With heavy heart

This will not be a fun post, I have postponed writing this for weeks but I can not postpone it anymore. Times are too dangerous right now. I once made a promise, I repeated that promise several times. It is time to own up and speak out because NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!

I have been following developments worldwide and in the USA for the past months and can come to only one conclusion. The world has gone mad, the USA is in good fashion leading this by example and somehow my generation and the directly preceding generations have forgotten about 4o/45.  Let me give a little reminder. Images might not be suitable for all audiances

The above image is a list of patches the prisoners had to wear in concentration camps. Don’t make any mistakes. It was not just Jewish people that got in there. The Nazis killed millions of Roma and Sinti, gay people (or believed to be gay people), Mentally disabled and physically disabled. Basically, if you were not an “Ubermensch” you could end up in some sort of concentration or labor camp. Neither of those was a fun place to be

These victims above are survivors from Auschwitz. Auschwitz was not “a camp” but a collection of 3 camps near the town of Auschwitz. There was Auschwitz I also called “stamlager” (base camp, Auschwitz II also called Auschwitz II-Birkenau and designated “vernichtungslager” (Destruction camp) and finally Auschwitz III Monowitz which was an “Arbeitslager” or labor camp.

The above chamber is what 1000’s of the innocent man, woman, and children got to see. This is a so called gas chamber. This was not done in a “friendly and humane” way. The people got to undress and got shoved in there dozens at a time. In some cases, they got told that they would have to “shower”. Imagine for a second if you will. Being completely naked between dozens of strange people. Man, woman, and children together. Surrounded by soldiers with machine guns shouting and punching people. You get crammed into a room that is completely bare except for some shower heads or in many cases just some pipes sticking out of the ceiling. A foul smell in the air if like hundreds of people before you had vomited and defecated in the room. When everybody is in the doors go shut and the light goes out. The last thing you hear and perhaps do is shouting, screaming, crying until it get’s weaker and softer and then stops. Too graphic for ya?

How about this then. The graves of 8301 soldiers that gave their lives for the freedom of my country and many other countries in the process

I don’t mind using a stock photo for this one as it is taken at a veterans parade in Wageningen which is what counts. Part of my country was liberated by the Americans, however, they stopped a bit too soon resulting in the most gruesome winter the Dutch had ever seen. It is gone down in history as the “Honger winter” (Winter of starvation). and the rest of the country got liberated in May 45 by the Canadians and Polish. Until this day and many years to come, we will remain grateful to all those that were part of the freedom in Europe. Imagine if you will being one of the last remaining veterans that fought against the Nazis, lost friends, health and who knows what more. Imagine knowing that in Europe everybody, even the kids, know what happened, imagine sitting at home watching television and coming across this

No I can not stay silent. Your parents and grandparents are the reason I can live free without a dictator telling me what I have to “believe”. Without my friends needing to hide because they are Gay, or Jewish, or Roma. Free speech my ass. There have always been rules regarding free speech. We all know you can’t just say anything. Hate speech, regardless who it is coming from, does not fall under “free speech”. Calls for violence against certain groups in society does not fall under free speech. for NOBODY.

YES… we have to fight Nazis and fascists but fighting them with our fists is lowering ourselves to their standards. Always remember. We are with more and I kind of assume that we are smarter. The only way to beat racists, Nazis and fascists is to lead by example. By showing them they are wrong and we are right. By showing compassion for our brothers and sisters of other beliefs, race or sexual orientation. By doing things their Bible tells them to do (“their” because it is one of their main drives). Feed the hungry, house the homeless, teach the children, be “my brother’s keeper” (or sister). By being sensitive to race (as in understanding that life is different for someone that has another color than my crispy white skin) without letting this get into a “race thing” (if that makes sense)

Fight with words, fight with actions. Don’t fight with fists… someone has to be the first to stop, it seems to me that the most sensible group should start. Hate is a downward spiral, hate leads to war, don’t get into its grips. THAT imo is also a part of #RESIST because that POTUS of yours is way to happy with yall fighting because it gives him validation, don’t give him validation…. RESIST