A TALE OF TWO HOLIDAYS

     79 years ago, about the time that most of the US' current political and economic leaders were born, the two remaining world superpowers proclaimed holidays following the unconditional surrender of Nazi forces in Europe. US President Harry Truman declared May 8th 'Victory in Europe Day', while Soviet Premier Josef Stalin commemorated May 9th as 'Victory Day;' the difference between the two being because of the respective time-zones in the two countries when the European conflict officially ended.

   Truman stated in his radio address that: "For this victory, we join in offering thanks to the Providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity. Our rejoicing is sobered and subdued by the supreme consciousness of the terrible price we paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band. Let us not forget, my fellow-Americans, the sorrow and heartbreak which abide in the homes of our neighbors---neighbors whose most priceless possession has been rendered as a sacrifice to redeem our liberty...

   "We can repay the debt that we owe to our God, to our dead, and to our children, only by work---by ceaseless devotion to the responsibilities which lie ahead of us...I do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945 to be a day of prayer. I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace. I also call upon my fellow-Americans to dedicate this Day of Prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory."  

   V-E Day, 2024 went largely unnoticed in the United States, for obvious reasons. Both our political parties have joined hands in support of an openly Nazi Regime in Ukraine and one in Palestine which is committing blatant genocide under a Regime which believes itself part of a Master Race. Currently, around 3,000 of our fellow-Americans are in jail for protesting these policies and Congress is in the process of erecting a Secret Police Force within our schools and universities hypocritically under the guise of combating anti-Semitism. The Controlled Opposition, which is sounding more and more like outright Nazis themselves every day, have lost the battle in the Marketplace of Ideas and are resorting to the lowest forms of tyranny: censorship and terroristic forms of compulsion. 

   In contrast to this, Russia---which is still committed to fighting Nazi and Fascist Regimes---celebrated Victory Day with parades and festivities, like we used to do in the United States. 

  Russian President Vladimir Putin, who yesterday was sworn in for a fifth presidential term following his landslide electoral victory in March, gave a speech where he noted the following:

  "Today, we bow our heads before the blessed memory of all those who had their life taken by the Great Patriotic War, before the memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandparents, great-grandfathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends. We bow our heads before the late veterans of the Great Patriotic War, before the memory of the civilians who died from the barbaric shelling and attacks of neo-Nazis, before our comrades who fell in the fight against neo-Nazism in the righteous fight for Russia."

  Putin also warned the world of the dangers of the resurgent Naziism overshadowing Civilization today:

  "Russia firmly opposes the West’s policies aimed at elevating a few nations by restraining the development of other sovereign states. Many Western nations would like to forget the lessons of World War II...These [actions] are part of the general policy of Western Elites of inciting more and more regional conflicts, inter-ethnic and inter-religious hostility, and restraining the development of sovereign independent states. No country or military bloc has a right to do so, which World War II proved. We reject any state's or alliance's claims to Exceptionalism. We know what the claims of such exorbitance leads to."

  Putin's comments should---but probably won't---cause many Americans to reflect upon how far we collectively have forsaken the Liberties that were worth fighting for during the lifetimes of many of our own leaders. Most Americans look back at the leadership of the 1940s as a collection of Dead White Males if they think about it all.