05-09-2020, 07:05 PM
(05-09-2020, 12:01 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: You grossly misunderstand historical reality. One does not celebrate final victory in a war zone. The German Army had disintegrated in the western parts of Germany because the German Army had nothing worth fighting for. The Americans, British, and Free French were well behaved, and about all that the Germans were going to miss was Nazism. The fear that the Gestapo enforced would never re-appear. So swastika flags, copies of Mein Kampf, portraits of Nazi leaders, and statures of Hitler get trashed. In contrast Berlin was a war zone into the very early part of May even after Hitler blew his brains out and Josef Goebbels offed himself. German troops continued fighting in part to defend German females from rape. But once Berlin was no longer a war zone, the German Armed Forces could surrender at any place of convenience.A close relation of the family who served under Patton as an infantryman assigned with the American 3rd Army, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who also survived crossing the Rhine River three times (twice over once back) was stationed just outside of Berlin as ordered, as the Russian army went in and finished off the Third Reich as planned.
If in western Germany the Wehrmacht had lost the cause to fight, in eastern Germany the Wehrmacht lost the means by which to fight. Once Berlin was safe for a surrender ceremony that American, British, and French officials could participate could the Soviet Army get the highest-ranking member of the Wehrmacht surrender.
The formal division of Germany would happen later, although it was already agreed upon.
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So a "tiny" bug (actually a virus) could stop your precious NHL season? It also stopped the 75th anniversary of VE-Day, which could have been a huge celebration. It has also stopped the Final Four in the NCAA, it has stopped the NBA playoffs, it has stopped the start of the 2020 MLB Season, the Triple Crown of racing, the start of the WNBA... it put ends to opera and symphony concert seasons... lots of local spring festivals, and made a travesty of many people's school years. It has put a damper on dating, marriages, and coming-of-age festivals. That is before I mention commerce, the Holy Grail of a capitalist society.
Most significantly in America it has put an end to the lives of over 78,000 lives. I hope that that is no triviality to you. It could have killed more had some state governors not declared emergencies so profound as to cause stay-at-home-orders. Millions of Americans hate what is going on, and I concede that we will probably start doing more of what we enjoy doing as the danger abates or conduct ourselves in fitting ways -- like wearing masks, spraying or wiping things off with disinfectants, and washing our hands obsessively. We will adapt or die, and we will innovate to evade a tiny virus.
Small things can kill. So it is with small amounts of venom, drugs, chemical reagents, radioactive materials, bacteria, and viruses. Need I continue?
I've never ignored the fact that lives are being lost or ignored the fact that the disease can be really dangerous for some or ignored the fact that there's an active pandemic. You can focus on the deaths and continue to ignore the needs and the rights of the living and continue stressing the amount of death. If the 78,000 could vote do you think the majority of them would vote to take away the weddings and graduation ceremonies of their grandchildren, the lively hoods of their children, grand children and millions of other working American. I've heard the price of a barrel of oil is -$30.00 which means the tax revenue is a minus too. I've also heard that food producers are killing livestock and crop growers are holding off on planting crops and manufactures are holding off on manufacturing goods and so forth. I don't know if this is a sign of what's to come as far as liberals/Progressives go but a local news channel recently cleaned house and got rid of a group of political activists who viewed themselves as being immune for some dumb reason. I suppose the fear of being sued enables some to develop as sense of immunity to not being held the same standard as everyone else.