Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, August 16, 2023/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
The Barack Obama Cover-Up
This week, Tab
let released a fasci
nating conversation
with historian David
Gar row, author of a
massive unauthor
ized biography of
former President
Barack Obama in his
By Ben Shapiro /ears titled
“Rising Stars.” By all
rights, the book
should have been a massive hit upon its
release in 2017. Instead, it underper
formed. The revelations contained therein
never hit the mainstream. And that simple
fact, in and of itself, demonstrates a simple
reality of the modern political era: The
entire press apparatus has been dedicated,
since at least 2008, to the proposition that
Obama had to be protected from all pos
sible damage.
Garrow’s book carried multiple bomb
shells for Obama. Obama’s first autobiog
raphy — the egotist has already written
several — “Dreams From My Father” told
a story about how he broke up from a
white girlfriend in his Chicago years over
her failure to understand his desire for ra
cial solidarity with black America. Actu
ally, as Garrow’s book relates, the couple
broke up because Obama refused to dis
own black antisemitism. Furthermore, as
the book uncovers, Obama wrote letters
to a girlfriend in which he “repeatedly fan
tasizes about making love to men.”
These are incredible allegations, to say
the least. They were reported in the book.
But as David Samuels of Tablet observes,
the media were shockingly remiss in cov
ering any of these stories: “’Rising Star’
highlights a remarkable lack of curiosity
on the part of mainstream reporters and
institutions about a man who almost in
stantaneously was treated less like a politi
cian and more like the idol of an inter-elite
cult.”
That was true in 2008, when the me
dia steadfastly refused to take seriously
reports about Obama’s attendance at an
openly racist and antisemitic church for
two decades. And it’s true in 2023, when
the media still refuse to cover the fact that
a huge number of President Joe Biden’s
closest aides are Obama’s closest political
allies. Obama resides in Washington, D.C.;
all of the people who made policy for him
now make policy for Biden. And yet no
body talks about the Obama influence in
the current White House.
All of this is part of a broader pact on
the part of every major apparatus in Amer
ican life to mirror Obama’s perceptions of
the world. In Obama’s own mind, he was a
world-historical figure; that’s why, in 2010,
when he experienced a rather predictable
shellacking in a midterm election, he re
sponded by suggesting that his opposition
was actually motivated by vicious racism
and brutal bigotry. The media mirrored
that perspective; so did entertainment; so
did tech companies. The immaculate,
solid wall of support for Obama’s intersec
tional coalition is intimately connected to
direct allegiance from the movers and
shakers toward the Obama persona.
Just as our institutions were shaped for
decades beyond JFK’s death by the myth
built around him, so our modern institu
tions will be shaped for decades to come
by the myth of Barack Obama. Garrow
concludes about Obama: “He has no in
terest in building the Democratic Party as
an institution. I think that’s obvious. And I
don’t think he had any truly deep, mean
ingful policy commitments other than the
need to feel and to be perceived as victori
ous, as triumphant.” But that victory —
that triumph — came at the expense of
the American people, who were promised
a racial conciliator and a man of honor by
a media invested in that lie. When the
truth materialized and our institutions
continued to perpetuate the lie, our insti
tutions collapsed. We live in the era of
Barack Obama still.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and
Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro
Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a
three-time New York Times bestselling author:
his latest book is "The Authoritarian Moment:
How The Left Weaponized America's Institutions
Against Dissent." To find out more about Ben
Shapiro and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate website at www.creators,
com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM.
Just a Moment
Just a glimpse.
I believe there
are passing events in
which we are central
characters but with
out our notice.
Later, that passing
moment could be a
defining moment in
our lives.
In a popular play written by Thornton
Wilder, “Emily,” a central character who
died in childbirth, is allowed to return to
earth for one ordinary day. She chose her
twelfth birthday.
She sees her parents as a young couple
and others of her home town but was sad
dened by how little people enj oy the unre
markable events in their lives.
We assume our lives are defined by
big events, but maybe not. Perhaps wear
ing sandals or a first meeting that leads to
a life-long friend will do.
My mother's siblings gathered at her
parents' home on a summer days in the
Naomi Community. There was a yard full
of cousins, while adults sat in the deep
shade of the front porch talking.
Some days my grandfather drove to
the ice house in LaFayette. It was a tin-
covered business beside the railroad
tracks. The interior was dark and cold,
with stacks of hundred-pound blocks of
ice.
A twenty-five pound block was
chipped away with an ice pick and carried
by ice tongs outside where it was placed in
a chipper. The chipper was turned by a
loud motor which got louder when it con
tacted the ice. Chips flowed into a long,
thick paper bag.
At the farm my grandfather drove to a
spot beneath a large pear tree. I wondered
why that spot was claimed for churning
ice cream, but perhaps it was where a
large, heavy bag of slick paper could be
more easily managed.
It is comforting to look back and see
the adult males grinding away at the ice
cream churn, kids wanting a turn at the
crank, vying for the opportunity to lick
the dasher.
The pear tree is gone. While it slowly
lost its grip, I took cuttings to root pear
trees for my cousins.
Only one rooting survived and was
last seen living in a ditch after the cousins
moved away.
When thinking of homemade ice
cream, the vision of the pear tree comes to
mind.
There was a night at Jekyll Island with
a thunderstorm just off shore. The air felt
electrified, but I was safe inside a shelter.
During a thunderstorm, my mind goes
back to Jekyll Island.
On a summer evening in south Geor
gia, I drove a country road with the win
dows rolled down. The flowers of the
corn stalks, the tassels, were fully in
bloom. When I smell blooming corn, I'm
back on that road.
The smell reminds the Kansas Woman
of pulling ears of field corn for supper.
They didn't grow what we call sweet corn.
Field corn can be sweet enough if you
catch it just right.
Some songs take me back to working
at a particular radio station.
The hint of a particular fragrance re
minds me of a woman who wore it.
Tiny things. They make up a life.
joenphillips@yahoo.com
By Joe Phillips
Dear Me
Honoring those who
quietly honor our country
Warning:
This a No-
Trump Zone.
If you want to
revere the man
or revile him
this week, you
are going to
have to go
somewhere
else. Not here.
Instead, I
am going to talk about unsung heroes
who have been serving their country
quietly and with dignity for the past
97 years — those who guard the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ar
lington National Cemetery in Vir
ginia.
People ask me where I get my
ideas for this space. I am blessed with
readers who regularly suggest topics
to me (not including those whose
topic is to suggest I seek another line
of work.)
One such reader is Carol
Muldawer. An early supporter of the
effort to bring the Olympic Games to
Atlanta and a longtime aide and confi
dante of former Atlanta Mayor An
drew Young and the late Congressman
John Lewis, Carol shared with me in
formation on the story of those who
serve the hallowed grounds as Senti
nels of the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier. And a fascinating story it is.
The Tomb holds the remains of
an unknown soldier from World Wars
I and II as well as Korea. The remains
of the Vietnam War soldier interred
there was later identified through
DNA as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Jo
seph Blassie, who was shot down in
Vietnam in 1972. He was reburied in
his home state of Missouri, and the
crypt that once held his remains now
reads “Honoring and Keeping Faith
with America’s Missing Servicemen.”
That includes my fraternity brother,
Lt. Pat Boggs, USAF.
As with many of you, I have vis
ited the Tomb of the Unknown Sol
dier on several occasions and have al
ways been inspired with what I wit
nessed. It is a pageant of solemn dig
nity. After learning what goes into
guarding the site, it becomes even
more special.
The soldiers who guard the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier — men and
women from every state in the union
— are hand-picked and rigorously
trained. Less than 20 percent of those
who apply are accepted.
The Tomb has been guarded ev
ery minute of every day since March
25, 1937. The Guard is changed every
30 minutes during the summer and
every hour during the winter. During
the time the cemetery is closed, the
guard is changed every two hours.
Twenty-one is a critical number at
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It
refers to the 21-gun salute, the highest
honor given to any military or foreign
dignitary. The Sentinels walk 21 steps,
stop on the 21st step, turn and face the
Tomb for 21 seconds. They then
change their weapon to the outside
shoulder, count off 21 seconds and
step off for another 21 steps and face
By Dick Yarbrough
the Tomb. The Sentinel repeats this
over and over until the Guard Change
ceremony. Incidentally, the guards do
not wear insignia, so as not to outrank
the Unknowns, whatever their ranks
may have been.
The weather does not bother the
Sentinels at the Tomb of the Un
known Soldier. They march through
rain, sleet, snow or blistering heat. But
the welfare of the soldier is para
mount. The Tomb Guards have con
tingency plans in case weather condi
tions put them at risk. There is a ru
mor that during Hurricane Isabel, the
Sentinels were ordered to abandon
their posts for shelter and that they
refused. No such order was ever given.
The Society of the Honor Guard
which provides information on both
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
and those that guard it also debunks
several other rumors about those who
serve as Sentinels, such as they cannot
drink alcohol for the rest of their lives
and cannot swear in public for the rest
of their lives. Not true. I mean, these
are outstanding human beings we are
talking about here, but they are hu
man.
I thank Carol Muldawer for send
ing me the information on those who
perform this sacred duty, and I wanted
to share it with you. Why? Because we
need to be reminded that we live in a
great country where there are special
people quietly doing selfless things,
like the men and women of our mili
tary who guard and protect the mem
ory and the resting place of those who
made the ultimate sacrifice for us and
whose names we do not know.
This is the real America. Not a
bunch of loudmouth know-it-all wing-
nuts on both ends of the political
spectrum blathering their incessant
and divisive drivel. Oops! I think I just
reentered the No-Trump Zone!
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
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