Church & State - Peter Vodenka's Journey For Freedom

[00:00:12] Spokane Valley could become a sanctuary city of a different kind. I'm proposing that the city of Spokane Valley issue a proclamation stating that our city is a Second Amendment sanctuary city.

[00:00:39] Today on The Caleb Collier Show, Journey For Freedom with Peter Vodenka. Hello Christian Patriots and welcome to The Caleb Collier Show of Church of State Media, where we drive morality and religion over tolerance and apathy. And I'm your host, Caleb Collier, once again your favorite, Far Right Shock Jock, and the show that talks about politics and religion. Jesus Christ is our referee, so it's always nice and clean. Real quick, point you to the website churchandstate.media.

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[00:02:51] Fascinating true story of an individual who, at 27 years old, along with his 24-year-old wife and two small children, a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, were able to defect in the middle of the night, rain coming down on them. They're being pursued by communist guards, and they're able to make their way to Austria. And now he lives in the United States and is a great speaker on the dangers of communism.

[00:03:15] And with so many people being enamored with the Democrat Socialists of America, I think it's a very appropriate conversation to have, especially right before the elections. From somebody who lived it, Peter, thank you for joining us on The Caleb Collier Show. Oh, thank you very much, Caleb. Happy to be here. Yeah, it's a real pleasure.

[00:03:36] I always love talking to people who formerly lived under a communist nation and how oppressive it was because Americans just don't get it. They think it's all going to be just this grand scheme that everybody's going to be equal. But people who've actually lived under it, they know the truth. Yes, absolutely.

[00:04:00] You know, people in America have no clue, really, because, you know, if you live in America or any country, if you live in any country, you are born in that country and you raise up in that country, you don't have the comparison. You know what you know, but you have no clue what's going on somewhere else.

[00:04:17] And sadly, lots of Americans have, you know, they take pro granted the things which they should not and they don't appreciate the thing which they should just because they don't know, because they have nothing to compare this life and the world, you know, with. So, so let's let's let's travel down that path. Can you tell the audience what it was like growing up under the communist bloc of Czechoslovakia?

[00:04:46] You know, the food shortages, the bread lines, just the oppression, the constant state of fear that you were going to be targeted for any given reason. Can you walk the audience through that? Well, absolutely. You know, the communist government is dictatorship. They don't call themselves dictators, but it is dictatorship. We know certain dictators around the world, which is usually one single individual person.

[00:05:15] But in communism, the whole government is dictatorship and they control every aspect of your life. They can they control what you can say, what you can think, what you can wear, what you can drive, if you can get education or not. They pretty much control everything, everything in your life. And, you know, and I said, take control what you think, you know, and you might you might say crazy.

[00:05:44] That's that how they can control what I think. Well, I can tell you how they control what do you think? If you said anything slightly translated against the government, any slightest means many times nothing. You can be persecuted for that. But believe it or not, they have the law that we can be persecuted for our thoughts.

[00:06:10] So it means that if they need to get rid of you or just punish you or teach you a lesson, they can say, well, we know you are planning blow up the bridge, overthrow the government, spy for the West. They can say anything, accuse you of anything. And then they persecute you as if you really did the crime.

[00:06:32] So if they say we know that you were ready to you are planning to overthrow the government or work against the government, they can persecute you for treason. And you would just do the time or whatever, just as if you actually did the crime. So it didn't really matter. I mean, I've never experienced that level of oppression.

[00:06:57] But I have for so much of my life have fought against that taking root in the United States. And so I can't go through the experiences. I hope to never go through the experiences that you went through. But ultimately, what resulted in this is as a young man at 27 years old, you had a conversation with your wife to say, hey, freedom, even if we die trying, freedom is worth it.

[00:07:25] So we're going to go and we're going to try to escape. And you have a two year old and a four year old at that time. I can't imagine trying to take a two year old and a four year old in the dark of a cold, wet night, cutting through the fence, escaping into Austria. But it was worth it in your mind. Yes. Well, tell you truth or can I fill you in? I started thinking about going to America or dreaming.

[00:07:53] I'm going to America in age of 17. You know, somehow I must have stronger desire for freedom or need for freedom than most of the people over there. And I really want to be in America. But it wasn't easy. You know, everybody was watching everybody. I have to start educated myself secretly. I listen. I watch. I was putting the picture pretty much puzzle together in my head, trying to find out how to get out alive.

[00:08:22] Because the government, communist government rather kill you than let you be free. So nobody can know what I'm thinking. My parents didn't know what I'm thinking. My brother, who I was really close to, didn't know what I'm thinking. So it took me 10 years, 10 years to build the picture in my head to the point when I thought I know how to get out.

[00:08:44] And what I find out was because borders between Czechoslovakia and we have border with West Germany and the Austria, which were of course the countries on outside the Iron Curtain. And so in order for me to go to America, I find out that I have to escape into one of those countries. I have to go there and use that country as a springboard to go to the United States.

[00:09:12] But like I said, our government knew it. So the border between West Germany, Austria and our country was pretty much impenetrable. They were, you know, electric fences. The 3000 volt electricity was the final fence. And prior to that for three miles, there was section of the land three miles long, which was posted and saying, do not enter. This is a border zone. You will be shot.

[00:09:39] So you could be killed or arrested three miles inside your own country before we even reached the border. And then three mile wide that strip very much was full of the mines and and fences and sand and ducks and and ditches and everything you can imagine to prevent the people from, you know, crossing it. And it wasn't there. It wasn't designed to keep other people from coming into our country.

[00:10:07] It was designed to keep us from leaving. So like I said, so it took me 10 years how to get out and I thought how to get out. And when we finally doing it, we were trying to cross the border from Yugoslavia, which was also communist country into Austria.

[00:10:27] And the reason for Yugoslavia was that I, like I said, during the collected information for 10 years, I find out that Yugoslavia wasn't those borders were not as tight as our borders. Yes, there were fences in some areas. Yes, they were soldiers. But they were also section along the swamps and rivers and mountains, which didn't even have fence.

[00:10:52] So I was planning to go to Yugoslavia to travel to Yugoslavia and sneak across the border, hopefully from Yugoslavia to Austria in middle of the night. Now, in order for me to go to Yugoslavia, we have to apply with our own government to let us go, to let us leave our country. We didn't apply with Yugoslavia to go there.

[00:11:19] We have to apply with our government to leave our country. And of course, we would have to go through Hungary, which was also communist country into Yugoslavia. So now in summer or early spring of 1983, I fill out the application with our government for them to let us go to Yugoslavia for camping vacation. Yugoslavia have the Adriatic sea, so people sometimes went over there for the vacation.

[00:11:53] And we were okay. Our permits went through. But we were checked. We have to be back checked by secret police. Secret police was the baddest and scariest body of control which our government have. Those were the people who were, you know, arresting people. Those were the people who were torturing the people in the prisons. Those were the same people who have the spies around the world.

[00:12:20] And they have to be the one institution, most important institution to okay our paperwork. They said that we are okay to Yugoslavia with two little children to camp for two weeks. But before that, they sent our applications also to my employer, the local police, city government, county government and the military.

[00:12:46] All these institutions have to look at the paperwork and say, yeah, we don't have any knowledge about this person might be somehow unsafe or untrustworthy. So we were approved. And that was the major big step. So now about three days before our vacation, we went to visit our friends and families and we said goodbye to them.

[00:13:13] Those were very emotional goodbyes for us because, you know, we know if we do escape, we might never be able to see them again. And we have to keep our emotions under control because we didn't even tell our families we're going to Yugoslavia. We told them we're going on vacation to Hungary.

[00:13:33] And the reason why we give them misinformation was that I knew if we make it alive, they will be integrated by secret police. And the secret police find out of our plan. I mean, if they knew of our plans and secret police find out they did know about our plans, they would be persecuted just like, you know, we would be. So they would end up in the gulags.

[00:13:58] So we get them misinformation hoping that way during the interrogations, they will not need to lie because if they knew more than Hungary vacation and Hungary, they would have to lie. And it's easy to tell on yourself under pressure. So three days later, we got on our way and we traveled into Hungary, then into Yugoslavia.

[00:14:23] And day number three or day number three, we were driving towards the Austrian border, which I was planning to try to cross. And I have some information that the section of the border I was aiming for didn't even didn't have fences, just the border guards patrolling the border back and forth. So we are driving in the direction. This is the day four of our so-called vacation.

[00:14:51] Of course, everybody think we are going on vacation. My wife and I are only two people who know we are trying to escape. We are trying to be free. And as we driving to the border, it was four o'clock afternoon. And we are already only 40 miles away. And I was afraid to come any closer in the daylight because, you know, we were driving East European car with East European license plate.

[00:15:18] And we didn't really have any business to be on the road coming to the Austrian border. So I was afraid of Yugoslavian police patrolling those road borders. And if they see the car from Eastern Europe, they might stop us. I start asking questions, maybe even arrest us. You know, again, this is hard to believe in America, but in America we can go whenever we want. But us just driving in the certain direction, we would become suspicious.

[00:15:48] So I'm thinking it's daylight. We cannot come any closer. So we have to find a place to hide. And as we driving on the road, suddenly there is grassy meadow on the right side. And there were two tracks probably made by tractors or some farm field, a farm equipment, bleeding into the, across the grass and into the patch of the woods. So we drove into Rosewoods and they turned out to be perfect hiding place.

[00:16:17] There was grassy opening in the middle and around us was thick underbrush and tall trees. So once we were in the opening, we were hidden from outside eyes. So this is the place we're going to wait till one o'clock in the morning to drive and arrive at that border by two. That was my plan. I am thinking two o'clock is our best chance. Hopefully everybody's tired, sleepy. Nobody pays much attention.

[00:16:46] So this place is, we're going to wait there for hours. And again, you know, this is the night, you know, for 10 years, 10 years in my life, I am praying and hoping and dreaming and wishing and living my life in a certain direction to this point. And this is the day. And as we are sitting over there and waiting, you know, kids, they were cooped up in the car for about four days. So they want to make lots of noise, you know, run around, play, be kids.

[00:17:16] And we are afraid to let them make too much noise because first we are in foreign country. We speak foreign language. That itself catches people's attention. And on the other hand, we don't want somebody here, kids screaming in the woods and come and find us. So we try to keep kids quiet as much as we could. My wife made some dinner. We put kids to bed on the back seat of the car fully dressed. We just didn't have shoes on them.

[00:17:45] And now my wife and I are sitting in front of, in front seats and we are waiting. And we are waiting for one o'clock in the morning. And this is the longest night you can imagine. Anything could happen that night. We could be killed. We could be arrested, which would be equally bad. And when you have doing nothing, you putting too many bad thoughts in your own head. You scaring yourself.

[00:18:15] And I want to get going. I'm looking at my watch probably every 15 seconds because it seems like anytime I look at it, it was same place like before. And as we are sitting over side by side, you know, there is something I need to talk to my wife about. That thought was in my mind for about three months since I know we are approved, but I never find the right time, right words to tell her what I need to tell her.

[00:18:43] I have to tell her now before we arrive at that border. I am running out of time. And I told her, listen, I know we are scared and I don't want to scare you even more. But there is one thing we need to be prepared for. One of us might get shot tonight or maybe just trip and fall down.

[00:19:04] If anything like that happened, that other person has to keep on going because if we get caught altogether, that's the end. You know, our government would, because we would become political criminals, we would be serving our time in uranium mines where the political swear.

[00:19:24] And our kids would be taking away, taking away because in our government's eyes, we prove to them that we are not fit parents to raise the children since we were not raising them in proper socialistic and communistic ideology. So they would take them and trace them in institutions. So I told my wife, if I go down, I don't want you to stop. I don't want you to try to help me out the ground. I don't want you to check on me.

[00:19:53] If I go down, you have to keep on going. Because if we get caught altogether, that's it. That's the end of everything. But if at least one of us make it across that border, there is chance we can get rest of the family there, maybe through international red class, maybe through Austrian government. There is still chance. But I need you to know, if you go down, I will keep on going.

[00:20:21] I'm not leaving you behind because I don't love you. I'm not leaving you behind because I don't want you. But that's our only chance. Of course, now she was scared even more than she was before. And as we are sitting over there, you know, again, we are thinking what we're going to take this. We are going into unknown. You know, and we have only one free hand each. I will be carrying our two old boy in my hand.

[00:20:50] And my wife will be holding our three or the other hand. So we have only one hand free. So what are you going to carry? You know, you're leaving everything what you own behind. And now you need to decide whether you're going to take this. And so we decided the most important thing is to have spare clothes for the children. They are little, they have to have spare clothes. So we took one bag with the good solid strap on it and we fill it with the kids clothes.

[00:21:19] I was going to carry that because it was heaviest and most important. Then we decided to take one of our sleeping bags, which have its own case with the handle on it. So it was easy to carry. And again, we decide for sleeping bag because we didn't know what's going to happen. We might be traveling at night hiding during the day. We didn't know. So we felt we need something warm for the children. So my wife was going to carry that.

[00:21:46] And then she has another bag with the personal documents, some extra money and some small precious stuff. But now I'm thinking we need spare clothes for ourselves also, right? I mean, try to go on vacation, two weeks or four weeks vacation, two weeks vacation in Mexico or some other country, even in America. And bring nothing, not even spare clothes, not even toothbrush. So I figured out we need something for ourselves also.

[00:22:15] But we have no more free hands. So we decided that we're going to put on everything double. Double socks, double underwear, double shirts and pants. That way we can carry the spare clothes on our bodies. So we have it all set up and ready. And we are waiting for the time. And in the middle of the night, it was raining. Middle of the night, the rain stopped. But mist started raising. And it's getting thick and thicker and thicker.

[00:22:41] I'm thinking it's going to be hard to drive this thick fog. We don't know the road. We have to follow the map. And I don't want to get lost somewhere and drive at that border too late when it's daylight already or not arrive at all. So it was 1230. I said, let's go. I start the car. We drove out of the woods across the grass. We get on the road and now we are on our way.

[00:23:07] Tension eased up a lot because now we are busy doing something. I'm driving the car. My wife had map on her lap is the flashlight as she's checking every intersection, every exit, every town we're driving through, making sure we are the right way. And as we are driving north, the rain started again. And it killed the frog. It knocked the fog down. So visibility improved.

[00:23:33] And we're driving for some time and suddenly a road 90 degrees to the east. But we saw that turn on the map. So we know this is still at the right road, but it's driving parallel to the border now. But we know we have to turn again, exit and continue to the north somehow. And after some time, there was a sign pointing to the left saying Austria. So we exit and now we are coming closer to the border. So we start judging our distance from the border from our map.

[00:24:03] And we think we have about eight miles to go yet. And suddenly the road turned sharp left, half circle around some obstacles in front of us. And when we came on other side, there was a border. There is gate across the road. There is soldier with AK-47 on his chest and dock. There is streetlight lighting this place up. And there is small building on the right side. And in front of that building is small car.

[00:24:34] And we were not planning. I wasn't planning to come close enough that they actually gonna see us. But now we are sitting in this guy's full view. I stopped the car. And I back it. I didn't know what to do. So I back up the car around those turns and disappeared from his side. And I parked the car somewhere off the road. And I told my wife, I'm gonna go there, back there on the foot. I'm gonna see what I can see.

[00:25:01] So she locked the door behind me and I'm walking over there. And I'm coming closer and closer. And I can hear, you know, my own footsteps on the blacktop. I don't want him to hear me coming. And you know how it is at night. Everything, it's last sounds louder. And the rain at this time was pouring down. So I jump into the ditch. I'm sneaking through a grass and bushes and I'm coming as close as I dare.

[00:25:30] I squat down and I'm studying the situation in front of me. And what I see is, I see that the road behind the soldiers, behind that gate enters the forest. And through the trees in the distance, I can see another street light. I assume that's the Austrian street light. I mean, yes, Austrian street light. And on the right side in the small building with the border guards cards there, I could hear the voices talking.

[00:25:59] So I know there is minimum two soldiers over there. Now, all this sounds pretty calm down, but it wasn't. I was scared. I was very scared. You know, this guy has AK-47 on his chest. I am just watching him. My heart is racing in my chest. I know these guys have orders to kill people or stop people like us for any cost.

[00:26:26] And I am sitting in the darkness because I'm staying out of the circle of the light so I can see him clearly, but he cannot see me. As I am squatting over there, again, my brain is chasing, racing in my chest and I am praying. And at that moment, I realized this is it.

[00:26:46] You know, for ten years of my life, I was hoping and praying that one day, one day I'm going to be standing somewhere at the border. I am going to be ready to cross it into freedom. I didn't know how that place is going to look like. I didn't know where there's their place is going to be. I didn't know if I will ever find that place. But this moment I realized this is it. This is the place. It has happened to now or it will never happen.

[00:27:17] And I didn't know what to do. I know I cannot take my wife and my children and make a run at this guy. He's going to kill us. I didn't know what to do. So I started praying to God again. Please tell me what to do. Show me the way. And as I am praying and my heart is racing in my chest, this really tense moment. And I'm forcing my brain to engage again.

[00:27:44] It was like my brain got caught in the fog or something. And I'm telling myself, think again, think again, think what can do. Think what's going to happen next. And I was waiting for a sign from the God to tell me also what to do. And just thinking about what can happen next, I realized that within the one hour,

[00:28:10] inside of next hour, one of the three scenarios happen. Either we're going to be laying on the ground bleeding from the gunshots, or we will be in the handcuffs and starting the dreadful way back home and future in the shackles. And let me pause you real quick here, Peter. We've got that hard break. I already warned you about this. The audience knows. Hey, this is Caleb Collier with Church and State. I'm here to tell you about Hunter's Blend Coffee.

[00:28:40] I've got to tell you, I absolutely love this stuff. I'm all about the dark roast. Hunter's Blend Coffee, black powder. Doesn't that just sound like deliciousness and rebellion? I've got to tell you, in America, we don't drink tea. No, we drink coffee. It's the food of the gods. And I endorse and support Hunter's Blend Coffee. I've got to tell you, it tastes like freedom. So I need you to go over to churchandstate.media, scroll to Hunter's Blend Coffee,

[00:29:08] and use the promo code CHURCHANDSTATE to help support us. And when you go to huntersblendcoffee.com, not only will you be getting a great cup of coffee, but you also, if you use the promo code CHURCHANDSTATE, be supporting Church and State in our dogged pursuit of truth. And we are back, and thank you for staying with us. You're over at churchandstate.media, and we're going to go right back to our guest. Real quick, I do got to plug one of our awesome affiliates, and I'm going to go over to mark37.com, Chris. Look, when we're talking about communism, we're talking about a surveillance state.

[00:29:38] Our guest was talking about how everything you did was watched. Well, unfortunately in America, we're living under that as well, but we're doing it voluntarily. We're doing it through our iPhones. We're doing it through our Google phones. They're watching and tracking everything that you're doing. It doesn't have to be that way. You can take control of your digital privacy and sovereignty through mark37.com. These are ghost phones, ghost laptops, ghost tablets as well. So go check out mark37.com.

[00:30:08] Use the promo code CHURCHANDSTATE for a discount. Get yourself a privacy phone and help support us as well. And real quick, once again, hit that donate button for us, please, ladies and gentlemen. It's so important to keep conversations like this one happening. This is one of the most important conversations to be having right now because this is on our doorstep. So please hit the donate button and keep this conversation happening. With that, let's go back to our guest, Peter and Peter.

[00:30:35] Sorry, Vodenka, author of Journey for Freedom. And sir, I interrupted you, but you were talking about you had three scenarios going through your head. And one of them was that you were going to be lying on the ground bleeding out. Number two was that you were going to be captured. So I'll let you pick it up from there. What was scenario number three? Well, not the number three scenario was that we are going to be free.

[00:31:02] So as I am looking at thinking this in my processing this in my head, I didn't know which one of those scenarios is going to happen. But every one of them is going to change our life forever. Nothing will be the same ever again from this moment on. You know, I keep saying that we live two lives and that was the time when our first life was ending. A new life was about to begin.

[00:31:28] And with any one of those three scenarios, our life is going to go in totally different direction than what's going now. So I walked back to my car. I told my wife, this is it. Let's do it. Let's wake kids up. We woke the children up. Put the shoes on them. They were dizzy and confused, but they were not crying. The night before, I told them that we will have to wake them up in the middle of the night. And they might want to cry, but they will not be able to.

[00:31:58] They cannot cry. So they were crying. I start the car and drove back towards the border guard. And as we are coming closer and closer, my heart is just chasing in my chest. You know, I'm expecting him to swing that rifle down and start shooting at us at any moment. And I'm telling myself, you know, stay calm. He's looking into my lights, headlights. He cannot see the license plate or model of the car yet.

[00:32:23] And as we are closer, in the last moment, I turned on the dirt road, which was right in front of that guardhouse. There was dirt road leading into the fields, full of mud and potholes. So I'm driving on the dirt road. I'm thinking I'm going to drive for some time. I'm going to stop the car, hustle to the left, and hopefully we're going to cross that border before anybody realize what's going on. And as I'm driving on the headlights, I can see there is something growing in the field.

[00:32:52] And the rain is coming down in the sheets now. And that was probably a corner or something. It was about chest high. I'm thinking this is going to be really hard for us to walk on it. I mean, it's taller than my daughter's head. So I'm driving a little bit farther, a little bit farther. This is every step I'm telling you now. Now everything what happened was God was holding his hand over our heads, protecting God.

[00:33:19] So I'm driving farther and farther than I otherwise would. And suddenly I see that field stop. And there is new field. And there is something that is grassy strip separating those two fields leading in the right direction. I'm thinking this is going to be solid enough for us to walk on it. So I start the car. I left the car. I shut the lights off. I left the keys and ignition. We open the back door, grab the kids and bags, which we have ready over there.

[00:33:48] And we start walking on this grassy strip. And this is all my preparation and thinking about every possible scenario and details in last three months or pretty much almost 10 years of my life. There was one thing I never thought about, that's a dome light. When you open the door, your dome light go on automatically. And they were watching, see the car driving in the red fields. It was about two o'clock in the morning.

[00:34:17] And when we opened the door, they see us taking kids and bags and realize we're going to make the run for the border. So we made about 10 steps away from that car and that lit up guard house in the distance just erupted with the activities. Voices start screaming command. The car's dock is barking. The car is slipping and sliding and coming in our direction. We see somebody carrying the spotlight, leaving the border guard house and running across.

[00:34:48] I'm thinking this guy's trying to cut us off. So I turned behind me in the darkness and I says, run, run as fast as you can. And we start running. And as I'm running across the grassy strip, I am praying for the woods because I saw the woods before the game before. So I'm thinking if we get make it in the woods, we're going to be safe.

[00:35:14] In the meantime, the car stopped behind our car and there is two more spotlights on our trail. And they are closing in. They don't carry little children. So they can move in faster than we can. But luckily for us, the rain is coming down in the sheets. It's like torrential rain. And it's blocking those spotlights. They cannot see us. The rain is stopping the light. Excuse me.

[00:35:43] And as we are running, suddenly there is no ground under my field. I'm falling head first with my son and we landed in the water. I stood up. Luckily, the water was only knee deep and I pick up my son up. He fell off my hand. And there is hill. I forded through the water and there is hill on other side. And I am hoarsely whispering to my wife behind. There is water here, but don't worry about that. Get in the water. They are coming. And we are making up this sloppy, this wet, soggy hill.

[00:36:13] And we got to top of the hill and a little bit farther and there was the forest. And we bolted in the woods. But we are not stopping. I don't know if they are going to stop. I'm thinking this is the border, but I don't know for sure. So we keep running through the forest in the taller darkness. Anytime there is branches or something holding me back, I am breaking through it with my chest. I don't see enough to move around it. At one time, my son was stuck, start crying in my hand.

[00:36:43] And I told him, remember, we cannot cry right now. I thought this is what I was telling you East. Anyway, for, we ran for some time and then we realized there is nobody there. The border guards, lights, the dark barking. It stopped and disappeared. So I figured out we are safe. We made it across the border. But I didn't want to get lost and circle back to the border in the forest. So I turned to the left.

[00:37:12] We huddle up, catch our breath. And we are going in the direction I thought we left that road. I'm thinking we're going to make the half circle around that road, around that border guard house. Came to the same road in the Austria, hopefully. And then continue on the foot until we find somehow we end up in refugee camp. So, so we did. We are going to the left. We come to the edge of the forest and I see the road in front of us.

[00:37:41] That road which we left before. And I can see the Austrian guard house to the left of us. So I know we made it. We are in Austria. Well, I am gonna pretty much stop over here, I think, because two days later we made it in refugee camp. We went through the process of applying for United States, which was sling the procedure. We have to be approved. And it wasn't simple, but we were approved to come to America.

[00:38:11] And when we came to America, we have to go to InterVIM, the Swiss Council. And when we came, we already had the social security cards and green cards. So we were here, we could start working and start building our new life right away. I don't wanna go much farther in this story, because I think we're gonna run out of time. But I just would like to tell you that America, we know there is so much space for improvement.

[00:38:39] And we know we are using the freedoms every day. But still there is so much, we are so much ahead, whatever is second out there. It's not even funny. But we have to keep our freedoms. We cannot keep the left, we cannot let the left to steal our freedoms. Because if we lose freedom in America, we have no place to go. This is the last island in the whole world, when we still enjoy the freedoms which we have.

[00:39:07] If we lose these freedoms, and we're losing them every day, but if we lose them completely, we have no place to go. This is it. We are running out of space. We are running out of place to live free. So we need to understand this, and we need to keep our freedoms over here. You know, it's such a good reminder, sir, that we are, that America, yes, it does have problems. And we're trying to address those. And there are patriots such as yourself, such as myself,

[00:39:36] that are in this fight to try to secure the blessings of liberty, and not just for ourselves, but for our posterity as well. And so it is a good reminder to have somebody such as yourself, who went through so much to get to this point, to get to this place. And now you appreciate these freedoms more than your average American. And that's why I wanted to have you on the program, so that we could have this conversation. I could hear the emotion as you were talking and sharing this story with our audience.

[00:40:04] And there were a few times that you had to pause because it is emotional. And even this many years beyond that escape, it still touches you. I can sense that. I can see that in just listening to your story here. And I want to thank you for sharing it with the audience so much. I did want to ask you a question. You had said that you had to keep these thoughts private from everyone. How did you enter into the conversation with your wife that this is something that you wanted to do, that you wanted to escape this,

[00:40:34] to give a better life for her and for her children? Yes. Well, it wasn't easy. You know, I was thinking about that long time before I met her. And so I was planning to escape somehow myself. Well, then suddenly I have wife and two little children, so I need to take the whole family across. And I wasn't really sure if I can trust her. You know, in the communism, everybody's watching everybody. You have people watching you. You don't even know about that.

[00:41:03] I mean, and I have to trust her also. If I reveal this idea that we're going to leave, escape, and go to be free, she might go and blabber it to somebody else. And that would be the end of everything also. So it took me a while before I got to the point. You know, I was slowly opening her eyes, seeing what we're living in, that kids have no future, and we have no future. And, you know, and even buying the vitamins for the children,

[00:41:33] you know, fruit and vegetables, it was very little accessible. And so it took me a while. And then when finally I figured out she can handle it, I told her about my plan and she agreed. I explained to her that we are still young. We need better future for ourselves and freedoms. And we are definitely only to our children, not to give them birth and not to sentence them to live in the communism, because it was so bad.

[00:42:05] Well, I'm so glad that you were able to escape such an oppressive country and come to America. And beyond that, you're not just living. You're in the fight. You came to America and you said, never again. And so you are, you speak on this, you've written a book on this. We're going to highlight that in just a moment here. You are going to be speaking for the John Birch Society, which I would argue is the best organization in combating communism,

[00:42:34] really throughout the world. But you are a speaker. You are a warrior in this. And I so appreciate that you didn't just come to America just to enjoy freedoms and to kick back and to say, hey, I'm going to live the good life. No, you're willing to fight for your adopted country. So that speaks to you and your character. I want to bring up the book. This is available on Amazon. Chris is bringing it up for us right there. Journey for Freedom, Defection from Communist Czechoslovakia. Peter, tell us a little bit more.

[00:43:04] Why should people order this book? Well, this book is really, you know, I wasn't planning to write the book originally. I was just planning to write some memories because my my daughter got married and she has six children herself, which were born in America, of course, and stuff. And so I needed them to know where we come from, why and how and what was the reason. So I start writing kind of memories for my grandchildren.

[00:43:33] And eventually it starts suddenly looking like a book. So I made the book. And in that book, I I talk about life in the communism. I talk about the communist control. I talking about just what it is to grow up and get educated if you are allowed. And just talk about the both communism, both country, what what it does to people.

[00:43:58] And then so people can and and be our first generation of common Americans in my family. You know, we came here like your ancestors, maybe 100 years later. And but pretty much same way. They may or may not have children or they probably didn't speak English, you know, or their position was in their hands. So we came over as a first generation and people need to understand how great this country is and how much we need to protect it.

[00:44:26] You know, it's easy to be born and say, hey, it's like this when I was little, it's going to be like this forever. That's not true. You know, you know, Caleb, the I was born in the communism, but my dad wasn't. My dad lived, my parents lived before the communism. And Czechoslovakia was just like any free world enterprise country where there's free enterprise, private ownership, capitalism.

[00:44:54] You know, it was just like America on the smaller scale. And then communists took over and everything disappeared. You know how long it took to change country like like we have lives in America into nothing and the no ownership of anything. No, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of anything. It took one week. Wow.

[00:45:19] It took one week to transfer the whole country into darkness and the madness and the red terror one week because they prepare themselves and they prepare themselves to take care of the world. And immediately they know how and where and how and when and they took over the country in one week. One week when people lost all the position. Suddenly government confiscate all your, you know, you might have somebody might have restaurant.

[00:45:48] Somebody owns the farm. Somebody owns the apartment building. Somebody owns the assembly production line or something. Communists took it in one week. And if you stand up against them, they kill you. They took everything. They took everything. One week. They took one week. And communism was there for over 40 years in Eastern Europe. In Russia for over 70 years.

[00:46:20] Yeah. That is. Cuba is still under communism. Yep. Yeah. That is such a good warning for, for anyone watching this program that it was just one week, one week and your life completely transformed and everything that you thought you had owned was taken away from you. Even those that you took for granted, ownership of, of your life, your, your, your liberty, they were just taken from you.

[00:46:46] And suddenly you find yourself in a very dark, as you described it, red tear. Sir, we've actually come to the end of the interview, but I just so appreciate the fact that you are sharing your story, that you're willing to come on this program for writing the book. And I got to tell you, and I'm sure your family tells you as well, but you're a hero, sir. You're a hero because you took a great risk to give your family a better life. And now, as you said, your daughter has, has six children.

[00:47:14] You have six grandchildren that know freedom because of your actions. And I tell you, that is a job well done, sir. And so I tip my hat to you for that. Thank you very much. Absolutely. I, I, I'm going to go ahead and close this out, sir. If you hold on one more minute post-production to say our goodbyes, I'd appreciate it. Okay. But thank you again for coming on the program. I really do love the story that you shared with the audience. Thank you very much. You're welcome, sir. All right. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, journey for freedom.

[00:47:43] Chris, can you bring that up one more time again? Journey for freedom. What a phenomenal book. I cannot wait to get my hands on this. As I tell you guys so often, this is the most important conversation to be having. I love talking to people that have experienced it, whether they're a Cuban refugee, whether they were behind the Iron Curtain, whether it was Asian communism. I love talking to people that have lived it because they know, they know the risks, the dangers there. And while I get frustrated with America and our elections and everything like that, remember,

[00:48:13] freedom is at stake here. The Caleb Collier Show of Church and State Media is brought to you in part by Colonial Life's Bucket and Independent Agents, Finders Insurance and Mark37.com. I'm Caleb Collier. I was born for a storm. Welcome to the fire. Hey, this is Caleb Collier with Church and State. And I want to tell you about a great product, Liberty Cigars.

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