Do these things with love, and the torch of American liberty will never be extinguished.
Commentary
âThey include innocent Ukrainians starved to death in Stalinâs Great Famine or Russians killed in Stalinâs purges; Lithuanians and Latvians and Estonians loaded onto cattle cars and deported to Arctic death camps of Soviet communism. They include Chinese killed in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution; Cambodians slain in Pol Potâs Killing Fields; East Germans shot attempting to scale the Berlin Wall in order to make it to freedom; Poles massacred in the Katyn Forest and Ethiopians slaughtered in the âRed Terrorâ; Miskito Indians murdered by Nicaraguaâs Sandinista dictatorship; and Cuban balseros who drowned escaping tyranny.â
This horrific record doesnât include the countless millions who were imprisoned, tortured, or saw their dreams and potentialities ruined by Marxism. Yet not only do countries like China and North Korea remain communist, but here in the West, where we should know better by now, we have professors, teachers, corporate personnel, politicians, and ordinary citizens who salute the Red Star. They may not answer to the name of Marxist, but they go along with the movement.
Read the Right Books
George Orwellâs âAnimal Farmâ is appropriate for middle schoolers. His classic â1984â should be on every high schoolerâs reading list. Ayn Randâs âWe the Living,â Aleksandr Solzhenitsynâs âA Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,â Ruta Sepetysâs âI Must Betray You,â and other novels will give readers a look into life under communism. For a truly chilling look at how Marxism works in schools, read James Clavellâs overlooked short story âThe Childrenâs Story,â now available online for free. YouTube also has a video drama of this story.
Teach them the truth about totalitarianism and communism through books such as these.
Listen to Real-Life Stories
If you know someone who grew up in a former communist country or who has escaped from a country like China or Cuba, invite them to speak to your children. These first-hand accounts can provide a powerful witness.
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Kitchen Table Learning
Discuss the daily news with your teens, both events abroad and here at home. Turn on the evening news and critique it. Point out that words like âprivileged,â âmarginalized communities,â âthe oppressed,â âgender identity,â and more are all terms associated with the left.
This election year provides the perfect opportunity to compare the platforms and candidates of our political parties. Make the most of this opportunity to teach your children about the issues debated and how they reflect on such concepts as freedom, collectivism, and tradition.
The Best Antidote of All
âWe 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.â
Teach those words from our Declaration of Independence to your children. Explain that no government can grant or take away their unalienable rights, that they are a core part of what it means to be human.
Teach your children about the men and women who built this country, who fought against injustice where they found it and who loved freedom. Teach them early on the stories of American explorers, scientists, soldiers, poets, and all the others whose work and sacrifices gave us the privileges we enjoy today.
Teach them that liberty and its many benefits demand responsibility. Do not let them confuse, as so many do today, liberty with license. Liberty means having the freedom to do the right thing, not simply to do as we wish. Responsibility implies duty, the obligation to be accountable for our actions, and to step up when necessary and defend our rights as a free people.
Do these things with love, and the torch of American liberty will never be extinguished.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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