22.4.02023

Feature photo: Information image of the city library from their newsletter no. 10/2022 | © Heilbronn City Library

board meeting

Right at the beginning of the day there was a very exciting meeting of the State Association of Free Voters, which this time took place "online". Among other things, the members of the Presidency discussed the overloading of the municipalities by excessive bureaucracy and the new electoral law, which lowers the right to stand as a candidate to 16 years for municipal councilors and 18 years for mayors. The majority of Free Voters are very skeptical about this “new policy”.

As a 17-year-old, I myself decided to first obtain a professional qualification before trying to make use of my passive right to vote. To this day I have not regretted this decision and I deeply regret that in the meantime we are increasingly becoming a caste system in our society with professional politics, which produces politicians who, apart from moving up to offices or actually being elected the first time, have nothing to show - neither a qualified educational qualification nor experience in a profession that requires a completed apprenticeship.

A democratic society can and will only survive if the citizens shape politics themselves and do not pay fellow citizens, and completely unqualified ones at that, to do this voluntary work for decades.

library

On Monday I was able to learn from those responsible for the city library at the general meeting of the corresponding circle of friends that the city library will reopen at its main location in K3 in autumn this year, whereby I — as reported — had independently postponed the date to the end of the year, I already have to read in the voice of Heilbronn that the city library should not reopen before 2024. So one can confidently doubt the qualifications of all those involved.

I still consider the city library to be one of the most important institutions in Heilbronn, even if I regret the petty-bourgeois orientation of the same and had to acknowledge with even greater regret that the majority of the municipal council reduced even a contemporary renovation to the bare minimum. What's left is just a bourgeois fig leaf, which will now at some point be put back into operation.

The only thing that is astonishing is that at the same time they are investing in a literature house with a top staff and are also holding on to a Kleist Sempdner archive that is completely useless for Heilbronn. With this money, the city library could actually have flourished, or even a metropolitan solution could have been found by integrating the Literature House into the city library, as was originally intended by those responsible when I returned to Heilbronn at the end of 2014.

And so, once again, a petty-bourgeois cronyism has prevailed, which does not fit at all with the big-city demands of some of the important citizens of Heilbronn and only ensures that we will probably continue to move from one urban construction site to the next for decades to come.

bowling night

The weekend got off to a good start with a very entertaining bowling evening, after which a few members of the EUROPA-UNION got together to find out about the status of the preparations for the 7th Hertenstein Talks.

This time, too, we have very interesting discussion groups, with the federal association of the EUROPA-UNION going into the race with a draft for a federalist manifesto, which in the afternoon at the Hertenstein Talks will examine three subject areas in more detail: a democratic Europe, a secure Europe and a sustainable one Europe.

The further discussion of the evening about all topics and possible speakers as well as the appropriate moderators brought a completely new topic into play, namely one of Thomas Heiligenmann raised "Blossoming Europe", which is certainly from Walther Heipertz would be welcomed with pleasure.

The problem here, as in the previous six years, is that the variety of topics and the depth of the respective discussions compete with the time available for them. And so it will be exciting again to see how the discussions will develop on Saturday, September 23, 2023.

Interview with General Ben Hodges

Richard Walker from Deutsche Welle conducted a very informative interview with Lieutenant General a. D (US) Ben hodges. He analyzes the background of the Battle of Bakhmut, tries to find out the target of a possible Ukrainian summer offensive and also makes clear the necessary military-strategic war aim of Ukraine.

Without effective support from the US, UK, France and Germany, Ukraine will not be able to successfully defend itself against the Russian onslaught, which has been ongoing since 2014. Without the recapture of Crimea, Ukraine will never be able to hold its own against the Russian Federation for military-strategic reasons alone.

Because of this, the US must officially endorse Ukraine's recapture of Crimea. Ben hodges finally assures that the US Republicans are also behind Ukraine and will be behind the upcoming US elections.

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