Facts matter in the current racism debate, guest blogger Sonja

The mayor of Columbus, Ohio is lying to the citizens who elected him. We have a friend on the police force, and one CPD friend retired.  We heard about the stand down orders directly that is allowing the downtown to be smashed and looted, making it unsafe to drive there. He is a Democrat. Sonja posted the following on Facebook.
“Facts, facts, facts. They are our only defense to emotion, manipulation and systematic media and SJW misinformation and fraud. Mr. Scanlon is a St. Catherine and Bishop Hartley graduate and expert in police training and tactics.”
James J. Scanlon Columbus Division of Police – Retired
Columbus Ohio City Council Meeting June 29, 2020:
“Good Evening Council members. My name is James J. Scanlon. I am a retired Columbus Police officer. Between 1978 and 2011, I primarily worked night shifts, protecting the good citizens who live in our inner-city precincts. I loved being there and they loved having me there. Like thousands of other CPD Officers, I protected them against the criminal gangs, robbers and other predators. Now – criminals and their families didn’t like me being there. But, as cops, we are more concerned about what good and decent people think about us than the thugs that hurt and intimidate those good people.
Mayor Ginther and members of City Council have waged an on-going assault upon the fine men and women of the Columbus Division of Police. It is shameful how you and other city officials have demonized these officers and misinformed the public into believing they are a group of “rogue, racist cops”. All of you have relentlessly and falsely accused the Columbus Division of Police, and its officers, of being complicit in a culture of systematic racism. Due to my 42 year involvement with the Columbus Division of Police, I know that you are spreading falsehoods.
Mayor Ginther has stated that “countless black men and women have died at the hands of police officers”. That statement was both false and dangerously inflammatory. There have not been “countless” police-involved shooting deaths.
Here are some facts:
· There are 600,000 – 800,000 Columbus Police encounters with individuals per year.
· There were 7 black suspects fatally shot by CPD Officers in 2016
· 4 in 2017
· 5 in 2018
· 1 in 2019
In every single case, the suspects were armed and threatening.
Facts matter! Each of these incidents has been thoroughly investigated and presented to the ultimate “citizen review board” – a grand jury.
Mayor Ginther, you will be pleased to learn that, in those four years, if you were not armed and threatening, the odds of a black suspect being fatally shot by a Columbus Police Officer was exactly zero. You have every reason to be proud of the police officers you have been tasked to lead.
But, at last week’s City Council news conference, Council members falsely vilified CPD Officers for racist, systematic abuse and murder of African-American men and women. No facts or statistics were used to support their lame accusations. Instead, Council President pro-tem Brown went so far as to condemn a specific CPD police-involved shooting, citing a “skewed system that resulted in the death of Henry Green”.
Many of you have spread a great deal of misinformation concerning the Henry Green Case, leaving many Columbus citizens to believe that officers gunned down Mr. Green for no reason. In reality, Mr. Green was shot by police officers after he fired 6 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition at the officers from a distance of 14 feet or less. Those rounds came within inches of striking officers, lodging in the car door that one officer was behind and a headrest the other had been in front of seconds earlier. Mr. Green was carrying a stolen Glock .45 caliber handgun loaded with those 6 rounds. I believe these to be relevant facts in the case. It’s too bad the public never heard these facts from their City of Columbus elected officials. By the way, under the new “reforms”, how many rounds need to be fired at an officer before that officer may fire back?!
By not addressing specifics, Mayor Ginther and City Council members have purposely misled the public into believing Columbus Police Officers are routinely killing innocent black men. Their false narrative has greatly damaged the public’s opinion of this amazing agency and created the most dangerous situation I have ever witnessed in this city.
Facts matter! You should be ashamed of yourselves for misrepresenting the facts, misinforming the public and driving a wedge between the citizens of Columbus and their fine police department.”

Eggs, meat and dementia

Will researchers ever make up their minds about meat and eggs? This study says it protects us from dementia.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190806101530.htm

“The new study now shows that the risk of dementia was 28% lower in men with the highest intake of dietary phosphatidylcholine, when compared to men with the lowest intake. Men with the highest intake of dietary phosphatidylcholine also excelled in tests measuring their memory and linguistic abilities. These findings are significant, considering that more than 50 million people worldwide are suffering from a memory disorder that has led to dementia, and the number is expected to grow as the population ages. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, for which no cure currently exists. The new findings may, therefore, play a vital role in the prevention of dementia. Successful dementia prevention is a sum of many things and in this equation, even small individual factors can have a positive effect on the overall risk, possibly by preventing or delaying the disease onset.”

Needs more study . . .

Reeducation camps on college campus and in China for Uyghurs

The Uyghurs, alternately Uygurs, Uighurs or Uigurs, [pronounced Wee-gers] are a Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group originating in Central and East Asia. They are Muslims. These days you hear about them being imprisoned in camps and reeducated by the Chinese [aka Communists]. I first heard of them at a Lakeside lecture over a decade ago, when the world began to find out about how they were being discriminated against and stripped of their unique culture.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-uighur-camps-swell-as-beijing-widens-the-dragnet-1534534894?

When I see what is happening in our schools and universities, I often think of that name. Wee-gers. The difference is, our children aren't going against their will. We're sending them and paying exorbitant fees to have a generation stripped of their religion and values.

The Obamacare battle during a pandemic

Yes, indeed, this might be just the right time to talk about Obamacare and what it denied and what it provided. We've just seen how the government can deny us medical care by claiming a greater need--for hospitals to have enough respirators and masks, you can't have your hip surgery or heart cath. We've experienced "access" staring at a screen on the smart phone and hearing a mumble from a cave. We've experienced denial to visit relatives on lockdown because of government directives run by bureaucrats. It's government health care at its most grim.

There are similarities to 2009 when 85% of us not already on a government plan lost the health care we liked and got a substitution because 15% of us wouldn't sign up for what was already available through Medicaid, or VA, or wouldn't pay a co-pay from their employer. Millions of Americans lost health care they liked, lost doctors who'd been treating them for years. There is already a cradle to grave health care system provided by our government--it is the BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs. Can you image Pelosi accepting that for her grandchildren?

Now we've learned no matter how good our insurance is we can lose access to health care in a New York minute, (or an Ohio governor's minute). And you're so naïve to think the government couldn't do it again when Joe Biden wants you to go to jail for not having Obamacare?

Dressed for the farmer’s market

Skin is your largest organ, so I go covered. I wear a mask to protect me from your germs, breath and droplets. "As of right now, respiratory droplets are considered the main way the coronavirus is spreading, according to the CDC. The center's site states, "These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs."

The Farmer's Market has moved from "downtown" up to the old stone school building 7th and Walnut. Don't bring a bag--you can't use them. I got a lovely rhubarb pie, a quart of peaches and a tomato. Not as many vendors, but a good size crowd. Health challenged can go at 8:30 and otherwise opens to public at 9 a.m., Tuesday and Friday.

What is our culture, our society?

If this isn't a racist society or culture, what is it?

• A culture of excellence. A culture of achievement.
• A culture of do-overs.
• A culture of second or third chances.
• A culture of competition. A culture of love of neighbor.
• A culture that respects history with all its flaws.
• A culture of religious freedom or freedom to have no religion.
• A culture of generosity and love.
• A culture of families making life better for their kids.
• A culture of immigrants, refugees and old timers living and succeeding together.
• A culture with respect for education, the arts, hard work, amber waves of grain, and old glory waving.
• A culture of nationalism, patriotism, good old boys, and ladies night out.
• A culture of freedom of the press and freedom of speech (increasingly controlled by the fat cats of technology).

A culture where the people are ready to say, enough already.

News from the frontline in Columbus, Ohio

Here is information from last night from a friend on the front line downtown. Again, you are NOT seeing the truth in the news or from anyone in government. This has not been about George Floyd for a long time!  Bonnie (a retired Columbus police officer)

“I am typically a very patient, understanding person especially at work, but what I witnessed tonight in downtown Columbus was intolerable and they should all be ashamed of themselves. I am writing this post so you can all understand what is truly going on. These people are absolutely not peaceful. Tonight this group stole construction equipment and blocked the streets so cars could not pass. This group broke into businesses and stole property. This group physically blocked vehicles from traveling around downtown by stopping cars in the middle of the street. This group screams profanities constantly and threatens to kill officers and their families. I am so proud of the officers I work with. I nearly lost my temper on so many occasions tonight, and we have been dealing with this "group" for a month now. Things are not getting better. I promise you. These are paid agitators who could care less about equality and justice. They are rude, violent, and destructive. Please, pray for something to change soon. This has to stop. They are destroying the city.”

The assumption of rising violence against Blacks

Every article I read about BLM--left, right, middle, Christian, secular, black or white--begins with the obligatory statement about violence against Black Americans by whites. Nonsense.

Violence was at an all time high in the early 90s--over 25 years ago--and is half what it was then. And violence has decreased far more in the black community than white. The only systemic violence against Blacks is from the left, in the killing chambers of abortion clinics. Otherwise, Blacks outside the womb are far safer now than 25 years ago.

Then the next error in these articles, posts or memes, and this one usually from the Christians who vote for Democrats, or Christians who don't vote at all or Democrats who don't like Christians is that more government money or programs, in other words, doing more of what we've been doing for 60 years, will somehow work the next time. (Kind of like the socialism thing--we'll get it right the next time.) For some reason, usually lack of information from MSM (CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, NYT) which they slavishly watch or read, they don't know these programs have been bipartisan, supported by both parties, in fact, some of the most successful like EITC have been from Republicans. By ignoring our bipartisan failures, they get to demonize Republicans and demand everyone vote for Democrats--again.

A third error is white people who rend their garments about systemic racism can't even tell you what they personally are doing wrong even though they say they are part of the system. Or if they can think of something, they won't remedy it without demanding other people change.

The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people. Not police. Not the schools. Not the government. And it’s the same for whites, Asians, lesbians, etc. although higher for blacks.  This not "whataboutism." Listen to the Chicago statistics for this past week-end. Where are the marches, riots and looting for these invisible victims?

Systemic racism charges

If your pastor or priest or rabbi solemnly intones the myth of "systemic racism" from the safe and sanitary virtual pulpit, please write or call him immediately and offer to be his/her confessor for all the racist acts and thoughts he/she personally has made in the last week, or month or year as part of the system.

The system which is

their community,

their congregation,

their church,

their theological school,

their alumni association,

their PTA,

their pension plan,

their fair housing group,

their gated community,

their social clubs,

their children and parents,

where they eat

where they shop or

where they vacation.

That's just a small start because in a myth that vague and all encompassing which moves on storm waves of fairy tales of microaggression and unconscious bias, everything is part of the system. That sets the bar so high, no one will ever be pure and it can be funded FOREVER by foundations, corporate guilt, taxes and reparations.

Yet it is so vague, the accuser can be blameless. She can post signs and make jokes about politicians or a party not to her liking. So demand some answers. Why would you, who doesn't believe the myth of systemic racism, have to listen to charges of criminality, hate crimes and sin without proof of participation and then be expected to drop money in the virtual collection plate (please click on the screen, and follow directions, etc.) ?

And ask your black friends--and I mean real friends, not the gardener you hire for the church lawn or the academic colleague working on a grant application--please ask them what in the USA or your denomination is holding them back--today, yesterday this past month

Ask them if they've been a victim of a violent or property crime and who was the offender.

Ask them if they were denied a promotion because of racism. Ask them if they were denied service in a store or restaurant. Ask them if they were turned away from medical care (other than during the pandemic).

If they can't think of anything, then please step away and work on your own issues. If they can, ask them what government program not already in place will improve their life. If they do have something to contribute, set about changing yourself.

Unacceptable

This is not acceptable. Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (UALC) still doesn't have an opening date, and when it finally gets there (I guess we need more money and more staff?):

• The Traditional service will be held during the week with the day and time yet to be determined. A video recording of the service will be available on the following Sunday morning. Holding the service during the week allows us to:

o Make good use of our preaching and presiding staff.
o Record the service for online worshipers.
o Potentially increase the number of services (and thus allow for more worshipers) by adding services on additional days. This will keep us from having to turn over the sanctuary between worship hours and helps to minimize risk for all involved.

And it's all for the health of us old folks.

Our nearby neighbor, St. Andrew reopened in May. "On Tuesday, May 26, we will resume the celebration of public daily Masses at 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. May 30/31 will mark the return to Sunday Masses with our NEW SCHEDULE: 4:30 p.m. (Saturday Vigil) and 7:30, 9:15 and 11 a.m. on Sundays. The sanctuary will reopen for prayer throughout the week beginning Tuesday, May 26 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m."

Saturday night in Lakeside

Last night in the park at Lakeside, Ohio, we enjoyed a Fleetwood Mac tribute group. They were as happy to see us as we were to see them. They hadn't had a gig since Valentine's Day. It's not my music, but it was a large crowd, socially distancing and wearing masks. We were all happy to be together, while safely apart. It baffles me that with all the talent, skill and college degrees we have on the staff of our churches, no one can come up with a plan that serves God and man.

It seems Christians don't have ushers who can pass out masks, or volunteers to wipe down benches and pews after use, or organizers who are as flexible as other non-profits, or soloists in place of community singing, or parking lots and parks.

We are facing enemies every bit as evil as those warned about in the Old Testament, yet we have a spirit of timidity and fear that I could never have imagined in my parents' generation, who by the time I was 5 years old had lived through WWI, the 1918 pandemic, the Great Depression and WWII, and increasingly outbreaks of polio. To my knowledge they never closed their little rural churches, some of which may not have had indoor plumbing let alone fancy high tech computers and Bible studies using Zoom.

MIT priest loses job because he doesn’t follow BLM dogma

"In a blog post and an email to [MIT] students published at the beginning of June, [Fr. Daniel] Moloney spoke out about the errors of the new approach to fighting racism — dividing people, accusing them of prejudice, and canceling those who disobey — and called instead for a Christian path of charity and solidarity." You know, like MLK.

He also committed the sin of pointing out there was not yet evidence that Chauvin was motivated by racism in the death of Floyd. And as we all have discovered after weeks of rioting, all that is needed is a cell phone video to convict, not constitutional rights.

An official of MIT objected to this sort of "hate" speech, and that Maloney didn't bow to the BLM dogma, so the Archdiocese of Boston didn't back him and asked for his resignation.

I think statues of Martin Luther King, Jr. will be next.

https://spectator.org/father-moloney-mit-george-floyd-racism-boston/

This is your Democrat party

From open boarders to defund the police. From sanctuary cities to autonomous zones. From knock down confederate statues to dismantle Abraham Lincoln emancipation memorial. From terrorizing people wearing MAGA hats to terrorizing the nation. From criticizing the President for holding a Bible in front of a church to defacing that same church by looters and thugs. From Democrat controlled Minneapolis to anarchist controlled cities all over the nation.

THIS is your Democrat party controlled by a few culture killing mobs in our society.

Indoctrination and mind control

As we are all distracted by marches, rioting and tearing down statues of emancipators and liberators, you should track down and object to the brainwashing your children and grandchildren are getting in schools and universities from the organizers and funding groups of BLM and ANTIFA.  Much of this preceded their existence and has been building in influence and power incrementally since the 1980s through diversity and inclusion programming. And now it’s a perfect storm.

I reviewed the indoctrination for Ohio State medical staff and found it appalling. It begins with a statement of fact (not theory, hypothesis or idea) that systemic racism exists and is a health crisis (OSU and Columbus have declared it a health problem which gets more grants from the federal government, the life line for all state universities). The solution is it must be destroyed through various manipulative and compulsory methods, and if you disagree or publish research to the contrary, you are a racist and part of the problem. No disagreement or alternate views allowed.

It essentially, invalidates all programs, changes, research, efforts and good will established or instilled since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and our remarkable achievements unknown in the history of the world since outlawing slavery in our costliest war in blood and treasure of our history.

It also ignores the actual fact that there are 30-40 million slaves in the 21st century and suggests instead we focus on microaggression and unconscious bias instead of real pain, actual health problems and tragedy of millions, much of it still coming from Africa.

Corporate Socialism by Michael Rechtenwald

“For anyone wondering about corporate socialism and what I mean by it, it's very simple: State socialism is socialist only "on the ground." There's nothing "socialist" about the state itself within socialism. Those who run the state don't live according to socialist principles. They are the ruling elite. They control the means of production. They live like oligarchs, because they are essentially oligarchs.

The same goes for "corporate socialism." There's nothing "socialist" about the corporationists  who run the corporate socialist system. They are the ruling elite. They don't live according to socialist principles. They are oligarchs.

In both cases, socialism is promoted to and for the masses. Both are two-tiered systems: oligarchy on top, "socialism" on the ground. Both are monopolistic.

There is nothing pure in this world.

The difference between corporate and state socialism is just who is in control of the resources and the means of production--the state actors in one case, the corporatists in the other.

The difference between corporate socialism and mere cronyism is that under corporate socialism the corporate socialists promote socialism on the ground--in order to satiate the masses, eliminate competition, and pretend to be noble.”

And who financed the Russian revolution?  A different viewpoint. https://youtu.be/PaFklTLNy8c  Professor Antony Sutton

I don’t have a smart phone, but 8 out of 10 do

If telemedicine/virtual care were so wonderful, and it didn't mean poorer care and limited access why weren't they using it before to solve all those health care gaps we'd heard about? Almost all poor and minority groups have smart phones. According to Pew (in 2019) black and Hispanic adults have mobile devices such as smartphones in shares similar to whites. About eight-in-ten whites, blacks and Hispanics own a smartphone.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/20/smartphones-help-blacks-hispanics-bridge-some-but-not-all-digital-gaps-with-whites/

You Will Obey! Ohio State’s mandatory reeducation camp

“If you haven’t already, you must complete the mandatory sexual misconduct education by Tuesday, June 30. Everyone plays a key role in keeping Ohio State safe, and it’s important to know how to identify, disrupt and report sexual misconduct. The course is required for all faculty, staff and student employees.”

Marxist controlled BLM is defacing the achievements of Blacks

It's mind blowing that for decades statues of Lincoln and other emancipators and abolitionists have quietly witnessed to our achievements and withstood the Democrat control of our parks, cities and states. Now when the country has enjoyed a renaissance of black wealth, record low unemployment and entrepreneurship, when Blacks achieved the pinnacle of power at all levels of government and control all major cities, their history has to be defaced, destroyed and burned.

Only 13% of black voters turned out to vote in Barack Obama as the first black president in 2008, although 95% of those who voted, chose him. So obviously, without overwhelming support from Whites, Obama would have not made it to the most powerful office in the world. Yet, there is a very desperate, but well organized element in our society trying to obscure that achievement in color blindness of our country. There is a plot to keep Blacks back, to deny their success and achievements. Almost as if there were a very sinister force or cloud taking over. . .

Destruction of the Emancipation statue

I watched a Black woman on TV "explain" to a crowd (mostly young white adults) why the Lincoln emancipation statue needed to be destroyed--it showed slaves subservient and didn't represent how they participated in the emancipation. I suppose there's an element of truth there, but it is art and it also didn't show Lincoln as a man much vilified for his beliefs, his lack of a formal education and his physical appearance.

It particularly did not show the many free Blacks of that pre-war time who owned slaves. They owned slaves at a higher rate than southern whites according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. PBS host and Obama's friend and mentor.

I was probably in my 30s or 40s before I found out that before the Civil War freed Blacks in the U.S. owned slaves. I don't recall that was covered in American history in high school or college. But it wasn't until Prof. Gates wrote about it, that I learned that free Blacks owned slaves at a much higher rate than whites, something like 25% compared to about 1.5%.

Free American Blacks were voting before the Revolution (long before women) and most likely helped ratify the amendments and send the men to Congress. There were very wealthy free Blacks who owned a lot of property as well as small businessmen and craftsmen of all manner of the arts in the South.

That would be hard to show in a piece of art, but BLM leaders should at least acknowledge it and reject the white Marxists who are now in control of their movement.

It’s science unless it isn’t

“For the first two months following the coronavirus outbreak, public-health experts insisted that we “follow the science” and implement their recommendations, even if it meant millions of lost jobs and significant restrictions on constitutionally protected activities, such as church attendance and freedom of assembly. Blue-state governors quickly positioned themselves as executors of this neutral scientific knowledge, condemning anti-lockdown protesters as “anti-scientific;” meantime, social media companies banned anti-lockdown groups and censored content from lockdown skeptics.

But when protests erupted in the U.S. after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, many public-health experts reversed course—and subordinated “science” to their activist politics. The same doctors and nurses who once shamed churchgoers released petitions in support of Black Lives Matter and marched with tens of thousands of protesters in the streets. They categorized racism as a public-health threat and rationalized their participation in street demonstrations by deeming Covid-19 transmission the lesser of two evils. In other words, public-health experts rejected science in favor of progressive politics.”

https://www.city-journal.org/beware-the-progressive-scientific-alliance

Why Is It So Hard to Talk about Race?

Ohio State University is announcing yet another useless discussion, or  “conversation.” When race and conversation appear together you know you’re about to get a lecture and a dose of “reeducation” about how terrible the U.S., and you're a part of it because you're white. It's microaggression and unconscious bias.  It’s not about racial equality. It's indoctrination. It's about power. And now the same people who apparently failed with billions of dollars in grants over the last 50 years, are going to fix it. Like Nancy Pelosi--after 40 years in government she'll get it right this time by knocking down statues.  You should see the bold black letters on the website of the Kirwin Institute. SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIVES MATTER.  The Kirwin is almost 20 years old.  It's a relic of the failed liberal/left model of academe and they are racing to catch up, to pretend to be "woke." The educators who have led the way for so many years with failed programs have completely lost control of the narrative and handed it over to the anarchists.  And by the way, William "Brit" Kirwin is a white man.

Announcement:

Amid unprecedented levels of attention on racial equality, it can still be difficult to name and discuss the problems we face. Hosted by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, this webinar addresses the challenges people of color and white people have when discussing race, including realities and the fear of consequences. The webinar is Thursday, June 25 from 1-2 p.m.” 

I  looked through some of its annual reports and research articles.  No solutions, just harangues.  Nothing about schools that succeed, small businesses that promote wealth, community organizations that actually improve conditions. Nope.  Mortgage discrimination; health disparities; payday loan rip offs.  So, if all that money spent and staff salaries paid out, perhaps they can join the anarchists.

Toledo isn’t very healthy

Holy Toledo!  It’s at the bottom of 100 cities for heart health. 100.  It’s about what we eat, and how much we exercise, and our smoking and drinking habits. It's lifestyle, and we have control over that.

https://www.13abc.com/video?vid=571489272

Detroit is Number 99.

In the summer, we’re close by in Lakeside and our TV local news comes from Toledo.

Why destroy statues?

Destruction of public property and historic statues of abolitionists and liberators is definitely serious business. Taking the perps and vandals seriously (except to arrest them) is just stupid. It's appalling to hear city leaders, state governors, and pastors of conservative churches this naïve. They are paying blackmail to the mob. Where is their common sense? Are they truly riddled with guilt or just trying to buy some time?

This has never been about the Civil War, the Confederate flag, who fought on which side, what 15th century explorer worked for which European nation or which politicians weren't perfect 75 years ago. It's not even about the police.

This is a revolution. READ THEIR WEBSITES. It isn't a secret. They are far more transparent than Pelosi and Schumer. It is about bringing the country down, destroying loyalty, ridiculing values, and infecting young people with the virus of hate.

As some other pundit has noted, you don't see the HVAC installer attacking statues, it's the dumb and dumber graduates of Yale and Harvard.

"Crowds outside the Wisconsin State Capitol tore down two statues, attacked a state senator and threw a Molotov cocktail into a government building amid protests following the arrest of a black man who shouted at restaurant customers through a megaphone while carrying a baseball bat. Officers inside the Capitol used pepper spray to repel protesters who were trying to gain entry into the historic center of state government, Madison police said. Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Wednesday said he was prepared to activate the Wisconsin National Guard to protect state properties." CLG Update June 25

One of the statues was of Civil War Col. Hans Christian Heg, an anti-slavery activist and leader of an anti-slave catcher militia in Wisconsin who fought for the Union and died from injuries suffered during the Battle of Chickamauga. So you see it has nothing to do with good guys vs. bad guys. 

One rioter engaged in destruction defended it saying slavery really hadn't ended in Wisconsin, despite its progressive image because blacks were imprisoned in the penitentiaries (njb: usually for crimes against other blacks).

SCOTUS decision on LGBT and Title VII

This was a bad decision, not because workers with special sexual interests and behaviors should be fired without cause, but because SCOTUS redefined the clear meaning of a law passed over 50 years ago.  It’s a terrible precedent.  Sex meant biology and gender meant grammar when Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed; orientation was an introduction to college or a new job.  Now sex means anything I want it to mean. With this ruling, SCOTUS can reach back and change the clear intent of a law while keeping it.

What if other aspects of law like contract law, or property law, membership law or education law, or health law or family law also becomes, “Your truth is not my truth.”  What if Elizabeth Warren really can decide on her own truth about her tribal heritage? Why should her truth she’s believe all her life be less important than tribal membership laws? What if you demand Catholic communion/eucharist because today you’re feeling Catholic instead of Methodist?  What if you decide age restriction for sexual relationships are meaningless if a child appears to be a different age?  What if you claim residency outside your school district even though you don’t pay taxes there, but today you believe  you are a resident?  These “what ifs” are no more ridiculous than denying biology, the original intent of Title VII was to protect women and minorities.

And the ruling provides no religious protection, which is in the Bill of Rights and should take precedent over the ever changing societal mores and fascination with all things sexual. The ruling leaves open the can of worms on whether transgender individuals who have not had gender-reassignment surgery or counseling can be considered members of the opposite sex — an issue at the forefront of women’s athletics. In fact, this ruling can destroy the gains and protections women have won the last 50 years.

This is an issue that belongs in Congress, where they make laws, not in the Supreme Court.

Who is funding Black Lives Matter?

How is BLM being funded? It costs a lot of money to train, transport, feed and house all those protesters. Look at your cereal box. Good old capitalism run amok. W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
"The Kellogg Foundation has spent billions on race-based initiatives and alliances with left-wing organizations and causes, such as the Equal Justice Society. In 2016, the Kellogg Foundation gave a three-year, $900,000 grant to Berkeley, California-based Thousand Currents to build “the infrastructure and capacity of the national #BlackLivesMatter.” The Kellogg Foundation also contributes to other left-wing groups such as Center for Community Change that support illegal immigrants and actively work against conservative and Republican politicians.

The top progressive recipients of Kellogg Foundation money have been the Tides Foundation and its subsidiary, the Tides Center. These donor-advised funds pass money from individuals and organizations to liberal organizations, netting $49,015,834 in Kellogg Foundation grants between 1991-2018." (Influence Watch)

The Jimmy Kimmel kerfuffle

I was never particularly fond of Jimmy Kimmel, but this latest move against him, by the left, should be a warning to all Democrats who think they can go along with the mob mentality of vandals and hoodlums who try to destroy the past and paste happy faces on their Marxist ideals. They did it to Trump supporters, but who cared in the entertainment field? They were deplorables. The virtue signalers were so above all that--so self righteous. Kimmel also attacked Trump using his sharp wit, but then they dug up some old black face routines (I'd call them humorous impersonations), and BLM is in power now. Kimmel had to go along with Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Columbus. Well, he isn't usually among that illustrious group, but that's what Communists and Fascists do. Ben Stein and Adam Corolla, a Jew and an atheist and not Democrats have defended him in public and on social media. Now it's time for a brave Democrat to speak up who isn't afraid to have his head knocked off like an inanimate statue.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/emmys-mum-2020-host-jimmy-kimmel-blackface-controversy-apology

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/maybe-god-is-watching-over-us-after-all-jimmy-kimmel-plays-video-of-trump-being-struck-by-lightning

What did Mayor Ginther of Columbus mean?

David Keck’s summary:

“Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther is just finishing his address on policing policy change (June 24). He said a lot of things that, on the surface, are true. He also neglected to say a lot of things that are also true that are key, and said some things that sound good, but do not stand any kind of below surface, or even surface scrutiny.

In distancing himself from the FOP, HE chose to use the word "many" (not most) in describing how many current police are in it for the right reason. Does he not believe that MOST policemen are responsible and dedicated servants? Because he deliberately did not say so. Do you not think he carefully chose every word? He said what he meant.

What does he mean when he says "You are with us or you are against us?" Is that a not-so-veiled threat? Does this leave any room for disagreement on the merits, or are you just going to publicly threaten?

Mayor Ginther, you, yes you, just now pitted your own police department against your city deliberately and clearly for your own political benefit.

Mayor Ginther, you falsely state that the citizens of Columbus are on board with your proposals. This is not at all established. Were they on board when you let them tear down public statuary? Is that why you were not proactive in preventing what was obviously predictable? Is it the citizenry of Columbus who is on board, or the protestors? Do protestors represent the whole city?

In your discussion of what you are going to guarantee those in African-American neighborhoods, what does "equity" mean to you? Equality of what? Opportunity or results? By being vague about that deliberately are you left-handedly promising results, and thereby setting up more frustration? Or will you say what our Declaration of Independence says and Constitution guarantees legally - which is pursuing happiness, not having it?

When you say that minority children should be guaranteed life past the first year, did you mean the unborn? Because, as you know, the number of African-American children aborted is also much out of proportion to the rest of the population.

In throwing money that presumably either comes from higher taxes, driving those who can afford to pay, further into the suburbs, or from other places where it is needed also, did you make any mention at all of stable neighborhoods, and, toward that, stable families? Addressing families with no fathers? You know those statistics.

You made not one mention of those things. Mayor Ginther, you were not honest, and what you propose, if you get all of it, will not do what you hold out as a promise. You are no leader.”

BLM and ANTIFA attack Democrat controlled cities

It's a no brainer why the anarchists (BLM and ANTIFA) began their rages in Democrat controlled cities. They attacked the very people most likely to support their movement. Why? They knew they'd get the least resistance, the weakest mayors, and the highest crime rates where the people have the greatest encounters with police. With a victim rate 6x that of whites, the blacks in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and other major cities it would be easy to encourage disaffected, recently unemployed youth to loot and riot, while virtue signaling white liberals would just stand around and wave signs.

The mayor of Columbus asked for (June 1) photos or videos of Columbus police over reacting to the rioters when they attacked the police.  Has he asked for videos of the rioters and looters destroying businesses and vandalizing public property so they can be arrested? Has he thought of a plan to protect residents and business owners when he doesn't have support of the police?  He ran unopposed for his 2nd term on "justice, change and reform," so why so late to the gate?

Google employees are demanding that Google drop police as clients of its technology. Now, what percentage of Google employees do you suppose is minority? Two, maybe three?  Well, the trick is with H1B1 visas, a lot of corporations and universities get to "count" internationals as minorities (for some odd reason we're taught to look at skin color), therefore skipping right over any responsibility to bring up American born minorities in house.  Nice trick.  Then turn on American police with minority citizens on staff who are the protectors of black and brown neighborhoods?  Seems like a strange demand from "employees," doesn't it?

BLM is lavishly well funded by white, left wing extremists, and they are infiltrating iconic American corporations--who by the way, also have global interests. Capitalists and Marxists cooperating. Big Tech has been using its profits to "promote" racial justice, except in hiring American blacks.

County with .6% black citizens

This may be the strangest virus regulation I've ever seen.  Whites must wear masks, but not blacks, to prevent racial profiling?  Doesn't this mean you can spot the blacks easier and thus profile? https://nypost.com/2020/06/23/oregon-county-issues-face-mask-order-exempting-non-white-people/  Like millions of other people, I then googled Lincoln County, Oregon, and see it has a population under 50,000 and is about .6% black.  Well, some counties need more publicity than others, and other than being a laughing stock, I suppose this did it. So then I looked at crime rates in Oregon and discovered some very small towns had violent crime rates higher than the national average. Perhaps this is an backassward method of crime control?

How’s your county/state on speeding?

There’s a  new report by CoPilot looking at the states and counties with the worst speeding problem in the U.S. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and NHTSA, analysts at CoPilot ranked locations according to the percentage of total traffic fatalities that involve speeding.

Included with the report are some interesting graphics, including a table with data on more than 500 counties and all 50 states: https://www.copilotsearch.com/posts/states-and-counties-with-worst-speeding-problem/

“While NHTSA data shows that both the share of traffic fatalities related to speeding and the speeding-related fatality rate have been declining in recent years, these rates vary at the state level. Nationwide, the average annual speeding-related fatality rate for the five year period from 2014-2018 was 2.97 per 100,000 people. However, at the state level, there is a statistically significant relationship between speeding-related fatalities per capita and the maximum posted speed limit in the state. States with higher posted speed limits often experience more speed-related fatalities.

Censorship is coming from Big Tech, not government

“Conservatives have long complained about bias at Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google. The Heritage Foundation experienced this firsthand when YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, censored our video featuring a former transgender individual. YouTube claimed that six words spoken at a three-hour Heritage event violated its “hate speech” policy. Heritage issued a strong rebuke and posted a new video contesting YouTube’s censorship. It’s not just Heritage facing these challenges. Amazon is doubling down on its policy that prohibits customers from donating proceeds from their purchases to well-established conservative nonprofits like the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Heritage President Kay C. James called out Amazon for allowing customers to donate to Planned Parenthood but excluding conservative organizations. “A piece of free advice for Amazon’s board of directors: I’ve served on several corporate boards during my career, and it’s just bad business to alienate upwards of half of your customers,” “

https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/amazon-doubles-down-excluding-some-conservative-nonprofits-customer

Don’t let the BLM scam you

Black Lives Matter website https://blacklivesmatter.com describes its goals and mission to destroy our country and culture. The family structure is part of that, as is destroying the church. So I suppose if a researcher points out the lack of fathers could account for high crime  rates, or the high single parent homes create poverty, he will be considered racist since the 2 parent family is part of a racist society model invented by white supremacists.

Don’t take it from me—read their own words. They are very transparent.  They aren’t keeping it a secret, just renaming a few things like “justice.” This isn’t about “systemic racism” no matter what they call it, anymore than the Russian Revolution was about the Romanovs. That’s the hook to drag you in to participating. Don’t bother with the signs in the yard, especially if you live in a suburb 99% white.

If you believe we live in a racist society, then describe what you’ve personally done that is racist in your own words, not theirs. Don’t fall for that, “implicit bias.”  Be specific.  And then change. Our Democrat Mayor here in Columbus has been a real push over, bowing and showing support, telling police to stand down and allowing rioters to tear up downtown and now BLM is demanding he step down.

Democrats just don’t know their history or world history.

Faith. Family. Freedoms. Free enterprise. There is no color to it. Just truth.

My greatest desire is for more Americans to remember their conservative roots. Five years ago, I feared conservatives. I thought they were “the bad guys” and that “they” didn’t care about Black people.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/06/22/19-black-americans-explain-why-theyre-conservative/

Memorial Service for Philip Vincent Bruce June 20

https://youtu.be/o4CB_7_cqiY

Dear Norma and Bob,

Today’s service remembering Phil was extraordinary! Although I never met him, I feel as if Phil could have been one of my best friends. I’ve never heard so many people speak so lovingly at a funeral service.  What a handsome, lovable, loving, and caring person he was! Phil did the Lord’s work here on Earth as he was called to do.

It was also so good to be back inside a real church!!!! My heart was happy and sad at the same time. I hope your hearts are peaceful knowing how much Phil meant to so many!  Being a parent is hard but you did your job well!!!

Love and hugs, Jane

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I watched Phil's memorial service online.  It was the most beautiful sendoff.  The pastor and the praise band were both wonderful.  What touched me most was hearing the comments from Phil's friends.  What a huge impact Phil had on everyone who knew him - he touched a lot of lives.  Hearing from people who knew him well and were with him until the end of his life went straight to my heart.  What a wonderful memorial.

I hope Phil's memorial helped your family say goodbye to Phil in the way you wanted.

God Bless, Josh

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What a wonderfully meaningful service, so glad it was available online.  The personal tributes  were so meaningful and heartfelt.  Clearly Phil was a kind, caring person and a gift to so many.

Continued prayers for your comfort in the days ahead.    Maureen

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We watched the beautiful service through FaceBook, and were touched by the words of remembrance.  What a great testimony to Phil's life.

Our warm regards and prayers are with you and Bob.
Your friends,  Eugene and Barbara

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Dear Bob and Norma,

The service was beautiful and touching to both of us. I am so glad we did not have to miss it. I was feeling exactly what Bob expressed when he felt compelled to take up the mike. What marvelous insight into how Phil’s friends were affected by the privilege of knowing Phil. What an extraordinarily compassionate, gentle, generous and loving man he was. I had tears in my eyes throughout the service.

We knew him only a little as an adult. We now both treasure the opportunities we had to get to know him personally as a caretaker for our dog. It gave us an opportunity to spend time with him in his own home and to talk a little about his life, his job, his church and band, and his love of animals. Knowing this much about him, his friends references to their experiences with him came alive. I was amazed at how deftly he used jamming together to get to know people and to share his love for Christ and for them. What a tragedy that his life was cut short. He was the kind of person the world needs more of. We realized something similar when we began to hear the stories told by Martha’s friends at and after her funeral. Now we have to grieve another good life cut short.

I want you to know how much we came to love Phil and how much we grieve with you over his departure. Praise God that he lived in Christ in what seems to be a wonderful Christian fellowship at GRCC.

Love,

David and Donna

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Norma,

It really was a beautiful service.  I know why Phil loved the music there. Those musicians were amazing. Right before they sang, "Overwhelmed", I saw a vision of Phil and Jesus on the altar arm in arm. Phil was a very special man. Praise God!

Darlene

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Hi Norma,

I sure yesterday was very difficult for you and Bob and I hope the service offered some comfort and peace. I have to say that it was the most beautiful funeral I have ever attended. Phil was a very special guy. He was loved by many. His joyful spirit and love of Christ will live in all who knew him. We continue to keep the Bruce family in our prayers.  Susan

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The Double Standard of the lockdown vs. the riots—Tucker Carlson

“Race is not the only dividing line,” he explained. “The coronavirus lockdowns had nothing to do with race or white and black, thank God. They are probably the only thing in America that doesn’t. Quarantines are instead scientific — they’re purely a matter of public health. That’s what they told us, and we believed them. We sat passively as they destroyed our country’s economy, as they indicted Americans for trying to make a living. And then the Black Lives Matter riots started, and we learned it was all fake. The very same officials who threatened us with arrest for going outside urged their own voters to flood the streets. And they did, and no one was punished. How could this happen?”

Carlson called that double standard “ritual humiliation” and urged Americans to stand against it.

“It was such a flagrant double standard — not even hidden, right in your face,” Carlson continued. “They didn’t try to explain it. They didn’t bother to justify it. Why? Anyone familiar with totalitarian regimes can tell you exactly why, and what’s going on. This is ritual humiliation. Forcing people to accept mistreatment is a time-tested way to subdue them. ‘Of course, we are not treating you fairly,’ they are telling us. ‘You don’t deserve fairness. You deserve what you get.’ That’s the message, and after a while, the population accepts this. Some believe it. They blame themselves. That’s the goal.”

“But we should never accept it,” he added. “The promise of absolute equality under the law is all we have. Laws are designed to protect the weak, not the strong. At the moment, the people leading this revolution against our system are strong. That’s why they are trying to subvert our laws. If they succeed, there will be nothing to protect the rest of us in this country. We cannot let them do that. In the United States of America, all of us are equal under the law. Period. Say that as loud as you can.”

How to fix systemic racism

Here are my suggestions about systemic racism being the big problem today.

If you believe that, then do something about it, not by lecturing others or pointing fingers, but by making changes in YOUR OWN LIFE. You are part of many systems within the system. Like veins and arteries within the circulatory system.

Look at your profession. That's close enough for you to work on. You've got something to say about that. If you can't step up and lay your income on the line, then don't expect change.

What's going on in your union? Is it protecting the bad apples? Is it your boss? Union president?

Does your university have a bloated department called "Diversity and Inclusion" that is sucking up money that could be put to use doing something useful? Are you required to take time away from your classroom or research to attend reeducation classes. Say something--some of those students you're shortchanging are black.

Is your employer so "woke" that it doesn't give minorities real opportunities, only feel good spots on diversity committees and positions? Is the only dark face on the board of directors a female in HR? Can you risk your next promotion by objecting?

And where are you living? A suburb with 10% Asian and 2% black, 5% Hispanic and 83% white? Perhaps you need to consider moving. There are many lovely housing areas that are more open housing than that! And they probably have a community organization that isn't 100% white.

Are you supporting Planned Parenthood? Its statistics show genocidal levels for black babies. You don't have to change your opinion on "women's health,," but maybe that money you donate could go to research on why black mothers have a higher fatality rate than other pregnant women. Or you could donate to a non-profit that helps young, single black mothers raise healthy families.

Racism starts at home, in the heart, but if you believe it's the system, start there and work backwards to your heart.

Memorial Service June 20

https://genderroadcc.com/services9am/ Scroll down to Feb. 9 under praise service and you'll see the last Sunday Phil played. By the next week-end he was in the  hospital with an infected tooth, and on Sunday on a ventilator. The infection weakened him and he couldn't resume chemotherapy for his brain tumor.  He died April 21.  He was on stage on Feb. 2 also, but didn't play. This will probably only be available another 2 weeks.  It is archived.

Not all Republicans are conservatives

It's surprising how many think Republican is synonymous with conservative. It isn't. Many Republicans are pro-big government, pro-choice, and pro-control. The Bushes were Republicans but not conservatives. Trump is a former Democrat who in many respects is a conservative in what he has accomplished, but not accepted by in-power Republicans deep in swamp-dwelling.

Sometimes the only difference in the 2 parties is that Democrats are more likely to stick together and be controlled by their party leaders. It's in their DNA. Democrats, however, are more likely to be hypocrites--witness Pelosi and Pals kneeling for a photographer while culturally appropriating African sacred stoles that symbolize wealth.

"These scarves were traditionally worn by the wealthy land-owners and dignitaries of the Ashanti (or Asante) tribes of what is now known as Ghana. They were made of silk, making them not only rare but also symbolic of wealth. More importantly, they were adorned by those who were involved in the pervasive slave trade the wealthy of the Ashanti tribe embraced."

That's the equivalent of wearing black face in my opinion, but the liberal media will never call them on it because they never research symbols and they are the party mascots. This performance was done while gnashing teeth that the President carried a Bible to inspect a fire bombed, historical church of Presidents and was photographed.

Guns, Gold and Slaves: "The Ashanti’s long-time ally, the Akwamu, were among the first ones to profit from the slave trade with the Europeans. Their captives were almost always prisoners of war, but they were not above to selling Akwamu men who offended the chief. They also kidnapped able-bodied men from other tribes and sold them in the coastal slave markets.

The English (who had displaced the Dutch as the leader in the slave trade) paid three ounces of gold for each male slave. It was a good sum, and many Africans saw this as a profitable venture.

The Ashanti soon joined in the slave trade by kidnapping traveling men or even those who were just working on their farms. They also went to war with neighboring peoples (especially in the Black Volta and savanna regions) not only to expand their territory but also to acquire more slaves which they then sold to Dutch and English traders. This practice had become so profitable that by 1720 the Slave Coast of Ghana had eclipsed the Gold Coast.

A vicious cycle soon emerged from this business. The Ashanti initially accepted gold as payment for slaves, but soon preferred flintlocks, muskets, and gunpowder as payment. With these weapons in hand, Ashanti warriors would then subdue another group of people and sell the captives of war to the European as slaves. By 1730, as much as 180,000 European-made firearms had been shipped to the Slave Coast and handed to the natives. " https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/ashanti-empire-trade-slaves-guns/

I am nothing else

“I am nothing else but what God thought of me; I would not be here if there was not a thought in God the Father’s mind about me.  I do not just happen to be.  God the Father thought of me and wanted me to be here.  And God the Son redeemed me and stays in the Blessed Sacrament personally for me to be united with me day by day.  And God the Holy Spirit took His abode in my soul by the call of my Baptism and considered my soul His dwelling.  His holy place.”

Sister Ida Peterfy, The love of God our Greatest Treasure, https://sacredheartsisters.com/her-words-and-reflections/

Phil's house is in contract

But I won't hold my breath.

Nothing has gone well for us in the last 9 months; why should it start now?

We actually didn't take the highest bid--and I say bid because it was $15,500 above our asking price. Many people wanted this house, and for similar reasons why Phil wanted it.  One floor, easy to care for, in good condition, light and bright and airy, a city lot big enough for a garden, but not too big to take care of, 2 car garage with good storage and accessible for shopping and free-way. It included all the appliances, so that is a cost savings for the buyer. However, we went in contract for less.  We accepted the offer of a man with limited vision, foreign born, who lives alone.  It's perfect for him.  Plus it was a cash offer. The highest bidder had to get financing. But it could still fall through so our realtor will be prepared with a 2nd offer.  The buyer has some time to have it inspected and withdraw his offer, even though it was sold as is. We spent a lot (to me) just to have it clean and ready--spent about $2,000 for power wash, repainting trim, and having the inside cleaned and staged. Repainting the inside would have probably been over $5,000 (high ceilings).  Since we had 2 offers the first day on the market, we probably wouldn't have needed to do even that or the minor repairs we'd done in May. It's expensive to sell a house--pay 2019 taxes and pro-rate 2020; pay realtor fees; pay the cleaning costs; pay the fees, pay the warranty charges, our lawyer's fees, and my goodness, if we added in our family's time, it's definitely not cheap.

I like thinking about someone as neat and tidy as Phil, who also had limited vision after his stroke, sitting on the deck, watching the geese in the pond, or growing tomatoes in the garden. I hope he'll have some parties for the neighbors like Phil did, or maybe have a dog he loves as much as Phil loved Rosa.  Perhaps he'll attend GRCC, which has quite an international congregation.  Maybe I'm a sucker for a good story, but I'd like to see a happy ending to this nightmare.

Skipping church on purpose during pandemic panic

It was such a pleasant change to be able to attend church services here at Lakeside two weeks ago. Even in a park, even with social distancing, even with no hymns, even wearing a mask.

But not today. First, it's only about 50 degrees, and it will be much cooler near the lake (service is in the Steele Memorial gazebo). But second, it's a Methodist service, and if I know anything about Methodists, we'll have a lecture on race relations. Methodists, like Catholics, are always in the forefront of social issues, and they do an excellent job. Of all the Protestant denominations, Methodists are the closest to Catholic in obeying Christ's commands in Matthew 25. It's not just "me and Jesus," but it's the Holy Spirit changing the heart for service for God. And I get it. But I don't want to sit in the cold, after the churches, all churches have abdicated their leadership role during this time of unrest and pandemic. They simply closed their doors, closed down their ministries to those mentioned in Matthew 25--poor, sick, imprisoned, thirsty--and decided that skyping and zooming and preaching online was just fine and met their obligations. Even churches with huge parking lots paving over acres, could not seem to find a way to call their congregations together in worship and service. Like ours. UALC with two locations and two huge parking lots and loads of technology.

So I'm not going to sit in a park in a gated community that is 99.9999% white and be lectured about systemic racism and how we white folks need to do better. I don't want to listen to an academic preach it who hasn't studied the statistics about government transfer programs, who are the victims of crime, how many millions of contacts do we have with the police and how many end badly (virtually none) and what is the role of the media. I just won't listen to one more harangue when I know the 60 years of government and business policies that have made things worse, but more often better.

Why are people not obeying orders on the lockdown? WSJ opinion piece

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-second-wave-covid-scare-11591919250?mod=opinion_lead_pos1&mod=djemMER_h

Most WSJ articles are behind a pay wall, but videos of opinions sometimes can provide the main points.

Name calling and labeling

Why does every person of European ancestry who disagrees with Communists/leftists/progressives who for the moment vote Democrat have to be a white supremist? Why not just a white member of the teachers' union or the electricians' union; why not a white dentist; why not a white retail clerk; why not at white plumber or white farmer? Why are whites who want to save a statue of Thomas Jefferson called racists, but whites who admired Robert Byrd former KKK member and built statues and named highways for him called Democrats? Why are all people who voted for Trump lumped together in Hillary's deplorable basket the same way Democrats used to label all blacks and minorities as foot shuffling janitors and gardeners? Can Democrats discuss anything except sex and race without name calling?

Anonymous letter by a UC Berkeley Professor, part 2

Continued from Part 1

There also exists a large constituency of what can only be called 'race hustlers': hucksters of all colors who benefit from stoking the fires of racial conflict to secure administrative jobs, charity management positions, academic jobs and advancement, or personal political entrepreneurship.
Given the direction our history department appears to be taking far from any commitment to truth, we can regard ourselves as a formative training institution for this brand of snake-oil salespeople. Their activities are corrosive, demolishing any hope at harmonious racial coexistence in our nation and colonizing our political and institutional life. Many of their voices are unironically segregationist.

MLK would likely be called an Uncle Tom if he spoke on our campus today. We are training leaders who intend, explicitly, to destroy one of the only truly successful ethnically diverse societies in modern history. As the PRC, an ethnonationalist and aggressively racially chauvinist national polity with null immigration and no concept of jus solis increasingly presents itself as the global political alternative to the US, I ask you: Is this wise? Are we really doing the right thing?
As a final point, our university and department has made multiple statements celebrating and eulogizing George Floyd. Floyd was a multiple felon who once held a pregnant black woman at gunpoint. He broke into her home with a gang of men and pointed a gun at her pregnant stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children, playing no part in their support or upbringing, failing one of the most basic tests of decency for a human being. He was a drug-addict and sometime drug-dealer, a swindler who preyed upon his honest and hard-working neighbors.

And yet, the regents of UC and the historians of the UCB History department are celebrating this violent criminal, elevating his name to virtual sainthood. A man who hurt women. A man who hurt black women. With the full collaboration of the UCB history department, corporate America, most mainstream media outlets, and some of the wealthiest and most privileged opinion-shaping elites of the USA, he has become a culture hero, buried in a golden casket, his (recognized) family showered with gifts and praise. Americans are being socially pressured into kneeling for this violent, abusive misogynist. A generation of black men are being coerced into identifying with George Floyd, the absolute worst specimen of our race and species.

I'm ashamed of my department. I would say that I'm ashamed of both of you, but perhaps you agree with me, and are simply afraid, as I am, of the backlash of speaking the truth. It's hard to know what kneeling means, when you have to kneel to keep your job.

It shouldn't affect the strength of my argument above, but for the record, I write as a person of color. My family have been personally victimized by men like Floyd. We are aware of the condescending depredations of the Democrat party against our race. The humiliating assumption that we are too stupid to do STEM, that we need special help and lower requirements to get ahead in life, is richly familiar to us. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be easier to deal with open fascists, who at least would be straightforward in calling me a subhuman, and who are unlikely to share my race.

The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating. No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies. A whole generation of black children are being taught that only by begging and weeping and screaming will they get handouts from guilt-ridden whites.

No message will more surely devastate their futures, especially if whites run out of guilt, or indeed if America runs out of whites. If this had been done to Japanese Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Chinese Americans, then Chinatown and Japantown would surely be no different to the roughest parts of Baltimore and East St. Louis today. The History department of UCB is now an integral institutional promulgator of a destructive and denigrating fallacy about the black race.

I hope you appreciate the frustration behind this message. I do not support BLM. I do not support the Democrat grievance agenda and the Party's uncontested capture of our department. I do not support the Party co-opting my race, as Biden recently did in his disturbing interview, claiming that voting Democrat and being black are isomorphic. I condemn the manner of George Floyd's death and join you in calling for greater police accountability and police reform. However, I will not pretend that George Floyd was anything other than a violent misogynist, a brutal man who met a predictably brutal end.

I also want to protect the practice of history. Cleo is no grovelling handmaiden to politicians and corporations. Like us, she is free.
/end

Anonymous letter by a UC Berkeley Professor, part 1

The Department of History at UC Berkeley has denied this is from one of their faculty, but hasn’t addressed the information provided. Any anonymous e-mail is always risky—could be from someone with a different point of view but not from Berkeley.  Bolding is from the website that published, not the author's and not mine.
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Dear profs X, Y, Z

I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.
In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them.

In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls, and institutions.
Many cogent objections to this thesis have been raised by sober voices, including from within the black community itself, such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly. These people are not racists or 'Uncle Toms'. They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalizes the problems of the black community onto outsiders. Their view is entirely absent from the departmental and UCB-wide communiques.

The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians. Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.

A counternarrative exists. If you have time, please consider examining some of the documents I attach at the end of this email. Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates' undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black.
Would we characterize criminal justice as a systemically misandrist conspiracy against innocent American men? I hope you see that this type of reasoning is flawed, and requires a significant suspension of our rational faculties. Black people are not incarcerated at higher rates than their involvement in violent crime would predict. This fact has been demonstrated multiple times across multiple jurisdictions in multiple countries.

And yet, I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department's apparent desire to shoulder the 'white man's burden' and to promote a narrative of white guilt.

If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it's fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews. None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. "Those are racist dogwhistles". "The model minority myth is white supremacist". "Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime", ad nauseam.

These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse. Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are, common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department.

Increasingly, we are being called upon to comply and subscribe to BLM's problematic view of history, and the department is being presented as unified on the matter. In particular, ethnic minorities are being aggressively marshaled into a single position. Any apparent unity is surely a function of the fact that dissent could almost certainly lead to expulsion or cancellation for those of us in a precarious position, which is no small number.

I personally don't dare speak out against the BLM narrative, and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriat, the UC administration, corporate America, and the media, the punishment for dissent is a clear danger at a time of widespread economic vulnerability. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type.

The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people. There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims, no public silences, no heartfelt letters from the UC regents, deans, and departmental heads. The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution. Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is.

No discussion is permitted for nonblack victims of black violence, who proportionally outnumber black victims of nonblack violence. This is especially bitter in the Bay Area, where Asian victimization by black assailants has reached epidemic proportions, to the point that the SF police chief has advised Asians to stop hanging good-luck charms on their doors, as this attracts the attention of (overwhelmingly black) home invaders. Home invaders like George Floyd. For this actual, lived, physically experienced reality of violence in the USA, there are no marches, no tearful emails from departmental heads, no support from McDonald's and Wal-Mart. For the History department, our silence is not a mere abrogation of our duty to shed light on the truth: it is a rejection of it.

The claim that black intraracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn't led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively. Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices - as do Nigerian Americans, who incidentally have black skin. It is for historians to point out and discuss these anomalies. However, no real discussion is possible in the current climate at our department. The explanation is provided to us, disagreement with it is racist, and the job of historians is to further explore additional ways in which the explanation is additionally correct. This is a mockery of the historical profession.

Most troublingly, our department appears to have been entirely captured by the interests of the Democratic National Convention, and the Democratic Party more broadly. To explain what I mean, consider what happens if you choose to donate to Black Lives Matter, an organization UCB History has explicitly promoted in its recent mailers. All donations to the official BLM website are immediately redirected to ActBlue Charities, an organization primarily concerned with bankrolling election campaigns for Democrat candidates. Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades; the 'systemic racism' there was built by successive Democrat administrations.

The patronizing and condescending attitudes of Democrat leaders towards the black community, exemplified by nearly every Biden statement on the black race, all but guarantee a perpetual state of misery, resentment, poverty, and the attendant grievance politics which are simultaneously annihilating American political discourse and black lives. And yet, donating to BLM is bankrolling the election campaigns of men like Mayor Frey, who saw their cities devolve into violence. This is a grotesque capture of a good-faith movement for necessary police reform, and of our department, by a political party. Even worse, there are virtually no avenues for dissent in academic circles. I refuse to serve the Party, and so should you.

The total alliance of major corporations involved in human exploitation with BLM should be a warning flag to us, and yet this damning evidence goes unnoticed, purposefully ignored, or perversely celebrated. We are the useful idiots of the wealthiest classes, carrying water for Jeff Bezos and other actual, real, modern-day slavers. Starbucks, an organisation using literal black slaves in its coffee plantation suppliers, is in favor of BLM. Sony, an organisation using cobalt mined by yet more literal black slaves, many of whom are children, is in favor of BLM. And so, apparently, are we. The absence of counter-narrative enables this obscenity. Fiat lux, indeed.

 End pt. 1

The kitchen table

Yesterday our son's home went on the market (http://altrealtors.com/) and by evening we had 2 offers. It's a wonderful starter home, or for a retired couple who don't want stairs but a very convenient location. We remember when we bought it in 2004, and over the years the wonderful improvements he made, new deck, new doors, new windows, new blinds, cross and Bible interior doors, new floors, new kitchen cabinets and appliances, new roof after Hurricane Ike, and new bathroom fixtures.
Originally, most of the furniture (and a lot of books and art) came from our home, and over the years, they were mostly replaced as he put his bachelor touches on it. We'll take back the kitchen table, now over 50 years old. I have so many photos of him and that table, with lots of the nicks and scratches that he personally put there as a toddler. Photos of him and grandpa eating ice cream, of him and Phoebe doing art projects, of him and cousins coloring Easter eggs, of him and his bride Holly at the brunch we gave them a few weeks after their wedding, of my Corbett family as we gathered for breakfast before Phoebe's wedding.

I'm not sure where we'll put it, but I'll keep that "antique."