By Philip Drucker
Be honest. How many of you have ever woken up wondering if there is too much protein in your urine? This is just one of the many wonderful thoughts you too might have if you wander into the land o’ cancer. I would also be willing to bet you might start paying attention to all the cancer treatment commercials on TV. I must admit I had no idea until recently what Colonguard® was or for that matter, it even existed. Who thinks about guarding their colon? Again, until recently, I’m not even sure I understood what the colon does for a living. Now mine is on strike. Better wages and working conditions or something like that. It appears my colon is a dyed in the wool Bolshevik rather red than dead commie. Who knew?
If we are speaking of the Russian October 1917 Revolution, I would like to point out a Bolshevik was a majority member of the Russian Social Democratic Party, which was Russian, but neither social, socialist or democratic, that after seizing control of the government, renamed itself the Communist party. Funny how the acquisition of power brings out the true economic political beast inside.
And, to clear up a little problem I have seen repeatedly on the Internet, the full name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers Party, although I think it is more than fair to say the Nazis did not practice what they called national socialism, their political structure being far closer to fascism, and what the brown shirts did for the workers is still a mystery to me. BTW, did I mention Hitler NEVER won an election? This is another fallacy, that the German people elected him to power. They did not.
In 1932, Hitler was soundly defeated by Hindenburg in his first bid for the German presidency, 53% to 37%. It wasn’t until 1933 with the near complete virtual collapse of the German economy that President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor of split Nazi-German National People’s Party (DNVP) coalition. The rest is as they say history. We just can’t help giving power to those least capable of wielding it for the common good, can we?
A little more history. The Nazi Party was born out of the German Volkisch movement, an ethnic, highly nationalist and often racist faction of the populist Freikorps military culture. The main purpose was to entice workers to reject communism in favor of its far more radical and extreme ideology. Starting to see any parallels between 1930s Germany and now? I hope so. Cleaning up the Internet is such good fun, isn’t it?
Another bit of revising revisionist history back to what it was, it was not “cancelling culture”, removing statutes, or instituting what we today would consider socialism, that led to Hitler’s rise. In the final analysis, it was poverty. Extreme poverty and the desperation it produced. After WWI Germany was subject to restrictions placed upon them by the Allied Powers via the Treaty of Versailles. Make no mistake, the Allies’ goal was to punish Germany. Looking back, this might have been a mistake. For my deutsche-mark, desperate people in desperate situations look to desperate solutions, no matter how realistic, fanciful, unlikely or fantastic the rational mind may initially judge them to be. Any port in a storm is better than none I guess. Maybe.
While reading the Internet this morning, I came to one particularly offensive howler of misconception that is apparently making the rounds among the alt-right-fascists who want to rewrite history. Namely, that restrictive gun ownership laws led to the rise of fascism in Germany and, this is even better, the Nazis restricted personal gun ownership as well its citizenry. This is simply not true.
It is true that to comply with the Treaty of Versailles, in and around the early 1920s, Hindenburg did issue fairly-strict total ban gun control laws applicable to the German citizenry. The “problem” is by the time of the Nazi rise to power, most of these laws had been abandoned. Enforcement of these laws were lax to say the least. Most of the guns confiscated were rusty old relics from the post war era. Hitler inherited a country where a national gun registry was in place and firearms were in fact quite easy to acquire.
Further, during his time in power, Hitler continued to loosen individual gun ownership restrictions making it even easier to purchase hand guns than had previously been at the end his predecessors in government, the Weimar Republic. Except of course, for the Jews. Hitler, not Hindenburg placed a total ban on Jews owning firearms of any sort. But then again, that’s what you do when you intend to kill a significant part of your population. Because they aren’t like you, eventually becoming they aren’t “you” or even in the same species, but below you. Inhuman, rodents, animals, infestations, pests. You know, all the names Herr Trump repeatedly uses to describe immigrants. The key word I want to bring out is “de-humanization”. The cancelling if you will of a discreet and distinct part of our entire culture based on nothing less than nationalist, rhetoric and racism. Aunt Jemima syrup we can live without. Immigrants? I’ll let you think about that one for a minute or two.
To continue with the cancelling of culture/complete nonsense I wasted time I will never get back “researching” the Internet, I started to think about my ancestors on my maternal side. The lore goes something like this. When the rise of Hitler leading to World War II broke out, my mother’s side of the family found themselves trapped in Austria. For those of you who do not follow history, that would be a bad start about to get way worse. On March 12, 1938 Hitler invaded Austria under the guise that the German speaking nation belonged united under what Hitler called “Greater Germany.” For those of you who are not catching on, this was Der Fuhrer’s way of Making Germany Great Again.
For better or worse, the Austrians offered little to no opposition to annexation. Today, the town in Austria where my relatives lived is gone. In fact, I believe it is now, if it still was, in Poland a result of shifting international borders after WWII. The Temple that kept all the vital statistics and records is gone. Destroyed as a matter of civic pride and/or duty no doubt.
What remains of legend and lore is for the most part oral, anecdotal and a bit hard to prove. I do know my sister was named after my great-aunt Gertrude, mom told me so. Mom also said about half of her relatives were also wiped out during WWII. That means one-fourth of my heritage is gone. For the record, I have no tolerance of any kind for Holocaust deniers.
If you are one, know this, I consider you the lowest of the low, the true scum of the Earth. You are a death merchant, an agent of misery and degradation. If you think you are fooling anyone with your statues of Robert E. Lee, think again. He was a violent and uncaring slave owner who betrayed his country for the promise of superiority through involuntary servitude, propaganda, phony science and yes, repudiation of the true gospel. If you fall into this ilk, you might want to check your “humanity papers” for at best your passport needs to be renewed.
Right about now you might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with cancer? Why does having the Big “C” make you think of Nazi Germany? Despite the at least obvious to me parallels of death, destruction, despair and disease (yes, I believe racism is a disease) I often wonder about the cancelling of my culture and how that may have influenced my medical history. You see, to my knowledge, I am the first person in my immediate family to get cancer. I know of no other person before me, and hopefully after me, who was even diagnosed, much less died from it.
Now I’m not claiming my lack of information and appropriate vigilance was due to Hitler, but trust me, he’s done enough already, but it does make me think what else is “out there”? Or, perhaps as or of more importance, what is no longer “out there” that I should know about? But can’t. Because it’s gone, likely forgotten, and in all but the most unusual cases, never to be found again. How can you or would you ever even try to look for something forgotten? Scary thought for me, you?
And so, I continue to dig. Looking for something that may or not be there. Looking for the missing planet I can’t see but tells me by its gravitational pull something is there. Perhaps there is a planet hidden in the expanse of space, maybe it’ll turn out to be an ice giant like poor Pluto, demoted from planet status to that of a rather large, but unremarkable chunk of ice, more of a meteor really, or a snow cone. And considering the broken thermometer inside my body, one minute hot and sweaty, the sweat cools off and I’m freezing, a rainbow flavored shaved ice yummy treat would be perfect. Until I get cold. Then it won’t. Sigh.
But this is what you think about when you have cancer. That and as I said earlier how much excessive protein you have in your piss. Fun stuff. Not.
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