A disturbing op-ed from an Air Force Academy professor.
July 15, 2021
Its principles are being readily embraced and promoted in many school curricula, and of course on college campuses and in newsrooms around the country as well. And with the Biden administration now in charge, it’s no surprise that promotion of critical race theory is becoming increasingly common throughout our federal government.
Perhaps most alarming is that it’s becoming clear that not even our military, of all institutions, is safe from this trend.
Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick has the details:
"A Washington Post opinion piece from an Air Force Academy professor advocated that military academies should teach critical race theory.
"On Tuesday, associate professor of political science Lynne Chandler García published an op-ed titled 'Why U.S. military academies should teach critical race theory.' Agreeing with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, García claimed that critical race theory 'is not unpatriotic' and does not 'promote division among our military members.'
"'As a professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I teach critical race theories to our nation’s future military leaders because it is vital that cadets understand the history of the racism that has shaped both foreign and domestic policy,' García explained.
"This was in reference to Gen. Milley’s defense of studying critical race theory back in June during a congressional hearing. The general argued it was important for cadets ‘to be open-minded and be widely read’ regarding the nation’s history.
"'So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?'"
What’s wrong with it? We’re glad you asked.
In a letter sharply rebuking Garcia (in which he calls for her firing), Republican Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee lays out some of the fundamental problems with critical race theory being taught to those who are responsible for defending our nation.
Here is Fox News’ Thomas Barrabi:
"'Critical Race Theory teaches that the only way to right past racial discrimination is with present racial discrimination,' Green wrote in the letter. 'This teaching is utterly incompatible with the principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Civil Rights Movement — not to mention illegal.
"'Our country already lived through a horrific era when people were judged by the color of their skin rather than by the content of their character — we must never go back to this way of thinking,' he added."
Quite right.
U.S. Senator (and 6th Annual Basque Fry speaker) Tom Cotton weighed in as well, tweeting, “Professor García has no business teaching the Constitution or political science at the Air Force Academy. We should not be teaching cadets that our military is a fundamentally racist institution.”
Critical race theory demands that we judge people by the color of their skin, and assume a person’s inherent victimhood or guilt based on that and nothing more. Which makes it a fundamentally racist idea itself.
It also embraces the view that America’s founding principles are corrupt to the core and were adopted solely as a means of preserving white supremacy. It is extraordinarily perverse that those asked to defend our country would be taught a dishonest version of American history that, if true, would understandably undermine their confidence that the nation is worth defending at all.
Critical race theory should be rejected by all Americans committed not only to the principles of liberty and racial equality, but to decency and honesty as well. And it especially should be rejected by those who serve our nation in uniform.
ITEM #2: While we’re on the topic of critical race theory, we wanted to make sure you saw the recent Fox News segment featuring Dr. Ben Carson, former HUD Secretary during the Trump administration and himself a former Basque Fry speaker.
Here’s Carson, who says he’s actually encouraged by the fact that people are starting to “wake up” and recognize this race-based propaganda for what it is:
“It was obviously the left that did this and they are basing this on some of the things that were said by people like Vladimir Lenin and various Marxists. Lenin said give me your children to teach for four years and the seeds I plant will never be uprooted. What they are trying to do is actually indoctrinate the kids. This is not a new thing. This has been going on for a while.
“I think we saw the fruits of it last summer in Portland and Seattle. These are people who are coming to age who have been taught to hate the United States of America and a lot of it is based on slavery. The 1619 Project, many of the things and critical race theory. Everything looking at race and going back to race and making the children think that that’s the primary indicator for success or failure in their life.
“And it is interesting because we are a Judeo-Christian foundation nation. What does the Bible say? ‘Man looketh on outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart.' Isn’t that the same thing that Dr. King was saying? Judge people on the basis of their character, not their external characteristics. So they are really turning a lot of our foundational beliefs on their head.
“This will sound funny, but I’m kind of glad they are doing it. They’re pushing it so hard it is waking people up. We were sort of like the frog in the saucepan slowly being cooked and now they turned the burners up and people are saying ouch and getting active. That is going to help us as a nation.”
Wonderful stuff. Read more, and watch the video of the segment, here.
ITEM #3: In the most welcome sports news we’ve seen in a long time, Fox 5 San Diego tells us about an American athlete we can all be proud to have represent our country:
"Track and field athlete Sam Kendricks, who is representing the US in Rio, stopped his pole vault run mid-attempt when he heard the national anthem earlier this week."
He didn't resume until the anthem was finished. Here's what he had to say:
“'Those guys are really proud of me and have given me every chance to continue as a civilian,' Kendricks told USA Today. 'I am certainly looking to represent the Americans on two fronts, as a military man and as a U.S. athlete.
“'I’m just trying to put my best foot forward for all those soldiers who are watching.'”
What a breath of fresh air, particularly after the disrespectful antics of Gwen Berry, who protested during the national anthem at the Olympic trials by turning away from the flag on the medal podium and holding a t-shirt over her face.
You can watch the video of Kendricks’ moving display of patriotism here.
ITEM #4: Alas, the hate-America crowd is still with us.
Emma Colton has the sickening details on this one:
“A video of a child pulling an American flag from a person’s front yard and throwing it on the ground has gone viral on social media. ...
“The video has no audio and shows an unidentified young boy on a scooter with an adult woman on a bike riding down a residential street.
“The boy passes a small American flag in a front yard and attempts to pull it from the ground. He misses on his first attempt, but gets off of his scooter and then successfully rips the flag from the yard and throws it on the ground.
“He and the woman then resume riding down the street. It appears the woman gives no pushback on the boy for pulling the flag.”
The child’s behavior is of course abhorrent, but it’s hard to put the blame on him.
When adults encourage this kind of disrespect, either at home (as seems to be the case with the woman who accompanied the boy) or publicly (Gwen Berry, we’re looking at you again), it’s hard to be surprised when kids emulate bad behavior.
ITEM #5: Here’s an item that may just make you ill.
Cortney O’Brien reports:
“Concerned parents and media critics swatted the New York Times on Thursday after the newspaper heralded Justine Ang Fonte, a New York teacher who recently became infamous for her sexual education curriculum for children and young adults, as a ’sex-positive educator,’ and called her lessons ‘pornography literacy.’
“For seven years, Fonte was the director of health and wellness at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In May, she was invited to teach two Zoom lessons on ‘pornography literacy and consent’ to juniors and seniors at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side. Those lessons reportedly included some ‘masturbation’ images, outraging parents and eventually leading to her resignation.
“But the Times had a different viewpoint on the controversy and appeared to provide Fonte some backup.
"‘Pornography literacy classes are supposed to teach students how to critically assess what they see on the screen,’ the Times tweeted, with a link to its report from Style reporter Valeriya Safronova. ‘But when a sex-positive educator taught her curriculum at two elite New York City schools recently, some parents were outraged.’”
Uh … ya think?
O'Brien notes that, "the video reportedly outraged parents to the point that Dalton parents 'bombarded' the school with more complaints about Fonte’s curriculum, according to the New York Post. Fonte would later resign from Dalton, with the school reportedly having no ill will toward her."
But the Times apparently remains unmoved:
“The Times acknowledges that Fonte has received backlash for her lessons, but noted 'multiple sex educators interviewed for this article said there was nothing inappropriate about her classes,' and that her methods appeared to be in line with the National Sex Education Standards and CDC guidelines.”
ITEM #6: We’re all familiar with “the art of the deal.” Now, the Biden administration has given us “the deal of the art.”
Marisa Scultz reports:
"The White House Friday defended a deal it brokered to allow Hunter Biden's artwork, which could be listed as high as $500,000 each, to sell to anonymous buyers and with no disclosure to the public.
"'After careful consideration, a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. 'Of course, he has the right to pursue an artistic career just like any child of a president has the right to pursue a career.'
"Biden, 51, has embarked on a new career path as an artist and will sell his paintings at upcoming exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. But in order to avoid an appearance of outsiders trying to peddle influence with the Biden family, the White House crafted an agreement to keep the names of the buyers confidential from Biden himself, The Washington Post first reported.
"The deal raised plenty of red flags by ethics watchdogs."
You don’t say!
Even ex-Obama administration officials are crying foul:
“Walter Shaub, then-President Barack Obama’s former ethics chief, eviscerated the White House in a Twitter thread, saying the administration is trying to 'make sure we will never know' who the buyers are.
"'So instead of disclosing who is paying outrageous sums for Hunter Biden’s artwork so that we could monitor whether the purchasers are gaining access to government, the WH tried to make sure we will never know who they are,' Shaub wrote while linking to The Post's report. 'That’s very disappointing.'"
Glenn Greenwald summed things up well in a pair of tweets:
And Matt Taibbi adds:
Be sure to also check out this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., who notes that, “Under the plan, a New York gallery will keep secret the identities of those paying up to $500,000 for his novice pieces, but of course this wouldn’t stop the buyer from letting Hunter know who just bought his art or from turning up later as Hunter’s guest at a White House event.”
Jenkins also takes the media to task for their approach to covering — or, rather, only reluctantly covering, if at all — Hunter’s serial misbehavior. After praising the outstanding work done on this front by the New York Post, he continues:
"To avoid knowing the truth so you don’t have to report it is not good reporting. This has been the approach of other media, or was until last month when the Washington Post’s resident ‘fact checker,’ Glenn Kessler, in a hilariously neurotic piece, apparently forced on him only because of his previous swallowing of Biden denials, finally confirmed some of the New York Post’s reporting.
"To wit, the vice president made an 'unscheduled' stop at a private restaurant dinner in April 2015 where Hunter was hosting an official of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Understand: If Hunter’s role on Burisma’s board was to make the company a hot potato for Ukrainian corruption investigators, the vice president’s stop-by succeeded instantly in turning the administration’s Ukraine policy into a hostage to Burisma avoiding prosecution.
"Mr. Kessler writes a sentence that would fascinate Dr. Freud: 'When we looked into it, there was less to the story than one might imagine.' He never specifies who 'one' is or what one 'imagines,' but the Washington Post confirms the New York Post story in toto.
"Let the dam break. The New York tabloid’s reporting, and that of the Daily Mail, which also has the laptop data, is everything journalism aspires to be, based on transparently obtained, contemporaneous documentation, not on somebody’s after-the-fact recollection or spin. Their reporting makes the average Bob Woodward book look like the product of ouija-board reporting."
And he adds this: “Other news outlets are not obliged to adopt the tabloids’ framing. They can interpret the pattern as Washington complexities as usual or as Mr. Biden’s indulgence of a particularly troubled son. But ignoring a story you know to be true in hopes your readers will believe it’s not true is not the job our ‘newspapers of record’ signed up for.”
ITEM #7: Sounds like Vice President Harris has spent even less time in America’s rural communities than she has at the Southern border.
Kelsey Koberg reports:
“Vice President Kamala Harris was criticized Saturday for arguing against voter ID laws, claiming rural Americans can't get photocopies of their ID's.
"'I don't think that we should underestimate what that [compromise on voter ID laws] could mean,' Harris said in an interview with BET News. 'Because in some people's mind, that means you're going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't — there's no Kinkos, there's no OfficeMax near them.'
"'Of course people have to prove who they are,' Harris continued, but 'not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are.'"
The responses from rural Americans have been simply beautiful. …
Sometimes this administration just makes it too easy.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." ― Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.” ― Dinesh D'Souza