[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]
The Book of the Week is “Dobryd” by Ann Charney, published in 1996. Prior to WWII, the author’s Jewish family owned a house in Dobryd in the country of Poland. This suspenseful personal account described how the author and her immediate family survived and recovered from the traumas and deprivations of the war. Hint: they were not sent to a concentration camp. The book appeared to be credible although it lacked a detailed list of Notes, Sources, References, Bibliography and an index.
In the late summer of 1945, when they were informed the war was over, the author, her family, and fellow survivors were still starving to death. They savored the luxury of finding firewood in order to make a sauna of sorts, and “Occasionally someone would bring a few sugar cubes and then the evening would become a true party.” They entertained themselves by playing a harmonica and telling each other stories.
The author wrote about the ravages of the war: “I scarcely noticed the landscape of ruins we passed. It was simply the place where I lived, to be taken for granted.”
The author recounted an anecdote in which the Jewish survivors who moved into abandoned houses in Bylau (which has since been renamed; also in Poland) were distressed by a cultural misunderstanding. The Jewish relief agency had marked their houses with a red cross with the good intention of indicating they should receive food parcels. The emotionally-spent survivors assumed (wrongly this time) that yet again, “… the Poles were about to practice their traditional rite, the terrorizing and murder of Jews.”
Read the book to learn much more about the author’s experiences during and after the war, and how her family decided to start a new life in a place other than their homeland. For decades, occupying imperialist powers (Soviets and Germans especially) had repeatedly made them feel numbness, self-pity, rage and hatred. They knew that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Speaking of numbness, self-pity, rage and hatred, here is a song about the current emotional climate in the United States in connection with the spying going on. Hint: It is worse than ever.
Under presidents LBJ and Nixon, American males of military age were under constant threat their lives would be disrupted or prematurely ended due to a war.
Currently, the U.S. government is data-mining in a way that tracks where all Americans (innocent as well as guilty) are, what they are doing, and a lot of what they are saying– which makes every man, woman and child vulnerable to: defamation from the lies and smears of political vengeance, cancel culture, victimization with regard to financial and other crimes; not to mention, makes them subjected to feelings of violation– when the vast majority are truly innocent (never mind the small percentage of cases in which truly guilty sociopaths have hubris syndrome.)
I THINK I’LL PROBE YOU
sung to the tune of “I Think I Love You” with apologies to the Partridge Family, and to whoever owns the song’s intellectual property rights.
I’m reading, that public figures, have-no-privacy.
Like all at once, we’re naked,
from their desire to get even, make us pay.
Big Brother’s here to stay.
The Fourth Amendment is in shreds,
and HAS me seeing red.
The Patriot-ACT provisions said:
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)
Our nosy, government gathers-our-data.
There’s too much to deal with.
They say we have an enemy within.
Without spies, the criminals win.
But political DONors profit more.
Against their-foes, leaders-SETtle scores.
Hey, there’s a Chinese balloon…
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)
I think I’ll probe you!
So what are they so afraid of?
Their what-about-ism is tiresome.
Politics, there is no cure for.
I’ll acCUSE you, before you accuse me.
It’s a new McCarthy-Era today.
We’re all guinea pigs this way.
We can’t fight what we’re up against.
But we do know what it’s all about.
We’ve got so much to worry about.
Hey! I think I’ll probe you!
So what are they so afraid of?
Their what-about-ism is tiresome.
Politics, there is no cure for.
I’ll acCUSE you, before you accuse me.
It’s a new McCarthy-Era today.
We’re all guinea pigs this way.
Really, there IS cause for worry.
Current alpha-MALES will never be happy.
And if you say “Hey, go away,” they won’t.
Reform this nation, they don’t.
We’d better elect NEW blood and MOVE on.
They’ve worn OUT their case.
They will probe you to your face.
And you don’t deserve that.
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)
I think I’ll probe you! (I think I’ll probe you)…