Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, March 10, 2021/Page 6A
(51?e Ahumtce
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
—Walter Lippmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
"Covid is a true killer. So far it's killed the flu,
cancer, heart disease - it killed the ability to
think, logic & common sense. It killed the
economy, the working class, & millions of
jobs. It killed millions of businesses, human
connection, love and compassion."
Jeff Nelson, @vegsource
Julio Rosas, Senior Writer for Townhall.
com: ICE explains why they locked their
Twitter account that warned Americans of
fugitive aliens.
"It seems the Biden Admin locked @
ICEAlerts because if you were to report the
location of one of these dangerous aliens
to ICE, it would become too obvious that
these assaulters, drug dealers, thieves, and
drunk drivers are now allowed to go free
under Biden's policies," Jon Feere, former
senior advisor to the ICE Director and chief
of staff, tweeted.
Tim Graham, executive editor of News-
Busters and director of media analysis for
the Media Research Center: Ai Sharpton’s
hoary heart-to-heart with Kamala.
Sharpton credited Harris with convinc
ing him to get a vaccine, which he did. But
there was no question on how Harris and
Biden claimed they had to start on vaccine
distribution "from scratch," which is flat-out
false. Or a question about Harris' statement
last year she wouldn't trust any vaccine re
leased by Trump before the election.
Katie Pavlich, Editor of Townhall.com:
Rubio points out the 'utter ridiculousness' of
Biden's new immigration policies.
"How are these people getting here?
They're getting here because trafficking
networks are taking advantage of poor,
desperate people and they're telling them,
'there's a new president, this new president
will let you come in the United States and
stay there if you show up with a child.'..."
said Sen. Marco Rubio-R FL.
Rubio's remarks come as the illegal im
migration and unaccompanied minor cri
sis at the southern border continues to get
worse. Back in Washington, D.C., the U.S.
Capitol is still surrounded by fencing topped
with razor wire and National Guard soldiers
are still patrolling the area.
Jeff Crouere, political columnist and au
thor: Crazy old Biden and the countdown to
Kamala.
Biden is mentally deteriorating, as most
astute observers knew he would. His con
dition has become so worrisome that 31
House Democrats are demanding the con
trol of the "nuclear football" be removed
from the sole authority of the president.
In the background, smiling and patient
ly waiting, is Vice President Kamala Harris,
a socialist with radical views on a range of
issues. To bolster her position, she has the full
support of former President Obama and his
political entourage.
She knows that her ascendancy will
come sooner rather than later.
Harris is biding her time, as the count
down has begun.
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Are the Classics Racist?
THE
RICH
LOWRY
COLUMN
It was only a matter of time
before Cicero got canceled.
The New York Times
recently profiled Princeton
classicist Dan-el Padilla Peralta,
who wants to destroy the study
of classics as a blow for racial
justice.
The critique of classics as
stultifying and privileged isn’t
new, but in the woke era this
attack is more potent than ever
and has a better chance of
demolishing a foundation of
Western education.
At a time when Abraham
Lincoln doesn’t pass muster in
the progressive precincts of
America, poor benighted
Homer, whose chief subject
was toxic masculinity, probably
doesn’t stand a chance.
In its report, The Times
writes that the critics believe
that the study of classics “has
been instrumental to the
invention of ‘whiteness’ and its
continued domination.” Or as
Padilla himself puts it, “Systemic
racism is foundational to those
institutions that incubate
classics and classics as a field
itself.”
It is rare to find other
instances of scholars so
consumed with hatred for their
own disciplines that they
literally want to destroy them
within. Presumably if an ultra
progressive astrophysicist
concludes that his field is
desperately out of touch with
social justice concerns, he
simply goes and does something
else for a living rather than
agitating to have students stop
learning about space.
One would think Padilla’s
own amazing personal journey
would, in itself, make the case
for the wonders of the classics.
He came here as a child from
the Dominican Republic, lived
in a homeless shelter in New
York City, discovered a book on
Ancient Greece and Rome —
and with help from a mentor,
got into a prep school and went
on to get degrees from
Princeton, Oxford and
Stanford.
For him, evidently, the
classics weren’t very
exclusionary, and indeed there’s
no reason that they should be.
The rigors of Greek and
Latin, the timeless questions
raised by Plato and Aristotle,
the literary value of some of the
most compelling poems, plays
and tracts ever written, the
insights of early historians
Herodotus and Thucydides,
the oratory of Pericles and
Cicero, the awe-inspiring
beauty of the architecture,
sculpture and pottery — all of
this is available to anyone of any
race, ethnicity or creed.
To look at all these marvels
and see only “whiteness” speaks
to a reductive obsession with
race that is destructive, self-
defeating and, in the end,
profoundly depressing.
The Times complains that,
paraphrasing critics,
“Enlightenment thinkers
created a hierarchy with Greece
and Rome, coded as white, on
top, and everything else below.”
There’s quite a simple
reason, though, that Greece
and Rome have been subjects
of study and fascination for so
long — their cultural, political
and legal contributions are so
vast and enduring.
The Greeks gave us the
example — flawed and
incomplete to be sure — of
democracy, and the Roman
stamp is still discernible on our
legal system and institutions.
Western thought and
literature have proceeded
throughout their history in
dialogue with the classics,
constantly interacting with the
arguments, themes and
characters of those long-ago
forebears.
This isn’t true of other
ancient societies.
Of course, the Greeks and
Romans were blinkered,
exclusionary, repressive and
violent, but who wasn’t? Where
in the ancient world did slavery
not exist? What society
afforded women equal status
with men? Where did any ruler
respect the dignity of all p eople ?
A key difference between
Please see Lowry page 7A
GRITTY
New England Primer
As you know,
children have now
been dispatched to
government and
private schools across
the country. The
teachers and the
educational
bureaucrats intend to
teach the children how
to spell, read, write &
perform mathematics functions among
other things, which may include sex
education, how to cook, how to raise farm
animals and how to participate in sports’
programs.
Unfortunately, those lessons will not
include any reference to our Creator,
because the liberal morons of our country
have declared that to be unconstitutional
— because of their interpretation of the
First Amendment, that says; “Congress
shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof;... (Does that prevent
the teaching of religion in schools? — go
figure!) That’s why I said “liberal morons.”
Now, let’s look at what our founders
intended for the schools to teach in our
country. We’ll start with a little book known
as the New England Primer (pronounced
“prem-ur”), introduced in Boston in 1690
by Benjamin Harris and was the first
textbook printed in America. It was actually
the beginning textbook for students well
into the twentieth century, which can’t be
denied and is well documented in a 1930
edition. Our “Founders,” as well as millions
of other Americans, learned to read from
the Primer.
You may wonder why this little book
(about 2” x 4”) means so much to me —
well, for one thing, it proves that our
Founding Fathers were religious men and
were mostly Christians at heart. In the
Primer, the alphabet is learned using short
phrases — for instance, “A” - “In A’dam’s
Fall - We sinned all.” When you get to “Z,”
it says “‘Z’accheus he did climb the Tree —
Our Lord to see.”
The 1900 edition described the impact
of the Primer.” “The New England Primer
Please see Nitty page 8A
By Bennie Harbin
COMMENTARY
Trump Gets It Right at CPAC
Donald
Trump showed
up at CPAC,
the
Conservative
Political
Action
Conference,
and reminded
everyone why,
with all his
provocations, so many are still on
board with him.
Our country IS in trouble — big
trouble.
No parent reading this would
not be up in arms if his or her children
were threatened.
Well, all Americans, including
our children, are being threatened
— threatened by the militant left
now holding the reins of power. It’s
why passions are running high.
Trump wasted no time getting to
the heart of the matter.
“(W) e’re in the middle of a
historic struggle for America’s future,
America’s culture and America’s
institutions, borders and most
cherished principles,” he said. “Our
security, our prosperity, and our very
identity as Americans are at stake,
like perhaps at no other time.”
The reason Trump stirs up so
many is that he is right.
And it’s the reason why those on
the left hate him so much. He’s got
their number; he fearlessly calls them
out, and he speaks directly into their
insidious distortions and lies targeted
to crush the core institutions that
hold our country together.
Last year, I wrote about Black
Lives Matter intimidating billboard
company Clear Channel Outdoor to
take down a billboard my
organization posted in a poor
Milwaukee neighborhood to
encourage work, marriage, and
education as the path out of poverty.
BLM, whose business is about
blaming everyone else, would have
none of this personal-responsibility
message about dealing with poverty.
And Clear Channel Outdoor
immediately caved.
It’s what’s happening across the
country, and we’re losing our nation.
Our largest corporations are
selling out to “woke” politics and
undermining the very values of
capitalism that built every one of
those firms.
The Wall Street Journal points
out that in the $1.9 trillion spending
bill that Democrats now want to be
enacted, COVID-19-related
provisions tally up to some $825
billion. The rest, another trillion-
plus, is simply expenditures for
Democratic pet programs along for
the ride.
Last year, government spending
at the federal, state, and local levels
came to 43.3% of the U.S. economy.
Almost $ 1 out of every $2 produced
by the nation’s economy went to
government.
Now Democrats want to add
another $1.9 trillion on top of it.
It is clear that Democrats are not
letting this crisis go to waste and
Please see Guest page 9A
By Star Parker