Those of a certain age — meaning roughly 65 or older — will recall the "Bicentennial Minute." These were one-minute homages to the mostly good history of America that ran on CBS from 1974 through 1976 to mark America's 200th anniversary. Politicians, celebrities and average Americans of all political stripes appeared in the videos. It was a mostly unifying time following the divisive Vietnam War and the political scandal known as Watergate.
As socialism appears to be sweeping big cities and universities as we approach our 250th anniversary, a small organization has decided to fight back, using the ideological equivalent of a fire extinguisher.
The Washington Times reports that an anti-communist film festival is being planned for October by conservative activist Mark Judge in partnership with the Victims of Communism Foundation.
Judge and the organization are raising money — $26,000 so far through a GoFundMe campaign — to show anti-communist films like "Dr. Zhivago" and "Red Dawn" so that people who have forgotten, or were never told, what communism and socialism looked like and the evils they perpetrated, might rethink their attraction to these warped ideological and political philosophies.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Judge said: "The response was instantaneous. I was instantly getting emails from people around the country going, 'When is this? How do I get involved in this?'"
He says he initially had an agreement with the American Film Institute and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, to show the films. That old-fashioned theater has shown classic films in the past on its single big screen, but two months after agreeing to show these films, Mr. Judge says, the center shut it down. The reason they gave had to do with "disputes over changes in screen rental rates and rescheduling dates."
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Mr. Judge attributes their actual decision to the center's left-wing politics. "The directors and all my friends were like, 'They'll never approve this. They're communists over there. And sure enough, after about two months, they said, 'We can't accommodate you.'" It appears the films will now be screened at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington.
These films and this campaign to strike back against socialism and communism need a wider platform than a single location in Washington and a single month. They need to be shown at universities and in public schools, which seem to have become training grounds for a new generation of left-wing believers.
This would be a natural fit for Turning Point USA, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, which already has many university and public school chapters across the country. The film festival creators could stand behind the First Amendment and use the diversity, equity and inclusion mantra of the left to gain access to young minds that are currently hearing propaganda that socialism and communism are superior to capitalism. These films also depict how socialism and communism suppress or outright deny the freedoms we all enjoy.
It's time to fight back against these twin evils, or we risk being overwhelmed not only on this anniversary of a country some of us still remember as different from what it is rapidly becoming, but for many anniversaries to come. Socialism and communism have been tried and failed. Younger people need to know why these systems would also be bad for them, for their future, for their children and for their country.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas' latest book "A Watchman in the Night: What I've Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America" (HumanixBooks).
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