[...] From my parents' stories I have come to believe that the truth does not reside exclusively on one's own political side. My father reinforced this one day when he told me something that has remained etched in my mind ever since. 'When I was in the prison camp,' he said, 'I knew in my bones that, even if our side had won the civil war, I would still be in the camp, only the guards would have been different.'

Why is Europe so clearly failing to emulate the United States, which also began life as a loose confederacy of fractious states before consolidating magnificently in response to its various existential crises?

the European Union had lost its integrity by crushing Greece and while it was in the process of forfeiting its soul by abrogating its responsibilities to refugees