October 31, 2025 • 53 mins
A voice that lived through Marxism can strip away illusions in seconds. STARRS & Stripes host Commander Al Palmer, USN ret, sits down with Mihaela Fletcher—born in Romania and grew up under communist dictatorship driven by Marxist ideology fully indoctrinated throughout the country.
Mihaela unpacks how grand promises of equality under communism curdled into scarcity, fear, and silence. From ration books and surveillance to Ceausescu’s cult of personality and a violent regime collapse, her story reveals what enforced ideology looks like on the ground.
Mihaela expected better when she became a Romanian diplomat at the UN, but found the same familiar communist patterns: a scandal-ridden aid machine that failed the people it claimed to serve. Declared persona non grata after getting engaged to a U.S. officer, she moved to America and started over—earning advanced nursing degrees and rediscovering freedom through competence, accountability, and service. That’s where our conversation turns homeward: school grade inflation, lowered admissions bars, and administrative policies that pressure faculty while pushing ideological litmus tests. In healthcare and the military, diluted standards aren’t abstract; they put patients and missions at risk.
We connect her lived experience to the stakes inside our armed forces. Integrity, service before self, and excellence are more than mottos when bullets fly. With a military veteran husband and a son at a service academy, she’s clear about what keeps warriors ready—merit, discipline, and truth. We talk about shielding academies from ideological capture, defending rigorous selection and training, and building environments where every cadet can grow in merit and excellence without demeaning quotas based on divisive identities.
Too many young people today who never lived during the Cold War nor were taught about it have gravitated towards communist ideology (see NYC) out of ignorance and naivety. Share this episode with them and tell them about our nation's fight against Marxist ideology worldview during the Cold War and how to recognize the Marxist push to destroy our country.
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For more information about STARRS, go to our website: https://starrs.us which works to eliminate the divisive Marxist-based CRT/DEI/Woke agenda in the Department of Defense and to promote the return to a warfighter ethos of meritocracy, lethality, readiness, accountability, standards and excellence in the military.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Al Palmer (00:09):
Well, hello America.
This is your host for STARRSand Stripes, Commander Al
Palmer, United States Navy,retired.
And as those of you who areregular viewers and listeners to
our podcast, you'll know thatwe're the folks that stand up
against racism andradicalization in the military
(00:29):
services.
That's what STARRS stands forand what we stand for.
And very proudly.
STARRS has been engaged forseveral years now in trying to
reduce the effects of rackradical ideologies on our
military services and the peoplewho serve there.
In addition to the families andthe children and relatives of
(00:52):
those who serve our country.
So we're happy to be here againwith this episode today.
And I want to talk aboutsomething that we often have
brought up but don't get intotoo deeply, and that is the
radicalization that has affectednot just our military
services, but also our country.
(01:13):
It's more evident today, andit's more in the open, ,
perhaps than has been for sometime.
And we're talking about theideologies of Marxism and
communism, , which we didn'texpect to see very much of, but
now seems to be in cleardisplay.
To talk about that today, I'vegot a very special guest.
(01:36):
She is an American citizen whogrew up in communism in Eastern
Europe.
She became a diplomat, arespected person who
represented her country as acommunist country, but then
(01:56):
became an American citizen andhasn't had a disadvanced career
teaching medicine, becoming anurse practitioner, and in an
absolute gym when it comes tohelping our country recover from
illnesses and addictions.
So it's my pleasure today tohave with us Mihaela Fletcher.
(02:20):
Mihaela, welcome to thepodcast.
Thanks for spending a littlebit of time with us today to
tell us a little bit about howyou came from the communist
world and how you grew up therein a family that was part of
that, and then somehow escapedand came here to pursue a new
(02:42):
dream, which is something, ofcourse, that all people who want
to immigrate to our country do.
But I think your story is veryunique because you come from a
little different way ofunderstanding how those things
affect people.
So welcome to the show.
It's good to have you with us.
Mihaela Fletcher (03:03):
Thank you for having me here.
I'm glad to be here.
So I am an immigrant and I livethrough the Marxist ideology,
born and raised in one of themost oppressive
governments in the world.
my father was a member ofthe Communist Party, so I was
(03:28):
indoctrinated since birth.
I got a degree in economicsduring communism, was one of
the most prestigious schools,so I was indoctrinated with
Marxism there too.
I went to a politicalscience school, I got a
(03:53):
political science degree, Ibecame a diplomat in my
country, and I eventually wasselected to be a h anitarian
observer for the United Nationsin Iraq.
, when I was in Iraq, I metan American coroner who was the
director of weapons inspectionsin Iraq, and eventually we
(04:20):
got engaged and I moved to theUnited States.
not before I was declaredpersona nongrada by the Iraqi
government and forced actuallyto leave Iraq at that
time.
So that was the best thingthat happened to me, though.
came to the United States,, I got my teacher, my
(04:42):
daughter, with me.
She was 11 years old at thattime, and I started all over.
I got a nursing degree, wentto a historically black
university in Louisiana, then Igot a master's degree from
Duke and then postmaster's fromUNC at Chapel Hill, ECU and a
doctoral degree from ECU innursing.
(05:04):
so I I'm a healthcareprovider and I am a proud
American.
My husband, my first husbandAmerican colonel, died of a
service-connected disability,was 100% service-connected
veteran, and I eventuallygot remarried, , and my
(05:29):
husband is a lieutenant coloneland he retired from the army.
so my daughter became anAmerican citizen too, she
married a first-generationAmerican, they are both
successful, have own businesses,and my son is cadet at the
US Air Force Academy.
So I grew up, I studied,and I lived in a country there
(05:56):
were no rights, and you talkabout paradise, , what they
were offered us, , wereoffered a lot of good things.
they offered us freeeducation for all, but the
education was allindoctrination.
We didn't have a lot of goodbooks.
I didn't even know what theBible was.
(06:17):
religion was also totallyoppressed.
We are not allowed to go tochurches except for except
for a few times, like therewas a wedding or baptism, a
funeral.
A few times I've been to churcha few times in my life there.
so the education wasmandatory, the Marxism
(06:41):
education was mandatory.
We became communistearly in the second grade, we
were pioneers, , andeverything we taught was an
exaggeration and h anrights abuse, everything.
(07:02):
the state controlledeverything.
You talk about social housing,what kind of houses we had,
, communal apartments withshowers and restrooms outside.
my father was in theCommunist Party, so he was
able to buy a decent house, andI was able to get an apartment
(07:22):
too.
but it took years, andbasically we had to fake
psychiatric diseases to get anextra room if we wanted more
space.
we we thought we had itall.
We were totally brainwashed,indoctrinated.
We're told that we had basicnecessity, but everything was
(07:43):
rationed.
Food, electricity, there werepower cuts, nothing in the
grocery stores.
I fainted so many timeswaiting online to buy
to buy food.
public transportation,what can I say?
It was it wasn't free, butit was cheap, but it was a
(08:04):
place where was sexual abuse,everybody was touching, robbing
you.
That was normal.
everything was controlled.
We had like two hours a day ofTV, , and there was a lot of
propaganda.
We learned Russian,corruption, nepotism, black
market was everywhere, therewere crimes, and typically
(08:27):
thieves would steal meat fromour houses: meat, gasoline,
radios from the cars.
there was no freedom ofmovement.
I we are not allowed to traveloutside, except for some people
in the communist country.
minorities were allrepressed.
It's ironical thatrevolution, the Romanian
revolution, started because aminority priest was his
(08:54):
rights were violated and wantedto kick him out of the his
country, and people protested.
and of course, communismMarxism system requires
enforcement.
You have to indoctrinateeveryone since birth or school,
and then you have to put a lotof work on finding
(09:16):
having a good policeinformants so people can live in
trust and fear, so they wouldbe afraid to say something.
If you say something, you'dbe publicly discredited, but
we're basically encouraged tospy on others, to spy on my
parents or my neighbors, thatthey got a phone call from
somebody from the UnitedStates or Italy.
(09:40):
It was all secondary gain.
In fact, we got promotedif we would spy on someone.
the healthcare was theworst because it was all
bribery, corruption.
, I had an aunt who diedbecause she didn't have the
money to pay her doctors andnurses, and she was told you
(10:01):
either sell your cow, that washer only way of feeding her
children, or you're not gonnahave the surgery on time, and
she chose the her family, notherself, and eventually died.
we shared everything, weshared syringes.
I'm lucky that I didn't getHIV or other diseases,
(10:24):
transmittable diseases, becauseit was on order, depending on
what your name was, ABC.
we had the same syringe foreverybody.
little alcohol swap, butlots of people died and were
got infections because ofthat.
People were in orphanagesbecause of that.
(10:44):
, prenatal care was a joke.
we basically went to thedoctor very rarely.
there was no anesthesia,nothing.
childcare, we took careof each other.
If we had grandparents, thatwas good.
We had a key on our neck, ,going on trams, on metro.
(11:06):
many women died because ofabortions, and it was it was
illegal to havecontraceptives.
pro-natalist policy.
the president wanted us tohave at least five children, and
women who could not feedtheir children resorted to
(11:29):
having contraceptions andabortions illegally.
some died, some madebabies and they were placed in
orphanages, but , there was nogender equality.
Women were it's part of life tobe treated like a sex object.
It's like, what is sexualabuse?
(11:49):
There's no word for that.
Plus, you couldn't talk withanyone about anything that
happened to you.
We didn't have any sexeducation in school, women were
just made to serve men andmake children.
so it was a civilresponsibility for us to make
children and to serve the man.
(12:11):
In fact, getting married wasfor a woman was something that
we should be very proud of.
and those who would notmake children or get married,
they'd get a penalty like pay10% of their salary.
they talk about classlesssociety.
let's live incommunist place, , Marxism when
(12:32):
there's no , yeah, everybodyis equal, everybody has the
same, it's fair.
that was not true.
There were lots of classes,politicians, military,
celebrities, professionals, theworking class.
my family was in theworking class, I would say,
because my father was in theCommunist Party, we were a
(12:55):
little bit above and wecould go so far.
So my parents wanted mybrother and I to get a college
degree, so we would becomeprofessionals, so we go a
little farther, but there's somuch that you can go.
the lowest were thepeasants in the villages, and
(13:18):
that's what they werecalling them, the peasants, and
the minorities were absolutelythe lowest, were treated
very, very poorly.
election, none.
It was we had one party, onecandidate, unqualified people,
h an rights violation thereextreme.
(13:40):
again, if you are in theCommunist Party, you had some
advantages to buy a housefaster, to get a better job,
because you know everybody has ajob, but what kind of jobs you
had?
in fact, living in the cityat Bucharest was like you
have a green card here in theUnited States.
everybody wanted to gothere.
(14:01):
There were illegal marriagesfor that people to stay in the
country in the city because theyhad more that in villages.
So everybody had a job, butit wasn't the job you wanted,
but the job that wasdetermined for your for your
party, for your class.
Al Palmer (14:22):
So so it sounds like that's a society that's built
just like the old Soviet Union,actually, which came from
Vladimir Lenin and theBolsheviks after the referent
Russian Revolution.
And and countries like Romaniajust seem to have adopted that
as as part of the thespread of communism throughout
(14:47):
Europe.
They just duplicated it oneplace to another.
Usually usually because theycome into the country and say,
We're gonna make things feelgood for you.
We're gonna give you utopia.
You probably grew up that way,right?
Mihaela Fletcher (15:00):
Yes, yeah, I don't know.
Anything else.
Al Palmer (15:03):
But you don't know.
But you know, since you don'tknow, you say, sure, we'll sign
up for that, and that soundsgreat.
We'll get all this great stuff,and then the stuff doesn't show
up.
So was there a time when youwere a young girl and it started
out looking attractive becauseeverything was going to be even
and maybe a little bit ofutopia, and then it changed?
Mihaela Fletcher (15:26):
I I did not know that was better.
I really did not knoweverything was so established,
I just wanted to go toschool, get a college degree,
become a professional.
Of course, my goal was I was awoman, was to marry a man
that was like an officeror a doctor, so I would have a
(15:52):
better life.
But that was my goal in lifeat that time.
There was we I never knew itwas better, not even after
communism and it was difficult.
I actually found freedom inthe United States, nowhere
else.
But we were just soabused, , vulnerable,
vulnerable people who did notknow were brainwashed, totally
(16:14):
brainwashed.
Al Palmer (16:16):
So was it wasn't there also an issue with the
Romanian people who existedbefore communism?
Didn't you lose a lot of thathistory, that that family, if
you will?
Mihaela Fletcher (16:29):
Yeah, we lost everything.
we did not know thehistory, we were taught just the
communist history, and myfather, my grandfather had
property, had a pub andhad land and gold, and he
lost everything because of thecommunist, and then they were
(16:51):
spying on him, they werecoming looking at us to see if
we do anything.
he he lived in fear and hewas even afraid to talk because
if he would say something, myfather would get upset that
we'll all be sent to prison orsomewhere else in the middle of
nowhere, and he was shut offthe entire life.
(17:11):
So they they stole the theclassless society is like it
doesn't work, and they theystole everything from people who
had.
They got it all and they didn'treally distribute it like the
state had total control.
they some people incharge had the control of
everything, but the state hadtotal control of everything.
(17:34):
There was no we are justindoctrinated that we were all
happy that we had equaldistribution of wealth, but I
just we are all poor.
That's you know, wealthcannot be equal if you don't
work and make but it's as faras you as much as you can work,
can do, you can't go fartheryour class unless you have to do
(17:57):
something.
You have to, I don't know, havesex with someone, you are
lucky, you are pretty, and yougo farther.
But there's there wasthere was no the only motivation
was to get a little farther inclass, but we didn't know
better.
We just didn't know what wasgood.
We didn't have basic necessity,we didn't have food, we didn't
(18:19):
have basic things.
Al Palmer (18:21):
And and and like most of the communist countries that
have gone that way, you hadsomebody who was a leader at the
time too, who probably was likea Stalin, who kind of dictated
how things went.
And and that was NikolaiChaushescu, right?
Mihaela Fletcher (18:39):
In fact, he was worse than I would say he
was worse than maybe not Stalin.
Stalin did a lot of bad things,but he was worse than a lot of
other people because he was morethan just the that the the
communist that he destroyed acountry, but he he went to North
Korea at one point and herealized the cult, the
(19:00):
personality cult was there, andfrom that moment it was much
worse on us.
We became totally isolatedfrom everyone.
I would say that Romania wasjust like during communism was
much worse than in we had alife much worse than in the
Soviet Union or other communistcountries.
We were like in North Korea,that's what I think we are.
Al Palmer (19:19):
I've heard that, yes.
Well, and and and because Ithink he's as I've read, he
started out kind of mild, andthen like you say, he changed
his character along the way andbecame much more brutal and much
more forceful.
So, what happened to him?
Mihaela Fletcher (19:40):
Well, he so I think he was , I'm not even
sure if he was a shoemaker or heworked for a shoemaker, but
he became in charge, he became ageneral eventually, and he
had the cult.
We were I remember when we werelittle kids in class, , we had
his photos everywhere, and wewere singing songs about
(20:03):
him to the Supreme Leader,all the songs that we were
singing, and he he just tookadvantage of everybody.
So eventually, when thecommunism was ending in a lot
of countries, Romania was oneof the last countries who
where communism ended, itbecame violent.
(20:24):
He really saw that , see,people when they are told that
they are good, they believe thatthey are good, just like what's
happening today with DI, andI've seen people entitled
parents and entitled students,they were told that they are
good, they start believing theyare really good and the people
love them.
And he really believed that hewas good and he would not want
to back off.
And some people went againsthim, protest all over the
(20:48):
country, and eventually thepolice security, his own
police got against him,and he and his wife were
publicly executed, they werejust executed, it was violent,
and Romania was the only placewhere the end of communism
(21:09):
was violent because he was hewas so horrible.
I I can't even and you know wewe don't like to see people die
or anything, but the he hewas just executed in he and his
wife were exiled, they didn'twait.
The the country had enough.
Al Palmer (21:28):
Well that shows you how bad it was, I guess.
So so you grew up with that,suffered through it, but but
tell us a little bit about howyou went to the United Nations
and how you escaped that to gethere.
Mihaela Fletcher (21:44):
, so I like I said, I didn't know what
freedom was.
I had no idea.
I was a woman who was just madethere to serve men, and I was
hoping to get better.
so I eventuallydecided to go to school, , get
a political science degree, andteachers there were
(22:08):
important in the new government.
so I made some connections,I applied for the Romanian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs andfor a diplomat, search
secretary, and I was selectedfor that eventually later.
One of the important personsthere told me that I mean
(22:29):
I was I had degrees, I hadalmost 4.0 GPA at that school,
the political science degree.
but I was told that I gotthe job mainly because I was
pretty.
He just liked me.
so that was got me in thatinstitution.
so I worked for theUnited Nations, and it was still
(22:52):
gender inequality, there was soviolence against women, the
trams, the metros are the same,women were abused, patriarchal
culture, position ofpowers, and no accountability.
So I decided to move away,to go away from the country, and
the best way to do was theUnited Nations, and I found a
(23:15):
job and I applied to be ah anitarian observer in Iraq,
and I got a job, I movedthere, and this is how I
arrived at the United Nations.
but when when I wentthere it was about the same.
(23:36):
It was the same genderinequality, the same sexism, the
women it was the sameMarxism that I I saw it in
there.
so you thought I was readingYou thought going to the United
Nations might solve thatproblem, but found out it
existed there too.
So the United Nations ended upwith its own problems.
(24:00):
Yes, yes, and it was interesting when I met
there and I met the person incharge of that organization
in Iraq.
The first thing he told me thatI don't look like an observal,
I look like a model.
Now at that time sound like acompliment, but right now I
wouldn't like someone to tell meI I know my rights right now.
it was it wasappropriate at that time because
(24:21):
I didn't know better.
I was a woman.
but I eventually after Iwas declared persona non
prata, non-desiber person,nobody told me what I did wrong.
, if I did something, nobodytalked with me.
the only thing that I couldsee that I did wrong was that I
was engaged to be marriedwith the director of weapons
(24:43):
inspections in Iraq, who wasUS Air Force coroner.
So I do not see any otherreason of doing something, but
nobody told me I did anythingwrong.
and how will we do it?
That will probably take care ofit, yeah.
So the UN simply kicked me out, you got to
(25:03):
where do you want to go?
So I moved to the UnitedStates, and then later I found
out and I knew all the people.
I knew the person in charge,and I know the one who was
in charge of him, the chiefof the UN All for Food program
in Iraq.
And it's interesting becausethe UN h anitarian
(25:27):
coordinator in Iraq said that heresigned because he could not
look at the genocide that washappening to Iraqi people.
That was horrible.
Iraqi people lived indeed,there was a genocide, they were
not doing well, but thethey were not doing well in fact
because of what the UnitedNations did, what their own
(25:50):
dictator did.
eventually they discovered,and that's I looked in the news
from reliable sources fromthe United States office,
that there was mismanagement,there's corruption, fraud,
abuse of power, and the personin charge was actually indicted
for bribery and corruption, andthe UN paid his legal fees,
(26:11):
and then he just resigned andmoved back to his country.
And I know US tried to get himback, but the country would
not get him back, so he gotaway.
Probably he's getting aretirement right now.
there's there was no noaccountability.
So whose genocide was?
who made this genocide,making profit at the expense of
vulnerable people.
(26:31):
These people were really, I Iwitnessed so many h an rights
violations in Iraq.
People were really not doingwell, and they were so afraid.
And that's what ourpresident, former president
Ciao Chescu did for Romania.
It wasn't just communism, hewas a nationalist.
He, the culture personality,that's what Saddam had.
(26:52):
And it was actually Saddam'sphoto was in every person's
house.
and they own peoplethey hated him.
but so it was I metpeople from other countries,
African countries, who it's theagain, women who there was a
girl who was a woman who hadgenital mutilation as a child,
(27:15):
and she was taught, she wasindoctrinated to believe that
there was normal.
I mean, how can you think aboutthat?
Be having genital mutilation isa normal.
She was taught to believethat it was her, it was her
responsibility to bemutilated, and who cares about
(27:36):
health, social, , all thecomplications that these people
had.
Another one didn't even knowshe was genitally mutilated.
She went to so many doctors andeventually found out, but
again, her family told herthat's part of our culture.
It is normal.
So I saw a lot ofatrocity, but the corruption
(27:57):
that goes together, it's likewhen you when you get to the
Marxism, to the nationalism, youcan't get out of that.
It's impossible.
And that's why I wanted toleave because I didn't have 50
years, I didn't have a hundredyears to wait for the country to
get better.
My daughter was, I don't wantmy daughter to be sexually
abused, she was pretty, she wasa very pretty girl, she's a have
a beautiful daughter.
(28:17):
But that's what happens whenyou are beautiful, everybody
takes advantage of him.
I was reading in the news aboutthe gymnast Nadia Komanet
that everybody thought she gotshe she was great because she
was important, she was acelebrity, but this woman,
defected, she left the countrybecause she was so important,
she was so abused.
Everybody took advantage ofher.
(28:38):
If you are pretty, if you are acelebrity, they take advantage
of you.
And then it's hard to get over.
People get indoctrinated, theydon't know what is right, and
it's that's what when I seethings happening in this
country, I know that if it'sgonna happen, it's gonna take
centuries to get back to whatit is, and it's scary because
(29:00):
I've seen it, I've seen ithappening, and it's like 1984.
George Orwell is ignoranceis strength.
That's what they are countingon, that's what Marxists are
counting on, keeping everybodyignorant so they would they
would not know that they areabused.
It's just and they have it's II can't even think about the way
(29:24):
they do, how they use thevulnerable population, how they
find them, they segregate theminto classes.
We have white and blacks, wehave transgenders, we have
ethnicities, , women, men,they all segregate them.
Income right now is income.
I've seen atuniversities in North
(29:47):
Carolina that people withlower income, , children with
lower income have free theythey have they go to college for
free.
So there's an inequality inin income.
Right now, if you are if yourparents make more money, you are
penalized because it's thisthey found another group, the
(30:07):
income group, they changed them,and then they victimize these
people, and the people theydon't even know that they are
victimized.
They are manipulated like me,they are exploited, , and then
they make them poor.
They they don't really realizethis.
You can support, you can feedeveryone, you can have give
free housing to everybody, youcan get free jobs to everybody,
(30:28):
free health care.
So you you impoverish yourpopulation eventually, and then
when they reach their politicalagenda, they just abandon them.
And the people don't realizethat they are right now their
object, but , once the theseMarxists will get their
political agenda through theirpropaganda pushing their lies,
they they're gonna getrid of everyone.
(30:51):
It's just whoever they want.
, it's such a violation,it's horrible.
Al Palmer (30:57):
Well, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, pretty
soon you run out of otherpeople's money.
And when you do, you don't havethose things you need to
sustain the promises that aremade that are based on
continuing revenue.
When you kill the business, youkill people's initiative, and
there goes the money, and theregoes the support.
(31:18):
Is that kind of what you saw?
Mihaela Fletcher (31:20):
Yeah, you kill the motivation, you kill
everything.
You kill you you you kill ourdesire to get better.
We know what we can do.
it's you you killeverything we had, everything.
The equal opportunity is noopportunity at all.
It's all these people theyare so abused, they don't even
(31:43):
realize how they it'sthey're gonna become all poor.
You you can't support, youcannot have the the communism,
is not, it did not work.
It just showed it did not work.
it's not possibleeconomically, politically, is
totally against, but it'sit's like the people and I
(32:09):
was reading about someone inthe Cato Institute, a black
guy who and I I agree withwhat he said, I've seen that
too.
They make them feel victims bytelling them they are the group,
the whites abuse you, theblacks, whatever they say.
they make you feel like athat's what communism is famous
(32:31):
for.
They'll come in and tell youwhether it's South Africa or
whether it's Eastern Europe, ,they'll come in and say, Look,
things are really tough here intown for you guys, but we're
here to help you.
Things are gonna be good.
Just do what we say, right?
Abandon all those other thingsthat you've had, get rid of your
history, get rid of all thethings that you've done.
(32:51):
, we're here to make thingsdifferent.
We're gonna fundamentallychange you and your country for
you.
Is that the message that yousaw?
Yeah, and it's it's hard to see that some
hardworking people areassociated with groups like them
because of their culture,income, race, gender, because
(33:12):
those good people appear badbecause of what the people in
charge abuse the other ones.
They get incompetent, thevulnerable ones, the ones that
are ignorant and they don'tknow.
They want them unqualified.
They get the unqualified onesto get to their, if they can get
to someone to their means ifthey have someone smart.
So that person, the smartperson, is gonna get it.
(33:34):
So they want the unqualifiedpeople.
They want us to becomeignorant.
Al Palmer (33:39):
So let's let's talk for just a second about that
qualification merit.
that's how you escaped andcame here and then went into
education, , went into nursing,, a very technical and very
challenging profession.
but to do that, you had tobe very good at what you were
(34:01):
doing, right?
You couldn't use DEI and getahead just because of some other
external factor.
and and you saw thatdirectly coming from a place
where that was done.
How did that feel for you?
Mihaela Fletcher (34:15):
Yeah, well, I saw it at the beginning when I
got a job at as a diploma andwhen I got a job at the United
States Nations, the way I wastreated, now it makes me think.
I know I was intelligent, Iknow I hard, I studied hard, but
was it because of the way Ilook, because I'm pretty,
because somebody sexuallyharassed me?
Is this why I'm in theposition?
So it makes me actually, itputs my self-esteem down,
(34:37):
although I know that I'm smart.
Then I'm trying to think aboutdid the other people who got in
this position got in therebecause they were pretty,
because they had sex withsomeone.
and the same happened withhere, with the nursing.
I've seen people who werewho got got over the the
(35:00):
grading on the curve, likewhen I went to school.
some people I remember Ihad a guy one time, a colleague,
he asked me to help him atchemistry and said, okay, I was
good, I had a grade grade, soteach me chemistry.
What do I need to do?
And then I tried to explain tohim chemistry, but the guy did
(35:22):
not know basic maths, he didn'tknow what two plus two was.
This is a guy who was incollege.
So, how can I teach someone whodoesn't know maths how to do a
chemical equation?
It was impossible.
I could not do it, and thenmy grades were high, and I was
they made me.
I remember I had one time I hadto take a clap test to get out
(35:45):
because my grade was inflatingthe others, I was doing too well
in there, and and it's not thatI was doing so.
That makes me think was I wasgood or other people were bad.
Was I good?
I couldn't, it makes mequestion my intelligence again
because of what I've seen.
But before in the school,eventually they had issues with
passing the accreditationbecause students were not
(36:08):
capable to get the 80%score to pass the national
examination, and then eventuallywere allowed to get it, even
so, to continue the school andput these nurses into practice,
and then the nurses take care ofyou.
And , who wants a prettynurse or a nurse who is diverse?
(36:31):
We want to have a good nurse.
, I want a nurse who cantake care of me, I want a doctor
who can take care of me.
I don't care how they look, ,whether income or religion or
ethnicity or races.
That's not , and thenthe same with when I went when
I became instructor, I sawthe same.
I saw somebody who was totallyunqualified, with a criminal
(36:56):
record actually, who had alicense suspended for fraud, who
got in charge because Iand I was discriminated.
and I it's hard tobelieve for me that someone who
was not having doing well inschool and didn't have anything
could get to that position andthe way they did it with like no
(37:18):
election, get everybody away.
So I've seen discrimination,I've seen the Marxist practice
of one candidate election atpublic universities.
I see it right now.
It's happening, and they lowerthe hiring standard, they lower
the admission standards, peoplehardly pass.
, I had they and thenthey just make sure there's just
(37:38):
one person and they choose acertain person.
And they don't it's it's it'son the it's now diversity
strengths in nurses, itstrengths in medicine, but not
at the expense of people.
We again we all want goodnurses, we want good doctors, we
want good military, we wantgood cadets.
Al Palmer (37:56):
So so a lot of that does center around you know
education and and education, youknow, post-high school.
so when you get intocollege, used to be you went
there for the ability to learnand to debate and to be able to
have a discussion about the waythings were.
(38:18):
Today it seems to be veryideological.
So is as that's the case, ,who's doing that?
Is it the professors?
Mihaela Fletcher (38:28):
You gotta do it.
Al Palmer (38:30):
Is it the professors though?
Mihaela Fletcher (38:32):
Well, when I went to so when I first time
when I went in school when Iwas a student, everybody was
passing.
It was all right.
Right now, what they want us todo is everybody to get like
before when I was wellworking before for a public
university, they wanted everyoneto get 100%, to give somebody a
(38:54):
98%, god forbid they are gonnacome and comment.
I had one time a colleague whogave a student 99.5%, and that
student made so much of a fussthat that eventual that teacher
was kicked away and the studentwas moved to me because that
professor gave him gave thestudent a 99.5.
(39:15):
So it's the many, it's the theleaders, it's it's the the
ones in charge that who aredoing the professors are told to
do from the leaders, fromtheir deans, from their
department heads.
these are the ones thatthat's not, and we should not,
and that's the problem.
We go after the wrong people,we go after the the ones who do
(39:37):
it, it's the ones whoorchestrate, the ones who have
an agenda to get to theirwhatever they want.
Al Palmer (39:44):
Yeah, that was kind of the the purpose and the
question is everybody thinksit's the professors that are
indoctrinating, brainwashing thestudents, but it turns out that
may be partly true, but it'sthe administrative people who do
that.
Often the campus volunteers orothers that do some of the grunt
(40:05):
work, like assigning you knowrooms and helping them with
choosing classes.
Those are the people who seemto be moving people in a
direction that's kind ofbrainwashing them and getting
them to swallow all of theideology.
We have to do the same.
Mihaela Fletcher (40:26):
We can.
We we do the best.
I did my due diligence.
I complain, I report it to theDepartment of Education, I
report it to the next level,they did meetings, but if the
same people are in charge, it'slike I can do more.
I've I've done I've done what Iwas supposed to do.
I do I did my duty to reportthat that individual is
(40:46):
writing in the new in the in hisresearch articles about
retaining some certainstudents and faculty, and then
he puts growing your own,creating your own intentional
pathway, do, and then he'sputting his research into
practice, and then we seeobviously that somebody there
totally unqualified is in thatposition, and we we do the best,
(41:09):
we report, but it's it's it'snot that individual who is not
capable that is n ber one thatneeds to go, is the one who
makes that possible, is whoevermakes it possible.
And it's it's a lot ofbureaucracy and the
department of education, tosomebody that equal opportunity
(41:31):
commission, for instance, toldme, Oh, it's too late, it's been
over six months, there'snothing we can do.
The Department of Justice isnot our business, something like
that.
That's the way they do it now.
I, when I apply for the job, Ihad veteran preference.
My husband has a hundredpercent service connected
disability.
I had so many credentials andcertification, I was working for
that school.
(41:51):
So not being being blacklistedfor all the jobs I applied after
I complained aboutdiscrimination, it was clear to
me.
But I mean, I have a job, Idon't care.
I can, I can, I'm happy where Iam, but it's the people that
the who's suffering?
The students, the the patients,the safety, it's the safety.
The students are sufferingbecause they were promised
(42:13):
quality quality education, andthey didn't get that.
They are not getting that.
I heard people are failingtheir their national exam.
But there's as much as wecan do.
I did everything I could.
I forgot.
Al Palmer (42:27):
Well, that's what you have to do, and and thank you
so much for being a part of thateffort.
it really makes adifference.
So the other thing thathappened to you, though, was not
only did you get back, you gotinto education here as a new
citizen, but you also got backinto the military marrying an
army lieutenant colonel and adoctor too, is that right?
(42:50):
Yes.
So so how did that how did thatchange your life being a a
military wife and a mother ofchildren now working in the
military, sort of?
Because after all, families inthe military are a part of the
military, right?
Mihaela Fletcher (43:09):
Well, I I lived in communism, so I raised
my son to love this country.
So that's n ber one, to taketo not take anything for
granted, to be to do it,marry to be competent.
So I taught my son, soyes, I married military men
(43:31):
and I I saw I sawintegrity, I saw service before
self, I saw excellence, and Isee that going away, and it's
it's caring.
So but it is it is veryscary because I know I lived
with what my what my myhusband's the integrity
(43:57):
that he has, my son's integrity,is they are they are to the
highest.
I I am an in I have a lot ofintegrity, but I can say I'm at
the same level as my husband andmy my son.
I'm questioning sometimes if Ihave somebody a student and I
know she is not he or she is notdoing well, I'm questioning.
If I would ask this question tomy husband and my son, they
(44:20):
would respond to me.
What is to think about?
There's nothing to think about,you do it, you cannot let.
It's your obligation to report.
You see something not right,it's your duty to do it.
so , and that was anotherthing when my son was in high
school, he he learned in highschool about a civil movement,
(44:40):
systemic racism, all of this.
And then he came to the US AirForce Academy and he learned the
real history and he just lovesit.
And I know he's gonna come outof this class as a better
person, and he's gonna learn thetruth about the history.
He's learning about burningconflict and containment and a
(45:02):
lot of things that he did notknow.
So I'm so happy with theeducation he he chose, and I
really don't want that Marx'sinfiltration.
It should not go into themilitary, it should not go into
the academies in the militarybecause we want a good nurse,
(45:24):
we want a good doctor, but wewant a good officer, we want a
good soldier to defend us.
We don't want somebody who'spretty or of a different race or
income.
We want somebody who can defendus and defend and we talk about
the women, the sexism andgender inequality in Romania and
the United Nations.
it's not about, it's aboutif a woman is capable, , the
(45:47):
woman should go as far aspossible, but we should put
married first regardless ofthe race, the how we look,
married and integrity.
We have to be to have integrityto report our duty.
So I'm very, very proud, andit should not go DI in
(46:07):
education meant passingunqualified students and giving
them a sense of entitlement.
And I was looking onFacebook, one of the parents
posted something in there abouther child and says that the
child would need to what can shedo for the child to switch
classes because of an instructornot having the ability to
teach?
That was so so inappropriate.
(46:29):
and people were respondingto that individual.
And how is it how appropriateit is to say to ass e that the
an instructor of a service of aservice academy doesn't have the
ability to teach?
These people are qualified,these people are excellent,
that's why they are there, theyare the best.
And how can you say something?
(46:52):
And all I'm thinking is theentitlement.
Somebody gave her child justa hundred percent, and now she
expects that she didn't get ahundred percent, and that's
cool.
to there's something wrongwith the teacher.
We have to look back, it's nota teacher, it's probably the
student.
We need to look what it is, andwe have to look at things
(47:12):
individually.
, and we we should nottalk before we know more.
And the DI critical race theoryhad just resulting in lower
standards of employment,undergraduate, graduate
admission, lower performance,lower readiness, it should not
happen in the military.
We talk about protecting ourcountry, that's unacceptable.
Al Palmer (47:38):
Well, and and it's different in the military
because unlike working for IBMor Amazon, you don't go to work
every day and come home knowingthat you're gonna be doing the
same thing every day, right?
When the bullets start flyingand the missiles are in the air
and there's chaos around you,you need people who have the
(48:00):
qualities of leadership andcharacter, and as you say,
integrity to be able to stay thecourse, do the job, and see it
through.
That's not something theaverage person actually ever
experiences in in life in a lotof places.
And so that's why that's whySTARS has been busy trying to to
(48:23):
do this exactly as youdescribed, is to keep the merit
high, keep the integrity there,keep accountability centered on
this too.
Because people have to beresponsible for what they do in
order to be effective leaders.
So I'm happy to see that yourson is there at the Air Force
Academy.
I know he's gonna have thechallenge of his life, , and I
(48:47):
know you probably know that tooby now, but it's an important
thing to do, and we're verygrateful for you sharing him
with the rest of us to do that.
So in and in s mary here,Mahaila, the the journey that
you've had represents an extremecase of people going from one
(49:09):
culture, one way of doingbusiness to another.
And and as you know, thechallenge of assimilating into
that new society can be achallenge.
I've had a lot of people I'vesponsored to be new citizens go
through that.
And I know it's a difficultthing to do sometimes, to leave
the old world behind and to pickup the new.
(49:32):
But it sounds like you'vedone an amazingly good job of
that.
And we're here.
Mihaela Fletcher (49:38):
Is caring, is really is it's really bad to see
that happens here.
Something that I ran away fromthat country to get away from
all of this thing.
I ran away to get freedom andto have h an rights and to see
that the freedom and all theequality of opportunities going
away and see people incompetent,ignorant in charge.
(50:00):
And we should not celebrateincompetence and poor
performance and lack ofintegrity at the expense of our
education, health, people.
the people at the ourcountry, like for the Service
Academy, they need anenvironment where our students,
cadets can grow, can learn, candevelop without prejudice,
(50:22):
without exclusivity, withoutracism, regardless of how they
look, what race they are, whatit's not political, it's not
racist, it's nothing.
It's just the it's the it'severybody's right.
We should we should livewe should we should live in
freedom and have rights.
Al Palmer (50:41):
Yes, and and and we have had a reputation of that
for a long time.
I'm I'm personally glad to seeus returning to that and the
warrior ethos and getting peopleto understand what it's like,
you know, to have to take careof a country.
So we're doing that here atSARS.
Well, the other thing is that Iknow that you live in North
(51:01):
Carolina now, and we're we'rebusy here in STARS, kind of
lining people up to help us outfrom time to time, and it's
great to have you here with usto talk about ideologies and
communism particularly.
But there's something else thatyou can do, I think, in North
Carolina.
Turns out we've actually got avacancy there for the head of
(51:24):
one of our state leaders inNorth Carolina.
And I've talked with ourleadership and stars, and
they'd like to actually offeryou that job if you'd like to
take it.
It's a volunteer job, beingahead of things in North
Carolina, if you'd like to dothat.
Mihaela Fletcher (51:41):
That would be that would be great.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
I just I just want everythingto be the way it used to be in
this country again.
Al Palmer (51:51):
We just Well, you got an awful lot of people there
with the same attitude,Mahela.
and we're all kind oflinking arms together to make it
happen.
So we really appreciate yourhelp in doing that.
And I'd like to thank you forbeing a part of this today,
sharing your life with us, whichis a great life story, and also
(52:12):
that of your husband and yourson and daughter.
we're happy to have them asnew citizens.
I'm particularly pleased aboutyour son going to the Air Force
Academy.
Because I've got a little bitof Air Force in me, too.
, so that all works.
Mihaela Fletcher (52:31):
We are all united.
All the military brands, we areall united.
We should live in unity.
There's a lot of people.
Al Palmer (52:40):
Well, we are, and and listen, I hope that things go
well for you, and thank youagain for being a nurse
practitioner.
My daughter's one of those aswell.
, so I know how importantthat is and how much work it
takes to get to that level ofhealth care.
So thanks again.
And to our audience, , thankyou for being a part of what
we've done here today to explorea little bit about what it's
(53:04):
like to live in a communistcountry, come from it, and
succeed and do well here.
, it just shows that meritand achievement and talent work
here where it's ignored in otherplaces, especially in communist
countries.
We have a challenge to stillface there, , and we'll be
(53:25):
happy to have you here listeningto us talk about it.
So thank you again for beinghere with us.
We'll look forward to seeingyou for our next episode of
Stars and Stripes.
Mihaela Fletcher (53:36):
Thank you.
Well, hello America.
This is your host for STARRSand Stripes, Commander Al
Palmer, United States Navy,retired.
And as those of you who areregular viewers and listeners to
our podcast, you'll know thatwe're the folks that stand up
against racism andradicalization in the military
(00:29):
services.
That's what STARRS stands forand what we stand for.
And very proudly.
STARRS has been engaged forseveral years now in trying to
reduce the effects of rackradical ideologies on our
military services and the peoplewho serve there.
In addition to the families andthe children and relatives of
(00:52):
those who serve our country.
So we're happy to be here againwith this episode today.
And I want to talk aboutsomething that we often have
brought up but don't get intotoo deeply, and that is the
radicalization that has affectednot just our military
services, but also our country.
(01:13):
It's more evident today, andit's more in the open, ,
perhaps than has been for sometime.
And we're talking about theideologies of Marxism and
communism, , which we didn'texpect to see very much of, but
now seems to be in cleardisplay.
To talk about that today, I'vegot a very special guest.
(01:36):
She is an American citizen whogrew up in communism in Eastern
Europe.
She became a diplomat, arespected person who
represented her country as acommunist country, but then
(01:56):
became an American citizen andhasn't had a disadvanced career
teaching medicine, becoming anurse practitioner, and in an
absolute gym when it comes tohelping our country recover from
illnesses and addictions.
So it's my pleasure today tohave with us Mihaela Fletcher.
(02:20):
Mihaela, welcome to thepodcast.
Thanks for spending a littlebit of time with us today to
tell us a little bit about howyou came from the communist
world and how you grew up therein a family that was part of
that, and then somehow escapedand came here to pursue a new
(02:42):
dream, which is something, ofcourse, that all people who want
to immigrate to our country do.
But I think your story is veryunique because you come from a
little different way ofunderstanding how those things
affect people.
So welcome to the show.
It's good to have you with us.
Mihaela Fletcher (03:03):
Thank you for having me here.
I'm glad to be here.
So I am an immigrant and I livethrough the Marxist ideology,
born and raised in one of themost oppressive
governments in the world.
my father was a member ofthe Communist Party, so I was
(03:28):
indoctrinated since birth.
I got a degree in economicsduring communism, was one of
the most prestigious schools,so I was indoctrinated with
Marxism there too.
I went to a politicalscience school, I got a
(03:53):
political science degree, Ibecame a diplomat in my
country, and I eventually wasselected to be a h anitarian
observer for the United Nationsin Iraq.
, when I was in Iraq, I metan American coroner who was the
director of weapons inspectionsin Iraq, and eventually we
(04:20):
got engaged and I moved to theUnited States.
not before I was declaredpersona nongrada by the Iraqi
government and forced actuallyto leave Iraq at that
time.
So that was the best thingthat happened to me, though.
came to the United States,, I got my teacher, my
(04:42):
daughter, with me.
She was 11 years old at thattime, and I started all over.
I got a nursing degree, wentto a historically black
university in Louisiana, then Igot a master's degree from
Duke and then postmaster's fromUNC at Chapel Hill, ECU and a
doctoral degree from ECU innursing.
(05:04):
so I I'm a healthcareprovider and I am a proud
American.
My husband, my first husbandAmerican colonel, died of a
service-connected disability,was 100% service-connected
veteran, and I eventuallygot remarried, , and my
(05:29):
husband is a lieutenant coloneland he retired from the army.
so my daughter became anAmerican citizen too, she
married a first-generationAmerican, they are both
successful, have own businesses,and my son is cadet at the
US Air Force Academy.
So I grew up, I studied,and I lived in a country there
(05:56):
were no rights, and you talkabout paradise, , what they
were offered us, , wereoffered a lot of good things.
they offered us freeeducation for all, but the
education was allindoctrination.
We didn't have a lot of goodbooks.
I didn't even know what theBible was.
(06:17):
religion was also totallyoppressed.
We are not allowed to go tochurches except for except
for a few times, like therewas a wedding or baptism, a
funeral.
A few times I've been to churcha few times in my life there.
so the education wasmandatory, the Marxism
(06:41):
education was mandatory.
We became communistearly in the second grade, we
were pioneers, , andeverything we taught was an
exaggeration and h anrights abuse, everything.
(07:02):
the state controlledeverything.
You talk about social housing,what kind of houses we had,
, communal apartments withshowers and restrooms outside.
my father was in theCommunist Party, so he was
able to buy a decent house, andI was able to get an apartment
(07:22):
too.
but it took years, andbasically we had to fake
psychiatric diseases to get anextra room if we wanted more
space.
we we thought we had itall.
We were totally brainwashed,indoctrinated.
We're told that we had basicnecessity, but everything was
(07:43):
rationed.
Food, electricity, there werepower cuts, nothing in the
grocery stores.
I fainted so many timeswaiting online to buy
to buy food.
public transportation,what can I say?
It was it wasn't free, butit was cheap, but it was a
(08:04):
place where was sexual abuse,everybody was touching, robbing
you.
That was normal.
everything was controlled.
We had like two hours a day ofTV, , and there was a lot of
propaganda.
We learned Russian,corruption, nepotism, black
market was everywhere, therewere crimes, and typically
(08:27):
thieves would steal meat fromour houses: meat, gasoline,
radios from the cars.
there was no freedom ofmovement.
I we are not allowed to traveloutside, except for some people
in the communist country.
minorities were allrepressed.
It's ironical thatrevolution, the Romanian
revolution, started because aminority priest was his
(08:54):
rights were violated and wantedto kick him out of the his
country, and people protested.
and of course, communismMarxism system requires
enforcement.
You have to indoctrinateeveryone since birth or school,
and then you have to put a lotof work on finding
(09:16):
having a good policeinformants so people can live in
trust and fear, so they wouldbe afraid to say something.
If you say something, you'dbe publicly discredited, but
we're basically encouraged tospy on others, to spy on my
parents or my neighbors, thatthey got a phone call from
somebody from the UnitedStates or Italy.
(09:40):
It was all secondary gain.
In fact, we got promotedif we would spy on someone.
the healthcare was theworst because it was all
bribery, corruption.
, I had an aunt who diedbecause she didn't have the
money to pay her doctors andnurses, and she was told you
(10:01):
either sell your cow, that washer only way of feeding her
children, or you're not gonnahave the surgery on time, and
she chose the her family, notherself, and eventually died.
we shared everything, weshared syringes.
I'm lucky that I didn't getHIV or other diseases,
(10:24):
transmittable diseases, becauseit was on order, depending on
what your name was, ABC.
we had the same syringe foreverybody.
little alcohol swap, butlots of people died and were
got infections because ofthat.
People were in orphanagesbecause of that.
(10:44):
, prenatal care was a joke.
we basically went to thedoctor very rarely.
there was no anesthesia,nothing.
childcare, we took careof each other.
If we had grandparents, thatwas good.
We had a key on our neck, ,going on trams, on metro.
(11:06):
many women died because ofabortions, and it was it was
illegal to havecontraceptives.
pro-natalist policy.
the president wanted us tohave at least five children, and
women who could not feedtheir children resorted to
(11:29):
having contraceptions andabortions illegally.
some died, some madebabies and they were placed in
orphanages, but , there was nogender equality.
Women were it's part of life tobe treated like a sex object.
It's like, what is sexualabuse?
(11:49):
There's no word for that.
Plus, you couldn't talk withanyone about anything that
happened to you.
We didn't have any sexeducation in school, women were
just made to serve men andmake children.
so it was a civilresponsibility for us to make
children and to serve the man.
(12:11):
In fact, getting married wasfor a woman was something that
we should be very proud of.
and those who would notmake children or get married,
they'd get a penalty like pay10% of their salary.
they talk about classlesssociety.
let's live incommunist place, , Marxism when
(12:32):
there's no , yeah, everybodyis equal, everybody has the
same, it's fair.
that was not true.
There were lots of classes,politicians, military,
celebrities, professionals, theworking class.
my family was in theworking class, I would say,
because my father was in theCommunist Party, we were a
(12:55):
little bit above and wecould go so far.
So my parents wanted mybrother and I to get a college
degree, so we would becomeprofessionals, so we go a
little farther, but there's somuch that you can go.
the lowest were thepeasants in the villages, and
(13:18):
that's what they werecalling them, the peasants, and
the minorities were absolutelythe lowest, were treated
very, very poorly.
election, none.
It was we had one party, onecandidate, unqualified people,
h an rights violation thereextreme.
(13:40):
again, if you are in theCommunist Party, you had some
advantages to buy a housefaster, to get a better job,
because you know everybody has ajob, but what kind of jobs you
had?
in fact, living in the cityat Bucharest was like you
have a green card here in theUnited States.
everybody wanted to gothere.
(14:01):
There were illegal marriagesfor that people to stay in the
country in the city because theyhad more that in villages.
So everybody had a job, butit wasn't the job you wanted,
but the job that wasdetermined for your for your
party, for your class.
Al Palmer (14:22):
So so it sounds like that's a society that's built
just like the old Soviet Union,actually, which came from
Vladimir Lenin and theBolsheviks after the referent
Russian Revolution.
And and countries like Romaniajust seem to have adopted that
as as part of the thespread of communism throughout
(14:47):
Europe.
They just duplicated it oneplace to another.
Usually usually because theycome into the country and say,
We're gonna make things feelgood for you.
We're gonna give you utopia.
You probably grew up that way,right?
Mihaela Fletcher (15:00):
Yes, yeah, I don't know.
Anything else.
Al Palmer (15:03):
But you don't know.
But you know, since you don'tknow, you say, sure, we'll sign
up for that, and that soundsgreat.
We'll get all this great stuff,and then the stuff doesn't show
up.
So was there a time when youwere a young girl and it started
out looking attractive becauseeverything was going to be even
and maybe a little bit ofutopia, and then it changed?
Mihaela Fletcher (15:26):
I I did not know that was better.
I really did not knoweverything was so established,
I just wanted to go toschool, get a college degree,
become a professional.
Of course, my goal was I was awoman, was to marry a man
that was like an officeror a doctor, so I would have a
(15:52):
better life.
But that was my goal in lifeat that time.
There was we I never knew itwas better, not even after
communism and it was difficult.
I actually found freedom inthe United States, nowhere
else.
But we were just soabused, , vulnerable,
vulnerable people who did notknow were brainwashed, totally
(16:14):
brainwashed.
Al Palmer (16:16):
So was it wasn't there also an issue with the
Romanian people who existedbefore communism?
Didn't you lose a lot of thathistory, that that family, if
you will?
Mihaela Fletcher (16:29):
Yeah, we lost everything.
we did not know thehistory, we were taught just the
communist history, and myfather, my grandfather had
property, had a pub andhad land and gold, and he
lost everything because of thecommunist, and then they were
(16:51):
spying on him, they werecoming looking at us to see if
we do anything.
he he lived in fear and hewas even afraid to talk because
if he would say something, myfather would get upset that
we'll all be sent to prison orsomewhere else in the middle of
nowhere, and he was shut offthe entire life.
(17:11):
So they they stole the theclassless society is like it
doesn't work, and they theystole everything from people who
had.
They got it all and they didn'treally distribute it like the
state had total control.
they some people incharge had the control of
everything, but the state hadtotal control of everything.
(17:34):
There was no we are justindoctrinated that we were all
happy that we had equaldistribution of wealth, but I
just we are all poor.
That's you know, wealthcannot be equal if you don't
work and make but it's as faras you as much as you can work,
can do, you can't go fartheryour class unless you have to do
(17:57):
something.
You have to, I don't know, havesex with someone, you are
lucky, you are pretty, and yougo farther.
But there's there wasthere was no the only motivation
was to get a little farther inclass, but we didn't know
better.
We just didn't know what wasgood.
We didn't have basic necessity,we didn't have food, we didn't
(18:19):
have basic things.
Al Palmer (18:21):
And and and like most of the communist countries that
have gone that way, you hadsomebody who was a leader at the
time too, who probably was likea Stalin, who kind of dictated
how things went.
And and that was NikolaiChaushescu, right?
Mihaela Fletcher (18:39):
In fact, he was worse than I would say he
was worse than maybe not Stalin.
Stalin did a lot of bad things,but he was worse than a lot of
other people because he was morethan just the that the the
communist that he destroyed acountry, but he he went to North
Korea at one point and herealized the cult, the
(19:00):
personality cult was there, andfrom that moment it was much
worse on us.
We became totally isolatedfrom everyone.
I would say that Romania wasjust like during communism was
much worse than in we had alife much worse than in the
Soviet Union or other communistcountries.
We were like in North Korea,that's what I think we are.
Al Palmer (19:19):
I've heard that, yes.
Well, and and and because Ithink he's as I've read, he
started out kind of mild, andthen like you say, he changed
his character along the way andbecame much more brutal and much
more forceful.
So, what happened to him?
Mihaela Fletcher (19:40):
Well, he so I think he was , I'm not even
sure if he was a shoemaker or heworked for a shoemaker, but
he became in charge, he became ageneral eventually, and he
had the cult.
We were I remember when we werelittle kids in class, , we had
his photos everywhere, and wewere singing songs about
(20:03):
him to the Supreme Leader,all the songs that we were
singing, and he he just tookadvantage of everybody.
So eventually, when thecommunism was ending in a lot
of countries, Romania was oneof the last countries who
where communism ended, itbecame violent.
(20:24):
He really saw that , see,people when they are told that
they are good, they believe thatthey are good, just like what's
happening today with DI, andI've seen people entitled
parents and entitled students,they were told that they are
good, they start believing theyare really good and the people
love them.
And he really believed that hewas good and he would not want
to back off.
And some people went againsthim, protest all over the
(20:48):
country, and eventually thepolice security, his own
police got against him,and he and his wife were
publicly executed, they werejust executed, it was violent,
and Romania was the only placewhere the end of communism
(21:09):
was violent because he was hewas so horrible.
I I can't even and you know wewe don't like to see people die
or anything, but the he hewas just executed in he and his
wife were exiled, they didn'twait.
The the country had enough.
Al Palmer (21:28):
Well that shows you how bad it was, I guess.
So so you grew up with that,suffered through it, but but
tell us a little bit about howyou went to the United Nations
and how you escaped that to gethere.
Mihaela Fletcher (21:44):
, so I like I said, I didn't know what
freedom was.
I had no idea.
I was a woman who was just madethere to serve men, and I was
hoping to get better.
so I eventuallydecided to go to school, , get
a political science degree, andteachers there were
(22:08):
important in the new government.
so I made some connections,I applied for the Romanian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs andfor a diplomat, search
secretary, and I was selectedfor that eventually later.
One of the important personsthere told me that I mean
(22:29):
I was I had degrees, I hadalmost 4.0 GPA at that school,
the political science degree.
but I was told that I gotthe job mainly because I was
pretty.
He just liked me.
so that was got me in thatinstitution.
so I worked for theUnited Nations, and it was still
(22:52):
gender inequality, there was soviolence against women, the
trams, the metros are the same,women were abused, patriarchal
culture, position ofpowers, and no accountability.
So I decided to move away,to go away from the country, and
the best way to do was theUnited Nations, and I found a
(23:15):
job and I applied to be ah anitarian observer in Iraq,
and I got a job, I movedthere, and this is how I
arrived at the United Nations.
but when when I wentthere it was about the same.
(23:36):
It was the same genderinequality, the same sexism, the
women it was the sameMarxism that I I saw it in
there.
so you thought I was readingYou thought going to the United
Nations might solve thatproblem, but found out it
existed there too.
So the United Nations ended upwith its own problems.
(24:00):
Yes, yes, and it was interesting when I met
there and I met the person incharge of that organization
in Iraq.
The first thing he told me thatI don't look like an observal,
I look like a model.
Now at that time sound like acompliment, but right now I
wouldn't like someone to tell meI I know my rights right now.
it was it wasappropriate at that time because
(24:21):
I didn't know better.
I was a woman.
but I eventually after Iwas declared persona non
prata, non-desiber person,nobody told me what I did wrong.
, if I did something, nobodytalked with me.
the only thing that I couldsee that I did wrong was that I
was engaged to be marriedwith the director of weapons
(24:43):
inspections in Iraq, who wasUS Air Force coroner.
So I do not see any otherreason of doing something, but
nobody told me I did anythingwrong.
and how will we do it?
That will probably take care ofit, yeah.
So the UN simply kicked me out, you got to
(25:03):
where do you want to go?
So I moved to the UnitedStates, and then later I found
out and I knew all the people.
I knew the person in charge,and I know the one who was
in charge of him, the chiefof the UN All for Food program
in Iraq.
And it's interesting becausethe UN h anitarian
(25:27):
coordinator in Iraq said that heresigned because he could not
look at the genocide that washappening to Iraqi people.
That was horrible.
Iraqi people lived indeed,there was a genocide, they were
not doing well, but thethey were not doing well in fact
because of what the UnitedNations did, what their own
(25:50):
dictator did.
eventually they discovered,and that's I looked in the news
from reliable sources fromthe United States office,
that there was mismanagement,there's corruption, fraud,
abuse of power, and the personin charge was actually indicted
for bribery and corruption, andthe UN paid his legal fees,
(26:11):
and then he just resigned andmoved back to his country.
And I know US tried to get himback, but the country would
not get him back, so he gotaway.
Probably he's getting aretirement right now.
there's there was no noaccountability.
So whose genocide was?
who made this genocide,making profit at the expense of
vulnerable people.
(26:31):
These people were really, I Iwitnessed so many h an rights
violations in Iraq.
People were really not doingwell, and they were so afraid.
And that's what ourpresident, former president
Ciao Chescu did for Romania.
It wasn't just communism, hewas a nationalist.
He, the culture personality,that's what Saddam had.
(26:52):
And it was actually Saddam'sphoto was in every person's
house.
and they own peoplethey hated him.
but so it was I metpeople from other countries,
African countries, who it's theagain, women who there was a
girl who was a woman who hadgenital mutilation as a child,
(27:15):
and she was taught, she wasindoctrinated to believe that
there was normal.
I mean, how can you think aboutthat?
Be having genital mutilation isa normal.
She was taught to believethat it was her, it was her
responsibility to bemutilated, and who cares about
(27:36):
health, social, , all thecomplications that these people
had.
Another one didn't even knowshe was genitally mutilated.
She went to so many doctors andeventually found out, but
again, her family told herthat's part of our culture.
It is normal.
So I saw a lot ofatrocity, but the corruption
(27:57):
that goes together, it's likewhen you when you get to the
Marxism, to the nationalism, youcan't get out of that.
It's impossible.
And that's why I wanted toleave because I didn't have 50
years, I didn't have a hundredyears to wait for the country to
get better.
My daughter was, I don't wantmy daughter to be sexually
abused, she was pretty, she wasa very pretty girl, she's a have
a beautiful daughter.
(28:17):
But that's what happens whenyou are beautiful, everybody
takes advantage of him.
I was reading in the news aboutthe gymnast Nadia Komanet
that everybody thought she gotshe she was great because she
was important, she was acelebrity, but this woman,
defected, she left the countrybecause she was so important,
she was so abused.
Everybody took advantage ofher.
(28:38):
If you are pretty, if you are acelebrity, they take advantage
of you.
And then it's hard to get over.
People get indoctrinated, theydon't know what is right, and
it's that's what when I seethings happening in this
country, I know that if it'sgonna happen, it's gonna take
centuries to get back to whatit is, and it's scary because
(29:00):
I've seen it, I've seen ithappening, and it's like 1984.
George Orwell is ignoranceis strength.
That's what they are countingon, that's what Marxists are
counting on, keeping everybodyignorant so they would they
would not know that they areabused.
It's just and they have it's II can't even think about the way
(29:24):
they do, how they use thevulnerable population, how they
find them, they segregate theminto classes.
We have white and blacks, wehave transgenders, we have
ethnicities, , women, men,they all segregate them.
Income right now is income.
I've seen atuniversities in North
(29:47):
Carolina that people withlower income, , children with
lower income have free theythey have they go to college for
free.
So there's an inequality inin income.
Right now, if you are if yourparents make more money, you are
penalized because it's thisthey found another group, the
(30:07):
income group, they changed them,and then they victimize these
people, and the people theydon't even know that they are
victimized.
They are manipulated like me,they are exploited, , and then
they make them poor.
They they don't really realizethis.
You can support, you can feedeveryone, you can have give
free housing to everybody, youcan get free jobs to everybody,
(30:28):
free health care.
So you you impoverish yourpopulation eventually, and then
when they reach their politicalagenda, they just abandon them.
And the people don't realizethat they are right now their
object, but , once the theseMarxists will get their
political agenda through theirpropaganda pushing their lies,
they they're gonna getrid of everyone.
(30:51):
It's just whoever they want.
, it's such a violation,it's horrible.
Al Palmer (30:57):
Well, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, pretty
soon you run out of otherpeople's money.
And when you do, you don't havethose things you need to
sustain the promises that aremade that are based on
continuing revenue.
When you kill the business, youkill people's initiative, and
there goes the money, and theregoes the support.
(31:18):
Is that kind of what you saw?
Mihaela Fletcher (31:20):
Yeah, you kill the motivation, you kill
everything.
You kill you you you kill ourdesire to get better.
We know what we can do.
it's you you killeverything we had, everything.
The equal opportunity is noopportunity at all.
It's all these people theyare so abused, they don't even
(31:43):
realize how they it'sthey're gonna become all poor.
You you can't support, youcannot have the the communism,
is not, it did not work.
It just showed it did not work.
it's not possibleeconomically, politically, is
totally against, but it'sit's like the people and I
(32:09):
was reading about someone inthe Cato Institute, a black
guy who and I I agree withwhat he said, I've seen that
too.
They make them feel victims bytelling them they are the group,
the whites abuse you, theblacks, whatever they say.
they make you feel like athat's what communism is famous
(32:31):
for.
They'll come in and tell youwhether it's South Africa or
whether it's Eastern Europe, ,they'll come in and say, Look,
things are really tough here intown for you guys, but we're
here to help you.
Things are gonna be good.
Just do what we say, right?
Abandon all those other thingsthat you've had, get rid of your
history, get rid of all thethings that you've done.
(32:51):
, we're here to make thingsdifferent.
We're gonna fundamentallychange you and your country for
you.
Is that the message that yousaw?
Yeah, and it's it's hard to see that some
hardworking people areassociated with groups like them
because of their culture,income, race, gender, because
(33:12):
those good people appear badbecause of what the people in
charge abuse the other ones.
They get incompetent, thevulnerable ones, the ones that
are ignorant and they don'tknow.
They want them unqualified.
They get the unqualified onesto get to their, if they can get
to someone to their means ifthey have someone smart.
So that person, the smartperson, is gonna get it.
(33:34):
So they want the unqualifiedpeople.
They want us to becomeignorant.
Al Palmer (33:39):
So let's let's talk for just a second about that
qualification merit.
that's how you escaped andcame here and then went into
education, , went into nursing,, a very technical and very
challenging profession.
but to do that, you had tobe very good at what you were
(34:01):
doing, right?
You couldn't use DEI and getahead just because of some other
external factor.
and and you saw thatdirectly coming from a place
where that was done.
How did that feel for you?
Mihaela Fletcher (34:15):
Yeah, well, I saw it at the beginning when I
got a job at as a diploma andwhen I got a job at the United
States Nations, the way I wastreated, now it makes me think.
I know I was intelligent, Iknow I hard, I studied hard, but
was it because of the way Ilook, because I'm pretty,
because somebody sexuallyharassed me?
Is this why I'm in theposition?
So it makes me actually, itputs my self-esteem down,
(34:37):
although I know that I'm smart.
Then I'm trying to think aboutdid the other people who got in
this position got in therebecause they were pretty,
because they had sex withsomeone.
and the same happened withhere, with the nursing.
I've seen people who werewho got got over the the
(35:00):
grading on the curve, likewhen I went to school.
some people I remember Ihad a guy one time, a colleague,
he asked me to help him atchemistry and said, okay, I was
good, I had a grade grade, soteach me chemistry.
What do I need to do?
And then I tried to explain tohim chemistry, but the guy did
(35:22):
not know basic maths, he didn'tknow what two plus two was.
This is a guy who was incollege.
So, how can I teach someone whodoesn't know maths how to do a
chemical equation?
It was impossible.
I could not do it, and thenmy grades were high, and I was
they made me.
I remember I had one time I hadto take a clap test to get out
(35:45):
because my grade was inflatingthe others, I was doing too well
in there, and and it's not thatI was doing so.
That makes me think was I wasgood or other people were bad.
Was I good?
I couldn't, it makes mequestion my intelligence again
because of what I've seen.
But before in the school,eventually they had issues with
passing the accreditationbecause students were not
(36:08):
capable to get the 80%score to pass the national
examination, and then eventuallywere allowed to get it, even
so, to continue the school andput these nurses into practice,
and then the nurses take care ofyou.
And , who wants a prettynurse or a nurse who is diverse?
(36:31):
We want to have a good nurse.
, I want a nurse who cantake care of me, I want a doctor
who can take care of me.
I don't care how they look, ,whether income or religion or
ethnicity or races.
That's not , and thenthe same with when I went when
I became instructor, I sawthe same.
I saw somebody who was totallyunqualified, with a criminal
(36:56):
record actually, who had alicense suspended for fraud, who
got in charge because Iand I was discriminated.
and I it's hard tobelieve for me that someone who
was not having doing well inschool and didn't have anything
could get to that position andthe way they did it with like no
(37:18):
election, get everybody away.
So I've seen discrimination,I've seen the Marxist practice
of one candidate election atpublic universities.
I see it right now.
It's happening, and they lowerthe hiring standard, they lower
the admission standards, peoplehardly pass.
, I had they and thenthey just make sure there's just
(37:38):
one person and they choose acertain person.
And they don't it's it's it'son the it's now diversity
strengths in nurses, itstrengths in medicine, but not
at the expense of people.
We again we all want goodnurses, we want good doctors, we
want good military, we wantgood cadets.
Al Palmer (37:56):
So so a lot of that does center around you know
education and and education, youknow, post-high school.
so when you get intocollege, used to be you went
there for the ability to learnand to debate and to be able to
have a discussion about the waythings were.
(38:18):
Today it seems to be veryideological.
So is as that's the case, ,who's doing that?
Is it the professors?
Mihaela Fletcher (38:28):
You gotta do it.
Al Palmer (38:30):
Is it the professors though?
Mihaela Fletcher (38:32):
Well, when I went to so when I first time
when I went in school when Iwas a student, everybody was
passing.
It was all right.
Right now, what they want us todo is everybody to get like
before when I was wellworking before for a public
university, they wanted everyoneto get 100%, to give somebody a
(38:54):
98%, god forbid they are gonnacome and comment.
I had one time a colleague whogave a student 99.5%, and that
student made so much of a fussthat that eventual that teacher
was kicked away and the studentwas moved to me because that
professor gave him gave thestudent a 99.5.
(39:15):
So it's the many, it's the theleaders, it's it's the the
ones in charge that who aredoing the professors are told to
do from the leaders, fromtheir deans, from their
department heads.
these are the ones thatthat's not, and we should not,
and that's the problem.
We go after the wrong people,we go after the the ones who do
(39:37):
it, it's the ones whoorchestrate, the ones who have
an agenda to get to theirwhatever they want.
Al Palmer (39:44):
Yeah, that was kind of the the purpose and the
question is everybody thinksit's the professors that are
indoctrinating, brainwashing thestudents, but it turns out that
may be partly true, but it'sthe administrative people who do
that.
Often the campus volunteers orothers that do some of the grunt
(40:05):
work, like assigning you knowrooms and helping them with
choosing classes.
Those are the people who seemto be moving people in a
direction that's kind ofbrainwashing them and getting
them to swallow all of theideology.
We have to do the same.
Mihaela Fletcher (40:26):
We can.
We we do the best.
I did my due diligence.
I complain, I report it to theDepartment of Education, I
report it to the next level,they did meetings, but if the
same people are in charge, it'slike I can do more.
I've I've done I've done what Iwas supposed to do.
I do I did my duty to reportthat that individual is
(40:46):
writing in the new in the in hisresearch articles about
retaining some certainstudents and faculty, and then
he puts growing your own,creating your own intentional
pathway, do, and then he'sputting his research into
practice, and then we seeobviously that somebody there
totally unqualified is in thatposition, and we we do the best,
(41:09):
we report, but it's it's it'snot that individual who is not
capable that is n ber one thatneeds to go, is the one who
makes that possible, is whoevermakes it possible.
And it's it's a lot ofbureaucracy and the
department of education, tosomebody that equal opportunity
(41:31):
commission, for instance, toldme, Oh, it's too late, it's been
over six months, there'snothing we can do.
The Department of Justice isnot our business, something like
that.
That's the way they do it now.
I, when I apply for the job, Ihad veteran preference.
My husband has a hundredpercent service connected
disability.
I had so many credentials andcertification, I was working for
that school.
(41:51):
So not being being blacklistedfor all the jobs I applied after
I complained aboutdiscrimination, it was clear to
me.
But I mean, I have a job, Idon't care.
I can, I can, I'm happy where Iam, but it's the people that
the who's suffering?
The students, the the patients,the safety, it's the safety.
The students are sufferingbecause they were promised
(42:13):
quality quality education, andthey didn't get that.
They are not getting that.
I heard people are failingtheir their national exam.
But there's as much as wecan do.
I did everything I could.
I forgot.
Al Palmer (42:27):
Well, that's what you have to do, and and thank you
so much for being a part of thateffort.
it really makes adifference.
So the other thing thathappened to you, though, was not
only did you get back, you gotinto education here as a new
citizen, but you also got backinto the military marrying an
army lieutenant colonel and adoctor too, is that right?
(42:50):
Yes.
So so how did that how did thatchange your life being a a
military wife and a mother ofchildren now working in the
military, sort of?
Because after all, families inthe military are a part of the
military, right?
Mihaela Fletcher (43:09):
Well, I I lived in communism, so I raised
my son to love this country.
So that's n ber one, to taketo not take anything for
granted, to be to do it,marry to be competent.
So I taught my son, soyes, I married military men
(43:31):
and I I saw I sawintegrity, I saw service before
self, I saw excellence, and Isee that going away, and it's
it's caring.
So but it is it is veryscary because I know I lived
with what my what my myhusband's the integrity
(43:57):
that he has, my son's integrity,is they are they are to the
highest.
I I am an in I have a lot ofintegrity, but I can say I'm at
the same level as my husband andmy my son.
I'm questioning sometimes if Ihave somebody a student and I
know she is not he or she is notdoing well, I'm questioning.
If I would ask this question tomy husband and my son, they
(44:20):
would respond to me.
What is to think about?
There's nothing to think about,you do it, you cannot let.
It's your obligation to report.
You see something not right,it's your duty to do it.
so , and that was anotherthing when my son was in high
school, he he learned in highschool about a civil movement,
(44:40):
systemic racism, all of this.
And then he came to the US AirForce Academy and he learned the
real history and he just lovesit.
And I know he's gonna come outof this class as a better
person, and he's gonna learn thetruth about the history.
He's learning about burningconflict and containment and a
(45:02):
lot of things that he did notknow.
So I'm so happy with theeducation he he chose, and I
really don't want that Marx'sinfiltration.
It should not go into themilitary, it should not go into
the academies in the militarybecause we want a good nurse,
(45:24):
we want a good doctor, but wewant a good officer, we want a
good soldier to defend us.
We don't want somebody who'spretty or of a different race or
income.
We want somebody who can defendus and defend and we talk about
the women, the sexism andgender inequality in Romania and
the United Nations.
it's not about, it's aboutif a woman is capable, , the
(45:47):
woman should go as far aspossible, but we should put
married first regardless ofthe race, the how we look,
married and integrity.
We have to be to have integrityto report our duty.
So I'm very, very proud, andit should not go DI in
(46:07):
education meant passingunqualified students and giving
them a sense of entitlement.
And I was looking onFacebook, one of the parents
posted something in there abouther child and says that the
child would need to what can shedo for the child to switch
classes because of an instructornot having the ability to
teach?
That was so so inappropriate.
(46:29):
and people were respondingto that individual.
And how is it how appropriateit is to say to ass e that the
an instructor of a service of aservice academy doesn't have the
ability to teach?
These people are qualified,these people are excellent,
that's why they are there, theyare the best.
And how can you say something?
(46:52):
And all I'm thinking is theentitlement.
Somebody gave her child justa hundred percent, and now she
expects that she didn't get ahundred percent, and that's
cool.
to there's something wrongwith the teacher.
We have to look back, it's nota teacher, it's probably the
student.
We need to look what it is, andwe have to look at things
(47:12):
individually.
, and we we should nottalk before we know more.
And the DI critical race theoryhad just resulting in lower
standards of employment,undergraduate, graduate
admission, lower performance,lower readiness, it should not
happen in the military.
We talk about protecting ourcountry, that's unacceptable.
Al Palmer (47:38):
Well, and and it's different in the military
because unlike working for IBMor Amazon, you don't go to work
every day and come home knowingthat you're gonna be doing the
same thing every day, right?
When the bullets start flyingand the missiles are in the air
and there's chaos around you,you need people who have the
(48:00):
qualities of leadership andcharacter, and as you say,
integrity to be able to stay thecourse, do the job, and see it
through.
That's not something theaverage person actually ever
experiences in in life in a lotof places.
And so that's why that's whySTARS has been busy trying to to
(48:23):
do this exactly as youdescribed, is to keep the merit
high, keep the integrity there,keep accountability centered on
this too.
Because people have to beresponsible for what they do in
order to be effective leaders.
So I'm happy to see that yourson is there at the Air Force
Academy.
I know he's gonna have thechallenge of his life, , and I
(48:47):
know you probably know that tooby now, but it's an important
thing to do, and we're verygrateful for you sharing him
with the rest of us to do that.
So in and in s mary here,Mahaila, the the journey that
you've had represents an extremecase of people going from one
(49:09):
culture, one way of doingbusiness to another.
And and as you know, thechallenge of assimilating into
that new society can be achallenge.
I've had a lot of people I'vesponsored to be new citizens go
through that.
And I know it's a difficultthing to do sometimes, to leave
the old world behind and to pickup the new.
(49:32):
But it sounds like you'vedone an amazingly good job of
that.
And we're here.
Mihaela Fletcher (49:38):
Is caring, is really is it's really bad to see
that happens here.
Something that I ran away fromthat country to get away from
all of this thing.
I ran away to get freedom andto have h an rights and to see
that the freedom and all theequality of opportunities going
away and see people incompetent,ignorant in charge.
(50:00):
And we should not celebrateincompetence and poor
performance and lack ofintegrity at the expense of our
education, health, people.
the people at the ourcountry, like for the Service
Academy, they need anenvironment where our students,
cadets can grow, can learn, candevelop without prejudice,
(50:22):
without exclusivity, withoutracism, regardless of how they
look, what race they are, whatit's not political, it's not
racist, it's nothing.
It's just the it's the it'severybody's right.
We should we should livewe should we should live in
freedom and have rights.
Al Palmer (50:41):
Yes, and and and we have had a reputation of that
for a long time.
I'm I'm personally glad to seeus returning to that and the
warrior ethos and getting peopleto understand what it's like,
you know, to have to take careof a country.
So we're doing that here atSARS.
Well, the other thing is that Iknow that you live in North
(51:01):
Carolina now, and we're we'rebusy here in STARS, kind of
lining people up to help us outfrom time to time, and it's
great to have you here with usto talk about ideologies and
communism particularly.
But there's something else thatyou can do, I think, in North
Carolina.
Turns out we've actually got avacancy there for the head of
(51:24):
one of our state leaders inNorth Carolina.
And I've talked with ourleadership and stars, and
they'd like to actually offeryou that job if you'd like to
take it.
It's a volunteer job, beingahead of things in North
Carolina, if you'd like to dothat.
Mihaela Fletcher (51:41):
That would be that would be great.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
I just I just want everythingto be the way it used to be in
this country again.
Al Palmer (51:51):
We just Well, you got an awful lot of people there
with the same attitude,Mahela.
and we're all kind oflinking arms together to make it
happen.
So we really appreciate yourhelp in doing that.
And I'd like to thank you forbeing a part of this today,
sharing your life with us, whichis a great life story, and also
(52:12):
that of your husband and yourson and daughter.
we're happy to have them asnew citizens.
I'm particularly pleased aboutyour son going to the Air Force
Academy.
Because I've got a little bitof Air Force in me, too.
, so that all works.
Mihaela Fletcher (52:31):
We are all united.
All the military brands, we areall united.
We should live in unity.
There's a lot of people.
Al Palmer (52:40):
Well, we are, and and listen, I hope that things go
well for you, and thank youagain for being a nurse
practitioner.
My daughter's one of those aswell.
, so I know how importantthat is and how much work it
takes to get to that level ofhealth care.
So thanks again.
And to our audience, , thankyou for being a part of what
we've done here today to explorea little bit about what it's
(53:04):
like to live in a communistcountry, come from it, and
succeed and do well here.
, it just shows that meritand achievement and talent work
here where it's ignored in otherplaces, especially in communist
countries.
We have a challenge to stillface there, , and we'll be
(53:25):
happy to have you here listeningto us talk about it.
So thank you again for beinghere with us.
We'll look forward to seeingyou for our next episode of
Stars and Stripes.
Mihaela Fletcher (53:36):
Thank you.
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