Memorial to Communism's victims erected

This article notes the erection of a monument to victims of Communism. I've never understood the appeal of communism, especially among those who refer to themselves as open-minded intellectuals. I would think that someone who was open-minded and intellectual would see that communism is actually the antithesis of open-mindedness and intellectualism. I base this on the fact that, historically, Soviet Russia and Communist China, along with Communist Cuba and left-leaning and communist-sympathizing Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are hardly supportive of openness in their respective countries. Just recently, Chavez shut down opposition media outlets.

Communist countries do not support the freedom of speech, of expression, of protest, and many other freedoms that we take for granted. Does that sound like a system of government that would encourage the sort of environment that an open-minded intellectual would support, much less be fostered in? One example of the difference between a communist system and a free system was dramatically displayed when a man who had been in a coma since Poland was still under communism, and woke to a free Poland. He went into a coma with rationing and stores with nearly bare shelves. He awoke from a coma to find the world transformed, with store shelves holding more items than he thought possible. And all that in just the 20 years that he had been in the coma.

And last, consider the stat in that article that states that an estimated 100 million lives were lost to communism. 100 million! That's much, much more than the lives lost to Nazism! How can an open-minded intellectual view such a bloody system as something to emulate? What part of state sanctioned mass murder do they not understand? Whatever communist sympathizers see in communism must be DAMN good and blinding them to its faults. And if it's that good at blinding supporters to its faults, then I want nothing to do with communism.

Communism has been a colossal failure on a scale unprecedented in human history. What's needed is not just this monument, but many, many more monuments in other countries around the world, especially since communism still exists, and because there's still open-minded intellectuals under the delusion that communism is somehow going to save mankind. Save mankind for what, I wonder? Maybe those open-minded intellectuals should think about that. Maybe they should talk to that man from Poland to get an idea of just what they want to rescue mankind from. If communism is an example of open-minded intellectualism, let me be closed-minded and stupid!