Editorials October 2020
WHAT THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT
By Anne Koutsoutis
KNELLING DOWN IS NOT THE WAY TO STAND UP TO RACISM
By Hessie Harris
FAKE HISTORY - WILL IT KILL AMERICA?
By William Richbourg
WHAT THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT
By Anne Koutsoutis
A stark contrast of what this election is about was on full display the final night of the Republican National Convention. The program on the South Lawn was inspirational and uplifting. However, just outside the gates of The White House the mob was gathering. As we listened to the speeches we could hear rage music, bull horns, air horns and percussion instruments. And as sounds intensified you could feel a growing uneasiness within the audience.
KNEELING DOWN IS NOT THE WAY TO STAND UP TO RACISM
By Hessie Harris
“Woke” Black professional athletes need to wake up. They are uniquely positioned to help put an end to the nightmare victimology myth that all blacks, especially inner city blacks, are under siege nationwide by brutal racist police. Blacks who commit crimes are pursued by law enforcement. That is not racism or police brutality but many characterize it so.
Before they got their “millionaire swagger”, a number of those athletes hailed from those mean streets. They know about the lure of crime because of limited options. Someone, something thing, or some set of circumstance intervened so that they ended up in the major leagues instead of on a slab in a morgue or in jail.
These athletes know what works and what does not. They could use that knowledge and, yes, some of their money to provide academic, athletic and vocational opportunities to channel youthful energy and aspirations so as to make educational and later employment success possible. For example, the Knee Brigade members could try funding tutoring and mentoring programs as well as providing scholarships at their high school alma maters instead of engaging in the empty, meaningless, hollow gestures and symbolic actions as they are doing now.
Furthermore, black professional athletes would do well to look back at the actions of athletes who preceded them. For years, they were on the front lines fighting racism and bigotry in a most inhospitable environment with far fewer resources than exist today. With the display of solid moral character, patriotism, professionalism, and their superior athletic prowess, they chipped away at the myth of racial inferiority finally pushing open the door to major league participation. They also spoke out about specific and factual instances of racism and racial practices and in so doing, in some cases, helped to bring them to an end. Combating racism requires clear-headed analysis of the sources and causes including self-sabotage as well as the appropriate means of drawing attention to it. It is most apparent that “woke” Black professional athletes, their supporters, and enablers are not so engaged.
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Hessie Harris is Co-chair of the Black Republicans of Montgomery County, a member of the Potomac Republican Women’s Club, the Chevy Chase Republican Women’s Club and Help Save Maryland.
FAKE HISTORY - WILL IT KILL AMERICA?
By William Richbourg
Americans educated in government schools today are, for the most part, hopelessly ignorant of their own nation’s history! The same holds true for civics as well not to mention the history of the rest of the world, specifically the history of communism!
Whether you agree of not, note that this has all been by design! After years of corruption of history education in public schools, the NYT’s discredited “1619 Project” which tried to reframe our history through the lens of slavery, has suddenly brought the topic of history and civics in our schools to the surface.
Parents in America are suddenly starting to pay attention to what is being taught to their children at taxpayer expense. President Trump has recently recognized the “toxic propaganda” being peddled as “history” and has signed an executive order to promote “patriotic” education.
Why is this happening? The reason that history is being rewritten is not a real mystery. In George Orwell’s classic novel “1984” the totalitarian ruling party’s motto explained its strategy…”Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Whoever controls the historical narrative will be able to shape the future and we liberty-minded Americans are losing the battle for truth in a major way.
Consider the data. According to the US Department of Education 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the “nation’s report card”, just 15% of American students were at or above the proficient level in history. In civics, less than 1 in 4 US eight grade students performed at or above the “proficient” level in 2018 on the NAEP. Consider that against the time when Americans were the best-educated people in the world, especially in history and civics. Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited America in the early to mid-1800s recorded, that, “Every citizen….is…taught the doctrines and evidences of his religion, the history of his country and the leading features of the Constitution….”
This process of rewriting our history has been a long one beginning in the 1940s. By the 1980s the situation had gotten dramatically worse. A pseudo-historian, Howard Zinn, a radical exposed in declassified FBI documents as a Communist Party member had published his book, “A People’s History of the United States”. For reasons I do not fully understand this became a favorite in public schools. More than 3 million copies have been sold shaping the minds and attitudes of countless millions of Americans, turning them against their own nation and their own political institutions. Yet the propaganda “history” book is filled with obvious lies!
This has led to a dramatic shift in Americans’ attitudes, values, beliefs, and worldview. National pride among Americans has reached historic lows according to a recently released Gallup poll. Among younger Americans only 1 in 5 are extremely proud to be American while among those 65 and older just over 50% are extremely proud. But here are the real dangers! A 2019 survey found that 7 in 10 millennials said they are likely to vote for a socialist and fully 36% support communism. Just 57% believe that the Declaration of Independence guarantees freedom and equality better than the Communist Manifesto.
These are likely the armies of young Americans rampaging through the streets rioting, looting, killing, protesting and destroying. Their goal is to fundamentally transform what they view as an evil America.
Donald Trump has promised real action to reverse the progress of the history destroyers and rewriters but whether the rot and corruption that has taken over the teaching of history and civics in America’s public schools can be reversed remains to be seen. Now that we understand what has been happening, we conservatives need to get behind serious efforts to stop the bleeding and put the truth back in the teaching of American history.
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William Richbourg is a Member of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee.