Thought for the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
If neither Robert E. Lee nor his many famous relatives, like Richard Henry Lee, or Light-Horse Harry Lee, need a statue in the US Capitol, are there no other famous Virginians more worthy of the honor?
I’m not clear how Virginians, or their politicians, decided that this young woman deserved such a rare distinction, when others are passed over.
Presidents from Virginia, besides George Washington, included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.
Maybe the great African-American educator, Booker T. Washington, was passed over because they already had another Washington?
Likely the reason is to keep America’s sins at the forefront of anything to do with America. Even back in the 2000s, when my older sons were in public school, they told me there were only two ways they learned about American (and to a broader extent, Western) history. One, focusing exclusively on the sins. Or two, pointing out positive developments or events, but then making sure to wrap them up with the sins. At no point did they ever just hear something good, unless it was from a representative of some oppressed minority or a woman or a dissenter in a sidebar. Then that could be entirely good and positive. I remember looking at their textbooks, and they weren’t too far from the mark in their observation. I’m thinking of their fifth grade American history book’s treatment of the Declaration of Independence, where about half of the text focused on slavery, discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement. Or their high school world history book, where our leaders fared about 50/50, while such luminaries as Lenin, Marx and Mao got rave reviews (and larger write ups it’s worth noting). This decision about the statue appears to just keep that trend going.
“…. there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public…”
Booker T. Washington
There’s another memorial in Virginia honoring a woman who was a source for some clinical laboratory samples. She herself was like nearly all of us: unremarkable.
==
The judges and the lawyers were all for ‘school integration’. The judges, administrators, unions, teachers’ college faculty, race agitators, and Democratic politicians were alike in an indifference to school quality. Arthur Garrity went to his grave under the illusion that he had been a force for good.
==
The only way anyone moves forward is by implementing policies Democratic politicians (including and especially those in robes) have no intention of implementing.
For anyone paying attention, the State of Maryland….pretty much a one party state…is facing huge increases in fees and taxes to cover a massive budget deficit. The estimated cost to replace the Key Bridge continues to increase and the Bay Bridges are in need of replacement, the oldest being near 75 years old.
I bring up Maryland because Virginia is headed down the same path. Both states are hopelessly caught in the orbit of Our Nation’s Capital, filled with people who depend on federal government spending to further their well paid careers. The Washington suburbs in Virginia effectively control Virginia politics. Virginia is headed down the same sewer as Maryland.
Pennsylvania has its problems, but not their problems. Praise God.