June 12: A Love-Hate Date

Almost perfectly bisecting the most popular month for marriages (named after the domestic goddess Juno) is June 12^th. That date—defined by two notable circumstances (and geography)—now has diametrically opposed meanings. Herein, the love-hate contours of today's political divide are clearly illuminated.

In a nod to Juno, let's start with the good. In the commonwealth whose tourism slogan is “Virginia is for Lovers”. In Richmond, a new historical marker denotes a cultural milestone: a “loving” 50^th anniversary. Ironically, this sign stands outside the building that once housed the Virginia Court of Appeals that was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling: Loving v. Virginia, 1967. That decision ended Southern states’ bans on interracial marriage. Synchronistically named, Richard and Mildred Loving were a white man and a black woman. Their successful legal challenge facilitated today's commonplace marital experience. That means 11 million are wed to a person of another race. Per Pew Center statistics, that's 1 in 6, or 17 percent compared to 3 percent in 1967. Thus, how appropriate that for Virginia June 12^th is henceforth known as Loving Day. What could be more life-affirming than that?

By contrast, in Orlando, Florida, June 12^th marks an infamous one year anniversary. How unfortunate that the horror of mass murderer Omar Mateen—who killed 49 (and injured more than 50) innocents at the Pulse gay nightclub—should correspond on the same day. Yet, that it does is instructive. For both events demonstrate the deep-seeded influences that shape our ever-evolving society. Are we to once again embrace harmony: the shared melting pot experience of being Americans? Or do violent leftist protesters, name-calling, baseless Russian conspiracies and “headless” stunts continue to dominate our political discourse? Do we rise to a new day delivered by the 2016 election, or descend further into the polarization that epitomized the last administration?

As Richard and Mildred persisted, so we must embrace our collective goodness—despite these divisive signs of our time. This must happen for the continued well-being of the nation. That means honoring the past, not tearing down old monuments; or otherwise opening old wounds with spurious claims like certain lives matter, and others don't. We would be wise to heed the Lovings's quiet and dignified example over the ratings-garnering, destructive possibility. 

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Exorcising Democrats' Confederate History

Why are progressives clamoring to remove many of America's mementos dedicated to the Old South? Generations later, can remnants of Civil War Democrats cause active psychological “harm”? That seems highly unlikely. However, what's real is the targeting of Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart and Jefferson Davis. If that's the liberal standard for destroying their icons, who has caused more recent and lasting damage than Barack Obama? Therefore, isn't it logical for them to purge both ancient root and modern branch? Yet, fear not, President Obama's safe from their revisionist historical pruning. It's only his antebellum counterparts who find themselves on the chopping block.

Let's pull some contextual threads from this spidery progressive web, shall we? Reportedly, Democrats in Alexandria, Virginia want to rename a main thoroughfare, Jefferson Davis Highway. Also, they want to move a statue on State Route 400 of a Confederate soldier, “Appomattox,” to the comparable obscurity of a nearby museum. Erected in 1889, is the presence of this unarmed Southerner—like the street named for the Confederacy's president—suddenly noxious to the average commuter? Do they trigger so much daily trauma that they're right to nix them? Not to be outshone, Fairfax County is embroiled in a two-year debate to strip Confederate General Stuart's name from one of its most racially diverse high schools. Their dragnet is not local however, it's a monstrosity cast widely across state lines as far as Louisiana.

As the left's revisionist hysteria is never satisfied, Stuart's famous contemporary General Robert E. Lee is targeted in both places. Atop a pillar since 1884, his towering figure was removed from its New Orleans perch last Friday after 133 years. (His was not the first to fall. On May 11th, the powers that be removed a statue from the Jefferson Davis memorial there. On Saturday, a display—the word “LOVE”—was found on its vacated platform.) Only time will tell if his Virginia likeness—mutely astride his majestic horse in Lee Park since 1924—will suffer the same “loving” fate. As the land was specifically donated to showcase this Southern soldier, is it right to unseat him after 93 years? What's more horrible here, destroying the vestiges of progressives' 19^th century past or the wasteful expenditure to taxpayers of $300,000 to do it?

Doesn't all history have a worthy place simply because it happened? How can eradicating the lessons that shaped our collective cultural experience ever be the “right” thing to do? Isn't the mind-set to wipe clean the landscape—of old dignitaries' names and harmless inanimate objects—really a fascist desire to ban ideas themselves? (Will these safe space liberal “do-gooders” advocate “Fahrenheit 451”-style book burning next?) Obviously, their predecessors' dual stains of slavery and segregation—never acknowledged or owned by them hereafter—are of lasting shame. Well, frankly, they should be. Hence, their current self-serving agenda to simply airbrush monuments out of existence.

To this end, their go-to narrative is one of distraction and manipulation. To the muddleheaded, the dishonest proclaim often repeated nonsense: America is “secretly racist”! In the same vein as “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” liberals have kind of a politically-motivated hysterical blindness. What of the widespread advancements since the 1950s and 1960s Civil Rights movements? A prominent trend—the “black is beautiful” paradigm shift of the '60s and '70s—doesn't matter? Heck, these naysayers don't even acknowledge the cultural significance of the former occupant of the White House! So, concrete facts of societal progression are meaningless to them. Only their deluded aim to erase transgenerational political sins.

Seriously, it's been 152 years since the end of the Civil War! Only misguided spendthrifts waste today's public funds to “purify” the past. Obviously, historical footnotes—like the name of a road or a school, or four statues—have no magical power to corrupt anything of the now. What relevance to the day-to-day life experience of Americans do they really have? Very little, if any. In fact, their only intrinsic value are as markers showing where America has been—and how truly tolerant she has become!

Despite these ridiculous assertions, racism is not infused in the bronze edifices resembling long-dead Southerners. Likewise, it's not found in the hearts of persons striving to preserve them either. Interestingly, only Democrats' self-hatred persists with the passage of time. That liberal malady is seen in their psychological projection of guilt upon the rest us whose ancestors never owned a slave. Clearly, that's a problem better suited to the analyst's couch then the political realm. (On a related note, can our country be correctly viewed as innately “sexist” as Hillary Clinton is the latest nominee of her party—and the winner of the popular vote?) All elements described above encapsulate the schizophrenic thinking pervading every level of the Democratic Party.

In truth, tangible proof of America's well-established—and ever-expanding—pattern of embracing and celebrating diversity is everywhere! What of commonplace interracial marriage or the recent legalization of gay marriage? So, is it fair to automatically demonize a Republican simply for expressing a history-protecting impulse? Virginia's firebrand GOP gubernatorial hopeful Corey Stewart recently said:

“There’s all kinds of things that offend people, but that [removal] doesn’t make it right. That doesn’t make it so [fix the past]. This [the statue of Robert E. Lee] is a part of our history; if you don’t like our history, that’s too damn bad.”

Well, precisely. What's crystal clear is the Democrats have a cringeworthy history. Understandably, they're desperate to annihilate any reminders of the irrefutable and indefensible. Chief among them is their sole ownership of two infamous institutions: Virginia's antebellum past (read: slaveholding) and white supremacy (read: creating the Ku Klux Klan). As Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union, his party has a duty to safeguard the other side's artifacts for posterity. Without them as silent witnesses, falsely tarring conservatives with their own ongoing record of misdeeds becomes easy. If successful, all that would remain is a nebulous war of words for progressives to dominate. As George Santayana wisely advised: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Ironically, destroying America's Confederate past also diminishes her freedom-loving future.

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Lynch's Ministry of Love

“We stand with you to say that the good in this world far outweighs the evil, that our common humanity transcends our differences, and that our most effective response to terror and to hatred is compassion, it’s unity, and it’s love.” - Attorney General Loretta Lynch

When recently writing “Love American style,” the above sentiment was not what I was referring to. When in private, Ms. Lynch is entitled to her personal philosophy. However, as Attorney General, her primary duty to the country is to the unbiased enforcement of American laws. The purpose of law enforcement is to keep U.S. citizens safe. Yet, that's not what's she's doing or advocating. She's acting like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day”: a fantasy in which consequences don't matter, and the same day can be repeated.

Truly, the Obama Administration makes burying one's head in the sand a real art form. Particularly when it comes to the scourge they still won't name: radical Islamic terrorism. Unfortunately, that blind, deaf and dumb political posture leaves their derrières exposed to the world. While that's fine for them, the rest of us don't have that luxury. When we frequent public places in cities like Orlando its without armed Secret Service bodyguards.

By all means, the surviving victims of the Pulse massacre should forgive the circumstances—to the extent that they are able to. Why? Because carrying the trauma forward as emotional baggage won't be helpful to the desire to heal. Likewise is carrying an understandable bias forward as a grievance concerning, for example, Omar Mateen, or more globally, the Islamic religion. Specifically, Christ's advice about “turning the other cheek” is about the serenity achieved through forgiveness and acceptance. Indeed, forgiveness is a vehicle that releases the victimized from very human psychological pain. Nevertheless, forgiveness doesn't mean forgetting. Or in Ms. Lynch's pea-brain: obliviously ignoring.

Loretta Lynch is the Orwellian poster child for “evil flourishing when good [women] do nothing.” She's a coward unworthy of her position and should resign. Love never cowers before barbarity or wickedness:

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. - 1 Corinthians 13:6-7 NIV

As Scripture clearly indicates, love always champions the innocent and defenseless. That's apparently something forked tongue Loretta Lynch is unwilling to do.

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Love American Style

Putting aside the fear-based barbarity of a radical Islamic terrorist for a moment, the Orlando massacre ironically brings to light a little-discussed subject to the forefront, that of love.

At 90, former Pennsylvania senator Harris Wofford remarried this past April 30^th: this second time around to a man. This happy event received scant media attention compared to the tragedy at Orlando's Pulse gay club. Why? I do not mean to imply that honoring the deaths of 49 innocents gunned down by a self-hating, religious fanatic is not important. Still, on balance, widely reporting life-affirming events—like this organic demonstration of new American tolerance—deserves much more attention than it currently gets.

Every wedding is significant because it represents hope and commemorates new beginnings. So, what's special about Mr. Wofford's nuptials with a second great love, Matthew Charlton, 40? This marriage proves American hearts transcend the superficial differences of age and gender. Specifically, Mr. Wofford's daughter articulates the prevailing attitude the MSM virtually ignores: “I think it's wonderful. My father is a very lucky man to find someone who cares for him.” Indeed, the acceptance both bridegrooms universally experience may still be surprising to some, but not among them is this present generation.

This truth is that our culture has taken quantum leaps in acceptance. Yet, who would know that from listening to the biased MSM? They make a deliberate effort to ignore this clear progress. Why? Because an alienated electorate votes for Democrats (whom the press philosophically supports) under the guise of providing “objective” news. What is actually presented is propaganda. A distorted fun house mirror of American cultural dynamics circa 1963's “The Help.”

Yet, it's not 1963, it's 2016. The problem with our society is not with discrimination. It is not about guns. It concerns dishonest leaders in government and in the sycophantic liberal media. Collectively these overly cozy bedfellows promote a divisive, anti-American agenda via politically correct progressivism. Yet, this statist philosophy of Democrats is an anti-American corrosive upon the very fabric of our republic. Hence, the many politically polarizing disasters of the Obama years.

Why this devil's partnership between them? The distraction is useful to the powers-that-be in both establishments to maintain elitist political control. That's why both groups fixate on disseminating—and promoting—the circumstances that divide. Thus today's flood of stories about mass murders like Omar Mateen. The liberals' false narrative about “hate-filled America” has no room for the diametrically opposing 21^st century American reality. Where is their vested interest in acknowledging the loving unions that build society-strengthening family connections of various kinds? They have none.

There remains the quiet expression of great love in America despite its disregarded—and changing forms. That quiet truth about us—as a nation—is undiminished. We are Ronald Reagan's “shining city on a hill.” Likewise, we are MLK's realized dream of open hearts and open minds. This inspiring nexus forms the uniquely American character, making anything possible. Therefore, ultimately, it matters not what zealots do. Or what the MSM says about them—or us. Love, like an unified, indestructible undercurrent always prevails, gently guiding America's destiny.

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