Musings from a Suburban Soccer Dad

To quote SalsaDude’s post on “Heroes” in the Iconoclast

“Everyone has their Heroes, not mythic Superfolk who leap tall buildings just for the hell of it, but ordinary people, who through some parcel of courage, vision, moral absolute or all, make a difference in some lives, or even nations. They may be risking their Lives, Fortunes or Sacred Honor. They may succeed, or fail. But they all step up to the plate. From time to time I would like to post some of mine, not necessarily movers or shakers, but who did something or said something that bumped them up to Hero status.”

Excellent post SalsaDude.
This weekend I watched a German movie, “The Lives of Others” (2006) (‘Das Leben der Anderen’). It is set in the 1984 GDR (or DDR); a very Orwellian ‘Utopia’. This movie won 42 awards including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (2006). Considering our current journey towards ‘Utopia’, the subject is quite timely. And, less you think it not, do you think the GDR got that way overnight? Think again. Think of our past slides into opression.

"Every country has the government it deserves."
de Maistre, Joseph French writer and diplomat (1753–1821)

To paraphrase Walt Kelly (Pogo), 'we know the enemy and it is us'. We know how we fall into the trap. We are human. We are naturally paranoid. It’s how we survive. But, it’s not how we live. The time to start living is long overdue. It’s time for the pendulum start to swinging back. To halt this progression towards a brave new McCarthy era.
And so, as we face the slow and insidious erosion of our liberty, who will our heroes be. It must be we the people. It’s time for us to step up to the plate.

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." - Abraham Lincoln