As Posted To Medium on November 17, 2021

On November 17th, I always think about Communism. It is the day that my family celebrates the start of the Velvet Revolution, which was a series of protests that resulted in the end of Communism in Czechoslovakia. We eat our various favorite Czech foods: knedliky (dumplings), smažený květák (fried cauliflower), brambory (potatoes), pernik (gingerbread) and Pilsner (no translation needed). We listen to “We Shall Overcome.” We tell our children real life stories about their dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles who participated in the protests. We teach them how terrible Communism was for people they know and love. We remind them of the impact that the fall of Communism in the Czech Republic has on our own daily lives. We generally hate on Communism and, more emphatically, thank God for its end.

This year, as I delighted in my smažený květák, I was reminded of many friends who have looked at my political leanings and asked, “Aren’t you and your husband afraid of Communism? Don’t you know that the Democrats/Church/colleges are infiltrated by Communists? Haven’t you read about immigrants from Communist countries who say that they see Communism coming for America?” I think that these friends are surprised to hear me respond that, while we hate Communism, we are much more concerned about something else.

Just in case I haven’t been clear enough yet, in my house, we hate Communism. That is why my family protested. That is why my brothers-in-law all know English. That is why my husband was warned after he sang an American song to his pediatrician. That is why we celebrate with our kids each year, teaching them truths about recent history and preparing them to fight to ensure it never happens again.

However, there is something that we fear and hate, far more than Communism: the evil that dwelled in the hearts of man and allowed all of the wrongs that happened under Communist rule. That evil — greed, the pursuit of power, dehumanization, anger, hatred, cowardice, lawlessness, lies and self-interest — and not the system of governing itself is what led to the atrocities we remember. In fact, many communist ideas, such as the elimination of exploitation, are fundamentally good. However, its implementation in history has been profoundly corrupted by the evil of man and its methods have made it vulnerable to this corruption. In other words, Communism is guilty of allowing man’s evil to prey on innocent victims. Yet, at heart, what gave Communism its teeth was less its ideology and more the evil of human hearts.

We do not have to look far to see that evil in our own world and, yes, we see it echoing in American politics today. We see it in the willingness to do anything for power or wealth. We see it in the willingness to ignore the dignity of another for private gain. We see it in the willingness to disregard the truth and ignore the law when it is beneficial to do so. We even see it in the reluctance to confront this evil due to the fear of repercussions. We see it in both parties and across multiple hot-button issues.

However, if we are honest, we face the same evil in ourselves. We face it in our choice to sacrifice our families in the name of more money, comfort or status. We face it in our ability to look the other way when greeted by a beggar or to ignore our neighbor’s trauma because it is uncomfortable for us. We see it in our cherry picking of convenient truths and discarding of inconvenient rules. We see it in our own hesitancy to rock the boat. We see it in our choosing to care for ourselves at the expense of our brother.

So then, if the evil that led to Communist horrors lies in our own hearts, how can we think that Democracy — a government of the people — is any safer? We have been told that, historically, our government has kept us relatively protected from such atrocities through safeguards that were built into the system. Of course, those safeguards did not help the Native Americans, the Japanese during WWII, women and far too many Black and minority Americans throughout our history. Still, because of the checks and balances provided by a government of the people, a certain group of American citizens has been protected from the kind of evil that terrorized Communist countries and all Americans are given the promise that such protection can and should be available to them.

Yet, if we lose sight of how important the balance of power is within a government, we will find that our Democracy is just as easy to use as an instrument of evil as Communism was. The innocent will become victims of that evil that already lurks among us. Worst of all, as a country that is ruled for and by the people, we will have loosed that evil upon ourselves.

What I wish my Communist-fearing, question-asking friends understood, is that in our political climate today, Communism doesn’t scare me any more than Democracy reassures me. What I fear most for our future is the government unleashing evil on our society and the only way I see us avoiding that is by strengthening democratic checks and balances and by fighting for what is truly good and right. And of course, through prayer, because we need lots of that right now.