When I visited the Soviet Union in 1981, it was like I’d stepped into a black & white movie.

I was followed wherever I went, whether I was alone or in a group.

I had been assigned a “tour” guide (Marina) who went with me everywhere during the day, but I’m saying there were additional people who would follow us both during the day and me alone at night.

As most Russians do, Marina made a joke about the situation.

She said “The people tailing us are KGB. They are spying on you at night and on me during the day.”

After we both laughed, she said “No, really, they want to make sure I don’t do anything secret or try to defect, or they will hurt my family.”

“You,” she continued, “will be searched at the airport if they think you did anything bad at night.”

At the end of my trip, I felt the weight of an anvil lift off my shoulders when my flight to Helsinki finally lifted off the tarmac.

I now feel that anvil again, as I bite my tongue when walking past protestors or even during a lunch with “woke” colleagues in a liberal neighborhood.

“They” act in the vacuum of textbook idealism as I cower, fearing verbal or physical abuse.

Now it is not surprising that the black fist insignia being spray painted all around CHAZ and other bastions of post-protest rioting is identical to the insignia of the German Communists’ against whom the Nazi’s fought to dominate their fatherland.

I reject the notion that we “carry the sins of our fathers” in this country or elsewhere.

But these violent trespassers will carry the sins of their professors, who have poisoned these young minds.

DEFUND the universities immediately.

They don’t need buildings now.

And students can apply for financial aid from countless sources.

But my tax dollars deserve to stay in my pocket rather than to fund the psychological soldiers still fighting for the cause that lost the Cold War.

And the saddest part is that the simplest of messages, the one in plain sight on the pages of Orwell’s “1984”, is unknown to these graduates of today’s thought factories.

As unknown as most of the key history lessons the US is founded upon.

Yet they know everything meant to destroy us.

If you’ve never seen “The Manchurian Candidate” in person, just walk into the crowds being mesmerized by voices from the bullhorns.

Those tones trigger the glazed look in the eyes of those acting in violence, fury unleashed.

They’re staring into your homes as they brainwash your kids.

Be very aware, and beware.