OPINION:
Those of a certain age, meaning roughly 65 or older, will recall the “Bicentennial Minute.”
These were one-minute homages to America’s mostly good history 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 after 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.
Conservative activist Mark Judge is planning an anti-communist film festival for October, in partnership with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Mr. Judge and the organization are raising money — $26,000 so far through a GoFundMe campaign — to show anti-communist films such as “Dr Zhivago” and “Red Dawn.” The goal is to prompt people who have forgotten, or were never told, about the evils of communism and socialism to 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?’”
Mr. Judge said he initially had an agreement with the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, to show the films. That old-fashioned theater has shown classic films on its single big screen in the past, but two months after agreeing to host the festival, Mr. Judge said, the center canceled the agreement.
The center cited “disputes over changes in screen rental rates and rescheduling dates” as its reason.
Mr. Judge attributed the 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, operated by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
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, co-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 reach young minds currently hearing the 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 is 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 on many anniversaries to come.
Socialism and communism have been tried, and they have failed. Younger people need to know why these systems would also be bad for them, their future, their children and 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” (Humanix Books).
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