From Little Green Footballs an amazingly transparent recounting of the life of a man’s grandfather and what it means in these days when some would stand and demand the the Nazis did not try to eliminate the Jewish culture from the face of the planet….

It’s a tale of derived understanding, of knowing pictures of people who are no more, did in fact exist and that cannot be denied.

If you choose to read his post, be ready, it’s an emotional account in a factual matter, written like Peter Falk playing his character of Colombo, but in a far more reverential manner. You may need Kleenex – so don’t tell me I didn’t warn you first.

From How my grandad invented the Holocaust by Eugene:

My father’s father died when I was 16, 15 years ago. Or was I 18? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago. My memory fails me, the daguerreotype has faded. I know that he was. And then he was not. I know this because I saw him when he was. And then I saw him again. And he wasn’t any more. He lived, and then he died. It is a fact.

My grandfather had a little sister. I know what she looked like. I have seen the photo. A 1941 photo. Or was it 1940? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago that I saw it last. My grandfather knew. But he has been dead for a while, so he cannot tell me. If the photo was taken in 1941, that is the year my grandfather’s sister died.

In his 60s, towards the end of his days, my grandfather got very sentimental. He had had three heart attacks, the first one when he was in his 40s, so he wasn’t good for much towards the end of his days. He would sit on the couch, clutching his sister’s old photo, and cry. About 40 years had passed, but he would still cry. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that, many years after my parents go, may they live a long life, I will cry exactly like he did. My people, the Jews, are like that. Cry babies.

So his sister lived, and then she died. It is a fact. I know that, because I have seen my grandfather cry over her photo.

Read and be enriched by this story and know the truth is nothing but the truth, so help us God.

Update 12/15/2006: Take a moment to get some background on the Holocaust from SteelJaw Scribe as he commemorates the beginning of Hannukah.

Sneak preview tickets in hand, I expected to see a good movie, having seen a few commercials. I saw a great movie. Not knowing the details of the real situation, if the movie wasn’t too overly dramatized, it certainly is an inspirational story of an entire community, not just a coach or a team. It is worth your time.

Yesterday I posted how life seems to emulate reality TV. Today I write about how life, in the context of a small West Virginia town should be a model for our nation.

How timely this happens to be, as the theme of the movie: “Yes, we took a loss, but we need to suit up and get back in the game, if we ever expect to win” plays into post III of a few weeks ago, in The Ratchet and the Governor – Tools for Today” series I have been working on. I also commented, just a few days ago, the rough times demand tough men.

The movie is well acted. Be ready to be brought into the emotions of a town who loses all but 4 of their football players, the college athletic staff and several of the key (read big) supporters. The big picture of the movie is it took many from the College and town, as well as a coach, who knew nothing more about the school than they were in need of a coach, and they made things happen.

They set a goal, first by the desire of one of the four players, who had not gone on the trip due to an injury, who thought the honor was not in shutting down (the equivalent response at our national level is the “withdraw and redeploy” concept), but by standing tall, and getting the student body to support a message to the school administration and the board, that they wanted to honor the dead by staying the course until victory. It was not an unruly crowd that gathered to get the point across, but a large one, willing to make their presence know in support of continued effort in the face of disaster.

They couldn’t find a coach in the long list of alumni. It was looking bleak. A coach called and when asked in the interview why he wanted the job, his answer was to look at his three children and his wife, running around the front yard, then tell Marshall’s President it was because of them, and then he paused and said he couldn’t imagine being without them and he figured a whole town was hurting and he thought he might be able to help. What a concept: You do it for your children, and along the way, you do it for everyone else, and their children so to speak.

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Chasing links….and here’s some interesting philosphy:

The biggest threat to America is not communism, it’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy… — Frank Zappa

I found this as the “tagline” for a posted “NCrefugee” (I thought we weren’t supposed to use that word any more, because it makes people feel bad) at Daily Kos, where he posted, suspecting a grand conspiracy of right wingers using zombie computers to bias the outcome of the weblog awards by deleting cookies, so you can vote over an over… Geez…I guess if you live in a world where it’s all about a conspiracy behind every grain of sand, then all in life can ebe explained thru that sort of filter.

But…to the main point: Frank’s insightful quote.

For a drug overdosed hippy, Frank sure seemed to be “spot on.” I’m sure he wasn’t able to forsee the future, where an Islamofascist government disallows all things non-Muslim, starting with any devisive comments about the religion. I bet he didn’t conceive of the “poligion” that this will bring, if we keep backing away from anything that hurts the feelings of those of that faith…