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Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts declared the month of July 2021 to be “Victims of Communism Remembrance Month” in the state. Ricketts, a Republican, made the announcement during a ceremony on June 30 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Ricketts called on the citizens of his state to remember the 100 million (or more) victims of the anti-God, anti-freedom and collectivist ideology. The proclamation coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party in China, which will occur on July 23 of this year.
In the proclamation, Ricketts specifically singled out today’s communist government in China as an abuser of human rights.
“Whereas, hundreds of millions of people continue to live under communist and socialist regimes that curtail freedoms and lack respect for human rights,” the proclamation reads. “Wherefore, millions suffer political and religious under the CCP, including the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, Christians in underground churches , and other religious minorities,” Ricketts designated this month in remembrance of those victims.
In his proclamation, Ricketts also recalled the millions of victims of Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union as well as the dozens of millions murdered during the reign Mao Zedong in China.
The Nebraska governor explained his declaration in an interview with Tony Perkins of Washington Watch. “With the 100th anniversary of the CCP I knew that the CCP would be looking to sing their own praises,” Ricketts said. “I wanted to make sure that people remembered that the implementation of communism has led to nearly 100 million deaths worldwide. To put that in perspective, more people have died at the hands of communist regimes than died in World War I and World War II combined.”
Ricketts enumerated his claim: “This includes about 65 million in China, 20 million in the Soviet Union, two million in Cambodia, two million in North Korea, about a million in Eastern Europe and we need to remember those stories,” Ricketts said.
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The governor is relying on low estimates for the amount of dead due to communism. Some estimates say 100 million have died in China alone, along with another possible 50 million victims in the old U.S.S.R.
“That is what communist regimes do. They deprive people of their rights. And whether it’s by shooting, hanging or mass starvations millions of people die.”
Ricketts worries that leftist educators are soft-pedaling communism to the students of today. He hopes that his proclamation will be a signal for parents in Nebraska to remind children what communism is and what it leads to.
“It really is something we need to focus on as parents because we’re primarily responsible for our kids’ education.” Ricketts urged parents “to pick up if the schools are going to drop the ball on teaching this…. Marxism is where communism comes from and it teaches about class warfare, creating conflict within a society and depriving people of their rights. That’s the basis of it, whereas our free enterprise system lifts people up and provides for human flourishing and religious freedom.”
While the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party may have been a major catalyst for “Victims of Communism Remembrance Month,” Ricketts also has a message for today’s hard left Democrats in America who don’t hesitate to call themselves “socialist,” and, indeed, no longer consider communism to be the evil ideology that it has proven to be.
“For those on the left who don’t think communism’s a bad thing, go look at history,” Ricketts told Fox News. “We can see case after case after case, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to declare July as victims of communism month to really remind people of the horrible things that have happened under communism everywhere it’s been implemented.”
While today’s far Left looks to divide people into identity groups which wage rhetorical war against each other, Ricketts and others like him believe it should be the individual who is celebrated — an idea that is anathema to communism’s collective way of thinking.
“People need to understand it is really fundamentally against what we stand for here in America,” Rickets said. “In America our aspirations are to uphold the individual and to allow for human flourishing. And that’s not what communism’s about.”
With all of the various “months” we are inundated with these days — “Black History Month; LGBTQ Pride Month; Disability Awareness Month’ etc. — it might seem superfluous to add yet another one. But there is no question that the hundreds of millions who have died due to communism deserve to be remembered, and that the evil ideology that killed them deserves to be called out. Remembering the victims and creating the understanding are the noble purposes of “Victims of Communism Remembrance Month.”
