The stupidness just keeps on keepin' on and gets more and more outrageous each time!

“Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia will take down a memorial marking the pew where [George] Washington sat with his family, saying it is not acceptable to all worshipers.”*

You know George Washington. He was the first president of the United States! 

I’ve got a different view than those Episcopalians of Christ Church in Alexandria, VA. I wouldn’t belong to such a spineless church so willing to bend to political correctness. Who knows what “unpleasantness” found in Holy Scripture they’d also be willing to “take down” so as not to offend visitors.

Further, I wouldn’t even visit such a church - to worship or as a tourist! (And I have been to that church a few times to see it just because of its famous former member! But, I won't be back, unless they revisit this dumb decision and reverse it.)

Social mores like the forcing of society to accept homosexuality and desecrating and denying our common history like this hysteria over war memorials and former presidents and reading racism and hate in every last little thing like idioms (NFL owner saying we can’t have the “inmates running the prison”, etc about his players dissing on the National Anthem by taking a knee instead of standing for it.**) are the kinds of decisive things that divide and deteriorate a once-common people until their society eventually comes completely unwound.

What got us knit back together after the American Civil War was a focus on us all being Americans again. With common heritage and common existence working towards a common future of equal opportunity, not necessarily equal outcomes.

What helped America survive the Great Depression was we were all Americans suffering together and would persevere together and proceed out of that economic Depression together into a common future Of equal opportunity, not necessarily equal outcomes.

What saw us through World War Two - a period of severe restrictions of gasoline, tire, flour and more all being rationed, of men drafted off to combat many not to return or to return maimed or otherwise scarred for life - was the belief that it was necessary for democracy and freedom equal opportunity , not necessarily equal outcomes, to be available worldwide. And that democracy would endure back home in America into the common futures of Americans. And the list goes on.

But, somewhere along the way in the years since, we’ve managed to let self-serving, divisive rabble rousers pit American against American trying to erase, revise and otherwise destroy our common history, our common bond in where we’ve been so as to prevent us from going forward together…as Americans, together, in a common future…of freedom and democracy….

So, let’s step back and take count of what they’ve done to us so far - just to mention a few things;

• They (the Democrat Party and other fosterers of the “handout mentality”) have managed to vilify the productive part of our society – businesses, business leaders, and the corporations that create jobs for which productive people work to earn money to pay their bills.
• They (Black Lives Matter, et al) have managed to vilify those who patrol our streets and cities 24/7 fighting crime – law enforcement.
• The American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the rest of their ilk has managed to vilify Christianity as an evil, hate-based religion and has managed to ban just about any use of a cross symbol in cemeteries,*** jewelry**** and the like seen in public. (Whether or not on public land or the cross memorial was paid for privately)**
• They’ve managed to convince people that our history involving the American Civil War is so heinous and oppressive as to necessitate the descecration of memorials to dead Confederate soldiers or schools named after their generals. Of course, never mind that these have stood for or been so named for nearly a century that they must be destroyed and renamed.*****

·       And it’s something new almost every day. And everytime our spineless culture “feeds the bully” and gives into this stupidness, the next demand is all the more outrageous and ridiculous than the last.

So, America, what’s next!?!? Come on, Americans! We’ve got to stand for something lest we fall for anything! It’s time to say enough of this stupidness and stand up against it.

*Aratani, Lori. “Historic Alexandria church decides to remove plaques honoring Washington, Lee.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Oct. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/historic-alexandria-church-decides-to-remove-plaques-honoring-washington-lee/2017/10/28/97cb4cbc-bc1b-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.3aea46d94bc3.

**McCausl, Phil. “Most of NFL's Houston Texans Kneel During Anthem After Owner's Remark.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 29 Oct. 2017, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/most-nfl-s-houston-texans-kneel-during-anthem-after-owner-n815451.

***Starnes, Todd. “Federal court rules World War I memorial cross must be torn down.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 18 Oct. 2017, www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/10/18/federal-court-rules-world-war-memorial-cross-must-be-torn-down.html.

****Fraser, Giles. “Christians must understand that for Jews the cross is a symbol of oppression | Giles Fraser.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Apr. 2014, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/25/jews-cross-symbol-of-oppression-christians.

*****Sweetman, Cassandra. “Board votes to change Oklahoma City schools named after Confederate generals.” KFOR.com, KFOR-TV, 24 Oct. 2017, kfor.com/2017/10/23/school-board-votes-to-change-schools-named-after-confederate-generals/.

Like Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does” [and continues to be and do].

The headlines read: “[School] Board votes to change Oklahoma City schools named after Confederate generals.”*

Jackson Elementary (built in 1910),** Lee Elementary (also built 1910)*** and Stand Watie Elementary (built in 1930) **** schools have been so named after General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Isaac Stand Waite ever since they opened. And through all those decades, their names seemed no big issue until Black Lives Matter et al started throwing race riots all round the country a year or two ago.

Never mind that from Lee Elementary school’s own website, they recognize that Robert E. “Lee showed himself a brilliant strategist, making dangerous and brilliant moves to avoid being crushed by the superior numbers.”  And that after he Civil War “Lee…became president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and worked to promote brotherhood and nationalism…and was remembered as a kind and courteous man and a bold, audacious general.”****

Interestingly, Lee Elementary’s demographics show that “…90.3% of the student population at Lee Elementary identify as Hispanic…”and only 1.6% of the rest that identify as black.**** The student population at Jackson Elementary is 89.3% Hispanic and only an additional 2.8% identifying themselves as “black.”***** And, similarly, “88.8% of the student population at Stand Watie Elementary identify as Hispanic” with only 1.9% of their student body identifying themselves as “black.”***** 

The last I checked the Civil War was not waged against Hispanics or Hispanic nations. It was an American v. American "Civil War" in Yankee history books and a United States v. Confederate States "War Of Northern Aggression" in Southern accounts. And, as a reminder, the Southern view was that it was a war over States Rights, oppressive northern tariffs and against Northern States aggression of taking up arms to oppress Southern states into outlawing slavery (which was still legal in the South at the time). The Yankee version is that it was "a war to preserve the Union" and to "free the slaves." (Although Lincoln did not issue his famed Emancipation Proclamation Executive Order until January 1, 1863, almost two full years into the War and only applied to slaves in Southern territories - in other words didn't do one damned thing to free any slaves in Northern states. I won't bother citing sources on that as the sources confirming this are numerous in any Google search.)   

And, as a reminder, “It’s true that Union and Confederate soldiers are considered U.S. veterans under federal law, and that they would be entitled to the same benefits as Union soldiers today….” Not only that but that same federal law – Public Law 810 passed in 1958 – “listed the spouses and children of all Civil War veterans — Confederate and Union — as eligible for federal pensions….” And not only that, but it made “Confederate soldiers eligible for burial in national cemeteries and for taxpayer-funded headstones, just like Union soldiers….” [Emphasis added.] *******

So…”Riddle me this, Batman; what possible harm, violation or negatively “reflected on our values”, as black OKC schoolboard member Charles Henry asserts do these school building names commit? How is it that this “is the right thing to do for our kids and for the people who had to live this history,” as [school]board Chairwoman Paula Lewis asserts? ******** By teaching kids that rewriting history to read the way someone wishes it had happened compared to the way it actually happened is the “right” thing to do? By teaching kids that hiding the unpleasant lessons of history will actually help people learn to prevent them from reoccurring in the future? By teaching kids that the old rule of “sticks and stones may break their bones but names can never hurt them” is actually a big fat lie – that stone statues, grave markers and nearly-century old names of buildings can actually somehow hurt them? No wonder they call the younger generations Generation Snowflake! (Before anyone gets all upset that this usage is somehow a racial slur, let me correct that myth before it gets mis-distilled into “fact;” my usage of the term here reflects the monicker attached to the youth of today that are “more prone to taking offence and less resilient than previous generations, or as being too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own.“*********)

And don’t even get me started on the stupidity behind Ms. Lewis’ comment of doing right by the people who had to live this history….”********* 

Furthermore, depending on which estimate you want to believe, these name changes are going to cost somewhere between $40,000 and $100,000 to implement.

Forrest Gump said it best; “Stupid IS as Stupid DOES.”**********

*Sweetman, Cassandra. “Board votes to change Oklahoma City schools named after Confederate generals.” KFOR.com, KFOR-TV, 24 Oct. 2017, kfor.com/2017/10/23/school-board-votes-to-change-schools-named-after-confederate-generals/.

**“General Information on Jackson Enterprise Elementary School.” General Information / General Information, Oklahoma City Public Schools, www.okcps.org/domain/392.

***“General Information Lee Elementary School.” General Information / About Lee, Oklahoma City Public Schools, www.okcps.org/domain/665.

****Meacham, J. et al. “Architectural/Historical Survey of Oklahoma City's Historic School Buildings.” Criterion Group, Oklahoma City, Criterion Group, Oklahoma City funded by the Kirkpatrick Foundation, Feb. 2001, www.okhistory.org/shpo/thematic/okcschools.pdf.

*****“Lee Elementary in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.” Rate Limited, Startclass by GRAPHIQ, public-schools.startclass.com/l/73679/Lee-Elementary.

******“Stand Watie Elementary in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.” Rate Limited, Startclass by GRAPHIQ, public-schools.startclass.com/l/73705/Stand-Watie-Elementary, and “General Information.” General Information / About Stand Watie, Oklahoma City Public Schools, www.okcps.org/domain/472. And

*******Martin, Aaron. “Confederate Soldiers Are Considered U.S. Veterans Under Federal Law-Truth!” TruthorFictioncom, 23 July 2015, www.truthorfiction.com/confederate-soldiers-are-considered-u-s-veterans-under-federal-law/.

********Willert, Tim. “Oklahoma City board votes to change school names.” NewsOK.com, NewsOK, 23 Oct. 2017, newsok.com/oklahoma-city-board-votes-to-change-school-names/article/5569226

*********“Generation Snowflake.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Snowflake.

*********Zemeckis, Robert, director. Forrest Gump (1994). Paramount Pictures.