Ronald E. Yates's Blog, page 60

Marxism in the Classroom = Riots in the Streets

I am reposting commentary from Clare M. Lopez, who is the Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy and a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research.

In her excellent and cogent observations, she explains the strategy by socialists and communists to foment Marxist ideas through the decades-long indoctrination of American children by leftist teachers and educators. The result of this scheme are the riots and violent attacks we are seeing today on historical monuments, statues, federal office buildings, and courthouses.

I spent 13 years as a professor, Department Head, and Dean at the University of Illinois and was often appalled at the absolute lack of knowledge students had of civics and American history, including the founding of the United States. Today, we are reaping the harvest of the kind of revisionist anti-American history that is too often being forced-fed by socialists and leftist teachers unions to young, malleable minds.

Ms. Lopez has done an exemplary job of exposing this treachery and sedition that is happening in our schools.

Marxism in the Classroom = Riots in the Streets

By Clare M. Lopez

The explosion of lawless rioting on American streets was only a matter of time. Sixty-two years ago, former FBI agent W. Cleon Skousen wrote “The Naked Communist” to warn Americans about how communists planned to destroy our system from within, not by means of sudden revolution as envisioned by Karl Marx, but through a version of Italian communist Antonio Gramsci’s “cultural Marxism.”

With a nod to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), it has been a “long march through the institutions” that has brought us to the brink of catastrophe—and much of it began in our schools.

Chapter 13 of Skousen’s book lists 45 goals of communism in America. Number 17 reads:

“Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of the teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.”

[image error] Clare Lopez

And so they did. While American parents were busy working to sustain their families and achieve a piece of the American dream, their children were at schools with teachers and textbooks that taught them to hate America, the Judeo-Christian foundations of our national identity, and the remarkable individuals who built this country on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and more.

The Plot To Destroy Western Civilization

As a result, the brainwashed generations of automatons marching in lockstep out of such schools possess neither critical thinking skills nor the intellectual ability to appreciate the brilliance and opportunity bequeathed to them by the great philosophers of Western Civilization.

But, as Gramsci envisioned, they enter the ranks of art, film, music, literature, faith communities, government, media, and of course, academia, in droves. There will be no need for gulags or firing squads—or at least, not much.

As KGB defector Yuriy Bezmenov told us, subversion is a far more destructive weapon than violence. Today, we face a situation perhaps only slightly exaggerated in this recent quote from Jeff Nyquist: “The Constitution of the United States is something alien to most of the persons who occupy the actual government formed under it”. [Emphasis in the original.]

So, how did this happen?

The plot to destroy Western Civilization was hatched in Moscow shortly after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and implemented through the Institute of Social Research at Frankfurt University (later simply, The Frankfurt School). John Dewey, Herbert Marcuse, and others brought socialist concepts of “progressivism” to U.S. schools through the National Education Association.

Out went E Pluribus Unum; the firm, fixed principles of math and science; the accurate teaching of historical fact; and all religion. In their place came the indoctrination of critical race theory, identity grievance, and the angry psychobabble of “victimhood.”

Textbooks like Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” (1980) and “A Young People’s History of the United States” (2007) that are used across the U.S. from middle school through university, distort the true historical record and paint America as irredeemably oppressive, racist, and unjust.

As I wrote in “Santa Barbara School District: Where Marxism & Black Lives Matter — But Academics, Not So Much,” at Front Page Magazine on 19 June 2020, Zinn’s ‘solution’ was class warfare that pits identity and minority groups against one another, rejects American exceptionalism, abandons free market capitalism, and goads impressionable students to anger, despair, and hopelessness about their own country.

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Psychologically twisted revolutionaries steeped in Marxist hatred like Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground set off bombs, smashed windows, and assaulted police in the 1960s-1970s. But instead of going to prison, Ayers went into academia and later held the joint titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he imparted his hatred for his homeland to further generations of students.

Proclaiming Justice to the Nations founder Laurie Cardoza-Moore appeared on Fox and Friends Weekend on 11 July 2020 and rightly noted that:

“The greatest national security threat to the United States is coming from U.S. history textbooks and the Common Core curriculum.”

Decades of such indoctrination have wreaked the havoc we see today on our streets: crazed mobs attack police, assault private citizens and business owners, vandalize property federal and private alike, tear down statues without even knowing whom they represent, set up “autonomous zones”, deface synagogues, and scream anti-Semitic slurs.

The avatars of the current insurrection are Antifa and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Indeed, BLM even has a national organization called Black Lives Matter at School (BLMS), whose signature objective is the mandatory injection of Black History and Ethnic Studies into U.S. school curricula.

A project of the Movement4BlackLives (whose horrifically anti-Semitic, racist 2016 Program is now archived online), BLMS offers an online Curriculum Resource Guide based on the BLM’s guiding principles and other materials that promote the three African-American Marxist women who founded BLM, “queer and transgender affirming,” “globalism,” and “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” BLMS has the endorsement of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the U.S.

Our Nation Under Siege

In California, a proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), which is among other things both antisemitic and anti-Israel, has been under consideration and revision for more than a year. But even as the revision process grinds on, a group calling itself Save CA Ethnic Studies reportedly is attempting an end-run around the system to hoodwink individual district school boards in CA to vote on a previously criticized and rejected version of the curriculum (sometimes without even being shown the original draft).

More than a dozen CA school boards so far have adopted resolutions in support of that earlier proposed ethnic studies curriculum. In response, a letter signed by some 88 state and national organizations has been sent to the California Department of Education to protest the Save CA Ethnic Studies attempted deception as well as its efforts to “indoctrinate students into a highly controversial and divisive set of ideological beliefs that we feared would exacerbate ethnic divisions and foment bigotry in California schools.”

Signatories include the American Truth Project, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, B’nai B’rith International, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME), the Legal Insurrection Foundation, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, The Lawfare Project, the Zionist Organization of America, among many more.

Across the country, however, including in private secondary schools like Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Sidwell Friends, school systems are pronouncing support for the Marxist BLM agenda as they come under pressure to include materials on “institutionalized racism” in their curricula. In public school systems in New York City, Wake County, NC, the Santa Barbara Unified School District, and others, hard leftist school boards are kowtowing to the belligerent demands of Black Student Youth groups and others.

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At the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board Meeting of 9 June 2020, for example, resolutions were accepted declaring that “all Students Deserve Justice, Equity, and Freedom” and declaring February 2-5, 2021 as Black Lives Matter In School Week (one of the demands of the BLMS group).

Then, two weeks later, in a Resolution dated 23 June 2020, the Santa Barbara School District passed a resolution declaring, among other things, that “racism is a public health emergency,” and resolving that “the Santa Barbara Unified School District will develop and purchase culturally relevant resources for educators and families for distribution and posting on the district website that 1) teach about, celebrate, uphold, and affirm the lives of Black people…” (It is not specified from whom or in accordance with which regular bidding process such purchase of “relevant resources” would be affected.)

This is but an overview of the Marxist agenda that has been for decades and is continuing to this day to be jammed down the throats of America’s students. Hitherto unsuspecting parents are waking up, though, especially during this time of online instruction during the coronavirus crisis. They are seeing, sometimes for the first time, what their children are being taught—and many are furious.

The more questions the parents are asking, the more the school boards are resorting to deception and obfuscation, deliberately to exclude the very families with whose children they have been entrusted. It’s not their children and it’s not their money.

Parents increasingly are attending school board meetings and demanding answers. They are doing what any patriotic and responsible American parents would do to ensure their children are not being indoctrinated and recruited by shadowy Marxist interests to hate them and the country they love.

With our nation under siege, as Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft wrote in a 7 July 2020 piece:

“We cannot claim to truly appreciate the Founders and the nation they secured for us while simultaneously refusing to do what it takes to keep and maintain this nation.”

Clare M. Lopez is the Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy and a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and the Canadian Meighen Institute.

 

The Properly Equipped War Correspondent, ca. 1905

Having recently finished the third book in my Finding Billy Battles trilogy, which begins in 1914, I find myself still deeply immersed in the lifestyle and routine of that period.

Because my central character, William Battles, is (among other things) a journalist who spends time covering (and participating in) conflicts in places like French Indochina ca. 1894, the Philippines ca. 1898, and Mexico in 1914-17, I was intrigued by the kind of “kit” correspondents of that era took with them into the bush.

I recalled reading something Richard Harding Davis, one of America’s most legendary foreign correspondents, wrote for Scribner’s Magazine in 1905. It was entitled: “A War Correspondent’s Kit.” Scribners was a highly popular magazine that featured such writers as Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, and John Galsworthy, to name a few.

[image error]  Richard Harding Davis

 I often shared portions of Davis’s article with the class on International Reporting and Foreign Correspondents I taught for some 13 years at the University of Illinois.

I thought my blog followers might find it interesting, if nothing else, for the prodigious amount of bulky and weighty gear intrepid correspondents lugged into the field more than 100 years ago.

In Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s wonderful 1938 satirical novel about journalism and war correspondents, he tells of hacks bringing bundles of “cleft sticks” with them to the fictional African nation of Ishmaelia.

[image error] Zulu courier carrying a message in a cleft stick

For those unaware of what a cleft stick is, it is a stick that has been partially severed along the grain of the wood to make a tight, springy clasp to carry some object—most commonly, written messages or, in the case of Scoop, news stories.

I must confess that not once during my 25 years as a foreign correspondent did I ever send a message using a cleft stick. I am not sure that Davis ever did either. At least he doesn’t include them on the list of essential items for the suitably kitted out correspondent of 1905.

I hope you will enjoy this little journey to the past.

A War Correspondent’s Kit   (slightly annotated and abridged)

Scribner’s, April 1905.

By Richard Harding Davis    

I am going to try to describe some kits and outfits I have seen used in different parts of the world by travelers and explorers, and in different campaigns by army officers and war correspondents.

In recommending any article for an outfit, one needs to be careful. An outfit lends itself to dispute because the selection of its parts is not an exact science. It should be, but it is not.

The truth is that each man in selecting his outfit follows the lines of least resistance. With one, the pleasure he derives from his morning bath outweighs the fact that for the rest of the day he must carry a rubber bathtub. Another man is hearty, tough, and inured to an out-of-door life. He can sleep on a pile of coal or standing on his head, and he naturally scorns to carry a bed. But another man, should he sleep all night on the ground, the next day would be of no use to himself or his newspaper. So, he carries a folding cot and the more fortunate one of tougher fiber laughs at him.

Another man says that the only way is to travel “light,” and sets forth with raincoat and field-glass. He honestly thinks that he travels light because his intelligence tells him it is the better way; but, as a matter of fact, he does so because he is lazy. Throughout the entire campaign he borrows from his friends, and with that camaraderie and unselfishness that never comes to the surface so strongly as when men are thrown together in camp, they lend him whatever he needs. When the war is over, he is the man who goes about saying: “Some of those fellows carried enough stuff to fill a moving van. Now, look what I did. I made the entire campaign on a tooth-brush.”

On one march my own outfit was as unwieldy as a gypsy’s caravan. It consisted of an enormous cart, two oxen, three Basuto ponies, one Australian horse, three servants, and four hundred pounds of supplies and baggage. When it moved across the plain, it looked as large as a Fall River boat. Later, when I joined the opposing army and was not expected to maintain the dignity of a great London daily, I carried all my belongings strapped to my back, or to the back of my one pony, and I was quite as comfortable, clean, and content as I had been with the private car and the circus tent.

Personally, I am for traveling “light,” but at the very start, one is confronted with the fact that what one man calls light to another savors of luxury. I call fifty pounds light.

The list of articles I find most useful when traveling where it is possible to obtain transport, or, as we may call it, traveling heavy, are the following:

A tent, seven by ten feet, with fly, jointed poles, tent-pins, and a heavy mallet. I recommend a tent open at both ends with a window cut in one end. The window furnishes a draught of air. The window should be covered with a flap which, in case of rain, can be tied down.

A great convenience in a tent is a pocket sewn inside of each wall, for boots, books, and such small articles. The pocket should not be filled with anything so heavy as to cause the walls to sag. Another convenience with a tent is a leather strap stretched from pole to pole, upon which to hang clothes, and another is a strap to be buckled around the front tent-pole, and which is studded with projecting hooks for your lantern, water bottle, and field-glasses.

I consider first in importance the folding bed. Second, in importance, I would place a folding chair. Many men scoff at a chair as a cumbersome luxury. But after a hard day on foot or in the saddle, when you sit on the ground with your back to a rock and your hands locked around your knees to keep yourself from sliding, or on a box with no rest for your spinal column, you begin to think a chair is not a luxury, but a necessity.

[image error] Vintage Ad for Gold Medal Folding Cot

As a rule, a cooking kit is built like every other cooking kit in that the utensils for cooking are carried in the same pot that is used for boiling the water, and the top of the pot turns itself into a frying-pan.

In importance after the bed, cooking kit, and chair, I would place these articles:

Two collapsible water-buckets of rubber or canvas.
Two collapsible brass lanterns, with extra isinglass sides.
Two boxes of sick-room candles.
One dozen boxes of safety matches.
One ax. The best I have seen is the Marble Safety Axe, made at Gladstone, Mich. You can carry it in your hip-pocket, and you can cut down a tree with it.
One medicine case containing quinine, calomel, and Sun Cholera Mixture in tablets.
Toilet-case for razors, tooth-powder, brushes, and paper.
Folding bathtub of rubber in a rubber case. These are manufactured to fold into a space little larger than a cigar-box.
Two towels old, and soft.
Three cakes of soap.
One Jaeger blanket.
One mosquito head-bag.
One extra pair of shoes, old and comfortable.
One extra pair of riding breeches.
One extra pair of gaiters. The former regulation army gaiter of canvas, laced, rolls up in a small compass and weighs but little. (NOTE: Gaiters were worn over the shoe and lower pants leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment.)
One flannel shirt. Gray least shows the dust.
Two pairs of drawers. For riding, the best are those of silk.
Two undershirts, Balbriggan or woolen.
Three pairs of woolen socks.
Two linen handkerchiefs, large enough, if needed, to tie around the throat and protect the back of the neck.
One pair of pajamas, woolen, not linen.
Two briarwood pipes.
Six bags of smoking tobacco; Durham or Seal of North Carolina pack efficiently.
One pad of writing paper.
One fountain pen self-filling.
One bottle of ink, with screw top, held tight by a spring.
One dozen linen envelopes.
Stamps, wrapped in oil silk with mucilage side next to the silk.
One stick sealing-wax. In tropical countries mucilage on the flap of envelopes sticks to everything except the envelope.
One dozen elastic bands of the largest size. In packing they help to compress articles like clothing into the smallest possible compass and in many other ways will be found very useful.
One pack of playing-cards.
Books.
One revolver and six cartridges.

I place the water-buckets first on the list for the reason that I have found them one of my most valuable assets. With one, as soon as you halt, instead of waiting for your turn at the well or water-hole, you can carry water to your horse, and one of them once filled and set in the shelter of the tent, later saves you many steps. It also can be used as a nose-bag, and to carry fodder.

I recommend the brass-folding lantern because those I have tried of tin or aluminum have invariably broken. A lantern is an absolute necessity. When before daylight you break camp or hurry out in a windstorm to struggle with flying tent pegs, or when at night you wish to read or play cards, a lantern with a stout frame and steady light is indispensable.

The original cost of the sick-room candles is more than that of ordinary candles, but they burn longer, are brighter, and take up much less room. To protect them and the matches from dampness, or the sun, it is well to carry them in a rubber sponge bag. Anyone who has forgotten to pack a towel will not need to be advised to take two.

Every man knows the dreary halts in camp when the rain pours outside, or the regiment is held in reserve. For times like these, a pack of cards or a book is worth carrying, even if it weighs as much as the plates from which it was printed. At present, it is easy to obtain all of the modern classics in volumes small enough to go into the coat-pocket. In Japan, before starting for China, we divided up among the correspondents Thomas Nelson & Sons’ and Doubleday, Page & Co.’s pocket editions of Dickens, Thackeray, and Lever, and as most of our time in Manchuria was spent locked up in compounds, they proved a great blessing.

In the list I have included a revolver, following out the old saying that “You may not need it for a long time, but when you do need it, you want it damned quick.” Except to impress guides and mule-drivers, it is not an essential article. In six campaigns I have carried one, and never used it, nor needed it but once, and then while I was dodging behind the foremast it lay under tons of luggage in the hold. The number of cartridges I have limited to six, on the theory that if in six shots you haven’t hit the other fellow, he will have hit you, and you will not require another six.

This, I think, completes the list of articles that on different expeditions I either have found of use or have seen render good service to someone else.

But the sagacious man will pack none of the things enumerated in this article. For the larger his kit, the less benefit he will have of it. It will all be taken from him. And accordingly, my final advice is to go forth empty-handed, naked and unashamed and borrow from your friends. I have never tried that method, but I have never seen it fail, and of all travelers, the man who borrows is the wisest.

(NOTE: How did I travel when covering war and mayhem in the pre-laptop and smartphone era? With a typewriter, paper, notebook, pen and my Chicago Tribune American Express Gold Card, and nary a pair of silk drawers.)

 

 

BIDEN’S “PLAN” TO FIX EDUCATION

The most distressing element of the nation-wide pandemic and shutdown has been the decision by some local governments, school boards, and teachers unions to prohibit children from attending school.

We can argue about motive all we want, but ultimately it comes down to politics. Opponents of allowing schools to reopen say they fear for the health of children when, in fact, data from around the world show that children rarely get sick from COVID-19, and deaths are incredibly rare. Also, evidence shows that children don’t spread the disease as adults do, and there is no evidence that closing schools will control the transmission of the virus.

Furthermore, evidence from Europe and Asia where schools have already reopened shows that closing schools will cause lots of potential long-term and detrimental outcomes regarding the education of our children. It will also impact the ability of society to function and deliver essential services. It may even increase deaths from Covid-19 based on some modeling.

So what is to be done? One answer is for parents who want their children to go back to the classroom to send them to charter schools, Catholic schools, or private schools.

Below I am reprinting a commentary by Lieutenant General, U.S. Army retired, Marvin L. Covault, who examines the myths and realities of charter schools and the role the nation’s highly-politicized teachers unions are playing in keeping our schools closed.

BIDEN’S “PLAN”  TO FIX EDUCATION

BY

 Marvin Covault, Lt. Gen., U.S. Army retired

Joe Biden’s campaign platform is beginning to creep out of his basement, and so far, it is not a pretty picture. At this time, let’s just look at one pressing national issue, education.

Education is perhaps this nation’s greatest disgrace. Yet every four years, we go through the same song-and-dance. The democrat sells his/her soul to the teachers’ unions, promising to spend more billions of dollars to regulate top-down, which then requires a bigger inefficient, and ineffective Department of Education bureaucracy. This is a decades-old formula for failure as our world rating in education continues to decline.

Snapshots that illustrate the problems in government-run public schools: Providence, RI: Only 5% of eighth-graders are proficient in math. Newark, NJ: 21% proficiency in math. North Carolina: 44 % of North Carolina third-graders are not proficient in reading. Wisconsin: Black American eighth-graders perform only slightly better than white fourth-graders in reading and math. Nation-wide, two-thirds of eighth-graders are not proficient in math and reading. And so it goes across the country.

One cannot adequately analyze education results without getting inside the government-run public schools vs. charter schools discussion. Let’s begin by understanding what a charter school is.

[image error] Lt. Gen. Marvin Covault, RET

Facts shared by nearly all the states: The State Board of Education authorizes charter schools. Charter schools are TUITION-FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS of choice that are operated mostly by independent non-profit boards of directors.

Myth # 1: “Charter schools are unaccountable, private schools that take money away from district schools.” Truth: Charter schools are 100% accountable to state authorities. Charter school students are typically funded at $0.73/dollar compared to district school students. Charter schools do not receive capital funding for buildings or transportation.

Myth 2: “Charter schools don’t serve a diverse population of students; they get to handpick their students to populate their schools.” Truth: If a child is eligible to attend a public government school, parents may apply to any charter school. If a charter school receives more applications than its capacity, a lottery is conducted. Discrimination based on race, national origin, or religion is prohibited.

Myth 3: “Charter schools exclude economically disadvantaged students by not providing transportation or food.” Truth: Most charter schools provide transportation and food without receiving any funding to do so.

Myth 4: “Charter schools are not academically superior to government-run public schools.” Truth: In New York City, for example, charter school students are predominantly black and Hispanic and live in low-income neighborhoods. In 2019, most students in the city’s government-run public schools failed to pass state-wide math and English standardized tests while most of the charter school students passed both subjects. Ironically, in some minority communities, traditional public school and charter school classes are co-located in a shared building. In one co-mingled building in 28 different classes, less than 10% of the government-run public school students tested to a proficient level while 81-100% of charter students were proficient.

Why is this happening? There are three significant differences: One, government-run public schools are top-down highly regulated vs. charters with their own organization, planning, and programs. Unlike district schools, charter schools are independently operated, allowing them the freedom to use innovative school models and customized approaches to curriculum, staffing, and budgeting.

Second: Government-run public schools are highly unionized while charters are not. There are exceptional/gifted teachers, good teachers, and also bad teachers. Because of attitude, aptitude, expertise, and lack of desire, some teachers should choose a different career. The inadequate teachers will say, I present the material, but I can’t make the students learn. While that is a true statement, the excellent/gifted/good teachers, by contrast, can make the students want to learn. For anything short of criminal charges, a school principal generally does not have the time it takes to fight the teachers’ union through a dismissal. On average, it takes about two years of effort to fire a teacher for poor performance. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, it takes at least five years.

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Finally, third, the bottom line is accountability. Fact: an unacceptably high percentage of government-run public school students routinely fail standard tests. When they do, what happens? Nothing positive. Students fail in fourth grade get passed on to fifth grade, in sixth grade, they fall further behind, and this pattern persists until a point, usually in high school, when the failing student feels frustrated, hopelessly behind, ridiculed and takes the only road he/she can see and drops out of school. Across this great nation, on an average school day, 7000 students drop out and join the ranks of the disadvantaged. Accountability? Zero.

By contrast, if charter students do not measure up to standards, the school is subject to being shut down by state law. Is accountability important in education? Yes, the ultimate arbiter.

Back to the opening question, what is Joe Biden’s platform on education?

The bottom line: He has no plan to help educate, period. He conveniently fails to mention charter schools on his official campaign website. Specifically, he has made two public statements: “There are some charter schools that work.” Wow, what a resounding endorsement! And, “I will stop all federal funding for for-profit charter schools.” For-profit entities operate only about 16 percent of charter schools across the country.

More telling than what he is saying is what he is doing, i.e., giving 100% support to teachers’ unions, which have already endorsed his candidacy.

That leads us to the question, where are the teacher’s unions on charter schools?  Here is a summation of the misinformation they are spreading: Charter schools are privately-operated, deregulated, segregated, poorly-supervised, de-unionized, scandal-ridden contract schools that drain much-needed funds from demonized public schools. Oh, by the way, those are all lies.

The United Teachers Los Angeles, representing 600,000 K-12 teachers, provides a good example. One of UTLA’s current demands, as a condition of getting students back in classrooms this fall, is that privately operated charters that get government money to be shut down; that would be 100% of them. Why? Charters threaten traditional schools because the empirical record shows that urban charters, particularly those in poor neighborhoods, create better learning outcomes.

Teachers’ unions across the country are generally campaigning against charters and explicitly working to influence local and state authorities not to approve new charter applications. Examples: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, proposed a state budget that would put a freeze on new charter schools and cap enrollment at existing ones.

Recently the Chicago Board of Education denied three proposals for new charter schools and rejected the renewal of an existing charter following a union-led pressure campaign. The Chicago Teachers Union has called for a moratorium on all new charter schools.

We are now in a counter-revolution against education reform led by teachers’ unions pressuring democrat politicians across the nation to turn down charter applications. In California, local school district officials can now veto charter applications.

So, Mr. Biden, by all means, lead this nation down the continuing path of big-government, over-regulated, over-priced, failing education. While that may not be what you actually want for America’s future, it is so pathetically apparent that you are pandering to the unions for their vote. Where is your accountability?

BREAKING NEWS: 25 July in the Wall Street Journal. “Education Secretary DeVos recently announced that her department will award at least $85 million over five years for the Washington D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The scholarships let lower-income parents of children trapped in failing public schools attend the charter or private schools of their choice. According to the Education Department, nearly 98% of students with Opportunity Scholarships graduate from high school compared with 69% of D.C. public school students. Some 86% go on to college, while more than 90% of scholarship recipients are black or Hispanic, and the average family income is less than $27,000 a year.

Enter Joe Biden, whose own children benefitted from private schools. But in his recent unity platform with Bernie Sanders, Biden calls explicitly for eliminating the D.C. scholarships. There is no moral or fiscal justification for killing the scholarships.”

Sorry Joe, you just got an F in education.

Lieutenant General, U.S. Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

 

The ‘Unhypenated American’ is gone

I am sad to report that Lloyd Marcus, who proudly called himself “the unhyphenated American” passed away this past Friday from an apparent heart attack.

Fortunately, I was able to run a few of Lloyd’s commentaries and essays on my blog. They were always filled with common sense and street-wise wisdom. In fact, I carried his last commentary on Foreign Correspondent just yesterday (Saturday). It was entitled: Black America: Before y’all sign on to BLM, Read This

What follows is a remembrance of Lloyd Marcus by J.R. Dunn, author and American Thinker contributor.

The ‘Unhypenated American’ is gone

J.R. Dunn

American Thinker readers will be shocked to learn of the passing of Lloyd Marcus, Tea Party icon, prolific American Thinker contributor, and conservative activist extraordinaire.  Lloyd proudly called himself “the unhyphenated American.”

Lloyd suffered an apparent heart attack early Friday, dying before medical assistance could arrive.  His beloved wife Mary was at his side at the time.

Lloyd worked his way out of a ghetto background under the guidance of his father, the late Rev. Lloyd E. Marcus, a career firefighter and civil rights pioneer.  Showing a talent for art at an early age, Lloyd gained a scholarship to the Maryland Institute College of Art, though he left before graduating.  After a two-year stint in the Army, Lloyd returned to Baltimore to renew his artistic career.  Working as a graphic designer for a Baltimore TV station, he established a close relationship with a young talk show host named Oprah Winfrey, with whom he worked closely as her career began to take off.

Early in the 1990s, Lloyd quit television and spent a decade working as musician, singer-songwriter, and music producer.  He was also active in the local community, and after he organized a National Night Out to combat local crime, the Deltona, Florida mayor, John Masiarczyk, asked him to lend his talents to the new Deltona Arts and Historical Center.  Lloyd worked with the center for several years, finally rising to the office of president.

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But it was as an outspoken black conservative that Lloyd made his mark.  Steadied by his heartfelt Christian convictions, Lloyd found the hard and lonely path of the black Republican to be no overwhelming challenge.  Though dismissed and insulted as an “Uncle Tom,” Lloyd never once revealed a sliver of doubt about his convictions.

The Tea Party movement was Lloyd’s moment.  He soon established himself as one of the most energetic and dynamic of all Tea Party activists, appearing at rallies and gatherings across the country.  He performed his “Tea Party Anthem” for hundreds of audiences.  Lloyd performed and spoke in support of dozens of conservative candidates across the country in repeated elections alongside fellow members of the Conservative Campaign Committee.  His last such tour occurred just weeks ago, supporting campaigns by GOP candidates in Nevada and Arizona.  He looked forward to yet more campaigning this summer to assure the re-election of Donald Trump.  He put major effort into producing his “Trump Train” video in support of the president’s candidacy.

Lloyd’s career as a writer for American Thinker began in 2008.  He was one of American Thinker‘s most prolific contributors, occasionally writing three or more essays a week, with nearly a thousand pieces to his credit.  Lloyd’s straightforward tone and non-nonsense attitude were extremely popular among readers, who also treasured his memories of the old Baltimore, particularly the stories involving his father, the man who broke the color barrier in the Baltimore Fire Department.

It is hard to believe that we will see no more of Lloyd’s commentaries.  The man in the black hat has completed his task.  It remains for us to carry it on.

 

Black America: Before y’all sign on to BLM, Read This

The following commentary is from African-American conservative artist and commentator, Lloyd Marcus. He makes A LOT of sense. Take a look.

Black America: Before y’all sign on to BLM Read This

By

Lloyd Marcus:  The Unhyphenated American

During the opening monologue of his show, Arsenio Hall included a running gag titled, “Things that make you say hmmm.” To my fellow blacks, here are things that should make you say “hmmm” about Black Lives Matter.

BLM’s mission statement says they want to destroy the nuclear family.

Rejecting BLM’s war on the family, black former NFL star Marcellus Wiley offered these stats. “Children from single-parent homes versus two-parent homes. Children from single-parent homes are 5 times more likely to commit suicide – 6 times more likely to be in poverty – 9 times more likely to drop out of school – 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances – 14 times more likely to commit rape – 20 times more likely to end up in prison and 32 times more likely to run away from home.”

BLM’s founders admit they are “trained Marxists.” These disciples of Karl Marx have launched a revolution against Capitalism to implement Socialism, which will morph into Communism.

Communism means elites dictate every aspect of your life. They sucker you in by promising everything for free. Their promise always falls short because someone has to work to produce goods and services.

When the government confiscates the majority of what you earn to redistribute equally to people who do nothing, human nature asks why should you bust your butt? Communist dictators live high on the hog while the people live on the crumbs that fall from their table. Do you see anything related to George Floyd or empowering blacks in BLM’s Marxist agenda?

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To please BLM, Democrat city councils, mayors and governors have begun disbanding, defunding, and ordering their police to stand down.

Mainstream media (fake news media) won’t tell y’all this, but when the police go away, black folks suffer most.

Consequently, in six weeks, there have been six hundred murders, Mostly blacks killing blacks in Democrat-controlled cities; New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

For years, black on black homicides continued to reach record-breaking numbers in Democrat cities. Why isn’t BLM dealing with this real issue costing black lives? How come black lives only matter when a rare white person kills them?

This will come as a shock, but rock-solid data confirms that police have been the greatest defenders of black lives for several years. Fake news media and Democrats lie about everything, using y’all as useful idiots. They have manufactured extreme racial unrest hoping blacks will blame Trump and vote for Biden.

Systemic racism is a lie. Blacks are only 13% of the population. Therefore, white America voted for the first black president two times. Oprah is worth $2.6 billion. Can we please stop the systemic racism nonsense?

Before the COVID hysteria, Trump had blacks experiencing unprecedented prosperity and historic low unemployment.

Why did Democrats and BLM work so hard to destroy Trump’s booming economy? Answer: BLM said their top priority is to force Trump to resign. Screw black jobs and prosperity. BLM burned down black businesses, chased businesses from black areas, suicides, domestic violence, and black suffering has skyrocketed due to BLM’s and Democrats’ joint efforts to crush the economy to get Trump out of office.

Sacrificing babies in worship to a false god, BLM and Democrats strongly support and defend Planned Parenthood. Do y’all know racist Margaret Sanger founded PP? Sanger thought blacks were inferior and must be exterminated. In a 1939 letter, Sanger wrote, “We don’t want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…”

Still today, 70% of PP dead-baby-chop-shops (they illegally sell the parts for profit) are located in black neighborhoods. Black women are only 14% of the child birthing population, and yet 36% of all U.S. abortions are black babies. Blacks are engaged in their own genocide via abortion. Why do those black lives not matter?

It truly amazes me that so many corporations, Democrat politicians, fake news media, and Christians have no problem with the glaring reverse racism demanded by BLM. BLM is a cult whose zealots demand that whites kneel in worship and beg forgiveness for being white. Is this what Jesus wants?

BLM operatives have white middle school students hating themselves, taught that they were born racist. Does Jesus want people (kids) hating themselves? BLM had a sportscaster fired for daring to say, “all lives matter.” Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross because all lives matter. If you support BLM’s racist mandates and agenda, the love of Christ is not in you. Your Christianity emits a putrid odor.

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So there you have it. I have given you several easy to confirm truths to consider before signing on or joining the cheering team of BLM. Some will still rather believe the 24/7 deceptions, distortions, and lies of fake news media. I think there is an evil spiritual component attached to such a willingness to be deceived. The Bible speaks of those who prefer to believe a lie over the truth. “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.” (Jeremiah 7:8)

But then, why should you believe me? I am nothing more than a self-hating, Uncle Tom, black Republican, Conservative, Christian, stupid n*****, and a traitor to my race, seated firmly aboard Trump Train 2020.

Lloyd Marcus is a Proud Unhyphenated American, who grew up in a Baltimore ghetto. He is an artist, singer, production designer, and musical producer, social, and political commentator–all professions frequently inhabited by leftists. His songs and artwork have uplifting, often patriotic themes. And, as his work on Republican campaigns shows, his politics lean toward the right.

For more, visit Lloyd’s website at http://www.lloydmarcus.com/.

 

Proud to be an American

I don’t know Hal Morris. Never met him. I received his commentary from a friend and it resonated with me because of its honesty and the author’s palpable love of our country. I hope you will find it as poignant and authentic as I did.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN

by Hal Morris

 I was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1935, but grew up in a small rural hamlet called Oak Ridge in the Catskills near Ellenville. We moved there in 1942, the dark days of WWII, and were the first Jewish family in the area. I grew up attending a one-room school, grades 1-8 from, 1943 to 1949.

It was rural America at its finest hour. Each morning in school, we recited the Lord’s Prayer, sang the National Anthem, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and saluted the Flag. We all respected and felt proud if chosen to hold the Flag during the morning ceremonies.

It is interesting to note there were only 25 students in our school, 15 White and 10 black. Because we were such a small student body, everybody had to participate in games. We played, fought, and grew to like or dislike because of actions against each other, not because of our race or economic levels.

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We were proud to be Americans and especially proud of our neighbors who had gone off to War. As children, versed in the War’s progress, we followed the battle lines on an old Mercator map hung by the blackboard.

When we had free time, we biked and visited each other’s homes. It was as if we were one. None of my friends went away to camp during the summer. The shortage of men caused many of the women and children to do farm work. I went to work with my older classmates picking bush beans during the summer. It was hot, dusty, and difficult to fill up bushels of beans and carry them to the truck for 25 cents a bushel. If we worked hard, we could earn as much as $1.50 a day and $7.50 for the week. I learned responsibility, getting up a 5 AM, riding a workers truck to the fields. Coming home at 4 PM, we helped with feeding chickens, mowing hay, and cleaning barns. When I was ten, I learned to drive a small Chevy dump truck and a Ford tractor. I remember being so proud of the responsibility. People depended upon children, and we delivered.

In June of 1944, we learned the two neighborhood Sheely boys had died landing at Normandy. The family lived down the road. We also heard that same month that Louis Rabin, the brother of one of our students, had been shot down over France and taken Prisoner. The War was coming right home to us and fast. Funny, that right after that news, we stopped playing war games.

What made it very real to me was when our neighbors across the road, the Carsons, heard their son Harry, who they thought was missing in action, was captured in the Philippines. Harry was a star athlete and baseball player signed by the New York Giants in 1940. He enlisted in the Army and was stationed on Corregidor in the Philippines. They had given me his bat and glove to use. I was nine years old and so proud of Harry and cried when I found out. Happily, Harry survived Japanese confinement, and, when he returned in November of 1945, he weighed less than one hundred pounds and suffered from TB.

Those early years, growing up without material things, in a rural setting, going to a one-room integrated school, understanding how hard it is to be a migrant worker, how difficult it is to be a farmer, literally shaped by life today. I learned to respect hard work and the people who worked what some consider menial jobs. Eighty-five years later, I know my roots, and I appreciate those who work and use their hands in manufacturing and jobs we consider menial. I am proud and thankful to be born an American Citizen.

I worked my way through high school and college. Had a successful career in private industry, and retired after over thirty years as a school superintendent. I earned two Master’s degrees and a Doctorate from Columbia University. I realized success and disappointment but always thankful that I lived in this country that enabled a poor boy to have an opportunity to succeed.

It pains me to see our democracy and free enterprise economy threatened. It pains me to see the complacency spreading among our young. It disgusts me to see both black and white as well as other minorities hoodwinked for false political purposes. I’ve worked in countries practicing communism. I’ve traveled throughout Europe and Asia and met and spoken with individuals who lived and worked under socialism. I’ve seen and looked into their eyes and seen the hope that someday they to could come and live in America. I pity the young, entitled, rich who have their lives on a silver platter but don’t understand what freedom and equality mean.

I learned the truth is what matters. Looting, violence, and hatred can only divide and not win. The phrase attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop, ” United we stand, divided we fall was historically paraphrased by Patrick Henry,” Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” It’s easy to forget the struggles of parents who sacrificed so that the young have it better than they did growing up. So they protest, riot, and destroy to make things better. How ironic.

The politics of today will have a profound effect on the lives of so many to come. Will they have opportunities to become self-sustained individuals and families? Will our grandchildren live in a country that values free enterprise, lives within its means, and provides shelter to those in need?

This election in November is a test of our values. We must elect candidates who will continue to build upon the principles of our founding fathers and who respect and believe in the rule of law and not mob rule. Importantly, we must endorse the values of a free enterprise system, smaller government and, the rule of law.

The use of racial injustices to divide is deplorable. Recent polls indicate a majority of Americans view society as racist (WSJ/NBC Poll)7/21/20. Racism, antisemitism, discrimination against Hispanics, and Asians happens. Historically all ages and races have practiced individual racism and antisemitism all over the world. Because a black person calls a Jew a “Kike” doesn’t mean all blacks are antisemitic. It means that person is ignorant and prejudiced against Jews. It doesn’t mean all blacks are believers in systemic antisemitism. So let’s stand up to the polls and refute the myth of systemic racism. It doesn’t exist today. That it did during the Democratic/Socialist Party support of Jim Crow Laws, doesn’t make it so today. Systemic racism will exist, so long as individuals believe that problems are brought about by others.

Unfortunately, the solutions for most of the problems of poor urban black individuals and families exist within the black American population. The BLM movement’s recent statements have negated the importance of stability in family structure stability reinforced by sociological studies and the Moynihan report in 1965. This denial of family stability reinforces the belief that others cause their situation.

Politicians, trying to overcome defeat, regain strength and power need division, and cause problems to gain votes. By ignoring the reality of family structure, they prolong the solution to the problem.

Some say we are now at a crossroads. As Woody Allen so aptly stated in his speech to graduates, ” One road faces death and destruction while at the same time the other faces total annihilation. Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose wisely.” The humor of Allen illustrates the doom and gloom of the advocates of systemic racism. We don’t have to make such a choice. Ours is relatively simple. Do we love and respect our country as it stands? Can we within our system continue our fight for greater equality? We don’t need to wander around to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. We need to concentrate on building what is right.

Yes! I say we can and will! Let us not throw away all that is good. Look at the continued growth of the black and Hispanic middle classes. Look and develop increased job opportunities that can be available for weak urban areas. Despite Democratic/Socialists’ efforts to subvert such valuable opportunities, Republican efforts to create opportunity zones need increasing.

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It makes no sense to elect a Democratic/Socialist Party candidate for president. Biden’s platform stresses giveaways, free health care for all, free tuition, and relief from student debt. These are all unrealistic proposals without sustainable means of payment. Democratic/Socialist payments plans for their recommendations are in Elizabeth Warren’s, and Bernie Sander’s playbooks.

If legislation is adopted to support such recommendations, personal, small business and corporate tax brackets will soar. Even with that, there wouldn’t be enough revenue to pay for all the proposals. To make up the difference, the Democrats would cut defense spending, infrastructure plans, and border security budgets.

The Utopian ideas sound appealing but are not at all realistic.

We face neither death nor destruction. We don’t face annihilation.

What we face is a revolution trying to overthrow our economy and our form of government. We face a choice between free enterprise progress to new heights or a hard move towards socialism.

I pick free enterprise heights and the Rule of Law.

 

The Chrysalis: Wake Up America

BY: Anonymous

[A concerned and worried proud American]

Do you remember your grade school science class when we learned about ‘transformation’?

One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf, and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar ‘radically’ transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly or moth.

I stress the word ‘radically’ within this narrative. As it relates to the caterpillar and the resulting chrysalis that was formed, the change was, indeed, radical; however, what emerged was something of beauty by nature…it was either a moth or, more colorfully, a very lovely fluttering butterfly. We watched in wonder, and the change was a mystery of life.

It is indeed a stunning ‘transformation,’ which still holds our wonder, and we delight at this change, this metamorphosis.

Today, there is another metamorphosis emerging. We are witnessing another attempt by nefarious, well funded, socialist-leaning, and inspired, anarchist groups who want to radically transform our country, our government, our very way of life and liberty.

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Only, this attempted transformation will not yield or turn into anything of beauty and natural amazement. What it will generate is an ugly, socialistic ‘utopia’ where individual expression and achievement are not only not applauded, but not allowed to exist.

If not curtailed, and even though perpetrated by a few [relative to the population], radical, disgusting individuals, this dangerous movement can only increase and sow further destruction of property and create a further loss of life.

Regrettably, the apparent sympathy for this movement and actual condoning of this vile, destructive group and the damage wrought, by the primarily left-leaning, elected ‘democratic’ [quite an oxymoron] officials, further emboldens this movement and, by their acquiescence, quietly provides an invitation for the continuation of these destructive actions.

A no-bail policy, lack of support and removal of funding for our valiant police forces, a repudiation of our history from whence we originated and developed as a nation, the seeming disregard for our constitutional amendments that are supposed to guarantee free, protected speech, the right to carry firearms and protect oneself….all of these are the fundamentals to the foundation of our country and our beliefs.

It is so apparent that, because the last presidential election was not won by the ‘expected’ one, there has been such divisiveness sown and promulgated by the current ‘democratic’ party, and the attempted, ugly transformation occurring before us has been allowed and sanctioned. It is indeed so sad and pathetic that many of our elected individuals do not have the best interests of America in their hearts…what they have is bitterness and loathing for the rule of law and our way of life.

Our country has always undergone ‘transformation’ over time; it has continually morphed as necessary. However, any changes that did occur did not call for the destruction and abolition of our fundamental core beliefs. There was never such blatant disregard for our constitution, our values, yes, our capitalistic, entrepreneurial way of life that promoted and honored achievement regardless of where one originated by birth or life circumstance.

So, are we to continue to allow this attempted ‘transformation’ to continue?

Each citizen has until early November 2020 to decide how this country will emerge from its chrysalis. Hopefully, in the interim, actions will be taken by the current administration to restrain/curtail these heinous actions and the damage that has been imposed on several of our cities, jeopardizing the lives of millions of our citizens.

Even if we must sadly endure additional civil strife and lawlessness at the hands of these perpetrators and further sanctioned and condoned by some very weak, arrogant, ill-meaning officials and, let us not forget, the mainstream media’s failure to call out these individuals and groups, for they will not do so; we must ensure that, in November, we re-elect a president that will represent four more years of reassurance of our American values and ideals and a positive ‘transformation’ and reaffirmation of American exceptionalism and liberty.

 

Smithsonian: Hard work and nuclear family are signs of ‘whiteness’

When I read this I couldn’t believe it. The Smithsonian Institution, one of the most revered places in America, has succumbed to political correctness—and worse. It has decided that the values most of us grew up with: hard work, self-reliance, family, and politeness are signs of (gasp) whiteness and white privilege.  Say what? Read on.

  Smithsonian:

Hard work and nuclear family are signs of ‘whiteness’

By Andrew Kerr

Daily Caller News Foundation

 A taxpayer-funded museum in Washington D.C. says on its website that objective thinking, self-reliance, and planning for the future are among the signs of whiteness that have permeated throughout American culture.

Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity in America has “created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal,” according to an article published by the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC).

Aspects of whiteness and white culture include an “emphasis on the scientific method,” which involves “objective, rational linear thinking,” “cause and effect relationships,” and “quantitative emphasis,” according to a graphic created by the museum.

The NMAAHC is a member of the Smithsonian Institute, which bills itself as the largest museum, education and research complex in the world. The Smithsonian Institute received $1 billion in federal funding for its 2020 fiscal year, a figure that comprises 62% of its budget, according to its website.

Other aspects of whiteness include planning for the future, delayed gratification, valuation of time as a commodity, decision-making, self-reliance and politeness, according to the NMAAHC graphic. (See the link at the end of this post)

Do you agree with the Smithsonian museum about these signs of ‘whiteness’?

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As white culture has been “normalized” in the United States, “all Americans have adopted various aspects of white culture, including people of color,” the museum states.

The museum warned that the dominance of white culture in America “leads to an internalized racial superiority for those who adhere to it,” and said a key step to ending racism is for white people to acknowledge their “white racial identity and its privileges.”

The NMAAHC added that being white “does not mean you haven’t experienced hardships or oppression,” but it does mean white people “have not faced hardships or oppression based on the color of your skin.”

“We need to be honest about the ways white people have benefited from racism so we can work toward an equitable, fair and just society,” the museum wrote.

The article on whiteness was published as part of the museum’s “Talking About Race” project, which was launched in late May following the police-custody death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, according to video of the incident.

The NMAAHC project flew under the radar until Claremont Institute President Ryan Williams highlighted its article on whiteness in a tweet Monday evening.

The project pulled research from nearly a dozen experts on race, equality and inclusion, the most notable being Robin DiAngelo, the author of the book “White Fragility,” which shot to the top of bestselling lists following Floyd’s death.

  Want to see the chart? Click here:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12142926/african-american-museum-whiteness-chart-protestant-values/

 

On Writing Well: Verbs of Attribution

When I taught journalism at the University of Illinois, I created a Journalist’s Handbook that I required my students to purchase. I collected and revised the information contained in the Journalist’s Handbook for almost four decades. Some of it dates back to my time as a journalism student at the University of Kansas. Some of it is information that I accumulated and consigned to a three-ring binder during a 27-year career as a reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune.

The binder accompanied me during my years as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Latin America and as a national correspondent covering the West Coast of the United States. I kept it close at hand when I was an editor. As the years passed, the binder got older and frayed (sort of like me), but that never kept me from consulting it–a humbling reminder that you will never know all there is to know about writing, nor should you ever stop learning. My old binder was rife with coffee stains, grubby handprints, lots of barely readable hand-scribbled notes, and to top it off the pages kept falling out.

Before I created the handbook I used to pass out much of the material as handouts. I suspect many of those handouts were tossed away once my class ended. Below is one of the chapters of the handbook. Occasionally, I will post other chapters of the Handbook. Stay tuned!

Verbs of Attribution

For some reason, many writers have an aversion to using “said” when quoting someone or when a character in a novel or short story speaks. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with using the word “said” to convey something someone says. The fact is, most readers tend to skip over that part of a quoted comment anyway and if you put another verb there instead of “said” it often causes readers to stumble or slow down.

One thing you always want to remember is this: Do not make the reader work in order to read what you have written.

Here are a couple of simple rules.

Don’t overdo identification of speakers in a dialogue; craft alternating speech so that you minimize the necessity of tossing in “he said,” “she replied,” and so on.

You can vary the verbs you use, but don’t get carried away with numerous obscure synonyms for “said.”

[image error] And here is a BIG NO, NO. Never use a word for a nonspeaking sound to mark attribution: “‘At last, I have you in my clutches!’ he laughed diabolically.” You can’t “laugh” a sentence. Nor can you “giggle,” “smirk,” or “belch” a sentence.  

You don’t want readers to get a case of the hiccups when they are reading. Below is a list of substitutes for the word “said”—most of which are poor alternatives. Take a look and see if you have found yourself eschewing “said” for some inferior replacement. And if you absolutely MUST use one of these verbs in place of “said,” be sure to read the descriptions that follow each verb.

According to :

Best avoided because it casts a shadow, however slight, on the credibility of the speaker.  The raising of such a doubt may be desired on occasion; then, of course, according to is suitable.  It means “that’s when he/she thinks.”

Admitted :

See pointed out.

Advised :

A  common gaucherie when it displaces said.  In this, “Small craft warnings are up, he/she advised,” the word is journalese.

Affirmed :

Close to declared.  It implies reiteration of a previous statement or position.

Alleged :

Means “declared as if under oath but without proof.”  Used often by reporters hoping to get themselves off the hook in police stories.  Does not give immunity for libel.

Announced :

Means “made known publicly; proclaimed.”

Averred :

Means “verified or proved to be true in pleading a cause; declared positively.  Uncommon word.  Eschew.

Commented :

Strictly speaking, an observation on something.  Unsuitable for attribution of an offhand statement.

Conceded :

See pointed out.

Contended :

One of the most disagreeable misused words in the lexicon of attribution.  It denotes controversy or disagreement.  When those conditions are absent, the word should also be missing.  Raunchier reporters drop contended in at random where said or something else neutral is called for.

Declared :

Means “made known formally or explicitly; stated emphatically.”  Formal.

Disclosed :

See revealed.

Explained :

Students often use it to attribute commonplace remarks that are not explanations; that is, remarks that are not clarifications of something presented before.  This inescapably brings to mind Ring Lardner’s “Shut up,” he explained.

Maintained:

Means “upheld in argument; contended for, asserted, declared.  “The word should be used in reference to a statement backing up a previously defined position, or at least one made with some emphasis.  For attribution, it is more or less interchangeable with CONTENDED and AFFIRMED.

Observed :

Means “uttered as a remark.”   Suitable for casual statements, like REMARKED.

Mentioned :

Means “referred to, cited by name.”  The commonest error here is in using the word as an intransitive verb:  “The book was poorly written,” he/she mentioned.  MENTION requires an object:  “He/she mentioned his tomato garden.”

Pointed Out :

        Implies truth or factualness.  Thus it must be used with care lest the writer (and the publication) unwittingly associate himself with what is only speculation or opinion and thus give the effect of editorializing.  ADMITTED, CONCEDED, NOTED, and CITED THE FACT are similarly tainted.

  Remarked :

        Means “took notice of; observed.”  Offhand, casual.

Reported :

Means “gave an account of; told what happened; narrated, related.”  Word conveys some doubt of authenticity, or absence of verification:  “He/she was reported to have fled the country.”  This example is not direct attribution, as in “The coast is clear, he/she reported.”

Revealed

Like DISCLOSED, suitable only in reference to what has been concealed.  Often misused where ANNOUNCED would be appropriate.

Stated :

Means “set forth in detail or formally declared.”  A great favorite, but too stiff for most contexts.  Most stateds should be replaced by saids.  The word is used habitually by young reporters with an impulse to make their stuff sound portentous, and by old ones who have never acquired a sensitivity to stereotypes.

Vowed :

Quaint. Too strong for most news stories. PROMISED is usually preferable.

Wrote :

Sometimes misused in reference to what has been published, as in “The Daily News wrote in its Monday editions that STATED is abolished.”  Writers write.  Publications publish.  In the example, SAID or perhaps REPORTED would have been better.

 

–30–

 

 

How to Destroy America: A Plan from a Liberal Democrat

As I have witnessed the violence, hatred, looting, and destruction taking place in the United States at the hands of anarchists, ANTIFA goons, and Black Lives Matter rioters I thought back to a five-minute speech I once heard by former liberal Democrat Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. I didn’t hear it personally; I heard it as a recording.

The speech was entitled: “I have a plan to destroy America.” It was delivered on Oct. 3, 2005. Various iterations of it have been around for a while, including revisions. Today, I am sharing the text of the speech below. I believe it was one Lamm made later, because it has been expanded a bit.

However, I have attached a link to the original speech at the end of this post for your listening pleasure and, I hope, edification.

  I have a plan to destroy America

by Richard D. Lamm

I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, let’s destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” Here is my plan:

We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. History shows, in my opinion, that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. One scholar, Seymour Martin Lipset, put it this way: “The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with its Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.”

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I would then invent “multiculturalism” and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal: that there are no cultural differences that are important. I would declare it an article of faith that the black and Hispanic dropout rate is only due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out-of-bounds.

We can make the United States a “Hispanic Quebec” without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently, “The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved, not by tolerance, but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically, and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.”

I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural sub-groups living in America reinforcing their differences, rather than Americans emphasizing their similarities.

Having done all this, I would make our fastest-growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50 percent dropout rate from school.

I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was all the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would “celebrate diversity.” “Diversity” is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other–that is when they are not killing each other. A “diverse,” peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedents. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together, and we can take advantage of this myopia.

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Look at the ancient Greeks. Dorf’s “World History,” tells us: “The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature, and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus, and all Greeks venerated the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet, all of these bonds together were not strong enough to overcome two factors … (local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions …)”

If we can put the emphasis on the “Pluribus,” instead of the “Unum,” we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.

Then I would place all these subjects off-limits–make it taboo to talk about. I would find a word similar to “heretic” in the 16th century that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like “racist”, “xenophobe” halt argument and conversation. Having made America a bilingual-bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of “victimology,” I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra –” because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good.” I would make every individual immigrant sympatric and ignore the cumulative impact.

Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book “Mexifornia” –this book is dangerous; it exposes my plan to destroy America. So please, please–if you feel that America deserves to be destroyed–please, please–don’t buy this book! This guy is on to my plan.

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” –Noam Chomsky, American linguist, and U.S. media and foreign policy critic.

Richard D. Lamm was a liberal Democrat who served as governor of Colorado for twelve years from 1975 to 1987. In 2005, a speech attributed to him, on the perils of multiculturalism, became a viral item online: