Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism", "Liberty on Life Support" and "U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy," "Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later" are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
The Potomac River shines through the barren trees.
The marina nearby is empty although the weather is balmy for late November.
I can hear the laughter of children playing at the water’s edge.
I feel lucky and privileged to walk on Lee’s historical trail in Leesylavania Woods, Virginia.
A white marble obelisk in the middle of a roundabout draws my attention.
It is dedicated to Henry Lee III, “Light Horse Harry,” 1756-1818, whose accomplishments are inscribed on the simple monument:
On a recent flight, I was handed a bright, red and white napkin with cute polar bears on both sides with the logo, "Together We Can Help Protect Their Home." The Coca Cola famous trademark was augmented by the words, "Arctic Home."
I decided to check their Arctic Home website. It was exquisitely done, with soothing, sleep-inducing sounds of ocean waves and beautiful shots of polar bears in their Arctic habitat. The site explained, "Our goal, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, is to raise awareness and funds to help create a safe haven for polar bears on Arctic refuge. As a symbol of our commitment, for the first time ever, we are turning our red Coca Cola can white. Please join us by making a donation so the polar bear always has a place to call home."
Walking down Pennsylvania Avenue on a blustery day, I encountered one of the makeshift squalid camps of Occupy D.C. The colorful and dingy tents were empty. A few homeless people were milling about waiting for capitalist lunch delivery to the camp. They would have had to wait a long time under communism to have anything delivered free. If you did not work, you did not get food or shelter.
Environmentalists, anarchists, and communists want us to live this way in filth, squalor, no electricity, no water, and no sewage, all in the name of saving the planet. These occupiers are their ideal useful idiots.
I am walking in the dense woods with Bogart, my Snowshoe Siamese who thinks he is a dog. He is crisscrossing my path as leaves and twigs crunch under my foot. I carefully watch my step. Patches of marshy soil glisten here and there, perfect muddy traps.
Bogart stops now and then wondering why I am so slow – his inquisitive back glances are reassuring. His marbles-sized blue eyes watch for every move around him. When he runs ahead and I lose sight of him, I know exactly where he is – the tall and yellowing blades of grass are moving in a wave pattern.
Today I visited the National Building Museum, a private, non-profit organization.
The exhibits occupied about ten percent of the building. The rest were halls for lectures and other activities.
The imposing, three-story atrium was being readied for a lavish fund-raising gala and was being draped in shades of arresting purple, imitating a huge circus tent, three stories high, in line with the leit-motif, “the cirque.”
It did not take long to exhaust the exhibits and the Lego construction room, show casing a few famous landmarks built to scale from hundreds of thousands of grey and clear Lego pieces.