Why Americans should stop hoping for socialism; a personal observation

[mountaineer]

This was written by Jayne Farrell, a Christian singer/songwriter. She and her husband, Bob, comprised the group Farrell & Farrell and were very popular in contemporary Christian music of the 1980s. They traveled to several communist countries back in the day, and these are the observations she posted on her Facebook page yesterday. Yes, it's lengthy.

I wrote this a few years ago. May I share a small bit of MY OWN experience in socialist/communist countries? Will you allow your children, grandchildren to read it?

First of all, when we got back in the U.S. - EVERY SINGLE TIME after being in the U.S.S.R, we got down on our knees as we passed through customs, and kissed the ground. We were SO thankful to be American citizens. All it takes to KNOW you are living in the most wonderful country in the world, is to spend time in a Socialist/Communist country and see and experience a tiny bit of what they actually experience.

We were watched through two way mirrors in our rooms, AND bathrooms, followed everywhere we went, threatened with machine guns for taking pictures. We were cold because the heat was deliberately turned off where we stayed or it didn’t have heat at all. We went hungry for days because there was no food. At ALL. Finally some elderly person from a far away location, bribed someone to bring us food. It was horse. But by that time we didn’t care. We were hungry. We found out for the first time in our lives, that when you are hungry, you will eat anything. We eventually found some mushroom sandwiches in a underground subway station....and the Polish people standing in the long lines backed away and forced us to the front of the line... so the “Americans” could eat.  The grandmother who had bribed a soldier to bring us the horse meat lived in a different town...but her granddaughter had no idea what town her grandmother lived in. She wasn’t allowed to know. Imagine.

Another trip they saved food for us for months, so they could feed us when we got there. They did not eat. They gave it to us.
In Poland, we took a day off to go to Auschwitz concentration camp and saw what real Fascism actually looks like. We were followed there by UB/SB Poland’s Soviet police. By this time we were totally aware of them and waved at them as we entered the gate. They waved back.

We saw with our own eyes, the glasses, shoes, coats, of the men women and children murdered there. We saw the ovens. We saw the gas rooms. There was NO ONE there but us. No tourists. No workers. Just the Stasi sitting outside in their car waiting on us. We saw the pit where bodies were thrown. No memorial. No nothing. Now, since Poland is out from under communism, the Jewish organizations have made a memorial there - but when we saw it, it might as well been still 1942. Walking through those gates is something I will never forget.

As we left, it was somber back to the city. No one spoke. May I say, that I felt the exact same way the first time I dug dead babies in trash bags out of a dumpster in Nashville, TN,  behind an abortion clinic. It was no different. To realize the Evil people are capable of, is mind boggling. It will stun you. It will change you.

We were told many stories. We loved our Soviet friends, and their courage to invite us there -Hide us as best as they could and keep us fed with what they had and provide us a place to sleep. Which was usually a basement somewhere. Cold and wet. Through East Germany and Poland, it was college students who smuggled us in and had planned each event. Now when I say event, I mean gathering. It was sometimes in someone’s tiny living room, or a small warehouse or basement. Always watched. But the last concert we ever did in Poland, we did in the street. It was amazing. Even the guards with their machine guns, came forward to pray to receive Jesus. They Rushed to us to pray.

Upon leaving East Germany the first time - we were threatened by the Stasi for taking a picture.  Clever stinker that my husband is, we managed to keep the picture, as he pretended to expose the film, so they would let us go. Today? It would be taking your phone. Or following you by USING your phone. Or the chip in your arm. Are you ready?

We stayed once with a family of grown siblings in what had been their wealthy family home at one time, before communism took over. It housed several more now than the original family. Someone at the table complained of a toothache. Ignorantly - having been told of “social medicine” I  said, “don’t you get free dental?” Everyone at the table fell out laughing. I asked, “what is so funny?” I was then informed; “yes, we get free dental, if we can wait 10 years for it. We get free healthcare, if we can wait 10 years for it. We get free housing, if we can cram 20 people and four generations into 800 square feet, with rooms separated by cloth- if we can find it. I will be pulling my own tooth, if I can find a tool to pull it with. We have NO tools and No spare parts.”
They had no toilet paper - and trust me, if you are used to toilet paper, that can be difficult to manage. They had NO paper AT ALL. Of any kind. Books that were not published in the USSR were taboo. So any Bibles, or other western books, had to be hidden. And if one got caught with one, it could mean prison. I was told by them that they used the Soviet books as toilet paper, when they could find one.

There were no public restrooms. There was “the woods”.  And you better have your own paper to take to the woods. Neither was there soap. Or towels. There was no car repair, if you had one. It sat and rusted. There was NOTHING.
Americans, we have NO concept of what all this really looks like. Can anyone reading this imagine living with 385 million people in the U.S. without the conveniences we do? Imagine.
 
As we walked the street, people would stop and stare. We deliberately dressed down, so as not to call attention to ourselves. There was no color. Black brown and gray. So we dressed as they did. When we saw people staring at us, we asked our students, “how do they know we are not Poles?” They laughed. Finally someone who stopped and spoke to us, BECAUSE he knew we we were Americans, - we asked him; “how do you know we are Americans?” He said “because you Americans walk with your heads high. You laugh out loud. You take big confident strides and talk out-loud instead of whispering. You gesture with your hands and arms. You are not afraid. We walk with our heads down, and speak quietly, if at all, so not to draw attention to ourselves. Attention means Trouble. We can spot an American a mile away”.

If you ever saw pictures of the difference between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Iron Curtain era, you would understand.  We saw it. On the Western side you would see lovely homes, lots of color. Flowers, colorful umbrellas on patios, etc. Just over the Berlin Wall, was grey, brown and black. No color. No flowers. No noise. No chatter. No paint, nothing modern. Silent, dark and cold - looking exactly as it did when the wall went up. No “progress”. Oh the irony of using that word to describe a socialist ideology. “Progressive”? No. Just the opposite. If indeed our way of life, our rule of law and Constitution is “antiquated” (as a President said a couple of terms ago) then WHY are we so free, successful, privileged and the envy of the entire world??

We were secluded to those basements to sleep in the cold because the government had turned off the heat, to show us who was “Boss”.  The people were hungry and struggling to find food, warmth, medicine, parts for equipment, paper, and a number of many things WE take for granted.  Progress? I don’t think so. It might be “progress” for the NWO to have complete control of the “useful idiots”, but it is certainly NOT progress for you and me.
 
Between the time change and our swimming brains, we had a hard time sleeping. Outside it was Dark. No street lights. Just dark. The motto for years and years among the people was, “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.” In stores there was nothing - with 10 employees behind the counter to sell you nothing. Then they go home to their dreary homes, listen to communist propaganda on the radio or TV.  Four generations living in a tiny apartment with rooms separated by cloth...if it can be found. Once while at a clandestine missionary’s home for a gathering in Poland, I headed upstairs to the restroom. On the kitchen table I saw yellow legal tablets. I went running downstairs yelling “Paper!!! You’ve got Paper!???!! (NO ONE had paper). He explained that someone from America had sent him the tablets and somehow they made it through the postal service - which steals anything coming from the west. My Russian friend told me over and over to NEVER mail anything to her. She said, “I will never see it. Anything coming from the west is stolen. Or “confiscated.”

Now to Moscow and Leningrad:
We were there During Perestroika under Gorbachev in Russia.  It was a time of freedom most Russians had never seen or known. For the first time since the USSR - “United SOCIALIST Soviet Republic” - began, the average Russian, with permission from the state, was allowed to sell something and keep the money for himself. Art, food, inventions, independent inventive items. So they took to the street. Moscow had never seen such a thing, with people sitting around the edge of Red Square selling their hand made goods.....and being able to keep the money! It was something to celebrate. They were so excited! We were there and witnessed it. Now, that may sound thrilling...and it was for them...but when we pulled our cameras out to take videos of this amazing and very New situation,  we were held at gunpoint for having a camera. Until you’ve had a machine gun pointed an inch away from your temple you don’t really understand how it is. The KGB was still at work. So much for freedom. But It was the beginning!

Every foreign/Western visitor to Russia was required to stay in the same hotel. The reason was because that hotel had narrow halls between each room and in these tiny halls, two men sat and listened to and watched everything we did. Bathe, dress, talk, sleep, Everything. Each and every day our luggage was gone through. The only thing they took and Kept, were Bibles. They took pictures, books, different items, but the only thing that wasn’t placed back the next day,  were the Bibles. So we began leaving several a day in our room. That evening they were gone. Outside, down the long corridor to the elevator - in each hall, was a desk where two women sat. They reported anytime anyone left their room and when they came back. We all had to come and go out the same door downstairs, so we could be identified, checked and OK’d to get into or out of the hotel. It was a city block big with around 20 or so floors. It was called Rocia Hotel - famous for it’s spying.

We saw dead Linen in his glass casket. We  were told by an assigned bus driver for our group that the American Embassy was the largest Recording Studio in the world. The whole bus laughed....but the assigned “interpreter” didn’t “get it”. Thankfully.
There were microphones everywhere...and I learned how to avoid them by watching my appointed spy. Our interpreters were Russian spies. If she wanted to ask me questions she didn’t want her government to hear, she would say, “Let’s take a walk.” So eventually when those of us who were there together from America, wanted to speak to one another without being overheard....we took a walk in the same areas she took me to. They knew we knew we were being watched. But we knew that they knew we knew. It eventually became quite comical.

The second day our “promoter” - son of a Stasi, came back stage screaming the first week; “Did you bring Bibles into this country?!!!” We said we did. He asked how? We told him in the music gear boxes, underneath the instruments...hundreds of them. He screamed “Next time you want to smuggle Bibles here, TELL ME! I can get them in. My family is KGB and powerful! You could be arrested for doing this!!” But we weren’t. They were making too much money from the production at the Communist Youth Palace to arrest us.

In the concert Bob did a duet with the Russian “appointed” rock star; Sasha Losef, singing “Back in the USSR”. (Beatles) About the third afternoon, Sasha and his fellow appointed rock stars came back stage and whispered, “We heard you have Bibles”.  “Yes!”, we told him we did. He asked if he could see one. We showed him a Bible. The other three joined him to look at it as I held it. They then asked if they could touch it?

I told them, “of course you can! You can have it!”. As they touched it they all 4 started crying. 

Now, you must understand that when you were asked questions by the Russians,  ...those assigned to you...you never know if they are asking so they can report you or because they are “personally” curious. We had been trained by others and our own experience in the USSR, to always be Aware. We had, as a group, decided to always tell the truth and not be afraid regardless of the situation or circumstances. So, when these men asked us if we had Bibles, we didn’t know if they had been instructed to ask or if they were just curious. These guys were not the youthful rock stars of America. They were older and had been delegated  BY THE GOVERNMENT to do what they did; both musically and spy-wise. But when they asked if they could touch it and cried when they did.....we knew it was Real. Still to this day, one of the most precious moments in my life.

The Communist Youth didn’t have a clue who we were, of course, they just wanted to hear the Americans. So we took advantage of the moment and presented the Gospel even though we had been told we could not say God or Jesus.

The first night we simply pointed upward and said, “The One”. The crowd lit their lighters to let us know they knew who we were referring to. By the second night we just started saying His name. JESUS! Not caring what our orders had been. The audience went nuts! Stomping their feet, lighting their lighters and clapping. So Excited! Concert ticket sales, lines four blocks long to get in - $$$$$$ - kept “The Boss” from stopping us. They were making Too many rubles.

We took a train from Moscow to Leningrad and almost froze to death. No heat on the passenger train. In the Sports Arena in Leningrad, where Toymaker’s Dream did their production and we did our concerts - and in the Communist Youth Palace in Moscow - the crowds were enormous. And they kept adding and adding shows. Day after day, and also adding matinees. Before we left Russia we had done 23 concerts, back to back in both cities.

The Soviet Government allowed my friend Olga, who was our interpreter, to come to America to coordinate another concert tour in Moscow (or that’s what we used as the excuse) Olga had 4 masters degrees and spoke 7 languages, and was a spy for the Soviet Government of those she interpreted for. I led her to Jesus outside the Sports Arena, where we sang in Leningrad, because she knew who was listening, inside. As I’ve told you, any time she wanted to have a personal conversation, she said, “let’s take a walk.” She prayed with me there.

Each night after each evening concert Olga got in a black limo and was taken to the Boss to report everything she had seen or heard.

Olga had been taken from her mother and trained since she was 5 years old in a government education school / home and had been chosen by government to be what she was.

A very important part of our experience was having our “spy” Olga, come and live with us for a year after the wall came down. She was absolutely beautiful. Very blond hair and pale blue eyes. And Brilliant. (Who speaks 7 languages?) How we got her here is too long a story,  but just one story about some of her first experiences (before she came to live with us) might shed some light on life in a communist country:

In America, When I took her into Kroger, she stopped in shock, as we walked into the fresh food section and asked me, “who is  all that food for?” I told her, “anyone, everyone”. She shook her head and cried, saying “I’ve been lied to all my life.”  I took her to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. She asked, “why so many flavors?” She had never had ice cream....she read all the tags of flavors. She had known there was vanilla, but had no idea of anything else. She ate only ice cream for 3 days. Same with vegetables and fruit. She lived on oranges and bananas for several days. She had never had either.

When Olga came the first time, sent by her government to prepare for our second government sponsored Russia tour, she was convinced our house was bugged and her government or Our government could hear everything we said. We could assure her at that time, our home nor our car was bugged. This was before we all had cell phones...few even had home computers. She never believed us. By the time she came to live with us, she still wasn’t sure, but seemed less afraid to speak her mind. Somewhat.

Just a few years ago someone told us that a college professor - when asked by a reporter, how he thought the Berlin Wall fell and what caused the uprising among the people in the entire USSR, - He answered that some American Christian production came to Moscow and Leningrad. Nothing was the same afterward. The Young people were not accepting of the communist ideology anymore. They wanted freedom of speech and freedom to learn and freedom to worship God. They were done with being under government control. He even wrote a book about it. Now I don’t know if he was right or not, but I do know that thousands heard the message and several thousand got Bibles for the first time in their lives. They lit their lighters to tell us they KNEW who we were talking about when we referred to Jesus. It was beautiful. It was life changing for us. However, I am saying that God will use ANYTHING, and ANYBODY HE wants to, to change a paradigm of thinking. In Poland seeing college students willing to lose their freedom and go to prison, or even their lives to bring in a message for the People, was something to Behold. College Students!!!  They sneaked us in and out!

Now, seeing OUR college students doing the opposite in our own country because they are ignorant, is heartbreaking. They have NO IDEA what they are cheering and asking for. The example in Portland, Oregon a few years ago when students rebelled, set up boundaries and called themselves “their own country”.....but kept asking people to bring them pizza, McDonalds, toilet paper, tooth paste, medicine, etc. daily...tells us a lot about what they DON’T KNOW!!

Recently I saw an image on facebook of a student in his expensive sunglasses, skinny jeans and designer tennies, wearing a T-shirt that had some Pro communist message on it. If it weren’t so sad, it would be hilarious, - the ignorance being displayed and the irony. I can assure you,  anyone in THOSE countries who show any resistance to THOSE governments, disappear - never to be seen again. Just as the Chinese students did in China after they carried American flags in the streets. And by the way, so would Teachers and Professors: Gulag bound. We heard their stories FROM THEM.

Oh America! There is a reason we’ve been the most Free, most powerful, most envied, most Generous country in the world. It is because we were built on God’s principles. They are in all our founding father’s writings. Everywhere. Yes, slavery is also in our history and we are ashamed, but it is only One part of our glorious history. Our Founding Fathers made sure God was included in every writing they did. Unfortunately, our young - even our educated - are ignorant of that ...or choose to ignore it. These politicians doing their best to eliminate GOD and faith IN GOD - CHRISTIAN and BIBLICAL teaching from our culture, are totally dismissing the fundamental concepts of our founders. The recent hearings of Judicial appointment is certainly PROOF of that….but their endorsement of radical islam is Online for all to see. Look up what Jefferson wrote about THAT. Our TRUE history is being ignored and changed. This movement, “The Great Reset” attempt to place us all under Global CONTROL is a total take down of our America. Go read their own website. It’s all there. I beg you. Whether you like DT or not, you certainly are in for a Shock should they get their way. He said NO! - to all this. He is trying to save our Republic and our Freedom.

Biden wasn’t president. His “handlers” were. They say it from their own mouths - this is exactly where they are headed with our country....to be your Dictator. Please, please AWAKEN. Do YOUR HOMEWORK! It’s ALL there! You do NOT want America to become “The Socialist Continent of the Americas” ( Hillary’s words. Not mine) Just look at Venezuela. It took less than 10 years for them to go from one of the richest countries in the world, to starving and eating dogs. Because they VOTED for socialism. Socialism ALWAYS becomes Communism.

I was told of a college professor in Florida who announced to his class they were going to do a study on socialism. He asked the class how many of them believed it was good. They all raised their hands. He said, ‘OK , next class we are going to do an experiment. Come prepared. Next class he asked who had money on them? Several raised their hand. Then he asked who had no money on them. Several more raised their hands. Then he told John who had a twenty, to go give it to Melissa, who had no money. John said, “no way! I worked for this! I’m not giving it to someone who doesn’t work! The professor insisted. Reluctantly John handed Mellisa his twenty. But he wasn’t happy. Around the room he asked those with money to give it to those who had no money. There were fiery arguments breaking out. “My parents have me on a budget! I can’t give away my spending money!” Or “I worked all summer for this money, and I have books to buy!” While those without money admitted they didn’t work, or that they had blown their allowance already for the week. At the end of lots of yelling and screaming, fighting and insults....the professor made everyone get silent. Then he said, ‘Welcome to socialism.” He then took another poll regarding socialism. The whole class voted against it.

I have hundreds more USSR stories. We were there several times. Maybe someday I will write a book. But for now I am only writing this because I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN what socialism/communism looks like and what it does to people. - how they have to live.  It is NOT what they are telling you it is. I can assure you America - especially American YOUTH - you have NO IDEA what you are praising and rioting for. The Chinese students tried to tell you - warn you - . They are all dead now.

[mountaineer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKVy7qRf8UQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owl0Qkgv4KI&list=RDowl0Qkgv4KI&start_radio=1

[DefiantMassRINO]

Socialism is fine and dandy, until they come to confiscate your stuff to give to someone else or to themselves.

[Cyber Liberty]

A long and necessary read.  People didn't forget, they never knew.

[mountaineer]

A long and necessary read.  People didn't forget, they never knew.

How many 20-somethings even know what you're talking about when you say "Soviet Union"? 

[Cyber Liberty]

How many 20-somethings even know what you're talking about when you say "Soviet Union"? 

They know it's what "Russia" used to be called, but how that place was operated and why it came to be that way is outside of their understanding.  That's why the experiences like you posted need to be preserved and disseminated.  We are against people who describe the Soviet system as all sunshine and lollipops.  Free shit.

It suckered people 50-80 years ago, and still does, probably always will.

[Free Vulcan]

To get to the real fraud of socialism, so much of their infrastructure has been built from the money from the unions, who want often times ridiculous wages for unskilled labor.

Yet every body else apparently is supposed to work for free and give their stuff away, and the bureaucrat class always gets rich while the cronies get the leftover crumbs..

It's literally a system of unworkable contradiction. Unless of course you look at it as a political ponzi scheme.

[Bigun]

For me, the saddest part of that story is knowing that the Soviet Union would have fallen very quickly had the good ole USA not propped it up early on.