Friday, June 27, 2008

Nature more powerful than Communism?

Former Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka recently came up with a commentary that everybody ought to give a read.

She used her column published in the Riverside/Brookfield Landmark newspaper to recall the story of a doll that had been in her family for decades – one that was dressed in a Czech ethnic costume and had actually been slipped out of the country when Communists gained control of the government.

TO TOPINKA, THE doll represented the ideals of a people struggling to survive under a repressive regime, and she wanted to try to preserve that concept by donating the doll earlier this year to the Czech and Slovak Museum.

That museum is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is now under water from the severe flooding that has struck the Midwestern U.S. The doll that survived Communism likely was lost due to Mother Nature and the overflow of the Mississippi River.

I don’t even come close to telling the story as well as Topinka does. Her commentary (http://www.rblandmark.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=46&ArticleID=3925&TM=72027) can be found in the west suburban newspaper where she is a regular columnist.

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1 comment:

Levois said...

I hope that doll isn't lost in the flooding. I've lost things in my life as well so if I ever had something to give to a museum, I'd be sick to death. Just as I imagine Ms. Topinka is about her doll. That was a great story.