Blog by VONNIE DAVIS -- International, Award-Winning Romance Author: Adventurous...Humorous...Amorous.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Moday Musings and Mumblings

I'm a child of the sixties, more correctly a teenager of the sixties. A flower child. An aging hippy who is excessively hippy in a different way now, sad to say. But truth is truth. Having grown up in the era I did, I don't easily trust the government or the press. I recall how my generation was manipulated by both. Manipulated AND wrongly portrayed.

For example, we've all heard history books are written by the winners. Right? So we have to research beyond what's spoon-fed to us in those history books.

We're told health care systems in other countries, classified as a form of socialism, are poor with slow available care. Speak to a Frenchman or German and their opinion and personal experiences are vastly different than what the government and news outlets tell us.

I've got this wonderful step-son so like his father--intelligent, humorous, gentle, and great to talk to. Kelly lives in Berlin, working as head product developer for Mozilla. His wife is a native Berliner, having grown up in the Communist sector of Berlin. The part we'd heard was so horribly bad people died trying to escape across or under the wall.

Katrin told us she loved living in Eastern Berlin. She had a legal job, an apartment, security, good medical care. Then the wall was torn down. Gone was her job, the roof over her head, her currency or security, and care provided by the government. But that was Communism, thinks I in surprise. She talked about how hard it was for her and her relatives to find work and housing. She explained communism did not provide everything. What is provided was the opportunity to have everything for those who worked.

I asked if they weren't happy after the wall was torn down. That's what we were told. She scoffed and said she'd gone from a legal clerk on her way to being an attorney to a shampoo person in a beauty shoppe. She and her relatives crammed into a dingy apartment instead of the beautiful apartments they each had before the sides came together.

Calvin and I listened to her talk about her experiences. Frankly, we were in shock. We'd always been told differently by the government and media. Had we been lied to or was her experience an anomaly? Were her memories jumbled bits of truth and fiction? She now owns her own business, a benefit from her knowledge of laws. Our Katrin is an intelligent, hard-working woman. In fact, she's recently had her company go totally "green" to benefit the environment.

I think the best thing Calvin and I have learned from her is a throwback to the sixties and seventies. Don't trust blindly. Ask. Always question. News outlets and news entertainment centers that taint their broadcasts with an inflection of voice or a raised eyebrow or downright shouting should be believed with half a grain of salt. Be your own truth advocate. Read. Research. Question. Heck, question me! Who am I? A 67-year old romance writer with mush for brains as I madly write toward deadline. Have a great week, everyone!

1 comment:

Angela Adams said...

Interesting post. It certainly makes one think...