I agree with you, Clint Eastwood, political correctness is killing us
So they just removed the Robert E. Lee memorial in New Orleans as some danced in the streets.
Do not get me wrong. I am no fan of Robert E. Lee. He and Jeff Davis threatened to undo America as we know it. Abraham Lincoln is my hero. But what is the motive to remove a memorial to this historical figure? To forget he ever happened? To erase the fact that we had a Civi War? Aren't those who ignore history doomed to repeat it?
Shouldn't we have left it in place, if anything, to remind us of an ugly period of American history? As a reminder that we should never go back down that road?
I'm surprised they haven't suggested dynamiting Mount Rushmore because Washington and Jefferson owned slaves on their plantations. Let's not forget that they were evil white people (as the left would remind us).
The memorial came down as the result of our present generation, which seeks to silence everyone and everything with which they disagree. It should scare everyone who values freedom, especially history buffs like me. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a Democrat, said the Lee memorial celebrated white supremacy. I disagree with his take. It memorialized a historical figure and no one can deny Robert E. Lee was an important figure in American history.
The city has also removed the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and of Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.
This cleansing of controversial history reminds me of book burning. Or the way they tried to censor Mark Twain because it contained the n-word. I'm sorry but the word exists and banning it from books smacks of George Orwell. Let's not cleanse what we don't like and pretend like things never happened.
I'm surprised that people aren't calling for the removal of the John W. Mitchell statue in the downtown Turlock park. Mr. Mitchell, it should be noted, is the namesake for Ceres' Mitchell Road. He settled this area in 1867 and helped develop Paradise City as a riverboat landing from which to ship part of the county's grain crop. By 1871 he owned 100,000 acres stretching from Keyes to Atwater. I can see today's shortsighted snowflakes arguing that Mitchell was an elitist rich white man who was only able to make his fortune off the backs of hard workers who reaped his wheat, a hot and dirty job.
In this post Obama era after we were lectured that successful business people didn't build it, Mitchell, however, had the vision and grit and determination to make his wealth. Today's generation believes everyone else gets to own what he and others like him create.
We really do have a generation of arrogant, spoiled pansies who think the world owes them without working for anything.
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If you can believe it - and I can, given the times we live in - there are some making money off of people wanting to marry themselves.
It's called sologamy but I can't for the life of me figure out how married couples can remain married and sologamous at the same time.
According to the imarriedme.com website, which sells sologamy ceremony kits and wedding band and daily affirmation cards and vows, the ring is to be worn "to remind you every day to LOVE YOURSELF."
According to Wikipedia, mostly women are practicing sologamy. The website also mentions that "Some Self-marrying programs include giving guidance, practice, and support prior to the marriage. Ceremonies take almost exactly the same form as that of a regular marriage. They can include guests, cake, and a reception. Also, the person can have a private moment in a room where they can express self-love with a mirror and a candle, though the use of the candle is not specified."
If that isn't the silliest thing I have ever heard of.
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I am a big fan of the TV show Survivor, which is now winding down on CBS. The reality show went on the air in 1997 and is still going strong.
If you watch the show on cbs.com you get to see the contestants retreat to what's called the Ponderosa Lodge where they get to reunite with others who went before them. They sit at a banquet table filled with all sorts of foods they only dreamed about while starving in their primitive camps. They get to shower and enjoy a soft bed rather than a torturous bed of bamboo. Even the old animosities and estrangements seem to fall by the wayside. The cares and struggles of staying alive in the game have passed and there is lounging around and enjoying the spoils of making it close to the end.
In the lodge the participants are milling around waiting for the next one to drop and enter their midst for more fellowship.
Boy, if that doesn't sound like an analogy to life and Heaven I don't know what does.
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Our state attorney general is such a partisan hack. The voters of California elected him to carry out justice in California. Why then is Xavier Becerra weighing in on the appointment of an independent special counsel looking into the alleged Russian hacking scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election? That's a federal matter, and doesn't concern him. Becerra said, and I quote, "the American people deserve answers. This appointment is an important step to ensure the integrity of our democracy and the primacy of the rule of law in the operations of our government. I'm hopeful that former Director Mueller will follow the facts wherever they may lead. And no one, including the President, should get in the way."
Isn't that strange? That's not the approach he takes regarding the funny business of UC President Janet Napolitano. He's turning a rather blind eye to a blistering new state audit that alleges UC President Janet Napolitano formed a slush fund of $175 million while interfering with an audit investigation. Becerra is concerned about Trump getting in the way of a special prosecutor yet he is not concerned about investigating Napolitano, who is one of his fellow Democrats.
Just apply Becerra's concern about Trump to the Napolitano controversy. It would have read like this: "I previously called for my office to investigate Janet Napolitano because the California people deserve answers. This investigation is an important step to ensure the integrity of our democracy and the primacy of the rule of law in the operations of our government. I'm hopeful that my office will follow the facts wherever they may lead. And no one, including Janet Napolitano, should get in the way."
No, but he didn't apply the same concern to her. He says he's not interested in looking into the matter.
Both Becerra and Napolitano are corrupt, it would seem to me.
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Apparently courtesy is not a character trait of some of the college educated.
Approximately 75 to 100 snowflakes of the 3,100 graduates at Notre Dame didn't have the courtesy of listening to Vice President Mike Pence at their commencement ceremony. Some of their students booed the walkout.
I believe higher education, for the most part, is not interested in debate and exploring ideas but squelching ideas and debate. My oldest son went to U.C. Davis where one of his professors told the class that they didn't belong if they held Christian beliefs. His college experience just about destroyed everything he had been taught. So much for expanding the mind.
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Many of you are aware that Tom Changnon, our county Superintendent of Public Schools, is an honorable and decent man of faith. He started the program to teach civility in classrooms.
Sacramento could use some civility as well.
As part of the unhinging of the left, California Democratic Party leader John Burton stepped down over the weekend and the potty-mouth left with this: Now all together, "F--- Donald Trump" while raising the "bird" finger.
Such great models, those Democrats. How anyone can in good conscience remain in that party is beyond me.
Do you have any feedback about this column? Let Jeff know by emailing him at jeffb@cerescourier.com. He will read it, promise.
