What is So Special About Indiantown, Florida?
Psalms 2 : 1 “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?”
Acts 5: 29 "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
The debates were intense. The doctrinaire logic of the various socialist ideologies was impeccable: Maoist, Trotskyite, Leninist, Marxist, Social Democrat of different shades, and it seemed true believers each and every one. This was the intellectual atmosphere in and around the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in the 1960s from the campus itself, to the West Bank, to north and south Minneapolis where its Native Indian and Afro American populations resided. This naive young Catholic, with social justice concerns, did not realize what he was getting himself into. My understanding is that from the 1930s and most probably before then, Minneapolis was a hotbed of socialist ideas and movements. Whether on the street corners or in the bars of ‘the west bank’ [a notorious radical community], these were the ideas discussed, both enlightening and deceiving at the same time.
The participating organizations were as follows:
SDS, Students for a Democratic Society
WEB Dubois Society
CPUSA, Communist Party of the United States
SLP, Socialist Labor Party
SWP, Socialist Workers Party
PLP, Progressive Labor Party
SNCC, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
BPP, Black Panther Party
Proverbs 24:21-22
”My son, fear the LORD and the king;
Do not associate with those given to change;
For their calamity will rise suddenly,
And who knows the ruin those two can bring?”
As a witness and participant in this 1960s student leftist era, I can attest to the involvement of professional revolutionaries from each and every one of these organizations in planning and directing protests, marches and sometimes violent confrontations in order to build a social movement toward a socialist society. Oh yes, we were a naïve and provincial group of young Americans, many Catholics, seduced by ideas we had never heard before. What a way to view things, how interesting, how mind expanding, along with the drugs fed us through the various grapevines. Our protests revolved around the selective service, Viet Nam war, police oppression, racism, and of course capitalism itself. Catholics but just holding on by a thread. You know, as the old adage goes, if you believe nothing, you’ll believe in anything. Well, universities have the greatest secularizing influence on young people and so they fell for it. What comes ‘round, goes ‘round and history repeats itself.
As there were a number of social movement events and protests intermittently approaching, meetings would take place at various campus or adjacent to campus locations. Led by none other than members of any of the above groups but especially it seemed the Socialist Workers Party. They even had presidential and vice- presidential candidates on the Minnesota ballot and many other states throughout the country. One such state was California where the Chicano movement was quite outspoken and influential. I suppose this was an outgrowth of the Cesar Chavez Farm Workers Union though very few ever considered him communist. He himself was opposed to illegal immigration since such immigrants took jobs away from the local California migrant worker community which he was trying to unionize. He was a very religious Catholic and appeared loyal to America and the state of California.
So to continue, seems many of the speakers from the SWP were Chicano women from California. Good looking too. At that time there were very few Hispanics in Minnesota. Why mention this? Interestingly, the word around the young leftist community was - be careful of the Trotskyite women; they lure you into bed and then try to bring you over to the party line. LoL ! And lure they tried.
But there were also young professional looking, well educated men who presented intelligent talks and outlines of the planned events and tactics involved. As part of the presentations were future intentions, and it seemed all above board visions. Their visions were not only of their Marxist utopia but also short ranged intentions of organizing students and workers. These people did not have jobs but rather involved full time with their party, and even offered others present to work as salaried community organizers for that purpose. Does the name Barak Obama sound familiar? There was a detail of procedure to take place during the demonstrations. They indicated specifically how to confront the police, how to both elicit and instigate violent police behavior, and how to respond.
Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
This brings us to Minneapolis today. The minority populations have grown substantially, many migrating from Central America and Chicago. Now for a little editorializing. I don’t see the Hispanic population involved in these riots today in Minneapolis. They came here to escape such tyranny. They like their jobs. And these riots are not based around social justice but rather social discord and disruption. It is a Leninist tactic to create chaos and government response to further radicalize the local population, as per Socialist Workers Party meetings. They’ll be the government in power eventually, whether by hook or by crook, it doesn’t matter. Ideologically to them it is the destiny of the left, the providence of history. I believe it is up to us, along with prayer to guide us and not to let it happen. If we do believe, we can’t fall for such nonsense. Gotta spread the word more!
To me in the 2016 election, America had spoken up, stemming the tide of our decreasing sovereignty and new millennium style communism into the United States. Somehow it reversed in 2020. Hmmm. Sociologists for decades have indicated that communism would or could come to America in every way but in name only. So, let's just call this excessive administrative, bureaucratic growth by the Democratic party, their propaganda and control without that infamous word. The clearest example of that is the collusion between media and government, a propaganda machine similar to the CNN, MSNBC vortex, not unlike the Soviet Union, Communist China, No. Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, etc. Portrayed in films and books like Fahrenheit 451 & 1984, Marxism collides with almost every principle of western civilization and American life - true liberalism. The attack on our sovereignty, capitalism and Christian morality was the hallmark of the Obama administration and his followers, but Marxism fails everywhere. Our way - not perfect, but it is better ! Social unrest in Minneapolis today is clearly a Leninist tactical attempt to regain a momentum lost before the election, based on lies and deceit about America and hatred for President Trump. It is a desperation and continuation of leftist deceit, dishonesty, deviousness as promulgated by the Democrats. How they morphed into what they are today is another story.
Hebrews 12:14
”Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”
My conclusion once again in life is that Catholicism is anti ideological. Ideologies fall by the wayside. It cuts through all sides of ideology with clarity and truth.