Students at George Washington University argued this week that America is not the greatest country on the planet.
In a series of interviews with Campus Reform, students at George Washington University said that they aren’t proud to be an American. In the video, several students say that they aren’t proud to be an American under President Donald Trump.
A constant chorus of George Washington University students tell Campus Reform correspondent Cabot Phillips that they are not proud to be American. Some briefly mention President Donald Trump as the reason why they are not proud to be American.
“I can’t be proud of a country that elected Trump,” one student said.
Other students offered more nuanced perspectives. “One of the most patriotic things a person can do is realize that there is a lot of problems, be willing to help solve those problems, and still love their country at the end of the day,” one student said.
“There are so many issues right now that I can’t say I’m proud to be an American,” another student said. “I think there are a lot of things to be proud of, but at the moment there are a lot more things we have to be ashamed of.”
Breitbart News reported on July 4 that Democrats have abandoned their love for America in many ways including but not limited to Nike’s decision to cancel a pair of sneakers that were set to feature the Betsy Ross flag and a recent New York Times feature questioning the greatness of America.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more campus updates.
On the morning of the Fourth of July, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who just finished nuking the Betsy Ross sneaker produced by Nike, decided to target the Fourth of July itself, cherry-picking from a speech by the great 19th century anti-slavery orator Frederick Douglass.
Kaepernick didn’t figure Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was paying attention, but he was, and Cruz, a student of history, proceeded to smash Kaepernick, pointing out that not only was Douglass pro-America, he venerated the Declaration of Independence itself, which was signed on the Fourth of July.
Kaepernick initiated his descent by tweeting a quote from Douglass: “‘What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.’ – Frederick Douglass.”
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.” – Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn
You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points: This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.
Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows: “Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
Cruz concluded, “Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice.”
You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points: https://t.co/x4oLfa9DrH
(1) This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.
“There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain.
“I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice: https://t.co/il9WNrmxho
Cruz was joined by Charles C.W. Cooke, the online editor for National Review, who added other quotes from Douglass’ speech:
Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery .. Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither …
“Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.” — Frederick Douglass
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 5, 2019
“Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither.” — Frederick Douglass
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 5, 2019
Kaepernick first started his journey into anti-American rhetoric when he refused to stand for the national anthem in the preseason NFL games of 2016, segueing to praising former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in November 2016 and later bashing the celebration of the Fourth of July in July 2017. One month later, NFL legend Jim Brown slammed Kaepernick, stating, “I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American. I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I’m not gonna do anything against the flag and the national anthem. I’m going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I’ll work out the problems, but I’ll do it in an intelligent manner.”
Fourth of July, the national celebration of combustion, presents an opportunity for atonement…. Maybe an Independence Day meal of pan-fried potatoes and grilled peaches seems un-American. But the tradition of backyard grilling isn’t exactly Jeffersonian in pedigree.
The leftist ingrates at Salon have decided to “celebrate” Independence Day — which is celebrated on July 4th for the sole reason that our beautiful republic’s Declaration of Independence was ratified on that day in Philadelphia in 1776 — today in a rather peculiar manner. In what can only be described as a dissemination of the most stereotypically woke of all stereotypically woke takes, the Salon dullards today tweeted: “Despite its positive impact on history, the #DeclarationOfIndependence was also a product of its time—and bears some of the shortcomings of its era, including racism, sexism and prejudice against #NativeAmericans.”
The accompanying piece, courtesy of an obscure Ph.D. named Matthew Rozsa, concludes that America’s Founding Fathers “were fallible human beings, and some of their flaws had terrible consequences for people who were not fortunate enough to be born into privileged groups.”
Suffice it to say that such a “celebration” of the Declaration of Independence is a far cry from how John Adams described his vision for future annual celebrations in a July 1776 letter to his wife Abigail: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
But Matthew Rozsa and Salon are not merely profoundly ungrateful. They are not merely flipping a proverbial middle finger to the epistolary legacy of John Adams. They are also affirmatively wrong to muddle and belittle the genius that was Thomas Jefferson’s drafted Declaration of Independence, and it is important to understand why.
Chattel slavery was the original sin of the American republic, and one would be an inveterate fool to deny that obvious truth. The continuation of slavery from the colonial era through the early decades of the constitutional republic represented a brutal compromise of annunciated principle for the sake of maintaining a fragile unity of disaggregated and often self-interested states.
But what Salon misses — and what leftists routinely miss — is that America’s original sin of chattel slavery was just that: A compromise of principle. Slavery was not in any way a tenet of the American Founding; it was an institution manifestly athwart the Founding. The sagacity of the Declaration, in fact, was that it actually laid the seeds — the very codified foundation — for the eventual eradication of that most horrific of compromises of principle.
For the greatest statesman in the history of the republic, Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration was precisely the tool he needed to latch onto in order to finally bring the American republic in conformity with its Founding-era principles. For Lincoln, the Declaration was paramount to understanding America — the Constitution, in fact, was to Lincoln merely an encompassing “frame of silver” for the Declaration’s underlying “apple of gold.” Lincoln spoke eloquently of that Founding-era creed — what he called the “political revolution of ’76” — all throughout his adult life, including during his famous 1842 speech to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society: “Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”
It is thus the Declaration — the “apple of gold” — that provided the Great Emancipator with the moral and intellectual sustenance he needed to “grow and expand … the universal liberty of mankind” insofar as that growth and expansion meant the eradication of America’s original sin. And the eradication of that original sin, following the bloody horror of the Civil War, tangibly took the eventual form of modifying the Constitution — the “frame of silver” — via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. For Lincoln, none of this would have been possible had it not been for the “electric cord” of the Declaration — which “links … patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
It is a great paradox of modern “progressivism” — the likes of which is embodied by Salon’s self-hating screed published today — that such insipid idiocy is, in the Coolidge formulation, not “progress” at all. It is “reactionary.”
The Democrat Party has been moving noticeably farther to the left, and President Trump’s pro-America policies and “Salute to America” celebration have driven many over the edge. There are countless examples of Hollywood figures, 2020 Democrats, media outlets, and businesses revealing their true colors.
Here is a handy list of notable entities and figures that have effectively turned on celebrating America.
Just days before Independence Day, Nike decided to pull its America-themed sneakers, featuring the Betsy Ross flag. Details on the decision were scarce, but it was later discovered Nike was responding to “concerns” over the symbolism of the early flag. According to the Wall Street Journal, Colin Kaepernick reached out to Nike following its decision and said he – as well as others – viewed it as an “offensive” symbol, citing the broad era of slavery.
As many pointed out on Twitter, the “controversial” flags served as a partial backdrop during former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
The city of Charlottesville decided it would no longer recognize the birthday of Founding Father and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. Instead, the city council voted to replace the April 13 celebration with Liberation and Freedom Day, which recognizes the emancipation black slaves.
Last month, George Washington High School announced plans to remove an “offensive” mural of the nation’s first president, with one speaker calling it a “visual offense.”
“Many critics of the mural have condemned its depictions of slaves and Native Americans. Now, the school is on the verge of removing the mural altogether,” Breitbart News reported.
New York Times Opinion tweeted out a controversial video two days before Independence Day, which made an argument against America’s greatness and status as a Shining City on a Hill. It called U.S. greatness a myth and hit a number of common left-wing talking points, dropping sarcastic lines like, “But we have freedom in America, and everyone’s jealous, or something” and ” The truth is, how great America is really depends on how rich you are.”
The myth of America as the greatest nation on earth is at best outdated and at worst, wildly inaccurate. If you look at data, the U.S. is really just O.K. pic.twitter.com/pFrWBH0Zfl
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) July 2, 2019
The presidential candidate weighed in on the Nike controversy and noted he supported the company’s decision. Interesting, though, is the way O’Rourke phrased the controversy. Emphasis added:
“I think its really important to take into account the impression that kind of symbol would have for many of our fellow Americans, respect the decision Nike made and grateful for the conversation,” O’Rourke told reporters.
It remains unclear why O’Rourke referred to the early American flag as “that kind of symbol.”
The Harvard University professor remarked on two tanks on the Mall – there for preparation ahead of the “Salute to America” celebration – observing what he considered a “resemblance to days before Tiananmen Square.”
He was not the only one either. There were many tank-inspired blue-check mark freakouts.
Tanks in the streets now? Shall we review the Dictator Checklist? You’re a narcissist who likes to put his name on buildings…you appoint family members to key govt positions..your rallies are scary…you threaten to lock up political opponents..your friends are other dictators
Many college professors, in addition to Lawrence Tribe, have taken to social media to express outrage over the “Salute to America” celebration. Here is a brief sampling:
Which world dictator does this describe?
— He orders a military parade to glorify himself — Has daughter and son-in-law to negotiate with other nations. — Places unwanted children in cages — Has his own propaganda TV channel — Cozies up to other dictators
The lesser-known Democrat presidential contender called the “Salute to America” event – celebrating American greatness and America’s military – “heartbreaking” and “repugnant,” just one day before July 4.
“Watching army tanks being hauled thru DC for Trump’s July 4 celebration is heartbreaking & repugnant,” she said before peddling her alternative live stream.
Watching army tanks being hauled thru DC for Trump’s July 4 celebration is heartbreaking & repugnant. Join me via livestream tomorrow for a true celebration of who we are and what we stand for. https://t.co/esuOA4ILj0pic.twitter.com/slgemLFNvr
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) July 3, 2019
The South Bend mayor appeared on CNN’s The Lead Wednesday and asserted that the big Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital “makes America look smaller.” He also accused the Trump administration of using the military as a prop.
“…the people who got our country started in the Revolution were skeptical of a presidency getting too much to look like a sort of imperial or royal office, and I’m afraid that’s the direction this president’s taking it in,” he added.
The left-wing filmmaker went on a tangent Wednesday, essentially calling President Trump a sociopath for desiring to celebrate and honor the U.S.
“In the face of a humanitarian crisis, that this malignant narcissist would steal taxpayer dollars to stage a partisan display of Autocracy to massage his damaged psyche is nothing short of sociopathic,” he tweeted.
In the face of a humanitarian crisis, that this malignant narcissist would steal taxpayer dollars to stage a partisan display of Autocracy to massage his damaged psyche is nothing short of sociopathic.
Author Stephen King, who is no stranger to making overreaching partisan statements, declared on Twitter that Trump’s decision to celebrate the military is a clear sign of dictatorship.
Trump’s big military parade? This is what dictators do.
Not to be outdone, actress turned activist Bette Midler posted a series of tweets leading up to Independence Day, insulting Trump personally and wondering what business America has celebrating its independence while France experiences a heat wave.
An unheard of 115 degrees in France, one of our allies, and Mr Trump is only interested in putting tanks on the Mall for his salute to himself July 4th. I am so ashamed.
He’s demanding big tanks on the mall, For his Fourth of July Big Ass Ball He wants soldiers, firecrackers, Flyovers and Fox yakkers And your taxes to pay for it all!!
#Trump was bragging about his 4th of July military parade again today. Of course, doubtful he’ll march in it. Bone spurs!! Let’s call his Independence Day celebration what it really is: “The 4th of You Lie!”
She also called Trump a #FatFuck who is essentially killing Independence Day.
So that #FatFuck has hijacked our most important national holiday, Independence Day, to promote his own re-election. Like Rick Wilson says, “Everything Trump touches Dies”. Wonder what he’ll do with Thanksgiving.
Trump’s failed challenger knocked the “Salute to America” celebration Independence Day morning, reducing it to an event designed to feed what she implies is Trump’s need to “show” his patriotism.
We need a strong national defense, but a president shouldn’t need it next to him in a parade to show his patriotism.
Gregory Lee Johnson, who was, as USA Today points out, “the man at the center of the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that protected the burning of the U.S. flag as constitutionally protected free speech” plans to burn the American flag in D.C. on Independence Day as a form of protest.
“I am going to D.C. on the Fourth of July and I’m going to burn the flag in protest (of his) whole fascist agenda,” Johnson reportedly told USA Today.
The hashtag trended Wednesday, but it appeared to be about more than the president himself. Left-wing social media users seemingly used the hashtag to list their range of grievances against the United States.
“There is nothing to celebrate about a country where one minority privileged class enslaves and terrorizes the masses,” one user lamented. “Nothing to celebrate about the extreme lack of class mobility, opportunity or basic freedoms in this country.”
“It’s the 4th of July but I’m not very proud to be an American today. Well, I haven’t been since election night actually,” another wrote.
“I am hoping for a monsoon with a tuch [sic] of lightning and high with gusts tomorrow,” another user tweeted, ahead of the “Salute to America” celebration.
Despite the critiques, the president remains excited to celebrate the greatness of America alongside fellow American patriots across the country.
People are coming from far and wide to join us today and tonight for what is turning out to be one of the biggest celebrations in the history of our Country, SALUTE TO AMERICA, an all day event at the Lincoln Memorial, culminating with large scale flyovers of the most modern…..
….and advanced aircraft anywhere in the World. Perhaps even Air Force One will do a low & loud sprint over the crowd. That will start at 6:00P.M., but be there early. Then, at 9:00 P.M., a great (to put it mildly) fireworks display. I will speak on behalf of our great Country!
Amidst the bleak news from a poll that found only 24 percent of 18 to 29-year olds are “extremely proud to be an American” comes a literary ray of hope from the heartland.
“We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don’t have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative and compulsively readable book that will offer to American readers a clear, informative, and inspiring narrative of their own country,” the book jacket explains:
Such an account can shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit and, by making them understand that land’s rots, and share in its memories, will equip them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society.
“The existing texts,” the jacket notes continue, “simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction.”
They are more likely to reflect the skeptical or partial outlook of specialized professional academic historians, an outlook that leads to a fragmented and fractured view of modern American society and fails to convey to American readers the greater arc of their own history. Or they disproportionately reflect the outlook of radical critics of American society, whose one-sided accounts lack the balance of a larger perspective and have had an enormous, and largely negative, effect upon the teaching of American history in American high schools and colleges.
“This state of affairs,” the notes conclude, “cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences.”
The results of the recent poll demonstrate clearly those serious consequences for our country have already arrived.
The Gallup Poll released on July 2 found that “U.S. adults’ extreme pride in being American has been steadily weakening in recent years, and the current reading, from a June 3-16 Gallup poll, marks the lowest point to date. However, the latest two-percentage-point decline from last year’s 47% is not a statistically significant change.”
The dramatically different responses by age group to this simple question illustrate the warnings for our nation’s future: How proud are you to be an American: extremely proud, very proud, moderately proud, or not at all proud?
While 45 percent of American adults are extremely proud to be an American, only 24 percent of adults age 18 to 29 are extremely proud:
Extremely proud to be an American, by age:
45 percent–All US adults
24 percent — 18 to 29
38 percent — 30 to 49
57 percent — 50 to 64
63 percent — 65 and older
Pride in America is clearly a partisan issue, the poll demonstrates. While 76 percent of Republicans are extremely proud to be American, only 22 percent of Democrats are extremely proud to be citizens of the greatest country on earth. Among independents, 41 percent are extremely proud.
Not surprisingly, the progressive liberal ideology of those who control K-12 public education in America–their lack of pride in our country–has shaped the political philosophy of those who are age 18 to 29, and continues to shape the world view of the 50 million plus children aged 5 to 18 who attend public schools in the country.
But the damage, though severe, is not irreversible. The challenge, however, is how to get the balanced view of America presented by McClay into the hands of America’s secondary school students.
Consider, for instance, how McClay treats the issue of slavery and the founding of the republic:
The ambivalences regarding slavery that had been built into the Constitution were almost certainly unavoidable in the short term in order to achieve an effective political union in the nation. What we need to understand is how the original compromise no longer became acceptable to increasing numbers of Americans, especially in one part of the Union, and why slavery, a ubiquitous institution in human history, came to be seen not merely as an unfortunate evil but as a sinful impediment to human progress, a stain upon the whole nation. We live today on the other side of a great transformation in moral sensibility, a transformation that was taking place, but was not yet completed, in the very years the United States was being formed.
Hence, it would be profoundly wrong to contend, as some do, that the United States was “founded on” slavery. No, it was founded on other principles entirely, on principles of liberty and self-rule that had been discovered and defined and refined and enshrined through the tempering effects of several turbulent centuries of European and British and American history. Those foundational principles would win out in the end, though not without much struggle and striving, and eventual bloodshed. The United States enjoyed a miraculous birth, but it was not the product of an unstained conception and an untroubled delivery. Few things are.
Predictably, the K-12 public education bureaucracy and “industrial complex”–the giant publishers like Pearson and McGraw Hill–are not clamoring for McClay’s book. In fact, it was left to Encounter Books to publish Land of Hope.
While turning the tide in the generational decline in a true understanding of the American story is a long and torturous project, filled with opposition at every step, it can begin in every community by seeing that the message from Land of Hope is delivered to the generation of young Americans who have not yet reached the age of 18.
The far-left Walt Disney Company is now butchering its own classics to satisfy America’s Woke Fascists.
Although the company has not officially announced the burning of Toy Story 2, CBS News reports that the company chose to memory-hole a joke in the movie, a movie that is widely regarded as a masterpiece:
Disney quietly deleted a scene from “Toy Story 2” that appeared to joke about casting couch sex — a widely discussed topic when the #MeToo movement hit Hollywood. The change was made, with no announcement, to a new version of the 1999 hit that came out earlier this year.
The deleted scene came during a gag reel in the end credits, which shows blooper-style scenes involving the film’s animated characters. It depicts the character Stinky Pete the Prospector, voiced by Kelsey Grammer, flirting with two Barbie dolls.
“You know, I’m sure I could get you a part in ‘Toy Story 3,’” Stinky Pete says, as he strokes one of the Barbies’ hands. He then realizes he’s on camera and excuses the Barbies. “All right girls, lovely talking with you,” he says. “Yes, any time you’d like some tips on acting, I’d be glad to chat with you. All right, off you go, then.”
A perfectly harmless joke. What’s more, it’s a joke that treats shameful behavior as though it’s shameful, and still the un-American Orwellians at Disney censored themselves, blacklisted their own work, vandalized a classic piece of American art.
Sadly, this is not the first and will certainly not be the last time Disney chooses to appease the mob over protecting artistic integrity.
Disney has already removed Song of the South from distribution and, to appease the Clintons, buried the factual miniseries Path to 9/11.
Every time I warn of the slippery slope, as I did when a New York movie critic called for banningGone with the Wind, as I did when no less than the Washington Postcalled forBaby It’s Cold Outside to be banned, when Huckleberry Finn was banned, when To Kill a Mockingbird was banned, when Little House on the Prairie was banned, when Steve Martin’s comedy was banned, when I warned that one day Blazing Saddles will be outlawed, I am howled at as a crank and alarmist. But look at where we are now…
Disney is disappearing stupid, harmless jokes.
If a casting couch joke is not safe, what is?
The answer to that question is… Nothing.
Nothing is safe.
Nothing is safe and the saddest part of all is that this is self-censorship, corporate censorship, censorship at the hands of a handful of multi-national corporations that have seized the levers of artistic distribution and ownership, that have the legal authority to do whatever they want to countless classic film and television shows.
Speaking of television shows, The Simpsonsbastardized itself earlier this year because a couple of grown men now claim they were molested by a Michael Jackson who cannot defend himself because he’s dead.
I fear that what we are seeing here is only the beginning of a purity crusade, a cleansing, a literal and figurative book burning that has already begun and has done so for exactly the reasons spelled out in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: [emphasis added]
“Now let’s take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don’t step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. … It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade journals.”
…
“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won’t stomach them for a minute.”
…
“Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. … Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
And like the books in Fahrenheit 451, the original, un-vandalized copies of Songof the South, The Simpsons, Toy Story 2, Huckleberry Finn, and Path to 9/11 can only be grabbed up before they are burned.
And then we will have to whisper about, share, and pass them on in the hopes they will be remembered as they were before the Woke Firemen brought their conflagration.
Censoring art is as un-American as it gets.
It starts with Confederate statues, leads to George Washington’s birthday, the Betsy Ross flag, and Toy Story 2, and ends … well, it never ends.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
A Florida resident decided to go big this year with his 4th of July decorations to show support for military and law enforcement.
Jason Stanley of Plant City, Florida, said he used 15 gallons of paint to create a massive American flag display on his lawn.
Jason Stanley of Plant City, Florida said he used 15 gallons of paint to create a massive American flag display on his lawn (Fox 32).
“I’m a true believer that if it wasn’t for soldiers and law enforcement being there for us and giving their lives on duty, that I wouldn’t be able to do this,” he told reporters.
Stanley said it took him and his daughter six hours to complete the project, adding that he wanted to dedicate the time because military and law enforcement sacrifice so much for the country.
“Without those people, we couldn’t take the time out of our lives,” Stanley commented. “The world is too ugly right now, the way people are — they don’t stop to think and cherish the things they have. One day isn’t enough to give thanks to those giving their lives.”
A Texas teenager had a similar idea when he decided to mow a flag into his front lawn after a friend who served in the Army was killed recently while on duty.
Cameron James, 17, told reporters he changed the settings on the mower to create the flag that took him four hours to complete.
“Our mower has different settings, so I just changed the settings so the grass would be different lengths for the stripes,” he said, adding, “It was a lot of work. But it was worth it.”
President Trump is planning to celebrate July 4th during a “Salute to America” event that will take place at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday evening. Plans include an address given by the president, military aircraft flyovers, and military musical performances, Breitbart News reported.
“We’re gonna have a great Fourth of July in Washington, DC. It’ll be like no other. It’ll be special, and, I hope, follow a lot of people … and it’s going to be about this country, and it’s a salute to America,” the president said Monday.
In response to his critics who said the celebration is too costly, President Trump tweeted Wednesday that the cost “will be very little compared to what it is worth.”
“We own the planes, we have the pilots, the airport is right next door (Andrews), all we need is the fuel. We own the tanks and all. Fireworks are donated by two of the greats,” he said.
A Christian who was expelled from his university for expressing a biblical view on marriage has celebrated winning his latest legal battle, calling it a victory for freedom of speech and religious conscience.
In 2015, Felix Ngole had defended U.S. state official Kim Davis, who had refused to register same-sex marriages in her state of Kentucky, writing on an open Facebook page: “Same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words.”
Mr Ngole at the time had been studying for a Master’s degree in social work at the University of Sheffield, but two months after the Christian student stated the biblical position on marriage he was informed by university administrators that his comments were being investigated. After a professional fitness to practice (FtP) hearing, the university panel deemed Mr Ngole’s comments “derogatory of gay men and bisexuals” and he was expelled from the course.
Mr Ngole took his case to court to have the university’s decision overturned, stating that the decision was a violation of his right to freedom of thought and speech. In 2017, deputy high court Judge Rowena Collins Rice sided with the university.
However on Wednesday, three Court of Appeal judges overruled that judgement, saying Sheffield University’s disciplinary proceedings were flawed and that the institution should reconsider its decision through another FtP hearing, reportsThe Guardian.
The university had ruled that because Mr Ngole was taking a “professionally qualifying degree” in social care, the openly-shared comments may be of offence to people he may encounter or work with in the future.
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 2, 2019
“This is great news, not only for me and my family, but for everyone who cares about freedom of speech, especially for those working in or studying for caring professions,” the 41-year-old from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, said.
“As Christians we are called to serve others and to care for everyone, yet publicly and privately we must also be free to express our beliefs and what the Bible says without fear of losing our livelihoods,” he added.
Despite expressing regret that four years of his life were lost to battling his case for religious freedom and freedom of speech, Mr Ngole said: “…I feel overwhelming joy that what I have lost will be so much gain to Christians today and in the future as a result of this important ruling for freedom.”
A Sheffield University spokesman claimed that, while the institution “supports the rights of students to hold and debate a wide range of views and beliefs”, with regards to students enrolled on courses leading to a professional registration, it has a “responsibility to look at how any concerns raised could impact a student’s fitness to practise once registered”.
The spokesman added that the institution “will be considering its response to the judgment”.
Last month, a Christian NHS nurse who was fired for “religious fervour” in the workplace lost her appeal for unfair dismissal. Mother of three Sarah Kuteh had been dismissed for a number of alleged offences including giving a cancer patient a bible and asking them to pray with her.
Last July, Christian doctor David Mackereth was fired for standing by his faith and acceptance of science that there are only two immutable genders, when he referred to patients by their biological sex.
Christian Teacher Fired, Reported to Counter-Terror Unit After Telling Lesbian ‘God Loves You’ https://t.co/z6FgStdNYQ
Everything American is racist, according to the left. Via Washington Times: CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Charlottesville, Virginia, will no longer celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday as an official city holiday and instead will observe a day recognizing the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. The city council voted Monday night to scrap the decades-old April 13 holiday honoring the […]
Fourth of July, the national celebration of combustion, presents an opportunity for atonement…. Maybe an Independence Day meal of pan-fried potatoes and grilled peaches seems un-American. But the tradition of backyard grilling isn’t exactly Jeffersonian in pedigree.
