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US civil rights icon Rosa Parks dies at 92


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Maryland really has the only good state flag. It is simply the arms of Lord Baltimore. The other state flags were mainly drawn up by folks with no knowledge of heraldry or much of anything.

 

 

My father's family is from the South and I spent a lot of time there. My "home of record" is still there. Lots of decent folks did not approve of segregation and the way black folks were often treated. But it wasn't always healthy to go against it.

 

BTW even California had segregated schools until sometime after WWII. Brown vs the Board of Education happened to involve the BoE of Topeka ... KANSAS.

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Hi!

 

The civil rights movement in the US was a big thing in Sweden when I was a kid. Although I don't remeber the name "Rosa Parks" I do remember the story about a young woman that wouldn't give up her seat to a white man.

 

Swedes at that time were very sanctimonious about not being racist. Big deal, there was nothing to be racist against. Black people were someting that lived in Africa and couldn't take care of themselves so we had to give money to them. That is what they taught us in sunday school. Today when there are a lot of black people living here we have learned our lesson but it has created a lot of racism that didn't exist when I was young.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

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Hi!

 

Norwegians???

 

We just regarded them as intellectually challenged and smelling of cod. Nothing racist about that. :neener:

 

Seriously though Swedes have never had a major problem with Norwegians. Many more Norwegians have had problems with Swedes. Many of them were pissed off at the fact that we were neutral during the war. The are totally overlooking the fact that we were neutral because we were never invaded. If Norway and Denmark hadn't been invaded they would most likely have been neutral too.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

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And Hitler mainly went into Norway because he discovered that Churchill had plans to go in himself.

 

<< Toward the end of November, Winston Churchill, as a new member of the British War Cabinet, proposed the mining of Norwegian waters. This would force the ore transports to travel through the open waters of the North Sea, where the Royal Navy could interdict them. However this proposal was turned down by the dovish Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax, due to fear of an adverse reaction among neutral nations such as the United States. After the start of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in November 1939 had changed the diplomatic situation, Churchill again proposed his mining scheme, but was once more denied.

 

In December, the United Kingdom and France began serious planning for sending aid to Finland. Their plan called for a force to land at Narvik in northern Norway, the main port for Swedish iron ore exports, and to advance across Sweden into Finland. Conveniently, this plan would also allow the allied forces to occupy the Swedish iron ore mining district. The plan received the support of both Chamberlain and Halifax. They were counting on the cooperation of Norway, which would alleviate some of the legal issues. However, stern warnings issued to both Norway and Sweden resulted in strongly negative reactions in both countries. Planning for the expedition continued, but the justification for it was removed when Finland sued for peace in March.

 

Convinced of the threat posed by the allies to the iron ore supply, Hitler ordered the German high command (OKW) to begin preliminary planning for an invasion of Norway on 14 December 1939. >>

 

Wikipedia

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Hi!

 

The iron ore from Sweden was indeed important to Germany. With the processes available at the time it was the only source of high grade steele available to the Germans. The main reason why Hitler chose not to invade Sweden was probably that the mines were mined (no pun). At an invasion all major mines would have been blown up. It would have taken at lest 2 years to get them operational again, 2 years that he didn't have. The same would most likely have happened at an allied invasion. What much less spoken of is the fact that Sweden, in accordance with the rules of neutrality, sold ball bearings to England. Ball bearings without which very few Spitfires and Hurricanes would have ever been airborn.

 

As for the harbor Narvik which is today the main port for shipping out Swedish ore I doubt if it was altogether crucial. If you look at a map you will see that southern Sweden is close to Germany, just a small hop over the Southern Baltic, so getting ore to Germany without Norway was very doable.

 

regards

 

ALHOLK

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