This is a continuation of my reading of Victor Herman’s book, Coming Out Of The Ice, An Unexpected Life, out of print for some time. Just a reminder of why I am doing this. I consider this book to be extremely important, because it is a glimpse into what we can expect if we do not resist the oncoming tyranny. Victor Herman, in discussing his experiences in the Soviet gulag emphasized: “Don’t think it can’t happen here.” And, it is now happening here.
The series begins here.
There is so much on which to comment in this chapter - in every chapter, really. The cloak and dagger efforts even after the Soviet government had granted Victor permission to return to the United States; the praise that Victor had for the United States in 1976, and how today that praise is, at best, ironic; and more. But I don’t want this to become, too much, about my commentary.
This is the end of the last chapter of this book, although there is an epilogue to follow.
My constant refrain at the beginning of every reading is that I don’t want Victor’s story to be forgotten. And yet, here are the much wiser words at the end of this chapter.
It is chalk, everything I have told you, a smoke making letters in the sky. The earth turns, the air splashes, and what is written disperses. But for a little while the eye can still decipher something. Then, all at once, it is a cloud.
And the next time you look, even that is gone.
The reading is here. As always, I hope you appreciate Victor’s words.