America Has Lost Its Mind!

© David Burton 2020

NOTE: Boldface type in material quoted is this writer’s method of providing emphasis and is not meant to indicate emphasis by the source being quoted.

     Today, I fear for the future of the United States of America! America has totally lost its collective mind. Utter stupidity, ignorance, fear and mob rule now reign. The Politically Correct (PC) Gestapo now appear to control the mindless mob that is running amuck throughout the streets of this country. At the dictatorial direction of the thought police, history is being rewritten, distorted and erased; statues and symbols of anything that is even remotely related to what the PC police oppose is desecrated, defaced and torn down; law and order is being ignored and discouraged; old traditional holidays are renamed and new ones created to suit the whims and fancies of the evolving American dictatorship. When, if ever, will this madness be reversed?

     “The war on history has spread across our country and has even spilled over to other parts of the Western world.
     “Now, on a daily basis, we see scenes of lawless mobs attacking and tearing down statues, and defacing monuments of every type—often as authorities stand idly by.
     “But this violence has hardly been reserved just for statues.
     “After toppling a statue of an abolitionist who gave his life to the cause as a member of the Union Army, a mob in Madison, Wisconsin, mercilessly beat a Wisconsin Democrat state senator who supported the protests.
     “Mob rule is indeed coming to America. It must be stopped.
     “Authorities have numerous tools to stop the destruction if they would just show the willingness to use them. Failure to act will only encourage more acts of vandalism and destruction.
      - - -
     “What’s in peril now is not just the reputation of Christopher Columbus, the merits of the Founding Fathers, or the legacy of the Civil War. It’s something much broader and deeper.
     “What’s being threatened is the long history of ideas and institutions created and developed in the West.
     “The United States, of course, has been the prime target of radicals, because—whether we chose this role or not—it is the pinnacle of Western prosperity and strength.
     “Unfortunately, we have reached a point—due to the radical transformation of our schools and the rise of the new Left—where our elite institutions are no longer willing or able to defend the very ideas and people that made possible their existence.
     “In fact, those institutions are leading the charge to bring about this cultural revolution.
     “Those who do stand up to the statue topplers and radicals — even those who could be broadly defined as 'liberal' or on the left — will be drowned out and castigated, will be accused of being racist, and purged by the inquisitors of social justice.
      - - -
     “The attacks on history have moved international as well. Statues of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln have been vandalized and defaced by mobs in London.
      - - -
     “Will we, like generations before us, answer the call to defend our way of life? Will it be the generation that grew up at the 'end of history' — after the Nazi menace was crushed by the arsenal of democracy, the USSR’s evil empire collapsed, and free people stood triumphant — that will cast our hard-won victories aside in an effort to purge our imperfect past?
     “In an era of mob rule — where the very basis of American and Western civilization is being questioned and attacked from within, and when rising superpowers like communist China that stand in opposition to everything we represent are on the march — it is essential that free people resist the impulses leading to our self-immolation.
      - - -
     “Now we are again being called upon to mount a defense of our way of life. We have a great deal to lose and much at stake, because what’s at stake are not just statues and stone, but the freedom of millions alive today and the many more yet unborn.” (Ref. 1)

Defund, punish or get rid of the police, or else!

     To those brainless asses braying about defunding or eliminating the police I pose the following question: When the report comes in of an active shooter at the local school, do you want a social worker to respond to the 911 call or a squad of armed police?

     The movement to “defund the police” has spread across the nation. Protesters, liberal groups and many in the media have embraced the notion that the answer to purported rampant police violence against Blacks is to get rid of the police. What these unthinking lemmings don’t realize is that actual facts about police shootings don’t back up the notion that there is an epidemic of police murders of unarmed African-Americans. But the perception that this is true has become so deeply embedded in the empty heads of the unthinking protestors that an idea about disarming and even abolishing the police, which would have been dismissed as a crackpot notion not long ago, is now seriously discussed in the mainstream media, and even advocated by some community leaders and politicians. While the ideologues promote the slogans about abolishing and defunding the police, the fact is that both Black and White Americans, including those who think the cops are prejudiced, need more police protection, not less. Indeed, the problem in many poor urban areas with minority populations is that high crime rates and violence there are, in part, caused by insufficient law enforcement, rather than systemic racism and police violence.
     The police are not perfect. Yes, some can be bullies or corrupt. But the overwhelming majority of officers are brave individuals who do a difficult and dangerous job with a far greater chance of suffering injury or death in the line of duty than their critics want to admit. And if you’re in trouble, then they’re likely to be your best bet for survival—no matter your race. The impulse to demonize law enforcement or to treat all efforts to maintain public order - and to defend the safety and the property of citizens at risk from rioters - as illegitimate or evidence of racist oppression is madness. Anyone who wants to defund the police isn’t just wrong. Those who succumb to this delusion will have on their hands the blood of future victims of violence that only the cops could stop.[2]

     To the unthinking masses who took to the streets after the George Floyd death in Minneapolis in late May 2020 and demanded the defunding or elimination of America’s police departments, a federal Attorney called the demands “increasingly absurd rhetoric”. It should be unmistakenly obvious that our local police actually do spend their time trying the to keep our communities safe.
     Once you push aside the overheated politics and increasingly absurd rhetoric, this case is a reminder - one of hundreds you can find daily - that our local police departments are not optional — they are in fact crucial to maintaining a safe and free society.
     In cowardly submission to mob demands, Boston and Cambridge in Liberal Massachusetts have chosen to cut a portion of local police budgets and transfer those taxpayer dollars into social programs.[3]

     Even educational institutions and other organizations joined the mad rush to blame and punish all police for the alleged misdeeds of a very few.

     “Berklee College of Music hit all the wrong notes in banning Boston police from its restrooms, a declaration made during the school’s apology for allowing officers access before the May 31 protests against the killing of George Floyd that erupted in a night of rioting.
     “{In a totally stupid acquiescence to the mindless protestors and rioters, Berklee’s} President Roger Brown said . . . that allowing the officers inside perpetuated ‘feelings of oppression, silencing, and marginalization.’ . . .
      - - -
     “Unfortunately, when emotions run high, reasoned thinking often goes by the wayside. Conflating lack of support for Black Lives Matter with letting the school’s facilities be used by members of the BPD is quite a stretch.
      - - -
     “A ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ impulse is gaining ground as too many confuse the need for police reform with the notion that all cops are bad. ” (Ref. 4)

     The Berklee College of Music action is nothing more than another example of Political Correctness (PC) gone amuck. The school’s dithering administrators caved in to a complaint from a single student, on Instagram, for allowing the cops to use the facilities in the aftermath of a looting spree in and around Boston. Call it Potty Politics.

     I guess Berklee administrators figure they’re never going to need the Boston cops again. After all, the school only owns 26 or so buildings in Boston.

     “They’re a mile or so from Methadone Mile, there was a murder a couple of years ago on the corner of Mass Ave and Boylston {Street, where there main campus is located, and} one of their campus cops was assaulted by a homeless woman with a sharpened cane . . .
     “And, by the way, during the city’s recent orgy of looting and rioting, four of Berklee’s buildings either had windows busted out or were tagged with graffiti.
      - - -
     “It’s okay, I guess, for the cops to have to dodge bullets on Tremont Street, or flee as their cruisers are torched by Molotov cocktails. The real outrage is if they … use the bathroom.” (Ref. 5)

     In still one more attempt to depict all police as brutal oppressors of Blacks and to collectively punish them, the cry to “defund and/or abolish” all police has been raised. If “Black lives really matter” then there should be shouts and signs calling for increasing police funding, not defunding. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Black-on-Black killings are a far worse problem for the Black community than the killing of a Black by a rogue White police officer. Defunding of police can only result in more Black-on-Black murders. Abolishing the police can only cause a return to the law of the wild west – where everyone caries a six-shooter and enforces his own version of the law. We already have far-right groups in America who espouse such action. Gun and ammunition sales are now rising as more and more people fear the rise of violence and reduced police protection.

     No two people agree on what the Defund Police movement means precisely. Some insist it means abolish police departments. Others say it means serious reform where, for example, mental health experts accompanied by police officers as backup respond to domestic violence situations.
     “Defund police”’ is hollow jargon that reformers have devised for its shock value, but which is confusing and divisive to most Americans. They want money reallocated to focus on community development and less money spent on police weaponry.
     Instead of police defunding, What we really need are national standards on use of police force. We need a national registry of fired police officers so bad cops don’t just move to another locality and do more harm. Americans need police union contracts to be rewritten to recognize that making police officers accountable for their problematic actions is essential.
     Restructuring police departments sounds more sensible and possible than defunding them. Getting rid of corruption and bad apples while rewarding the thousands of dedicated, good officers who put their lives on the line every day sounds much better than disbanding entire police departments, whether or not that is what reformers mean. [6]

     Being a political realist and following the riots, vandalism, burning of police vehicles and injuring of police officers, Boston’s Democratic mayor “submitted a revised budget for the 2021 fiscal year in which he {called} for diverting some police overtime funds to support police reforms and bolster social services.
      - - -
     “The new budget involves reallocating 20%, or $12 million, of the Boston Police Department's overtime budget to invest in equity and inclusion after {the Mayor had} declared racism a public health crisis.” (Ref. 7)

     But later, the Boston mayor announced that the violent protests in Boston had wiped out what would have been coronavirus-driven savings in the police overtime budget.[8] What would the mayor have done had there been no overtime funds for the police who were protecting the lives and property of the citizens of Boston from the rioters and looters at the risk of their own lives?

     Could it be that public safety necessitates more, not less, police funding? More overtime funding, and/or more police are what’s needed to attack the real problems of Blacks being murdered – being murdered by other Blacks and not usually by White police officers. It seems that pandering to the demands of rioters – oh, excuse me, peaceful protestors – is more important than protecting public and private property and defending the lives of citizens. To paraphrase a popular slogan, “Black Votes Matter!”

     The far right extremists, criminals and anarchists in America have taken up the cry to defund, reduce or eliminate police departments in the United States with a vengeance. Legitimate protestors have blindly joined in the mass vituperation of law enforcement.

     “Protesters taking to the streets in Boston and around the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd underscored their message with signs. Many call for racial justice, police reform and assert that Black Lives Matter. But there are others in the crowd that reflect a disturbing undercurrent, one that goes beyond the call for law enforcement accountability.
     “These were on display here in two recent marches: ‘Defund BPD Now,’ ‘Police Descended from Slave Catchers’ and ‘Pigs Belong in Pens.’
     “We wonder what people who hold such sentiments make of news such as this: Overnight police raids resulted in federal charges for more than 30 members of a Boston street gang that has terrorized city neighborhoods for decades.
      - - -
     “Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said the . . . gang ‘has been terrorizing the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Roxbury and also neighborhoods in the commonwealth and outside for years, almost three decades. {It should be noted that the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Roxbury are predominantly Black neighborhoods in Boston}
     “What the ‘abolish the police’ crowd misses is that there are ugly realities on the streets of any town — gang violence, sex trafficking, drug trafficking and more. Gangs are violent, ruthless and care little for the communities they are shaking down. And they are armed.
     “What, one wonders, would communities be like without police taking on gangs and other violent criminals? They wouldn’t be communities for long.
     “ ‘This is today’s reminder that police officers actually spend their time putting themselves at risk to keep the rest of us safe, and a well-funded police department is not somehow optional for a free and safe society’ . . .
      - - -
     “. . . while police see people carrying signs calling them pigs, they still get up the next day, put on their uniforms and try to make the city a safer place. All busts aren’t as big as the . . . gang raids, but even getting one murderer, one rapist, one drug trafficker off the streets is critical for the well-being of the community.
     “They are doing far more to enhance and protect the quality of life for the city than a marcher who scrawls ‘pigs belong in pens’ on a piece of cardboard.” (Ref. 9)

     Even those who should know better have succumbed to the call of the mindless masses who have taken to the streets. Here in Massachusetts, we have the spectacle of its teachers, the ones we entrust to educate our young, acting like total dunces. Joining in the mass hysteria enveloping our nation, the state’s largest teachers’ union demanded that we take police officers out of schools.

     “ ‘Now more than ever, we must transform public education to show — through structures, policies and practices — that black and brown lives matter,’ the Massachusetts Teachers Association {MTA} said in a statement. ‘We also can only return if we know that we as a Commonwealth are using the frightening upheaval of this moment to think critically and collectively about the goals we have for our public schools and what it means to keep our students safe.’ ” (Ref. 10)

     “Keep our students safe.” What a joke! How quickly the teachers forget the demands they made to bring the police into our schools following the spate of school shootings around the country. Will someone please explain to me how now demanding that these same police be removed from schools will make our students safe. But, maybe there is another explanation for the teachers’ action.

     “School districts across the state are facing deep funding cuts and thousands of teachers received pink slips this week with revenues in free fall as the state’s economy has ground to a halt in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic. . .
      - - -
     “The MTA {Massachusetts Teachers Association} is calling for the creation of ‘progressive revenues’ to fully fund schools next year and pushing back on layoffs, saying ‘public schools need more, not less, in the aftermath of the pandemic.’
     “ 'Money funding police officers in public schools should be redistributed to social services, the MTA said.' (Ref. 10) Maybe the teachers aren’t as stupid as I implied they were. Apparently, they’re just greedy and don’t really believe that the safety our children in school is more important than their squeezing more money out of the state and the cities and towns of Massachusetts. So they call for the removal of the police from our schools and the redistribution of the police funds to their benefit.

     Further proving that America has lost all semblance of common sense, we have the following story from Minneapolis.

     In late June of 2020, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously advanced a proposal to change the city charter to allow the police department to be dismantled, following widespread criticism of law enforcement over the killing of George Floyd. It comes amid a spate of recent shootings in Minnesota’s largest city. At the same time, the City of Minneapolis is spending nearly $4,500 a day of taxpayers’ money to provide private security details for three council members who strongly support the “defund police” movement. They were given private security three weeks ago after receiving death threats via emails, letters, and social media posts.[11] Apparently, in Minneapolis, they believe that trained police are murdering racists while untrained private security organizations are not.

     A month before the death of George Floyd, what is reported below would have been dismissed as “fake news”. Now, it’s now only real news, but most simply accept what’s written as “nothing special”. America, we’ve lost our minds and we’ve lost our way in the world!

     In California – long noted for its liberalism and for being a haven for America’s crazies, the board of the Oakland Unified School District voted unanimously to abolish their security force of 20 sworn officers and 120 school security personnel. The measure was dubbed the “George Floyd Resolution.” Despite misgivings about getting rid of officers who had been trained to deal with school security rather than relying on the city’s police force, the board gave in. As a result, $2.3 million that the system annually spends on security will now be reallocated to pay for “social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners and other mental or behavioral health professionals.” God help the students if shooter shows up in the Oakland Unified School District!
     Just how much help will these “social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners and other mental or behavioral health professionals” be when the shooing starts? Just what do these School board members think will happen when law enforcement vanishes? But they’ve bought into the stupidity of the cries to “abolish or defund police” because “America is irredeemably racist.”
     It was not that long ago when liberals were treating the spate of school shooters as a national scourge that required immediate redress. That appears to have slipped the minds of the parents and students who have effectively disarmed their schools against such a threat.
     Those same people who were demanding the enactment of draconian anti-gun legislation are now applauding a trend that, combined with the inability of the beleaguered police of cities across the nation to cope with riots and looting in the wake of the Floyd killing, has led to a vast increase in gun sales across the nation. You don’t have to be a supporter of the National Rifle Association to know that when cops are told to stand down, that convinces many citizens who weren’t previously interested in gun ownership to acquire the means to defend themselves.
     You also don’t have to imagine what will happen when a school or a synagogue is under attack, and the only people available to respond are “restorative justice practitioners.” The residents of an upscale Minneapolis neighborhood have showed us exactly what happens when people abolish police on their own.
     The “mostly white” inhabitants of Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, which is “a haven to leftist activists and bohemian artists,” unilaterally declared their intention never to call the police. The gesture was meant to “reduce the pain that black residents of Minneapolis were feeling.”
     Once word spread that they had vowed never to call the cops, the area was swarmed by hundreds of people, most of whom are suffering from mental illness and/or addiction, who camped out in a neighborhood park. Along with them came prostitutes and drug dealers.
     While the residents are striving not to be “judgmental,” they now fear for their children’s safety. Still, most are apparently undaunted. In an example of how life is sometimes more absurd than satire, one person who was held up at gunpoint by two teens who tried to steal his car did break the pledge and call the police. Afterwards, he, too, repented of his sin against wokeness and apologized for endangering the lives of his armed African-American assailants by calling the police.
     [Also, Minneapolis Park Police reported tht a child was sexually assaulted in the ever-growing homeless encampment at Powderhorn Park, where neighbors had vowed not to call law enforcement in the wake of the George Floyd protests.][12]
     The good people of Powderhorn Park appear content to let themselves be victimized. But less altruistic types elsewhere are bound to organize to defend themselves when police become scarce. Does anyone think that vigilante law is a better idea than armed police? That’s especially true for minority residents of poor neighborhoods, who are in even greater need of protection than affluent bohemians.
     Social justice is critically important, but justice is impossible without the rule of law. The stupidities being perpetrated today throughout America demonstrate how disconnected the frenzied mob is from reality. Too many Americans have shown that they are no better than stampeding cattle. They are having trouble understanding that they are still living in a world where security is a necessity for all, and that their community cannot defend itself with good intentions and virtue signaling. [13]

     ”Yes, the bad seeds in law enforcement need to found and dealt with but we can’t completely neuter and/or unravel the institutions that are meant to maintain law and order.” (Ref. 14)

Get rid of all physical traces of what the PC Gestapo has decided is symbolic of oppression, or else!

     We now come to another illustration of America losing its collective mind – the rush to deface, destroy and remove any physical reminder of any perceived injustice and to erase those portions of history that the elite chosen few have decided the rest of us are too ignorant to understand.

     “The left’s war on America’s past crossed several new frontiers . . .
     “Portland’s statue of George Washington, the Father of his Country and the first president of the United States, the greatest man of his age, was toppled and desecrated.
     “While the statue stood, an American flag was draped over its head and set ablaze. After it was pulled down, a new fire was set on another American flag spread across the statue, and also burned. The vacated pedestal was painted with the words, ‘You’re on Native Land.’
     “In Portland also, a statue of Thomas Jefferson that stood at the entrance of a high school named for the author of the Declaration of Independence was torn down. In New York, city council members demanded that the Jefferson statue in city hall be removed.
     “Anticipating what was coming, the New York Museum of Natural History got the permission of city hall to have the giant statue of Theodore Roosevelt astride a horse, flanked by an African and a Native American, removed from the front of the museum.
      - - -
     “With Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt all under attack, three of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore are now repudiated by the left.
     “Our Taliban have moved on, past Columbus and the Confederate generals, to dislodge and dishonor the Founding Fathers and their patriot sons.
     “In Philadelphia, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution, with its statue of Washington, was defaced. The tomb is the final resting place for thousands of soldiers, known but to God, who died in the struggle for American independence.
     “ ‘Committed Genocide’ is the charge scrawled on the memorial.
     “Local authorities or police did not stop the vandals. One wonders what will happen should the haters of Washington and Jefferson decide to torch their ancestral homes at Mount Vernon and Monticello.
     “Still another line was crossed last week in the war against the past.
     “A statue of Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was toppled. Police watched as hundreds gathered to take down the general and 18th president, who accepted the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
     “Also pulled down in Golden Gate Park was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote our national anthem, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ after he watched all through the night in 1814 as British warships bombarded Fort McHenry.
     “A third statue torn down in Golden Gate Park was that of Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California that run from San Diego to San Francisco.
     “Serra lived in the 18th century, long before the U.S. acquired California and decades before Mexico won its independence. Pope Francis canonized him in 2015.
     “At the end of last week, the last statue of a Confederate soldier in the nation’s capital, that of Gen. Albert Pike, who spent his years after the war doing good works, was pulled down, while Mayor Muriel Bowser’s D.C. cops watched from police cruisers.
     “We erect statues to remember, revere and honor those whom we memorialize. And what is the motivation of the people who tear them down and desecrate them?
     “In a word, it is hate. A goodly slice of America’s young hates this country’s history and the men who made it. It hates the discoverers and explorers like Columbus, the conquistadores and colonists. It hates the Founding Fathers and the first 15 presidents, all of whom either had slaves or coexisted with the injustice of slavery. But hating history and denying history and tearing down the statues of the men who made that history does not change history.
     “So, where are we going?
      - - -
     “. . . this cannot go on. The political and propaganda war on the cops, the vandalism of the statues and memorials, the disgracing and dishonoring of American heroes cannot go on indefinitely.
      - - -
     “A house divided against itself cannot stand. And a society whose history is hated by millions of its members will not survive. ” (Ref. 15)

     Let’s move on to the beheading of a statue of Christopher Columbus in the long-time Italian North End neighborhood of Boston and the subsequent removal of the headless statue by the city.

     “Decapitate Christopher Columbus? It had to be done.
     “You tolerant, super-smart Boston progressives can’t allow a statue of the man who brought slavery to America to stand in the center of your city. It’s an outrage! The mob must pull him down, and you must join them. Otherwise, you’re part of the problem.
     “So grab a brick and hurl it.
     “And after Columbus? Why Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, of course. You can’t have monuments to these slave-owning monsters. Jefferson Memorial? Gone. Washington Monument? Buh-bye.
     “Washington, Jefferson and Andrew Jackson should be removed from our currency, too.
     “But beheading Columbus and toppling Tommy J. is just the beginning. Are you really going to put up with having our nation’s capital in ‘Washington, D.C.’? Washington’s bad enough, but where do you think the ‘C’ comes from? As Wikipedia reports, ‘the federal district was named Columbia (a feminine form of ‘Columbus’)
     “That’s right: ‘D.C.’ isn’t just racist — it’s sexist, too.
     “Which is perfect, given that it’s the capital of a racist, sexist nation. Again and again, protesting progressives remind us that, since 1619, America has been ‘built on slavery.’ Our entire nation is itself nothing more than a multi-state monument to racial hatred, violent oppression and white supremacy.
     “Forget statues and monuments and money: How can you progressives even bear living on this land?
      - - -
     “Then again, you could also say that blaming Columbus for importing slavery is crazy, too. After all, indigenous Americans were practicing slavery long before Europeans came ashore.
     “You could throw in the fact that the 18th century world Jefferson and Washington inhabited was full of slavery, sexism and untold social sins that are unacceptable today. . .
     “Yes, you could say all that and more — if you were a hate-monger.
     “Progressives are certainly never going to acknowledge any of these facts. (First rule of progressivism: No truth is too inconvenient to be ignored.) Instead, they’re going to dismiss data and evidence as their own form of oppression. And anyone who insists on arguing based on facts — the relatively low number of police shootings of unarmed suspects, etc. — will be labeled an agent of hate for even asking the question.
     “In the end, pulling down statues and promoting censorship won’t be enough. The only way to truly escape your guilt, my progressive friends, is to leave America entirely.
     “Sorry, but you have no choice.” (Ref. 16)

     In their ongoing effort to eliminate portions of America’s collective history and to create a sanitized facsimile of history as they would have it written, members of the mind-control Gestapo have resumed their destruction of monuments to anyone they dislike.

     “Native American groups said they would strongly oppose efforts to restore the statue {of Cristopher Columbus}.
     “. . . a spokeswoman for United American Indians of New England, said local indigenous groups also will continue to call on city and state officials to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
      - - -
     “The Italian American Alliance, meanwhile, said it {would} hold a rally . . . to demand the restoration and return of the city-owned statue to Christopher Columbus Park.
      - - -
     “. . . {Boston’s Mayor} said he’s also open to having ‘conversations’ about changing the name of Faneuil Hall, which was built in 1742 with financing from merchant Peter Faneuil, who owned and traded slaves.” (Ref. 17)

     “Monuments like the one to Columbus are under increasing scrutiny as . . . protesters topple Confederate statues and monuments to slavery across the nation.
      - - -
     “Three people were charged over the weekend in Providence after allegedly vandalizing a statue of Columbus in that city.” (Ref. 18)

     In spite of the claims that Christopher Columbus caused the misery and deaths of thousands of America’s Indigenous People, the truth is: Columbus never set foot in North America. [19]

     Here in Boston, home of Paul Revere, and where Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty fomented the American revolution that created the greatest country in the history of the world, “Members of the Boston Art Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to remove Boston's copy of Thomas Ball's Emancipation Memorial from Park Square. The work depicting a formerly enslaved man at the feet of Abraham Lincoln has stood there since 1879.” (Ref. 20) We have now arrived at a time here in America, when nothing can stand that potentially offends someone’s sensibilities. All forms of art must now apparently pass muster in front of some faceless, unappointed group of censors. The selection criteria are unknown, but if there is even one objection to the piece of art, it must go. No matter that the statue with Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave depicts one of America’s shining moments – the freeing of America’s slaves and the end of slavery in this country. No matter, that the statue honors the man who was most responsible for bringing an end to slavery in America. All this because someone was offended at the sight of a former slave having his chains being removed by Lincoln and being lifted up from his former state of subservience. Never mind the lesson of American history that is taught in this sculpture!

     America has now become a nation that is repeating the despicable acts of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi regime in Germany that actively censored all forms of art between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. The censorship of art in Nazi Germany was partly to erase any trace of Jewishness and, in large part was used to further Nazi propaganda.[21] In Nazi Germany, all knew who the censors were – Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. Who are the faceless censors here in America in 2020?

     On the 21st of June, 2020, the whitewashing of American history, personalities and culture continued. “The American Museum of Natural History will remove a prominent statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its entrance after years of objections that it symbolizes colonial expansion and racial discrimination . . .
     “The bronze statue that has stood at the museum’s Central Park West entrance since 1940 depicts Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man and an African man standing next to the horse.
      - - -
     “In 2017, protesters splashed red liquid on the statue’s base to represent blood and published a statement calling for its removal as an emblem of ‘patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.’ ” (Ref. 22) What the ignorant detractors of the statue don’t understand, or don’t care to understand is that the statue depicts Roosevelt in the garb of a hunter accompanied by two guides representing America and Africa. The two men beside Teddy are guides and have nothing to do with racism or colonialism or white supremacy, etc. [23] In today’s America, no longer can anything be viewed in its historical context – unthinking mob mentality now rules.

     Are those who deface and tear statues of famous people any better than the bearded Taliban fighters who, in 2001, blew up two giant Buddhas that were carved into the Afghan hillside nearly 2,000 years ago[24] , thus erasing all traces of a rich pre-Islamic past? Are those mindless Americans who deface, destroy and demand the removal of any relic related to the Civil War’s Southern Confederacy any different from those viscous ISIS murderers who, in 2015, destroyed precious ancient ruins in northern Iraq around the 3,000-year old Mesopotamian city of Nimrud as part of their war on “idolatory”?[25] What’s common among the Taliban, ISIS and the Americans defacing, damaging, destroying and calling for the removal of historical artifacts is that all three groups are totally intolerant of any opposition and bent upon erasing all traces of events, people and causes which they consider “undesirable”. Look in your history books (before the historical revisionists rewrite them) and learn about the Nazis and the Communists controlling all forms of art and banning any and all they considered subversive or inappropriate. Can book-burning be far behind?

Revise, eliminate and rewrite History as the PC police want the facts presented, or else!

     It has now become widely popular among the liberal elite, the PC Gestapo and those with other less obvious, agendas to call for the rewriting of American history and/or the elimination of references to people, events, and philosophies that offend the sensibilities of these self-righteous and self-appointed guardians of what is politically correct thought and recollection. “Tear down the Statue”, “change the name of the holiday”, “change the name of the military base”, “erase the culprit’s name from the history books”, “rename the street, square and town”, “never mind the good one did – focus only the misdeeds one committed”. These are the mindless shouts of the historical revisionists and the thought police.

     Still one more attempt at erasing history is under consideration here in Boston. “After more calls this week to rename Faneuil Hall, whose wealthy namesake traded and owned slaves, Mayor Marty Walsh indicated he’s open to talking about the prospect — one that he had previously dismissed.
     “Peter Faneuil, an 18th century merchant, built the hall with money he made trading slaves and raw goods. Historical records show Faneuil, who later donated the building to the city, was a slaveowner himself.
      - - -
     “. . . ‘over the years, Faneuil Hall has become a place where good things have happened: historic speeches such as Frederick Douglass’ call for the end to slavery, the signing of forward thinking legislation like the (Massachusetts) Affordable Care Act, and where hundreds of people take their oath of citizenship every year.” (Ref. 26)

Change the name of your streets, squares and other public places to names acceptable to the unelected mob leaders, or else!

     “Dudley Station in Roxbury will soon be Nubian Station, two months after nearby Dudley Square underwent the same identity change.
     “For years the primary commercial center of Roxbury — a majority-black neighborhood — bore the name of Thomas Dudley, a colonial Massachusetts governor who enabled slavery. . .
     “The station and square are renamed after the Nubia Empire, which dominated northeast Africa in ancient times. Boston’s black community makes up many of the kingdom’s descendants, according to supporters of the name change.
      - - -
     “As governor, Dudley sponsored the passage of the “Body of Liberties” in 1641 which legalized slavery in the colony. His son Joseph Dudley later took the same office, and continued to enforce this legislation until the 18th century.” (Ref. 27)

     Ironically, what the name-change zealots don’t know is that ancient Nubia was itself involved in slavery. Slavery in the region of the Sudan has a long history, beginning in the ancient Nubian and ancient Egyptian times and continuing up to the present.
     Soon after the Arab conquest of Egypt, the Arabs attempted to conquer the kingdoms of Christian Nubia on multiple occasions, but utilizing strategic guerilla-like warfare, the significantly smaller Christian Nubia defeated the larger Arab forces. Eventually, given their unsuccessful efforts, the Arabs signed the 600-year treaty of baqt with the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makuria. As a part of the treaty, the Nubians, already involved in the burgeoning East African slave trade, agreed to trade 360 slaves annually to their northern neighbors in exchange for spices and grains.
     Later, Egyptian slavers began raiding modern South Sudan. In particular, the ruler of Egypt attempted to build up an army of Southern Sudanese slaves with the aid of the Nubian slavers. Attempts to ban slavery were later attempted by colonial British authorities in 1899, after they conquered the region. [28] So, it appears that Boston has replaced the name of one person involved in the slave trade with the name of a nation of slave traders! But, at least that nation of slave traders was Black, not White like the early Massachusetts slave trader.

     In another example of submitting to the demands of the PC Gestapo, Boston changed the name of Yawkey Way to Jersey Street. Tom Yawkey was the long- time owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 to 1976. As a Southerner, brought up in the first half of the twentieth century, he was likely a racist early in life, but he was the owner when the Red Sox began to acquire Black players and is today known for his charitable activities and the creation of the charitable Yawkey Foundation. Medical buildings have been named in his honor stemming from his well-known generosity.

     In 2018, “Boston approved a plan . . . to change the name of Yawkey Way, the street outside Fenway Park named in honor of a former Red Sox owner some have said was racist. The city's Public Improvement Commission unanimously approved a proposal . . . to call the stretch of roadway Jersey Street, which it was originally called . . .
     ”Yawkey . . . presided over the last franchise in Major League Baseball to field a black player. . .
     ”Following the decision {to delete Yawkey’s name}, the Yawkey Foundations issued {the following statement}.
     ”We have always acknowledged that it is regrettable that the Red Sox were the last Major League baseball team to integrate. We also realize there were strong feelings in favor of renaming Yawkey Way based on that painful fact and other criticisms about the team's record concerning race and inclusivity. But we also believe that consideration of the whole story of the team's efforts to integrate and the full picture of Tom Yawkey's life more than justified keeping the name Yawkey Way. ” (Ref. 29)

     The Reverend Ray Hammond, the Black pastor of Bethel AME Church and a board member of the Yawkey Foundation wrote in opposition to the name change. The following is my edited version of the Reverend’s opposition to the name change.

     Tom Yawkey owned the Red Sox for 43 years, taking the franchise from one of the worst to one of the best in baseball. After he died in 1976, Jersey Street outside Fenway Park was renamed, to honor his stewardship of the team and ballpark, as well as his philanthropy, including saving the Jimmy Fund, one of Boston's most enduring charities. It is no exaggeration to say Yawkey Way is as familiar as Fenway Park’s left field “Green Monster” wall.
     Nevertheless, a petition has been presented to the city to remove Yawkey's name, based on the belief that he was a racially divisive figure and that the change is needed to help promote and practice the values of diversity and inclusion.
     I am convinced that expunging Tom Yawkey's name from Fenway Park not only would be profoundly unfair and forever tarnish his reputation but would result in the opposite of what is intended.
     Instead of furthering unity and healing, it would aggravate old wounds and force people to take sides over how to treat the Yawkey name, which appears on numerous buildings in Boston, a testament to the hundreds of millions of dollars the Yawkey Foundations have donated to our major institutions and hundreds of non-profits. And it would be a blot on the city, reinforcing the widely held belief that Boston is a racist place.
     The team signed its first black ballplayer to a minor league contract in 1949; in 1950, 1952 and 1954, the Red Sox made strong offers to other teams to acquire black players but were rebuffed. In 1957 the team was about to promote a black pitching prospect, Earl Wilson, to the Major League team, only to see him drafted into the military. Wilson rejoined the Red Sox in 1959, a week after Pumpsie Green officially integrated the team.
     The distorted view of what actually happened hardly justifies taking the severe and irrevocable step of erasing his name from the ballpark. It will slander a man who sought no public acclaim while he was alive, gave generously to the city he loved and, with his wife, ensured there will be a steady stream of funding to help those in need for generations to come.
     None of this is to say we should avoid confronting the past. It is regrettable the Red Sox were the last Major League team to integrate. But that is far from the whole story, as the record clearly demonstrates. Nor does it begin to provide a complete picture of Tom Yawkey's life, how he supported his players, regardless of their color, and how his legacy continues to benefit Boston. Tom Yawkey deserves to have his name live on at Fenway Park.[30]

     Remember Woodrow Wilson? He was: president of Princeton University; the 34th governor of New Jersey; the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 and, as president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933; and he was the leading architect of the League of Nations! None of this matters! The PC Gestapo have spoken! Princeton University will remove Woodrow Wilson's name from its public policy school over ‘racist thinking and policies’ he is charged with championing.[31]

     Perhaps in the greatest affront of all to America’s former heroes, we find that: “In the latest move to change place names in light of U.S. racial history, leaders of Orange County’s Democratic Party are pushing to drop film legend John Wayne’s name, statue and other likenesses from the county’s airport because of his racist and bigoted comments.” (Ref. 32) Will these mindless atrocities never end? But maybe this execrable attack on a modern American hero can be understood by the fact that John Wayne has long represented conservative Republican ideals and the push to eradicate his memory comes from the Orange County’s Democratic Party.

Organizations must get rid of any product name or symbol that the self-designated guardians of acceptable thought deem unacceptable, or else!

     Corporations have succumbed to the mass hysteria that swept America during and after the riots and pandemonium following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Companies are rushing to remove any hint of racism – whether or not such perceptions have any real basis. To anyone with a functioning brain, these names and symbols arouse no racist sentiments and pose no threat to any group in America.

     The semipro Tulsa, Oklahoma soccer team announced that it would replace the national anthem with Woody Guthrie's “This Land Is Your Land” at all home matches. This because of the rarely sung third verse in the Star Spangled Banner which includes the line: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”[33] What next – stop flying the Stars and Stripes and eliminate the pledge of allegiance???

     “America’s painful struggles over racism have finally caught up with Aunt Jemima, that ubiquitous fixture served up at breakfast tables for 131 years.
     “Quaker Oats announced . . . that it will retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognizes the character’s origins are ‘based on a racial stereotype.’ Indeed, the logo was inspired by 19th century minstrel celebrating the ‘mammy,’ a black woman content to serve her white masters. A former slave, Nancy Green, became the first face of the pancake product in 1890.
     “Aunt Jemima’s downfall is the latest signal of the powerful cultural moment unleashed by the Black Lives Matter protests, which have spread around the world and prompted companies to rethink their policies . . .
     “Other companies said they are reconsidering racial imagery in their branding.
     “The owner of the Uncle Ben’s rice says the brand will ‘evolve’ in response to concerns about racial stereotyping. . .
     “Geechie Boy Mill, a family-owned operation in South Carolina that makes locally-grown and milled white grits, said it is ‘listening and revising our overall branding,’ though no decisions have been made. Geechie is a dialect spoken mainly by the descendants of African-American slaves who settled on the Ogeechee river in Georgia . . . the company said a name change has been under consideration for the past year and discussions have ramped back up given the current climate.
     “Earlier this year, Land O’Lakes announced that it would no longer use the Native American woman on its packages of butter, cheese and other products since the late 1920s.
     “But reconsideration of the images also raises {other} questions . . . Brands with ethnic and racial stereotypes still abound, from Nestle’s Eskimo Pie and Miss Chiquita of banana fame, to the ongoing debate over the Washington Redskins football team.
      - - -
     “Quaker tried over the years to purge Aunt Jemima of her ‘mammy’ roots, exchanging her kerchief for pearls by 1989.” (Ref. 34)

     A bit later, submitting to the tyranny of the few, it was reported that the “owner of Eskimo Pie is changing its name and marketing of the nearly century-old chocolate-covered ice cream bar, the latest brand to reckon with racially charged logos and marketing.” (Ref. 35)

     Even the toymaker, Legos, announced that it will stop marketing police officers or White House themes in its toys and movies.[36]

     So what is next? What else will the mindless rabble demand? Isn’t it time to do away with: Jewish rye bread, Black Russian (Pumpernickel) Bread (OMG! 2 offensive words in one phrase), Irish Oatmeal, German Bologna, Spanish rice and hundreds of other products with names that are potentially offensive to someone? Let no possibly offensive name, title, description remain in the American lexicon! Let’s create a bonanza of applications for the employees of the copyright office in Washington with which to deal. In turn, let’s make the American language devoid of any descriptive word or phrase that could possibly offend anyone.

Select minority people instead of the best and most qualified to lead our nation, or else!

     Changing the subject once more, I call attention to the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

     Back in the days when America was great, it was somewhat common practice for candidates for the office of President to select as their vice presidential running mates the most qualified person. But here in the election year of 2020, we have the Democratic presidential candidate declaring that he will choose a woman to be his running mate – the qualification for this honor: being a woman, not the most qualified. Following up on this insult to the American electorate, it was subsequently declared that, “Biden must pick a progressive black woman as his running mate.” So, the qualifications for running for the office of Vice President of the United States of America has apparently become: the candidate must be a woman and she must be Black.

     During the final debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, Biden promised to select a woman as his running mate. Biden thereby demonstrated his utter disregard for integrity and leadership. Instead, he blatantly focused on winning votes – and the good of America be damned! Women’s votes, the votes of Blacks, and the votes of America’s Liberal elitists are the sole concern of Joe Biden and the Democratic party.
     Never let us forget that the passion of the Democratic party is with progressives and blacks. African American women are the demographic group with “one of the largest voter turnouts.” In 2018’s midterm elections, black women's turnout was 6 points above the national turnout. The heart of the Democratic party is people of color. For Joe Biden to win in November, he must select a well-known progressive African American woman as his running mate.[37]

     So, to hell with what’s best for America. We now have politicians, political parties and mindless masses who succumb to what’s most popular at the moment and who fall into lock step with the those with the loudest and most strident voices. Winning the election is more important than working for the good of the nation. Common sense be damned!

     America, four years ago, elected a president who has become – with the exception of Israel – the laughing stock of nearly all the nations of the world. America has suffered for the past three years with a bullying, loud mouthed, president who takes advice from no one, constantly lies, incessantly tweets vitriol and insults everyone - friend and foe alike. Many Americans looked forward to a reversal of this fall from grace. Approaching November 2020, we are greatly disappointed. The Republicans have failed to choose a presidential candidate to replace the disaster that they chose and who was elected in 2016. The Democrats have chosen a candidate who has demonstrated that he will follow – not lead.

     In this age of recrimination for all the past sins of all humanity, there comes forth the occasional voice of sanity, reminding us to stop the insanity and to begin to once again to start using our common sense. One such voice tells us the following:

     “They’re coming for Thomas Jefferson.
     “This was always obvious, but now it’s even more plain. Protestors in Portland, Ore., used axes and ropes to topple a statue of President Thomas Jefferson. The New York City Council is agitating to remove a statue of the author of the Declaration of Independence from its chambers.
     “At this rate, the Sage of Monticello will be lucky if the Jefferson Memorial isn’t bulldozed and if he isn’t effaced from the nickel.
     “Jefferson is, to use the argot of the day, the most ‘problematic’ of the Founders. The Virginian was a slave owner who, despite his high ideals, never jettisoned an attachment to the slave system that was a hideous injustice and, in the fullness of time, nearly destroyed the country.
     “But that’s not what we honor him for.
     “Jefferson isn’t memorialized on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere around the country because of the racist things he wrote in Notes on the State of Virginia. He doesn’t have a place of honor in American history because of his (now widely accepted by historians) sexual relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, who was the half-sister of his late wife.
     “He isn’t held up as among our most exalted Founders because of his fear of slave revolts and his ever-closer association with the slave South as he grew older.
     “No, Jefferson is on a pedestal for achievements that still define the country today, and for the better.
     “He wrote the ringing lines in the preamble of the Declaration that eventually took on world-historical importance and were used as a rhetorical and philosophical cudgel against the slave system and white supremacy by the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.
     “He was a theorist, champion and able practitioner of what we know as Jeffersonian democracy, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ as Lincoln famously put it at Gettysburg.
     “He wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that became a model for the First Amendment, and he worked to abolish feudal relics such as entail and primogeniture.
     “As president, he doubled the size of the country in a stroke with the Louisiana Purchase.
     “He was a man of the Enlightenment, with incredibly wide-ranging interests from architecture to natural history and — in addition to serving as president, secretary of state and governor — founded the University of Virginia.
     “All of this speaks to his greatness, but none of it is to deny his miserable human failures and his woeful hypocrisy.
     “Hypocrisy, though, cuts both ways. Would we have preferred that all of America’s 18th century slave owners were intellectually consistent and hewed solely to the doctrine of white supremacy?
     “Or, do we demand that all our heroes be spotless, uncomplicated and without sin?
      - - -
     “That Jefferson was deeply compromised by the slave system and yet rose above his own sectional and selfish interests to enunciate timeless principles should be considered an accomplishment, not a reason to relegate him to the ash heap.” (Ref. 38)

     Those who want to grind Jefferson’s memory - and the memories of all great personages who committed some real or imagined wrong - to dust would do well to tear down every single statue or memorial in America. For, truth be told, no human being is without some sin. Instead, we all need to remember and honor the good that the great personages in history have accomplished. At the same time, we should not erase from human memory their possible transgressions. We should take note of their misdeeds and ensure that such transgressions, as seen through the lens of history, are not repeated.

Give the mob everything they want, or else!

     Over the past month, I have witnessed the mad and unthinking stampede of politicians, clergy, and the news media to see who can make the greatest Mea culpas and who can come up with the most and biggest give-aways, literally and figuratively, to the supposed victims of the massively bigoted oppression that is present here in what they describe as a racist nation which, but which is truly the Land of the Free.

     We are affronted by headlines that scream: ”Appoint Black Jews to major organizations – now”.[39] - This should certainly make a big impact, will someone please tell me how many Black Jews are there in America; ”Senators propose bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday”[40] - Until this month of June 2020. I had never even heard the world Junetenth, let alone, consider it for a federal holiday; and “The gay Pulse nightclub where 49 people were killed could become a protected national memorial and museum under proposed legislation.”[41] - So this massacre site deserves the same consideration as the Bunker Hill Monument, the Gettysburg Battle site and the sunken battleship Arizona?

Appear to take action, even if it’s meaningless, or else!

     All segments of American society - particularly those institutions of higher learning that are supposed to leaders, rather than dumb and obedient followers of those with the most strident voices - have now surrendered to the mob rule that has gripped America. We’ve noted Berkeley College of Music immediately closing its bathroom doors to Boston Police. Other more significant, but equally foolish actions are being hurriedly implemented though out this country to give the appearance of “doing something, anything” to placate the tyrannical horde banging at academia’s gates. An example of such behavior follows – heavily edited excerpts from a letter sent out by the president of prestigious M.I.T.

To the members of the MIT community,

     For years, the nation has grown increasingly unstable, the predictable result of tolerating severe economic and racial inequalities. Through a cascade of horrific killings of Black Americans, including the public killing of George Floyd, the long crisis of systemic racial injustice and violence finally commanded the nation’s attention. EXCUSE ME, BUT AS I’VE NOTED, THIS “cascade of horrific killings of Black Americans” HAVE BEEN NEARLY ALL COMMITTED BY OTHER BLACKS.
     We have a historic opportunity to accelerate the transition to a more just and equitable future. To help achieve lasting progress on racial justice and equality everywhere, as a community, we must be part of that transformation. It is our responsibility to use this moment of tectonic social change to build a better MIT – an MIT that works for everyone.
     All of us – especially those who are white and those in positions of leadership, at every level – need to be all in, individually and together, in the struggle to achieve racial equity and justice at MIT.
     For decades, countless Black and brown students, staff, postdocs, faculty and alumni have given your minds, hands and hearts to make MIT more diverse, equitable and welcoming.
     We must recognize and reject the societal status quo that, over and over, assigns the job of fighting racist structures to the people held down by those structures. We need to make our community more equitable and inclusive.
     MIT has invested for years in multiple efforts to support students of color and to make headway on racial equity and inclusion.
     In February of this year, MIT made a commitment that each of its five schools and the College of Computing will hire a senior officer to guide and gauge concrete progress on diversity, equity and inclusion. I READ THIS AS MEANING THAT MIT WILL WASTE MONEY TO GIVE THE APPEARNCE OF SOLVING SOCIETAL BLACKS PROBLEMS – BUT, IN REALITY MIT’S ACTIONS WON’T EVEN BEGIN TO HELP ADDRESS THE REAL PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN BLACKS, LIKE: BLACKS MURDERING BLACKS, FATHERLESS BLACK CHILDREN, LOW EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE, ETC., ETC., ETC.
     We are about to engage the community in developing and implementing a comprehensive, Institute-wide action plan for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – a plan that will be central to MIT’s overall goals and strategy. WHAT ABOUT THE VAST MAJORITY OF BLACKS WHO DON’T ATTEND A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY – THE ONES REALLY NEEDING HELP? BLACKS AT MIT DON’T REALLY NEED MAJOR HELP – BY ATTENDING SCHOOLS LIKE MIT, THEY’VE ALREADY SHOWN THAT THEY’VE MADE IT.
     We will make it a priority to raise funds for new endowed graduate fellowships for students from underrepresented groups. AN EXCELLENT MOVE! THIS WILL ALLOW MORE BRIGHT, BUT POOR, BLACKS TO MAKE IT TO AND THROUGH COLLEGE WITHOUT HAVING TO MORTGATE THEIR FUTURES!
     We will increase MIT's purchasing and contracting with minority-owned businesses, including Black-led enterprises. ANOTHER EXCELLENT MOVE!
     Nationally, it is obvious that fundamental concepts about policing and race must be rethought and reformed. The recent community petition asks that we bring that thinking home and look inward, to reexamine the nature and role of policing at MIT. For instance, it expresses strong interest in making campus police practices more transparent, through ideas like public reporting of police misconduct and sharing the criteria and process the MIT Police Department uses in vetting, hiring and promoting officers. THIS IS MOSTLY PANDERING TO THE “DEFUND AND ELIMINATE THE POLICE” IDIOTS! EXACTLY WHAT MISCONDUCT HAS THE MIT CAMPUS POLICE BEEN CHARGED WITH? WHEN? BY WHOM?
     We will reexamine our roster of Institute holidays with an eye to equity and inclusion. MORE IDIOTIC PANDERING TO THE MOB THAT CALLS FOR CHANGING “COLUMBUS DAY” TO “INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY” AND TO THE INSTITUTION OF A NATIONAL HOLIDAY CALLED “JUNETEENTH DAY."
     And the provost will appoint an ad hoc committee of staff, students, postdocs, faculty and alumni to recommend artistic and cultural responses. NOW MIT WILL HAVE A COMMITTEE TO DICTATE WHAT IS “APPROPRIATE ART” AND NOT “DECADENT ART” SUCH AS THE NAZIS AND COMMUNISTS FORBADE.
     In this moment of crisis, we must find the strength to understand and help dismantle the modern manifestation of a system of racial injustice that, for four centuries, has betrayed our society’s highest ideals. THIS IS NOTHING BUT A REPEAT OF THE VISCOUS SCREED BEING SPREAD TODAY THAT AMERICA IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT A NATION OF INTOLERANT RACISTS.

Sincerely,
L. Rafael Reif[42]

Eliminate any words the PC Gestapo considers offensive, or else!

     In the rush to erase even the slightest hint of racism, the singing female trio known as the Dixie Chicks has been forced to change its name to simply the Chicks. The racial grievance mob came after them and demanded they change their name – they have.[43]

     Two universities in Oregon, Oregon and Oregon State have agreed to drop the name “Civil War” for their annual football games against each other.[44] - Heaven forbid that we retain the memory of that bloody war that ended slavery in America. Maybe we should remove the word “civil” from the English language.

     Where will this mindless madness end? Will it ever end?

America, ENOUGH!

     Here at the start of the third decade of the twenty first century, we Americans have allowed the action of one rogue policemen in Minneapolis to obscure the real plight of Black America. We Americans have joined and condoned meaningless protests that have led to riots, larceny, destruction of the property of innocent parties, deaths and with the likely infection of thousands with the COVID-19 virus. Instead of calling for more funds for police to combat the crisis of thousands of Black murders at the hands of Black thugs, Americans are calling for the defunding or elimination of the police forces. America has lost its way and its collective mind!

     We are passively watching Americans running around tearing down historical statues because they offend some idiots’ sensitivities. We are constantly urged to change all history books, and take the presidents who owned slaves off our currency. America, get over it! History is what it is. Trying to rewrite history or to erase segments of it is less than useless. Rewriting or erasing segments of history only leads to a repeat of the tragedies that have taken place in the past. Instead of trying to delete memories of past injustices and crimes, we need to take up the cry of ”Never forget!” and then work to ensure that our past mistakes are not repeated. We need to let our children read, see and hear what they must never allow to be repeated. Past injustices cannot be swept under the rug by expunging them from our historical memories. Men and women are not saints – the best of us have all transgressed sometime in our lives, particularly when such transgressions were deemed acceptable or excusable in the eras in which they occurred. Instead of agonizing over the supposed faults of those in bygone times, let’s accept and acknowledge their mistakes as such, but let’s applaud them and honor them for the good they accomplished in their lifetimes and let’s not forget the benefits which they have bequeathed to us.

     America, we need to find and elect the best and the brightest among us, who will lead this country forward and will not simply go along pandering to the masses. America, we need to stop obsessing over the panic of the moment and resume focusing on that vision which our founding fathers had at the birth of our nation. America, we need to stop fixating on tearing down and focus on building up. America, we need to rediscover our common sense and we need to start using it again.

     America, we should be ashamed when those who have pledged to “protect and to serve” have been ordered to stand by and watch, instead of being allowed to protect and serve! America, we should be ashamed when a nation that was established upon the principle of “law and order” has witnessed the “law and order" replaced by “rioting, vandalism, and looting.” Throughout this country there no longer is any semblance of order and law has ceased to exist. America, we should be ashamed when our law enforcement is ordered to stand by and ignore looting and vandalism. There were times in the past when the rule was “looters will be shot on sight!” There was a time when: “Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans . . . that National Guard troops are under her orders to ‘shoot and kill’ to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Announcing the arrival of 300 Arkansas National Guard troops in New Orleans fresh from service in Iraq, Blanco said, ‘these troops are battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded.’ ‘These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will,’ she said.” (Ref. 45)

     America, we should be ashamed when Muriel Bowser, the Democratic Black mayor of Washington, D.C. ordered 1,200 National Guard troops, who were in the nation’s capital to quell civil unrest and looting, out of their Marriott hotel rooms. Evicting National Guard personnel from their hotels after a late-night shift risking their lives to protect Washington was rightly called a shameful, petty, discrediting act by the mayor. Their labor and sacrifice on behalf of Washingtonians deserved better than this embarrassing spectacle. [46]

     America, we should be ashamed when only Black Lives matter and it’s forbidden to declare that All Lives Matter.

     “The mayor of Melrose {Massachusetts} ordered the removal of a message that read, in part, ‘All Lives Matter’ posted on a police department electronic sign . . .
      - - -
     “ ‘I have just been made aware that the following traffic sign is being displayed on Main Street. I have ordered that it be taken down immediately and am taking steps to find out how this happened. . .
      - - -
     “. . . the message was posted by a traffic officer assigned to update the sign from a reminder about fireworks being illegal to a ‘more general traffic safety message.’
     “. . . The . . . officer who made the change ‘did not post the message with either malicious or political intent.’
     “ ‘The officer . . . was trying to type a traffic safety message in the limited space offered by the electronic sign . . .” (Ref. 47)

     “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, nut names will never hurt me!” When you were a child, remember, using that retort when someone called offended you? It served well to take care of the disparaging remark. Today, such is not the case. Any hint of affront requires immediate removal of the word or phrase from our common usage. Two idiotic examples of such folly:

     The Washington NFL franchise announced that it will drop the “Redskins” name and Indian head logo immediately after serving as the team’s name and symbol for 87 years.[48] The Redskins have been one of the oldest and most storied teams in the National Football League – but no more as America continues to submit to the demands of the PC mob.

     Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts will be changing its name to be “more inclusive” of the area’s Native American history, it was announced.[49] I might suggest it be renamed Redskin Village since the name “Redskins” will soon be available. With the elimination of the name Plimoth, can removal of all reference to the Pilgrims be far behind? After all, the arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth 400 years ago heralded the beginning of the takeover of the North American continent from the indigenous people who were living here at the time.

     America has truly lost its mind when we are not allowed to spread the message that: ALL LIVES MATTER! Instead, we are only allowed to spout the approved slogan that: Black Lives Matter! If this is not a perfect example of free speech being stifled, then I do not know what is. It now appears that all Americans must have their words approved in advance by a group of self-appointed censors. As has so often been the case, the first sign of despotism and loss of freedom has been the suppression of free speech - check out the histories of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and the rest of history’s great despots. Regrettably, America has now succumbed to the tyranny of the minority – FOR SHAME!

     Where are all those voices that once proclaimed the principles that made America Great??? Where are all those voices that once stood for free speech, for law and order, for justice for all and not just the few??? Where are all those voices that once stood for truth and not for demagoguery and fear mongering???

     When will Americans regain their common sense and start to use their own brains once again instead of playing “Follow the leader”??? When will Americans stop excoriating themselves for what took place well over a century ago and, instead, focus on what needs to be done today and tomorrow??? When will America end its current mad rush toward mob rule, disorder, and stupidity??? When will Americans remember the true guiding principles of “law and order”, and “all men are created equal”???
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