Found this in the paper today. It’s from a 1947 Star editorial page piece on a local labor leader who attended a Communist rally. (He said he was just soliciting money for the strike fund.)  Comrades! Strive to attend the Annual Lenin Rally and Fish Fry!

This was a bit jarring, since Nellie Stone Johnson is a local hero in these parts. I knew she was an old-line leftist – I interviewed her in 1988, I think, and she was smart, sharp, and friendly. Patterson was a full-blown Communist – I’d say “Commie” but that’s one of those terms that makes some people put you in the precious-bodily-fluids category. I don’t know if she was a Communist, but appearing at a Lenin Memorial is heavy-duty. If it’s not fellow-traveling, it’s certain showing up at the station to see them off. 

So? Well, those were the bad guys. Lenin’s heirs were not exactly exporting freedom and light and powdered magic unicorn eyelashes to the people of Eastern Europe. Nellie Stone Johnson’s subsequent reputation arose from her civil rights work, and she was much beloved & lauded when she died in 2002.  But it’s interesting how the culture now regards domestic Communists as either persecuted idealists or just really extra-strength liberals in a hurry who had no idea, absolutely none whatsoever, that things over there weren’t happy worker hoedowns over exceeded tractor-tire-production quotas.

If someone had appeared at a Hitler Memorial Meeting, would they get a school named after them? Lindbergh got a few airport terminals and schools named after him, of course, but there’s still discussion and agonizing over his politics. Sure, he believed in eugenics - but only voluntary eugenics! Uh huh. Still, “Nazi Symp” is one of the first things that comes to mind for a lot of people when his name comes up. “Commie Symp” has lots all its sting. 

Odd how that happened, isn’t it?