The past happened. It was real. Women were chattel. Children had no rights. There were no Child Protective Services. (Was that a good thing or a bad thing?) There were few safety nets for those who fell on hard times. Life could be brutal. People had slaves, traded human beings like horses or cattle. It sounds awful to us today. Yet 250 ago, slavery was still practiced everywhere. It was not only in the New World but universal. And so were all those other wretched things.The point is; times have changed. Things have been getting quietly better for the last several hundred years. And now suddenly it has become fashionable to be “WOKE.”

Honestly, I tremble to think what the result of all this misplaced outrage will be.

What is it that these people believe? Do they believe we reached this 21st century with all of our huge advantages, for people everywhere, by magic?
Somehow those who envisioned and bet their lives and their fortunes to build this country are seen as evil, dead, white males. This fanatically liberal group in society has decided to obliterate them from history. Our Founding Fathers, the Generals, Statesmen, and Presidents, who built this country are being disparaged for being men of their time. “Get rid of them, and any mention of their names.”, say the Woke people and their elected officials.

If they erase the names of the people who made it all possible, just whose names will they put in their place?   They make up heroes who really “aren’t,” and they disparage those who really are.

As my friend Ron Maxwell wrote recently, “Is this what we want for our children? Is this what we want to teach them? That they, too, can be erased by a future generation more Woke than even this one? “

All this rancor against dead white males makes me sick. Sick with fear at how stupid the populace has become.  Who else was there to make progress and form a new world? I don’t believe there were any women explorers, soldiers, generals, Indian fighters,  ship-owners, Ambassadors, prelates, or signers of the Declaration of Independence. Women had their role, and it was vital. But it was for support rather than a primary one. Slaves had their role, too. In those times, it was not an anomaly but common. Slaves supported society in their way, willing or not, free or not. The indigenous people (who often fought amongst themselves) had been decimated by illness before men even came here from Europe. But none of them were trying to set up a new country free of ancient privileges and ready for the individual to make his fortune. There was no other ethnic group or gender trying to change the world. Why can’t people see the difference?

It just seems hopeless. But, that is because young people have been indoctrinated in the belief that our country is flawed, built on the backs of slaves, and barely worth saving. Mohammad Ali once said, “Thank God my granddaddy go on the boat!” He could see how fortunate he was to live in this great country where he became the Champion of the World. Today’s young probably don’t know who he is, though. Our history is being lost and rewritten to suit an agenda that no longer respects our founding fathers’ ideas.
This great nation, this shining city on a hill, has been the beacon and the hope of the downtrodden all over the world. Now it is shackled in every direction by a misguided desire to make things equal for everyone all the time. And to do that, history is being rewritten; heroes debunked, statues toppled, anything and everything is being ‘renamed,’ and those who try to right the ship are shouted down. We are called racist and Nazi, and domestic terrorists because we believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Rule of Law, and the worst sin of all, Common Sense.

IS THERE ANY HOPE?

Copyright©. 2021 Bonnie B. Matheson