1865 Project
We can't wait until 2065 to take the next Great Leap Forward.
At the dawn of the 21st century, a free people must now choose to shape the forces of the Information Age and the global society, to unleash the limitless potential of all our people, and yes, to form a more perfect union. —Bill Clinton
Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project are receiving an extraordinary amount of backlash from critics on the right. These would be the critics who believe the most despicable jackass to ever hold the office of the presidency won the 2020 election by a landslide and was foiled by voter fraud of which there is no physical evidence.
These would be the critics who believe white people, Christians and dumbasses—closely related to jackasses—are the most persecuted beings on the planet. In fact, they espouse that those three categories are the most persecuted beings to have ever trod upon the earth.
These would be the critics who incessantly spout off about how mainstream media—of which they are embedded—are trying to cancel conservative voices. They also whinge, wail and whine about the nasty exclusivity of social media, despite the fact that smartasses—direct descendants of jackasses and dumbasses—like Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino, regularly rank in the top five sites echoed in the echo chambers of those dastardly Marxist multinational corporations out of Silicon Valley.
These would be the critics who want you to believe that racism is a relic of our nation’s past. The critics who are now apoplectic that President Biden would cancel the 1776 Project with the stroke of his executive pen.
I propose an 1865 Project. After all, history has—supposedly—always been written by the victors.
History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books—books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, ‘What is history, but a fable agreed upon?’ — Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
The last I heard General Robert E. Lee of the thoroughly defeated Confederate Army sat down with General Ulysses S. Grant of the victorious Union Army at the McLean House in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9th of 1865 and signed the terms of surrender. Thus ending a not-so-Civil War. The four year—sometimes slaughter, always tragic—War to Preserve the Union ended in abject defeat for the insurrectionists who fought to retain their rights to own humans as property.
Why were the losers allowed to rewrite the history books?
Why do the symbols of their treasonous and hateful behavior persist in the public domain?
How did those willing to destroy their own nation, in order to protect the right to own slaves, come to be seen as chivalrous, valiant and well-mannered?
How can a slogan like “The South shall rise again!” be used in any fashion other than in jest?
These are rhetorical questions, of course.
We know the reason.
Every group of immigrants that has arrived on America’s shores has had to go through a crucible of outsider-ness. Of not initially belonging. Of being looked down upon. All of these waves of immigrants have been assimilated to one extent or the other. Only two groups—as far as I can tell—continually fall under the crosshairs of the righteous minority, fanatical fascists and deeply bigoted belligerents.
Black people and those who are not deemed Christian enough, or who are believed to be anti-Christian. Anyone remember the bigoted belligerent marchers in Charlottesville chanting, “Jews will not replace us!”? Hard to forget with photos like this one:
The bloodiest, deadliest war in our history should have been the beginning of a profound national healing. It should have been the impetus for a nationwide integration and assimilation of African-Americans. And it was for a short period of time during Reconstruction.
I’ve mentioned it before—the surge in black voters, politicians, leaders; thriving black communities like Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma; black farmers taking control of their own land. And then there was the backlash and almost all of the progress achieved during Reconstruction was demolished as the vanquished took back the reins of power and began rewriting the history books.
It took a hundred years to regain any traction—marked by the signing of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act—and then the Reagan Revolution began the systematic dismantling of all the progress being made. The Reagan Revolution not only squashed the momentum on the side of progressivism, it laid the groundwork for the rise of the bigoted political party made up almost entirely of “asses”. With a wink and a nod, Ronnie made being bigoted okay again.
We can’t wait until 2065 to take the next step forward. It needed to happen yesterday. And all of the yesterdays before that.
The majority cannot continue to remain quiet. Or respectfully unengaged on the sideline.
Our silence favors the ugly, bigoted chanters of Charlottesville.
AAR Steve Laboff sent me this tweet from John Pavlovitz reciting his family’s recent experience with the Delta variant of COVID-19. John Pavlovitz does not strike me as someone who is not vigilant. So, it’s a cautionary tale for those of us partying like it’s 1999.
Also, the NYT The Daily podcast delves into the Delta variant in today’s podcast as well. Just something to be aware of.
Happy Belated 4th! Almost firework free! Thanks to the 100 degree plus heat in the Northwest and the fact we have not had any significant rainfall for far too long. Now we await whatever fate might befall our vaunted forests—will it be harrowing and remind me of the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road? Or will we dodge a bullet?
Time will tell. - JLM