I Have Never Been Prouder of My Ancestors

Few people in North America know much about Czech democratic traditions. I suppose it's because the Iron Curtain effectively slammed shut the Czech experiment, which, prior to WW2 made Czechoslovakia what may best be described as the world leader in libertarian democracy.

To give you an example of how truly "progressive" the Czechs were ... not to be confused with post-modern "progressives", let me share with you my family's story.

My ancestors were Czech protestants who were driven from their homes by Catholics in the 1600's. They settled in what today is Poland and the Ukraine.

In the early 1900's a budding Czech democracy sought out and invited back her exiled protestants, even giving some Catholic land holdings that had been seized from their ancestors. Czech archives were used to determine who had owned what. My family returned at this time and thrived in the new and true "liberal" Czech state.

Hitler, of course, put an end to the Czech experiment, and what he didn't destroy, the post-war Communists finished off. But, with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Czech's once again started where they'd left off. In a move that puts Canada to shame, they quickly split into two, in a pragmatic move that saved them the pain Canada has endured by trying to wed two distinct identities, the English and the French. Both the Slovaks and Czechs have thrived ever since.

Now, news from Europe seems to prove that the Czech libertarian tradition has not faultered, and with fingers crossed, I'm hoping that my beloved Czechs are the ones to bring down the Lisbon Treaty.

To get a taste of the Czech spirit, here's an interview with Czech president Vaclav Klaus ... possibly the world's most intellectual libertarian and anti-statist ... and of course, thorn in the flesh of Olympian leftists:

The ratification cannot be continued, the Treaty can no longer come into force. To continue as though nothing has happened, would be a pure hypocrisy. This would be worse news about the "state of the Union" than the Irish NO. The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Republic ended last Friday. To pretend something else is undignified - at least if we are in a world where one plus one equals two. I think that the British didn't declare anything. It was the Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown who declared something. The British democracy is much more complex.