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The Russians Are Coming!

Last week, I decided to rent out the Academy Award winning movie “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” which is the first movie I remember watching as a young girl.

The movie debuted in the United States during the Cold War and put a decidedly human spin on our fear of Russia. It is still, even today, a very funny movie about a submarine that washes up on a sandbar near a New England island, and how the people on that island respond to that event. While the movie is a comedy, it was also a commentary on the way in which we saw life on our little blue dot in the Milky Way.

What the movie succeeded in showing us is that at the end of the day, we’re all just human beings that share basic human qualities. That was an ambitious and perceptive statement to make in 1966, and it is equally as profound today in light of allegations that Russia is interfering with the process of governing in the United States.

Nearly twenty years ago, I befriended a small Russian family who had just legally immigrated to America. It was an interesting experience for me to see America through their eyes. They were fascinated by my dishwasher, by the giant grocery store down the street, and they insisted on vacuuming my house every time they visited because they had never seen a vacuum cleaner and they couldn’t get enough of it. Everything about life here overwhelmed and excited them; America was everything they wanted it to be.

I explained to them that as a young student at school, that I had to practice hiding under my desk in the event of a surprise nuclear attack by Russia. “Duck, cover, and hold” was the prevailing safety measure in those days, because, wisdom held, covering exposed skin might shield us against the blast and the ensuing thermal effects of a nuclear bomb.

They sat wide-eyed through my story, insisting they had never been taught, as children, to fear America in quite the same way.

I have collected all kinds of stories throughout my life that taught me that it’s often governments, and not people, that create division in the world. At the end of the day, most human beings on earth would gladly come to dinner at your house and vacuum for you later.

We all want the same things for our families–a peaceful home, adequate nutrition, and the chance to become the people we were meant to be through liberty and opportunity. We were all meant to thrive, just as every living organism on earth is meant to thrive.

Two news stories this week illustrate just how difficult it is for so many people in the world to achieve the simple things they want for their families.

The first is the new statistic that came out on wealth inequality: One percent of the world now owns more than the rest of the world’s population-which is simply staggering. According to CNBC, the poorest half of the world saw no increase.

Billionaires now have enough wealth to end poverty seven times over.

What this tells you is that humanity is enslaved, that no matter how hard we work, the majority of people on earth continue to create wealth for others rather than themselves.

The second news story is an incident, that as of last week, was still not resolved. A “jaw-dropping” memo was discovered that allegedly proves the Obama administration used FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign as well as his transition team ahead of the president’s swearing-in.

Our government leaders are deciding whether or not the American people are worthy of seeing this memo, but my outrage is more focused on Diane Feinstein.

People all over the country started using the hashtag “Release The Memo,” but Diane Feinstein tried to convince her political base that it was Russian bots that were making that hashtag so popular.

She wrote a letter to both Twitter and Facebook, demanding they stop using the hashtag, because, she wrote, they needed assistance “in our efforts to counter Russia’s continuing efforts to manipulate public opinion and undermine American democracy and the rule of law.”

Twitter immediately conducted an investigation and found that there were no Russian bots and that the hashtag had been made popular by repeated use from the American people.

That old cry “The Russians are coming!” strikes again.

Are we ever going to learn?

Never have we witnessed so much corruption on both sides of the political aisle in our lifetime. And we as Americans have to demand that it end. We the people are infinitely more powerful than we believe ourselves to be.

Please call your congressmen and demand a reset in Washington, D.C.

And suggest that they watch that old 1966 movie, which so beautifully illustrates that human beings all over the world are more alike than we know and that we all hope for and deserve the same bright life.

Most troubling of all is that we are being led to believe we have more to fear from the Russians than we do our own government. And that’s a mistake we can only make for so long.

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