On Sunday, May 12^th, 2024, I joined several other members of the Center for Political Innovation to attend a Victory Day Concert put on by Chicago’s Russian-American Community in honor of the martyrs of World War II. It was amazing how alive and real history is to this community. While the artists sang, newsreel footage played in the background showing the Russian Army fighting against the Nazis. 4 generations of audience members, from ages 6 to 93, reacted to this footage with tears and cheers, as if it were happening right now. Watching the scene, I found myself wishing my fellow Americans felt this kind of connection to the heroic moments of our own history. If more Americans could connect to history at the level this community does, perhaps this nation, and the world, would not be in such an awful state.

This was in stark contrast to the crowd of counter-protestors across the street, waving their Ukrainian flags. Sadly, they have been made so ignorant of history that they can spend their Sunday harassing 93-year-old survivors of Hitler’s brutal 900-day siege of Leningrad, while thinking themselves progressive. It is quite possible that some of these same people protesting the victors of World War II to defend Ukraine will go on to spend their Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays denouncing a so-called “wave of anti-Semitism on college campuses” to defend Israel, without ever realizing their hypocrisy.

 

 

8 decades ago, the American people and the Russian people worked together to save the world from fascism. The world needs us to do that again. But first, the bulk of the American people need to stop blindly following the latest media narrative and forgetting the truth where it doesn’t match. The American people need to learn their history, not only the awful side of imperialism but also their heroic triumphs against Nazism, slavery, and the British Empire, to remember who they can be at their best. I hope that we at the Center for Political Innovation can help the American people understand our true past, so that we can forge a brighter future.

 

“To the Masses” highlights experiences of CPI members engaging with their local communities to spread positive messages among the American people.