We Can Fight The “Woke” Crowd

On September 29th, The College Fix posted an article about Cornell University and the bust of Abraham Lincoln.

The article reports:

A bust of President Abraham Lincoln that was quietly removed from a Cornell University library during the summer of 2021 after a concern was lodged will once again grace the halls of a library at the Ivy League school.

Elaine Westbrooks, the Carl A. Kroch university librarian at Cornell, said in a statement Thursday the bust of America’s 16th president is slated to soon be placed where it originally debuted — the school’s Uris Library when it opened in 1891.

“Over the summer, I directed the cleaning and return to public exhibition of a bust of Abraham Lincoln, a valuable item in the Cornell Library’s vast permanent collection,” she said in a written statement provided to The College Fix. “The bust will soon return to its original room in Uris in the heart of our Ithaca campus.”

Westbrooks was tapped as librarian in March 2022, roughly seven months after the bust was removed from the Rare and Manuscript Collections section of Kroch Library. The bust had been displayed there in front of a decal plaque of the Gettysburg Address since 2013.

“The Lincoln bust … had been featured in a temporary exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. That exhibit ended in August 2021 and the bust was moved to storage. Subsequent questions about this curatorial decision inspired thoughtful conversation among library staff. I was moved by the outpouring of interest in this historic artifact and made plans to return the bust to public view,” Westbrooks said.

You have to do a little reading between the lines, but the article tells an interesting story:

The Fix was told of the situation by Cornell University biology Professor Randy Wayne, who said at the time that when he asked around about the display’s fate, all he was told was: “Someone complained, and it was gone.”

In the months that followed, Wayne said he received an outpouring of responses from alumni grateful he sounded the alarm. He then prepared a report for the Cornell Free Speech Alliance about the controversy.

He said some donors and alumni were concerned about the bust’s removal as well as arguments from campus leadership that denied his claim the bust was a victim of cancel culture. Instead, administration said it was always only a temporary display, despite the fact it had been up for eight years.

Wayne’s report detailed a meeting he had in mid-July with Westbrooks on what might have prompted its removal.

The article concludes:

Asked what role concerned alumni and donors had in the decision to re-display the bust, Wayne said he believes it was a big one.

“They made all the difference,” Wayne said via email. “The alumni and donors have a deep love for Cornell and have sincere gratitude for the education that they got here. They did not want cancel culture to ruin it for their grandkids.”

Please follow the link to read the entire article. People who believe in not erasing history can make a difference.

Ignoring The Truth At Your Own Peril

American schools are not the only schools in the world that are forgetting that their job is to teach children. Teaching children means telling them the truth about their history and the world we live in at the present time. On Friday The U.K. Daily Mail reported that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has cancelled an event with ISIS survivor Nadia Murad. Ms. Murad was taken from her home and sold into sexual slavery at just 14 years old. She was scheduled to discuss her book, The Last Girl: My Story Of Captivity, in February 2020.

The article reports:

Murad was scheduled to sit down with students from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) – the largest school Board in Canada with nearly 600 schools – to discuss her book The Last Girl: My Story Of Captivity in February 2022. 

Murad’s graphic exposé detailed how she escaped the Islamic State, where she was ripped from her home and sold into sexual slavery aged just 14 years old, according to The Telegraph

…But before the event could happen the superintendent of the Board Helen Fisher said that her students would not participate.

She has since issued an apology but refused to allow her students to attend. 

Fisher expressed that she believed the book would ‘promote Islamophobia’ and cited how offensive the book was to her Muslim students as her reason for cancelling the event.

The decision enraged TDSB parent Tanya Lee, who wrote an email to the superintendent about the decision.

Lee also founded the book club – called A Room Of Your Own Book Club – which allows teen girls aged 13 to 18 from secondary schools around the country to hear from female authors, and was hosting the event set to feature Murad. 

‘This is what the Islamic State means. It is a terrorist organization. It has nothing to do with ordinary Muslims. The Toronto school board should be aware of the difference,’ she wrote, as reported by The Telegraph.

The article concludes:

However, this isn’t the first time Fisher banned a book from a book club event.

Back in October, A Room Of Your Own Book Club featured author and lawyer Marie Henein, who defended Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi while he was being faced with sexual assault charges.

Although Ghomeshi was acquitted on all charges in 2016, the TDSB sill refused to let its students attend the event.

In response, dozens of users took to Twitter to express their fiery discontent towards TDSB’s decision.

One user referred to when Holocaust survivors spoke to TDSB schools and sarcastically said: ‘I guess all the Holocaust survivors who have spoken at schools were promoting hatred of Germans – any response to your idiotic position on Nadia Murad???’

Meanwhile, another user said the school’s choice to cancel Murad’s event is ‘sad (because) she is being de-platformed’. 

Yet another response said the decision is the ‘opposite’ of cancel culture, ‘where incompetent professionals face no consequences for bungling their jobs, because their errors are seen as being committed in the (nominal) service of social justice’. 

I’m not sure I would want thirteen or fourteen-year olds reading Ms. Murad’s book–I think I would want to let the parents decide that, but ignoring the culture of Islamic jihad is something all western nations do at their own peril.

Unfortunately This Is Not An Isolated Incident

On Thursday, PJ Media posted an article about a resident of New York City who attended the rally for President Trump in Washington on January 6th.

The article reports:

Joseph Bolanos doesn’t wear horns, isn’t a crackpot, and isn’t a terrorist. He has been a neighborhood watch leader in New York City’s Upper West Side for 23 years. In 2012, as president of the West 76th Street Block Association, Bolanos put up signs reading “rat xing” to shame the city into cleaning up the garbage. The neighbors loved him. Now the 69 year old is a neighborhood pariah. One neighbor who brought him Thanksgiving dinner recently wrote him a nasty-gram wishing him death. “I hope Antifa gets you,” the note read.

What changed? Bolanos attended the Trump speech on January 6. He did nothing wrong. He didn’t breach the U.S. Capitol. He never even went inside. He watched the former president deliver a “boring” speech, left early, went back to his friend’s hotel (where he has geotagged photos to prove it), and later went to the Capitol building, where he stood outside with friends after it was all over.

His Leftist neighbors, shocked that he went to see Trump and “had those views,” called the FBI January 6th tip line to report him.

“I opened the door and there’s about 10 tactical police soldiers and one is pointing a rifle at my head. [They had] a battering ram and a crowbar.”

It could have been worse. He could have been raided and then rounded up and imprisoned in solitary confinement for little to no reason as hundreds of other people have following the Capitol riot on January 6.

The article continues:

NBC, tipped off about the raid in advance, was there when the FBI Terrorism Task Force raided the apartments with battering rams and carried out box after box of items taken from the homes. The NYC affiliate reported in February:

Several neighbors claimed the man boasted of being at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots and took video of the event. Some said he called it a great day on the street, at a local cafe and on social media.

“I was walking down the street and I overheard him bragging about having been there and having taken video,” said neighbor Dennis Regan.

[…] One neighbor said that Bolanos had been “a great leader of the block and helped us in all kinds of ways,” but also said he didn’t know Bolanos “had those views.” Some some said the man who had become a face of the block had changed from the man they once knew.

“I used to talk with him a lot, but lately he never said anything,” said Luis Aguilar, a superintendent in the area. “He would walk by, he wouldn’t say hello like he used to do before.”

Although he has not been charged, sources familiar with the investigation say charges could come in the coming days. Sources told NBC New York the FBI wants to look at his electronics as prosecutors in D.C. decide on specific counts.

The article notes:

It has been four months and Bolanos hasn’t gotten back his devices, nor have any charges been filed against him.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. I know someone personally who attended the rally (did not enter the Capitol because she became aware that the people urging the crowd on were not part of the pro-Trump rally), had her PayPal account canceled, and had an employee quit, calling her a traitor. This is not acceptable in our Republic. Holding an opposing political view is not grounds for arrest or losing freedom. We need to stand up against this regardless of which party is doing it. Otherwise we will never have the open debate we need to find the best answers to America’s problems.

Major League Baseball Strikes Out

John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog today about the moving of the baseball All-Star Game out of Georgia because of the changes to Georgia’s election laws. He asks one very relevant question, “What about boycotting the Beijing Olympics?.”  We have video evidence that the Chinese are running concentration camps for minorities, they have taken most of the freedom away from Hong Kong (in violation of the treaty they signed), and we are worried about Georgia’s voting laws? Makes no sense.

Meanwhile, a lot of what has been reported about the Georgia voting laws is false. On Tuesday, Heritage Action posted the following:

Myth vs. Fact: The Georgia Election Law

The Left and their media allies have used the new Georgia election law (SB 202) signed into law last week as a pretext for their election takeover with HR. 1, leaning heavily on misconceptions, half-truths, and flat-out lies about the bill to make their case for a massive federal takeover of state election systems. Here are the facts:

Myth 1: The Georgia election law discourages voting/suppresses votes

FACT: The bill actually preserves or expands ballot access in several important ways: It requires that large precincts with lines more than an hour long take steps like adding voting machines and election personnel for the next election to reduce wait times. It does not change the number of total early voting days, and actually increases the mandatory days of early weekend voting. Compared to 2020, 134 of 159 counties will offer more early voting hours in future elections under the new law. It codifies election drop boxes, which did not exist prior to 2020. Voters can continue to vote absentee with no excuse(unlike states like Delaware, New York, and Connecticut, which require an excuse to vote absentee).

Myth 2: The Georgia law eliminates voting on Sunday to suppress African-American votes

FACT: Georgia law was silent on Sunday early voting days prior to SB 202, and in 2020 only 16 of 159 counties offered early voting on Sundays. The new law explicitly provides the option of holding early voting on two Sundays for all localities. It actually increases the mandatory days of early weekend voting across the state.

Myth 3: The Georgia election law suppresses the vote with onerous voter ID requirements

FACT: The law requires a driver’s license or free state ID number, which 97% of registered voters already have. Anyone without a valid ID can easily obtain one for free. The voter ID requirement replaces the state’s controversial signature match program that led to the disqualification of thousands of votes in 2020.

The law’s voter ID requirement for absentee ballots is overwhelmingly popular in Georgia across the board. According to an AJC poll in January, 74% of Georgia voters support it, including 63% of black voters, and 89% of those making under $25K/year.

Myth 4: The bill eliminates drop boxes for absentee voting

FACT: The drop boxes used in the last election did not exist a year ago. They were first utilized in 2020 as a pandemic precaution. This bill makes them an official part of Georgia elections, and they will be available in all 159 counties in Georgia and under supervision to protect against tampering.

Myth 5: The bill lets Republicans throw out any county votes they don’t agree with

FACT: The bipartisan State Election Board can do performance reviews of local election supervisors who fail their area’s voters with things like long lines and unfulfilled absentee ballot requests. The board will not overturn election results; the law simply provides a process to review and ensure officials are technically competent and complying with state laws and regulations . This process requires a high burden of proof over multiple elections, and the State Elections Board may only suspend up to four election supervisors at any given time, which guards against using this process to try to influence election outcomes.

Myth 6: The bill bans drinking water for voters while waiting in line

FACT: Like the countless other states that have very specific laws against electioneering near polling places, Georgia has codified rules preventing political groups from handing out food or water to voters in line as an incentive to vote, but specifically allows poll workers to make water available to anyone who wants it. The law will also directly cut down wait times, meaning refreshment for people waiting in line will be less necessary.

The facts about the law were totally misrepresented and the cancel culture reacted. It would be in the best interests of our country to end the cancel culture quickly.

The Cancel Culture Is Alive And Well

Lawyers are paid to represent people. Sometimes as public defenders they are asked to represent horrible people–terrorists, murderers, rapists, etc. Most Americans understand that. However, the cancel culture doesn’t care.

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that David Schoen, one of the lawyers who represented President Trump during the impeachment trial, has been suspended from a civil rights lawyer email discussion list and has had a civil rights course he was planning to teach at a law school canceled. I don’t even think that lawyers who have defended terrorists have been treated this badly.

The article reports:

“I was hoping to teach a civil rights course at a law school in the fall. We’ve been in talks about it, kind of planning it out. I wrote to them and I said, ‘I want you to know, I’m gonna be representing Donald Trump in the impeachment case. I don’t know if that impacts on your decision at all,’” David Schoen, one of the three attorneys who argued before the Senate, told The Epoch Times.

“And they said, you know, they appreciated my writing and, frankly, it would make some students and faculty uncomfortable, so I couldn’t do it.

“That was sad for me because I really want to go more and more into teaching. I like doing that,” Schoen said.

Schoen, an Alabama-based lawyer recognized for his civil rights litigation, declined to name the school that canceled his course. He likewise declined to name the legal organization behind the email list that suspended him.

“They actually spent 48 hours discussing this with their board and so on. And they decided that they needed to suspend me from the list,” Schoen said. “It’s a very important one to me. It’s very prominent civil rights lawyers and fine people.”

The article concludes:

Schoen received the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1995 for his civil rights work. The ABA handbook says (pdf) he was “recognized for his enormous contribution to bringing about change in schools, prisons, jails, foster care, police departments, and election ballot access in the South.”

The Senate acquitted Trump of the charge that he incited the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6. Schoen said he spoke to the president after the acquittal. He said the president was “very upbeat, very gratified.”

During the trial, Schoen spoke to Trump two or three times per day. He said the president was always “very gracious,” “very supportive,” and “very much appreciated the presentations I made.”

Days after the acquittal, a top House Democrat and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued Trump over the Capitol breach, accusing the president of planning a conspiracy to attack the Capitol. Schoen said the lawsuit is “political theater.”

“I don’t think there’s any merit to it. I think it’s an abuse of the statute that it’s based on. And I think it’s just going to lead to further divisiveness,” he said.

It is unfortunate that neither the school nor the email discussion group had the courage to stand up for what is right.

Those Who Don’t Study The Lessons Of History…

The cancel culture will reach new heights in the Biden administration. The ramp-up is already beginning. Recently I posted two articles about what we may see in the coming months (here and here).

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that Kohl’s or Bed Bath & Beyond will no longer carry MyPillow products because CEO Mike Lindell, a strong supporter of President Trump, questioned the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.

The article reports:

CEO Mike Lindell said on Jan. 18 that his company recently was notified of the discontinuance.

“I just got off the phone with Bed Bath & Beyond. They’re dropping MyPillow. Just got off the phone not five minutes ago. Kohl’s, all these different places,” Lindell told Right Side Broadcasting Network.

…Lindell said the actions came after groups such as Sleeping Giant pushed companies to stop doing business with him.

“It’s not their fault that they’re scared because they don’t realize these are fake people that [are saying], ‘We’re going to boycott your store if you don’t drop MyPillow.’” People should go into the stores and say they support MyPillow, he said.

He also said his company is a good partner and has seen its direct sales increase 30 to 40 percent since Jan. 15.

“We’ve had great relationships with these companies. And they’ve had to drop us now because of what—because of attacks by some group that was hired to send bots and trolls on their social media accounts,” he told NTD.

Private companies have the right to do business with anyone they choose. However, there is a definite pattern to the cancel culture. Oddly enough it is a patter we have seen before.

As I previously note in the second article referenced above:

For anyone who thinks this is no big deal, I would direct you to an interview done on the Glenn Beck show of Jewish historian Edwin Black. The two men were having a discussion of the events that led to the Holocaust. Edwin Black stated that there were three steps involved in getting the Jewish people into the concentration camps–identifying them, excluding them, and confiscating their property (or denying them the ability to make a living).

We all know where that road ended. We should do everything we can to avoid taking it.

The Cancel Culture Strikes Again

The New York Post reported yesterday that the PGA of America has voted to move The 2022 PGA Championship, which had been scheduled since 2014 to be played at Trump National in Bedminster. The decision was the result of the riots in Washington on January 6th.

The PGA, as a private organization, has the right to move anything anywhere, but this is significant because it illustrates what mob rule can do. The cancel culture is one aspect of mob rule.

The article reports:

This isn’t the first time professional golf has canceled an event scheduled for a Trump property. In 2015, the Grand Slam of Golf at Trump National Los Angeles Golf Club was canceled after he made a comment about Mexican immigrants. The PGA Tour, too, moved its annual WGC event that was played at Doral in South Florida, which Trump purchased in 2012, to Mexico in 2017.

Trump Bedminster hosted the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open.

According to an ABC News report, the Trump Organization responded to the PGA of America’s decision with this statement: “We have had a beautiful partnership with the PGA of America and are incredibly disappointed with their decision. This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement.’’

Yes, it’s a private organization and has the right to make that decision, but what does this mean for the future of freedom in America? There is absolutely no evidence of any connection between the riot in Washington and President Trump. Last summer when riots happened in various parts of the country and the Democrats said they were justified, were there any repercussions for those statements? When Maxine Waters told supporters to harass Trump administration workers or supporters in public places, was there any problem?

The cancel culture is dangerous. It is mob rule. Those supporting it will be very surprised when sometime in the future it turns on them.

The Next Generation Of The “Cancel Culture”

On Friday The Federalist reported the results of a recent Cato Institute survey of Americans asked whether or not it was okay to fire people who support President Trump.

The article notes:

The Cato Institute just released a new report showing that 62 percent of Americans are inclined to self-censor what they say politically “because others might find them offensive.” Even moderate leftists report they feel increased fear of offending the offendable, while only the most “staunch liberals,” as Cato described them, feel free to speak their minds. The “very conservative” have been pushed deepest in the closet: they are most likely to refrain from saying what they think politically, at nearly twice the rate of the “very liberal.”

Buried deeper in the report, however, is a stunning data point that might be one of the most troubling current cultural indicators. Forty-four percent of Americans younger than age 30 believe a company is correct in firing an executive because he or she personally donated to President Trump’s reelection campaign.

The companion finding was also disturbing. Twenty-seven percent of people under 30 said they were fine with an executive being fired because he or she donated to the Joe Biden campaign. The means that of Americans under 30 years old, 73 percent think it would be wrong to fire an executive from a company for donating to the Biden campaign, while only 56 percent believe it would be wrong to do so for a Trump donation.

The article concludes:

It was not all that long ago that the liberal clarion value was the misattributed Voltairean principle, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Today that seems to have been replaced with the brutally authoritarian, “I disagree with what you believe, and I will make sure you lose your livelihood because I went digging and found out you made a private campaign contribution to someone I think is evil.”

If, God forbid, the autopsy of the American experiment is ever written, this growing expectation that political submission be a condition of one’s employment will certainly be noted as a significant stage in its demise. It demonstrates that the world’s most hopeful self-government is moving in a very bad direction, and that should profoundly bother us all.

This is frightening. It is a further indication that many Americans do not understand the founding documents of America. Free speech was one of the foundations of those documents. Viewpoint discrimination is an intimidation tactic that should be totally unacceptable in a free country. Firing an executive because they donated to a political campaign should not even be a consideration. The fact that it is is one of many reasons that the names of people who make donations under $1000 to a political campaign should be kept private. The names of people who make large donations or the names of organizations that make large donations should be made public.

 

How To Cancel The Cancel Culture

Last week Goya Food CEO Robert Unanue made the unforgivable mistake of praising President Trump. The easily offended political left immediately called for a boycott of all Goya food products. Yesterday BizPacReview posted ‘the rest of the story.’

The article reports:

The Left’s “Boycott Goya” campaign to bully and silence Goya Food CEO Robert Unanue for praising President Trump backfired in epic fashion after scores of Trump supporters launched their own counter-boycott called “Goya Buy-cott.”

The “Buy-cott” campaign inspired countless Trump supporters to go to their local stores and buy up Goya olives, seasonings, beans, and frozen foods like it’s Christmas.

In fact, Goya couldn’t have asked for better marketing if it had paid millions of dollars in prime-time TV and newspaper ads.

I would like to add that Goya pink beans are a wonderful addition to homemade chili.

Please follow the link to the article–it includes a number of really good tweets.

This tweet from the article is one of my favorites:

Jack Furnari is the CEO of BizPacReview. He obviously believes in leading by example.

This is the way you handle the cancel culture. All of us who value free speech need to learn to fight back quickly and hard.

The Cancel Culture Is Getting Absurd

I knew things were getting out of hand when a mob tore down the statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, on Sunday. Now they are coming for Hawaiian shirts. On July 1, Newsbusters posted the story.

The article reports:

The New York Times has identified a new villain in their insane cancel culture wars. Hawaiian shirts. I kid you not.

On Monday, freelancer Nathan Taylor Pemberton targeted Hawaiian shirts because some undesirable people wear them. His warning about the dire associations connected with that ubiquitous article of clothing came in “What Do You Do When Extremism Comes for the Hawaiian Shirt?”

It’s one of the most discussed street styles of the spring: tactical body armor, customized assault rifles, maybe a sidearm and helmet, paired with the languid floral patterns of a Hawaiian shirt.

While it’s not uncommon to see heavily armed white men toting military-grade gear on American streets, the addition of the Hawaiian shirt is a new twist. It turned up in February at gun rights rallies in Virginia and Kentucky, then in late April at coronavirus lockdown protests in Michigan and Texas.

Think of the shirts as a campy kind of uniform, but for members of extremist groups who adhere to the idea of the “boogaloo” — or, a second civil war in the United States. If that sounds silly to you, consider that these groups settled on the Hawaiian shirt thanks to a string of message board in-jokes.

The article explains:

Ah! So now we get to the source of leftist antipathy towards Hawaiian shirts. They somehow interpret it as a symbol of American colonialism in Hawaii although ironically it is a big source of textile employment for many Hawaiians as well as worn by many of them although they refer to them as “Aloha shirts.”

The article concludes:

Sigh! To paraphrase Sigmund Freud: Sometimes a Hawaiian shirt is just a Hawaiian shirt. In fact that is what is should be, always.

I wonder when wearing sneakers is going to become a problem.