Thursday, August 20, 2009

Having grown up in Soviet-controlled Poland, I remember the Communist Party bosses branding the Solidarity-led protests in the 1980s as “unpatriotic.”

Over the years, I have heard similar statements from regimes in other Communist-ruled countries in Europe (as well as from China, North Korea and Myanmar, the former Burma) that used such statements to disparage anyone who dared to disobey the party’s rule.

Hearing the same ploy used by the speaker of the U.S. House comes as some surprise.

 Pawel Kalinski

Pine