it is often forgotten that many if not most of the tribal groups in the US held slaves taken during raids, that a number of tribal groups fought for the confederacy, that many had black slaves themselves, that many had blacks marry into their tribal groups. The descendants of these people, long on the tribal rolls are in many instances being forced out of the tribes simply due to the presence of so much money from the casinos, fewer members, more money for each. American history is not as clearcut as people like to make out or think. People are complicated, few are saints, most engage in questionable behavior, as did Jefferson. But his work was the light that kept dissidents in the soviet dominated countries believing in something better, as Vaclav havel said so many times. In the end is it not that they failed rising above their limitations that is important but that possessing all the flaws that each of us possess they did so much.
There is a virus infecting people's minds in the Western World, "woke-ism", which is far more deadly and destructive than anything else we've seen in decades. Its communism repackaged and sold as virtue to the uneducated and feeble minded. This is how Nazism and the Bolshevik and Cultural Revolution kicked off.
Ha! I KNEW that name sounded familiar. One-a the very FEW books I have that I've had time to read. If/when time permits, will hafta go over the parts I highlighted. One such:
"Over the past few decades though, several nefarious forces have slowly eroded the West’s commitment to reason, science, and the values of the Enlightenment (see Figure 1 below). Such forces include political correctness (as enforced by the thought police, the language police, and social justice warriors), postmodernism, radical feminism, social constructivism, cultural and moral relativism, and the culture of perpetual offense and victimhood (microaggressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces on campuses, as well as identity politics)."
Two years ago I visited Monticello. There, in the former home of the genius author of the Declaration of Independence, a woke docent dismissed Jefferson as a racist and rapist, and focused the entire tour on Sally Hemings and Jefferson’s daughter. “He just makes me so mad,” declared the nit-wit docent—an individual for whom truth is obviously not self-evident.
They fired ALL the docents at Art Institute of Chicago for being white females with ample free time to donate to charity. Those pesky kind, smart, trained and generous women....hate those types.
This infection is rotting America from the inside out and must be cured.
It is an infection. I don't know how to fix it. I wish I did. I think they need to be challenged when possible and laughed at whenever possible. Eric Hoffer has some recommendations, if I recall correctly, in his book The True Believer. We are dealing here with mindless fanaticism and a new religious cult based on biological and historical lies. It's been some years since I read Hoffer, but I always keep a copy of his book on my bookshelf so I will review what he says.
Exposure, polite and logical confrontation whenever possible. Sometimes not so polite. It takes bravery to push back into these radical dangerous people and their delusions.
It is my opinion that Jefferson truly loved Sally Hemmings. She was his late wife's half sister. There is no evidence that he was unfaithful to her, as there is no evidence he was unfaithful to his wife when she was alive. It is a tragedy that at that time there would have been no way he could have married Sally Hemmings. It is a mistake to impose current sensibilities on the past. Jefferson wanted to free the slaves but was unable to come up with a solution. He was deeply in debt all his life and his slaves were his wealth. He had hoped to insert an anti-slavery clause into the Declaration of Independence but it was removed because it would have caused a rift with the southern delegates and derailed the Declaration. For the greater good it was removed. I would suspect the majority of the delegates knew slavery could not continue particularly in light of Enlightenment values.
Indeed, and Sally's daughter was so fair skinned she moved to Boston (if I'm not mistaken) after Jefferson's passing and passed as white. It was truly a different world.
"All men are created equal" was ridiculously radical, written in a world of Rex Lex.
It is almost impossible for us to place ourselves into the southern (and much of northern) antebellum mind. Slavery was simply taken for granted and ending it was socially radical -- primarily radically Christian, in terms of who was on point about ending it in England first (William Wilberforce and the Chapham Gang) and most prominently John Q Adams.
The left's convictions about systemic racism approach the level of antebellum racism, setting us back 250 years. What could be more racist than seeing everything through a racist lens, repudiating all traditional and empirical sources of success such as thrift, industry, traditional morality, self discipline and cultural virtue.
You state it well. CRT is about revenge. It is about white guilt. It is a way to force whites to experience the horrors of systemic racism as blacks did prior to 1964.
He took her to Paris when he went there. She was his lifelong companion after his wife died and there is no evidence whatsoever that he had relations with any other women, slave or free. It is my opinion that there was a deep emotional tie between them. Although Jefferson was 46 there is contemporaneous evidence he was a remarkably handsome and fit man who looked much younger than his age.
Sally Hemmings considered staying in Paris, and living in freedom. In Jon Mecham's (Pulitzer Prize) bio "The Art of Power" Jefferson agreed to manumit her children at age 21 if she returned with him. Apparently this satisfied her.
Thank you for updating my knowledge. It can't have been an easy decision for her. She knew what she had. Living in a foreign country without family or support must have been a consideration.
He was also the most powerful man of her acquaintance. Power is an aphrodisiac. She had known him all her life. There is no evidence to believe he raped her. I have read several biographies of Thomas Jefferson and he was a humane man. The most recent biography was written by Christopher Hitchens in the Eminent Lives series. Excellent. I have been quite impressed with the quality of these small biographies. They get to the essence of the person and are highly readable. I loaned the Jefferson biography to my son but I intend to reread it sometime in the future.
FYI the Eminent Lives biographies are very reasonable when purchased through abebooks.com. I am looking at a copy in good condition that is $5.90 with free shipping.
In my opinion the pinnacle of how shameless and demented these people are was when we tried to make a 9/11 statue of the firefighters who raised an American flag at Ground Zero. Sadly, the firefighters were all white so they cancelled it after activists demanded something more inclusive that did not match reality.
“We can’t unite as Americans because of Trump.”
Nope. These people have been psychopaths for my entire life. I guess a lot of people were willing to ignore the excesses because they wanted a discount at the hospital or whatever. So now we are here.
As it says in my bio thingy I am a DERF (Democrat Exclusionary Radical Federalist).
We have 50 states and we need to use them. Block grant everything except the military back to the states. California will have a bunch of money to go full communist and Florida can do freedom stuff.
We don’t need a national divorce. The country is already supposed to be divorced and we just forgot. So now we are all fighting for the remote when there are supposed to be 50 different TVs, each with their own remote.
Ibram — How would you allocate block grants? For example, what if the formula included something like — states only receive in block grants what that state contributes (percentage wise) in federal tax dollars? The current formula has been modified several times over the past 60 years or so, wouldn’t federalism hold that a state should not be obligated to financially support another state? Curious how you would allocate? Thanks.
Percentage wise. California would get more money and they would waste it. Alabama would get less money and they would cut back the various welfare benefits the federal government is currently forcing on them.
Obviously, it’s a farce that California is currently ‘supporting’ Alabama because ALL of the disproportionate funding sent to Alabama goes to pay for poverty programs that jackass Democrats invented and then crammed down on everyone.
It’s like your wife who makes more money than you saying that her paycheck is subsidizing the cost of your man cave after she forced you to get mahogany paneling and decorative vases for your man cave.
(I know, it’s frustrating when someone suddenly has an easy explanation illustrating why the Democrat talking point you’ve used 1000 times is actually fairly ridiculous)
No. That definitely would not happen. Alabama has more than sufficient tax revenue to fund programs for people who legitimately cannot take care of themselves. There are 10 million available jobs paying record wages....for now......
Worth noting that the argument you are now making totally destroys the core of your immigration argument which insists that flooding your country with millions of destitute people magically *helps* the economy.
Now you are saying that large numbers of Alabamans would suddenly become destitute (they wouldn’t) and that these destitute people would *hurt* the economy. Hmmm. Oooops.
Commendable. Was thinking along lines of block grants the other day. But the earthquake to actually GET there??!? Lookin' for some "baby" steps, to counterattack what's already been going ON here lately.
It seems like a good solution. The forefathers who are so denigrated by the communists that want to take over actually did foresee the federal government getting out of control. Thus they built in this safeguard to rein them in. It appears they are about half way there.
In my reading of history, all totalitarian movements seek to erase history, then re-write it. It's hard to believe, here in America, that we currently live amidst a bona fide totalitarian effort. But we do. And it must be defeated, most especially for those groups it cynically uses to seek to propel itself to complete power over our lives.
Could not POSSIBLY agree more, M. Sentry. This trick will be in taking cancel culture to it's knees, or people willing to take the big RISKS to say what they think/feel.
Me? Can't say anything about it. Hopefully comfortably retired enough to stay off-a Medicaid. Future may tell different, of course.
"By destroying the statue, do you mean to attack the man or the symbol? Do you mean to attack his slave-holding, or his striving for a free and democratic republic? Sometimes, it’s hard to be sure."
It's not really that hard, but it is painful. Our dare-I-say patriotic hearts and minds rebel against the fact that politicians, professors, doctors, are rooting for the destruction of the United States of America as we know it, or, as they prefer to put it: its dismantling. A bloodless coup is in process, with the backing and full participation of the younger generation of social justice warriors who have no particular allegiance to or love for the country they live in.
The strategy is effective. Ridicule, criticize, and obliterate every single symbol of democracy that we hold dear and take for granted. Even Thomas Jefferson? Oh yes, moldy old racist. Even Martin Luther King? Haha, handkerchief head. Even Abraham Lincoln? Meh, too little too late. The First Amendment? Dangerous racist garbage. Into the river with all of it, it's a new day.
As well as:
The nuclear family, which according to educators is a hellhole of transphobic beliefs in which children are prevented from realizing their true genders. Don't trust your parents, is the refrain now, as the school nurse administers testosterone for 14 year-olds behind their parents' backs.
The police, a murderous arm of the state whose only function is to kill black people. Shoplifting is a radical act.
The SATs and other exams designed to measure whether or not our kids have learned anything in school? Why prove basic competency in reading and math in order to go to college? What's the degree for, exactly? Equity, and equity alone.
Math. Beethoven. Shakespeare. Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss? See?
From the ridiculous to the fundamental, this is how it's done. Don't doubt your crying eyes.
It's the "bad guy" connotation I was aiming for there, which is all progressive activists focus on. But not all police functions are negative in terms of enforcement. They protect people, settle disputes nonviolently, arrest bad guys, etc. This is why Defund the Police campaigns are being rolled back. Black people recognize the need for, and feel safer with, police in their community, as does everyone else, despite BLM rhetoric.
However, in technical terms, you are absolutely right, police are the enforcers of the state.
The number of "murderous" rampages the police went on in 2020? Almost EVERYBODY would be off by an order of magnitude or two. MOst Liberals guess around 1000, some 10,000. Anyone care for FACTS of matter? BLM sure don't.
Although I am no longer a fan of Peggy Noonan I agree with her formulation that we should not be removing statues but adding new ones. I loved Trumps garden of champions idea. There are many heroes in American history that have been overlooked.
What an interesting idea; we can put a family of slaves on their knees with the welts on their backs, from a whip, in front of Thomas Jefferson, it would put things in perspective.
And with that, FRIEND, I wash my hands of You and Your ilk. Never learn. Never knew in the first place. The most well-educated simpletons to ever have been conceived. Sad You've taken upon Yourselves to ruin a good thing. But, thinking on it, that's really all You were ever capable OF.
What is going on in this country and when is the madness going to end!? No country is perfect and show me country with a more perfect founding.
Historical figures should not be judged by the yardstick of today. In 50 years when we finally realize the depth of animal intelligence will non-vegans be demonized as barbarians and all traces of their accomplishments and existence erased because of the offense eating animals? While this is not a perfect analogy I hope that everyone gets my point.
The American taxpayer ought to get a substantial refund on public education and parents ought to sue for the way in which their children have been cheated of their history and indoctrinated.\
Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence" asserting "All men are created equal" and "Endowed with certain unalienable rights" is the greatest vision statement in the history of civilization, IMO. This statement, being aspirational, should be judged by its intentions and direction; its compass heading. Practically no one, certainly no political entity lived it at the time, and judging by today's woke hyper-racist identity politics, the elite refuse to do so today.
Some eighty-five years after the Founders declared this vision, a white majority of northerners defeated the secessionist Confederacy in our Civil War (1861-1865) and settled the question that "men" included emancipated slaves constitutionally. Jefferson's desire to end slavery was finally realized legally.
Some 154 years after the Declaration, the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote perfected this vision to include a political equality for women.
Some two hundred years since Jefferson's vision-cast, we celebrate the legal equality of sexual orientation generally.
We enjoy these masterful freedoms because we sit on Thomas Jefferson's shoulders. His brilliance and genius made our blessings imaginable. The last full measure of many battle-lost lives have purchased the freedom we now enjoy.
So to repudiate Jefferson is simply asinine. It is not hypocritical to aspire to live beyond ones capabilities; it is human. Everyone that lives a life worth living is animated by lofty ideals -- Divine ideals.
The anti-racist woke are, in fact, so hyper-racist they make the antebellum slave owner blush with envy.
Yet, most Americans by far live integrated, colorblind lives. We have over two generations of integrated armed services, where all races have each other's backs in combat. We've elected a president of color twice, notwithstanding his distain for American exceptionalism. That America is systematically, organically racist is a a grand lie and con and gaslighting fiction.
One might think NYC council members, in the media capital of the country and at least vaguely concerned with national issues, would not want to remove a statute of a famous Virginian 10 days before a Virginia election. Guess not.
Sadly I agree. Makes me wonder what’s wrong with the people that live there? Who would elect such a bunch of nuts to their city council? If you live in NYC and are reading this you’ve got to be asking yourself why? Did you actually vote for the stupid people that did this? If you didn’t, there are so many better places to live in this country. Believe me, I’ve seen just about the whole country and NYC would be the bottom 10% of where I’d ever live.
No problem - Jefferson's statue is now relegated to a basement. Just like the ideals of the founders of this nation. Let's see, whose statue is next? I have a good one - let's move, no, no, - let's destroy the Lincoln memorial because, you know, really - I don't know. Just like President Truman said: The news is the history you don't know.
Former Seattleite here. Voted for Trump, walked past----even touched----that Lenin statue countless times and I wasn't triggered, didn't sob, didn't demand its removal because I feared for me safety... The behavior of the woke and weak are consistently repulsive and malevolent. There is no more empathy for their causes, v and no sympathy for them.
Jefferson's words are prescient in light of the vote to remove his statues: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”
It's too bad, and very sad, for us all when leaders, at all levels, are either incapable, or refuse, to provide context to our history, and temper mass hysterias that, since the beginning of time, continue to plague humanity.
The decision to remove Thomas Jefferson from the public square must not be left to the NY City Council.
it is often forgotten that many if not most of the tribal groups in the US held slaves taken during raids, that a number of tribal groups fought for the confederacy, that many had black slaves themselves, that many had blacks marry into their tribal groups. The descendants of these people, long on the tribal rolls are in many instances being forced out of the tribes simply due to the presence of so much money from the casinos, fewer members, more money for each. American history is not as clearcut as people like to make out or think. People are complicated, few are saints, most engage in questionable behavior, as did Jefferson. But his work was the light that kept dissidents in the soviet dominated countries believing in something better, as Vaclav havel said so many times. In the end is it not that they failed rising above their limitations that is important but that possessing all the flaws that each of us possess they did so much.
WELL, said M. Buhner.
Also, poverty has become big business.
Sam,
GREAT, GREAT article....
So on point.
There is a virus infecting people's minds in the Western World, "woke-ism", which is far more deadly and destructive than anything else we've seen in decades. Its communism repackaged and sold as virtue to the uneducated and feeble minded. This is how Nazism and the Bolshevik and Cultural Revolution kicked off.
Keep up your articles!!
We need antidotes to the infection!
Gad Saad's The Parasitic Mind. There is also a YouTube about this: https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M
Ha! I KNEW that name sounded familiar. One-a the very FEW books I have that I've had time to read. If/when time permits, will hafta go over the parts I highlighted. One such:
"Over the past few decades though, several nefarious forces have slowly eroded the West’s commitment to reason, science, and the values of the Enlightenment (see Figure 1 below). Such forces include political correctness (as enforced by the thought police, the language police, and social justice warriors), postmodernism, radical feminism, social constructivism, cultural and moral relativism, and the culture of perpetual offense and victimhood (microaggressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces on campuses, as well as identity politics)."
Yah, HE'S got a good handle on things!
Two years ago I visited Monticello. There, in the former home of the genius author of the Declaration of Independence, a woke docent dismissed Jefferson as a racist and rapist, and focused the entire tour on Sally Hemings and Jefferson’s daughter. “He just makes me so mad,” declared the nit-wit docent—an individual for whom truth is obviously not self-evident.
They fired ALL the docents at Art Institute of Chicago for being white females with ample free time to donate to charity. Those pesky kind, smart, trained and generous women....hate those types.
This infection is rotting America from the inside out and must be cured.
It is an infection. I don't know how to fix it. I wish I did. I think they need to be challenged when possible and laughed at whenever possible. Eric Hoffer has some recommendations, if I recall correctly, in his book The True Believer. We are dealing here with mindless fanaticism and a new religious cult based on biological and historical lies. It's been some years since I read Hoffer, but I always keep a copy of his book on my bookshelf so I will review what he says.
Exposure, polite and logical confrontation whenever possible. Sometimes not so polite. It takes bravery to push back into these radical dangerous people and their delusions.
But if we don't summon the courage, we are lost.
Gangrene requires amputation. Secession now.
It is my opinion that Jefferson truly loved Sally Hemmings. She was his late wife's half sister. There is no evidence that he was unfaithful to her, as there is no evidence he was unfaithful to his wife when she was alive. It is a tragedy that at that time there would have been no way he could have married Sally Hemmings. It is a mistake to impose current sensibilities on the past. Jefferson wanted to free the slaves but was unable to come up with a solution. He was deeply in debt all his life and his slaves were his wealth. He had hoped to insert an anti-slavery clause into the Declaration of Independence but it was removed because it would have caused a rift with the southern delegates and derailed the Declaration. For the greater good it was removed. I would suspect the majority of the delegates knew slavery could not continue particularly in light of Enlightenment values.
Indeed, and Sally's daughter was so fair skinned she moved to Boston (if I'm not mistaken) after Jefferson's passing and passed as white. It was truly a different world.
"All men are created equal" was ridiculously radical, written in a world of Rex Lex.
It is almost impossible for us to place ourselves into the southern (and much of northern) antebellum mind. Slavery was simply taken for granted and ending it was socially radical -- primarily radically Christian, in terms of who was on point about ending it in England first (William Wilberforce and the Chapham Gang) and most prominently John Q Adams.
The left's convictions about systemic racism approach the level of antebellum racism, setting us back 250 years. What could be more racist than seeing everything through a racist lens, repudiating all traditional and empirical sources of success such as thrift, industry, traditional morality, self discipline and cultural virtue.
You state it well. CRT is about revenge. It is about white guilt. It is a way to force whites to experience the horrors of systemic racism as blacks did prior to 1964.
I dunno if You knew, M. Naomi: ;) = 😉 I was just teasin', although may not've been that bright of me.
I thin' You have the right of it, M. Naomi. (Didn't notice You posted this, You deeevil. ;)
I think you're probably right.
He took her to Paris when he went there. She was his lifelong companion after his wife died and there is no evidence whatsoever that he had relations with any other women, slave or free. It is my opinion that there was a deep emotional tie between them. Although Jefferson was 46 there is contemporaneous evidence he was a remarkably handsome and fit man who looked much younger than his age.
Sally Hemmings considered staying in Paris, and living in freedom. In Jon Mecham's (Pulitzer Prize) bio "The Art of Power" Jefferson agreed to manumit her children at age 21 if she returned with him. Apparently this satisfied her.
Thank you for updating my knowledge. It can't have been an easy decision for her. She knew what she had. Living in a foreign country without family or support must have been a consideration.
Yes. It's not to believe a teenage girl would have found Thomas Jefferson good looking when he was middle aged. He was handsome.
https://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/__sized__/canonical_images/feature/Adams_independence_Canonical-resize-1200x0-70.jpg
https://static1.polytrendy.com/005b3d36eaed40a1688055f0f.jpg
He was also the most powerful man of her acquaintance. Power is an aphrodisiac. She had known him all her life. There is no evidence to believe he raped her. I have read several biographies of Thomas Jefferson and he was a humane man. The most recent biography was written by Christopher Hitchens in the Eminent Lives series. Excellent. I have been quite impressed with the quality of these small biographies. They get to the essence of the person and are highly readable. I loaned the Jefferson biography to my son but I intend to reread it sometime in the future.
FYI the Eminent Lives biographies are very reasonable when purchased through abebooks.com. I am looking at a copy in good condition that is $5.90 with free shipping.
Thank you for the suggestion. I just bought the ebook on amazon for $6.49. Christopher Hitchens was a wonderful author.
Sounds like that docent was just angry and ignorant. Stupidity is widespread and catchy.
In my opinion the pinnacle of how shameless and demented these people are was when we tried to make a 9/11 statue of the firefighters who raised an American flag at Ground Zero. Sadly, the firefighters were all white so they cancelled it after activists demanded something more inclusive that did not match reality.
“We can’t unite as Americans because of Trump.”
Nope. These people have been psychopaths for my entire life. I guess a lot of people were willing to ignore the excesses because they wanted a discount at the hospital or whatever. So now we are here.
Good job everyone.
👍👍👍
Dunno about psychopaths. But would be curious, M. Candy, what would You SUGGEST instead-a this crap? To move FORWARD?
As it says in my bio thingy I am a DERF (Democrat Exclusionary Radical Federalist).
We have 50 states and we need to use them. Block grant everything except the military back to the states. California will have a bunch of money to go full communist and Florida can do freedom stuff.
We don’t need a national divorce. The country is already supposed to be divorced and we just forgot. So now we are all fighting for the remote when there are supposed to be 50 different TVs, each with their own remote.
Federalism!! Great idea!!
good stuff...Candy man, Military to the Feds and Schools to the States etc. and Keep the voting Regs away from the Judges.
With your thoughts and my beauty, we could get something accomplished.
Haha! Throw me in and You got classic case of "The Good, The Beautiful, and The Ugly" starring Clint Eastwood in all three roles.
OK, good scenario but no sex scenes
Naw. I'll let this one pass after all. Haha!
Ibram — How would you allocate block grants? For example, what if the formula included something like — states only receive in block grants what that state contributes (percentage wise) in federal tax dollars? The current formula has been modified several times over the past 60 years or so, wouldn’t federalism hold that a state should not be obligated to financially support another state? Curious how you would allocate? Thanks.
Percentage wise. California would get more money and they would waste it. Alabama would get less money and they would cut back the various welfare benefits the federal government is currently forcing on them.
Obviously, it’s a farce that California is currently ‘supporting’ Alabama because ALL of the disproportionate funding sent to Alabama goes to pay for poverty programs that jackass Democrats invented and then crammed down on everyone.
It’s like your wife who makes more money than you saying that her paycheck is subsidizing the cost of your man cave after she forced you to get mahogany paneling and decorative vases for your man cave.
(I know, it’s frustrating when someone suddenly has an easy explanation illustrating why the Democrat talking point you’ve used 1000 times is actually fairly ridiculous)
🥳🥳🤠🤠🤠
No. That definitely would not happen. Alabama has more than sufficient tax revenue to fund programs for people who legitimately cannot take care of themselves. There are 10 million available jobs paying record wages....for now......
Worth noting that the argument you are now making totally destroys the core of your immigration argument which insists that flooding your country with millions of destitute people magically *helps* the economy.
Now you are saying that large numbers of Alabamans would suddenly become destitute (they wouldn’t) and that these destitute people would *hurt* the economy. Hmmm. Oooops.
You really are an idiot.
(to be fair you did not put it in talking point format 😃)
Commendable. Was thinking along lines of block grants the other day. But the earthquake to actually GET there??!? Lookin' for some "baby" steps, to counterattack what's already been going ON here lately.
An Article V convention of states would be a good start. Federalism needs to be rediscovered.
Ah, found it on first try! https://conventionofstates.com/ Just a quick flyby the other day, so have absolutely NO idea of their chances.
It seems like a good solution. The forefathers who are so denigrated by the communists that want to take over actually did foresee the federal government getting out of control. Thus they built in this safeguard to rein them in. It appears they are about half way there.
I just signed a petition the other day calling for amendment to get smaller government, I thin' it was. I'll try to look into it, if/when time.
May not be obvious: No way sarcastic, M. Candy. Like Your views, and the other commenters so far as well.
In my reading of history, all totalitarian movements seek to erase history, then re-write it. It's hard to believe, here in America, that we currently live amidst a bona fide totalitarian effort. But we do. And it must be defeated, most especially for those groups it cynically uses to seek to propel itself to complete power over our lives.
Could not POSSIBLY agree more, M. Sentry. This trick will be in taking cancel culture to it's knees, or people willing to take the big RISKS to say what they think/feel.
Me? Can't say anything about it. Hopefully comfortably retired enough to stay off-a Medicaid. Future may tell different, of course.
If you were cheering the removal of the confederate statues instead of wondering "Where does this end" you may now be realizing that it doesn't!
"By destroying the statue, do you mean to attack the man or the symbol? Do you mean to attack his slave-holding, or his striving for a free and democratic republic? Sometimes, it’s hard to be sure."
It's not really that hard, but it is painful. Our dare-I-say patriotic hearts and minds rebel against the fact that politicians, professors, doctors, are rooting for the destruction of the United States of America as we know it, or, as they prefer to put it: its dismantling. A bloodless coup is in process, with the backing and full participation of the younger generation of social justice warriors who have no particular allegiance to or love for the country they live in.
The strategy is effective. Ridicule, criticize, and obliterate every single symbol of democracy that we hold dear and take for granted. Even Thomas Jefferson? Oh yes, moldy old racist. Even Martin Luther King? Haha, handkerchief head. Even Abraham Lincoln? Meh, too little too late. The First Amendment? Dangerous racist garbage. Into the river with all of it, it's a new day.
As well as:
The nuclear family, which according to educators is a hellhole of transphobic beliefs in which children are prevented from realizing their true genders. Don't trust your parents, is the refrain now, as the school nurse administers testosterone for 14 year-olds behind their parents' backs.
The police, a murderous arm of the state whose only function is to kill black people. Shoplifting is a radical act.
The SATs and other exams designed to measure whether or not our kids have learned anything in school? Why prove basic competency in reading and math in order to go to college? What's the degree for, exactly? Equity, and equity alone.
Math. Beethoven. Shakespeare. Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss? See?
From the ridiculous to the fundamental, this is how it's done. Don't doubt your crying eyes.
For those who have eyes, see.
The self-impressed gadfly strikes again.
police are the enforcers of the state, murderous or otherwise.
It's the "bad guy" connotation I was aiming for there, which is all progressive activists focus on. But not all police functions are negative in terms of enforcement. They protect people, settle disputes nonviolently, arrest bad guys, etc. This is why Defund the Police campaigns are being rolled back. Black people recognize the need for, and feel safer with, police in their community, as does everyone else, despite BLM rhetoric.
However, in technical terms, you are absolutely right, police are the enforcers of the state.
The number of "murderous" rampages the police went on in 2020? Almost EVERYBODY would be off by an order of magnitude or two. MOst Liberals guess around 1000, some 10,000. Anyone care for FACTS of matter? BLM sure don't.
Although I am no longer a fan of Peggy Noonan I agree with her formulation that we should not be removing statues but adding new ones. I loved Trumps garden of champions idea. There are many heroes in American history that have been overlooked.
What an interesting idea; we can put a family of slaves on their knees with the welts on their backs, from a whip, in front of Thomas Jefferson, it would put things in perspective.
And with that, FRIEND, I wash my hands of You and Your ilk. Never learn. Never knew in the first place. The most well-educated simpletons to ever have been conceived. Sad You've taken upon Yourselves to ruin a good thing. But, thinking on it, that's really all You were ever capable OF.
Provocative comment but not exactly what I was suggesting
You probably don't recall, or couldn't comprehend, what I "said" about living 200 years in the past. You've got nothing to offer for today's issues.
You're a gadfly, consumed with himself!
gees...to think that all slaves were mistreated...so good point. Like some people take care of their car and some don't do so good.
What is going on in this country and when is the madness going to end!? No country is perfect and show me country with a more perfect founding.
Historical figures should not be judged by the yardstick of today. In 50 years when we finally realize the depth of animal intelligence will non-vegans be demonized as barbarians and all traces of their accomplishments and existence erased because of the offense eating animals? While this is not a perfect analogy I hope that everyone gets my point.
A very good point, Emily.
My herd of delicious meat hogs would very happily eat me, but would not be very bothered by a statue to my memory.
Soon they will go after the Constitution because it was written by "Racists". They just want to destroy history and destroy our country.
Can we ship them all back to Africa? Can we say that?
I'm genuinely afraid that they are going to replace it with a statue of Chairman Mao.
Might as well. That is the goal of these people after all.
The American taxpayer ought to get a substantial refund on public education and parents ought to sue for the way in which their children have been cheated of their history and indoctrinated.\
Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence" asserting "All men are created equal" and "Endowed with certain unalienable rights" is the greatest vision statement in the history of civilization, IMO. This statement, being aspirational, should be judged by its intentions and direction; its compass heading. Practically no one, certainly no political entity lived it at the time, and judging by today's woke hyper-racist identity politics, the elite refuse to do so today.
Some eighty-five years after the Founders declared this vision, a white majority of northerners defeated the secessionist Confederacy in our Civil War (1861-1865) and settled the question that "men" included emancipated slaves constitutionally. Jefferson's desire to end slavery was finally realized legally.
Some 154 years after the Declaration, the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote perfected this vision to include a political equality for women.
Some two hundred years since Jefferson's vision-cast, we celebrate the legal equality of sexual orientation generally.
We enjoy these masterful freedoms because we sit on Thomas Jefferson's shoulders. His brilliance and genius made our blessings imaginable. The last full measure of many battle-lost lives have purchased the freedom we now enjoy.
So to repudiate Jefferson is simply asinine. It is not hypocritical to aspire to live beyond ones capabilities; it is human. Everyone that lives a life worth living is animated by lofty ideals -- Divine ideals.
The anti-racist woke are, in fact, so hyper-racist they make the antebellum slave owner blush with envy.
Only capable of YAH!
"All men are created equal," but not all are treated as equals!
Slavery and Jim Crow concentrated workers of color in chronically undervalued occupations.
New Deal programs helped institutionalize racial disparities in wages and benefits.
The underfunding and limited scope of anti-discrimination agencies perpetuate inequality
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/
Yet, most Americans by far live integrated, colorblind lives. We have over two generations of integrated armed services, where all races have each other's backs in combat. We've elected a president of color twice, notwithstanding his distain for American exceptionalism. That America is systematically, organically racist is a a grand lie and con and gaslighting fiction.
It’s NYC…why is anyone surprised?
One might think NYC council members, in the media capital of the country and at least vaguely concerned with national issues, would not want to remove a statute of a famous Virginian 10 days before a Virginia election. Guess not.
Sadly I agree. Makes me wonder what’s wrong with the people that live there? Who would elect such a bunch of nuts to their city council? If you live in NYC and are reading this you’ve got to be asking yourself why? Did you actually vote for the stupid people that did this? If you didn’t, there are so many better places to live in this country. Believe me, I’ve seen just about the whole country and NYC would be the bottom 10% of where I’d ever live.
No problem - Jefferson's statue is now relegated to a basement. Just like the ideals of the founders of this nation. Let's see, whose statue is next? I have a good one - let's move, no, no, - let's destroy the Lincoln memorial because, you know, really - I don't know. Just like President Truman said: The news is the history you don't know.
They toppled Lincoln’s statue in Portland last year — something to do with native Americans or some such, as I recall.
And yet the Lenin statue in Seattle still stands. The reason for this, hilariously, is that "it is on private property."
Former Seattleite here. Voted for Trump, walked past----even touched----that Lenin statue countless times and I wasn't triggered, didn't sob, didn't demand its removal because I feared for me safety... The behavior of the woke and weak are consistently repulsive and malevolent. There is no more empathy for their causes, v and no sympathy for them.
Jefferson's words are prescient in light of the vote to remove his statues: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”
It's too bad, and very sad, for us all when leaders, at all levels, are either incapable, or refuse, to provide context to our history, and temper mass hysterias that, since the beginning of time, continue to plague humanity.
The decision to remove Thomas Jefferson from the public square must not be left to the NY City Council.