A Lesson in Bootstraps
Why We Must Reform Our Public Schools to Reclaim Our American Culture and History.
Maybe you’re like me. You see what’s going on around our country right now—the riots, the arson, the toppling of historical statues, the takeover of parts of left-leaning cities, the bullying and intimidation tactics from the left toward law-abiding citizens—and you think to yourself, How did we get here?
As a former English and history teacher, I am outraged at the mindless destruction by young radicals I’m watching on TV each night. These mostly, college-educated young people seem to have no understanding of and respect for our history or for public and private property. They claim that the statues they are destroying represent racist individuals from our past. The problem is they are also tearing down monuments of our founders as well as those of Abraham Lincoln our 16th President. Don’t they know he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves and led a successful war effort to defeat the institution of slavery in America? And what about the statues of abolitionists they are defacing and destroying? These “no-nothings” don’t know their own history because they are students of our corrupt public-school system which indoctrinates rather than educates and teaches our students to hate America.
But, public schools weren’t always the propaganda factories they are today. I attended grade school in the 60s and came of age in the 70s, a tumultuous period not unlike today. What is striking, however, is that the teachers I had simply taught their subject, rarely if ever exposing their personal biases. Parents were the individuals who taught values to their children, not educators. What a novel idea! Moreover, my parents, like most, watched the evening news with Walter Cronkite or The Huntley-Brinkley Report every evening. Black and white images of young people protesting everything—sit ins, raised fists of rebellion, and bra burning—splashed across our small television screen nightly. I was completely turned off by the “protesters’” shenanigans and never bought into their rabble-rousing, suspecting not all involved were taking part for righteous reasons but simply to be a part of an experience with other young people. Similarly, the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements today appear to involve some who might be trying to affect change, but many seem to be followers, unable to think for themselves, a product of groupthink.
Indeed, speaking of groupthink, there is no better example of people mindlessly following a warped ideology than the Manson Cult. I recall, as a sixth grader, watching Charles Manson testify in court. He was the cult leader of a group of misfits who murdered the starlet Sharon Tate and four of her friends in an effort to create a race war with African-Americans (sound familiar?). When Manson said, “My father is your system...I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you,” I thought to myself, What? That’s ridiculous. We are all responsible for our own actions. Those were the solid values my parents had instilled in me. If I, as a twelve-year-old, could discern that, why couldn’t liberal adults, who seemed to swallow this madman’s twisted logic, grasp this, too? But instead many seemed to use Manson’s logic—blaming society for certain groups’ misdeeds and failings—as a justification for all sorts of supposedly well-meaning government programs. Unfortunately, these programs have made matters worse and cost American taxpayers a small fortune over the past forty to fifty years. Looking back, Manson’s self-serving statement in court was a pivotal moment in my becoming a conservative as an adult.
Additionally, my mother, a naturalized citizen who was born and raised in Honduras, never failed to remind my siblings and me what a great country we live in. She was virulently patriotic, voraciously reading everything she could get her hands on about American history. And, she told us how lucky we were to live in a country where every four years we would have elections to peacefully transition to another president. (Something that happened like clockwork every four years until the left decided they would never accept Donald Trump as their President.) So, as a result of her upbringing in a third world country, she didn’t suffer whiners. Whenever one of us children would bemoan something going wrong in our lives or complain about the amount of school work we had, she would snap at us to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps and stop complaining.” At the time, I thought she was being harsh, but as an adult I came to understand what my mother--with only an 8th grade education--was trying to impart to her children. Life’s tough and you’d better be tougher. The quality of rugged individualism my mother imprinted on me also played a huge part in my metamorphosis into the staunch conservative adult I came to be.
Now, don’t misunderstand. I was not really political as a young adult, even though I voted Republican. I just voted for the individual whom I felt promised common sense solutions. In addition, I became an educator to teach students my love of literature, writing, and history, not because I had an agenda and wanted to inculcate young minds with my own personal views. However, throughout my 34-year career as a public educator, my two years of mentoring new teachers, and my three years of substitute teaching as a retired teacher, I experienced a number of disturbing incidents. And, although as a young educator I was a bit naïve, as I grew older, like all adults I became more of a realist. That, however, did not prepare me for all the circumstances I encountered that had me shaking my head and wondering What just happened?
Hence, some of my posts will deal with the calamity of our public school system and how it has been a the very core of undermining our American culture and history. Although philosopher George Santayana’s famous quote has been overused, it seems apt to remind young people today that, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Bravo! I am “like” you, as are millions of other Americans. I’d venture to guess roughly 50% of us have been wondering that same question, “How did we get here?”
It’s been over a year since you wrote that blog and looking back since that summer of insanity of 2020, I can venture some hopefully salient and sometimes disturbingly truthful facts in answer to that question.
What were the flashpoints that started this frenzied trend? Was it for the June 2015 mass murders of nine black men and women in a racially-motivated attack on a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina?
Or was it the Unite the Right rally which, according to Wikipedia, was a white supremacist rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia from August 11 to 12, 2017. Jason Kessler, the organizer of the rally, had been protesting for months against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville when James Alex Fields, Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally, killing 1 and injuring 35.
Perhaps it was the death of George Floyd on May 25th 2020? The one who has practically been raised to the level of sainthood by the media. This is the same George Floyd, who between 1997 and 2005, served eight jail terms on various charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass. Then as late as March of 2020 he was hospitalized after overdosing on drugs.…oops no, we in the media don’t want to mention that. Ahh yes…the media…hmmm….my #1 choice in the top 3 reasons in answer to the questions, “What were the flashpoints? and “How did we get there?”
All 3 of these incidents are justifiably awful and tragic. Do they deserve to be magnified to such a degree that it leads the National news headlines for days and is rehashed and focused on at any and every opportunity going forward in regard to racial division and the depravity of most any Americans who were born with white skin to feel they are inherently racist? I say ABSOLUTELY NOT! I consider the mass media to be domestic enemy #1. They play the race card constantly and foment division at every opportunity. TPTB i.e. the powers that be, the ones who own and control the talking heads and spin the narrative to further their agenda are the same ones trying to destroy our Constitution and bring this Country down, only to rebuild it in their own image. (See Phoenix Rising.) Out of the ashes a New World Order!
The 3 examples above totaled 9 deaths. There were 772 shooting deaths in Chicago alone in 2020 and 797 shooting deaths in 2021. A 25 year high! And this with a city that has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Do we hear about this in the national news? Blacks killing blacks? Hmmm….I don’t know, maybe a quick 10 second blurb about it and then move on to the more important story like this one on May 26th 2020: DOJ Investigating Killing of Ahmaud Arbery as Hate Crime – Oh, sorry, looks like more Media spin for racial division.
Where does it end???
My #2 choice in the top 3 reasons in answer to the question, “How did we get there?” and my #2 most wanted domestic enemy is George Soros and his purchase, funding and installation of City, County and State prosecutors nationwide. Do your own research.
#3 as you rightly point out in regard to the people pulling down statues that summer “they are students of our corrupt public-school system which indoctrinates rather than educates…the calamity of our public school system and how it has been at the very core of undermining our American culture and history.” Both public and private Universities, colleges on down to even high schools and grade schools and their Unions have been saturated by leftist, Socialist, Marxist and “woke” ideologies that have undermined the very core and fabric of our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our society, and even into our churches and are now at the point that if you disagree or speak up, or out, about these issues, you are shouted down, cancelled and at risk of losing your entire career and/or livelihood. So just shut up and go along to get along! Much more can be said about this subject and what this “doxing” is all about, but I’ll save that for another day.
The America of today is not recognizable to me. For all the things that you stated I completely agree. Once we started turning our responsibility of teaching our children Christian values over to the public schools I believe we did a great disservice our children. When did it become ok to rewrite history? The very definition tells us that history is " a branch of knowledge dealing with past events." I don't like all the things that happened in the past but I don't go an try to change those happenings. I learn from them and try not to repeat the negatives of the past. I look forward to your future posts! You truly are the right Sister!