Tiumvirate for a healthy society…

(4/2022) … Free Press, Education, Informed Voting

Christmas Eve 1914, World War I along the front line of British meeting German armies, word had passed down to the trenches that the Hampshires and the Germans were fraternizing in no-man’s-land.

"'Impossible, who's leg are you pulling? If you don't believe me, go down and see for yourself. And there they were, sure enough, British and German warriors in no-man's-land, unarmed, talking to each other and exchanging souvenirs. There is a Christ after all."—Edward Roe, British soldier, described the scene on the front lines, Christmas morning, 1914.

The story goes that on Christmas Eve 1914, up and down the frontline of the WWI trenches, English and German soldiers began to hear a back and forth of singing. Silent Night, sung in German, was heard by the British, and they responded, Still Nacht, sung in English. Men slowly rose from muddy trenches to see shadow figures cautiously approaching, turning from phantoms into men. Gifts from care packages were exchanged, cakes, Schnapps, beer. The line was almost 30 miles long.

All along the front there were groups meeting, sharing Christmas Day, and, as the story goes, playing a game or two of football. Some groups ceased fire for days, some for months. There is no explicit recording of the truce other than eyewitness accounts saved as oral histories, letters and other records from both sides of the shared pause in conflict. Enough men were forever changed by meeting the alleged enemy and finding him to be a brother that the core of the story lives on. To maintain the adversarial attitude, commanding officers understood that soldiers had to be redeployed to other areas of fighting.

One lesson from The Christmas Truce is that national conflict can be manufactured from repetitive insults, packaged as imminent danger, presented to adults who have been conditioned that sometimes war is a necessity. The Christmas Truce was broken by manipulation of belief in conflict. Move out the soldiers who learned that people in the opposing army were not their enemy. Leadership presented a different story, and stole the story of friendship.

There have always been leaders who manipulate the story to get people to do their dirty work. Centuries before there was a Soviet Union, Kiev was at one time more or less the capital of a vast area that became Russia. Culturally and symbolically, Ukraine and Kiev are inseparable from Russian history and culture. Since the break up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has been an independent country. Putin has removed all uncensored public information from Russia and left only the state-sanctioned broadcasts. Telling the Russian public that Ukraine has committed crimes, Putin is presenting himself as righteous in ordering an invasion of a sovereign nation. There is no opposing opinion or evidence allowed. This makes anyone supporting Putin a supporter of dehumanizing their own. Putin and his supporters, including people in the United States who call Putin a genius, are bad neighbors.

A free society needs a free press, education and a well informed voting public. For an engaged citizenry, open information resources, complimented by public education that includes civics alongside national and world history is how we overcome one aspect of human nature—the need of one person to control the actions of others by controlling what they think. Our own Constitution includes a Free Press. This is quite a marvelous tool for communicating with a population.

A Press—one paper makes it hard for the people/us to have different perspectives, any real understanding of current events.

The Free Press—many papers make it hard for any one person to control you, me, our neighbors.

In the US we still have many newspapers, or do we? A few corporations are buying up as many newspapers as they can. Classic newspapers the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, once independent, are now owned by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund company which has investments in about 200 newspapers. The regrouped publications can be given the same set of information to promote. Television, social media, etc., all have their own mass messaging flaws.

Sane and sound school boards are necessary to support teachers and curricula that give us an understanding of history and civics. That we repeat history unless we learn from it is a truism. Some scenarios naturally occur. If they happen more than once is it repetition because of not paying attention? Or is it our inability to see cause and effect as well as we think we do?

In our country we have a unique organization of democracy that is intended to work for the maximum number of people. Our right to vote creates a flexible society along with a record of our collective view, even as that changes over time. If your candidate wins you can feel a part of the system, if they don’t win, your vote, added to statistics, still informs us of where we stand as one nation of many individuals.

Who is challenged when we vote for a wide variety of our neighbors to represent us?

Who gets the advantage if we stay home and don’t vote?

There is time to prepare, to learn about the candidates in our upcoming election, even meet them. Are they working to make life better for all of their neighbors? Or working to silence some of them. Do they reach out to understand many perspectives or only amplify the words of one opinion, and say anyone who disagrees is bad?

Maryland elected officials and candidates in the 2022 Primary and General Elections are ready for your review. Current elected officials: votesmart.org. Find your polling place and district at voterservices.elections.maryland.gov. Find more about the Candidates at elections.maryland.gov.

The whole world wants a Christmas Truce with their neighbors. Today, Ukraine shouts it the loudest. If you stay home and don’t vote, who will be shouting tomorrow?

Read other Good Day Good Neighbor's by Dorothea Mordan