Get History Mr. Vance

 Vice President went to Dachau upon arriving in Munich for the security conference and then proceeded to question Europe's Democracy and Spoke of the "enemy within..." How could he have seriously visited a Concentration Camp and not comprehend why it was left standing? My father, who was a school boy in Nazi Germany, came home with a red cheek because his teacher had slapped him across the face. He didn't greet her with the expected Heil Hitler salute. 

My saintly mother, before she died, warned that we could relive the 1930's very easily and she saw the signs of Hitlerism in this country and abroad. It had been illegal in Germany long after the war to possess Nazi paraphernalia including books and posters. The fear was that future generations needed to know what happened Under Hitler

Thankfully, my parents left Germany and immigrated to America.Vance's meeting with AfD, however, was an indirect endorsement of their right-wing beliefs. Germans should be concerned about migration. Angela Merkel had much blame in causing this situation. But free speech should not be mouthing neo-Nazi ideas. At one point Germany had many Turkish guest workers. Their children were born in Germany. They were skilled workers and even university educated professionals. I once met a Turkish shop ower in the Great Bazaar of Istanbul who spoke perfect German and had lived many years in Hamburg - the city my own family came from.

Germany of late has had numerous terror attacks on the civilian population. The perpetrators are usually migrants identifying with Islamist groups or radical ideologies. Germany has courts just as we do. But Germans may remember President Trump referring to Germany as a "fly over country." If it eventually turns out that J R Vance influence the German election, much as we accused Russia of meddling in our elections, then Vance should be severely reprimanded or asked to resign. His speeches are political blackmail to the German people.

And let us not forget the deep friendship that Germany has had with the United States for decades. Germans in Illinois helped Abraham Lincoln get elected in 1860. And they fought in the Civil War. There are more Germans that came to America as immigrants that any other grouping, including the Irish and Italians. Germany influence goes back to the 1700's when they fought with George Washington and many Hessians and other ethnic Germans did not return to Europe but made their homes in the American colonies. This was even true of German soldiers taken prisoner at Saratoga.

So Mr. Vance has a lot of history to reread, if he ever read it in the first place. I was a college history professor. I should know. 

 

When my brother and I were still in middle school, my parents took us every summer for a week or longer to Canada. My dad drove the entire way, never stopping except to eat or get gas. Our goal was the Ontario city of Gananoque in Ontario. Here, we stayed for one night in a perfectly wonderful motel that was clean and manned by a friendly staff. In the morning we had a full breakfast, bacon and eggs, toast, and great coffee. It was, for us kids, a treat since every school day we ate farina or oatmeal.

We drove east, stopped at historical sights and eventually came to out destination: Nova Scotia. Here we spent a week with family friends who own a small knitting mill making sweaters. The first weekend, however, my dad and his old friend went into town to buy about dozens  lobsters. We all had fun cracking them open and piling the meat on the kitchen table. That's when I got my lifelong taste for lobster!

Another fun experience I recall was visiting Fort Niagara, where so many conferences had taken place in colonial times between the indigenous tribes, the British, French, and American colonial representatives. I recall seeing a sign that is was the "Rush-Baggot" Treaty line; the official border between Canada and the United States.

One year we took a popular Thousand Island cruise. Another year we stopped at Fort William Henry, a military outpost featured in the Hollywood fil, "The last of the Mohicans," a novel written in the 1800's by James Fennimore Copper. But I would also recommend Allan Eckert's "Frontiersman" and other books he's written about this time period, all very well written and footnoted for fact.

Walter Edmonds was another superb writer whose books like "Paint a very colorful picture of the colonial period of " Drums along the Mohawk'" That movie starred Henry Fonda as Gill and Claudette Colbert as his wife . Edna May Oliver plays a noteworthy role as well. But Canada was never seriously up for grab's 

The Techumseh conspiracy was defeated and things settled to Status Quo Ante-Bellum. And so it's been since we was a kids, marveling at the clear, exciting land we colorful neighbor to the north!

While we are at it, Let plus the book, "Night Probe" by Clive Cussler who recenly pass away. who recently passed away. The book is a lively James Bond type action story with the premises' that the US has always owned Canada by virtue of an old treaty that was lost long ago Or was it? One copy was aboard the Empress of Ireland,'the ship sank. There we only two copies of the treaty'. Another my have been lost on a ghost train. Clive was always prescient in many of his books. The Ghost train supposed plunged into a dep river bed abd then covered with mud for decades.

It is available in paperback and was published in1981.And so the saga continues. Who will own Canada?