I have asserted that the games we play influence our thinking; I will go further and state that the stories we are told as children, and the people we choose to regard as heroes are no less important in defining who we are, and what we aspire to be.
One of the most inspiring moments in my lifetime was when the Russians began tearing down the statues of the communist leaders who had made the Soviet Union a hell-on-earth. It’s disappointed to hear that Putin’s government is quietly raising them again.
"Earlier this month, with little fanfare but plenty of dreary symbolism (the statue of Feliks) Dzerzhinsky was returned to a place of honor in Moscow…This is the man who…(was the father of) the Cheka (secret police), …the founder of the gulag, and whose people tortured and killed millions to create Lenin’s dream state."
(From Eleanor Randoph’s NYTs story, Soviet henchman returns to position, reprinted in the Taiwan News. Sorry, couldn’t find a link to the column in either paper)
You become what you worship, a pastor once told me. No doubt Iron Feliks would have approved of this:
(From Wikipedia’s entry on Viktor Yushchenko).
UPDATE (June 12/06): A little quote from communist secret policeman Iron Felix:
"There is nothing more effective than a bullet in the head to shut people up."
Oh! Oh! Let’s build a statue in his honor!
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Why do you oppress us communists WE only want to make a world wher all people are equil and happy! why do you oppress and kill us! J.T. Alberta, Canada
Well, Viktor Yushchenko don’t look too happy to me. A little dioxin in your borscht’ll do that.