An image thats being shared widely on social media reminiscences about the old days, and bemoans the political-correctness of contemporary times.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," it says. "My generation grew up reciting this every morning in school with my hand on my heart. They no longer do that for fear of offending someone! Lets see how many Americans will re-post and not care about offending someone!"

More than 54,000 people have shared this post, which was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Students cant be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance under a 1943 Supreme Court decision that found it violated their First Amendment rights.

But, as CNN reported in 2019, its still "recited in schools across the US every day by students standing stiffly with their hands over their hearts."

That year, an 11-year-old was arrested in Florida when he told a substitute teacher he would not stand for the pledge because he thought the American flag symbolized discrimination against Black people, according to CNN, though police said he was detained because he caused a disturbance at school, not because he wouldnt say the pledge.

Other, more recent news coverage shows that students in other states also have the option to stand for the pledge.

In August, an El Paso news station reported about how remote learning has affected students reciting the pledge. Some schools and teachers are not beginning the virtual day with the pledge, according to the station, but one elementary school begins its morning announcements with the pledge.

One parent said her children recited the pledge "every day in school last year."

At Whittier Tech in Massachusetts, "each day, teachers will take attendance, classes will say the pledge of allegiance and announcements will be given," according to a Sept. 18 press release from the high school about welcoming students back to campus.

In Johnson City, Tenn., a news station broadcasts different school classes saying the pledge on school days.

We rate this Facebook post False.

See more here:

Students still say the pledge in schools - PolitiFact

(September 22, 2020 / JNS) Progressives claim to represent the forces of change, reform and social justice. They say they care for the well-being of the voters. They allege that those who believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are cruel, and call them dangerous racists.

Yet they forget some of the most important words in the Declaration of Independence that framed our national mission:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

With those words in mind, lets take a quick look at key progressive policies, that actually embody Marxist, Socialist, Communist, authoritarian, atheist and anarchist ideas. These are policies that have consistently failed wherever they have been tried. Moreover, the progressive rulers of the Soviet Union and China killed nearly 100 million of their own people over the past century in the name of such ideology.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicateby email and never missour top stories

And then, lets take a look at the reality.

Life

1. They say: Defunding the police is necessary to protect minority communities from racist policemen.

Reality: Defunding the police is pure racism, because minorities suffer the most when gangs and drug lords take over.

2. They say: Medicare for all benefits everyone.

Reality: Medicare is a grossly underfunded entitlement program. Bringing in more beneficiaries will reduce access to service for everyone and will hasten the bankruptcy of the entire program.

3. They say: The economy must be shut down until a coronavirus vaccine is FDA approved. Joe Biden said, Let me be clear, I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I dont trust Donald Trump, and at this moment, the American people cant either. Kamala Harris said, I would not trust Donald Trump [if a vaccine was approved] and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever hes talking about. I will not take his word for it.

Reality: The FDA would not approve a vaccine that is not safe. Moreover, no major pharmaceutical company would be willing to rush an unsafe product to market.

Liberty

1. They say: The majority of the U.S. population is systemically racist and believe in white privilege.

Reality: Though not perfect, America is one of the least racist societies in the world.

2. They say: The United States can be dramatically improved with progressive/socialist identity politics and social justice.

Reality: America is built on the equality of opportunity. Social justice is simply government-imposed equality of misery and poverty for all.

3. They say: Political correctness protects everyone from offensive language.

Reality: Political correctness is a violation of freedom of speech, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It is an effort to control the expressions of free thought, based on the theory that everyone has a non-existent right not to be offended.

Pursuit of happiness

1. They say: White policemen are always guilty, whether or not they injure a black suspect during an arrest.

Reality: Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, including both the suspect and the arresting officer, regardless of the color of their skin.

2. They say: Huge tax increases on the rich are good for society and satisfy the need for social justice.

Reality: Huge private-sector tax increases take resources from the productive private sector, thereby reducing both private innovation and job growth.

3. They say: Elementary-school reopenings must be delayed due to COVID-19.

Reality: The risk of infection, hospitalization and death for young students is similar to that of the flu, and kids must maintain their educational pace and be allowed to benefit from socialization. There is some extra risk to the teachers, particularly if elderly, but the extra risk is not high enough to prohibit classroom learning throughout the educational system.

4. They say: Climate change is an existential threat to all life on our planet, largely due to our indiscriminate use of fossil fuels.

Reality: No one knows and no one can dictate natures behavior. Fossil fuel consumption in the United States is a relatively modest contributing factor (the U.S. produces only 15 percent of the worlds emissions of CO2), which is moderated by the increasing efficiency of the system. Technology continues to develop newer and better ways to harness energy and use it more efficiently so that it produces less pollution, and American emissions have been dropping. Moreover, the demand for climate and energy control is simply an excuse for canceling the industries (like coal and fracking) that the progressives dont like. Its a way to build up the governments power.

In reality, the so-called progressives are nothing but regressives, taking us backwards instead of forward. It is they who present the number one existential threat to our land of opportunity. Our country is based on equal protection under the law, as codified under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. These regressives want to take us back in time when immoral despots ruled. No way! Lets move forward, not backward.

Ken Abramowitz is the president and founder of SaveTheWest.

See the original post:

Progressives are regressive - JNS.org

To many Americans, the rise of the woke must seem like a frighteningly realistic remake of the classic science fiction movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It does not take much exposure to leftist college activists and their like-minded sympathizers to feel like a significant percentage of the population has come under the spell of a ruthless alien ideology.

The forced resignation of The New York Timess editorial page editor James Bennet by staffers who objected to his publication of a conservative op-ed, the push by Princeton University professors to create a committee to oversee racist behaviors, incidents, research, and publication on the part of the faculty, and the berating of DC diners who declined to raise their fists in support of Black Lives Matter demonstrators all of these highly publicized incidents are but glimpses of the much larger campaign to delegitimate U.S. history and its associated ideals.

What binds and fortifies the self-declared woke is a cynical academic philosophy known as critical race theory. Refined over decades from deconstructionism through political correctness to identity politics, it falsely brags to be the first to discover that the human mind can never know anything for certain.

So, having declared a limit to knowledge, critical race theory proceeds to assume that all cultures, no matter how noble they may appear, are inventions of the dominant power structure designed to keep other groups in line. Even in the United States, critical race theory insists, long-held beliefs in limited government, free markets, and the importance of family are simply camouflage for male privilege and the suppression of racial minorities. To be truly enlightened, the theory concludes, one must relentlessly denounce these and any related values.

Upon hearing this for the first time, most normal people quite naturally feel as if theyve missed a step. Indeed, how does accepting the unprovability of all worldviews justify the thoroughly discrediting of any one of them? Shouldnt acknowledging the minds limitations only make the truly wise person humbler and more curious?

For those not bothered by such questions, however, critical race theory has a built-in way to ensure they need never deal with them again: simply treat any skeptic as an unconscious dupe of the white, male power structure. In other words, jump as quickly as possible from debating ideas to attacking character.

If this convenient ideological insulation sounds vaguely familiar, it should. The rise of critical race theory is far from the first time that a flawed and seriously destructive social theory has flourished by declaring that any observed fault should be interpreted as a psychological defect in the observer.

One need only go back to the 1890s, when much of the intellectual world was smitten with a belief system known as psychoanalytic theory. Based on the research of a Viennese doctor named Sigmund Freud, who claimed that emotionally disturbed patients experience symptom relief while sharing uncensored dreams and word associations, it argued that every person was motivated by desires, drives, and needs that were repressed in childhood.

Promising the kind of authority that could be claimed by anyone with a knowledge of humanitys real motivations, Freuds ideas were quickly taken up by a variety of groups, both inside and outside of medicine, to advance their interests. This was especially true of the media, which regularly sought the opinions of psychoanalysts to give their magazine, newspaper, and broadcast reports credibility.

By the 1960s, psychoanalysis was being used to justify social changes at least as dramatic as what todays woke have proposed. When counterculture gurus like Timothy Leary, R. D. Laing, and Will Shutz began suggesting that it might be healthier to just express ones repressed childhood desires, rather than put a lid on them, young people across America, some already protesting the Vietnam War, readily agreed. The result was nearly a decade of epidemic drug use, campus rioting, and cultural attacks on traditional morality.

While Freuds psychoanalytic theory always had its share of thoughtful critics, defenders of the theory often resorted to a tautology-ridden, woke-like defense: anyone who challenged Freud was said to be denying his own unconscious conflicts and was, therefore, to be ignored. The retort proved to be so persuasive that at one point, the chair of psychiatry at every major U.S. medical school was occupied by a psychoanalyst.

What finally did manage to discredit psychoanalytic theory ending its ability to justify any kind of social revolution is worth recalling, for it suggests how the current popularity of todays critical race theory will collapse. Beginning in the 1990s, as pressure grew on health insurance companies to pay for psychological problems as well as physical ones, efforts were made to more rigorously evaluate the different therapies.

The studies that followed showed that nearly every emotional complaint could be treated far more quickly, effectively, and economically without psychoanalysis, which seemed to be no more useful than doing nothing at all. Psychoanalysis thrived for nearly a century as an intellectual justification for a multitude of movements, but it couldnt survive the failure to deliver on its foundational promise: improved mental health.

Critical race theory has a foundational promise: advancing wokeness will automatically improve the lives of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. This is, admittedly, a much harder contention to debunk directly, given that wed somehow have to get inside the minds of all the self-identified woke and then document how their outlook has failed to help different social groups. There is an indirect test, however, that has been going on for quite some time.

More than a generation ago, the late economist Milton Friedman suggested that all parents, especially poor and minority parents, be allowed to take the funding their communities would normally spend on their childs education and direct it to any placement they wished. Because of opposition from teacher unions, people have come to think of his school choice policy as just another educational reform.

As Friedman himself understood, however, it is an approach to learning that encapsulates all the values critical race theory most intensely despises: academic achievement, family cohesion and support, religious faith, and respect for tradition. To the extent, then, that school choice tangibly delivers for Americas minorities what critical race theory does not, its very success undercuts any reason to be woke.

At present, there are 66 experimental school choice programs in America, involving more than half the states. While the programs cumulatively involve only a tiny fraction of the countrys 56.4 million K-12 students, more than 150 studies have shown that the minority children who have participated not only score as well academically as their white peers academically but are just as likely to graduate high school, go to college, and graduate with a degree. Equally impressive is the fact that minority participants report far fewer problems with prejudice or discrimination.

How long the woke of today can remain oblivious to what truly improves the lives of racial and ethnic minorities likely depends on how long it will take the growing number of Friedman-like programs to become widely noticed. In Florida, where school choice plans are more common but still represent a fraction of the states children, black and Hispanic moms stunned local progressives in 2018 by providing the margin needed to elect conservative Republican and school choice advocate Ron DeSantis the states current governor.

That brings us to the 2020 election and the fact that Republicans have abandoned their usually elaborate party platform to back just a few critical items among them, expanded school choice. Few seem to have any idea just how much a GOP victory, then, would jeopardize the viability of wokeness. For the sooner more Americans see what really leads to racial and ethnic equality, the sooner critical race theory will join psychoanalysis in the historical dustbin of discredited intellectual fads.

Dr. Andrews was executive director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy from 1999 to 2009. He is the author of Living Spiritually in the Material World (Fidelis Books).

More here:

Just Like Freud's Psychoanalysis, Critical Race Theory Will Be Discredited - The Federalist

Should a bearded jihadist, armed with a dagger, hiding in a remote cave in Asia or in a tent in some desert in the Middle East, have editorial authority over what is published in a European magazine? Many think so, particularly in Western progressive quarters and especially when it comes to cartoons of the prophet of Islam. The editors of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo think otherwise, and that is why they have republished the Muhammad cartoons that led to a brutal terrorist attack on their offices more than five years ago.

They have not taken the decision lightly: 17 colleagues lost their lives in that attack. Precisely in their honor, Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoons, on cue with the beginning of the trial of the perpetrators accomplices at the beginning of this month. Al-Qaeda was quick to threaten them. If your freedom of expression does not respect limits, prepare to face the freedom of our actions it declared in a statement issued on September 11, an easily recognizable anniversary date.

The leftist Charlie Hebdo journalists paid the highest possible price for their indirect solidarity with the right-wing journalists of the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. To recall: in 2005 this newspaper published cartoons that ridiculed the prophet of Islam. At the time global jihadism was at its prime. The previous year, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh had been stabbed on the streets for making a film about misogyny in Islam. Islamists tried to kill the Jyllands Posten cartoonists, the Danish embassy in Lebanon was burned down and the one in Islamabad was bombed. The following year, Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech in the German town of Regensburg in which he associated Islam with violence. As a result, a fatwa was issued against him and Christians were killed in the Middle East. Meanwhile in France, Jacques Lefranc, from the daily France Soir, decided to reproduce the Danish cartoons. When he was fired for it, Charlie Hebdo director Philippe Val chose to publish those cartoons. On its cover, Muhammad was shown saying: It is difficult to be loved by idiots, in reference to the jihadists.

A decade later, two armed Islamists gunned down much of the French magazines staff. A week later, Charlie Hebdo republished a cartoon of Muhammad on its cover, in a million-copy edition. And it did so again, in 2020. A magazine editorial vowed We will never lie down. We will never give up, warned that it is not just a trial about our past, but about our future and affirmed:

So, we do not need one trial, but ten, twenty, a hundred. Against the perpetrators, but they are dead. Against their accomplices: they will be present. But also against cowardice, cynicism, conceit, ignorance, betrayal, laziness, opportunism, blindness, self-righteousness, superficiality, political calculation, forgetfulness, casualness, defeatism, indecisiveness, lack of foresight and a thousand other shortcomings which seem banal when taken individually, but taken together led to the extermination of a newspaper.

Brendan ONeill, editor of the British website Spiked, agreed:

Indeed, as the trial of the alleged accomplices begins this week, it is worth asking whether there were other accomplices to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, too. Not violent accomplices; not people who provided logistics and weaponry, as these 14 are accused of doing. No, intellectual accomplices, moral accomplices, a cultural worldview that had already demonised and even criminalised offensive speech and hate speech long before the two gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices. This massacre didnt happen in a vacuum. It happened at a time when PC censorship was growing, censorious wokeness was emerging, and the bizarre idea that people have the right not to be offended was being institutionalised in universities and in political circles []

This machinery of political correctness was also an accomplice to the events in Paris in 2015. That massacre can be seen as the armed wing of political correctness, the nadir of the reactionary, regressive idea that people and ideologies have the right never to be questioned or ridiculed, and that anyone who does question or ridicule them deserves to be punished whether that is by being hounded, sacked, arrested or, in the one-step-further outlook of the Islamist killers of January 2015, murdered.

Historically, Charlie Hebdo was criticized from right and left. Conservatives accused it of being disrespectful of emblems and traditions, progressives accused it of offending religious and cultural minorities. In fact, it is a satirical magazine and as such it has also mocked with drawings in very bad taste the French political class, the Catholic Church, the Jews, the United States and even the corpse of Michael Jackson. Exposing Muhammad or Islam to their singular esprit satirique should not have ended with the death of 17 of their journalists.

Flemming Rose, the editor of Jyllands-Posten, opined during an interview with the American Daily Beast in 2017:

Whats interesting is that Jyllands-Posten is a conservative newspaper whereas Charlie Hebdo is oriented to the left. Some would call them socialist. But this is all about a liberal democracys right to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. And it doesnt matter if youre liberal or conservative. In this case, Jyllands-Posten and Charlie Hebdo stood for the same principles and have for many years.

It should be noted that many newspapers around the world reproduced some of the original Jyllands-Posten cartoons, albeit when reporting the news more than as a gesture of collegial solidarity or in defense of freedom. Since then, Charlie Hebdo has become a disobedient minority, simultaneously fighting the bigots of radical Islam and the politically correct cultural elites of the West, both of whom see it as a heretic. Its editors understood more than others that behind the physical attack on their magazine in 2015, there was a symbolic blow against the principles of liberal democracies. It is good, then, to see that they are not giving up and continue to defend freedom of expression with typical irreverence. Although it is quite sad to see that Charlie Hebdo continues to do so in disturbing solitude. Je suis Charlie that famous and moving slogan so in vogue that dark January 2015 lasted less than a sigh.

Julian Schvindlerman is an Argentine writer and journalist specializing in Middle East affairs. He lectures on World Politics at the University of Palermo and is a regular contributor to Infobae and Perfil. He is the author of The Hidden Letter: A History of an Arab-Jewish Family, Triangle of Infamy: Richard Wagner, the Nazis and Israel; Rome and Jerusalem: Vatican policy toward the Jewish state; and Land for Peace, Land for War.

Originally posted here:

Nobody is Charlie anymore | Julian Schvindlerman | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

Alexei Navalny is the Russian opposition leader who was recently poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent thats Vladimir Putins preferred means of disposing of old spies and new political leaders who displease him. I was listening to a spokesman for the Russian president, who was serving up a string of improbable hypotheticals, creative excuses and transparent lies purporting to prove Putin didnt poison his most recently poisoned political opponent and the world was being unfair and unreasonable to suspect him. It was as if Id been transported back to my Cold War youth and the Pravda bulletins that really were fake news.

As I listened, though, I realized what I was hearing sounded more recently familiar. From Sean Spicers preposterous insistence that President Trumps inaugural crowd was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period, to Kellyanne Conways Orwellian doctrine of alternative facts, to Sarah Huckabee Sanders slip of the tongue that countless FBI agents had told the White House theyd lost confidence in James Comey, a baseless lie not founded on anything that she was compelled to retract under oath, Trump White House press briefings more closely resemble the six o clock news with Joe McCarthy than an honest presentation of the facts.

Most recently, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnaney denied that the president had misled the American people about the virus, despite the fact hes on tape in his own voice repeatedly misleading us about the virus, and conceding that misleading us was his deliberate intent.

In taped interviews with reporter Bob Woodward, the president volunteered that rather than accurately inform the public about the virus, hed decided to play it down.

As early as Feb. 7, he acknowledged to Woodward on tape that the coronavirus was deadly stuff, more deadly than even your strenuous flus, with a 5% versus 1% and less than 1% mortality rate. Meanwhile, for nearly another two months in his daily statements to the public to us he continued to liken the virus to a regular flu, all the while insisting we dont turn the country off for the regular flu.

In early February, he told Woodward about a setback, that the virus was particularly tricky because it goes through the air. You just breathe the air, and thats how its passed. Yet he continued to tell the public us that the virus was low risk, a problem thats going to go away, and the U.S. case count within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.

Even after learning the virus was airborne, hes persistently dismissed mask-wearing as a matter of political correctness, and apart from paying occasional lip service to the overwhelming medical consensus, has with words and by example failed to encourage and actively discouraged masks and social distancing.

In mid-March, he was telling Woodward its not just old people, that its plenty of young people, too. But as late as August, he was still telling us, including parents, children are almost and I would almost say definitely but almost immune from this disease. They dont have a problem. They just dont have a problem.

Hes justified his serial deceptions on the grounds he didnt want to create a panic. He nonsensically claims his critics wanted him instead to come out screaming theres going to be great death.

Its possible to be both calm and truthful.

Just as its possible to be calm and a raving liar.

The president and his minions have likened his conduct to Winston Churchills during the Blitz and to the British wartime maxim, Keep calm and carry on. Except Churchill warned his people he had nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. He cautioned them to expect hard and heavy tidings.

Churchill told his people the truth.

The president also compares himself to FDR and his 1933 inaugural assurance that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. Except FDR meant the nameless, unreasoning, subjective fear that had settled on and paralyzed us during the Depression. The virus, in contrast, is a fearsome, objective force all its own.

FDR didnt hide the truth the day after Pearl Harbor. When he asked Congress to declare war, he included a frank litany of Japanese advances and Allied defeats. He acknowledged there was no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

For someone who claims hes intent on avoiding national panic, President Trump is doing everything he can to foment it. In one Michigan speech alone, he accused Joe Biden of planning to surrender our country to the violent left-wing mob, overwhelm your state with poorly vetted migrants from jihadist regions, ban American energy, confiscate your guns, shut down auto production, delay the vaccine, destroy your suburbs, indoctrinate your children, eliminate your job, lock law-abiding Americans into their homes, encourage rioters and vandals, usher in a murder rate and crime wave like youve never seen, cut short the lives of thousands of young African-American citizens, and install somebody from Antifa as a member of your suburb.

According to the president, Biden wont rest until hes flooded your neighborhood with rioters, arsonists, and flag-burners, and wiped out production of pick-up trucks.

Lets assume for a moment, though, that you were a leader who sincerely believed it was needful to hide the truth from your people to help keep them calm.

If your concern was sincere, you wouldnt discourage them from wearing masks once you knew a deadly disease was being transmitted through the air.

You wouldnt invite them to rallies and sit them cheek-to-jowl at galas on the South Lawn.

You wouldnt tell parents their children were immune if you knew the truth was they could sicken and die.

Sometimes a lie is just what you tell when you dont want to look as bad as you are.

Peter Berger has taught English and history for 30 years. Poor Elijah would be pleased to answer letters addressed to him in care of the editor.

See original here:

Poor Elijah's Almanack: Lies and other deadly stuff - Rutland Herald

Asking President Donald Trump how he feels about "white privilege" is sort of like asking a young fish how it feels about water.As the late author David Foster Wallace tells the fable in an unusually famous commencement address, the young fish doesn't know what water is. He's way too close to the subject.

That's how President Trump sounded when renowned journalist Bob Woodward, son of an Illinois lawyer and judge, asked him this question in a June interview, one of 18 Woodward conducted with Trump for "Rage," the author's latest book to probe the Trump presidency.

"Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent," Woodward asked, "as it put me and I think lots of white privileged people in a cave, and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly, Black people feel in this country?"

"No," Trump responded, slightly taken aback by the question. "You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don't feel that at all."

Too bad. If he did, he might be doing better in the polls. A Marist poll in June found two-thirds of Americans thought Trump has made racial tensions worse since the death of George Floyd, under a police officer's knee, touched off a nationwide racial reckoning. Yet since then his reelection strategy appears to be more interested in rewinning voters who already have supported him than in broadening his outreach. You might say that he's taking advantage of his privileged position.

But still, I wince when I hear the words "white privilege." I don't deny its existence. But, as I try to encourage the cross-racial dialogue that we so desperately need in our increasingly diverse country, I find the term often proves to be more trouble than it's worth.For one thing, when I say it to mean its original academic meaning systems that benefit white people over nonwhite people in some societies I hear from white people who accuse me of accusing them of racism. Theygo on to tell me about how hard they and their ancestors worked to make it on their own in this country. I get it.

In fact, I mean nothing personal. I am only using it in the way the fabled fish is intended to hear about water. It's all around us and for the common good we need to understand it and deal with it, or it surely will deal with us in the most damaging ways.

Unfortunately, President Trump, despite his frequent attacks against "political correctness" and "cancel culture," recently has responded with cancellation, particularly of racial sensitivity training in federal agencies. He's gunning for any training that addresses such topics as "white privilege" and related "critical race theory," which he calls "divisive, anti-American propaganda."

Citing "press reports" of training sessions at which employees were allegedly told "virtually all white people contribute to racism," Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, ordered the review and possible cancellations in a Sept. 4 letter to federal agencies.Trump went typically Trumpian with a series of tweets the next day, retweeting about 20 from conservative media and others praising his new blow against the PC elite.

Well, as with "white privilege," I, too, have objected to some of the excesses of "PC," "cancel culture" and "critical race theory" that I have encountered on campus and elsewhere. But we talked out the disputes. Efforts to resolve and learn from cultural differences should be discussed and debated, not muzzled.

But this is an election year, isn't it? Not surprisingly, Trump's retweets express delight over the approval his supposed clampdown has received from conservative media as Election Day approaches. To a tweet that called "critical race theory the greatest threat to western civilization," for example, Trump responded "Not any more." All hail our hero.

Media guru Marshall McLuhan declared back in the 1960s, "Propaganda ends where dialogue begins." Government should try to bring various groups together, not drive more wedges and wedge issues to tear us further apart.

You can't have open educational dialogue if only one side gets to do all the talking. That's the worst kind of privilege, regardless of color.

Clarence Page's columns are distributed by the Tribune Content Agency.

Excerpt from:

Why I wince when I hear the words 'white privilege' - theday.com

Kleins mother got married when he was in his late teens. The marriage was characterized by fighting and yelling.

It just seemed normal everywhere we went, he explained. Even if we were at my moms brothers home or whatever, there always seemed to be that. Looking back, I can see the stress and I can understand it. But I think my stepfather was very clever in the sense that he would do (bad) stuff when nobody was around, and our mom just didnt tell us.

On the day of the murder, Klein was watching a hockey game when he heard a stranger shouting his name at the arena. He knew something was seriously wrong. He called his uncle, who bluntly said his mother was dead.

We knew that hed killed her that hed strangled her, he said. My brothers and I had to take on the responsibility of arranging the funeral. What did we know? We walked into the funeral home and tried to pick out a casket. My brothers just left. There were no resources that reached out to kids. When we lost our mom, we lost contact with everyone. It was just us and we learned how to survive.

Kleins relationship with his brothers improves year by year. The tragedy has strengthened his resolve to pursue justice for women.

Nothing was ever handed to me in this life, he said. And its funny because a lot of people think that where Ive gone in my career is because of privilege.

In terms of the powers of political correctness that have sometimes tried to stereotype him, Klein said, It makes me sad for them, quite frankly. We are so busy judging everybody. I honestly believe that a lot of politicians, and no disrespect to them, dont speak from experience. They dont really get it. They want to talk about what they think is right. Id like to sit them down and say, You have absolutely no clue what youre talking about.

jsnell@postmedia.com

Twitter @JamesWestgateSn

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Councillor marks anniversary of mother's murder with call for justice for women - Winnipeg Sun

The scene: the first day of an ethics class at an unnamed American university where the students have returned to campus (or are online).

Professor Smith: OK, class, welcome to Ethics 101. Here, we will study the importance of ethical behaviour in business, government, religion, sports, media, education and just everyday life.

Student: With all due respect, sir, are you serious?

Professor: Excuse me?

Student: Well, I can think of scandals in all those categories that pretty much disprove that ethics plays a role in any way, shape or form in todays America.

Professor: OK, Ill bite. Like, for instance?

Student: Well, the stock market continues to go up and up and make the rich richer and richer due to the belief that FAANG otherwise known as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, formerly known as Google are going to get even richer as largely unregulated and untouchable tech companies make even more and more during a pandemic that forces people to turn to the Net for supplies and entertainment and communication needs, meanwhile killing local retail and media and community and leaving millions of Americans unemployed and living off government handouts that cant go on for much longer or were all doomed. (Takes a breath)

Professor: Oh, that thing. Anything else?

Student: Well, weve got a president whos on the record with more than 20,000 false or misleading claims, so far, and that doesnt even count his golf game, who lied to us about the seriousness of the pandemic to protect his re-election chances, along with the stock market. A guy who says he did it to not spread panic, even though spreading panic and chaos is pretty much his thing, especially when it comes to describing political unrest in the streets or what the left-wing zealots will do if Joe Biden actually wins. A new book comes out virtually every day by former staff and family members largely describing him as unfit to govern and having no moral compass, yet if Biden falters even a little and hes 77 years old Trump could win the November 3 election, and hes 74. How are either one of these dinosaurs going to lead us in this world of ever-escalating change anyway?

Professor: OK, you have a point there. Religion?

Student: Two words for you, professor. Jerry Falwell, Jr. OK, thats three. And he was one of the first religious supporters of Trump that led to even more fundamentalist Christians jumping on board, despite the Access Hollywood tapes and countless other misdeeds, resulting in Trumps triumph, and where we are today. And all because they needed a pool boy.

Professor: Sports?

Student: Houston Astros, the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick, Lance Armstrong, the NBA and China.

Professor: Education? Surely education has maintained its ethics, at least somewhat? After all people have to believe in something. Thats why were here.

Student: Does Lori Loughlin and company and the biggest college admissions scandal of all time ring a bell? How did that happen? Also political correctness run amok on campuses. Its spread to the real, ahem, world.

Professor: Media?

Student: Well, Fox News might as well be Trump TV as they turn themselves into pretzels daily to cover for the presidents behaviour or lack thereof. And thats getting tougher and tougher to do, so theyre earning their millions. And the left-leaning mainstream media ignores anything that doesnt fit its progressive narrative or political correctness, and then theres social media that is so into clicks that the truth is often irrelevant, or worse, may get in the way of more clicks. And local media are so challenged by FAANG and others that their days may be numbered. And then whos going to hold local politicians accountable?

Professor: OK, OK, youve made your point. I think I know the answer though. Class, I stand corrected, welcome to Ethics 2020, the age of alternative facts.

Student: I can live with that. Guess I have to, huh?

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Mitchells Musings: Ethics class evolves with the times - Vernon Morning Star

Sage advice once was to refrain from talking about religion or politics in polite company.

Notwithstanding, this politically correctness has long gone the way of party line phones, VHS tapes, and dinosaurs. Things have changed. This just isnt the same world.

In our current era, newsworthy topics are wrought for impertinent commentary by everyone, regardless of the social etiquette advised (polite company). Since a persons perception of truth in 2020 is considered subjective at best, and with unsubstantiated sentiments cascading like a Niagara Falls of contempt, who are we to believe these days?

It has become fashionable, even expected, that we all should be lambasting somebody about something.

Peacemaking just isnt in vogue; polarization is. Its unpopular in many circles to advocate for cooperation; its an us-versus-them world, and meekness is considered a weakness.

We tend to align ourselves with causes and personalities that are best suited to strong-arm opposing perspectives. The hope is we will appear right, at the expense of whoever else is seen as wrong.

For instance, if you watch Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, youre going to get a radically different rendition of the same stories shared by Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and Erin Burnett. Both Fox and CNN, not to mention other cable news sources, are laden with innuendo and conspiracy, not unlike the tabloids at the cashier. Current events are sensationalized and spun like a Tasmanian Devil on steroids.

What is the truth?

I frequent NPR (National Public Radio) regularly, a very creative, quality but overtly left-leaning news broadcast. It keeps me well apprised of each days news, but with an editorialized liberal influence disguised subtly beneath the surface.

So, I leave hook, line and sinker in the tackle box when listening to NPR. My core values are often confronted, but over time have become stronger as I reconcile the challenging alternatives I hear on the radio.

Though the content of conservative Talk Radio is 180 degrees different from NPR, it is the same regarding spin. Verbose, pompous commentators (does Rush Limbaugh ring a bell?) who are so convicted (or perhaps should be convicted) in their unswerving rightness (pun intended) that they delight in ostracizing open-minded people from considering the conservative mindset. These DJs are my way or the highway, declaring dont let the door hit you in the posterior if you disagree with them. Offended channel surfing listeners hear the gauntlet thrown down, and exit to vote assuredly against the Republicans. Although thats not a good growth strategy for conservatism, it does sell lots of commercials.

Our nation is resembling a house built without a square, level or tape measure. We no longer have a reliable plumb line.

The Bible, once considered foundational in America, is discounted and scorned as irrelevant and unreliable, even by many in the church. The United States Constitution is ridiculed as an obsolete experiment that has failed and needs radical revision. Our countrys heritage degraded; freedoms disgraced; and posterity disregarded.

I understand the consternation being expressed over the Confederate flag (I get it), but does that justify protesters burning the American one? Our world is out of whack.

For those of us who still contend the resurrected Jesus is real, and that the Bible reveals the reality, we shouldnt be surprised by current conditions. Theyre to be expected.

Jesus forewarned us in the gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, saying: These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

This is a truthful declaration we can take to the bank. No doubt about it.

And it begs a corresponding question: In these days of ongoing dissension, how could we be of good cheer?

In a nutshell, to overcome this world we reside in, we have to maintain some separation from it. Well talk more about that later.

Next Friday lets consider which political party best represents the values upheld in the Bible. How would you weigh in about that?

Dave Hinman is Pastoral Elder at Dove Church in Wilmington. Reach him at davefromdove@gmail.com.

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Be of good cheer: What is the truth? - Wilmington News Journal, OH

Jerry Falwell Jr., former president of Liberty University, at a commencement ceremony there in 2017. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

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Jerry Falwell Jr., recently deposed as president of Liberty University, is a new type of Christian sinner. The figure of a pious hypocrite is as old as religion itself, an inevitable by-product of the fact that any moral system will be upheld by flawed people. But usually godly miscreants try to keep their transgressions secret.Ad Policy

A prime example is Jimmy Swaggart, who was disgraced and defrocked after revelations of hiring sex workers in 1987. Furtive, sweaty, twitchy, and given to wailing, I have sinned, Swaggart acted like an escapee from the fictions of Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Flannery OConnor: a God-haunted and superstitious primate driven by compulsions he could neither understand nor control. As creepy as he is, Swaggart has given every evidence of a complex and tormented inner life.

Falwell Jr., by contrast, is a shallower creature who has not tried to hide his misdeeds. Rather, he has flaunted them. The latest scandal involving Falwell Jr. grew out of a photo he posted on Instagram that shows him with his arms around a woman who was not his wife, both parties with their pants unzipped. Yeah, it was weird, Falwell admitted in a radio interview. Shes pregnant. She couldnt get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I havent worn in a long time and couldnt get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. Shes my wifes assistant, shes a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. Ive apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out.

This explanation wasnt sufficient, coming as it did on top of a long list of previous scandals, including still unexplained land deals he made with his pool boy and photos in which he appears to be drinking and dancing at a Florida nightclub. These photos were a problem because Liberty University holds its students and staff to strict moral standards. Students can receive demerits if they dance with a partner of the opposite sex and be expelled for drinking. Sex outside of marriage is prohibited for students. MORE FROM Jeet Heer

As Politico reported last year, Falwell Jr. was notorious for flouting these rules, taking an exhibitionists glee in lewd conversations: At Liberty, Falwell is very, very vocal about his sex life, in the words of one Liberty officiala characterization multiple current and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story support. Falwell Jr. reportedly circulated to Liberty University staff photos of his wife dressed as a French maid.

Falwell Jr.s behavior was certainly in bad taste and in violation of not just his own evangelical code but also secular rules about workplace sexual harassment. Its not appropriate for an employer to talk to his staff in explicit detail about his sex life, as Falwell reportedly did. The latest scandal proved a bridge too far for the board of trustees at Liberty University, which placed him on an indefinite leave of absence.

Falwell Jr.s exhibitionism, his compulsive need to publicize his sexual antics even at the cost of his job, helps illuminate his fateful political alliance with Donald Trump. Falwell Jr. was among the earliest major evangelical leaders to embrace Trump and has remained a steadfast supporter. During Trumps highly publicized visit to Liberty University in January of 2016, Falwell Jr. stated, In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment. Two weeks later, Falwell Jr. enthusiastically endorsed Trump for the Republican Partys presidential nomination.Current Issue

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The alliance between Trump and white evangelicals has puzzled many observers. Evangelicals for years have defined themselves as the values voters, people who prized the Bible and sexual moralityand loving your neighbor as yourselfabove all, notes New York Times reporter Elizabeth Dias. Donald Trump was the opposite. He bragged about assaulting women. He got divorced, twice. He built a career off gambling. He cozied up to bigots. He rarely went to church. He refused to ask for forgiveness.

Yet, as Dias observes, this seeming contradiction disappears when we realize that evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly.

This argument echoes a case made in greater detail by reporter Sarah Posner in her compelling new book, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. Posner places the story of Trump and white evangelicals within the larger history of the backlash against civil rights, feminism, and LGBTQ rights that gathered force in the 1960s. This backlash, Posner demonstrates, fueled both the religious right and Trumpism.

The real driving force of the Christian right, Posner contends, was not religion but grievances over school desegregation, womens rights, LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, and more. Trump became their hero despite being a thrice-married philanderer who talked about dating his daughter, paid off a porn star to keep quiet about an affair, and was terrible at God talk. He became their savior because he spoke the language that tied them and himtogether against political correctness, civil and human rights, and at its core, the entire arduous project of maintaining a pluralistic, secular, liberal democracy.

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One of the best examples of how the religious right emerged out of the backlash to the freedom movements of the 1960s is Jerry Falwell Jr.s illustrious father. Jerry Falwell Sr. often claimed he was politicized by his opposition to abortion. But as Posner documents, the earlier impetus to Falwell Sr.s career was his hostility toward the civil rights movement. In 1964, Falwell Sr. described the Civil Rights Act as a terrible violation of human and private property rights. According to Posner, Falwell Jr. helped distribute literature disparaging Martin Luther King, Jr., by thenFBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who oversaw agency surveillance, including wire-taps, on the civil rights icon. In 1968, Falwell Jr. invited leading segregationist George Wallace to address his church.

If we see the Christian right and Trumpism as products of the same backlash, their convergence becomes easy to understand. Trump is the leader of the secular wing of the backlash and Falwell Jr. is the leader of its religious wing. But they share the same agenda of preserving the privileges of straight white well-to-do men from social movements pushing for greater equality.

As part of Trumps anti-feminism, hes fashioned a public persona of gleeful chauvinism, offering an unapologetic sexism that refuses even to wear the mask of chivalry found in early forms of patriarchy. Trumps sleaziness is very much a part of his political identity. It shows that hes a real man, not one whos cowed by feminist criticism.

Being a louche politician has cost Trump few votes among white evangelicals because many of them secretly admire such behavior. Lewdness is proof of heterosexual virility. Perhaps the final temptation that Jerry Falwell Jr. fell into was to go beyond envying Trumps decadent lifestyle and openly try to imitate it.

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The Last Temptation of Jerry - The Nation

Analysts say it's perhaps for a variety of reasons, but so far the sport that Americans (and others) appear to be watching is the NHL. Of the major American sports (not including the mess that is NASCAR now), hockey appears to be it.

After a spike on the return day of Major League Baseball, the ratings have slipped for Fox and ESPN. According to sportsmediawatch.com, the three ESPN games last week all had lower ratings than theleast-watchedgame they showed in all of 2019.

Fox had it's lowest numbers for a prime time game since September of 2018.

Meanwhile, despite a lift from some marquee games this week such as Lakers-Rockets, overall NBA numbers are 6 million viewers (four percent) lower than where they were pre-COVID (ESPN, TNT, and ABC combined). Aside from BIG matchups, the numbers continue to slip as a whole.

Meanwhile, the NHL has seen a surge in cable viewership, six of the 10 most-watched games of the entire season (2019-2020) have been played since the league restarted August 1st. The Round Robin playoff system appears to be grabbing viewers big time. Overall viewership is up, and ratings are climbing.

And, we've been paying attention to the Sling and other online cable-less sports ads you see on Facebook and other social media. One of them over the weekend proclaimed "basketball is back!" and advertised one of the upcoming NBA Weekend games. These are those 'sponsored' posts that show up in your feed. (watch this league or that league on your phone or other devices!)

We counted the reactions to this NBA weekend game post. Of 3.4K reactions, 1.6K laughed, 1.4 posted the angry face, and it was liked by only 261 people. The comments we read used a variety of "language" to basically show displeasure with the social-political stance being taken by the league.

Severalcommentsput it this way: 'sports are supposed to be an enjoyable distraction from life, something to root for and smile; not a woke lecture by a bunch of spoiled ignorant athletes who know nothing about the average person's life.'

Many analysts concur that all the social justice finger-wagging and 'woke' programming in baseball and basketball is steadily turning viewers away. The political statements have been almost negligible in the NHL, and viewership is responding.

What was once a longed-for return for pro sports, hope from the cloud of COVID, has gone down the rabbit hole of political correctness.

Wonder if the NFL is paying attention? They better, unless they really want to take a hit this season.

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Which Sport is Doing Best on TV Since Return from COVID? - newstalk870.am

Political correctness has now expanded to space, where NASA says planets, galaxies and other heavenly bodies will no longer be referred to by offensive nicknames.

In a press release Thursday, the space agency said all planets and heavenly bodies will be referred to only by their scientific names, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Under the new rules, the Eskimo Nebula, discovered in 1787 by William Hershel, will only be referred to as NGC 2392.

The so-called Siamese Twins Galaxy will likewise be known only as NGC 4567 and NGC 4568.

As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive but can be actively harmful, the agency said in a news release.

NASA is examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

NASAs associate administrator for diversity and equal opportunity, Stephen T. Shih, agreed, saying, These nicknames and terms may have historical or culture connotations that are objectionable or unwelcoming, and NASA is strongly committed to addressing them.

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NASA to remove offensive names from planets and other heavenly bodies - New York Post

I suspect many members of todays street mobs have a secret in common: At some deep level, they know they are awash in ignorance of core knowledge. Claiming to be woke is cover for the ignorance educrats have systematically instilled in them.

For decades, leftist academics have attacked the study of history and real humanities, and now an Illinois legislator has openly called to abolish the study of history. Recent episodes of Bible burning in the streets of Portland indicate the trashing of Americas cultural memory is well past the boiling point.

Our educational institutions have committed intellectual grand theft. They have withheld critical knowledge from students and replaced it with the poison of identity politics and political correctness. This makes it difficult for students to express independent thoughts, or even to think them. Where does that leave the victims who have been forcibly injected with this ignorance?

They cant really articulate what has been stolen from them, but they seem to sense the loss deeply. How else can one explain their primal screams and street theater, in which they both accuse and confess systemic racism? After educrats and media hounded them for years with the talking point that Western culture is just tales of dead white males, how can they even be openly curious about it without the threat of being smeared?

Its no wonder they cant, since the rabbit hole into which theyve been thrown is very deep. Imagine being trained to think only with your emotions. The consequence is unbridled passions and confusion, like that of someone who cant read but pretends to. The resulting impulse undergirds the perverse toppling of a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or the burning and vandalizing of a beloved elk statue in Portland while protesting for justice. Could the angst behind such senseless acts amount to the deep frustration of knowing so little about so much?

If you dont understand what it feels like to be in the dark about core knowledge, consider the poignant excerpt below. Its from a 2012 high school newspaper in which a student mourns her ignorance of basic Bible references. The letter illustrates how illiteracy of a huge part of our culture, whether biblical or secular, can cause painful feelings of alienation. While in English class, this student felt disconnected from the culture and from others because of her ignorance.

We were discussing biblical references in passages of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, and how the story of Adam and Eve was reflected into the novel. I thought to myself, Adam and Eve isnt that the passage about someone eating an apple? I had no idea what the story was about, and no idea what the lesson or moral was. And this wasnt the first time something like this had occurred. Genesis? What is that? Moses parting the Red Sea? How did that work? When people bring up these essential topics in religious history, I feel like I am the only one who doesnt know the story.

My lack of religious knowledge, no matter what religion it may be, is also keeping me from being a well-versed person.

Forget for a minute that todays public school classrooms are unlikely to allow such discussions. This student felt alone because of her lack of general cultural knowledge of the Western canon. Probably millions of millennials and Gen Zers feel the same way but cannot articulate what its like to be in that darkness.

I can personally relate to it. I spent a long time educating myself in the humanities after miseducation in my high school and college years left huge gaps in my own cultural knowledge. Its a miserable feeling.

Notre Dame Professor Patrick Deneen offered a deep and compelling reflection on this situation, writing in 2016 that our students ignorance is not a failing of our educational system it is its crowning achievement. He described his students as know nothings while acknowledging they were good test-takers and nice people.

Their brains are largely empty. Ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who was Saul of Tarsus? Why does the Magna Carta matter? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers? At best, they possess accidental knowledge, but otherwise are masters of systematic ignorance.

What our educational system aims to produce is cultural amnesia, a wholesale lack of curiosity, history-less free agents, and educational goals composed of content-free processes and unexamined buzz-words like critical thinking, diversity, ways of knowing, social justice, and cultural competence.

On the surface, students seem to make do with what little real knowledge they glean. But mostly they go through the politically correct motions demanded of them by some 90 percent of higher education personnel who are on board with the curriculum of cultural amnesia. When asked a simple question about a basic historical event or classic work, they avert their eyes. They panic.

The process of imparting this systematic ignorance has been generations in the making. One of the many turning points in recent times was the gutting of Stanford Universitys Western Civilization program. Ironically, Stanfords program had been immensely popular among students. Those intent on destroying it used the most potent weapon they could: a smear and fear campaign, by which anyone who might promote the program would feel intimidated into silence from accusations of bigotry or white supremacy for supporting it.

When Jesse Jackson and a cohort of activists marched through the Stanford campus in 1987 chanting, Hey hey! Ho ho! Western Civ has got to go! that was pretty much all it took to create a domino effect in at least 50 other universities. Its odd how easily people give up something they love just because of social pressure from a tiny minority.

The upshot is that our institutions academia, media, government, medicine, and more are now filled with a lot of know-nothings who pretend to know it all. Most dont understand basic biblical allusions or standard terms from William Shakespeare embedded in the culture.

Theyve not a clue what it means to cross the Rubicon. Maybe they think baroque means something doesnt work anymore, or that Trinity only means Neos girlfriend, or that Norway (unlocatable on a map) flies the Confederate flag. Perhaps saddest of all is the inability of the culturally ignorant to appreciate good comedy, especially satire.

Nevertheless, Deneen writes that these students deeply sense a great loss from having the study of their heritage and all of Western civilization stolen from them: I discern their longing and anguish and I know that their innate human desire to know who they are, where they have come from, where they ought to go, and how they ought to live will always reassert itself.

The desire for real cultural knowledge is innate because its tied into the need to connect with our common humanity as well as to know thyself. Identity politics frustrates and mocks those deeply human desires by assigning students into demographic boxes and locking them in. They must spend all their God-given time in those boxes thinking of themselves only as victims or oppressors. Victims must stay where they are. Oppressors must do the hard work of trying to be an ally, an exhausting and total waste of life.

Our instinct is to thrash about when locked up for long in any kind of box, but especially that kind. The raging of many of todays wannabe wokesters likely has much in common with this deep sense of loss. They seem to be trying to make sense of the senseless, thirsting for the real knowledge that comes from open conversations and strong relationships. They dont know how to go about getting it in a world that seems so hostile to curiosity and learning, to civilization and love.

Im sure Deneen is right that the desire for real knowledge will reassert itself. The big question going forward is for those who can understand the pain of losing it. How can we begin to rectify this loss, if only for those who are not too far gone down the rabbit hole?

See the article here:

Deep Inside, Rioters Are Angry That They Never Learned Anything But Lies - The Federalist

This is what Kansas Citians used to love (or hate) about Jason Whitlock

Aside from pimping local sports fans in the pages of the Kansas City Star, Whitlock regularly delivered the pro white guy goods to the newspapers mostly non-black readership. Now hes poking holes and obliterating political correctness online, like his column about the mainstream medias current favorite topic, the George Floyd mythology.

It didnt really take that much, but Whitlocks perspective on racial politics carried more cred given that a black dude was doing the honors. And despite the ups-and-downs of his career in the decade since he left KC, its made big sexy a popular Fox News guest for Bill OReilly, Tucker Carlson and the like.

Because almost without fail, Jason loves to debunk phony racism claims.

Usually skillfully, I might add.

Case in point, London Daily Mails recent release of the dramatic body-camera footage of George Floyds arrest.

Unfortunately, the way mainstream news organizations like USA Today and CNN covered the story, they misled readers by casting police in a bad light so as not to contradict the media narrative that Floyd was a innocent victim of police racism.

Yet anyone who bothered to watch the video like Whitlock did can see that the cops were polite and unlike USA Todays report, the officer did not approach Floyds car with his gun drawn. Only after repeated requests for Floyd to raise his hands did the officer briefly take his gun out, holstering it when Floyd finally complied.

The online headline for Whitlocks column pretty much says it all:

Leaked Video Exposes George Floyds Death as a Tragedy & Race Hoax Used to Divide Us

Will anyone locked inside the NBAs groupthink bubble react to the leaked bodycam footage of George Floyds arrest and tragic death? Whitlock begins.

The videos show police verbally and physically struggling to get Floyd to comply. Floyd appears panicked, disoriented, desperate and totally non-compliant. He complains that he cant breathe while standing on two feet. He claims his mother just died and that he cant sit in the back of the police car because hes claustrophobic. He repeatedly begs the officers not to shoot him. He worms the upper part of his body out of the police car and asks to lay on the ground.

As for the cops being racist:

The behavior of the police officers seems appropriate and restrained given Floyds level of resistance and bizarre conduct, Whitlock writes. The footage reasonably explains how and why Floyd wound up on the ground with multiple officers restraining him.

The video does not justify officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. But it does offer context why Chauvin would be reluctant to believe Floyds I cant breathe cries. Nearly every word out of Floyds mouth was a desperate lie.

And remember, long before Floyd was pinned to the ground, he said four times that he couldnt breath.

Whitlocks overall take on an event that sparked widespread rioting:

.Floyds behavior escalated a routine arrest into a possible abuse of force.

.The George Floyd case is not a race crime. No rational person can watch that footage and conclude the police were motivated by Floyds black race.

.Its going to be virtually impossible to convict former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao of any crime.

.It will be equally difficult to convict Chauvin of murder.

Whitlocks bottom line:

Years from now when the mainstream media finally objectively evaluates this era of sports (and realizes theyve) been played and used by anarchists and communists who are using opportunists to promote an American race war their fear-driven leadership (will have) turned Americas great unifier sports into a racial divider.

The sad reality if American society continues to devolve:

LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and all the other entitled millionaires will be locked in their gated bubbles watching poor peoples lives destroyed on CNN (and) No one will ever question them about the roles they played in stirring the racial outrage Whitlock concludes.

The $64 million question:

How in the world would the Star editorial board have reacted to Jasons pro police, law and order takes if he was still choking them out here in the Cowtown?

My take is hed have the journalistic life expectancy of a gnata high paid gnat.

(For more Hearne, go to kcconfidential.com)

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What KC used to loveor hateabout Whitlock - The Platte County Landmark Newspaper

This has been the year of cancel culture, with celebrities, politicians, and anyone whos ever held an opinion that ismildly divergent from the politically correct left coming under attack.

Amidst all the public apologies, disavowals, and firings that this political correctness crusade has wrought, the biggest victim of all has been American history. And now the assault is poised to get worse.

A concerted effort to revise history to fit the modern social justice narrative and insert works of fiction in our education system from kindergarten through higher education is well underway.

JOE CONCHA ON 'CANCEL CULTURE': YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED FOR SAYING THINGS THE 'WOKE MOB' DOESN'T LIKE

The1619 Project, which describes itself as an ongoing initiative of The New York Times Magazine, is the clearest evidence that this indoctrination has become institutionalized in the American education system but certainly not the only evidence.

Despite being labeled so wrong in so many ways by a group of Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, the1619 Projectis set to hit K-12 classrooms this fall. Soon, 6-year-olds will be learning a reframed version of Americas founding, shaped to fit todays standards and train the next generation of social justice warriors.

According to the projects makeover of U.S. history, 1619 not 1776, when American colonists declared independence from Britain is actually our nations birth year. Thats because 1619 was the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in the colonies.

Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years, said an article in the New York Times Magazine published in December 2019. This is sometimes referred to as the countrys original sin, but it is more than that: It is the countrys very origin.

The magazine goes on to state: Out of slavery and the anti-black racism it required grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, its diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as a land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day. The seeds of all that were planted long before our official birth date, in 1776, when the men known as our founders formally declared independence from Britain.

The pace at which our educational system has removed or revised history has been staggering.

In other words, the Founding Fathers were a bunch of evil white supremacists and the most important thing they did was to institute and perpetuate slavery. Obviously, slavery was horrific and wrong. But it shouldnt erase all the accomplishments of Americas founders and the good things about our nation like our Constitution, representative democracy, Bill of Rights guaranteeing our freedoms, economic prosperity and so much more.

The pace at which our educational system has removed or revised history has been staggering. On many college campuses, American history courses have been replaced with mandatory white privilege courses or diversity and inclusion workshops.

The history courses thataretaught often seek to indoctrinate students with the idea that Americas lasting legacy is one of genocide and oppression, not freedom and liberty for all.

History courses have been politicized with the clear objective of convincing the next generation that their nation is not one to be proud of, but a place they should be ashamed of.

This narrative of an evil America lays the foundation for the embrace of far-left ideology that would upend our entire social and economic order with endless protests and other actions even violent ones to transform our evil country into an imagined utopian society.

The repercussions of this massacre of our nations history are real and significant look no further than the images of young Americans tearing down statues and destroying vehicles of oppression like businesses that support capitalism and courthouses that carry out justice.

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People arent going to protect what they dont understand. The reason we see so many young Americans behave this way is that so many of them dont understand our history.

Pride in America only happens when people know what theyre proud of.When apollcame out this year showing patriotism levels among young Americans at a record low, the response from many was shock and dismay. But it shouldnt have been. Why would someone take pride in a country when theyve been taught is evil?

We must not stand idly by while our education system is hijacked, and our children misled and brainwashed to hate our nation instead of loving it.

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., proposeda bill that would prevent federal funds from being used to teach the 1619 Project in public schools. Bold steps like this must be taken, and Americans must demand a say in whats being taught in our schools.

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Without action, our education system will continue to indoctrinate students with anti-American propaganda, and future generations will think our culture and way of life is nothing worth preserving.

If that happens, we wont need to teach American Exceptionalism in schools, because America will no longer be exceptional.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM CABOT PHILLIPS

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Cabot Phillips: Cancel culture distorts history to portray US as evil nation that must be transformed - Fox News

Editor:

Allow Confederate flag and leave statues alone (Reading Eagle, July 21) contains several absurd assertions. It states that to blame the Souths banner for slavery is a perversion of political correctness and contends that the same applies to the removal of Confederate statues. If thats the case, then why has the conservative Mississippi Legislature finally voted to take the stars and bars off of their state flag?

The letter also states that NASCARs decision to ban the Confederate flag is akin to burning books. Thats hogwash. No one is advocating burning books. Confederate symbols belong in libraries and museums so people can study them and, as the letter writer correctly says, so that the negatives are not repeated. However, these symbols of hate should not be honored and displayed in public places.

Those who express displeasure over the public display of Confederate flags and statues are accused of wanting to suppress history. However, those who defend these symbols are trying to rewrite history. News flash: the Southern states lost. The Confederacy was an enemy of the United States and was defeated in war. Those behind it should be remembered, but certainly not honored.

Michael P. Pardo

Lower Alsace Township

Read more:

Letter: Confederate flag a symbol of hate | Letters to the Editor - Reading Eagle

The Office delivered the laughs throughout its nine seasons, but it also had some emotional and touching moments, too. Fans think theyve identified the most heartbreaking quote from the whole series and the line was delivered in the finale.

Over the course of its nine seasons, The Office had a number of uncomfortable moments that made viewers cringe. Boss Michael Scott was at the center of it all for seven seasons a character who was totally unaware he was inappropriate in the most cringey ways.

During the July 21 episode of the An Oral History of The Officepodcast, Steve Carell explained why his character Michael could make you cringe but he was still loveable. Its like, he would put his foot in his mouth all the time but in a lot of ways I dont think he ever valued one type of person over any other, he said.

Carell added, And in that way, I think he was a very pure character because he was very dumb in terms of political correctness and being appropriate in public but at the same time I just dont think there was hardness in his heart towards anyone.

RELATED: The Office: The Genius Way the Writers Made Michael Scotts Character Lovable and Pure After Season 1

There were many touching standout moments fans recall from the series, with many of them revolving around Jim and Pam. One sweet moment in season 3, however, involved Michael and Pam, as he attends her art show after none of her co-workers show up to support her.

Michael tells Pam how impressed and proud he is and even wants to buy her drawing of their office building. The moment moves her to tears. Of course, the touching scene has an element of comedy as well, as Pam asks if Michael has something in his pocket and he says chunky, pulling out a candy bar.

Pam and Jim had some sweet moments as well, including Jims proposal and their wedding, but in the final season, Pam and Jims relationship faced some rockiness. One scene in which the two fight brought Pam to tears and viewers felt her sadness too.

In the series finale, the employees come together for Dwight and Angelas wedding and gather as a group at the Dunder Mifflin office where Creed sings a song as the former co-workers reminisce.

Andy delivers a touching quote in a talking head interview, saying, I wish there was a way to know youre in the good old days before youve actually left them.

Fans have loved the line since they first heard it and have shared their thoughts about the touching sentiment over the years. One Reddit thread discussion kicked off when a user posted the line, noting, Thats the most heartbreaking quote in all the series.

Others agreed, with comments like, Best quote from the entire series, Who would have thought Andy would have the most poignant remark the entire series?, and Yeah this line really got me in the feels.

Another Redditor noted, The finale is full of such beautiful quotes.

Excerpt from:

'The Office': Fans Think This Is the Most Heartbreaking Quote in the Whole Series - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

South Park has been on the air for over 20 years now, and in that time it's established itself as one of the most iconic animated shows of all time. With its low production aesthetic and no-limits humor, its garnered a passionate fanbase, while its quick production turnaround time means it constantly has its finger on the pulse.

It definitely isnt for everyone, and while they do take swings at all comers (an approach which has been often criticized), creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have occasionally acknowledged overstepping the mark. Either way, its a series with a lot of high points, and here are the 25 best.

If you're in the US, you can streamSouth Park for free on Comedy Central's website. It's also available to stream onHBO Max. In the UK, South Park airs on Comedy Central, and it's streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

South Park tells a lot more tech-based stories these days, and in this episode, internet advertising has run amok. Sponsored Content also features a staunch political debate between Hillary Clinton, Garrison and Caitlyn Jenner. The main story, though, is the start of yet another three-act arc, this time on political correctness in media with political correctness in general a running theme throughout this entire season.

Like a few other episodes later on, Black Friday is actually part of a trilogy, along with A Song Of Ass And Fire and Titties And Dragons. Theyre all great, but here were going with the first instalment. Its all about a Black Friday sale, with one half of the town looking for a PS4 and the other half for an Xbox One. By the end of the trilogy, its a full-blown war, but here its the calm before the storm as the residents of South Park choose their sides. Poor Randy, in his new job as a mall security guard, doesnt realize hes about to be caught in the middle.

One of the first big concept episodes for the show, you can see from this premise how it offered a foundation for more outlandish episodes later. Cartman gets $1 million from his grandmothers inheritance, and uses it to buy a theme park. His success causes Kyle to lose his faith in God, but Cartmans financial troubles quickly bring his faith back. There are some great visuals within the theme park, and the shows gross-out huimor is alive and well in this episode. A great example of South Parks straightforward storytelling done right.

This double header is essentially one whole episode, so were counting both parts as one entity. It sees Family Guy preparing to feature the Muslim prophet Mohammed in an episode, leaving the USA fearful of retaliation, even prompting Cartman to go to Hollywood to leverage the network into cancelling Family Guy. It ends with an infamous title card after the network refused to air South Parks own depiction of Mohammed, and has become infamous both for this and its genuinely mean-spirited take on Family Guy.

These days, everyone knows what to expect from South Park, so it takes something really extreme for it to wind up in the headlines. With Band In China which was actually banned in China South Parks mocked Xi Jinpings regime and garnered their most controversy in years. It goes after Chinas aggressive censorship of Western media, and the way huge conglomerates seemingly compromise in order to profit in the Chinese market, with Randy heading to China for a business deal, but ending up in jail.

Two very disparate plots here, which isnt usually South Parks style, but it works brilliantly in Medicinal Fried Chicken. The A-plot sees Randy become desperate to partake in the medicinal marijuana movement, giving himself testicular cancer just so he can reap the herbal benefits. Eventually, he ends up with space hopper-sized balls. Meanwhile, in a heavy Scarface parody, KFC are banned from South Park, leading to Cartman setting up a black market fried chicken business in the episodes B-plot.

Here, Butters buys a kiss off a girl after the rest of the boys discover hes never kissed anyone. From here, Butters has a brainwave and realizes he could become a businessman dealing in kisses; soon after, hes a fully fledged pimp. In his new line of work, he finds himself entangled with an undercover cop wholl go to any length to expose the prostitution racket in South Park. And when we say any length, we mean any length.

If youre even vaguely familiar with South Park, youll know that Kenny dies a lot. Like, in every episode of the first few seasons. This episode is specifically about his death, though, with Kenny in hospital with a terminal illness. Cartman hatches a plan to save Kenny using stem cell research, resulting in him winding up with a truckload of fetuses. Cartman eventually takes to Congress to lobby for stem cell research, but his efforts are for nothing as, like the title suggests, Kenny dies.

Because South Park is so mercilessly referential, even the great episodes can be dated by relying on context from pop culture 20 years ago. Le Petit Tourette, however, is absolutely timeless, and involves Cartman faking Tourette syndrome in order to say whatever he wants. Unfortunately, over time Cartman struggles with any filter at all, and begins blurting our embarrassing secrets non-stop. The story is a little thin on the ground here, but the jokes more than make up for it.

If youve been paying attention to some of the things Cartman has done in the history of South Park, youll know that he does indeed suck. Here though, the title is far more literal, as it involves Cartman sticking Butters penis in his mouth to prove that Butters is gay, taking a picture as proof. However, Kyle tells him that Cartman is the gay one in the scenario, and in order to cancel it out, he and Butters must switch positions, which leads to Butters being sent to gay conversion therapy.

This episode references the absolute domination of The Simpsons in late 90s/early 00s animation, and the ways South Park (and other shows, like Family Guy) were often accused of ripping off Simpsons plots. Here, Butters alter ego Professor Chaos tries in vain to come up with an evil scheme the Simpsons have not already done, following on from the previous episode, Professor Chaos. This one is good as a two-parter but incredibly enjoyable as an individual experience too. The jokes are well worth watching for alone, but if youre an animation fan, its packed with references.

Arguably South Parks first venture into extreme whoa, can they say that? territory, it sees Cartman join the North American Man Boy Love Association. His plan? To make some more mature friends. The episode also entangles another NAMBLA (the North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes), a mistaken FBI raid, and Kennys parents trying for another baby. The extremely twisted finale is possibly the best Kenny death in the whole series too.

The season 5 finale is the first time Butters gets substantial spotlight, and is one of the few episodes the creators have since walked back. Revolving around Butters surviving a murder attempt by his own mother after a discovery about his father, the episode is framed like a classic '50s sitcom but of course goes to much darker places.

The dual narrative of this one begins when Cartman leaves the band he, Kyle, Kenny, and Stan had started together. After a disagreement on musical direction, Cartman exits and joins forces with Butters and Token to create a Christian Rock band, recognizing the constant popularity of the genre. Meanwhile, Kyle, Kenny and Stan get busted by the FBI for illegally downloading music. Remember when that used to be a thing we were all so worried about?

Like Cartoon Wars, this is a series of episodes rather than just the one, but theres nothing between the Imaginationland trilogy. It features a terrorist attack on titular Imaginationland, parodying classic horror, fantasy and sci-fi movies as well as the military industrial complex along the way. Of course, this being South Park, theres also a subplot where Cartman tries to get Kyle to suck his balls, which the show manages to stretch over three episodes without getting tiresome. Only on South Park...

Unlike Kenny Dies, this episode doesnt actually include the death of Eric Cartman, despite the title. Instead, it sees the boys all grow sick of Cartmans selfishness, ignoring him after he eats all of their crispy chicken skin, which is framed as the ultimate crime. They convince everyone in class to go along with their plan, but forget to tell Butters. Being ignored convinces Cartman that hes dead, and that Butters is the only one who can see him as a ghost. With Butters help, Cartman tries to redeem himself for his past sins.

The Season 8 premiere pays homage to anime as the kids lie about being orphans to get entry into a ninja weapons expo. Throughout the episode, the animation style switches to give it a more anime flavor. The boys have fun at the expo, but unfortunately Butters soon gets injured with a throwing star, and the boys are left scrambling. They cant tell their parents or a doctor on account of lying, so instead dress Butters up as a dog and take him to the vet. South Park is quite often a show to watch in spite of the animation, but here it adds to the texture of the episode brilliantly.

Youd think from the title that this one would be a parody of the R Kelly musical, but they really just use him and his hiphopera as the wrap around here. Instead, the episode targets Scientology, focusing specifically on a couple of big name Scientologists to much controversy at the time. For some fans, South Park is at its best when its lampooning celebrities; if thats you, send this one right to the top of the list.

Similar to Black Friday, Grounded Vindaloop is built around modern gaming technology. This time around, its an Oculus Rift which takes center stage, as the boys experiment with virtual reality. Things start out smoothly, until they suspect theyre stuck in a virtual world, and can no longer tell which of them are real and which are simply virtual creations. As they struggle to decide whos wearing the Oculus Rift, the episode only gets stranger and stranger.

This episode is a genius example of how Cartman can transform a simple premise into a fantastic story by just cranking the pressure up and up and up. Kyle doesnt invite Cartman to his birthday party, but does invite Butters. Cartman is outraged, but initially tries sucking up to Kyle, eventually being told he can come but only if one of the other boys drops out. All Cartman needs to do now is convince Butters a meteor is about to strike and he needs to hide for his own good

This is a retelling of The Lord Of The Rings the way only South Park could do. Here, the 'precious' is a pornographic tape accidentally given to Butters, which he watches with no knowledge of what hes seeing but gradually becomes obsessed with. The rest of the boys go on a Middle-Earth style adventure to recover the tape, with the rest of the town folding into the Lord Of The Rings parody superbly. Even if youre not a Lord Of The Rings fan, theres so much to enjoy here.

This is the highest-rated episode of South Park on IMDb ever, and for good reason. If anyone wants an introduction to what makes Cartman Cartman, just show them Scott Tenorman Must Die. Cartman takes revenge on Tenorman after being refused a refund on a sale of pubic hair, and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone point to this as Cartmans first descent into truly unhinged behavior, using it as a benchmark for future episodes. A must watch for Cartman fans.

A rare instance of Cartman being on the backfoot, this episode has Cartman pretend to be a robot in order to trick Butters. As planned, he learns of Butters embarrassing secrets, but also discovers Butters has a tape of Cartman dancing to Britney Spears. Cartman is forced to stay as AWESOM-O while he tries to find the tape, something which only gets harder when the military captures AWESOM-O for research. Cartman is so often on the offensive (in more ways than one), and this dynamic flip works fantastically.

Following immediately after Casa Bonita is another all time great episode in All About Mormons. The episode focuses on a new kid, Gary, introducing the Mormon faith to Stan. Stans dad Randy is initially annoyed by this, but eventually converts to Mormonism himself. The episode also sporadically breaks off into flashbacks which detail the origins of Mormonism in entertaining ways. Working on this episode also led Parker & Stone to write the Tony winning musical The Book Of Mormon almost a decade later.

Along with Scott Tenorman Must Die, many fans would point to Make Love, Not Warcraft as one of the essential South Park episodes. It revolves around World Of Warcraft, with the boys initially just playing together for fun, until a high level player ruins the game by killing everyone. In response, the boys sit at their computers for days on end, barely sleeping, and become fat, greasy and unkept. With a little help from World Of Warcraft creators Blizzard, the boys finally become ready to take on their foe.

The rest is here:

Best South Park episodes: 25 amazing episodes of the adult animated sitcom - TechRadar

For me, the nebulous expression affordable housing has always been a mystery or an enigma; right up there with professional wrestling, Area 51 and the Loch Ness Monster. Judging by the dearth of rental units on the local market, one might, lacking nuance, sensitivity and subjectivity, think nearly all Alameda housing is affordable given it is all rented.

Even the word affordable suspended out there without its partner, Housing, is a perplexity ranking well above both the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot and the Winchester Mystery House. Nowadays, many people unknowingly find themselves in the squeeze grip of a solipsism: they narrowly define Un-Affordable as something they cannot afford. For me, Un-Affordable would mean a Tesla Model-X, a Chivas Regal liquor miniature, an early retirement at age 72 or a fourth divorce.

Dont test me on this, but affordable seems to have some relationship to income and in the case of rental units, Affordable would have some connection to the incomes of the people who intend to pay the rent.

Presently I live in a one-bedroom condominium; it is so small that even the mice have round shoulders and my bigger sticks of furniture remain in the hallway and the parking garage. My living room is my assigned parking slot.

For me, eating a plant-based diet is not a matter of political correctness, environmental concern or health; as a social chameleon, I wish it were. Instead, vegetarianism is a choice, I can either eat meat or live indoors. Life is all about choices. What would you choose? A ribeye or running water? Lamb chops or indoor plumbing?

When it comes to available housing in Alameda, the question that surfaces is, What is our target audience? Everyone west of Manteca? Everyone west of the Missouri River? Or just plain everyone?

Alameda is a delightful place to live, but it is subject to a bidding war. If demand for housing vastly outstrips availability perhaps the answer is to rundown demand. As the sagacious and perspicacious Yogi Berra once remarked, Nobody goes there anymore its too crowded. Just the name Alameda means public walk shaded by trees.

Theres a clue, cut down the trees and replace them with No Parking signs. Next, those stately, hoity-toity Victorians gotta go, they attract the wrong kind of people; the aesthetes and sentimental people of taste.

Go with Albert Speer cubism, if it aint a rectangle or a square, it comes down. Next, run up the traffic grid lock: more bike lanes, more traffic lights, more stop signs and close one or two bridges or tunnels. Then, lower the speed limit from 25 mph to 15 mph and ramp up the number of radar traps.

If you cant feel your face getting warmer driving down Otis, its because you are not getting hit with enough radar waves. Although I am a teacher and loathe to mention this, run-up the student to teacher ratio from 35 to 1 to 50 to 1. No one wants to send his or her child to a school where the teacher has not learned the names of his or her students by May or June.

Then hit the landed gentry with more parcel taxes. Taxes to increase firefighter, school superintendent and police pay and reduce their retirement ages to 30 something. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of profligacy!

Next, get rid of the folksy Mom and Pop stores on Park Street. Everything gets replaced by a Big Box. If it aint a national franchise, it dont belong. Toy Safari becomes Toys R Us; Oles Waffle House is relabeled IHOP; Cera Una Volta becomes Franco-American Spaghetti House; Trabocco becomes Pizza-A-Go-Go. Make Rock Wall sell only New York State wines exclusively. Declare beaches off limits to children under 18 with beach hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Once you set aside rational thinking, the possibilities are endless. As my Uncle Cusper used to lecture me, Never hog-tie yourself with the truth, reason or common sense.

And finally, Alameda Hospital; how about Drive Thru Only?

If the city planners, or whatever those apparatchiks are calling themselves these days, need more ideas, I am free from now to mid-August. As a concerned citizen, unfettered by the rigors of Aristotelian logic and any semblance of linearity, I am here to help. While thinking outside the box has never been a problem, thinking within the realm of possibility has always been a struggle.

More:

As Perplexing as the Loch Ness Monster - Alameda Sun

Attack on our history is wrong

As a disabled veteran of the Vietnam War; Operation Desert Storm; Operation Iraqi Freedom preparation; the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project; and numerous weapons-of-mass-destruction emergency-response operations, including the Oct. 15, 1987, incident in Urbana, who continues to advocate for all veterans, I disagree with the recent editorial supporting the renaming of military installations.

I also view removing from public display statues and paintings representing historical leaders, and the current banning of books, flags, statues, movies, street names, paintings, photographs and historical documents some label offensive or a challenge to current political control as violations of the Bill of Rights.

As an Army officer, I gave some and I ordered others to give their all, including assigned duties resulting in illness and death, to ensure that our precious freedoms are sustained.

Today, a very vocal minority wants to erase our history or alter how we explain the good and bad sides of our nations history. Political correctness and purging our history has had horrible effects already and must be stopped.

Today we are re-playing 1930s Germany and other historical periods that had horrible effects on our nation and beyond. If we allow banning to proceed, then where will it stop?

Everyone has something they find offensive. That is life. Please, learn to live with it.

Today, what has been morally wrong since antiquity is now viewed as right, and what was historically morally wrong is right via political correctness fiat.

DOUG ROKKE

Rantoul

The rest is here:

Letter to the Editor | Attack on our history is wrong - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette