Bill promoting Holocaust education curriculum passes House

Bill Promoting Holocaust Education Curriculum Passes House

OKLAHOMA CITY – A bill to ensure Oklahoma students are taught the history and horror of the Holocaust - the systematic, state-sponsored persecution, and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators – passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday.

House Bill 3720, authored by Reps. Mark McBride, R-Oklahoma City, and John Waldron, D-Tulsa, requires Holocaust education to be taught in all public schools in a manner that:

• Generates an understanding of the causes, course, and effects of the Holocaust.
• Develops dialogue with students on the ramifications of bullying, bigotry, stereotyping, and discrimination.
• Encourages tolerance of diversity.

"The horrors of the Holocaust resulted in the extermination of six million people of Jewish descent as well as many of their sympathizers during World War II," McBride said. "And yet, it is proven that too few students in Oklahoma schools are taught or know about the Holocaust. With the war that is happening currently in Ukraine and that is threatening other parts of the world, this topic has never been more timely."

The measure requires the State Board of Education to work in consultation with experts to develop and distribute curricula for students in grades 6-12. 

OK Supreme Court Justice Marian Opala has died

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Marian P. Opala has passed away, according to court officials. He was 89 years old.

Opala, who has been on the Supreme Court since 1978, was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1921. When war broke out between Nazi Germany and Poland in 1939, he enlisted in the Polish Army. After the defeat of Poland, he joined the Polish Underground. He left Poland for a few years, with orders to connect with Polish troops serving in the British armed forces in the Mediterranean and Africa. He served with them briefly in Italy, before parachuting back into Poland to rejoin the Underground.

Opala was captured by the Nazis in the brutal put-down of the Polish Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and was imprisoned in Flossenbürg concentration camp (where theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed). When the U.S. Army liberated the camp, he became friends with a captain in the 45th Infantry Division from Oklahoma City. Opala emigrated to Oklahoma in part due to this friendship. He became a U.S. citizen, attended law school, and entered the judicial system. Gov. David Boren appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1978, and he had been retained as judge ever since then.

Political Theatrics: "Blitzkrieg" Does Not Equal "Holocaust"

Politics oftentimes results in over-dramatic misrepresentations of statements by political adversaries. Quotes are taken out of context, or applied to things that don't even remotely apply.

Sometimes, I just get tired of the sensationalizing. And frankly, I'm not afraid to call out my own side of the political spectrum when I see the need to.

Take this, for instance, from the New York Daily News:

Vice President Biden is out with an alarmed e-mail cash appeal warning that the GOP will mount a “blitzkrieg” against Democrats in the fall.

Comparing GOP tactics to the fast-striking forces of Nazi Germany, Biden warns in a message sent by the DCCC today: “As things heat up, you can expect House Democrats will be hit with a GOP blitzkrieg of vicious Swift-Boat-style attack ads, Karl Rove-inspired knockout tactics, thinly veiled attempts at character assassination and tea party disruptions.”

And while the GOP is mounting a blitzkrieg, Democrats are the allies.

“Our Democratic allies in the House need your help, and the President and I hope we can count on you to come to their defense so we can hold onto our Democratic Majority and continue moving American forward in a new direction,” Biden writes in the appeal.

Subtle? Not so much.

Update: Republicans were not amused by the implications of the e-mail.

Kevin Smith, spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner, e-mailed a comment that seems sure to get under Democrats’ skins: “When will Democrats learn that invoking the Nazis’ crimes against humanity in a political debate is simply inappropriate?”

Herein lies my problem with the statement by Smith: the Nazi German blitzkrieg tactic had absolutely nothing to do with the Holocaust.

Blitzkrieg refers to the strategy that the Nazis used early in World War II, namely the use of concentrated tanks in swift-moving offensive campaigns in coordination with air power, artillery, and motorized infantry. The blitzkrieg wasn't related to the Nazi's horrific Holocaust war crimes.

Can we stop with the political theatrics, and focus on the issues, please?

Poland Cannot Trust the West

Poland Cannot Trust the West

The White House, caving to Russian pressure, announced today that the Bush-proposed missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic was being canceled. The plan had been fairly controversial, especially with the Russian leaders, as they viewed it as a threat to them, despite American assurances that it was to counter Iranian missile potential.

This proves once again that Poland can never completely trust the West.

Poland has a sad history of betrayal by Western powers.

In 1939, in the face of Nazi saber rattling, Britain and France gave Poland a guarantee that if Hitler invaded Poland, both nations would launch war on Germany. On September 1st, 1939, Der Führer invaded and the West did very little to hinder him. On September 17th Soviet Russia joined in, attacking Poland from the east. The Polish doctrine of two enemies (Germany to the west, Russia to the east) was proven true once again. A truly free and independent Poland disappeared until the fall of both Nazism (1945) and the Soviet Union (1989-1991).

During World War II, Polish troops formed a significant portion of Allied soldiery (one of the largest national contingents), contributing greatly in the Battle for Britain and the Italian Campaign. On the home front, the Home Army formed the largest (and most successful) underground resistance movement in Europe.

As soon as Poland itself fell to Nazi and Soviet aggression, the government-in-exile worked with Great Britain and other western allies to form a plan to reestablish Poland, when the opportunity presented itself. Headway was made, until the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union (through Polish territory), bringing the Soviets onto the Allies side - truly a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

From that point on, Polish "squabbling" over territorial integrity (Soviet Russia had annexed eastern Poland) irritated the British. Poland wanted their land back in its entirety, and the Soviet Union wanted Poland.

The preparations for Operation Tempest, the liberation of Poland and reestablishment of Polish government before the Soviets could take over, continued. The UK and US promised help in various ways; materiel, Polish troops currently fighting under British control, air drops and raids, et cetera.

While assuring the Poles of assistance, Churchill and especially FDR made concessions to Joseph Stalin. Without consulting their Polish allies, Churchill and FDR agreed that the Soviet Union could claim the Curzon Line as their mutual border with Poland, thereby giving the Soviets the eastern third of Poland (while "making up for it" by giving Poland some of eastern Germany). Churchill originally took a harder stance with Stalin, but after learning that FDR had privately agreed with Stalin on the Curzon Line, was forced to go along. All of this came out at the Yalta Conference.

The summer of 1944 finally rolled around. The Red Army had been pushing the Nazi Wehrmacht out of Russia, and entered pre-war Poland, hot on the Germans heels. With "Allied" troops now in Poland, Operation Tempest was launched. Initial contact with the Red Army by the Polish Home Army was friendly, but once the front line rolled past, the Soviet NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) viciously murdered or repatriated to Siberia most Home Army or government officials, and deported masses of civilians. Neither the British nor the Americans believed reports coming out of Poland, calling them "anti-Soviet".

Seeing what became of their comrades-at-arms, the Polish government-in-exile altered the objective of Operation Tempest. The aim was now to liberate Warsaw, the capital, and show the world that Poland was still by right a free land. The "Warsaw Rising" commenced on August 1st, 1944, with the Soviet troops within sight of Warsaw.

For two months the Poles fought in the streets of Warsaw, with little of the promised-British/American aid, and with no cooperation from the suddenly sluggish Soviets. The Polish paratroops were not sent as agreed, aid was limited (in part by Soviet AA fire at Allied planes), and pressure was not applied to the Soviets. Initially planned to only last a few days, the courageous Poles had fought for 63 days, and were forced to surrender only after losing nearly all the ground they had ripped from the Nazis grip.

The West looked the other way as brutal Nazi repression was replaced by even more brutal Soviet repression. The aforementioned Polish doctrine of two enemies was clearly proven again. One could say that the Germans systematically murdered and oppressed specific groups of people (such as Jews and ethnic-Poles), while the Soviets systematically murdered and oppressed all groups. After all, the Soviets had been running the Gulag well over a decade before the Nazi extermination and concentration camps were opened.

Poland, which gave so much for the war effort, was given over to Soviet rule without so much as a whimper from the West. This only changed with the ascension to power of President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who began to roll back past injuries by their support of the Solidarity movement. A free Poland finally emerged after decades of Soviet rule by Western consent.

After 9/11, President Bush courted Eastern Europe, and Poland in particular. Poland contributed to the liberation of Iraq. In light of the growing belligerence coming from Russia, Poland was glad to move closer to the United States. When President Bush proposed his missile defense shield as a safeguard against Iranian nuclear madness, Poland (along with the Czech Republic) agreed to host the facilities. Russia threw a fit, at one point actually threatening "military action" if the installations were placed.

Poland and the Czech Republic, our closest allies in Eastern Europe, took a great risk in defying Russia in this way, only to be thrown under the bus by President Obama. And to add insult to injury, this announcement came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.

Obama is acting a lot like another Progressive liberal Democrat President, bowing to pressure by Russia's latest Stalin wannabe.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, 1945 - Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, 2009

Unfortunately, Poland, the West continues to prove itself untrustworthy in regards to you.