Returning to the complications of simple living

Five years of wonderful city pleasures and challenges are ending. Our time on the 11th floor in the Central West End of Saint Louis has been wonderful; Arts, theatre, music, foods, walkability, beautiful parks and gardens, compelling conversations with fascinating people, and a view looking out in three directions at the activity and beauty around us.

Our next chapter is both quieter and in some ways equally exciting. Unwilling to allow our opportunity for time with family to escape us, we are moving operations north, to be near our family in the Madison area. We will be no farther (in reality) from our son in Texas as he lives a plane ticket away wherever we are.

Thoughts on diversity: is it only skin deep?

 As the Democrats have taken monolithic control of federal government, they are noisily promoting diversity in appointments and positions while persistently removing the governmental safeguards of true diversity.

Local governments, from school boards to villages, counties, townships and states, have the localized flexibility to address needs and priorities that are unique to their situation.

The new regime is taking every step to diminish and eliminate state and local powers and putting in place a command from the heights - feeling they know what's best for all - failing to realize there is no "all" there.

We are diverse - our issues and priorities are diverse. NYC residents have no comprehension of life on a heritage farm. Their needs/wants/priorities will always be different from the midlands. To presume otherwise is ignorant and full of hubris.

The visible "diversity" based on skin color is a diversion from the active elimination of the ability to tolerate diversity of opinion, much less priorities.

I'm appalled - but not surprised. Big Brother knows best.

White House response to question re: election integrity

  How does HR1 encourage voter confidence in election outcomes -- an issue of critical importance -- when it prohibits election officials from reviewing and removing ineligible voters from the rolls?

March 30, 2021

Thank you for contacting the Biden-Harris Administration.    President Biden and Vice President Harris value every opportunity to engage with the American people, and the Administration is grateful for your outreach. Our country faces many challenges, and messages like yours help us better understand how the Biden-Harris Administration can serve American families.  We take careful note of the suggestions, thoughts, questions, and stories we receive, and we’re working hard to ensure you receive an appropriate response.  Sincerely, The Office of Presidential Correspondence

WOKE Supremacy

 

Opinion: Tim Scott: Let’s set the record straight on ‘woke supremacy’ and racism

 Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in May. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

Opinion by Tim Scott
March 23, 2021 at 8:28 a.m. CDT

 Tim cott, a Republican, represents South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

 I was criticized in this newspaper last week for saying that “woke supremacy” is as bad as white supremacy.

 My comments, of course, were not comparing the long history of racial hate to the very short history of wokeism. That would be ludicrous. I am painfully aware that four centuries of racism, bigotry and killings does not compare to the nascent woke movement. As a country, we continue to pay a heavy price for our original sin.

My comments were a sound-bite-length reaction to yet another media figure accusing me of being a token for Republicans. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that type of slur. I spoke out because I am gravely concerned for our future if we ignore either type of supremacy — both of which are rooted in racism or discrimination.

 Criticism has included the suggestion that I and other Republicans are “living proof that neither racial nor gender diversity is a guarantor of progressive, inclusive and broad-minded thinking. Diversity, much in vogue, has its limits.” In other words, my ideology does not match that which they prescribe based on my complexion.

That is woke supremacy. It is the “tolerant” left’s intolerance for dissent. It is a progressive conception of diversity that does not include diversity of thought. It is discrimination falsely marketed as inclusion.

This isn’t the first time the woke folk have come after me. I’ve been called a member of the “coon squad” for sharing my story and conservative vision for America at the 2020 Republican convention. A former leader of the NAACP called me a ventriloquist puppet. I’ve been called an Uncle Tom and a house n-----, among thousands of other insults.

 I am proud to be both a Black man and a Republican. Because of those aspects of my identity, many critics have ignored things I have actually done. In the past few years alone, my Republican colleagues and I secured permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities for the first time in history. We’ve passed bipartisan legislation to help those battling sickle cell disease. We’ve fought for school choice because poor, and often minority, parents are consistently the ones without choice. And I helped author the Republican tax reform that lowered taxes for single moms, doubled the child tax credit and brought Black unemployment to historic lows. That list barely scratches the surface.

Critics discount these accomplishments for the Black community because it conflicts with the caricature they’ve created of what it means to be Black and to be a Republican.

But the victims of woke supremacy aren’t just Republicans. After a recent vote against her fellow Democrats’ attempt to pass a job-killing minimum-wage hike during the pandemic, my friend and colleague Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) received so many death threats that she had to increase security for herself and her partner. I’ve received similar threats. A man — a “woke” Black man — is to be sentenced this month for threatening to gut me “like a fish” and blow me away with his rifle.

 Woke culture is speeding our country toward ideological and literal segregation. Already, Columbia University has decided to host segregated graduation celebrations based on race or socioeconomic status. We are living in a society that has allowed “autonomous zones” that effectively prohibit law enforcement from protecting people from crime, and campus “safe spaces” to protect students from others’ opinions.

Carving out public spaces for people of only one race or mind-set? Since when is separate but equal back in vogue?

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

When you give license for one person or group of people to discriminate, you give license for everyone to discriminate. Dividing society along racial lines is everything leaders in the civil rights era fought against, yet leaders of the woke movement are attempting to codify discrimination in law, including by Democrats setting aside funding exclusively for non-White farmers in their recent stimulus package. Blood wasn’t shed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge or the streets of Birmingham so that we could reinvent the mistakes of our past.

 Six years ago, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was not just a civil rights icon but also my friend, asked me to co-chair the march to Selma on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. When I think of my vision for America, I think about standing shoulder to shoulder on that bridge with John and Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, walking forward together.

So, we collectively have a choice: We can continue down the path of toxic woke mandates and virtue signaling that themselves create discrimination, segregation and hate, or we can choose to create equality of opportunity and access to the American Dream for everyone. Because I believe in the goodness of America, I remain hopeful that we will choose the Opportunity Society.

Election integrity - Tammy Baldwin letter

 How does HR1 encourage voter confidence in election outcomes -- an issue of critical importance -- when it prohibits election officials from reviewing and removing ineligible voters from the rolls?

Reply received:

Senator Tammy Baldwin <do_not_reply@baldwin.senate.gov>	9:02 AM (28 minutes ago)
to me

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Your views are important to my work in the United States Senate on behalf of the people of Wisconsin and I appreciate you taking the time to contact me. I will be sending you a full response to the issues you shared with me, but in the meantime, I want to let you know that I received your message and value your thoughts.

If you have written regarding a problem you are having with a federal agency, a caseworker in one of my Wisconsin offices will be contacting you shortly. To expedite direct contact with a caseworker you may also call my Madison office (608-264-5338) for assistance.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.

Tammy Baldwin
Your U.S. Senator

Reply:

Dear Ms. Youngblood: Thank you for contacting me about Congress’s response to the ongoing public health and economic crisis. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives and has created tremendous financial pressure for millions of businesses, workers and families. More than a year later, we have not beaten this pandemic and people are still struggling. I have called for bold congressional action to meet this historic moment because there is a real risk if we do too little. In March of 2021, I helped pass the American Rescue Plan Act (Public Law 117-2), which has now been signed into law by President Biden. This legislation provides bold and much-needed assistance to help us get past this public health crisis and move our economy forward, and has earned broad, bipartisan support from the American people. Among its many important investments, this legislation funds a national vaccination program; delivers direct payments and expanded tax credits for workers and families; extends unemployment insurance; offers aid to struggling small businesses; provides funding to help Wisconsin schools reopen; and directs emergency resources to our state and local governments. It also lowers or eliminates health insurance premiums for millions of Americans and addresses systemic inequities through investments in underserved communities and communities of color.  I recognize your concerns about federal spending, especially during this uncertain time. I have long favored a balanced approach to deficit reduction that combines cutting tax expenditures and closing tax loopholes with smart, responsible spending cuts.  I support making millionaires, billionaires and corporations that outsource jobs to other countries pay their fair share—rather than placing the burden on Wisconsin’s middle class. For example, I supported legislation to repeal tax changes in the CARES Act that will cost taxpayers an estimated $250 billion—more than what was given to hospitals or state and local governments in the bill. These tax changes will allow a wealthy few to receive an average benefit of $1.6 million, dwarfing the stimulus payments provided to working Americans. You can read more about that legislation to repeal the expensive tax giveaway here: https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/press-releases/repeal-major-tax-breaks-for-wealthy-in-cares-act.   As we move forward, please know that I am committed to taking the actions that are necessary to recover from this pandemic and rebuild the economy better than before. Americans need help and they need it now. Once again, thank you for contacting my office.  It is important for me to hear from the people of Wisconsin on the issues, thoughts and concerns that matter most to you. If I can be of further assistance, please visit my website at www.baldwin.senate.gov for information on how to contact my office.

Thiesen Op-Ed

Opinion by 

Marc A. Thiessen

Columnist

March 26, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. CDT – The Washington Post

 

At his first news conference since taking office, President Biden issued a scathing, if unintentional, indictment of his own party’s hypocrisy when it comes to getting rid of the Senate filibuster. Biden noted Thursday that between 1917 and 1971 “there were a total of 58 motions to break the filibuster” but “last year alone, there were five times that many.” This was proof, he said, that the filibuster was being “abused in a gigantic way.”

I’m sorry, who exactly launched all those unprecedented filibusters last year? Democrats.

 

So, let’s get this straight: By Biden’s own admission, Democrats abused the filibuster to obstruct President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. And now, Biden wants to use his own party’s “gigantic” filibuster abuse as justification to eliminate or restrict it when Republicans are in the minority — even though there has not yet been a single Republican-led filibuster since he was elected?

 

This is sheer hypocrisy. Where was this urgency to “reform” the filibuster when Democrats were using it to block funding for Trump’s border wall, block covid-19 relief, block police reform, block legislation forcing “sanctuary cities” to cooperate with federal officials and block legislation to protect unborn human life?

Just the threat of a Democratic filibuster stopped the GOP majority from even taking immigration reform, lawsuit reforms, health-care reform, budget cuts, expanded gun rights, permanent tax cuts, right-to-work laws and defunding Planned Parenthood to the Senate floor.

But now the simple prospect of Republicans doing the same thing to Biden is such an outrage that Democrats are willing to blow up the Senate guardrails protecting minority-party rights to ram through their radical legislative agenda?

 

Even in the face of the Democrats’ unprecedented obstruction, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused Trump’s repeated entreaties to get rid of the legislative filibuster. Why? Because, McConnell said, “we recognize what everyone should recognize — there are no permanent victories in politics.”

McConnell understood that the GOP would be in the minority again someday — and protecting the right of the minority to block or delay legislation was more important than any legislative victories that filibuster elimination would enable. “No Republican has any trouble imagining the laundry list of socialist policies that 51 Senate Democrats would happily inflict on Middle America in a filibuster-free Senate,” McConnell said.

Trump argued that Republicans might as well eliminate the filibuster, since Democrats would get rid of it as soon as they won back control of the Senate. Now Democrats are pushing to prove Trump right. Doing so will only fuel anti-establishment anger inside the GOP and strengthen Trump going into 2024. And, as The Post’s Ruth Marcus so ably explained, if Republicans regain power in 2024, a filibuster-free Senate will allow them to unleash an “apocalypse” — enacting all the legislation Democrats filibustered under Trump and more, with a simple majority vote.

 

Why can’t Democrats seem to understand this? Why are they being so shortsighted? The answer, I believe, is twofold.

First, they don’t plan to let Republicans regain power. Democrats will use a filibuster-free Senate to build a firewall against the inevitable conservative backlash to their radical agenda. They will pack the Senate by making the District of Columbia a state, adding two more safe Democratic Senate seats. They will pack the House by expanding the size of the lower chamber. Because House seats are apportioned by population, populous blue states would gain the most — allowing Democrats to bolster their narrow House majority.

And Democrats will pass a sweeping federal election law — H.R. 1 — with provisions that include mandating automatic and same-day voter registration, banning voter ID laws, compelling states to count votes cast in the wrong precincts, and prohibiting election officials from reviewing and removing ineligible voters from the rolls.

 

Unhindered by the filibuster, Democrats will also pack the Supreme Court and install an activist liberal majority that will protect their constitutional overreach.

Democrats are confident that these steps will put the White House and congressional majorities out of GOP reach. But if by some chance Republicans did regain power, Democrats know that many of their legislative victories will be irreversible.

There is no precedent for revoking statehood or reducing the size of the House. New Supreme Court justices will serve for life. And Democrats also understand that government is a one-way ratchet. If they pass single-payer health care, expand the welfare state or enact some version of the Green New Deal, these programs will never be dismantled. Just look at Obamacare. More than a decade later, despite unified GOP control of government under Trump, Republicans were unable to repeal it.

 

This is why Democrats are so shamelessly pushing to eliminate the filibuster — because it will allow them to irreversibly transform our country and make it nearly impossible for Republicans to win back power.

 

Dear Mr. President

 Diversity is only skin deep in this administration that demonstrates careless disregard for the validity of opinions which differ from its own. Bullying to promote an agenda that is not supported by nearly half the nation is absolutely intolerant and imperious.

The ruling party is "pro-choice"only when it relates to what happens in the womb - not at all when it relates to what happens in the brain and the heart.

Form letter response already received:

March 26, 2021

Thank you for contacting the Biden-Harris Administration.    President Biden and Vice President Harris value every opportunity to engage with the American people, and the Administration is grateful for your outreach. Our country faces many challenges, and messages like yours help us better understand how the Biden-Harris Administration can serve American families.  We take careful note of the suggestions, thoughts, questions, and stories we receive, and we’re working hard to ensure you receive an appropriate response.  Sincerely, The Office of Presidential Correspondence

Diversity

 Rambling rant...

The party espousing diversity is behaving in ways completely contradictory to acknowledging the actual diversity our nation represents.

We have a system of governance involving three branches in order to balance power. Only one branch, the legislation, has the power to create law. It's structure was designed with recognition of the diversity of individual interests (House of Representatives) and the diversity of States' interests (Senate).

In recent times, this fundamental diversity has been ignored and overridden by an expanding Executive Branch through executive orders creating legislation and claiming "a mandate" based on winning a presidential election. We also have a judicial branch increasingly legislating through rulings.

Though it is the party of "choice," the Democratic Party has no tolerance or respect for the validity of thoughts or speech that doesn't fit their narrative - a narrative designed to enhance their power, not support the nation.

I'm a deep believer in rule of law and democracy - but I am thrown now into a position of feeling as if the government we have is autocratic and self-serving and, therefore, no matter what it labels itself, is anything but representative of our best ideals. The structures which respect minority opinion are being eroded in our schools, our courts, our laws, our lives.

The ruling party is "pro-choice"only when it relates to what happens in the womb - not at all when it relates to what happens in the brain and the heart.

To my representative in the House: Mark Pocan

 March 26 letter to Mark Pocan

Re: Governance

Honestly, Mark, I no longer feel you represent me. I feel you only represent the DNC and whatever narrative it is selling at the moment.

I'm an independent voter who remembers when politicians were connected to those who voted for them and governance was an attempt to fairly adjudicate as necessary for the greater good.

Dorothy

Decline of African Americans not result of slavery

 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-moms-research-part-3-who-are-the-real-racists_3731981.html?utm_source=share-btn-copylink

Commentary

One day, my 17-year-old daughter showed me a Facebook post that said 74.5 percent of hate crimes between 1992 and 2014 against Asian Americans were from white offenders. The purpose of the post was to ask Asians to fight alongside the Black Lives Matter movement to “improve minority communities.”

I reminded her to check online the percentage of white people in the U.S. population. It was 76.3 percent in 2019 according to Census.gov.

“Look, the percentage of white offenders is less than the percentage of white population, even if the statistics are correct,” I said.

Actually, I have read several media reports talking about the surge of attacks against Asian Americans recently. Some reports blamed President Trump and “white supremacists” for the attacks, without any factual evidence.

I used this as an opportunity to converse with my daughter: “You need to be careful and know how to protect yourself. However, if the purpose of a report is to provoke your resentment towards a specific group of people, be alert. Nowadays, many journalists have lost their professionalism. They push their narratives with lies, or partial truths, or insinuation, or misleading statistics. They exaggerate certain things, while intentionally omitting other things. Remember, there are bad people in all races. There are also people who have hatred because of misunderstandings. As for COVID-19, it was the Chinese Communist Party that spread the virus to the world. The CCP cannot represent us. People all over the world, including Chinese, are victims of its atrocities.”

As we talked, my daughter told me that most of her school friends support the BLM movement, and even Antifa, because they believe that many black Americans are abused and killed by police. They support defunding the police. They think those looters and rioters are “rightfully angry” because of racism and the slavery in their history. My daughter attends a suburban public high school in a deep-blue state.

This is an astonishing revelation. I know some of her friends’ parents. Like me, they are hard-working first-generation Asian immigrants who embrace America’s freedom. They are sad and angry to see their children being brainwashed by the media and the education system.

That was exactly how I felt before. But being angry is never a solution. As time goes by, I realize that, if we don’t try our best to save our children from the communists’ propaganda, who will? The effect so far has been encouraging. I have published two “A Mom’s Research” articles in the Epoch Times. One is about democratic socialism and the other is about global warming. By chatting with my daughter about the contents (she refused to read them), she was satisfied and no longer had issues with those topics. She is also more open with me.

Therefore, here I am again, continuing to research and write. This time, it is about racism. During the process, not only did I find answers to my daughter’s questions, I also figured out who are the real racists. They destroy the black community’s morality and dignity and fill their hearts with poisonous resentment, instead of hope and confidence. They have been crippling the black community, and are trying to do the same to Asian Americans.

Set the Record Straight About Police

I found a fascinating video to clarify the topics about the allegation of police brutality and racism. It is an American Thought Leaders’ interview of Burgess Owens, an NFL star and a congressman from Utah who grew up in the segregated south.

For the sake of providing quick talking points, I combine some of the information from the video and other sources in the following:

In 2019, there were over 10 million arrests in the United States according to the DOJ. Among 54 unarmed civilians who died of officer-involved shootings, 12 were black and 26 were white, according to a Washington Post database. At the same time, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty according to the data provided by the FBI.

In his interview, Rep. Owens pointed out that there are bad people in every profession. While tragic deaths like that of George Floyd and others need to be carefully investigated and justice sought in courts, the police force as a whole is made up of those who vow to protect others with their own lives. “We don’t have a police problem. We have a narrative problem. We have a media who loves to put down everything that’s good about our country.”

A study by the Skeptic Research Center showed how severely the public opinion about police has been misled by media hype. When asked to guess “how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019,” 38 percent of the respondents overall answered “about 100,” and 29 percent answered “about 1,000” or more. Among those with liberal or very liberal political views, 46 percent estimated “about 1,000” or more. As mentioned above, the recorded death number for unarmed black men and women was 12.

A 2017 study by Harvard researcher Roland G. Fryer, Jr., an African American economist specializing in discrimination and inequality studies, found no racial differences related to officer-involved shootings. As for non-lethal police use of force, here is what Dr. Fryer said: “If one assumes police simply stop whomever they want for no particular reason, there seem to be large racial differences. If one assumes they are trying to prevent violent crimes, then evidence for bias is exceedingly small.”

After the death of George Floyd in May 2020, BLM’s rhetoric of “defund the police” gained momentum. At least 13 U.S. cities have cut police funds to different extents. These cities all experienced crime surges in 2020. Seattle observed the highest homicide number in 26 years. Chicago’s murders went up by 50 percent. The black community suffered the most. A Gallup poll released in August 2020 showed that 81 percent of black adults want the same or more police presence in their communities.

Legacy of Slavery?

“Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly.” —Thomas Sowell

Some people think the current disadvantaged situation of the black community is a legacy of slavery. But what I learned from Burgess Owens and Dr. Thomas Sowell is different.

Dr. Thomas Sowell is a famous economist and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He was born in North Carolina in 1930, and moved to Harlem, New York, when he was nine. Growing up in poverty, he was a Marxist in his youth. However, his intern experience in the federal government in 1960 changed his worldview.

Here is what Dr. Sowell said about slavery:

“Today, the moral horror of slavery is so widely condemned that it is hard to realize that there were thousands of years when slavery was practiced around the world by people of virtually every race. Even the leading moral and religious thinkers in different societies accepted slavery as just a fact of life.”

“What was special about America was not that it had slavery, which existed all over the world, but that Americans were among the very few peoples who began to question the morality of holding human beings in bondage. That was not yet a majority view among Americans in the 18th century, but it was not even a serious minority view in non-Western societies at that time.

“Then how did slavery end? We know how it ended in the United States—at the cost of one life lost in the Civil War for every six slaves freed. But that is not how it ended elsewhere.”

Is slavery the reason for the high crime rates and broken families in the black community? Rep. Owens provided his own experience on this issue:

“I grew up in a community that was truly living the American dream and the most competitive minority race in our country, the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, and this is something you were not taught. It is not taught on purpose…. [In the] 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, the black community led our country in the growth of the middle class [and] led our country in men matriculated from college. Men committed to marriage; over 70% of men committed to the mothers of their children. Those who didn’t were looked at as lowlives. They were not respected…. Over 40% of black Americans were entrepreneurs, business owners within the community, a segregated community that did not have any white people, any other folks at all.”

“You have an upbringing in which you think, ‘I can do anything. I can literally do anything I want to, because I see it in front of me. I understand that there are those who don’t want me to succeed, but guess what? We’re going to work hard, and we’re going to ride harder, we’re going to study harder, we’re going to do whatever we have to do to show them wrong. We’re not going to demand respect. We’re going to command respect.’ That was the community I grew up in.”

Dr. Sowell also pointed out that teenage pregnancy, husband desertion, and unemployment were much lower before the 1960s than they are now. He said in a documentary: “As late as 1930, blacks had lower unemployment rates than whites.… All these things that we complain about and attribute to the era of slavery, those things should have been worse in the past than in the present, but in fact, they’re worse in the present than in the past. And I think if you want to look for a turning point, it would be since the 1960s…. You began to have not only the welfare state, you began to have the mind-set that goes with the welfare state so that there was no stigma any longer attached, for example, to being on relief or welfare.”

Turning Point for the Black Community

The 1960s was the turning point for the black community. It was a time when American morality was hijacked by communism. Author Cleon Skousen wrote in his book The Naked Capitalist: “As early as 1960, the U.S. Communist leader, Gus Hall, had announced that the Party was going to alienate and radicalize the American Youth. Within a short time, Castro beards, hippy clothes, filthy speech, Communist salutes, Communist songs, Communist peace symbols, drugs, pornography, nihilism, and riots became the order of the day.”

Traditional marriage became one of the first casualties of the cultural war. The black community was affected more severely. Deserting families was no longer a shame, but considered cool. Feminism, “sexual liberation,” and the promotion of abortion have also damaged families.

The welfare state policies that began in the mid-1960s further damaged marriage in addition to penalizing good work ethic or willingness to work. According to Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, welfare programs made single parenthood financially possible, and punished low-income married parents. “When a low-income mother and father marry, they will generally experience a sharp drop in benefits, and their joint income will fall.”

As morality degenerated in the 1960s, everything took a downturn. And it was not just limited to the United States. Dr. Sowell wrote in his book “Discrimination and Disparities”:

“The widespread changes wrought in human behavior during the triumphant era of the welfare state and its accompanying social vision have included fear-filled people in a French public housing project where cars are “burned for fun”; fear-filled schools in Britain and America, where both children and their teachers have been targets of young thugs allowed to run amok; single mothers on welfare in New Zealand saying, ‘If I don’t have another baby, I’m going to have to go back to work;’ and a woman in an American public housing project responding to an account of a brutal gang-rape of a woman in her own apartment with: ‘So a lady was raped. Big deal. There’s too much other crime happening here.’ We have already noted an international and centuries-long decline in homicides that suddenly reversed in the 1960s and shot up again, to levels not seen since the previous century.”

Before moving on, I wish to remind readers again: the situation of the black American community 60 years ago was very different from the situation now. Dr. Sowell quoted a 2009 New York Times article talking about the public housing projects in New York: “These were not the projects of idle, stinky elevators, of gang-controlled stairwells where drug deals go down. In the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, when most of the city’s public housing was built, a sense of pride and community permeated well-kept corridors, apartments and grounds.”

Who Are the REAL Racists?

Morality decaying and leftist policies are probably the biggest reasons for the downturn of the black community. But what is behind the bad policies? Dr. Sowell pointed out that it was a prevailing “social vision”:

“Much of the social retrogression that took place on both sides of the Atlantic is traceable to the central tenet of the prevailing social vision, that unequal outcomes are due to adverse treatment of the less fortunate. This preconception became a fount of grievance-driven attitudes, emotions and actions—including what has been aptly called ‘decivilizing’ behavior in many contexts.”

“There is no question that human biases have contributed to unfair prospects. But it is a complete non sequitur to say that human biases are the sole, or even primary, causes of unequal prospects, without hard evidence to support that conclusion.”

“No two leaves are alike.” We were all born with different backgrounds. We all have different resources, face different challenges, and have some prejudice in our minds. But we all can work hard and treat others nicely to achieve success, conquer others’ prejudices, and earn their respect. Those who deprived us of dignity, humility, and confidence, but fill our hearts with bitterness and resentments, and those who told us to blame others and to rely on the government or looting to get our “fair share,” are the real racists. They are the ones who insult us and paralyze our races.

Dr. Sowell wrote, “… history is too often taught today, under the banner of ‘social justice,’ and using the same toxic mixture of heady rhetoric and heedless visions that led to such monumental tragedies in the totalitarian dictatorships of the twentieth century.”

I believe he is referring to communism. Communist ideology has infiltrated our education system, media, and politics. It is distorting our history, bending objective standards, and poisoning our minds through all these channels.

Just like Rep. Owens said, “We have people out there [with] an evil ideology. I have to make this point very clearly when I talk about Marxist, socialist, communist, I’m not talking about a person. I’m talking about ideology. People change. Ideologies do not. So we have here a movement that’s been laying in wait, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on American people.”

What Is Behind the Black Lives Matter and Antifa Movements?

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist movement. Its founders have publicly stated that they are trained Marxists. They close every meeting and every action with a Communist Manifesto slogan: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.” They are financially sponsored by the Chinese Progressive Association of San Francisco, a storefront of the Chinese Communist Party on the west coast (You can also read about them here.) They follow the model of the Black Panther Party, a radical Marxist group in the 1960s that worshipped Chairman Mao. They care nothing when black businesses are looted, or when more and more black people are killed by criminals. They only care about taking advantage of tragedies, like the death of George Floyd, to incite hatred.

The Antifa (Anti-fascist) movement originated in Germany in the 1930s. It was started by members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and described itself as a “red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD.” The contemporary Antifa movement is formed mainly by communists, socialists, and anarchists. The “fascism” it referred to actually means longstanding American traditions and values. Communist symbols are often seen in its protests. Their only interest is to burn all traditional values and social structures to ashes.

Let’s spread the word and start conversations with calmness and evidence. It took communism over 100 years to infiltrate our country. With strong determination, we will save our young people, one heart a time.

Jean Chen is originally from China, and writes under a pen name in order to protect her family in China.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

posture

 https://youtu.be/6C-wfV27bzI

 I support this bill:

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2021/related/proposals/sb119

 to the President through Whitehouse.gov website

I'm exceedingly disappointed you have signed HR1 with all its flaws covered by its several benefits.

I'm also quite disappointed that you will now devote your time to salesmanship, rather than driving the ship of state.

Dorothy Youngblood

March 11, 2021

Thank you for contacting the Biden-Harris Administration.    President Biden and Vice President Harris value every opportunity to engage with the American people, and the Administration is grateful for your outreach. Our country faces many challenges, and messages like yours help us better understand how the Biden-Harris Administration can serve American families.  We take careful note of the suggestions, thoughts, questions, and stories we receive, and we’re working hard to ensure you receive an appropriate response.  Sincerely, The Office of Presidential Correspondence

America's loss of intellectual freedom

 https://www.theepochtimes.com/communist-tactics-to-force-self-censorship-sweep-america_3724784.html?utm_source=share-btn-copylink&st=AsltXfyEXKW0ayX0p4nPj4Yxo3dkDT03VraIiUcj54i3o9Z9e2B5AoSsyUayPO7abLjwcgT-FLbewVs5omZ2jji5qC81T0Nb-18

 President Biden,

Please veto HR1 - it contains many small prizes for the mases - but at a very high cost in loss of election integrity and true democracy.

Pres. Biden,

Your promise to unite our country seems hollow. HR1 - when reading the actual text, not its title - will do nothing to unite us and everything to grow distrust of government and those who make it their career.

This appears to be a blatant maneuver to facilitate mid-term victories for the DNC candidates and limit legitimate discourse regarding potential abuses.

I believe the only winners here may be my parents - long dead, but who can remove them from voter roles?

Dorothy Youngblood

 president@whitehouse.gov

March 7, 2021

Please explain how this will unite our country.

HR1:  The bill would decrease the number of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) members from six to five. Four members can be associated with a particular political party, making the fifth member “independent” but who would be nominated by a president associated with a party. Former FEC members have written to Congress, warning about this change and other related provisions.

Highly partisan control of the FEC does not equate to Build Back Better - it's just We Will Now Be the Only Ones to Determine Better.

Dorothy Youngblood

 March 7, 2021

Mark Pocan,

HR1 - how are you maintaining the rights of the state of Wisconsin to self-determine its rules and procedures?

It's my understanding that HR1 prevents election officials from removing ineligible voters from registries or confirming the eligibility and qualifications of voters: The bill would make it illegal to verify the address of registered voters, cross-checking voter registration lists to find individuals registered in multiple states, or ever removing registrants no matter how much time has elapsed.

This is a win for those who cheat and a diminishment of the value of qualified electors who play by the rules.

Please advise.