The Vandals

The Vandals were a Germanic tribe that originally seem to have lived in northern Europe, Scandinavia, and then crossed the Baltic Sea and lived in the area of modern Poland and eastern Germany. They spoke an East Germanic language. Eventually they migrated westward (Hmm, I wonder if they ever heard of the saying, "Go West young man, go West!") They are most famous for "the sack of Rome" in 455 A.D. They carried off many things of value and laid waste to a large part of Rome. Now, their plunder was probably not any worse than what others did back in those times, but the fact that they took and plundered Rome itself, left a lasting impression in the minds of Europeans, so much so, that the tribal name, Vandals, became a word for destruction and plunder. The word came from old Germanic "Wandal," meaning "wanderer," and in Old English the word was "Wendlas."

We have our very own "Vandals" in the modern world. They are the ruthless, greedy people of American business interests, aka, "the wealthy." George W. Bush and his minions chose to unleash these disreputable "vandals" upon us, and they plundered and "vandalized" the America that we once knew. They took every penny they could lay their greedy hands on; never caring how many people were left destitute or damaged in the wake of their plunder. Many Americans will never recover from what they have done to us. Our lives have been utterly ruined. The effects of these "vandals" is an ongoing and developing crisis, and the actual number of victims may not be known for years, as we may well be entering the era of "The Great Depression, Part Two."