Get the Olympics Out of Beijing - Stop Rewarding Bad Behavior

Get the Olympics Out of Beijing - Stop Rewarding Bad Behavior
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
December 20, 2021

I love the Olympics - the pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies, the camaraderie of the Closing Ceremonies following two and a half weeks of international competition, the flags, the anthems, and although I fervently root for the United States, when a victor emerges from a small or unexpected country, those too, are compelling stories. I can’t get enough water polo during the summer games, and it’s curling in the winter games that captivates my attention.

When the Biden administration announced earlier this month a diplomatic boycott of the games, they didn’t go far enough. Not sending American officials to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics sends a tepid message at best. It instills no fear in the host country. The right message would be a total and complete boycott of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games. Days later, Canada and Great Britain also announced their decisions of a diplomatic boycott as well.

That message would be, a despotic regime such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for all its human rights abuses, for imprisoning about a million minority Uyghurs in concentration camps, for clamping down on rights heretofore enjoyed by Hong Kong, for saber rattling toward Taiwan, for a still unfree Tibet, for Covid-19, does not, in any way, shape or form, deserve the honor of hosting the Olympic Games. 

The CCP should not be rewarded for its atrocious behavior. When a pro-democracy Hong Konger such as Jimmy Lai (among others) is jailed for protesting, and the newspaper he founded,the Apple Daily, is shuttered by the government, that is not the sign of a transparent society. When Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter publicly criticizes the CCP, and the end result that Chinese state television pulls all Celtics games from their airwaves, is not demonstrative of a country moving toward increased freedoms for its people.

Kanter, who on Monday November 29 became an official American citizen and legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom, has called upon the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to pull the 2022 Winter Games from Beijing. In addition to the numerous reasons mentioned above, Freedom specifically took up for Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. In a text on November 2 Shuai levied allegations of sexual assault against former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli. Subsequent to that text, it disappeared from the internet by no action of Shuai’s, followed by rumors of her disappearance from the public eye. Shuai is a former world number one tennis player in doubles competition as well as winner of two major titles and a three-time Olympian.

Consequently, upon word of Shuai’s sexual assault allegeations and disappearance, the Women’s Tennis Association pulled all of its future tournaments from China. Such a decision is likely to “cost women’s tennis hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue” according to WTA Chief Executive Steve Simon, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, on December 2. “If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded - equality for women - would suffer an immense setback,” said Simon.

Although Shuai eventually made what were clearly staged public appearances, Simon remained unsatisfied. “While we know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, and not subject to censorship, coercion, and intimidation,” he said.

Simon may have a point, as on December 20 Shuai claimed her initial allegation was misunderstood, that she was never under house arrest, and that the CCP is not watching her. The WTA responded with a statement. “We remain steadfast in our call for a full, fair, and transparent investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual assault, which is the issue that gave rise to our initial concern.”

In a sleight of hand misdirection, the CCP accused the WTA of politicizing its decision to pull tournaments out of China, and accused the United States of grandstanding regarding its announced diplomatic boycott. Feigning the wounded party, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, “This severely tarnishes the spirit of the Olympic Charter.” As if the behavior of the CCP for decades is a sterling example of fair play and sportsmanship.

Enes Kanter Freedom applauded the actions taken by the WTA, called on other major sports leagues to do likewise, and for the IOC to move the upcoming Beijing Olympics scheduled to run February 4-22 of next year. “All the gold medals in the world aren’t worth selling your morals, values, and principles to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Freedom.

“It’s time to wake up and speak up. Someone has to do it. So many athletes, actors, singers out there - they’re scared - they care too much about their money. They care too much about their endorsement deals. They care too much about what the teams they play for are going to say. It should be morals and principles over money. People’s lives depend on this. This is so important - especially with athletes - so many out there that idolize us - if we don’t stand up against this dictatorship, who will?

The Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Olympic values - excellence, respect, friendship, and they are a brutal dictatorship. They engage in censorship, they don’t respect human rights, and they hide the truth. There’s a genocide happening; there are millions of people in concentration camps getting tortured and gang raped every day. To put the Olympics in a country like this, it’s unacceptable. I feel like we should… push to move the games somewhere else,” said Freedom.

IOC Vice President John Coates offered a weak-kneed statement. “We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do. All we can do is to award the Olympics to a country, under conditions set out in a host contract.” What the hell does that mean? Beijing should have never been awarded these games in the first place. The behavior of the CCP has been well documented for decades.

The weakness of the IOC today is reminiscent of the inability of the American Olympic Committee to boycott the 1936 Games of the XI Summer Olympics - the Berlin Games - the Nazi Olympics. Inability or a lack of motivation on racial grounds. The 1936 Summer Games had been awarded to Berlin in 1931, two years prior to Hitler’s rise to power, and while Germany was still a parliamentary democracy, suffering that it was in the throes of the depression.

Hitler and the Nazis did a virtual 180 regarding the hosting of the Olympics - from initially opposing the games, whose motto was a “commitment to world peace and international understanding,” which clearly ran contrary to the Nazis positions of death and destruction, to becoming willing hosts of the “biggest and best Olympic party ever.” (1, 2) The games would become a tool for the Nazi propaganda machine.

Attendance at the Berlin Games would be the highest for the day and media coverage also reached its height. In addition to print and radio, the 1936 Summer Olympics saw the first live telecast - “live in black and white to athletes in the Olympic Village and to the wider public in 25 special viewing rooms located in Berlin and Potsdam. This was the first time a sporting event had ever been seen live on television screens.” (3)

After Hitler was installed as Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933, his anti-Jewish decrees were instituted one by one. In that same year, the German Swimming Association banned Jews; Germany’s Davis Cup tennis team gave the boot to one its best players, as he was Jewish; and the German Boxing Federation barred Jews from fighting or officiating. (4) Also in April 1933 a Germany-wide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses ensued.

Ironically, the international boycott attempt began in the United States, “a nation whose professed commitment to equality of opportunity in sports.” (5) This was 1933. Not for another 14 years would Major League Baseball begin to integrate with Jackie Robinson playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Had the United States actually boycotted the Nazi Games, more than likely France and Great Britain would have followed suit. (6) This in turn might have encouraged other European nations from participating in Hitler’s Propaganda Olympiad.

Appeals to American Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage fell on deaf ears as he supported the Olympic Games, and that they should remain in Berlin. Also, take note that Brundage was “infamous for his racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism.” (7)

In an attempt to quell further boycott scuttlebutt, the Hitler regime issued a statement that Germany would uphold the Olympic Charter and welcomed “competitors of all races.” (8) But with Hitler and the Nazis, it was promises made, promises never kept. All of this talk of boycott until this point was still in 1933, and Brundage submitted that “the Games are not until 1936 and there… will be many changes in the next three years.” (9) For the Jewish community in Germany those changes meant going from bad to worse.

The trusting of Hitler where the Olympics in general and Jewish participation on the German national team in particular were concerned, should have been a harbinger of how he would deal with Europe in general, and Great Britain Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain specifically as Hitler inched closer to war.

In a fact-finding tour in 1934, Brundage received assurances “that there will be no discrimination in Berlin against Jews.” (10) That did not lessen the American Jewish community’s call for a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics. Yet, on September 26, 1934 the American Olympic Committee voted to officially participate in the Nazi Olympics. The vote of the AOC was unanimous. (11) 

Although awarded in 1931, the IOC could have revoked that award of the Summer Games to Berlin, just as they should with Beijing now, in 2021. The 1980 boycott by the United States of the Summer Olympics in the former Soviet Union was justified, according to then President Jimmy Carter, because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  The ongoing situation in China is worse. The Soviet boycott of the Summer Games in 1984 held in Los Angeles was simply a revenge boycott.

Move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from Beijing to the joint sites of Lake Placid, New York and Montreal, Quebec. The two cities are amply equipped to host winter sports and are a mere 112 miles apart. Lake Placid hosted two Olympics the III and XIII games in 1932 and 1980 - the site of the famous “Miracle on Ice.” Montreal, which hosted the XXI Summer Games in 1976, has stadiums, arenas, and sites for all the ice sports. 

As President Ronald Reagan often said, “it can be done,” and if not the official Olympic Games, then call them the Freedom Games. Let not history repeat itself. Boycott Beijing, cancel all the advertising, and do not even televise the games in the United States. If we stand up for nothing, we will most certainly fall for anything.

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

Sources/Notes

(1) Large, Clay David Nazi Games the Olympics of 1936. W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2007 (P. 12)

(2) Ibid.

(3) www.guinnessworldrecords.com

(4) Large, (P. 65)

(5) Large, (P. 69)

(6) Ibid.

(7) The Nation, June 25, 2020

(8) Large, (P. 71)

(9) Large, (P. 74)

(10) Large, (P. 79)

(11) Large, (P. 79-80)

Biden Nominates Socialist to Currency Office

Biden Nominates Socialist to Currency Office
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 22, 2021

“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” This is a favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln. This is aptly applicable regarding Joe Biden nominating Saule Omarova to become the Comptroller of the Currency. While many have accused the Biden administration of creeping toward socialism, such an appointment demonstrates the sprint toward socialism.

“The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is an independent bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  The OCC charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks.

We ensure that the banks we supervise operate in a safe and sound manner, provide fair access to financial services, treat customers fairly, and comply with applicable laws and regulations. The OCC received no appropriations from Congress.” (occ.treas.gov) 

This is a very important position to which Omarova has been nominated and Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee are finding serious pause to approve this nominee based upon her own words. Right out of the gate it should be known that Omarova, currently a law professor at Cornell University, is a native of Kazakhstan while it still fell under the control of the then Soviet Union. She served at one time as an advisor in the Treasury Department, and has solid academic bona fides. Omarova earned her B.A. at Moscow State University, graduating in 1989 on the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship prior to immigrating to the United States in 1991. Once in the U.S. Omarova earned both her M.A. and Pd.D. at the University of Wisconsin, and her J.D. from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

While at Moscow State, Omarova wrote her thesis entitled “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.” When questioned about her thesis, she claimed to have forgotten about it ever since, yet it remained on her resume through 2017, and testified before the Banking Committee that she is unable to locate the document.

During Senator John Kennedy’s (R-LA) questioning of Omarova on Thursday, November 18, he pointed out that she joined a Marxist Facebook group discussing socialist and anti-capitalist views. He noted that Omarova, in a Canadian documentary, called the financial services industry, “a quintessential asshole industry.” Kennedy indicated Omarova wrote a paper calling for the federal government to set wages, food, and gas prices. 

In her 2020 paper “The Climate Case for National Divestment Authority,” Omarova supported having the federal government bankrupt the gas and oil industry in an effort to tackle climate change, said Kennedy. Starve them at their source of capital; if they go bankrupt, that would be a good thing, according to Omarova

“You have the right to believe every one of these things, you do,” said Kennedy to Omarova. “I don’t mean you any disrespect - I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade,” he concluded.

Continuing with the theme of the gas and oil industry, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) asked Omarova if higher gas prices are a good or bad thing for America. Saying she wasn’t sure, clearly Omarova had difficulty answering the question, said Hagerty. The Senator then read a direct quote from Omarova. “A lot of the smaller players in coal and oil and gas ought to probably go bankrupt in short order - at least we want them to go bankrupt - if we want to tackle climate change.”

Biden already destroyed American energy independence, continued Hagerty, adding that Omarova supported Operation Choke Point. This is a program where government officials would intimidate banks to stop lending to lawful American businesses that Democrats didn’t like. Called Operation Choke Point because the government abused its authority to try to choke off the financial oxygen from those targeted lawful American businesses.

Millions of Americans’ livelihoods depend upon employment within the gas and oil industry, while gas prices continue soaring, and although it’s not yet winter, the Biden administration wants to further cut gas and oil.

Calling for the need to abolish bank accounts in favor of mandatory accounts established with the Federal Reserve, where the Fed will have access to our personal data, Omarova wrote a 70 page article for the October 2021 issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Entitled “The People’s Ledger: How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy,” it becomes obvious Omarova’s goals include federalizing the American people’s personal bank accounts. Then, our own money will be used to finance the economy at will, not just under the IRS rules.

“It offers a blueprint for a comprehensive restructuring of the central bank balance sheet as the basis for redesigning the core architecture of modern finance. Focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve System (“the Fed”), the Article outlines a series of structural reforms that would radically redefine the role of a central bank as the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a democratic economy—the People’s Ledger.” Omarova’s words from the preamble summary of her article.

And dangerous words at that, especially when coupled with the following from the introduction of her article. “Americans are demanding a greater say in the distribution and use of financial resources.” Let that swirl around “the little grey cells,” as fictional detective Hercule Poirot often remarked. The distribution and use of financial resources - sure smacks of socialism at least, communism at worst. On what Omarova bases this assertion is unstated, but only socialist leaning indoctrinated students and those of that generation who clearly never properly learned the basics of economics would support such a radical notion. Federalizing American bank accounts to be controlled by the Fed? What could possibly go wrong? See also the American public education system and the United States Postal Service.

In her support of Omarova’s nomination, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called her an independent voice while referring to the banking industry as “their Republican buddies.” Warren should do her due diligence and learn how the Democrats raked in a small fortune from the banking industry in campaign contributions.

Omarova is deeply critical of the free enterprise system, privately allocating capital and expressing support of government allocation of capital. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) demonstrated Omarova’s support of government allocation of capital. “We need to correct the misallocation of money and credit in the U.S. economy, and we need to correct it on a systemic level…. We need to make sure banks channel money and financial resources precisely where, as the nation, as a community really need it to go,” read Toomey from a transcript of a podcast in which Omarova was a participant in June of this year.

Toomey read more of Omarova back to her during the Senate Banking Committee hearing. “We need to think about the role of the federal government vis a vis private business. It’s a team sport and in a team sport we all win or we all lose under the same circumstances, and ya know, every team requires a captain, and so the federal government should step into that role and should become the captain in terms of allocation of resources. And I think that the government needs to step into private market operations. Right? In order to align the incentives of individual corporations with the interest of the public.” Toomey noted reading this long quote in order to provide context.

Far too often throughout the hearing Omarova would either deny what the real meaning of her words meant, or claim they were being taken out of context. Every quote? Every comment? Every 70 page article? Simply not plausible. This nominee is simply too dangerous to be installed into such an important position being able to make life altering decisions for millions of Americans.

“You get to decide who gets to open a bank and who doesn’t. You get to decide what kind of loans get to be made, and which ones can’t. You could forbid a bank from a merger. You could forbid a bank from opening new branches. You could create or destroy a whole category of bank charters. You could decide which kinds of loans receive favorable regulatory treatment through the CRA eligibility. And every bank would know that their fate is, to a very large degree, in your hands, and they would know what your views are about the banking industry, about the private allocation of capital. This is what’s so chilling. I think this answers the question of why so many, including community banks, are very, very concerned about where you would take the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,” said Toomey.

Omarova is a Biden nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency with potentially far too great powers and possessing far too dangerous ideas that are anti-democratic, anti-capitalist, and most assuredly strongly socialist. Throughout her hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Omarova spent some of her time suggesting that because she is an immigrant, a woman, and a minority is why she is being challenged so vigorously. Ah, woe is me, they don’t like me, that’s why they won’t let me join their club. No, it’s because her ideas are dangerous, frightening, and most assuredly not right for the United States of America. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) said it is the concerns the senators have with Omarova’s extensive written record, and not the “modern day McCarthyism” as Senator Warren said.

Omarova spent most of her time denying the true measure of a career’s worth of words, writings, and publicly spoken beliefs. Is the committee to believe she has turned on a dime to suggest otherwise? The proof is in the details and without question, Omarova should be denied the Comptroller of the Currency post. Call your United States senators and politely tell them to vote against this nominee. This number, 202-224-3121, will reach the United States Senate switchboard - they can forward your call to the correct senator’s office.

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

Winsome Sears - Winner for Virginia

Winsome Sears - Winner for Virginia
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn 
November 2, 2021

“What you’re looking at is the American dream.” Thus began the victory speech by newly elected Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, peppered by cheers, applause, and a chorus of “Win-some, Win-some,” before a patient and packed house in Chantilly where the GOP held their election night headquarters.

It was shortly before 1 AM, by which time Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican, had been declared the winner in governor’s race, that Sears, a United States Marine veteran, took to the stage, flanked by her husband Terence, also a Marine, and two adult daughters, Katia and Janel.

Being elected Lt. Gov., Sears becomes the first Black female to win statewide office in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In fact, in 2001, Sears became the first, and still only, Black Republican woman elected to the House of Delegates in Virginia, winning in an upset over a 20-year Democrat incumbent.

Along her path, the 57-year-old native of Kingston, Jamaica ran a homeless shelter and served as Vice President of the Virginia State Board of Education. Education was a vital plank of Sears’ campaign, although it was Youngkin who garnered the most attention during the campaign as the education candidate. (This became especially true following the September 28 gubernatorial debate where Youngkin’s Democrat opponent Terry McAuliffe said “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach…. I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.”) Sears herself earned a B.A. at Old Dominion University in English with a minor in Economics and an M.A. at Regent University in Organizational Leadership.

Sears’ American dream actually began seven months prior to her own birth when her father immigrated to the United States on August 11, 1963 with a mere “$1.75 in his pocket.” Sears would later ask her father why he would come to the United States during a time as turbulent as the Civil Rights Movement. “Because America is where the jobs and opportunities are,” he told his daughter.

“When I joined the Marines I was still a Jamaican. But I was willing to die for this country,” Sears said proudly, adding she is “proud to be American and its future,” as the crowd began to chant “U-S-A, U-S-A!”

“There are those who want to divide us and we must not let that happen. They would like us to believe we are back in 1963 when my father came…. We can live where we want. We can eat where we want.  We own the water fountains,” said Sears. “We have elected a Black president - twice. Here I am - living proof! In case you haven’t noticed, I am Black and I have been Black all my life,” continued Sears to increasing applause and cheers.

Sears was referencing McAuliffe and his team calling Youngkin and his team white supremacists. Apparently, McAuliffe was not paying attention as Virginia elected a Black Republican Lieutenant Governor, and a Cuban-American Republican Attorney General in Jason Miyares.

And in spite of these glaringly idiotic statements by the tonedeaf left, the likes of disgraced former ESPN sports reporter Jemele Hill doubled down on this failed theme. Mere minutes after Sears gave her impassioned and inspiring victory speech, Hill, herself who is Black, Tweeted “It’s not the messaging, folks, This country simply loves white supremacy.”  Apparently Hill is not just tonedeaf, but colorblind as well. But take it from whence it comes - Hill was suspended in 2017 and ultimately fired in 2018. She repeatedly politicized her work for the sport network supporting the kneeling of athletes during the National Anthem, called for the boycott of advertisers, and for the coup de grace, called President Donald Trump a white supremacist on September 11, 2017 - statement ESPN disavowed. 

Joy Reid of the far-left MSNBC, supposedly a reporter, opined “Education [using air quotes], which is code for white parents don’t like the idea of teaching about race…. You have to be willing to vocalize that these Republicans are dangerous.” This is about a Commonwealth that cast more than 1.66 million votes for Sears and nearly that many for Miyares in their victories.

Nicolle Wallace, also of MSNBC, piled on with a lie that has been running rampant in progressive circles, that “Critical Race Theory, which isn’t real, turned the suburbs 15 points.” Let’s put an end to this nonsense - CRT IS real, and there is written proof it is embedded in Virginia’s educational system. But not for long, should Youngkin fulfill his promise of banning the controversial and clearly racist ideology designed to conquer and divide school children into indelibly permanent classes of victim and victimizer. 

“But that’s not what this is about,” said Sears. She listed a litany of goals for the upcoming administration such as citizens keeping more of their own money, safer neighborhoods, and “our children are going to get a good education. Education lifted my father out of poverty. Education lifted me out of poverty. Education will lift us all out of poverty,” declared the Lt. Gov.-Elect, adding that children will “not just survive, but thrive, with marketable skills and create generational wealth. We will have transparent government.”

“This is a historic night. I did not set out to make history. I just wanted to leave it better than I found it,” said Sears, paraphrasing a strongly held American Indian belief. “Help is on the way. The cavalry has arrived,” concluded Sears to more applause as she thanked her family, supporters, and team on such a momentous time in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He lived in Northern Virginia from 2001-2011 and was a one-time candidate for public office there.

Revenge of the Braves

Revenge of the Braves
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 25, 2021

For the first time since 1999 the Atlanta Braves will represent the National League in the World Series. While the series will open Tuesday, October 26 in Houston as the Astros will be the American League standard bearer, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred may not be welcome in either city.

Although Manfred was at the helm of MLB during the height of the Astros cheating scandal, only a couple players remain with the team. However, the Commish had better bring an umbrella to Truist Park in Atlanta for Game Three on Friday as the fans will rain down boos upon him like that of a monsoon for the dastardly act of spiriting away to Denver this year’s MLB All-Star Game from the home of the Braves.

Floundering in the middle of the National League Eastern division around the time of that All-Star break in mid-July, postseason seemed an out of reach fantasy, especially after losing two of their best players to serious injuries. Two-thirds of the Braves starting outfield went down for the count with season ending injuries - right fielder Ronald Acuna, Jr., one of MLB’s most exciting young players, and left fielder Marcell Ozuna. 

Heading into the All-Star break the Braves found themselves in third place with a record of a mediocre 44-45, and an even worse tally of 51-54 at the July 30 trading deadline. But the Braves maintained a busy trading schedule, swapping for right hand relief pitcher Richard Rodriguez and four outfielders, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, and the pearl-clad right fielder Joc Pederson, having such a fine postseason, he has been dubbed “Joctober.” Each of them, save for Rodriguez, had a better season once they joined the Braves, and the Braves took off like a rocket, finishing the last third of the season 37-19, for an overall record of 88-73, winning the East. Following the division win, the Braves dispatched the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Divisional Series, before sending the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers home in the National League Championship Series, setting up their date with the Astros in the World Series.

Now, the Braves are getting their revenge on Major League Baseball. After losing the All-Star Game and the MLB Draft to Denver for reasons that contradict reality, Manfred, who has made myriad awful decisions during his tempestuous tenure as MLB Commissioner, surrendered to the woke mob when announcing the move on April 2 that this is “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”

Stripping the city of Atlanta of the MLB All-Star Game was the misguided punishment levied by Manfred and MLB in response to the new Georgia voting laws. According to those opposing the amended law, who, quite frankly had not bothered to read it, say it limits minority access to the ballot and is a direct challenge to voters attempting to cast ballots by mail or in person, sans valid identification. 

In acts of cowardice and hypocrisy, Manfred, who obviously had also not read the bill/law, succumbed to the irrationality of the woke crowd and took their hysterical complaints at “face value,” said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. The Georgia legislature “passed common sense voting laws” to protect the integrity of elections, added Carr. 

People in Georgia support voter ID laws and the integrity of the drop boxes, said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), who signed the bill into law on March 25 of this year, prompting the outcry of the ignorant and Manfred’s feeble decision on April 2. Kemp indicated that this has been the “largest African-American voter turnout in the nation since 2018.” The governor added that early voting was occurring currently, “with no horror stories going on.” Kemp further pointed out that Colorado, the host of the All-Star Game, and Iowa, the August 12 host of the Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees Field of Dreams game, have “more restrictive voting laws than Georgia.”

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions at the ballot box,” said Manfred. Had Manfred bothered to conduct his due diligence and simply read the 95 page bill outlining the truth about the voting laws, all of this injudiciousness could have been avoided. Joe Biden also supported Manfred’s decision, yet another manner of knowing it was shortsighted from jump. (It should be noted that Biden’s adopted home state of Delaware does not enjoy early voting - much stricter than Georgia.) Most reports defining the bill as restrictive did so without any specific examples from the legislation itself.

ABC News reported on June 2, that Job Creators Network, a non-partisan business organization, filed a lawsuit for one billion dollars in punitive damages against Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association, Manfred, and MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark as co-defendants. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, the home base of Major League Baseball’s offices. Businesses, many minority owned, were predicted to lose $100 million during All-Star weekend. ABC inaccurately reported upon aspects of the bill/law, that, had they bothered to read the 95 page document, could have been avoided. Simple journalistic integrity.

While Manfred decided voter identification was too restrictive, it should be noted that across Major and Minor League Baseball, ID is required at stadium will call windows.

Job Creators Network sent a letter to Manfred objecting to his terrible decision, noting the importance of the All-Star Game to Atlanta and minority business owners. “Your decision is punishing the very group you claim to be defending,” wrote Alfredo Ortiz, representing Job Creators. “Small businesses in Georgia are hurting, and you pulled a multi-million dollar rug out from underneath them…. Don’t let activist groups weaponize America’s pastime to push radical ideas that Major League Baseball fans don’t support,” continued Ortiz.

“When big business teams up with politicians, they make bad decisions, and small businesses and their hardworking employees suffer the most,” said Darrell Anderson, a Black owner of a limousine service. “Politics should be decided at the ballot box. It has no place in making business decisions, like where to hold the All-Star Game,” continued Anderson, owner of ASG - Airport Shuttle Group, LLC.

According to a Rasmussen poll, the majority of Black voters opposed moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

And from the flip side, it is “ridiculous to inject politics in baseball,” Governor Kemp said, while eagerly awaiting Game Three of the Fall Classic to take the field at Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia.

Play Ball!, says this lifelong New York Mets fan, who in good conscience cannot root for the Braves, as they are divisional archrivals.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. The New Jersey native has been a loyal Mets fan since 1972. Ironically, this column was written on the 35th anniversary of the famed Mookie Wilson-Bill Buckner, Game Six of the 1986 World Series. Two nights later, the Mets would wrap up that World Series against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets have not won a World Series since. 

Biden's Meandering March Toward Socialism

Biden’s Meandering March Toward Socialism
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
October 20, 2021

I don’t care where they came from. I don’t care why they came here. If they are here illegally, they have broken the laws of the United States of America and are entitled to absolutely nothing, except a one way return ticket to their country of origin. Before they are appropriately deported, they must be fingerprinted and photographed - a national database must be established.

As for the unmitigated hypocrisy of Joe Biden and his cronies, if what they think is following the science, the science must be schizophrenic. Here’s the proof - as admitted by Biden press shill, Jen Psaki - that workers (American citizens) employed at a company of 100 or more employees must be vaccinated or risk losing their jobs and their ability to support their families. Yet, illegals, committing a crime by their mere presence in this country, are neither subjected to a Covid test or a mandatory vaccine. Psaki’s response: “Yes, that’s right.”

Why are the nation’s employers running scared of the Biden administration? Whether schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, corporations, manufacturers, and/or airlines - if they ALL simply refuse to mandate their employees to put a drug they may not want or need into their bodies. What do these employers think will happen? They will get fined $700,000? How does the government expect to collect this money - a punishment for not adhering to Biden’s hypocritical and inconsistent edicts? The vaccine-tax police? Employers of the nation UNITE.

If individuals want the vaccine - good - G-d bless. If they don’t, that’s good too, and G-d bless. The federal government cannot legally force drugs into our bodies. Are the vaccine police going to invade our homes, strap us down, and jab us with a needle full of a drug we may not need or want? This totalitarian behavior by the federal government will only become more severe and impactful on our lives. This is the slippery slope - first a drug - and people follow blindly - oh, right, it’s a public health crisis - but what next? Will the government ban certain foods because the Department of Health and Human Services determines are unhealthy for the general public? Or banning religious rites and practices because the government does not support or understand them?

The hypocrisy continues where public gatherings are concerned. BLM rallies and Antifa riots, arson, and vandalism are unpunished, acceptable activities, but a peaceful motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD is demonized as are outdoor Independence Day gatherings.

Congress has exempted itself from the Covid vaccine. What do they know that the rest of us don’t? Why have many thousands of doctors and nurses put their employment at risk because they have opted out of the vaccine? Again, what do they know that the rest of us don’t? Why is the federal government willing to have all these people, and possibly hundreds of thousands more, lose jobs heretofore deemed vital and essential for the past year and a half? Why is the federal government willing to put the American people in harm's way by weakening our military, numerous police and fire departments, as well as hospitals by having those essential workers fired for standing up for their principles, and their right to not put a drug in their bodies they may not want or need? Does this make America safer or stronger? 

For that matter, why should anyone spend their hard earned money in stores where rampant shoplifting goes unchallenged or unprosecuted? But that’s an issue involving well placed, far left, progressive district attorneys hand picked by the evil George Soros for the purpose of continuing to destroy the United States. But that’s not the only reason store shelves are increasingly bare.

The supply chain crisis is further impacted by the missing employees and increasingly exacerbated by the federal government continuing to encourage people to stay home instead of returning to their jobs.

“The shelves in our grocery stores are starting to resemble Third World countries,” said US Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), also a veteran having spent time the world over on active duty.

And taxes will rise to pay those not working as well as the ever steadily increasing numbers of illegals continuing to invade our borders - here illegally, yet being given free healthcare, education, food stamps, housing, and even obtaining driver’s licenses. Seven to eight billion people cannot be refugees and thus take refuge in the United States. The American taxpayer cannot continue to foot these bills, nor should they be required to do so. Eventually the American taxpayer will get tired of doing so, stop working, and like any socialist society, the government will run out of other people’s money.

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

9-11: 20 Years Later - Are We Any Safer?

9-11: 20 Years Later - Are We Any Safer?

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

August 30, 2021

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That the longest war in United States history should come to a shocking conclusion in abject failure on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack perpetrated on American soil is beyond disappointing to the men and women who wear and have worn the uniform of the American military. In fact, it should be disappointing to all Americans.

The good intentions to which I refer are the hopes I had in writing a different column regarding the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but it is impossible to ignore the two-ton elephant in the room - the crumbling failure in Afghanistan as after 20 years of keeping the Taliban at bay, the terror group captured the Islamic nation in less than two weeks. Afghanistan fell like a hot knife through butter. Does that make the United States any safer?

Joe Biden, in less than eight months in the White House, has become Jimmy Carter Redux, giving an entire nation a serious case of acid reflux, while all else is faltering around him - inflation on the rise, a southern border masquerading as a sieve, severe indoctrination in our public schools, creeping socialism, and a nation more divided than at any time since the War Between the States (1861-65). Biden’s absolute failure in Afghanistan is the disaster at the Bay of Pigs (Cuba 1961), the optics and the fall of Saigon (Vietnam 1975), the potentiality of a worse hostage crisis than that of Iran (1979-81), and a greater slaughter than Benghazi, all rolled into one - on steroids. Does that make the United States any safer?

Under feckless leadership, the United States is no safer, no smarter, and certainly no stronger than it was on September 10, 2001. While four presidents failed to learn from history - how the Soviets could not defeat the Afghan-Mujahideen from 1979-89, it was the ineffectiveness of Biden to extract Americans and their allies from Afghanistan in an appropriate, safe, secure manner. The incompetence of Biden, his Defense Department under General Lloyd Allen, his State Department under Antony Blinken, and his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley has created the quagmire that is the back-asswards retreat and surrender in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

That heads have not rolled in the form of firings and resignations, especially after the suicide bombings leaving 13 US servicemen and women slaughtered at the hands of ISIS-K is unconscionable. Biden and his minions have the blood of those brave, honorable men and women on their hands. As left wing progressives are fond of saying when wishing to honor some slain criminal, “say their names,” do just that here. Say their names:

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, Rio Bravo, TX

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, Sacramento, CA

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, Salt Lake City, UT

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, Corryton, TN

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, Indio, CA

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, Jackson, WY

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, Norco, CA

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, Omaha, NE

Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario-Pichardo, 25, Lawrence, MA

Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, Logansport, IN

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, St. Charles, MO

Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, Berlin Heights, OH

May their memories always be for a blessing, and may their service to a great and grateful nation not have been in vain, nor ever forgotten. 

While these 13 heroes are laid to rest back home on American soil, we recall the nearly 3,000 men, women, and children murdered on September 11, 2001. The failure of August 2021 is an insult to the memories of all those murdered on 9/11 in Manhattan, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA, as well as every man and woman who has worn an American military uniform fighting the never ending war on terror.

We did not learn from history. The savage, G-dless enemy - Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS, ISIS-K, as well as every Muslim extremist, and every Islamic terrorist has the patience of Job, but the demonic will of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, - whether 20 years or 20 decades, they will wait us out, as has been evidenced in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

The currently weak-kneed United States doesn’t have the stomach for a long drawn out military engagement - even overseas. Secretary Allen and Chairman Milley have committed their all too valuable time to testifying before Congress about white rage and racism in the US military and attempting social engineering with said military while not returning to the days when our allies could depend upon the United States and our enemies feared the United States. Does that make the United States any safer?

Today, and this will be Biden’s legacy, the United States is an undependable laughingstock overseas, and more reviled at home than ever before - including during the turbulent 1960s and the entirety of our involvement in Vietnam. Indoctrination, and now the full court press for Critical Race Theory in the classrooms, running rampant in American public schools, is at an all time high, but this did not commence yesterday. No, this has been ongoing for more than a generation - anti-American Americans who obviously never learned the history of the United States, anti-American Americans not understanding context and the tremendous progress achieved in the United States. Does that make the United States any safer?

I would trade all the US-born malcontents for the Cubans and Hong Kongers waving American flags at great personal peril to life and limb for the freedoms they so richly deserve in their homelands. The United States women’s soccer team, other Olympians who turned their backs on the American flag, who behave disrespectfully during the playing and singing of the Star Spangled Banner, and the leader of these classless snowflakes - Colin Kaepernick should try pulling that crap and living in Angola, China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, or Venezuela. See how that works out for them. They can thank the veterans in wheelchairs who fought for those malcontents’ right to be malcontents and take a knee.

Those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen - volunteers - who signed a blank check for up to and including the ultimate sacrifice, made their sacrifices to enable those unappreciative, ungrateful, anti-American Americans to live lives of unbridled hedonism while spitting on the memories of those who gave their all and left it all on the battlefield. Does that make the United States any safer?

The hundreds of police and firefighters who were murdered on September 11, 2001 did not stop their rescue attempts to check out the skin color of those they were rescuing. Those first responders did not ask about the race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation of those rescued either. No; they plunged headfirst into danger and the face of death in efforts to serve and rescue as many people as possible.

For the 20th 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. 

A brief timeline of the harrowing and disturbing 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. 

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. 

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. 

9:59 AM: The South Tower collapses in 10 seconds after burning 56 minutes. More than 800 civilians and first responders are murdered. 

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 heroism, knowingly sacrificing their lives in an effort to prevent thousands more from perishing had that plane 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. 

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.

May the memories of the 2,977 murdered on September 11, 2001 always be for a blessing.

U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, said “America is less safe and in a worse position than in 2001.” The US has no bases in the region, now that Biden surrendered Bagram Air Base to the Taliban. Does that make the United States any safer? 

There is not one single country surrounding Afghanistan that will allow the United States to base there or conduct intel ops. Afghanistan, population about 38 million, is surrounded by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the east and south, and Iran to the west, is roughly the size of Texas. 

Biden, and his foreign policy team of Keystone Cops, who should all be standing in the unemployment line, conducted his entire evacuation backwards. Biden was pulling troops out of Afghanistan before all Americans and SIV (Special Immigrant Visas) holders could be extracted. Biden left more than $80 billion worth of American military and technological equipment behind, abandoned the base at Agram, and surrendered the country to the Taliban - an unmitigated embarrassment. Does that make the United States any safer?

The strategy that should have been implemented, and what President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) declared they would have enacted, and what makes the most sense, was to extract all Americans and qualified allies first, demilitarize or destroy equipment unable to be removed, bomb your own bases, THEN the military turns out the lights and gets the hell out of Dodge.

As that order was not followed, when the last five American military planes took off from the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul on August 30, on orders from Washington, DC, some Americans and Afghan allied translators holding SIV were left behind. No additional Americans were on board any of those last five planes. Those left behind are in grave danger, as the Taliban possesses American biometric scanners, able to identify people via eyescans. Taliban terrorists are going door to door looking for Americans and their Afghan allies, and not because they are looking to take up a game of cricket. A young Afghan girl not wearing a head covering was shot and a popular Afghan folk singer was murdered for playing music. More senseless death. Pray for the women, children, teachers, and journalists that remain in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

Ultimately, the government of the United States handed Afghanistan back to the same terror group that controlled the country on September 11, 2001 - the Taliban. It will once again become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, and Taliban terrorists. While the war in Afghanistan may be over, the war on terror most assuredly is not. The sleeper cells are awakening. With the porous southern border of the United States, not expecting terror activity in the United States would be naive. That said, our American troops fought valiantly and served honorably; it was the United States government that did not leave Afghanistan with honor. It is shameful that anyone has been left behind. Does that make the United States any safer?

The United States should take a long break from nation building and worry about fixing the myriad problems that have beset this country over the last several generations. Quite frankly, the U.S. should have left Afghanistan in 2011 following the long overdue killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Genuine infrastructure problems need solving - crumbling roads, bridges, dams, airports, getting internet access for all Americans. Many of these projects can and should be public-private partnerships. Breaking the grip by teachers unions over American public education must be a priority, as well as keeping CRT out of the classrooms. More charter, parochial, and private schools should be created to foster a system of competition forcing schools to improve or close. Competition - the spirit of American capitalism; capitalism - the spirit of American invention, freedom, growth, and progress.

On the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 the United States is at a crossroads, a tipping point. This is, as Ronald Reagan said in a great speech he gave in 1964, “A Time for Choosing.” Will we allow the woke anti-American Americans to turn the United States into a socialist country with a loss of the freedoms found in the Constitution - speech, religion, assembly, the right to defend oneself and one’s property? Will we continue to bow to the woke tech-corporate-media triumvirate of evil, or will we finally stand up, speak up, take back our rights, take back our country and retain our G-d given freedoms and tell the woke that they don’t speak for real Americans. Am I the only one wishing for the return to the civility that was September 12, 2001 (minus the death and destruction)? This is a time for choosing, and I choose freedom. There is a growing band of Cubans and Hong Kongers who have that spirit that once reigned in the United States. It’s time we choose to recapture that spirit and those freedoms. May G-d continue to bless these United States of America.

One of my favorite Ronald Reagan quotes is aptly appropriate here. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

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.

A 9/11 Compendium: 2001-2020

A 9/11 Compendium: 2001-2020
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
August 30, 2021

September 11-12, 2001 America at War
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/1376003781830077428

September 5, 2002 One Year Later
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/3400231616882251322

September 7, 2007 9/11 Six Years Later
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/4096331614366856295

September 7, 2009 Remember the Fallen, Forget the Politics
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/7881998122050008192

August 16, 2010 Zero Mosque: Legal: Yes; Moral: Never
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/4473286323620093425

September 1, 2011 Reflections on September 11, 2001
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/5377223110677195235

September 2, 2011 Whitewashing 9-11
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/1835794043925201135

September 3, 2012 Eleven Years Ago
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/163164185553538875

September 6, 2013 One Date, Two Tragedies
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/1668016745439715483

September 11, 2014 9-11: Looking Back; Looking Ahead
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/9053459989818885779

September 9. 2015 Another 9-11: Vigilance or Venality?
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/347974593638085036

September 8, 2016 9-11’s Kindergartners Vote for President
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/6134530341432004534

September 8, 2017 Not a Sweet 16
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/2521301323072068210

September 9, 2018 September 11 - What Real Sacrifice Looks Like
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/7867626707400850871

September 8, 2019 9/11 Ancient History to Millennials 
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/3537121818366787702

September 4, 2020 9-11 In the Age of Covid
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4560465072711180606/4643914489296163581

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. Growing up in the shadows of the World Trade Center in northern New Jersey, on September 11, 2001 he worked for a northern Virginia newspaper a mere 10 minutes from the Pentagon.

Cry Me a River, Texas Democrats

Cry Me a River, Texas Democrats

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

July 26, 2021

Choosing to flee their state, their jobs, and their constituents, Texas legislative Democrats, holed up in Washington, DC, are crying poverty and asking constituents, or anyone who gives a damn, to send these aging summer campers care packages.

These insubordinate privileged Texas Democrats, in a Tweet from @DallasDemocrats, wrote “Our Dems in DC said they’d appreciate care packages from home. Before 5 PM Tuesday, we’re collecting Dr. Pepper, salsa, hard candy, hair spray, travel toiletries, hand sanitizers, sewing kits, first aid and/or money to pay shipping. TY.” A mailing address followed, but these people do not need any further encouragement. It was bad enough that the runaway Texans were referred to as “freedom fighters.” What an affront to true freedom fighters like protesters in Cuba and Hong Kong.

Such unmitigated gaul to beg their friends, relatives, and constituents to finance their unapproved road trip to DC. They lacked the basic manners to even spell out “thank you.” They need more than a timeout, but they certainly don’t need other people to shell out their hard earned money to support these peevish, hypocritical malcontents.

Hypocritical because while they ran away (or flew away) from their jobs in Austin, demonstrating a real filibuster, once in Washington, they lobbied for the federal filibuster to be eliminated. They ran away like petulant three year olds in an effort to protest bills that support election integrity laws. And let the record show that 75 percent of voters, Democrat, Republican, and Independent support voter photo identification. US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has said that Democrats are not opposed to voter ID, although he and many others in his party have called the requirement racist and disenfranchising. For more on the specifics: https://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2021/07/tx-dems-need-lesson-in-real-sacrifice.html

After repeated requests, even Joe Biden has not met with these wayward Texas Democrats. And it has ruffled the feathers of one specific State Representative - Richard Pena Raymond, who expressed his aggravation to Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett via the Austin Statesman. “He won’t meet with us on Zoom like this, and I’m trying to be tactful, but I don’t know how else to say it, man. I’m just pissed off at this point. He doesn’t give us the respect the way you have,” Raymond said to Doggett. Perhaps these Texas Democrats have not earned any respect for their churlish behavior.

Proving the adage attributed to American showman P.T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute,” Robert Francis “Beto” O’ Rourke has given his fellow Democrats $600,000 and blames Biden for not doing what is “required,” knowing the “threat they are under in Texas.” That, plus the obdurate Democrats are still being remunerated their $221 per diem and $600 monthly salary, so they have nothing about which to complain.

Having lived in Alexandria, VA for a number of years, I can attest that Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, WalMart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and various dollar stores carry all of the above requested items for the defiant Democrats’ care packages. So the Texas Democrats can buy their own crap, cut the crap, get back to Texas and actually do their jobs - jobs they wanted by running for office.

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

TX Dems Need Lesson in Real Sacrifice
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 19, 2021

I recently penned a column denouncing the calling of the wayward Texas Democrats “brave, courageous and making sacrifices.” They are and have done none of those things in abandoning their sworn duties as well as the constituents they are duty bound to represent.

These indolent Texas Democrats have made unconscionable claims that the bill to protect the rights of voters is racist, an attack on democracy, and even a return to the days of Jim Crow prior to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Those claims, many made  by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be viewed as an affront to all those men, women, and children who endured true struggle, made enormous sacrifices, some even the ultimate sacrifice of life and limb. Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat by streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

In order to ensure election integrity, voters are required to provide photo identification, exhibit signature verification, a chain of custody and a paper receipt will be provided to voters, voter rolls will be updated prior to every election, and partisan witnesses from the several parties will observe the vote count. There is nothing racist, discriminatory, or disenfranchising about SB-7. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it perfectly clear that any Texas citizen of voting age would be given an ID - gratis - if unable to afford one.

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage; drive-through voting is not curbside voting, which is allowed for those unable to enter their polling station. While curbside voting is limited ostensibly to the disabled, drive-through voting would require many more poll workers and poll watchers.

When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. This absolutely will diminish fraudulent votes from being cast. Ballot harvesting is also not permitted and its ban will have similar results as individual ballot requests. It is also a felony to pay for votes.

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day - mandated for 12 hours per day in counties with populations greater than 30,000 citizens, an improvement from those with more than 100,000 citizens. Polls can be open for any 12 consecutive hour period between 6 AM and 9 PM, and companies are required to allow workers early dismissal on Election Day. (Quite frankly, a uniform 6 AM to 8 PM for all polling locations should be the rule.)

Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. Cities with populations greater than 100,000 must provide live streaming of the vote counting in polling stations. Additionally, all votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail-in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026.

Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. The counties set the locations, which are supposed to be convenient for the voters - such as on public transit routes and accessibility for the disabled. The Democrats complained about this particular item because they claim there are fewer polling stations in poor and minority communities. They should work harder to register more voters.

No legal voter is being denied their right to vote. No legal voter is being disenfranchised.

Did any of the runaway Democrats from Texas get their heads bashed in the way the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis was attacked? Or any other of the other hundreds of marchers on that “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965 who were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned? They were marching and fighting for real, genuine voting rights, a bill that would be enacted later that year upon the signature of President Lyndon Johnson.

And how obtuse is Biden, making outlandish claims that voter ID laws in places like Texas and Georgia are “literally like the Civil War.” Really? The bloodiest war ever fought on American soil, seeing the deaths of greater than 600,000 Americans - that is not as bad as asking legally registered voters to show identification proving they are who they say they are? In fact, the most recent claims of voter intimidation were during the 2016 presidential election in Philadelphia when the New Black Panther Party attempted to frighten white voters away from their polling stations.

Andersonville, Antietam, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Vicksburg. Were those bloodiest of battles less destructive, less painful in terms of loss, than the content of the voter integrity bill in Texas? How about the sacrifice made by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry - an all Black regiment? Led by white commanders who lost their lives alongside their own troops, the 54th lost 281 of its 600 men in battle at Fort Wagner, SC. This spurred more than 100,000 Black men to volunteer with the Union Army. Was their sacrifice of lesser significance than the voting rights bills in Texas and Georgia? 

“We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole,” Biden said during a speech on July 13 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Has Biden forgotten about the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy? How about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 or the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001? Does he even know the definition of hyperbole?

How Biden can have the unmitigated audacity to call the newly amended and improved voting laws in Texas and Georgia, “Jim Crow 2.0,” and “Jim Crow on steroids,” is the antithesis of sanity. He also said “The 21st Century Jim Crow assault is real,” at the same July 13 speech. Perhaps Biden, in his advancing senility, forgot what really occurred during the evil era of Jim Crow. Such as no Blacks voting in entire counties of the Deep South, or Blacks being given virtually impossible literacy tests - interpreting parts of a state’s constitution to the satisfaction of the county clerk or other official who denied those citizens their 15th Amendment right to vote on a racist whim; or being given the ridiculous task of counting the bubbles in a bar of soap or leaves on a tree. Not to mention the egregious poll taxes preventing Blacks from voting, which came to an end upon the ratification of the 24th Amendment on January 23, 1964. 

Some who don’t understand the history of the United States consider this country to be evil because change was not revolutionary, but instead evolutionary, and label the United States as perpetually and systemically racist. A systemically racist country does not elect and reelect a Black president, elect a woman of color vice president, have many Black men and women appointed to high governmental positions by white presidents both Democrat and Republican, and have Black athletes and entertainers revered by millions of white fans.

If anyone is attempting to dismantle the voting processes and system it is Biden, Harris, and their ilk in attempting to federalize all elections - a clear violation of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. They are afraid they will lose power with better, more streamlined voting policies. This is not a GOP power grab as they are already in the majority in Texas. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

According to the Dallas Morning News of July 14, Texas legislators are paid $7,200 per year ($600 per month) as well as a per diem of $221 for each of the 140 days of the legislative session, held every other year, for a total of $38,140. The runaway Democrats should be required to return their salary and per diem for every day they remain absent from the ongoing legislative session. This most assuredly is not sacrifice. Genuine sacrifice was made by Black soldiers fighting one war overseas, then returning to fight another war at home. Real sacrifice was made by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, and Clarence Thomas. As for the Texas Democrats, theirs is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels, cowards, and malcontents. The voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day and send those Democrats packing for a permanent vacation away from Austin.

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

Bona Fide Bravery
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 15, 2021

While Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and especially Kamala Harris are engaging in a drool-fest over the “bravery” of the Texas Democrats who fled both their state and their responsibilities, devaluing the meaning of that word, real bravery is being exhibited from Havana to Hong Kong and parts in between.

Bravery is thousands upon thousands of Cuban nationals taking to the streets to protest the totalitarian Marxist-Communist government that has been torturing and murdering its own citizens for 62 years. These brave men and women are under threat of arrest, imprisonment, or worse, but their quest for real, genuine freedom, dignity, and human rights heretofore not experienced in more than three generations has superseded the potential punitive actions the Miguel Diaz-Canal regime could mete out against its own people.

While far too many so-called Americans are busy disrespecting,  spitting on, turning their backs on, trampling on, and even burning the American flag, thousands of Cubans can be seen marching with American flags. The same is true in Hong Kong, where their rights and freedoms are being subjugated by the Chinese Communist Party, and thousands of Hong Kongers are also witnessed marching with American flags. Brave men like entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, 72, founder of Apple Daily, a popular newspaper forced into closure by the CCP, have been imprisoned along with members of the paper’s staff simply for attempting to communicate the truth to the people. 

These brave men and women are fighting for the right to communicate freely and openly, being denied in both Hong Kong and Cuba. The governments of both locales dictate the when and how often access to the outside world via the internet is granted while Americans take these inherent freedoms for granted. Havana and Beijing can flip a switch putting their own people in a technological black hole. Worse still, is the growing amount of censorship, at first creeping into our own American society, now blatantly being thrust upon us, being accepted by a press and media who should be fighting for every word to be printed, spoken, or recorded, whether or not they agree with those words.

“I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote has been incorrectly attributed to Voltaire for more than a century, but actually came from Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her 1906 biography about Voltaire, in her summary of his thoughts on free speech. 

Free speech, sadly, is at a premium in the United States - the last best beacon of hope for freedom on this planet. Between the political correctness, cancel culture, and wokeness denying free speech and calling anyone who dares to speak freely a racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, xenophobe, anti-Muslim, and anti-Asian, most Americans fear for their basic employment and/or place in American society. People supporting capitalism are also being lambasted for denying equity in today’s America where equality is now ancient history, and skin color is the rule of the day. We are surrendering rights brave men and women outside of these United States are willing to die to acquire. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Consider Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. Under a constant threat of death, a recent plot to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home, send her to Venezuela en route to Iran, was thwarted. At-large and wanted by the FBI are Iranians Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Omid Noori, and Kiya Sadeghi. Alinejad is an outspoken journalist who wrote The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran. This is a tale of a brave woman fighting the antiquated system in her native Iran calling for girls and women to unburden themselves of their veils and hijabs as is the law in the Muslim nation. She is currently leading this online movement in exile, while her own brother is serving eight years in an Iranian prison. Iran denies all of this.

Not far from Iran, there are a large number of Afghani interpreters who bravely risked their lives aiding Americans against the very powerful Taliban. That is the epitome of bravery, which is actually being rewarded by the Biden administration via Operation Allies Refuge. Beginning the end of July, under special immigrant visas, many of these interpreters will be airlifted out of Afghanistan to the United States. Also brave, are the girls and women of Afghanistan who, in the past, and no doubt in the future once American troops are evacuated and the Taliban terrorists retake the country, will be subjected to unspeakable acts against them.

These brave people are fighting for true, bona fide freedom, at the risk of their own lives, while many Americans are taking their own freedom for granted unnecessarily worrying about their ridiculous pronouns.

But, for all the bravery exhibited by these Afghanis, Cubans, Hong Kongers, and a specific lone Irani-American, it is these cowardly Texas Democrat state legislators who are being praised for their so-called bravery. Harris, since the Texas Democrats ran away from Texas, has commended their pusillanimous behavior as “bold, courageous action,” and acts of “bravery and patriotism,” making “great sacrifices” akin to the Civil Rights era. Harris compared the Texas Democrats to those who marched, in great peril for their lives, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL in 1965 in what was known as “Bloody Sunday.” No blood has been shed from a single Texas Democrat legislator.

Harris continued praising these Texas Democrats comparing their quest with that of the women suffragettes who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1913 in Washington, DC fighting for voting rights for women. Harris should be ashamed of herself for tarnishing those most significant historic events while politically posturing over a voting rights bill that is not the least bit racist or controversial.
Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat in streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage. When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. 

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day. Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. All votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026. Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. 

No legal voter is denied their right to vote. No legal voter is disenfranchised. By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

This is not bravery; this is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels and the voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day. Bravery, unfortunately, is being defined in the current climate as those Americans willing to speak out against the Marxist BLM and racist Critical Race Theory. Unfortunate, because to speak ill of those entities finds one on the short end of American society, when to be critical of BLM and CRT makes the most logical sense as any American or any clear thinking, freedom loving individual. True bravery is defined by the bona fide champions of freedom described above. May their examples teach us all the serious lessons we must learn before the grand American Experiment in plunged into perpetual darkness.

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

DC Statehood - Simply Unconstitutional

DC Statehood - Simply Unconstitutional

Commentary  by Sanford D. Horn

April 29, 2021 

The relevant portion of Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states the “Congress shall have Power to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dockYards, and other needful Buildings;” [sic]

It is there where the Founding Fathers of these United States of America designated, with neutrality, and no power over nor beneath, the District that would serve as the seat of the Federal government of this nation. As a separate and independent district, it would not be a state, it would not be part of a state, and it would not participate in the affairs of the nation as a state.

This decision, made by the Founding Fathers, was neither based upon political gains for one party or another nor any racial advantage or animus at the time of the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. For the United States Congress, regardless of the party in the majority, to vote granting statehood status upon the District of Columbia is illegal and unconstitutional. 

The District was built on a swamp, ostensibly, and upon arrival in the new capitol city late November 1800, First Lady Abigail Adams’ assessment reflected such. “I arrived… at this place… a new country with Houses scattered over a space of ten miles, and trees & stumps in plenty.” (1) Too few of the houses had been completed to provide for the increasing numbers of administration officials arriving for the waning months of John Adams’ single term in office. Most people resided in the longer established Alexandria, VA and Georgetown.

There is no mention of voting rights for the residents of the District in Article I, Section 8 because the District was not designed to be a permanent residential District. First of all, the Founding Fathers did not envision politicians and government workers becoming career fixtures in Washington. The Founding Fathers expected people to serve their country as representatives of the people for a term or two and then return to their farms, businesses, law practices, medical practices, or other vocations. Likewise with their staffs as well as the staffs of the presidents’ administrations. And as such, in maintaining their heretofore permanent residences in their home states, would vote via absentee ballot there, as opposed to in Washington, which as of yet, had no government of its own - as was the design of the Founding Fathers. It was their desire that the Congress would oversee the Federal Capitol District.

As for the state of the White House, then simply called the President’s House, arriving in its incomplete state, Abigail Adams described it as “a castle of a House,” overlooking the Potomac and a view of Alexandria, which was preferable to Adams, considering the alternative of Georgetown was not to her liking. Georgetown was “the very dirtyest Hole I ever saw for a place of any trade… it is only one mile from me but a quagmire after every rain,” in her assessment. (2)

President John Adams called the condition of the President’s House “habitable.” So drafty, “Abigail had to keep thirteen fires going all day to make it livable…. Someday it would be finished, properly furnished, and adequately staffed. At the moment the Adamses could not afford to hire enough servants to run such a house, and the enormous public rooms had no plaster, paint, or furniture. Abigail used the great east room to hang her laundry. In its present condition it was good for little else.” (3) 

Now, in 2021, in a Washington, DC the Founding Fathers would hardly recognize, the government is an unwieldy behemoth with two million employees spread around Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and of course DC itself. But those who live willingly in DC, knew what they were getting into, insofar as choosing to reside in the District and not a state. No one was forced to live in the District. As the Federal Capitol District, Washington is governed by a mayor and a city council. Although it has a population larger than that of Vermont and Wyoming, it is just smaller than 1/18 the size of Rhode Island, the current smallest state in the Union.

The current push for DC statehood is an overt power grab by the Democrats. Since being granted the right to vote for president in 1961 via the 23rd Amendment, there have been 15 presidential elections between 1964 and 2020, with the Democrat candidate winning DC in all 15 by overwhelming margins.

Washington, DC is a city that voted 92 percent for Joe Biden and 5.4 percent for Donald Trump in 2020; a city that last voted for a Republican candidate with more than 10 percent of the vote in 1988 when George Herbert Walker Bush earned 14.3 percent of the vote; a city that gave its highest percentage of the vote to a Republican in 1972 for Richard M. Nixon with 21.56 percent. As of March 31, 2021 the DC Board of Elections statistics indicate only 5.66 percent of the voters are registered Republican. 

Admitting DC to the Union as the 51st state is a guaranteed two additional Democrat senators and one additional Democrat representative in perpetuity. With a 52-50 Democrat advantage in the Senate they could ram through the entirety of the most progressive, most expensive, most anti-American, most anti-Capitalist, most damaging, most debt increasing agenda in the history of the United States, driving the nation into socialism, and on the verge of bankruptcy. 

In the current climate of severe political correctness, the era of so-called cancel culture there’s an overwhelming hysteria to define everything as racist or racially motivated. This is particularly of concern regarding DC statehood which, at 47.75 percent, has the largest percentage of Black residents in the nation. According to US Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-MA), not supporting DC “statehood is racist and racism kills.”

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), introduced S. 51, “A bill to provide for the admission of the State of  Washington, DC into the Union,” along with 38 co-sponsors on January 26. Through April 13, six additional senators have joined as co-sponsors, bringing the total to 45 senators - all Democrats, named below, endorsing DC statehood. This bill is the companion to HR 51 Washington, DC Admission Act, introduced by DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-D) on January 4, already passed in the House, 216-208, on April 22, in a straight party line vote. Norton called the imperative of DC statehood a “moral obligation.” 

Tammy Baldwin (WI)         Michael Bennet (CO) Richard Blumenthal (CT)

Cory Booker (NJ)         Sherrod Brown (OH) Maria Cantwell (WA)

Ben Cardin (MD)         Bob Casey (PA) Chris Coons (DE)

Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) Tammy Duckworth (IL) Dick Durbin (IL)

Dianne Feinstein (CA)         Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) Margaret Hassan (NH)

Martin Heinrich (NM)         John Hickenlooper (CO) Mazie Hirono (HI) 

Tim Kaine (VA)         Amy Klobuchar (MN) Patrick Leahy (VT)

Ben Ray Lujan (NM)         Edward Markey (MA) Bob Menendez (NJ)

Jeff Merkley (OR)         Chris Murphy (CT)         Patty Murray (WA)

Jon Ossoff (GA)         Alex Padilla (CA) Gary Peters (MI)

Jack Reed (RI)         Jacky Rosen (NV) Bernie Sanders (VT)

Brian Schatz (HI)         Chuck Schumer (NY) Tina Smith (MN)

Debbie Stabenow (MI)         Jon Tester (MT) Mark Warner (VA)

Raphael Warnock (GA)         Elizabeth Warren (MA) Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

Ron Wyden (OR)         Chris Van Hollen (MD)

Since the major point of consternation is eradicating the long running “taxation without representation,” as is advertised on DC licence plates, a solution that should, but won’t, satisfy people on both sides of the issue, is to retrocede the residential land back to the State of Maryland. This would not be the first time for such an occurrence. The western half of the District was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1847. According to The Wall Street Journal, “local leaders have opposed such a move.” (04/23/21)

Of course local leaders have rejected this very valid solution, because, while it enfranchises the voting citizens of the District - which supposedly was the goal of the statehood movement, the real motive is the addition, in perpetuity, of two Democrat senators and one Democrat representative. Because this exceptional solution fails to expand the power of the Democrat Party, it is rejected out of hand. This is the same brand of power grab by the Democrats that is pushing a court packing scheme, not to equalize the power structure on the Supreme Court, but to reverse it with a four justice demand that would give the liberals a supposed seven to six majority over the conservatives. (Supposedly, because Chief Justice John Roberts does not act like a true conservative.) This same power grab backfired royally when attempted by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.

Voters of all stripes must fight back against this blatant power grab which ultimately leads to one party rule in the United States for an unlimited amount of time. Reasonable people, if there still are any on the far left, must understand that the DC claim of “taxation without representation” is both valid and solvable without disrupting the current structure of the body politic. Retrocede the residential and other non-Federal government buildings land back to Maryland as Douglass County. (The proposed name for the 51st state is the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.) In adding the new Douglass County to Maryland, the Free State would be granted an additional Congressional representative (probably Norton), to be taken from New York, due to lose at least one seat after the 2020 Census reapportionment.

I defy anyone to name a single Democrat in either house of Congress that would fight this hard, in violation of the Constitution, for DC statehood were the aforementioned numbers reversed to the GOP advantage. Hearing crickets, we move on.

In Federalist 43, written by James Madison under the pseudonym Publius, as part of the Federalist Papers, Madison outlines in Section Two how maintaining the independence or neutrality of the Federal District would prevent jealousies amongst the several states. 

This is necessary to prevent “a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy. This consideration has the more weight, as the gradual accumulation of public improvements at the stationary residence of the government would be both too great a public pledge to be left in the hands of a single State, and would create so many obstacles to a removal of the government, as still further to abridge its necessary independence.” So wrote Madison in the document published January 23, 1788. 

For the entirety of Federalist 43: https://www.teaparty911.com/federalist-papers/federalist-43/ 

In order to repeal the 23rd Amendment, three-quarters of the 50 state legislatures would have to vote to repeal - a virtual impossibility. Additionally, 22 Republican state Attorneys General sent a letter to Joe Biden opposing DC statehood as unconstitutional. Those AGs represent the states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they composed the Constitution. There is a necessity in keeping the Federal Capitol District neutral and separate from the 50 states. There is a greater imperative to maintaining the separation of powers between the three branches of the government. Give the full time DC residents their right of taxation with representation and retrocede that land back to Maryland. Retain the Federal Capitol District that would continue to include the Capitol Building, White House, Supreme Court, National Mall, cabinet department buildings, and the other Federal buildings.

To grant Washington, DC statehood (and unbalance the American flag with a 51st star) is an unconstitutional power grab designed to ultimately turn this country from a republic into a socialist tyrannical nation. This would not be a single term that could be undone with the election of the next Republican president. The damage that would be inflicted upon the American people would be in perpetuity, where this generation would be required to teach future generations what a free nation was like. Fighting DC statehood is right, moral, and constitutional. The silent majority must remain silent no longer.

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

Notes

(1) Withey, Lynne Dearest Friend A Life of Abigail Adams, Simon & Schuster 1981, P. 274

(2) Ibid., P. 275

(3) Ibid.