Thanks to Ali for the link. This is important information that in red states run by republicans it is illegal to teach to kids. In Florida, even 18-year-old seniors in high school and higher education college kids are too sensitive and delicate to learn that not all heroes are cis straight people. After all the important people in history were a cis straight people and it is important to never mention the LGBTQ+ people at all or people might think they were normal and great. Hugs
“Baron Von Steuben” was responsible for whipping the the U.S. military into shape when things were looking bleakest
Scottie's Playtime 
I live near Steubenplatz in Berlin, now I get a possible explanation for the name of this place here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello SUBURBAN TRACKER. It could be. My last duty assignment was in Berlin. I had so much fun and it was a wonderful exciting place for a confused young guy from the deep country. The beauty of the buildings, the history, the way things were done and how nice everyone seemed to be to a bumbling solider trying hard to speak a language he clearly had no talent for yet no one held it against me. I had the opportunity to stay after my tour and go into a nursing program, but to qualify I would have had to be fluent in German in 6 months. After close to three years in Germany, I still struggle with a few phrases and names of foods, so I realized I just couldn’t learn German. Heck I barely can speak English semi-properly. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am actually in Bavaria which is somehow like a foreign country for me because the dialect is more related to the Austrian dialect than to the North-German way of speaking and more important also thinking. A lot of Germans also have problems with their grammar and orthography but honestly Polish or Russian is much more difficult to learn due to the sophisticated and complicated grammar. Ordinary English is simple, but the advanced style also not easy. Half of English related to Germanistic origin, the other half to Latin origin; so English has double of the words than German what makes it difficult. A lot of the words nearly the same than in German or only slightly different. I personally find French and/or Italian much nicer but unfortunately English today dominates the world; but I know this will not last forever. May be Chinese will become much more important in the future! What is your native language?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi ST. I was born and raised in the US and adopted around 3 years old by dysfunctional adults with limited educations. So I never got a real education and speak Americanized English. I have always admired people who could speak another language, I have always wanted to but never had an ear for it. I can’t seem to differentiate the sounds. I live now in Florida and we have a lot of Spanish speaking people and I would love to learn Spanish. But it never seems to come together for me.
Yes the days of US dominance in the world has faded and is going away. I think that is kind of sad, not because the US deserves it or should have that kind of influence, but it is sad because of the way the US governments squandered the influence they had with the active harm our governments have done to other countries. Simply put, I don’t think we deserved that ability and we did not use it correctly while we had it. I don’t think my country is grown up enough to have a lot of power over others. There are countries much more mature and measured who are led by people more able to influence countries in a positive way. Right now the US is barely holding on to our own democracy with the politicians flat out serving companies and business wishes over the needs of the people, and the rest of the politicians who want to scrap representative government for an authoritarian dictatorship. I hope we can turn my country around but I live in Florida and have watched the take over of DeathSantis and the rabid fundamentalist Christian Nationalist conservatives that reject any social / medical advancement since our 1950s. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
For me, the USA is not an exemplary country, but rather an Orwellian country. They always talk about freedom, but in no other country in the world are so many people in prison (China is in second place in this discipline, just behind the USA). Even with a democratic federal government, more and more prisons are being built all over the country. I know this is a federal country and the states have a lot of power. Still, the state of human rights is not good, unfortunately (not to mention racism, extremist Christians and pre-fascists). It’s a young country, maybe it just needs another revolution?
Kind regards,
Ulli
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi ST. Is Ulli your name, if so can I use it when we converse here? I agree with what you wrote, I just hope it won’t need a real revolution of violence to accomplish. My country has such potential to be so much more than we are. I thought we were working to join other advanced countries with social and economic rights for the people and a government that was less in thrall to corporations and more supportive of the public. Sadly the backlash to having a non-white person as president so infuriated the racist at all economic levels that somehow the most racist self-serving useful idiot to the wealthy and fundamentalist Christian nationalist used to take over as much of the government as possible in the shortest time frame including a large part of the judiciary in the country. But there are a bunch of us still fighting to make our country better than it ever has been. We need all the help we can get. Hugs
LikeLike
Yes, Ulli is my first preferred name, it is gender-neutral and used by males and females – in my case it is the short form of the male first name Ulrich which I do not like. So Germans reading the name Ulli in my blog do not know my gender what is a funny.game! The Trump era was very embarassing also for us; Trump assigned an Ambassador here in Berlin who was simply an Idiot, not ar all diplomatic, ignorant and inpolite to Germans in general like Trump! I think you need to change a lot of things in your country. But meanwhile China enlarges its influence by economic imperialism (buying harbours worldwide and/or giving loans to poor countrie for often stupid projects being only a benefit for China itself)
Russia is a worrying country but I do hope that diplomatic efforts will end these also imperialist efforts in the Ukraine as soon as possible. Peace is the most important issue for me!!!
Wishing you all the best from Bavaria where I am actually for short holidays
Ulli
LikeLiked by 2 people
Let me just add that I am not gay, but queer would be an appropriate term for me cause this category works indepedently of the sexual orientation which may be whatsoever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Ulli. Yes China is on an imperialistic attempt to in debt the world nations to them for their political power. And yes I am against it, as I am against the entire history of nations either conquering or buying the allegiance of other countries. As to the conflict in Ukraine, my view is it simply must not stand in the current time that any nation can simply invade a recognized other nation for any reason, including territorial acquisition. Sorry but Russia must be defeated in this attempt to rebuild the former Soviet Union at any cost. My issue with it is the slow dribbling of resources needed for the Ukrainians to defend themselves and retake their territory. The world should have stopped Russian when it went into Georgia and took part of their accepted national territory and it also should have stopped Russia when it went into Crimea and other Ukrainian territory back in 2014. I think every Ukrainian civilian death that has happened since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the US / NATO delayed sending the weapons Ukraine needed to defend themselves from and repel the invaders is on the head of every one of the western nations leaders heads, especially the US.
As for diplomatic efforts I don’t see how that is possible. To ask Ukraine to settle is to ask them to give up a large part of their country. It would be like the US having been invaded by Mexico and being asked to accept the loss of Texas and a large part of the other border states. How much of Germany would you be willing to give away to an invader to stop their invasion efforts. But even that is not really the point, because in the past the world has told Putin / Russia that their invasions to that point would be acceptable if they stopped doing it, and then they did it again taking more territory. Putin has made it very clear he has always hated the dissolution of the USSR and wants to recreate it at any cost. He felt it would be easy, and so far until just the last few years he was correct. The Russian’s military would attack a territory, quickly take a chunk of another country, and then sit there. The world would then say hey don’t do any more of that, and Russia didn’t for a bit, then did it again. This is the first time the world and the country invaded stood up to Putin / Russia and is fighting back.
Uhm … Thank you for sharing your sexual orientation … to the extent you did. Ulli please feel welcome here no matter your sexual orientation, who you’re attracted to, your own identification for gender or otherwise. Sorry I am wording that so badly, but you and anyone else is welcome here no matter where they fall on the LGBTQIA spectrum. I am struggling to find a way to express you and all people who respect others are welcome here. I feel as we all get more acquainted with each other, we will learn more about each other. What I want to make sure is my Play Time is a safe place for people to express themselves, again as long as they treat others as they wish to be treated.
Having tried to express my welcome, can I ask a question? Please ignore it if it makes you uncomfortable or you would rather not answer. But I have never understood the term queer as it applies to the LGBTQIA these days. See I am 60 years old, and when I was growing up the worst thing you could be called in school was queer, fagot, or gay. I hated the word queer as it was used as an insult against me most of my younger life. Now young people use it to refer to themselves, and they embrace it and seem to enjoy it. But as an old gay guy I don’t understand because of how it was used / what it meant back then. Anyway, best wishes. Hugs
LikeLike
2 good friends are a Lesbian couple now for many years, our sexual orientation is normally no topic At all, they are just very good friends of me and my wife, they love each other, we love each other, that’s the most important – no problem for us, all is just very easy. 🙂
LikeLike