Letter: The origin of ‘The President of Joy’

Vancouver resident Carolyn Crain offers some reflections

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

Last week, I was watching the DNC Convention and I kept hearing the new “buzz term,” a label really, for Kamala Harris. The President of Joy. By Wednesday evening I was like wait… where do I remember that from? So I spent some time really thinking about it. Then I remembered.

I was 14 years old and the year was 1973. My parents moved into NE Portland from Gresham. There was an “old” lady named Mrs Miller who lived next door with her three teenagers. A divorcee, in her mid 50’s? I really never asked. I was 14 afterall and it was the 70’s where we were all more self absorbed but still had manners because we were taught them by our parents. My parents struck up a friendship with her and I found she was constantly at our house after her long day of work was through.

I was a diligent student so I’d be sitting at the table doing stacks of schoolwork every day. I was studying history, my favorite subject most of the time. One day I was reading and Mrs Miller asked me what I was studying. A bit annoyed as I recall, I replied WWII and Hitler’s Germany. So she said “want to know something”? I said “sure what so you know about Nazi Germany.”

She launched into a couple of hours of her life story telling me that her family was Jewish and lived in Germany. Her father had died at the end of WW1 and her mother struggled to raise the two young toddlers alone. The Labour Party had formed and they were in dire straights in Germany with impoverished people who were miserable after the defeat of WWI. It was 1933 and the Labour Party, under Hitler, started giving out vouchers for dining out, movies, concerts, theater seats, and even vacations. He was appointed Chancellor and continued his propaganda campaign calling it the “Strength through Joy” campaign. People started feeling more excited and less stressed but that only lasted 3 months after his election. Then he dubbed himself the Fuhrer in 1934. He claimed to hate communism and declared that the Conservative Party and the Republican Party were enemies. There were multiple parties at the time including Socialist Democrats. I cannot honestly tell you whether those two parties were at all aligned ideologically with our national parties at all. He proceeded to enforce an absolute dictatorship. Mrs Miller said in 1938 her mother bought two tickets to the United States and put her and her younger brother on a ship telling Jeannie to take care of her 17 year old brother. Her mother told her she was frightened for them and she needed to know they would be okay. She thought her country of Germany was going to get really bad as she had heard discussions about the use of the Jewish yellow star badges being tossed around. They had already been boycotting the Jewish businesses and times had gotten bad. She was frightened for her kids. She sent them off without her because she couldn’t afford to buy three tickets. I remember asking her what happened to her mother. Was she ever able to come to America? She said no. She had been grabbed in 1939 and forced to work in a camp. Mrs Miller had learned her mother died in a camp.

So I ask you now… are you going to be a sucker for the Campaign of Joy? Will you literally plug your ears and close your eyes to avoid hearing and seeing people being grabbed and tossed in prison for being from an opposition party? Will you let what is left of our freedom slip away? Where will you go when they run out of people like me to kill? Please stop, I am very afraid that this is the last few months of our country and there is NO PLACE ELSE!

You can google it…

Today they want to give you free telephones, food, housing, down payments for a 1st time home buyer, big pandemic checks to make you feel good, pay off your student loans. How are you expected to pay them back? Through loyalty of course. Think about it!

Carolyn Crain
Vancouver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_Through_Joy
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazi-germany/strength-through-joy/
https://www.historyhit.com/tourism-and-leisure-in-nazi-germany/
https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/photograph-of-strength-through-joy-event-at-strandbad-wannsee
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/nazi-germany-1933-1945/strength-through-joy-cruise-to-madeira-1938
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gleichschaltung-coordinating-the-nazi-state
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40982073
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Yoy6L2tXM
https://angelapvasquez.substack.com/p/the-illusion-of-joy-and-the-dangers