Is Western Civilization On the Brink?

                     Is Western Civilization On the Brink?

       Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 6/27/20

No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

So wrote England’s John Donne in 1623. From a family of great Catholic faith, through a wild period of debauchery, on to a spiritual conversion, Donne became in the final period of his life the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Of this former playboy it was often said, “If Donne’s path could be altered, so could that of any other rogue in England.”   

Though he became famous as a poet and essayist, Donne, like many other European writers, is now essentially neglected. Even his contemporary, Shakespeare himself, is de-emphasized. The author of “Lord of the Rings,” Tolkien – though not his books – is also diminished. Tolkien’s Christian faith bothers the critics. Alas, even “Narnia” author C.S.Lewis (your children and grandchildren know about “Narnia,” even if you don’t) is out of favor at his beloved Oxford University.

What’s happening to western literature and western civilization generally? From what did western culture spring? Not geographically or ethnically, but philosophically. What ideas, principles, or values brought Americans – white, black, and brown – more freedom, opportunity, groceries, and more equality before the law than any other nation or culture ever known to mankind?

What we call western civilization wasn’t birthed in Philadelphia. It was planted in ancient Greece, sprouted, believe it or not in ancient Rome, and moved toward full flower in Europe well before 1776. As far back as 1215 King John of England learned that kingly power had limits and was forced to sign the Magna Carta, a precursor of our U.S. Constitution.

Western civilization, from the 300 BC streets of Athens, Greece to present day Main Street USA has brought delivery from political darkness that still marks so much of the eastern world. Western civilization with its personal liberty, freedom of expression, art, architecture, monuments, inventions, free enterprise, commerce, and representative democracy has not perfected westerners, but it has freed them from monarchy and automatic poverty because of one’s birth.

Yet in spite of such blessings and greatness, more and more American academics, corporate heads, religious leaders, and elected politicians are faulting western civilization, especially white Americans, for “inequities” and “systemic racism.” Siding with radical socialists, they argue that western civilization is at heart morally defective. Examples abound: the “1619 project” (please look it up), the almost total disappearance of western civilization studies at America’s most famous universities, the Jesse Jackson-led chant at Stanford University, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go,” the assignment of DWEM’s (Dead White European Men) to a class worthy of scorn, and of course the destruction of statues. (Now there’s a “hate crime” if you believe in such, for which culprits go unpunished.)  

Self-loathing is the air that far too many Americans now breathe. Daily another athlete, entertainer, CEO, minister, or politician envisions a noose or apologizes for something they never did. Fawning apologizers cannot explain the success of Barack Obama, Oprah, and countless other blacks. Liberal guilt has become white guilt. Those who don’t feel or profess guilt are deemed racists.

All of this mania amounts to a new tyranny.  That tyranny demands that we “understand” the looters and monument defacers and their attitude toward the police.

Other than that of Alveda King, guilt-ridden whites seldom hear the black voices who appreciate America and western culture. That’s because the media denies them a platform. Burgess Owens, Shelby Steele, Candice Owens, and Thomas Sowell are all blacks who have rejected the bandwagon of self-loathing “white privilege.” How often are they on television?

 I have never taught from or seen a college or high school American literature textbook that didn’t contain the great writings of the former black slave, Frederick Douglas, the black poet James Weldon Johnson, and many others. The many contributions of blacks to our nation are acknowledged and celebrated everywhere, except by those who wallow in fashionable self-loathing. Note to all “white privilege” subscribers: all the killing of blacks in Chicago isn’t coming from whites.

John Donne wrote further in Meditation 17 above, “Any man’s death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind; therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” In other words, all lives matter.

Does the bell now toll for western civilization? What would a Westless world look like? We are getting an idea now. Right from our streets. From a socialist who almost won the Democratic nomination for President. From transnational, corporate globalists. And from the lips of blue-state and blue-city leaders who never liked America very much in the first place.

Roger Hines

6/24/20

Bubbles, Bubbas, and Pharisees

                         Bubbles, Bubbas, and Pharisees

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 6/13/20

            America’s political left has gone stark raving mad. Just when we thought the claim of a third gender – a male, a female, and a something else – was the ultimate in mindlessness, the far left has gone one better. The newest lunacy is we don’t need police.

            No need to rehearse what the Minneapolis city council has had to say about the matter except maybe that its vote to dismantle the city’s police department was done by a veto-proof majority.  All of Europe has heard about Minneapolis as well, and quite a few people across the pond are siding with the council members. Believe it or not, Europeans are a little ahead of us in mindlessness. Rugged individualism and love of personal liberty are waning in the Old World. Many younger Europeans are simply accepting what the America-bound Mayflower occupants sought to escape. Sad.

            Surprisingly, even CNN’s Alisyn Camerota cocked her head, looked puzzled, and then asked one of the Minneapolis council members, “But what if someone breaks into my house late at night? Who am I gonna call?” Camerota’s question was the closest to man-on-the-street common sense Camerota has ever come. Perhaps she recalled or just recently saw it written somewhere that “the heart of man is exceedingly wicked” and that we should “submit to those who are sent for the punishment of evildoers.” Anyhow, the council member answered with rigmarole like you’ve never heard before. She didn’t tell Camerota whom to call or what to do, but spoke of the need for “transformation of policing.”

            Liberals – ok, Democrats – who are center-left are having a tough time with this issue. It’s not fun opposing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. She’s all or nothing and represents the extreme left that is so troubling to those at center-left. Joe Biden (not that he’s center-left; he left the center long ago) has tried to finesse the issue by saying that while he opposes defunding the police, he wants a national police misconduct registry. More centralism in other words.

            Former Governor Mike Huckabee sized things up well when he recently remarked that the nation is now torn between the bubbles and the bubbas. He identified 5 bubbles, that is, 5 pockets of group think: Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the media, New York City, and Washington, D.C., asserting that all 5 are aiding and abetting the extreme left’s lunacy. The bubbas, he says, are the rest of us.

            Well, not actually all of the rest of us but certainly the 63 million deplorables who put Donald Trump in office. Huckabee’s assessment was echoed this week by Richard Grenell, the recently retired acting Director of National Intelligence. Grenell stated, “Politics is now a fight between Washington and the rest of the country.”  

            The political left’s agenda rests solely on a dire philosophical error. That error is their belief in the perfectibility of man. Blinded by such idealism, leftists proceed from that error and cause all kinds of harm with more government and more laws. How much better off, though, are the poor because of LBJ’s pervasive War on Poverty? How much weaker are families? How much better is education because of Carter’s Department of Education?

The Left’s constant drumbeat about man’s inhumanity to man is suspect.  If totally sincere, they would care about blacks’ inhumanity to other blacks, the numbers for which are astronomical while the numbers of cops killing blacks are not. Use any source you choose to check out black on black crime, particularly in Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. Black on black crime in America is absolutely shameful. Black Lives Matter ignores it. Behaving like the Mafia, BLM warns, “Side with us or your store, shop, and reputation are gone. And you better apologize too.”

            In five months we will know if the Left’s lunacy is representative of the country. The upcoming election will pit a life-long politician against an absolute non-politician if there ever was one. Modern day Pharisees (never-Trumpers, timid Republicans, some evangelicals) will shame Trump’s supporters, having ignored the sins of countless other politicians. Their new-found concern for virtue will make them feel good, but their moral superiority will melt and drip, given their support of the wink-wink, back slapping Biden who, though affable, can turn on a dime, feigns sincerity, and labels abortion “women’s health.” Where’s virtue in that, Pharisees?

            The Pharisees are guilty of Trump-hate. They don’t want a man who daily kicks political correctness in the shins; who, unlike his opponent, hobnobs with steel workers and electricians at work sites instead of grinning big at fundraisers with fellow elites.

            Joe Biden knows government. Trump knows government’s excesses. We shall soon see which outlook the nation prefers.

Roger Hines

6/10/20           

           

                                               Liberalism’s Bitter Fruit

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 6/7/20

             The essence of liberalism is tolerance, except when it isn’t. The events of the past two weeks in America’s largest cities are the fruit of liberalism’s bend over backwards tolerance, mainly that of liberal mayors and governors. What else explains why blue state cops stood around for four days watching criminals destroy private property?

            Liberalism’s supposed tolerance is often sheer intolerance. Most liberals can’t tolerate gun ownership and want you to jump through hoops to own one. But they tolerate rioting, looting, and bashing-in store windows when done by angry “protestors” whose cause is supposedly just.

            Thieving “protestors” are doing exactly what we should expect from them because liberalism primed them for it. It seems ludicrous to bring parenting and child rearing into the picture, but absent fathers and bad liberal policy are primarily what brought us to our present strife.  Liberal professors did their part as well.

 During the 60s Americans began swallowing the philosophy that “understanding” would keep children “well adjusted.” Spanking was out. “Time out” was in. But instead of hellishness being cured it was emboldened. Then came the age of therapy. Today we are one nation under therapy with hellishness and criminality for all. Watch it on television before it comes to your neighborhood, which it will certainly do if dads don’t become dads instead of just impregnators, and if liberal mayors don’t allow police to keep order.

            I watched and heard what Chris Cuomo of CNN said: “You have to understand the passion and the outrage of the looters.” I read what the mayor of Minneapolis said: “Our city is witnessing the result of 400 years of injustice toward blacks.” Think about that. America has twice elected, because of white voters, a black president. Black mayors and other black political leaders are everywhere. Yet we who have never owned a slave and many of us who have fought against racial injustice all of our lives are being held responsible for what the Jamestown colonists did 4 centuries ago.  

            The 19 to 25-year-old “youths” who have been running in and out of bashed-in store windows with stolen merchandise obviously never had their hellishness checked by a strong father.  Otherwise they most likely wouldn’t be abusing cops, setting cars afire, cursing reporters, and destroying livelihoods on the streets of our cities. Of course family structure is “evolving” and we’re supposed to be just dandy with it. Right, liberals?  

Does anyone wonder if the looters were ever taught “Do not steal”? Let’s put that in 17th century King James English for the sake of clarity: “Thou. Shalt. Not. Steal!” Yes, liberals, it’s that simple. We get what we teach.

            Here are 6 of many reasons why we should not accept the injustice excuse when rioting and looting occur: Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Herman Cain, and Josh Crudup.

             Dr. Carson and Supreme Court Justice Thomas have refused to wallow in their past injustice, instead using it to spur their ambition to succeed in life. Both of these over-comers have always looked forward. The lesser known Williams and Sowell are influential professors, writers, and unabashed libertarian/conservatives. Cain is a successful businessman and radio talk show host. These 5 black men turned injustice into determination rather than destructive anger.

            So did Josh Crudup. Josh lived across a huge creek from us. He owned a 20-acre farm and was considered a “well-off black” because he owned not just one mule but two. Childless, outgoing, and un-tethered to past injustice, the Crudups were everybody’s friends. They loved and respected their white neighbors and were loved and respected in turn, which is not what the looters understand and not what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton inspire. I think I know what Josh would have done if a son of his had been found rioting and looting.

            To see how a good black man can influence a growing, poor white boy like me, google Brooks and Dunn’s song and video, “Believe.” Then ponder the absence of love, respect, and proper raising that the looters are illustrating and that liberalism’s tolerance has produced.

            I see good race relations every week of my life. America is not a racist nation and I for one am getting tired of hearing that we are. It’s absolutely sickening to see liberal mayors yield to anarchists, but we know why they have: Russia, collusion, impeachment, and ventilators all fell through. Maybe social unrest will be Trump’s undoing.

             A nation that arrests people who congregate to worship but stands down when looters are destroying and murdering has lost its moorings. It’s time to call in the troops before deplorables get riled up as well.

           

Roger Hines

June 4, 2020

           

           

Homeschooling? Don’t Knock it if You Haven’t Tried It

        Homeschooling? Don’t Knock it if You Haven’t Tried It

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 5/30/20

Elizabeth Bartholet is a law professor at Harvard University. She is also the faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program. Nice. This means Bartholet advocates for children. And advocate means to plead in favor of.

            Unfortunately Professor Bartholet’s advocacy has taken the form of an outrageous attack on homeschooling. She recently stated that homeschooling violates a child’s right to a meaningful education. To the professor, who has long been advocating a limited ban on homeschooling, Christian conservatives who homeschool their children may be “extreme religious ideologues” who are “crippling their students’ capacities.” She so stated in an article titled “The Risks of Homeschooling,” published last month in Harvard Magazine.

              After the nation’s homeschoolers erupted, the professor doubled down, this time in an interview with The Harvard Gazette. In the Gazette article she blames (my word not hers, but it fits the text and tone of her article) conservative Christians for the rapid growth of the homeschooling movement. Noting that other countries have far more restrictions on homeschooling, Bartholet asserted that the government should step in.

            Her language is not guarded: “Homeschoolers are committed to raising their children within their belief system, isolated from any societal influences.” Well, yeah! So are Catholics, Jews, the Amish, Quakers and others, though “isolated” is the wrong word. Such groups simply have certain beliefs, practices, and intellectual levels which they believe they can better transmit or reach than can public education. More than protect, they wish to advance. One would think the professor just recently learned about homeschooling, unmindful that it is as old as America.

            The professor continued, “Society may not have the chance to teach homeschooled children the values that are important to the larger community such as tolerance of other people’s views.”

            Dear Lord! Could the Harvard professor not see that with her very own words she was showing her intolerance of homeschoolers?

            My wife Nancy and I have had experience with homeschooling and are more than pleased with its effectiveness and possibilities. For his first four grades our son Reagan attended a private school where Nancy was teaching high school English. When Nancy left the school, making Reagan’s transportation there less convenient, we decided to homeschool him since he had only one more year of elementary school left.

            I might never have walked into the childhood home of Martin Luther King, had we not become homeschoolers and taken Reagan there. Or learned of the effective networking that homeschoolers benefit from, whether it’s an engineer dad teaching math to 20 or so students on Saturday morning, or a mom who offers homemaking classes in the evening.  I know. Bad word, homemaking. But homeschoolers care more about reality and honest language than political correctness.

             Except for Reagan’s first 5 years our 4 children attended public schools. For her own children our oldest daughter Christy has combined public education, private education, and homeschooling. Although her 4 children went to a strong public high school, in their childhood years they attended a private school that required students be homeschooled at least two days a week.  All 4 of them were well educated.

            Our other daughter Wendy who has a degree in elementary education has homeschooled her 3 children ages 10, 12, and14 from day one, even while working in their restaurant. Years ago just after Wendy graduated from North Cobb High School, I asked her what she had enjoyed most about high school. “My teachers” was her quick reply. “What least?” I asked. “The cigarette smoke in the girls’ restrooms,” she replied. Her answer is no doubt emblematic of many homeschoolers who desire a school setting where influences are positive and discipline problems of a few don’t hold back the progress of everybody else.

            Our son Jeff has a 13 year old daughter. Why have he and his wife chosen to privately educate her? “It’s just more serious and not as many problems as regular schools,” he said awhile back. Our youngest child Reagan has 2 preschool children. I’m guessing he and his wife will opt to homeschool and/or privately educate their children as well.

            And how does old Dad feel about their choices since he spent 37 years in public school teaching? He feels grateful for the opportunity to teach public school students and work with outstanding public school teachers. He’s appreciative of public school board members, and school staffs.

            More importantly he feels that homeschooling does not remove children from mainstream culture, that government has no business telling citizens how to educate their children, and that Professor Bartholet should stick to teaching law and try to be a bit more tolerant.

Roger Hines

5/28/20