By: Pat Austin
SHREVEPORT – We were supposed to be celebrating the Fourth in the Midwest this week, but our plans shifted by a week. We will be on the road next week. I love celebrating the Fourth in the heart of America, the Midwest, in rural America where it is easier for me to hide from the political and cultural negativity and pretend that things are as simple and kind as they were years ago.
Instead, I am here in Shreveport where we have already had one shooting today and I know with a fair degree of confidence that it won’t be the last; as I write this it isn’t even noon.
I sit here and scan the headlines over my coffee and see nothing but foolishness:
Nine Army bases will be renamed because they currently honor “Confederate traitors.” The new names include African-American, Hispanic, and female heroes who have served. “Officials with the Defense Department naming commission said the changes were designed to guarantee that prominent military locations have names ‘that evoke confidence in all who serve.’” This may not bother a lot of people, but I’m just so over this renaming, rebranding, and rewriting of history. When we take history out of context and force events to comply to current, perhaps even temporal thinking, we begin a trek down a path that leads to a point where we have no history at all. Where does it end?
On a somewhat related note, the New York Times reports that many orchestras, including Cleveland, are scrapping the 1812 Overture in their Fourth of July events as it would be upsetting to people in a time of war; the piece celebrates Russia’s victory over Napoleon’s army in Moscow in 1812.
Seriously.
So, now we literally have to rethink everything we name, sing, play, visit because we have to be certain someone somewhere doesn’t get offended or hurt.
Can I just say, you’d have to be looking really hard to have hurt feelings at some of this. When I hear the 1812 Overture, I do not think, “Oh, yay Russia! Good job trouncing Napoleon’s army! Woo!”
Today, on this July 4, I am longing for a simpler time when we as a nation come together to celebrate our independence, to remember those heroes who fought for it, and who sacrificed so much for it. I’m turning off the news today, I’m going to fire up the grill, light a sparkler, and listen to the 1812 Overture as loud as I can play it. I’m going to put out American flags and I’m going to celebrate the fact that I live in a free country and all that that entails.
Happy Fourth of July!
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As far as I am concerned, the way to fight against the efforts to rewrite history is to refuse to go along. Just keep doing and saying and acting the way you did before. The more people refuse to go along with it, the quicker their efforts will fail.
Conservatism supported mass immigration, virtually open borders, for 40 or more years and now that grossly excessive migration has destroyed the coherence of the country. Everything else is just trimmings. America isn’t exceptional, it conforms to the rules of history like everyone else. You’ve allowed yourselves to be occupied and now you’ll suffer the fate of all who, by force or choice, had that happen to them. Woke and political correctness are quite literally the new national religion of America, and have been for at least 50 years. Diversity is the heart of that religion and even though it’s clear that open borders have been a disaster for the country it’s impossible for even conservatives to commit heresy by acknowledging that fact. So the destruction won’t stop.