Continuing my column from yesterday, is there a growing acceptance of Marxism in America today? With the modern glorification of Marxism, maybe we should all review the staggering number of deaths resulting from the pursuit of attempting Marxist utopias.

Under Mao Zedong's Chinese communism, there were an estimated 50 million to 72 million deaths. This number also includes the Great Chinese famine of 1958 to 1961 in which the communist government's collectivist policies and rationing killed anywhere from 15 million to 36 million people. In Cambodia, the Mao-backed Khmer Rouge regime executed more than two million people, approximately 15 percent of their entire population. The Khmer Rouge accomplished this feat in less than two years.

In the Soviet Union, from 1924 to 1953 there were an estimated 20 million deaths, though some estimates are even higher. In Eastern Europe, the estimated number is around one million deaths. There also have been millions of Marxist-inspired deaths in other regions around the world, including Africa, Vietnam and Latin America over the last 50 years.

I was fortunate to have taught in several Chinese universities, and to visit much of northern China a few years ago. During this time, I learned a lot about the effects of communism from students and others who are still scarred by the violence and oppression found there. At the University of Beijing, there are still cameras mounted in the classrooms for government scrutiny. I was one of only a few Westerners to explore the Underground City, a vast maze of underground tunnels built in the 1970s as a nuclear bunker under the streets of Beijing for the preservation of Chairman Mao and his officials. I saw pictures of Mao and Lenin plastered on the walls in these dank, dark tunnels winding like an immense labyrinth under the city.

I visited Chairman Mao's tomb and watched the people line up daily bringing flowers to Mao's mummified corpse, bowing their heads sometimes in fear, sometimes moved by regime-supported admiration. Yet, despite the political lag, today the Chinese are moving away from communist economics and embracing an economic system of freer markets. Since 1979, these economic changes in China alone have lifted 10 percent of the population of the earth out of poverty. No other economic reform in history, including those of the disastrous Marxist variety, has ever even imagined achieving this result.

On Sept. 20, a large celebration of Chinese Communism occurred in the Ellipse, a park in front of the White House. Anita Dunn, the White House Communications Director, is an open advocate of Marxism, as is White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett. On a recently released video from June 5 at the St. Andrews Episcopal School graduation ceremony, Dunn proudly stated to the students that one of her "two favorite political philosophers" was Chairman Mao and that he should be emulated. What would have happened had she proclaimed her admiration for Hitler, one of Mao's few rivals in 20th century butchery?

Van Jones recently had to resign as our "Green Czar." Jones is an outspoken communist and extreme left-wing radical who has no love of the United States.

Mark Lloyd, our "Diversity Czar" over the FCC, is openly Marxist and has expressed his belief in censoring opposing viewpoints on the radio and in the media. In a recorded speech in 2008, Lloyd explained his deep respect for emerging Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez (a pro-Castro "socialist"), including the latter's near-complete control of the communications media in Venezuela as a means of pushing successful revolution. Lloyd has expressed his desire for greater control of the media here in the U.S. via the proposed "Fairness Doctrine," which is not about "fairness" at all, but power and censorship.

Robert McChesney, one of Lloyd's friends and advisers, as well as adviser to the president, is a prolific writer, professor and communist who was the former editor of the Marxist journal The Monthly Review. McChesney has remarked openly that capitalism in America should be dismantled "brick by brick," and several other czars seem to share his views.

A frightening video was released on Oct. 19 featuring Ron Bloom, our "Manufacturing Czar," who stated that the "free market is nonsense" and then praised Chairman Mao and Marxist ideology. It is amazing to see such ignorance, especially from people in such important positions in government.

These are only a few examples of the many radicals who are currently appointed by or advising the president.

Totalitarian governments and ideologies, both right wing and left wing, are poisonous. Nazism, communism, fascism, etc. are systems equally responsible for squelching freedom, diversity and individuality over much of the globe, in addition to taking their horrible toll in human deaths.

It would be nice if our schools actually conveyed the facts about all totalitarian systems and why so many people should rightfully avoid collectivist philosophies.

History, including the ugliness that has accompanied communism, should be neither erased nor ignored.

Daniel Green has a history degree and certificate in ethnic studies from Fort Hays State University and a master's degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. He is a local resident, who worked as professor of film at FHSU, and is currently working for Castle Resources Inc. and Austex of Melbourne, Australia.