Barrett Deserves Ginsburg Treatment

Barrett Deserves Ginsburg Treatment

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

October 12, 2020

I seem to recall that during the Obama administration we the people were told “elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won,” by Barack Obama himself on January 23, 2009.

Fast forward to November 2016, after the election of President Donald Trump, who said, “funny how words can come back to haunt you.”

Donald John Trump took the oath office of the President of the United States on January 20, 2017 - an oath that mandates fulfilling his duties until noon, January 20, 2021 - a duty that includes the nomination of judges. And while the memory of Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg is still fresh, both the president and the Senate have their jobs to do.

They have jobs to do. That is something the whining Democrats serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee seemed to have forgotten, when they complained about having to do those jobs during the Covid pandemic. The members of the Congress - both houses - are gifted the best medical care our tax dollars can buy for them. They can hold their hearings virtually, as well as in person, which is exactly what committee chairman Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said he would do come Monday morning, October 12. On Sunday he said, “I’m going to work.” (As an aside, should any one of these privileged House or Senate members determine their sensitivities are too dainty to do their jobs, give me a call, I’m happy to step up for the people.)

The Senate Judiciary Committee was tasked with making opening statements on Monday to kick off the confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a damning harbinger of the week ahead. To a person, the Democrat members of the committee regaled the national audience with emotional outpourings, some almost to the point of tears, about this constituent’s illness, or that constituent’s Covid experience, or the fear of losing Obamacare, or their precious abortions. None of those emotionally grandstanding efforts to curtail the Barrett hearings are relevant. Sure, they are designed to tug at the heartstrings of the voters 22 days before Election Day, while pointing to the evil Republicans across the aisle as hardhearted, robotic Trumpsters doing his bidding.

Most of those Democrats even made accusations that the hearings are illegal, illegitimate, violating the will of the people, and even a way to avoid working on another Covid relief package. Those leading this parade, include, but are  not limited to Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). They, along with their left of center allies need a refresher course in Civics 101. The first lesson is that a Covid relief package is the work of the House, not the Senate.

Fortunately, several Republicans serving on the Judiciary Committee were able to provide such a refresher. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) literally gave a 10 minute primer on the differences between civics and politics, that he said was geared toward eighth grade students. Both Sasse and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke deftly about the Constitution - that’s that document of importance in such hearings -like confirming a Supreme Court justice. This was a free clinic on Con-Law 101. It’s no wonder liberal attorney and Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz calls Cruz the best student he even taught. 

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) used the better portion of their allotted time discussing defending the Constitution as the Originalist that Barrett is, as opposed to the activist judge the Democrats need in order to turn the Supreme Court into a third house of Congress or a super-legislative body. That word super seems to come back to bite the Democrats in the tuchus. How did superdelegates work out for Senator Bernie Sanders (S-VT) during his 2016 failed run for the Democrat nomination?

It seems Senator Harris was most in need of the civics and politics primer, and she’s the Democrat’s nominee for Vice President, which is all the more sad and disturbing. She called the day’s activities an “illegitimate committee process,” that was “defying the will of the people.” 

Wrong on both counts, Senator Harris. Think back on the words of your revered Justice Ginsburg, who said a president serves four years, not three. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year,” Ginsburg told the New York Times. There is absolutely nothing illegitimate about the Judiciary Committee taking up the nomination of Judge Barrett. Trump did his job - he appointed a replacement for Ginsburg - in accordance with Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution. Nor is making this appointment “defying the will of the people.” This is the fourth year of Trump’s term, this is Trump’s nomination, and his victory in 2016 was, the will of the people. I hope Senator Harris paid close attention to Senators Sasse and Cruz, unless she thinks learning something from them is “mansplaining.” This hearing shall and will progress.

On October 31, 2017, Barrett gained appointment to the Seventh Circuit Court by a vote of 55-43 with current Senators Tim Kaine (VA) and Joe Manchin (WV) the only Democrats to vote in the affirmative. Barrett should not be judged any differently three years later, as her body of work remains consistent. Barrett remains equally steadfast in her Catholic faith, which should not be of concern to the Senate as there is no religious test in the United States, nor is there a state religion, as some of the Democrats need be reminded - just check out the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights.

If treated in the manner of the nominations of the late Justice Antonin Scalia by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and Ginsburg by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Judge Barrett should become Justice Barrett with relative ease. In addition to graduating first in her class at Notre Dame Law School, Barrett earned the American Bar Association’s highest rating of “well qualified.” Scalia won appointment 98-0, including an aye vote from then Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), and Ginsburg secured her seat 96-3, with current Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voting to confirm. Seems there was a greater level of bipartisan civility then, and it’s a shame there isn’t any now. The contentiousness of the Senate only exacerbates the deeper chasms outside of the body politic - and looking at the major cities in the United States, it’s more than a bit ugly out there. Judge Barrett deserves the Ginsburg treatment.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Name Ginsburg Replacement to Save the Union

Name Ginsburg Replacement to Save the Union
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
September 21, 2020

Liberals, progressives, Democrats, and Socialists are using sheer emotion and felonious threats against the body politic and innocent American citizens in an effort to bully the President of these United States from completing his Constitutionally granted duties.

In case there is any confusion, and I pray we can all agree that the United States Constitution is the law of the land, Article II, Section 2 states, the President “...by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law…” [sic]

And hopefully, to amplify that power granted the president via the Constitution, Amendment XX, Section 1 states, “The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January… and the terms of their successors shall then begin.” [sic]

While a nation mourns the loss of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the business of government marches on. With as much fervency as her supporters are arguing in favor of adhering to her supposed last words and request that her successor not be chosen until there is a new president, the Constitution supersedes such grandstanding. It would actually be sad and pathetic if Ginsburg’s last thoughts were political and not familial. If Ginsburg was concerned about retaining the seat for another liberal justice, she should have retired during the first three years of President Obama’s second term.

To be sure, Ginsburg, who died on Friday, September 18, at age 87 having served 27 years on the nation’s High Court, left an indelible mark in earning legions of fans to the point of being a rock star - replete with t-shirts, coloring books for children, even a feature film was produced. While no fan of her judicial decisions, my wife and I saw the movie and it was rather interesting. I appreciated her upbringing in pre-World War II, Depression-era New York. I associated with her having to endure anti-Semitism, and empathized with her having to fight twice as hard for her accomplishments simply due to her gender. For that, I am glad my own daughters, who admired the popularly nicknamed RBG, do not have to fight nearly as hard for their place in the world as young women.

All that being said, there is still a task at hand - a Constitutional responsibility to be carried out by President Donald Trump, regardless of what his detractors think, say, or threaten. There are no liberal or conservative seats on the Supreme Court. There are no black or white seats on the Supreme Court. There are no male or female seats on the Supreme Court. There are no Catholic, Christian, or Jewish seats on the Supreme Court. That a president chooses to replace a justice with a similarly categorized justice is his or her choice. In some cases it just makes sense - strategic political sense to be sure; let’s not sugarcoat it. Yet, I don’t seem to recall the fervor to violently overthrow the Union in 1991 when President George Herbert Walker Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court - replacing a liberal black justice - Thurgood Marshall, with a conservative black justice in Thomas. (Granted, there were other issues with which to contend.)

And of course with fewer than six weeks until Election Day, that Trump will select a woman to replace Ginsburg is a no-brainer. The controversy is two-fold - that she will be a conservative Originalist, and that she will be appointed less than six weeks out from an election. Before Ginsburg’s body was cold the Democrats invoked the name Merrick Garland more often than when he was nominated to the Supreme Court by Obama in 2016 - another election year. The GOP-led Senate declined to give Garland a hearing citing he was appointed by a Democrat president, while in this year’s appointment, a Republican president is nominating to a Republican majority Senate.

President Trump is simply carrying out his duties as laid out by the Constitution - the law of the land in the United States since 1789. There have been a number of presidential election year nominations to the High Court. Most recently, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, nominated Justice Frank Murphy in 1940; prior to Murphy, in 1932 President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, nominated Justice Benjamin Cardozo, a liberal; and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice. Even during the lame duck session of 1880, was William Burnham Woods nominated on December 15, by President Rutherford B. Hayes.

As there is no lack of precedent to appoint a Supreme Court justice in a presidential election year, a confirmation can also be accomplished in fewer than six weeks. John Paul Stevens, a 1975 President Gerald Ford nominee was confirmed by the Senate in 19 days. Current Chief Justice John Roberts, a President George W. Bush nominee in 2005, was confirmed in 24 days. The first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’ Connor, a 1981 President Ronald Reagan appointee, was confirmed in 33 days, and Ginsburg herself, a 1993 President Bill Clinton nominee, was confirmed in 42 days.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the GOP has “no right to fill it [the seat].” Perhaps Schumer missed Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.

Ginsburg herself said in 2016, “there’s no Constitutional impediment at all to the Senate taking up a Supreme Court nomination in an election year.”

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) objects to a pre-Election Day nomination on the grounds that roughly half the states have already begun voting. That’s a choice those voters made of their own volition. Should a 11th hour surprise or scandal erupt on October 22, will Coons demand those who have already voted have the opportunity to re-vote? That is one of myriad problems with early voting occurring six or seven weeks prior to Election Day. And quite frankly, anyone casting their ballot prior to the first debate (September 29), is probably not sitting on the fence.

That “legal scholar” Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (S-NY) threatened Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying, “he is playing with fire,” and to all her acolytes, “let this moment radicalize you!”

“I’m just doing my Constitutional obligation,” said Trump, who expects to announce his nomination by week’s end. And all but two Republican Senators are on board with Trump making this appointment prior to Election Day. The holdouts are Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Maine’s Susan Collins who is in the battle for her electoral life. Also in tough reelection campaigns are Republican Senators Cory Gardner (CO), Martha McSally (AZ), and Thom Tillis (NC), yet they support Trump making this appointment prior to November 3.

Even the feckless Democrat nominee for president, Joe Biden can’t make up his mind on this issue. In 1992 Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) was against nominating and confirming a new Supreme Court justice. In 2016 Vice President Joe Biden supported the nomination and confirmation of a new justice, and in 2020 candidate Joe Biden has once again reversed himself. So he was for it, before he was against it, before he was for it again?

For those complaining that a Supreme Court nomination will distract Congress from conducting its business pertaining to Covid or Covid-related recovery programs, since when can’t Congress multi-task? While the Senate is taking up the court vacancy, the House of Representatives should be handling the finances, as per their Constitutional duties. Wow, it sure seems the Democrats have a penchant for forgetting what’s in the Constitution. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy for them to want to ignore, change, or cancel its contents.

Part of the threats coming from Democrats should Trump do his job and appoint Ginsburg’s replacement include impeachment. “We can impeach him every day of the week for anything he does,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in an interview. Seems Pelosi also has forgotten her Constitution. Article II, Section 4 states, “The President… shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” [sic] That kind of chicanery could only help the reelection chances of Trump.

Yet, even fellow Democrat Tim Kaine (VA) sees the impudence in impeachment, calling it “foolish.”

But Representative Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) is attempting to dig up the old playbook of Franklin D. Roosevelt, announcing that if Trump makes his pick in 2020, the Democrats will pack the court in 2021. And they can do that if the Democrats run the table winning the governmental triumvirate of the House, Senate, and White House. The Democrats are likely to retain the House, and the Senate is in their reach. Yet, even Ginsburg objected to court packing in an interview with NPR in 2019. “I think that was a very bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court. If anything it would make the court appear partisan,” said Ginsburg.

The Democrats have already promised to wreak catastrophic changes to the Senate. If they can’t win elections legally and fairly, they are committed to an overhaul that would forever change the political landscape in the United States and render most of the Constitution obsolete. This is not hyperbole. Consider the laundry list of damaging changes the Democrats would likely attempt, akin to taking their ball and going home since they don’t like the rules.

The Democrats desperately seek to end the Electoral College, as proscribed by Amendment XII to the Constitution. The United States is a Republic, not a true democracy in that the popular vote is not the deciding factor in a presidential election. Imagine the easy path to the White House the lack of the Electoral College would create for the Democrats if they only had to campaign in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and virtually every small or rural state would cease to be relevant to the Democrats.

The Democrats want to make Washington, DC a state, with two Democrat senators in perpetuity - again, a clear violation of that pesky Constitution. Then, while rearranging the stars on Old Glory, the Democrats want to add the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as a state, also with two Democrat senators in perpetuity.

Additionally, the Democrats would attempt to end Senate equality - no longer would each state have two Senators. If that is a goal, they should run for the House of Representatives - the Founding Fathers gave us a bicameral legislature for a reason, as well as compromising on the New Jersey Plan and the Virginia Plan - this coming from the party claiming to support equality.

All of these machinations from court packing to growing the Senate are in support of two goals - keeping a liberal Supreme Court, and keeping their precious abortions from becoming illegal. There is almost, if not actually, an apoplectic sense that the addition of another conservative justice would facilitate the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973), which should never have been brought before the Supreme Court in the first place. That they are willing to destroy public and private property in the name of murdering the unborn actually makes sense - their total disregard for life and property is mighty transparent. Threats of literally burning down the government and its buildings, of burning down the houses of senators who would allow such a “travesty” to occur, of physically attacking anyone who is pro-life, are not off the table. And thus I find it imperative to remind one and all of AOC’s message to her acolytes, to “let this moment radicalize you.” She is doing her damndest to turn this capitalist republic into a socialist totalitarian state with government control of virtually everything, including our speech.

The Republicans must not demurely kowtow to the Democrats or genuflect to their threats - theirs or their loyal followers. They must demonstrate backbone and stand up to their unhinged opponents who, by virtue of their silence, support arson, looting, rioting, tearing down statues and  monuments, as well as the destruction of private and public property. Practicality should dictate that a high court vacancy leaves the possibility of a four to four tie should there be a repeat of Bush v. Gore (2000). Should that occur, and a winner is not determined by January 2o, 2021, G-d help us, but Pelosi would temporarily become president.

All that remains is the nominating, vetting, and confirming the next Associate Justice to the Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett, 48, Barbara Lagoa, 52, Joan Larsen, 51, and Allison Jones Rushing, 38, all with solid conservative bona fides, appear to be the leading candidates to replace Ginsburg.

Barrett currently serves as a judge on the Seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals located in Chicago, earning Senate confirmation 55-43 in 2017. She graduated Rhodes College magna cum laude with a degree in English Literature. Barrett attended Notre Dame Law School on a full scholarship, graduating first in her class, summa cum laude. She clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia - both strict Originalists. Barrett and her husband Jesse Barrett, an attorney, have seven children - five biological and two adopted from Haiti.

Lagoa is a Cuban-American whose parents escaped Castro’s Cuba following the 1959 Communist Revolution and was the first Latina to serve on the Florida Supreme Court. She serves as a judge on the Eleventh US Circuit Court of Appeals located in Atlanta, earning Senate confirmation 80-15 this past December. Lagoa is a Constitutionalist believing in judicial restraint. She graduated Florida International University cum laude with a degree in English and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Lagoa graduated Columbia Law School, also Ginsburg’s alma mater. Lagoa and her husband Paul Huck, Jr., an attorney, have three children.

Larsen serves as a judge on the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals located in Cincinnati, earning Senate confirmation 60-38 in 2017. She graduated from Northern Iowa University and was first in her law school class at Northwestern University. Like Barrett, Larsen also clerked for Scalia. She and her husband Adam Pritchard, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law, have two children.

Rushing serves as a judge on the Fourth US Circuit of Appeals located in Richmond, earning Senate confirmation 53-44 in 2019. She graduated from Wake Forest University summa cum laude with a degree in Music and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Rushing graduated from Duke University School of Law having served as Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal and later clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. She and her husband Blake Rushing have one child.

As each of the four potential Supreme Court jurists have been vetted and confirmed by the Senate as recently as 2017, there is no logical reason for the confirmation process to take more than a couple of weeks. And a bigger question arises. If a number of Democrat senators have already voted to confirm each of the four aforementioned judges, what has changed for those same Democrats to now vote against these same Trump nominees?

“The people pick the president, and the president picks the justice. That is how this works,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a one-time rival to Biden for the Democrat nomination. Thanks for that civics lesson, Senator Klobuchar. You’re right, the people did pick the president - Donald Trump in 2016, and win or lose on November 3, his term doesn’t expire until January 20, 2021. Let’s pray that common sense prevails and the voters remember the Trump accomplishments, as well as the frightening prospects a future “Harris-Biden” administration would foist upon the American people.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

9-11 In the Age of Covid

9-11 In the Age of Covid
Commentary  by Sanford D. Horn
September 4, 2020

For the 19th year we will pay homage and respect to the fallen who were murdered by Muslim extremist terrorists on that clear, crisp, Tuesday morning when the screaming airplanes permeated the sunshine, penetrated their steel and glass targets, plunging the world into darkness and chaos. 

The darkness is one from which we have still not yet fully recovered. There is a new brand of chaos under which we are imprisoned, also courtesy of another enemy of the United States - the Communist Party of China, and that chaos is Covid-19 or the Coronavirus.

Normally my 9-11 columns typically tend to stray from politics, as for one brief moment in time the country was united, giving truth to our name - the UNITED States of America. We were united because we had a common enemy - terrorists who hijacked four planes with the purpose of inflicting as much human carnage, physical destruction, and psychological damage to the people and places of these United States.

A brief timeline of the harrowing events of September 11, 2001:

Between 7:59 AM and 8:42 AM four flights take off from Boston’s Logan, Washington’s Dulles, and Newark airports, each headed for Los Angeles except the Newark flight, headed to San Francisco.

8:46 AM: American Airlines flight #11 is flown into #1 World Trade Center - the North Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the 11 crew, 76 passengers and hundreds inside the tower instantly. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:03 AM: United Airlines flight #175 is flown into #2 World Trade Center - the South Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the nine crew, 51 passengers, and hundreds inside the tower instantly. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:05 AM: President George W. Bush is alerted to what is now believed to be terrorist attacks. “Terrorism against our nation will not stand,” said Bush.

9:37 AM: American Airlines flight #77 is flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the six crew, 53 passengers, as well as 125 military and civilian personnel on the ground. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

9:59 AM: The South Tower collapses in 10 seconds after burning 56 minutes. More than 800 civilians and first responders are murdered. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

10:03 AM: United Airlines flight #93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, PA when passengers and crew storm the cockpit. There are no survivors of the seven crew and 33 passengers due to the murderous plot by the four Muslim extremist hijackers. Flight #93 was 20 minutes from Washington, DC where the White House and/or the Capitol Building were the presumed targets. This is an example of intended sacrifice - heroism, in fact, knowingly sacrificing their lives in an effort to prevent thousands more from perishing should that plane had reached its intended target.

10:15 AM: The damaged section of the Pentagon E-Ring collapses.

10:28 AM: The North Tower collapses after burning 102 minutes. More than 1,600 civilians and first responders are murdered. This is an example of unintended, yet real sacrifice.

5:20 PM: World Trade Center #7 collapses. The 47 story building had already been evacuated and no fatalities are reported.

8:30 PM: President George W. Bush addresses the nation.

Clearly the Muslim-extremist terrorists did not discriminate on September 11, 2001, nor have they done so since in their various formations. All freedom loving people must be vigilant at all times. The international terrorist, the domestic terrorist, and yes, even the politicians who call for the shrinking of the American military, the ceding of borders, and the adoption of socialism must not be allowed to garner or maintain a foothold in the fabric of America or in any elected office, locally, statewide, or federally.

In 2001, the terrorists hated us then as they still do now, for our freedoms and liberty. For our equality amongst people regardless of their race, religion, or creed. Now in 2020, we are being terrorized by the Covid pandemic that has crippled the economy, the educational system, people’s non-Covid related health, and common sense, while China thrives.

This is a pandemic for the ages, the likes of which has not been seen in a century. And it has been particularly political, mostly because there is a presidential election in fewer than eight weeks. Covid is driving the campaigns with as much force, and just as divisive, as the civil unrest that is destroying American city after city across the fruited plain. For the most part, liberal-Democrat governors and mayors seem more than a bit reticent to open their cities and states to commerce and classes, while conservative-Republican leaders were more eager to return to some sense of normalcy. Some of the more recalcitrant liberals have been New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, New Jersey Phil Murphy, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Some of the more forward thinking conservatives include Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Florida Governor Ron De Santis, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem - perhaps the boldest of any governor in the nation, not shutting down her state and with positive results. There is a clear divide here, those with elongated shutdowns, stifling economic regrowth, hoping to foster damaging statistics to hurt the president’s reelection chances, and those wishing to do right by their citizens - getting them back to work while still observing distancing with masks.

The continued shut down in New York will adversely affect the annual 9-11 ceremonies at Ground Zero. The six moments of silence and tolling of the bells at their assigned times will occur live on Friday, at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Reading the names of the victims of the terrorist attacks will not be conducted live. Instead a recording of prior years’ readings will be a woefully unacceptable substitute.

Masks and distancing can be observed for those who wish to participate and/or attend the ceremonies were they to be held as per usual. Name readers could easily be six feet apart or more at Memorial Plaza. Those who wish to attend for those readings could be admitted for each individual letter of the alphabet corresponding with a victim’s last name, with an entrance at one end of the plaza and an exit at the opposite end. I imagine few people would want to travel from out of town to attend this year and fewer still would attend due to their concern over Covid. It’s an outdoor event where distancing can be observed and masks worn.

The museum is currently closed, but will reopen on September 11 for victims’ families. It will reopen to the public on Saturday, September 12 with masks and distancing observed on both dates and forward. 

Even more incredulous, is the cancelation of the Tribute in Light - the illumination in the New York City skyline of the Twin Towers. The first such tribute was shone on March 11, 2002 - twin beams of spotlights high into the sky - visible for miles - representing the fallen towers. That tribute ran until April 14 of that year, located a block from Ground Zero, where workers continued removing rubble and carefully sifting through it in search of victims’ remains.

Disjointed ceremonies to be sure, courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party and their “gift” of Covid-19 on the 19th anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks in American history. Regardless, we must never forget those who were murdered on that fateful day - black, brown, red, white, yellow, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, male, female, gay, straight. All were victims - terrorists don’t discriminate, they exterminate. On September 11, and on every day, remember the freedoms Covid stole from us, freedoms the terrorists resented and performed dastardly deeds to forever change the landscape of not just the United States, but the world. May the memories of the murdered be for a Blessing and may G-d continue to Bless the United States of America.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He grew up in northern New Jersey in the shadow of the Twin Towers. On September 11, 2001, he was writing for a newspaper in northern Virginia, 10 minutes from the Pentagon.

Players Must Demand Calm; Invest in Destroyed Cities

Players Must Demand Calm; Invest in Destroyed Cities
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
August 28, 2020

I could not possibly care less if the NBA ever jumps center again. Dramatic gestures are merely empty gestures, that if arenas were not empty, would not be made. Business is business, after all.

But because this is the era of the Coronavirus, and in light of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI, the Milwaukee Bucks decided they would not suit up and play in their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. Not only did the Magic support this decision to not play on Wednesday, August 26, the other two games on that date and the several games on the next two days would also be postponed.  Six WNBA regular season games, four NHL playoff games, and seven MLB games were postponed between Wednesday and Friday. The seven MLB games to be put on the back burner on Thursday, August 27 were the most on a single day since September 11, 2001.

Jacob Blake, 29, was shot in the back seven times by seven year police veteran Rusten Shesky on Sunday, August 23 in Wisconsin’s fourth largest city. An initial attempt to subdue Blake via taser failed, as he struggled to get into his car and flee. Blake also had a knife and there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Additionally, Blake has a history of assaulting police officers, as well as previous charges for domestic abuse and a sex crime.

That said, seven shots were six too many. However, arson, looting, and rioting are neither a form of peaceful protesting, legal, nor a solution of anything productive. All of the buildings burned, businesses looted and destroyed, monuments torn down, and innocent people, including police officers, getting assaulted, and in some cases killed in the name of racial and social justice are accomplishing just the opposite.

As cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Portland, St. Louis, and Seattle continue racking up the hours, days, and months of carnage, the bodies as a result of the carnage,  more and more people are turning away from supporting domestic terrorist organizations such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter. In fact, since the Kenosha shooting and subsequent mob violence, support for, and of, BLM in that city has dropped and support continues to drop precipitously as the anarchistic violence continues to dominate the headlines of each and every news cycle.

Make no mistake, the anarchy, arson, looting, mayhem, riots, and vandalism are not about peaceful protesting. Nor are they about the tragic death of George Floyd, the shooting of Jacob Blake, or any other perceived victim of police brutality. This is just wonton destruction for destruction’s sake. Evil acts by unhappy people seeking vigilante justice by stealing and destroying what is not theirs. They should heed the message put forth by Julia Jackson, Jacob Blake’s mother: 

“For anyone who is doing anything that is violent or destructive, please stop!”

Perhaps with all the destruction, mayhem, and violence in our city streets its a good thing sports fans are unable to attend games. It simply would not be safe enough for people to traverse the roads to the ballpark or arena.

But regardless of the sport, not taking the court, field, or ice will barely be noticed by fans already unable to attend games in person. They will just change the channel - to a live game or anything else. Eventually, the professional sports leagues will annihilate themselves with their growing amount of politicization of their games, angering fans who simply want to escape the day to day violence that occurs outside their windows. Fans will ultimately stop attending games of the teams they no longer support, stop buying merchandise representing players they no longer support, and find better ways to spend their hard earned dollars. Owners will realize that they cannot absorb such losses while continuing to pay the enormous salaries of these players. Many of the gestures being made by ballplayers are viewed as grandstanding - it costs them nothing, but they are credited with caring and doing something.

On Thursday, August 27 the New York Mets were set to host the Miami Marlins at Citi Field. Led by Dominic Smith and Billy Hamilton, the Mets starting nine took the field. The Marlins lead off hitter took to the on-deck circle and the umpires took their places at home plate and around the bases. The remainder of the Mets and Marlins teams exited their dugouts and lined up along the grassy edge on the first base and third base lines. The players bowed their heads for 42 seconds of silence before waving their caps at each other across the diamond. Lewis Brinson of the Marlins laid a Black Lives Matter t-shirt over home plate. The teams then left the field, through the dugouts and into their clubhouses. Finally, the Mets starting nine departed the field as well, suggesting the night was over as quickly as it had started. Mets radio announcers Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo filled time chatting, indicating they genuinely did not know whether the teams would return or if the night was in fact, over. Following a commercial break, Rose and Randazzo were able to tell their audience there would be no game that night in New York City. 

While it costs the players nothing, groups like BLM benefit financially from sycophants who know precious little about this organization. An organization rooted in Marxism, as defined on its website by its founders, and dedicated to anarchy, anti-capitalism, anti-nuclear family, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism.

On the other hand, who wouldn't want to tell their boss they are taking the day off in order to make a public statement. If I took the day off every time an act of anti-Semitism occurred, it's likely I would never see another paycheck.  No, I am most certainly not making light of the continuing racial strife plaguing this nation. There are myriad solutions if the politicians would keep their partisan opinions to themselves and allow real people to come together to do the heavy lifting that might just open the doors to genuine progress. 

“There’s no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” -- Ronald Reagan

“It’s on us to make a difference. Change doesn’t happen with just talk - it happens with action,” said LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Let’s start with all the professional athletes from Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, the Professional Golfer’s Association, the Ladies Professional Golfer’s Association, the Professional Bowlers Association, NASCAR, and any other pro league unintentionally omitted. Representatives from each city where there are teams should  appear in Public Service Announcements to appear during commercials of their games as well as during the local news on each station. These PSAs should implore their fans and residents of their cities that criminal activities and mischief of arson, assault, looting, rioting are not just against the law, but deleterious to those cities’ well being. The massive destruction is only hurting the people who live, work, and shop in those cities - lowering property values, creating an employment void, and deepening the despair and sense of hopelessness that rages through such downtrodden urban centers. The athletes should deliver that same message via editorials to appear in the daily newspaper of their home team city. Those messages are more meaningful than walking off the court, field, or ice, or taking a disrespectful knee during the national anthem. No major city newspaper would turn down editorials from famous athletes that would also boost circulation were they to appear on a regular basis.

They can follow the lead of the Players Alliance and donate a couple days pay. Curtis Granderson, a retired MLB player, and president of the Players Alliance, announced that the players in the alliance would be donating their salaries from Thursday and Friday August 27 and 28. August 28 was also designated Jackie Robinson Day. Traditionally, Jackie Robinson Day is held on April 15, as it was on that day in 1947 that he crossed the color barrier becoming the first black player to take the field in Major League history. That, of course, did not occur due to the Coronavirus this year. August 28 is also significant as it was on that day Robinson inked his first contract with Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

Perhaps every athlete from all the professional leagues could donate one week of their salaries to be used for restoration of the destroyed cities and businesses. Additionally, money could be used to help build and open charter schools in, for starters, each city where there is a pro team. Education is the key to success regardless of race or ethnicity. But it must be quality education, not the brand currently being meted out by the failed public school system, whose greatest goal is the indoctrination of its charges - the children - your children and mine. 

During the off season, some of the athletes could visit these same schools that they helped fund and build. Continue delivering the message of non-violence so often preached by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Stress the importance of education as the ticket to a better life. Instead of opposing police, the athletes should meet with police departments and make them sensitive to the plight of minorities; work with them to find a solution to the reform that is needed without handcuffing officers from doing their jobs properly. For one, all police officers should be outfitted with “cop-cams,” as that will shed light on how officers are conducting their business. Defunding police departments is not the answer, but weeding out officers who are not necessarily fit to wear the uniform, is a partial solution. No police department is perfect and unfortunately there will still be issues of race, but hopefully fewer and fewer. Perhaps if there is some way to have a series of roundtable discussions with local residents and local police precincts instead of burning them down, each side can take one step closer to each other in civility and maybe even respect. If not, more cities will be burned to the ground, more jobs lost, and ultimately more lives lost. 

All lives matter - black, white, brown, red, and yellow - the lives of children, the lives of adults, the lives of police officers, the lives of civilians, and the lives of the unborn. If the race hustlers and organizations like Antifa and BLM could stop fanning the flames of death and destruction and if retraining of officers can be done sooner rather than later, perhaps there can be peace in our streets.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Baseball 2020 - We Hardly Knew Ye

Baseball 2020 - We Hardly Knew Ye
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 28, 2020

I’m as big a baseball fan as there can be. Opening Day should be the first Monday in April, in Cincinnati with the Reds hosting a division rival - Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, or Pirates, with the remaining 14 other Opening Day games played the next day. All day games. If Opening Day itself is not designated a national holiday, it should be on April 15 - Jackie Robinson Day as designated by Major League Baseball.

I pine for the return of our national pastime from the final out of the World Series through the day in February when pitchers and catchers report for duty, through the first radio broadcast of a Mets exhibition game, until the shout of “play ball!” on Mets Opening Day.

This past off-season was no exception. From the last out made by the sign stealing Astros giving Washington, DC its first baseball championship since 1924, through a stunted spring training, summer camp, and a long awaited late July Opening Day, after less than a week, I’m thinking playing at all is a mistake.

In addition to the number of players, coaches, umpires, and staff who opted out of the 2020 season for health reasons, the Miami Marlins reported (up to the minute Tuesday afternoon) 17 team members - 15 players and two coaches testing positive for the Coronavirus. This not only put their home opener against the Orioles on the shelf, but the rest of the week as well.

The further impact of the Marlins Coronavirus diagnosis is starting to look like the Domino Effect running up and down the Eastern Seaboard. The Monday and Tuesday games in Philadelphia between the Phillies and the Yankees were postponed as a precautionary measure - even after fumigating the clubhouse, as the Marlins most recently played in Philadelphia. Because of those postponements, the Yankees and Orioles schedules have been adjusted for those two teams to meet up in Baltimore for two games starting Wednesday. Additional scheduling changes will be announced as the week progresses. The schedules of the 10 teams in the National League East and American League East are now in flux.

Should an independent flare up affect another team, it will impact three of four more teams. Ultimately, with travel on planes, trains, and buses, as well as hotel lodging from city to city, the 2020 baseball season is in grave jeopardy.

There is another issue to consider - the rise in player injuries, particularly pitchers, at a higher rate than usual. This can be attributed to an elongated period of downtime, and less preparation time once the July opening dates were announced. Teams should be entitled to play at full strength, save for the couple of typical injuries that plague most teams, with a full complement of Major Leaguers, not Triple-A call ups. There’s no telling how long the Marlins, as a team, will be sidelined, nor should they be rushed back to action. Can a league continue while down a team? Should it? Let’s face it, the main reason the season began at all is for the paychecks - the players want to be paid, and the team owners somehow need to recoup the losses from ticket sales and concessions.

According to Major League Baseball, there have been more than 6,400 Coronavirus tests since Friday, July 24, with no new positive cases from any of the remaining 29 teams. However, if Major League Baseball is truly concerned about the health and well being of its players - its money making product - it should seriously consider pulling the plug on the 2020 season, and start fresh in 2021. This die-hard fan wants to see a full season with full rosters of healthy players - even if they play for the hated Yankees.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He has been a New York Mets fan since 1972 growing up in New Jersey.

"From Every Community"?

“From Every Community”?
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 5, 2020

On Independence Day President Donald Trump announced the creation of the national Garden of American Heroes during his speech from the White House. This announcement was met with applause which grew as Trump read the list of the first 30 men and women to be bestowed with such an honor.

“I signed an executive order to create... the national Garden of American Heroes... a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who have ever lived. We will honor extraordinary citizens from every community, and from every place and from every part of our nation. Great men and great women, people that we can look up to forever. Families will be able to walk among the statues of titans, and we have already selected the first 30 legacies and 30 legends.”

John Adams Douglas MacArthur
Susan B. Anthony Dolley Madison
Clara Barton James Madison
Daniel Boone                                      Christa McAuliffe
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Audie Murphy
Henry Clay George S. Patton, Jr.
Davy Crockett                                     Ronald Reagan
Frederick Douglass Jackie Robinson
Amelia Earhart Betsy Ross
Benjamin Franklin Antonin Scalia
Billy Graham Harriet Beecher Stowe
Alexander Hamilton                             Harriet Tubman
Thomas Jefferson Booker T. Washington
Martin Luther King, Jr. George Washington
Abraham Lincoln Orville and Wilbur Wright

While all of the above 31 men and women are worthy (apparently the Wright Brothers are an entity and not individuals to the president), President Trump did say “...from EVERY community…” As such, here are 18 candidates from the Jewish community for the president to consider.

LOUIS BRANDEIS (11/13/1856 - 10/05/1941)
Appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, Brandeis was the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice (1916-39); the namesake of Brandeis University (1948); known as the “people’s lawyer,” for defending such issues as a maximum number of hours a person could work and a minimum wage; also an ardent Zionist from 1912 forward

ALBERT EINSTEIN (03/14/1879 - 04/18/1955)
Earned the Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect (1921); considered the most influential physicist of the 20th Century; developed the Theory of Relativity; introduced the science of Cosmology; gained US citizenship in 1940; encouraged President Franklin Roosevelt to pursue a nuclear bomb; declined offer to serve as President of Israel (1952) although he supported Zionism

FELIX FRANKFURTER (11/15/1882 - 02/22/1965)
Only naturalized American citizen (born in Vienna) to serve on the Supreme Court (1939-62); leading jurist supporting the doctrine of judicial self-restraint - adhering closely to precedent; helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (1920); awarded the Medal of Freedom (1963); considered himself a Zionist

MILTON FRIEDMAN (07/31/1912 - 11/16/2006)
Earned Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (1976) for his research on income and consumption as well as his developments in monetary theory; his theory of Monetarism focused on the importance of money supply affecting price levels; strong believer in free-market capitalism, free trade, smaller government; strong supporter of US entry into World War II; most influential economist in the second half of the 20th Century

RABBI ALEXANDER D. GOODE (05/10/1911 - 02/03/1943)
Chaplain/Lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II; one of four military chaplains to give their lives to save American troops during the sinking of the troop transport Dorchester; PhD. from Johns Hopkins (1940); served from July 21, 1942 until the sinking of the Dorchester by a German U-boat; posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross

HENRY BENJAMIN “HANK” GREENBERG (01/01/1911 - 09/04/1986)
Major League Baseball’s first Jewish superstar - nicknamed the “Hebrew Hammer;” American League MVP 1935, 1940; Hall of Fame inductee 1956; often dealt with anti-Semitism in Detroit playing for the Tigers and on the road, but earned respect the league over for his decision not to play on Yom Kippur in 1934 - the holiest day on the Jewish calendar; served two tours of duty in the Army during World War II - the first ending two days before the December 7, 1941 attacks on Pearl Harbor - two days later he reenlisted, serving in the Army Air Corps through June 1945 - 47 months, the longest tenure of any player - returning to baseball and hitting a home run on July 1

EMMA LAZARUS (07/22/1849 - 11/19/1887)
Poet of the famed The New Colossus (1883) - adorned to the Statue of Liberty (1903) “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…;” mentored by Ralph Waldo Emerson; published more than 50 poems, a book of poetry, and a novel; critiqued contemporary literature; spoke out in favor of a Jewish homeland, and against European anti-Semitism

LEWIS CHARLES LEVIN (11/10/1808 - 03/14/1860)
First Jewish member elected to the House of Representatives - served three terms (1845-51) representing Pennsylvania’s First District; earned law degree from South Carolina College, now University of South Carolina (1828); founded the American Republic Party (1842); called for the election of only native born Americans to all public offices; editor of the Philadelphia Daily Sun

URIAH P. LEVY (04/22/1792 - 03/26/1862)
Veteran of the War of 1812; first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy; third owner of Monticello following Thomas Jefferson’s death and funded the repairs so desperately needed; advocated ending corporal punishment in the Navy - ultimately abolished by Congress in 1850; namesake of the USS Levy (1943); Jewish chapels at Norfolk, VA Naval Station and United States Naval Academy in Annapolis named for Levy; a statue of Jefferson in the Capitol Rotunda was commissioned by Levy

J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER (04/22/1904 - 02/18/1967)
Theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb;” director of the Los Alamos Laboratory researching and developing the first nuclear weapon - the Manhattan Project (1942-45); he and Einstein were concerned the Nazis would develop a nuclear weapon first; after seeing the results of the bomb’s use, Oppenheimer resigned from his position; chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission; won the Enrico Fermi Award (1963); opposed development of the hydrogen bomb - the work of Edward Teller - also Jewish; professor at UC-Berkeley and Cal-Tech

DANIEL PEARL (10/10/1963 - 02/01/2002)
Wall Street Journal journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief; kidnapped and beheaded in Karachi, Pakistan by al-Qaeda terrorists; kidnapped while conducting journalistic investigations into relationship between British terrorist Richard Reid and al-Qaeda; BA communications from Stanford; At Home in the World, a collection of Pearl’s writings was published posthumously in 2002; his last words included “my father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We’ve made numerous family visits to Israel.”

AYN RAND - born ALISSA ZINOVIEVNA ROSENBAUM  (02/02/1905 - 03/06/1982)
Author of novels promoting the theories of individualism and laissez-faire capitalism - popular among conservative and libertarian readers - The Fountainhead (1943), Atlas Shrugged (1957); early influence - seeing her father’s pharmacy business confiscated by the communists following the Russian Revolution of 1917; her personal philosophy was objectivism - man as a heroic being, his own happiness the moral purpose of his life, productive achievement his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute

JUDITH RESNIK (04/05/1949 - 01/28/1986)
First Jewish woman in space (second overall - Sally Ride); electrical engineering at Carnegie- Mellon, MS in engineering at the University of Maryland; biomedical engineer in the neurophysics lab with the National Institutes of Health; PhD in electrical engineering at Maryland (1977); accepted into NASA program (1978) - one of only six women; among the seven who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger (1986)

HYMAN RICKOVER - born CHAIM GODALIA RICKOVER (01/27/1900 - 07/08/1986)
Admiral United States Navy served 1918-82; United States Naval Academy (1922); considered the father of and directed the development of Naval Nuclear Propulsion a.k.a. The Nuclear Navy, first nuclear powered submarine - The Nautilus (1951); MS in electrical engineering at Columbia University; chief of the Naval Reactor Branch, Reactor Development Division of the Atomic Energy Commission (1949); longest service in the Navy of any officer; first person to garner two Congressional Gold Medals; USS Hyman G. Rickover commissioned in 1984

JONAS SALK (10/28/1914 - 06/23/1995)
Creator of the first polio vaccine; one of the leading scientists of the 20th Century; MD from New York University (1939); testing began in 1952 and 1.8 million children received the vaccination during the test period - Salk administered the vaccine to himself and his family in 1953; approved for general use in 1955 and President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored Salk in the Rose Garden at the White House; launched Salk Center for Biological Studies (1963); studied AIDS and HIV later in his career

HAYM SALOMON - born CHAIM SALOMON  (04/07/1740 - 01/06/1785)
Played a major role in financing the American Revolution having immigrated from Poland; arrested twice and accused of being a spy by the British in 1776 and 1778 - the second time sentenced to death but managed to escape; helped overturn Pennsylvania law barring non-Christians from holding elected office; made numerous interest free loans and funded a portion of government debt, ultimately dying penniless

FRANCIS SALVADOR (1747 - 08/01/1776)
London-born Sephardic Jew; elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1773, less than a year after arriving in the colonies, even though it was illegal for Jews to vote, let alone serve in elected office; responsible for writing the South Carolina state constitution; chosen to serve in South Carolina’s provincial congress in 1774 and helped right the state’s bill of rights; endorsed independence from England and that Continental soldiers be paid; first Jewish soldier to die fighting in the Revolutionary War

OSCAR S. STRAUS (12/23/1850 - 05/03/1926)
First Jewish cabinet member - Secretary of Commerce and Labor (1906-09) appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt; three-time Emissary to Ottoman Turkey; advisor to President Woodrow Wilson - aiding in the plans for the League of Nations (the United States declined to join); a voice in America for European Jews and their protection from continued pogroms; Columbia Law School (1873)

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

A More Perfect Independence Day

A More Perfect Independence Day
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 3, 2020

In the United States we the people celebrate Independence Day, not the fourth of July. Are you going to wish people a “happy sixth” when returning to work on Monday? On that date 244 years ago the British colonies of America declared its independence from the tyranny of King George III (1738-1820). No more taxation without representation. No more trials without juries.

For all our faults and foibles as a nation constructed of, by, and for mortal human beings, for all our missteps and sins, there are myriad reasons to salute Old Glory, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and rejoice in the greatness that is the United States of America. Such as being the most generous nation on earth. Such as opening our doors, legally, to more people than any other country. Such as the inventions and discoveries made by Americans. Such as the rights afforded people of all races, creeds, colors, and sexual orientation. Such as the freedoms granted by G-d, found in the United States Constitution. Freedoms such as “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” - not the guarantee of happiness - the pursuit of happiness.

We the people should not, must not, pay for the sins of our forefathers. After all, as the giant melting pot that we are, how many millions of Americans jumped into that pot after 1865? No amount of money can ever right that wrong, nor should it be attempted. Who should be paid? By whom? How much? For how long? The resentment will only deepen the already deepening chasm between the races.

Instead, a payment must be made in the guaranteed equal opportunity, not equal outcome, but equal opportunity. Dismantle, and rebuild, from the ground up, the concept of public education that it not be dominated by teachers’ unions and tenure protecting bad teachers. School choice must be permitted for all children, not just those rich enough to afford religious or parochial schools - schools with up to date books, materials, technology, and qualified teachers with proper training able to pass a subject exam every three or five years. More support from school administration, greater parental involvement, and stronger discipline. 

If this sounds like I am asking for the moon, as an experienced educator, I know this is necessary. As citizens across this great nation, we know what the alternative looks like. It always starts with education, and not from the first day of preschool or kindergarten, but in the home. If those at home can’t provide some semblance of education during those all important pre-K years, that is where social services should play a role. These programs should be funded by eliminating the pork-laden overspending by the legislatures designed to kiss the collective tuchuses of the voters. This is where less is more. 

This is the reparation due to the socio-economically disadvantaged. Education is always the key. It leads to greater competition. It leads to better, higher paying jobs, which leads to greater freedom and independence. Free from government dependence on welfare, failing schools, and/or a failing prison system which is far from rehabilitating. 

Independence Day is more than fireworks, bar-b-cues, and yes, even baseball, which sadly this year will not be played on Independence Day 2020. On April 15, 1947 Major League Baseball righted a wrong when Jackie Robinson (1919-72) stepped onto Ebbets Field as part of the home team Brooklyn Dodgers. Read the Declaration of Independence - as a family, if possible. Celebrate the men and women in uniform, who gave us, and continue to give us, the freedoms we cherish. In 1948 President Harry Truman (1884-1972) righted a wrong by desegregating the branches of the military. Truman should be celebrated for that, as well as, in the same year, being the first world leader to recognize the State of Israel as a new member of the world of nations. Some would say Truman should be shunned by 2020 standards because he uttered racial epithets about blacks and Jews, yet those people would be wrong for not understanding the context of the period of history these events occurred. History does not exist in a vacuum - it evolves over time and the progress thereof should, must, be recognized and celebrated.

A more perfect union. Amendments 13, 14, and 15 certainly righted some wrongs - ending slavery, naturalizing former slaves as American citizens, and granting those new citizens - male, age 21 and older, the right to vote in 1865, 1868, and 1870 respectively. And the 19th Amendment righted a wrong in 1920, finally granting women the right to vote during the Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) administration - just in time for that November’s presidential election.

There are those who are calling for the vilification of Wilson because the native Virginian was a racist. Princeton University, where Wilson served as president from 1902-10, and his alma mater (1879), officially decided last week to remove his name from the School of Public and International affairs as well as one of its residential colleges. Yet Wilson should be remembered for leading the United States to victory in World War I. He should also be remembered for appointing the first Jewish justice to the United States Supreme Court - Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), in 1916.

No one is perfect. No place is perfect - that’s Utopia, and that never existed, save for the fertile mind of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) whose book was published in 1516. Not even the Garden of Eden. Should statues of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1919-68) be torn down and streets in his honor renamed because he was a philanderer and a plagiarist? Should the monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) be removed from its secluded location in Washington, DC because he interned 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II? More than 60 percent were American citizens. (OK, I think it should. The only good thing to come from FDR was FDIC.)

“He that is without sin... let him cast the first stone…” (John 8:7).

We don’t have a purity test in the United States - if so, the failure rate would be 100 percent. We no more take down the statues, monuments, or memorials of a Dr. King or an FDR than we do of a George Washington (1732-99; General winning the Revolutionary War and First President), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826; Declaration of Independence and Louisiana Purchase), Andrew Jackson (1767-1845; winning the Battle of New Orleans capping the War of 1812 to preserve the Union), or Abraham Lincoln (1809-65; credited with freeing the slaves). We remember them for their body of work - their entire body of work. We honor them for the good they did for society, civilization, and/or humanity.

Happy Independence Day to all freedom loving Americans.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Monumental Criminal Stupidity

Monumental Criminal Stupidity
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 24, 2020

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” - attributed to George Santayana (1863-1952)

The United States of America is devolving and degenerating into an us versus them society losing sight of what civilized society used to be. The politically correct are no longer progressive enough. The cancel culture does not seem progressive enough anymore either. Humanity is teetering on the brink.

It is not hyperbole to say that we the people are on the precipice of the end of days of decent, moral, respectable, honorable, and peaceful existence and coexistence. While America is burning all around us, what’s left of the conservative structure is fiddling at best, cowering in a corner at worst. They refuse to speak out against the atrocities being perpetrated by the progressive, anarchistic mob - the unholy alliance of Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Sadly, decent society is counting on the conservatives to be the adults in the room.

Indoctrinated since kindergarten and indelibly rooted in socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-democracy, anti-law and order, and anti-American radical beliefs, civilization is staggering toward the great egress of reality.

I recently had a conversation with the college-age child of friends. Raised in a conservative, upper-middle class home and attending a large state university in the Midwest, this collegian defends the destruction of government, public, and even private property in the name of so-called justice. This 20-year-old calls these acts of perversion part of a revolution. 

The destruction of American monuments and statues, the assault on our houses of worship, via graffiti and other vandalism are crimes being committed by the uneducated mobs continuing on an increasingly brazen level. Anyone involved with these actions is now a criminal, should be arrested, charged with vandalism, destruction of public or private property, be made to make financial restitution, pay a fine on top of the restitution, and have a permanent criminal record following them from college applications to job applications. These criminals should also be part of the physical restoration of these structures. These domestic terrorists are following in the footsteps of ISIS with the destruction of our American antiquities. They simply hate the United States and are seeking its destruction, “by any means necessary.”

These criminal revolutionaries believe that the United States is inherently evil with no room for redemption and needs to be destroyed from within.

In a speech given in Springfield, IL, on January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) said “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

That which Lincoln said is the direction of these United States - the downward spiral of a civilization that has lasted nearly 250 years - the average length of a civilization.

There is no legitimate reason for the statues of American patriots to be vandalized, defaced, or torn down. They built this country giving us a foundation from which to build - to form “a more perfect union.” Warts and all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, what present day so-called American revolutionaries are trying to destroy, millions of people the world over are desperately trying to acquire. People living in 2020 cannot judge those who lived in 1920, 1865, or 1776 by the present day morees. 

Women were finally granted the right to vote in August of 1920. How many statues did the Suffragettes deface or tear down? How many businesses did they loot? Abolitionists worked day and night to help free slaves. How much property did abolitionists destroy? In fact, they knew that slaves should not be considered as property and some even died in the attempts to liberate such “property.”

Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution ruled that slaves counted for three-fifths of a person for representation purposes, even though slaves could neither vote, nor were even considered people. A more perfect union. Amendments 13, 14, and 15 resolved that disgrace following the War Between the States. 

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to freed slaves. The 15th Amendment granted that voting rights would not be denied based upon race.

Peaceful protests, sans mob violence, should be supported by all - yes all, regardless of message. “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it,” said Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1866-1956), a British writer. That is the beauty of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Protesters would garner more support from people heretofore opposed to the message because of the violence attached to it.

The child of my friends said the violence and destruction of property is designed to get people to listen. This young person said the crimes of vandalism, graffiti, and arson should go unpunished because they should not even be considered crimes in the first place. These monuments and statues are marked for destruction because they offend those who are willfully destroying public property. Should everyone have free reign to destroy what offends them? 

As a lifelong New York Mets fan, should I have the right to desecrate the statue of  Baltimore native George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) standing outside of Oriole Park at Camden Yards simply because he played for the hated New York Yankees? Perhaps the revolutionaries would endorse such a crime because Ruth played Major League Baseball at a time when black players were still barred from playing in the majors. On the other hand, would it be permissible to destroy the statue of Henry “Hank” Aaron (1934- ) in Atlanta by a Yankees fan as Aaron broke Ruth’s then all-time home run record? Where does it end? When no more statues are left standing? And when there are no more statues remaining to be attacked, what will be the next target of the ochlocracy? The artworks in galleries and museums? The books in bookstores and libraries? Buildings on college campuses because the schools admissions’ committees denied people entry into those schools?

The now no longer shocking scenes of violence and depravity are a stronger visual than the audible words of protesters. From the journalistic mantra, “if it bleeds, it leads,” videos run viral before the first words are heard. Violence will only beget more of the same while the message will get lost in the shuffle. If any listening is being done, it is being done out of fear. The houses of worship and businesses with signs of Black Lives Matter seem to be akin to the lambs' blood upon the doorposts of the ancient Hebrews before the liberation in Egypt - the Passover. They believe those signs will protect them from attacks from Black Lives Matter. Time will tell if that will work.

If there is any listening to be done, it must be done by these radicals who will only succeed in creating a deeper chasm between the revolutionaries and supporters of the rule of law. Clearly their knowledge of history is absent real facts and details. More American history must be required for graduation from every American high school as well as college and university. I have a number of years of classroom instruction from grade six through the college level so I know what history curriculum looks like. It’s disgraceful. History can’t be whitewashed. They may have their own opinions, but they cannot have their own facts.

A group of students is demanding, among other things, that the statue of William Marsh Rice (1816-1900) be removed from, of all places, Rice University - the school he founded in 1891. Rice owned 15 slaves and founded the school for white students of Houston. Rice University opened its doors in 1912. The first black students were admitted in 1965, and 55 years later roughly 10 percent of the student body consists of black students. That is progress, considering the black population in the United States is about 13 percent according to the last census. This is an insane request. Even the child of my friends recognized that. The same demand has also come from students at Yale in New Haven, CT regarding a statue of its founder. Elihu Yale (1649-1721) was involved in the slave trade. The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), principal writer of the Declaration of Independence, first Secretary of State, second Vice President, third President of the United States, and yes, a slave holder. Students on the Charlottesville campus are also calling for the removal of his statue. How many of its students are transferring in order to stay consistent with their principles?

Do your homework before you choose a school. If you don’t like the background of the founder, pick another school. It would seem those students objecting to Rice, Yale, and Virginia on racial principles should have no trouble gaining admission to virtually any other school with a founder of pristine background. How about George Washington University, founded in 1821? Oh, no - Washington (1732-99), the general responsible for leading the American Colonies to victory in the Revolutionary War over England, and served as the first President of the new United States, owned slaves. Yet he ordered the slaves freed upon the death of his wife Martha (1731-1802). Such the conundrum. Should the name of the capital city of the United States be changed? What about the 42nd state of the nation, entering the union in 1889? Apparently a group of criminal vandals in Portland, OR think so, as they wrapped a statue of Washington in an American flag and set it ablaze. In his myopic obtuseness, Democrat Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo (1957- ) called these various criminal activities “a healthy expression.” How healthy would that expression be if the miscreants vandalized the governor’s mansion in Albany?

These principled students will certainly want to avoid James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, founded in 1908. Although Madison (1751-1836) was a co-author of The Federalist Papers, wrote the Bill of Rights,  served as the fifth Secretary of State, and fourth President, he too owned slaves. Then there’s the prestigious Georgetown University, founded in 1789 by John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore (1735-1815). That’s out, as he too owned slaves. If everything founded, built, or created more than 10 minutes ago were to be destroyed, what would be left of the nation after the scorched earth cools?

History cannot, should not, must not be erased. 

Brown University became the first university to confront its link to slavery in a major way. In 2003, Brown president Ruth Simmons appointed a commission to investigate. “What better way to teach our students about ethical conduct than to show ourselves to be open to the truth, and to tell the full story?” she said.

Are the progressive anarchists in Seattle and the newly formed, soon to be dismantled CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, 2020-2020), going to move out of the State of Washington in an effort to remain true to their so-called principles? Sadly, a 19-year-old was shot and killed on Saturday, June 20 within the confines of CHOP, and two more shootings - one each on June 22 and 23, prompting the feckless Democrat Mayor of Seattle Jenny Durkan (1958- ) to call for the axing of CHOP. This is just about two weeks after singing its praises, suggesting it might be another “summer of love.” The love sure waned quickly. After that announcement came another, that Durkan cut $20 million (five percent) of the Seattle police budget - most of which to come from its training division. Isn’t that the part of the police the anarchists are willing to live with? Training new police in their own progressive image? But don’t look for that information on CNN or MSNBC, as that news does not fit its progressive narrative - their networks only run selective facts.

One area where I agree with the protesters concerns Confederate statues, flags, and named military bases. They all should come down and/or be renamed. Why, in the United States of America are bastions of the Confederacy being honored? They were the enemy! Put the statues and flags in  museums - do not relegate them to the dustbin of history. The more than 640,000 who died in the War Between the States must not have died in vain. Otherwise, how will students learn from the past, learn not repeat the ugly parts of the past, and also how will they see the evidence of the progress that has been made in the United States. In order to know where the country is headed, it is vital to understand where the country stood in the past and where it is standing now. 

While these changes are purely cosmetic, and for those who want them it is certainly understandable, they will not better educate anyone, won’t feed anyone, won’t employ anyone, won’t even end bigotry or racism. The United States should no more honor Jefferson Davis (1808-89) than Israel should honor Hitler (1889-1945) as they were the enemies of the United States and the Jewish people respectively. And although part of Reconstruction called for the repatriation of the former confederates, and the grave sites of their dead should not be disturbed, they were still enemies of the United States.

Any Confederate statues in the Capitol building should be replaced by the states they are honoring. Put a vote before the citizens of those states to determine with whom the current statues should be replaced. Do likewise with the names of the 10 military bases named for Confederate leaders.

The 10 military bases named for Confederate generals are:

Camp Beauregard (LA) - Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (1818-93)
Fort Benning (GA) - Henry Benning (1814-75)
Fort Bragg (NC) - Braxton Bragg (1817-76)
Fort Gordon (GA) - John  Brown Gordon (1832-1904)
Fort A. P. Hill (VA) - Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr. (1825-65)
Fort Hood (TX) - John Bell Hood (1831-79)
Fort Lee (VA) - Robert E. Lee (1807-70)
Fort Pickett (VA) - George Pickett (1825-75)
Fort Polk (LA) - Leonidas Polk (1806-64)
Fort Rucker (AL) - Edmund Rucker (1835-1924)

They should be replaced by:

General Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) 
Served in WWI and WWII; first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General of the Army
“...the ablest field general the U.S. ever had,” said President Harry Truman (1884-1972)
Should replace Fort Benning (GA)
Stars *****

Major General John Buford, Jr. (1826-63)
Served in the War Between the States; promoted to Major General for “distinguished and meritorious service at the Battle Gettysburg,” by President Abraham Lincoln

President/General Dwight D.  Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Served in WWII - Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, leading Allied invasion/liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe; first Supreme Commander NATO; president of Columbia University; 34th President - signed civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960
Should replace Fort Polk (LA)
Stars *****

President/General H. Ulysses S. Grant (1822-85)
Served in the Mexican-American War and the War Between the States; General in Chief of the Armies; soundly defeated the Confederacy; 18th president - pushed 15th Amendment through to ratification; established the National Park Service
Should replace Fort Lee (VA)
Stars **** (first to earn four, the highest allowed until 1944)

General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)
Served in WWI, WWII, and Korea; field marshal of the Philippines; commanded Southwest Asia in WWII and Allied occupation of Japan following WWII; Chief of Staff of the US Army; earned Medal of Honor
Should replace Fort Bragg (NC)
Stars *****

General George S. Patton (1885-1945)
Served in WWI and WWII; led a fictitious force elsewhere, enabling the landing at Omaha Beach to succeed; played a key role in winning the Battle of the Bulge; captured 10,000 miles of territory in liberating Germany from the Nazis; represented the US in the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympiad in the pentathlon;
Should replace Fort Pickett (VA)
Stars ****

General John J. Pershing (1860-1948)
Served in the Spanish-American War and WWI; senior US Army officer; General of the Armies; opposed armistice of WWI - wanted unconditional surrender of Germany; mentor to Bradley, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, and George Marshall (1880-1959)
Should replace Fort Gordon (GA)
Stars ****

General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. (1928-93)
Served in Korea and Vietnam conflicts; first black soldier to earn the rank of four star general; earned Distinguished Graduate Award; Exemplar Combat Arms Officer; infantry officer rising to four star status; West Point Class of 1951
Should replace Fort A.P. Hill (VA)
Stars ****

General H. Norman Schwartzkopf, Jr. (1934-2012)
Served in Vietnam, led forces in Grenada, and led all coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War - leading Operation Desert Storm; commander of US Central Command; West Point Class of 1956; earned three Silver Stars, one Bronze star, and a Purple Heart in Vietnam; earned a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II
Should replace Camp Beauregard
Stars ****

Dr. Mary Walker (1832-1919)
Only woman to earn a Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service - 1865; worked as an Army field surgeon, yet denied a commission due to her gender; abolitionist; prohibitionist; Prisoner of War during the War Between the States; outspoken women’s rights activist; supported the Suffrage Movement until her death in 1919 - but not the amendment that would be enacted a year after her death, citing the right to vote was already in the Constitution
Should replace Fort Hood (TX)

Tuskegee
A conglomerate representation of the famed airmen, the tragic experiment, and the institute, now university in Alabama. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black soldiers to successfully complete training and enter the Army Air Corps. Almost 1,000 aviators served as the first black military pilots during WWII as the highly decorated 99th Pursuit Squadron. The 992 pilots flew 1,578 missions and 15,533 sorties, earning 850 medals.

The Tuskegee syphilis study (Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male) was the disgraceful use of black males as human guinea pigs by the United States Public Health Service from 1932-72. The “subjects” were neither told they had syphilis nor were given the medication that would lead to a potential cure. They were not even told they could transmit the disease via sexual intercourse. 

The Tuskegee Institute, now University, was founded in 1881, by Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) for the initial purpose of training black school teachers, adding the teaching of agricultural skills, later becoming a degree granting institute in 1937, offering graduate studies in 1943, before finally moving to University status in 1985. The school’s third president, Frederick Douglass Patterson (1901-88) founded the United Negro College Fund in 1944. In 1987 President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) awarded Patterson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Should replace Fort Rucker (AL)

(USA Today floated just the names of Dr. Mary Walker and Tuskegee, not the biographical information.)

After 111 monuments and/or statues removed or requested to be removed, there seems to be no end in sight, thus the importance of cracking down with the use of video footage to catch as many of these criminals as possible, and hope some turn on others not identified by authorities. So dangerously out of control are these anarchists that they are planning to destroy the monument of Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in Washington, DC. A monument funded by freed slaves with a keynote speaker at the dedication of Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave.

In spite of all the insidiousness, violence, arson, anarchy, and abject stupidity in the name of G-d knows what, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) reflected that “in America all things are possible. Progress has been made. Progress needs to be made.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.