.

And he has the gall to now criticize the nation’s president! No, not you, Mr. Cheney! Not you! You keep your fat trap shut!

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