Is it worth it?
I served 3 tours in Germany, a total just barely short of 9 years. During those years, duty and time permitting my wife, son and I were able to see some of Europe. In 1988 or thereabouts, we booked a tour to Holland’s Tulip festival. A tour of Amsterdam preceded the Tulip Festival. Aside from Anne Franke’s house and a boat ride through the canals, the remainder of the Amsterdam tour was quite enlightening as to what post-Christian means. I see that clearer now than I did during a trip nearly thirty years past.
I remember being in Amsterdam’s Dam Square beside their National War Memorial. The stench was quite bad. It smelled like a giant urinal. Graffiti covered buildings were visible in every direction. Not the reverence I would expect a country to pay a war memorial. It was not the place to take your family.
No Amsterdam tour is complete without a walking tour of the Red Light district. Picture windows line the streets and in those red lit windows sit prostitutes advertising their wares leaving little to the imagination. Also along those streets are the drug bars. Legal of course. Then there are the bars with explicit signage advertising their live shows and before a youngster can ask his dad what that means, a sleazy looking street hawker clears up all doubt. Probably a great location for a rainbow colored Whitehouse. The Red Light district was packed with tourists. There was no line at Anne Franke’s house.
I cannot imagine that Biblical Sodom was much different from this place. With our country’s accelerated drive toward moral relativism, legalization of drugs, and a push toward a Post-Christian America one can but wonder how long before Hometown America begins to mimic Amsterdam.
I was reading some C. S. Lewis thoughts on what he termed Post-Christian Europe and Post-Christian man. To summarize it into my own words, he surmised rather clearly that Christian man had much more in common with the Pre-Christian pagan than he does with the Post-Christian man. At least the pagan and the Christian alike adhered to natural law.
Riding the tour bus out of Amsterdam, if I saw a structure that was not covered with graffiti I do not remember it. It is one of the images that remain in my mind. Leaving the city and entering a rather pristine countryside covered with tulip fields drew a stark contrast. It was like two separate worlds, connected by language but little else.
Here in America, we are even losing the language connection and like every other assault on anything distinctly American that too is purposeful.
I received an email following last week’s post and someone ask me what are we supposed to do about all this change. “How do we fight it?” The undertone of sheer frustration was obvious in the email.
There is only one thing each person can do. It starts by knowing what you believe. Knowing the source of the truth that is the foundation of what you believe. And having the fortitude and willingness to stand firm regardless of the consequences.
Understand and hold firm that man did not give us freedom; therefore man cannot alter our path or take away our freedom. Freedom cannot be taken it can only be forfeited.
In the service, each person knew of the obligation to refuse to carry out an illegal order. In our 50 states, we must have leaders who know when a Supreme Court decision has no basis in law or in the Constitution and who have the fortitude to challenge it – disobey it. We have too few willing to stand up.
At some point, each of us will have to decide if it is worth it. Worth it to go into the streets in mass and stand up for what is right and to keep our country free. Red, White and Blue are the only colors that should ever light “our” Whitehouse.
© 2015 J. D. Pendry American Journal All Rights Reserved
Category: Politics
Well said. Mr. Pendry. just look at nearly any passing train these days, graffiti-free railcars appear to be the exception in some cases, mainly boxcars and “reefers” (Refrigerated cars), covered hoppers as well. I remember the Philosophy class I had to take in college that was taught by a pus-brained New Age Hippie that was totally full of shit, the moral relativism and socialism that’s being fed to our kids from kindergarten to college, the SHIT we see Larsie-parsie the Rudy-poo regurgitating here when he trolls. Me? I’d rather die fighting the spread of that shit than to live in servitude to it, political correctness is little more than social, cultural, and spiritual suicide!
Railcars and cargo containers tend to range very far these days, and might not even stay within the bounds (or to be considered as a decline) of the United States. Nor is graffiti limited to the rainbow hippies that use drugs getting out their message. Did you have any college classes to how data correlates?
Reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit, is it?
Got a point I reckon. Graffiti has gone from stupid stoners defacing property to pussy gangstas marking their turf, with a few unemployed attention seekers thrown in.
Yep – quite impressive to somebody I guess…
Rail cars/graffiti. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Surrounded by railroads on 3sides and a river on the other. When I came home from active duty, there was a crack house across the street from my parents. I was furious and spoke with my brother (Navy vet,) about doing something. He mentioned to me that the gang bangers of today (that was the 90’s) were pussies compared to the stuff we did in the 60’s and 70’s. Once I thought about it, I realized he was right. 1 year later, my wife and I were over when 1 of the dealers kids drowned. My wife revived him. Got the paramedics there. After that, no more drugs. Imagine that.
Well said and spot on.
Thank you Mr. Pendry. I applaud your comments.
Yup.
I’m put in mind a scene from “The Ten Commandments”, where Moses is coming down from Mt (Ararat?) with the two tablets. Moses turns the corner, and sees the entire Israeli camp in orgasmic riot, except his brother Aaron and his wife, off in a corner, trembling, burning incense in a religious ceremony.
I may have it all turned around, but that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
You remind me of my boyhood, seeing that movie at the Starlight Drive-In Theatre in Spring Lake, North Carolina with Daddy, Mama, and my three little sisters.
A day or two later, at Spring Lake School, our Seventh Grade teacher, Mrs. Horne, asked us students who our heroes were.
I think I said Moses, but it might have been Joshua, as I was remembering that movie.
Mrs. Horne, the wife of a Baptist minister, said she was disappointed that none of us students mentioned Jesus Christ as our hero.
Imagine how that same scene would play out in a public schoolroom today?
Unless you’re a Mormon, you probably won’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
BUT – – – ,
As described within the pages of the Book of Mormon, I feel very much like the ancient prophet, Ether, must have also felt, as during the final days of the children of Jared, who were refugees from the Tower of Babel, he spent his days hiding in a cave, venturing forth by night to view the final destruction of his people.
In my three score and ten years of mortal life, I’ve seen everything I love, cherish, believe in, and hold dear, contaminated, corrupted, distorted, perverted, and barring any miraculous undeserved divine intervention, obviously headed for complete and total self-destruction.
This will include all three individual entities which share a common heritage and destiny, so that what happens to one, will affect all three, i.e., our own beloved United States of America, my chosen faith, The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, and the modern-day State of Israel.
That’s why I firmly believe that for a Latter-day Saint citizen of the United States of America, there can be no such thing as a concept or principle of Separation of Church and State.
This discussion has me pondering something that’s been on my mind a lot.
Was Adolf Hitler evil?
Were members of the German National Socialist Workers Party evil?
Was the Final Solution evil?
Was “Special Treatment” for Jews wrong?
What made people become Nazis?
Why did the Nazis become popular?
What was life like in Germany after the First World War?
YES, these questions are laying groundwork for something else!
If knowing then what you know today, would you do anything to oppose the Nazis?
Would you assassinate Adolf Hitler?
Would you assassinate his replacement?
Then WHY do we imprison guys who dynamite abortion clinics and shoot abortion providers?
Why are their actions universally vilified and condemned by the news media and from church pulpits?
Which is the greater holocaust?
Which has caused more death?
How is the murder of MANY millions of babies less serious than the murder of millions of Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs?
How is denying that unborn babies are human beings any different than saying anyone who is not German or Aryan is less than human, and therefore, deserving of death for the greater good of society?
I’m trying to figure this out.
Help me, please, for God will surely judge us.
I’m with you.
54 million babies killed since Roe v. Wade and even Roe has said that she wished she had not pressed that case and has become pro-life.
Steve Jobs was a child born out of wedlock and his upbringing was by foster parents that loved him as their own.
He has said that he is so glad that his mother let him be born instead of getting an abortion. Although illegal at that time, they were still available.
I have three beautiful daughters, two of which were surprises. The last one would not have made it had I not been pro-life at that time.
All I can say is that I am pro-life and I can prove it… Twice…
In my opinion until the issue of Sexual Responsibility is addressed abortion will always be there.
The attempt by organized religion to control and oppress sexual desires is an utter failure, like wise the sexual promiscuity pushed by the liberals.
Birth Control needs to be stressed, and people need to understand that CELIBACY is 100% effective in stopping STDs and Pregnancy.
A woman.
Her pregnancy.
Her doctor.
Their medical decision.
And you fit in this scenario where, precisely?
their opinion!
I don’t wish to get into a broad debate about abortion here, but I think one thought experiment can show how we all place different value on different ‘human lives’:
Imagine a fire is burning a building down, and several people are trapped inside – an elderly couple, a young man, his young wife, and their five year old kid. Oh, and several fertilized eggs because this building happens to be an IVF facility.
You, passing by, can run in and help, but will only have time to save one or two people (or, of course, a container of fertilized eggs). What do you do?
No matter what you decide -and I’ve never heard someone yet advocate for saving the eggs ahead of the child- you’re making a decision on the value of human lives. And unless you’re saying you’d save the embryos ahead of the child, I think that says you instinctively value the embryos as less than the child. This doesn’t mean you don’t value them, it just seems to mean they’re less than an already living, breathing, thinking, life-experiencing human child.
So, how are the unborn different? One answer -one of several- is simply that most of us instinctively perceive them differently.
“No matter what you decide -and I’ve never heard someone yet advocate for saving the eggs ahead of the child- you’re making a decision on the value of human lives.”
No, LC, it’s an exigent circumstance and the time for moral deliberation and value judgments is unavailable. If the rescuer is frail, the lightest of the group may be the only one saved and if that is not the child, then the child stays. If the rescuer is strong, he may be able to carry two people at once and will likely, if not necessarily, choose the two who weigh the least. Again, if the child is a porker, the child may not be one of the two. And if the woman is pregnant, he may choose her alone, figuring his saving two people at the same time. If he is so weak to carry anyone, he may choose the eggs. Practical considerations under the emergency presented, not value judgments, would control. In your scenario, there is no executioner and the ‘choices’ are false ones bearing nothing in common with abortion, the planned, deliberate taking of a human life.
OK, I’ll modify the thought experiment – now you’re being asked what you would do if you came across this scenario, so no exigent circumstances! You can think freely under no duress whatsoever about what approach you’d take in this hypothetical situation. And, by virtue of some being fat and others being skinny, all participants -including the case of embryos- weigh the same amount. They are also all equally distant from you and the only available exit.
Does that help clarify that this is a thought experiment and not a scenario I’m throwing you into? Now, with your practical considerations aside, and moral considerations ruling, what would you do? And this doesn’t have to do with abortion directly, but I was simply providing one (of several) answers as to how people view human lives differently.
If by some quirk you are completely ambivalent as to which life you’ve saved, then again, you’re unique in terms of all the people I’ve come across, but that, too, indicates the variety of ways in which people approach this.
I can’t play, and the reason is this: the abortionist is not rescuing a life. He is taking one. In your scenario, someone is to be rescued and the question is whether the someone is to be a life in its earliest stages, in its prime, or in its decline. If I regard all of the lives as valuable, then it doesn’t matter which one I save, does it? These sorts of questions annoy me, because they are inherently odd. Let’s say you love two people. We’ll make them two relatives. You can choose to save one. Which one do you save? On what does your choice depend? The relative value of each to you? I don’t expect an answer. I used it for illustration only.
I don’t know what you’re trying to say with your article, JD. I don’t get it, and my reading comprehension skills are more than a bit above 1st grade level. What I take away from this is that you went to the Netherlands 27 years ago at a time when drug tourism was at its height. You took your kid, a juvenile for God’s sake, to the red light district which was been in business since the 14th century. It’s not like that was something new or unusual. You took a minor to a whorehouse and you’re complaining about it? If you did that in this country in 1988, you’d be in jail wondering when you’d get out. You don’t mention any of the museums like those that have exhibits of Vermeer’s work, Rembrandt’s work or Rubens. You apparently didn’t spend any time in any other Dutch cities, sample the food, or anything else that makes the Netherlands what it was and is, which is definitely something besides a centuries-old whorehouse and a mecca for drug tourists. Did you know that if you buy dope to smoke at one of those DT spots, you can smoke it inside the cafe, but not outside and that it’s always been that way? Were you even aware that the Dutch police slap a fine on people for relieving themselves in public? No, you focused on the crappiest parts of that city. You took your wife and your minor child to a whorehouse and you’re bitching about it? You go to see the house where the Frank family hid from the Nazis. She was a Jew, not a Christian. We were all raised in a Christian religion, but my sister decided to convert to Judaism, so where does that leave us? Are you one of those people who turned a blind eye to people being herded into box cars and dragged off to Auschweitz and all those other horrors, because they weren’t Christians? Is it only Christians who have a right to be here? What about Jews? Buddhists? Taoists? Oh, let’s talk about graffiti.… Read more »
Thanks for your very well articulated points, Ex-PH2.
Cheers!
I often read a topic posted on TAH and when I read your response to it…..I have little to add. My silence is often because I have nothing pertinent to add.
I wish we had a like button. It would spare you having to endure my rather verbose version of “Like”.
Semper Fi.
I agree wholeheartedly with your statements PH2.
I spent a couple of days in Amsterdam in 2012. The city was beautiful. Hotel was cheap and clean. People were awesome, helpful and friendly. I got to use that Dutch I learned sitting overseas and they appreciated it. I went to 4 of their museums including the WWII museum. Saw a Rembrandt that almost brought me to tears. Went to the Anne Frank museum. Saw the school children learning why intemperance is a bad thing. Didn’t see much graffiti though it would be hard to not see some in any city in the world. Some places (like Amsterdam) consider graffiti an art form depending on where it is. Marijuana was no longer for sale to tourists and “drug vacationers” (did not ask but they made a bug deal about it at the airport). Stayed away from the red-light district so unless you were really looking hard for it, any sex trafficking or other such stuff was just not all over the place. (I’ve seen worse in Asia).
I guess I am a glass half-full kind of person. I saw a wonderful, historically significant European city with really good food. But then again I grew up in NYC so I am used to “Urban” places. Some things are just not the end of the world.
I think Amsterdam has been cleaned up significantly since Pendry went there in 1988.
Mr. Pendry, I have spent a few months in the Netherlands – a couple days in Amsterdam, a week in Rotterdam, two weeks in Dordrecht, but mostly in smaller towns – Zaltbommel, Den Boss, Arnhem, Tilburg, Eindhoven and the southeast and northeast. I don’t like Amsterdam for the reasons that you mentioned. Rotterdam seemed better to me. Except for the Sunday evening nationwide traffic jam and the complete absence of topography, I like the Netherlands. Please don’t stick your nose in a septic tank then complain that it stinks. Put the cover on and look around. You said that the tulips were great. You should have spent more time in Arnhem and along the North Sea coast south of Rotterdam, it’s really nice with several hundred years of history.
I’m never quite sure I understand the viewpoints expressed in posts like this…most likely because I am indeed one of those godless heathens who doesn’t believe there’s any god thus no heaven or hell. Oddly enough my lack of faith hasn’t created a monster unable to understand basic human decency…. I’m also never quite certain when exactly this american christian paradise existed…throw some numbers in there for us…if you are talking about prior to Roe v Wade I wonder what years you mean exactly? Would they be the fine christian years before the civil rights movement when blacks couldn’t drink from the same fountains or eat in the same diners as their fellow white citizens? Would be in those halcyon years during the 40s when black pilots had to eat behind the restaurant, outdoors, while white Nazi POWs were fed inside? What America was the one with the decent christian values so loudly offered as a shining example of how to act like a decent human? Because in my book about the time you think this country was going to hell it’s pretty clear that’s the time we started to treat more of our fellow citizens like equals under the law for the first time in our history. Far too many people on the wrong side of history struggle to comprehend where the rest of the world went wrong. They believe that their fellow citizens have abandoned principle or god or whatever, when the reality is simpler than that. Instead of looking elsewhere those on the wrong side of history need to look in the mirror and try to understand a simple fact, that the face looking back at them is where the problem lies and no where else. When the world moves against your values, perhaps the world isn’t the problem perhaps you are and your views are where the problem has always been. That’s a hard reality to accept and one which most people refuse to accept because it means everything they’ve thought has been wrong for the most part….but that’s often what turns out to be the… Read more »
VOV, you’ve made some good points, but you’ve made a common mistake, and that’s blaming a religion for social conduct. Religion influences our social conduct, that’s true — but the neighbors can have a lot more to do with public actions than the church does. That is why ‘good Christian men’ (they weren’t) thought it was okay to lynch blacks, when their Book clearly told them that murder was wrong.
I thought it apropos because the premise of this post is that Post-Christianism is to blame for the decline of the world…you are correct that these were not good christian men of whom I was speaking…I was however implying that during these so-called golden eras of America some of our citizens might have a slightly different perspective on just how golden things were for them.
Bigots are bigots regardless of religion, but a great many bigots have lately taken to using their religion as a justification for their bigotry.
I’m not interested in excusing their bigotry because they believe in a fantasy afterlife created by their more current version of the sun god…
And I’m frankly sick of both these bigots who justify their horseshit with their religion and the fucking apologists who claim they don’t represent their religion properly…muslim apologist assholes try and pull that shit and so do their christian brothers..all worshipping the same god who intends to burn me for all eternity because I don’t kneel and pray to him…sorry if I’m not signing up for that shit.
No doubt muslim assholes have the clear lead currently in violently hating their infidel neighbors, but in the US we’ve always expected better behavior so I’m also not accepting the false equivalency that since muslims behead others, christians can be assholes in this country and refuse to treat their neighbors equally under the law.
I’m on the receiving end of part of the bigotry you are talking about, being a woman. I don’t follow any religion that is used to control, manipulate, frighten, threaten, hurt or kill people. Religion is meant to give comfort. And what you said about God burning you for all eternity because of what you don’t believe? My sister is a Buddhist. People have told her to her face that she was going to hell, for the same reason. That’s bullshit, but they believe it.
I think we understand each other, and agree on a lot of things.
Indeed we agree and understand and I appreciate your honesty and your time with your excellent replies as always.
I’m not sure I understood the post’s point either. At one point you say “Man didn’t give us freedom”, but that’s not true. Every one of y’all that was in the Military and the ones before you,gave us our freedom. It was man,you men and women, that gave us our freedom and continue to give it to us and others. What I got most from your post is that you are upset that more men and women were given freedom recently. Freedom and rights that most have enjoyed from the very beginning. We’re you’re thoughts the same during the Civil rights movement? Did you only sign up to fight for the rights of those who looked like you or worshipped like you? I believe that amazing and powerful piece of paper that we all hold so dear said “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” So now everyone has these rights, hundreds of years later that second paragraph now actually stands for ALL of us. Isn’t that the exact reason you guys fight? Isn’t that why we all fight?
I know I’m seen as a bit of a goof ball here and because I never served my opinion doesn’t count among some of you. But still I believe in that paper and I believe in our Military. I thought you all did.
Moral decay is nothing new, but celebrating it is something new to the USA. Women have been free to kill their babies for years now. Yippie! Queerhood is now mainstream and the marriage of two sodomists has been blessed by the Supreme Court. Alleluia! Dope is legally sold and used in some states. Outstanding! Have religious views that clash with this, the new and improved America? Tough shit. You are the problem. Get out of the way!
You are a man of faith, so I think you’ll understand what I’m about to say. We have free will, and the bridles are coming off. We now have the right to make our choices and do whatever we want to do. There’s an old saying that goes, “If you love something, set it free. If it returns to you — it’s yours. If it doesn’t, then it never was.” God has given us our freedom, to clearly show who belongs to him — and who never did.
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself
“If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”
The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.
Jefferson’s longstanding concern was for a clear separation of church and state, where the state was the federal government, but that he also held that what individual states did respecting religion was properly left to those states. That proved to be wrong, but was quite correct at the time. Shall we dismiss Jefferson’s views because he was wrong? Because he was a slave holder? Sure. Absolutely–except when what he said fits our needs, I guess.
I think it’s all the more interesting because he struggled with his ownership of slaves from what I read of his words…I think he points out in his own words how imperfect he believed himself to be with respect to his character.
For me the point is he knew was wrong yet still imagined this nation for all it could be eventually. The OP decries the lessening influence of christianity as indicative of a decline in our United States and its culture. I disagree, the decline of christianity’s influence is occurring at the same time as the legalizing of more rights for more of our citizens than ever existed under previous, supposedly more christian, time periods in our society.
Just because men are not perfect doesn’t mean we can’t value their desire to create a more perfect union even if they were unable to fulfill the total promise of their words and their dreams in their lifetimes.
We are not in decline due to a lack of christianity, we are perhaps in a period of decline because of our apathetic support for our democracy and our unwillingness to truly send a simple message at the ballot box.
Partisans on both sides would never vote for someone with a different letter after their name, that’s why we have a 90% disapproval rating of congress but we re-elect 90% of congress on average and think something might change…if we twice at the ballot box voted out every single incumbent it would send a clear message that we the people were taking our nation back…we lack the ability to do so, not because we lack god, but because we are just too fucking lazy.
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Is there any reasoned or reasonable argument to be made that our society’s traditional mores trace to a religious basis, namely Judeo-Christian? I’d say not. I have never conducted a comparative review of sins and codified morality laws but I’d be willing to speculate that the latter were first sins. If that’s true, then it is easy to see how a society that now legitimizes certain behaviors once deemed by it to be immoral is embracing the sins it once criminalized. If seen that way, it is also easy to see that the more estranged American society becomes from its religious underpinnings, the more sinful it becomes. An individual American’s moral compass need not be centered in traditional Western religious values. Atheists can be good and decent persons just as some Christians and Jews can be diabolical swine. To me, that is neither here nor there. What matters is that the further society travels from it’s moral center, be it in the name of diversity, or liberty itself, the moral basis for damn near every screwed-up behavior is lost.
As someone who self identifies as a moral atheist (heterosexual male English speaking carnivore former gun owner), I strongly agree with you. In fact, I strongly agree with you about 100% of the time just in case you were wondering.
I see value in what CSM Pendry wrote. Whatever we are doing now, it ain’t working out so well. As is true with a lot of things, just because we “can” doesn’t mean we “should”.
There is a great distinction to be made between deism and religion. Me? I look at things and say, ‘Okay, anyone. Make this _____________. No replication, now. Just start from nothing and make something.’ Can’t do it? No shit. Of course you can’t. Evolution had a starting point. Where did the starting point come from? I am as comfortable saying, “From God, the Creator” as others are in saying, “I don’t know but that’s a damn good question that science may one day answer.”
As for your agreeing with me so often, one of us should be very, very scared.
Don’t be scared. If I was Dave Hardin, you’d be my Ex-PH2. 😉
That was dark, was it not?
I was thinking you would be the one frightened! As for my being the counterpart of Ex-, I don’t have an aperture issue. I’m more of a point and shoot sort of guy.
Uh, what? Someone call? I was taking a nap.
I escorted a body back to Holland. I too saw the graffiti, Red Light district. In the smaller towns, bullet holes were pointed out to me by my papa who was not supposed to be there. Showed me where the young boys hid when nazis came to recruit them, the place people were hidden, died and killed. In so many smaller towns there are statues honoring the United States Military. Arnhem, Appledorn, Utrect, Delfts, and so many more. If America didn’t offer their help those smoke stacks would still be smoking. Graffiti is all over the world but seeing the real history of my birth country and that made me completely understand what the hell happened during hitlers insanity. Dutch, French, Polish, Americans and other countries military along with the underground died together and ended hitlers insanity. If you do a hilter arm sign or his yell in Western Europe you are arrested. If we forgot MILLIONS DIED IN VEIN.
If you decide to visit again ask for the tour of death. You’ll come home with a different story and understanding of The Netherlands and it’s people.
In all of the years I’ve put my comments out on the net, I have rarely engaged in debate over them. I say what I have to say and feel no need to further explain or defend it. There always comes a time. During a trip to Holland for the tulip festival the tour bus guide with a tour bus herd following and with my wife, my son and me somewhere in the middle of that pack we were exposed to a couple of minutes of the Red Light District. Horrors right. The first thing up was that I took my wife and son to a whorehouse. I suppose if you’re going to build yourself a straw man and then pound the crap out of him, you need to get yourself off to a rolling start. This just set the tone that the only place I ever visited in Holland was the smuttiest part of Amsterdam which of course, to quote some of the common used language here, is total bullshit. That few minutes’ walk served as an example for me – and anyone else with firing brain cells – just how far liberalism can sink into depravity. I saw as much of Holland as possible on that short trip, and yes it is a beautiful countryside with pristine little towns, windmills, and good people, and the tulip festival and parade is something you need to put on your list. And no, my impression of Holland has nothing to do with Amsterdam, although the boat ride through the canals and the old narrow houses along the canal was memorable, as was Anne Franke’s house and yes I knew she was a Jew and no I would not have been with the Nazis as they loaded her and that other long list of groups of people into the boxcars. Somehow I did not feel the need to share my travel itinerary to make a point, but for some I suppose filling in the blanks was necessary. Don’t like Christians? That is fine by me. I do not think that I have… Read more »
Your comments about Amsterdam are based on how the city was in 1988 (or thereabouts). Is there still a red light district? Are there establishments where so-called “soft” drugs can be purchased? Yes and yes, but I challenge you to say the same could not be found with relative ease in New York or within walking distance of the bases in Ansbach, Heidelburg, and Ramstein in 2015.
The fact is that you had an idiot for a tour guide. I have flown into Schipol at least a dozen times. Care to guess how many times I have accidentally walked into the red light district or entered a pot shop in Amsterdam?
The next time you are in Holland, try visiting somewhere with more substance than a flower show or a windmill. The Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten for a start, where over 8,000 of your fellow countrymen were buried with highest honors by the Dutch people and are remembered with special ceremonies every year. While you are there, ask about who places flags and decorations on the graves and keeps the grounds clean.