BATTLING FOR AMERICA'S SOUL

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India]

President Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) Movement are moving at lightning speed on a broad front to restore governmental integrity and restore American culture.

His revolutionary change agents are now confirmed and taking the helms in their respective agencies.  Along with legions of capable operatives, they are reversing decades of Leftist policies and eliminating large numbers of those loyal to the endless expansion of government.

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are exposing billions of waste, fraud, and abuse.  Their wide-ranging audits of Executive Branch operations are well on their way to exceeding the $2 trillion budget reduction goal.

The battle over national governance is only a small part of the more fundamental battle over America’s core values and civic culture.

America is unique.  It is a country based upon ideas - not geography, language, or tribe.  Our historic sites and markers ground us in who we are, and why we are. 

America’s civic culture thrives because it has maintained a common frame of reference supporting freedom of expression, representative government, limited government, and government dispersed among states and locales – the fundamentals of a federal system and republican governance.

The resiliency and longevity of America’s civic culture is based upon its citizens learning and understanding how their government works and their role in supporting and participating in it.

America’s Constitution is about forming “a more perfect union”.  This means America is always a work in progress.  The Constitution itself is the greatest “rules of engagement” for collective action that has ever been written.  Looking beyond ourselves reaffirms our nation and our individual and collective roles in it.

A critical element is our collective memory and frames of reference.  Statues and historic sites exist to commemorate and remember, not to celebrate. Knowing and discussing our origin is fundamental to a civic culture where shared values hold us together.  Civil dialogue with those we disagree is the structure that allows our institutions, our communities, and ourselves to exist. 

America’s unique civic culture and collective identity is the antithesis to tyranny.  President Ronald Reagan referred to America’s example of freedom and representative government as “the shining light on the hill” that inspired freedom loving people worldwide.

Those promoting Communism, Fascism, and other forms of oppression have continually assailed America to neutralize challenges to their power. Internally, those wanting unbridled political power have made common cause with outside forces in their attempt to undermine America.

In 1927, Stuart Chase, one of the founding members of President Franklin Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Brain Trust”, met with Stalin and Trotsky to gain inspiration for taking over America. In his 1932 “New Deal” book Chase mused, “Why should the Russians have all the fun of remaking the world?” 

Guided by Chase’s vision, the Left set about to methodically capture and control America’s cultural levers.  Hollywood fell first. Most news media fell by the late 1960s. Print media was corrupted from the start. Pro-America outlets, like Time Magazine, succumbed as their conservative founders retired or died. Academia was conquered during the 1960s in the wake of the “free speech movement” and then the anti-Vietnam War protests.

During the 1980s, the Left targeted America’s 13,425 school districts. Leftist teachers replaced moderate pro-American teachers as they retired.  These Leftist teachers promoted revisionist history supported by new textbooks like Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, which became the standard high school textbook for a generation.

In some schools, world history courses narrowed to cover only events that occurred after 1200 AD. Large swarths of historical events and figures were eliminated.  The Texas State Board of Education voted to remove 450 historical figures. This included significant individuals like John Hancock. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 18 percent of High School graduates are proficient in American history.  

A parallel project was shrinking civics education to the point where only 23 percent of eighth-graders perform at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam, and only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government. 

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 ushered in an era of divisiveness. Obama campaigned as a proponent and symbol of racial harmony. Once elected, Obama and his Administration launched a wide range of actions to racialize America.  By the end of his eight years, racial and sexual demographics became the lens through which private and public actions were viewed. 

The era of “wokism” replaced meritocracy.  Martin Luther King’s famous quote,” one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” was completely turned upside down.  Divisiveness and “tribalism” ate away at America’s common framework and values.

An intensified phase of undermining America’s civic culture began after a 2011 Harvard Study revealed that participating in historical/patriotic celebrations promoted conservative voting patterns. The Left began to methodically demonize America’s founding narrative, encompassing events and people.

Denigrating the American Flag, removing the National Anthem, and ending 4^th of July were the Left’s trinity for destroying America’s civic culture.

Statues were removed.  Athletes “took a knee” to denigrate America’s National Anthem, a “Black National Anthem” was sung as the preferred “more inclusive” alternative.

The Left’s goal was to fundamentally shift the inspiring narrative of America’s founding in 1776 to the darker, anti-American, narrative of the 1619 movement.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the intellectual force behind the 1619 movement, asserted the arrival of the first slaves at Jamestown was the true founding of America.  This was launched in 2019 as a counter to celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of the first democratically elected assembly in America.  Hannah-Jones barnstormed cable news asserting, “Independence Day does not mean the same thing to everybody.  We are forcing white people to confront what this holiday has meant to black people”.

On one show, Hannah-Jones’ assertion was supported by Leftist historian Jon Meacham, who reported that the July 4^th was “only about a document not about shaping a nation”.  Meacham asserted, “For generations we have looked at 1776 as our founding moment, our “nativity”, when it was actually 1619…For too long we have taught this one narrative that glorifies white supremacy, glorifies colonization.”

The Left elevated an obscure moment in America’s Civil War, “Juneteenth”, as the “more inclusive” alternative to celebrating the “white slave document” of the Declaration of Independence.

Juneteenth is based on the false narrative that slavery in America ended on June 19, 1865.  That was the day a Union General marched into Galveston, Texas and announced the Civil War was over and the slaves being held in that region were free. It took ratifying the 13^th Amendment on December 6, 1865, to officially free all of America’s slaves nationwide.  

The Left began an incessant drumbeat that America was “built by enslaved people on stolen land”. The noble narrative of a nation of immigrants thriving in freedom, commerce, and limited government, was replaced by shame.

The Left’s goal was to expand government to “right wrongs” and “make amends”. Key elements were reparations; Critical Race Theory (CRT); Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”).

The Left’s echo chamber of controlling media, academia, entertainment, and government reached its zenith with the George Floyd riots of 2020.  Demonizing Trump and his supporters as racists, fascists, and Nazis became one of the vehicles for sweeping Joe Biden into power.  Leftist control of social media silenced dissent.  They were on the brink of totally remaking America in their image.

Then the world changed.

The Leftist agenda, to flood America with illegal immigrants, create chaos through weakening the police, and steer the justice system from going after criminals to going after Trump and his supporters ignited a massive backlash.

It became increasingly clear to a growing number of Americans, that they were being lied to by every entity they trusted. One by one, the Left’s carefully constructed reality fell apart.  Crime spiraled out of control in cities. Inflation soared. America’s weakened foreign and military policy emboldened tyrants and Americans died.

On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Suddenly, one of the most important components of the Left’s fraudulent reality became the chief forum for exposing their lies.

President Biden’s steady mental decline became harder to hide. Trust in those who lied in order to gain, expand, and retain their power vanished. 

The 2024 election shocked the system back to reality.  The MAGA revolution and the DOGE audits gave new hope that America could be saved.

The struggle to save America is just beginning.

“We’re in the middle of a cultural revolution in America, and one of the biggest battlegrounds is the schools,” explained Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.

There are 98,577 public schools in 13,425 school districts.  Each district is run by elected school boards where ultra-Leftist politicians dominate.  The 3,827,100 public school teachers are mostly liberal to Leftist. 94 percent of teacher union campaign funds go to Democrats.

In West Virginia, America’s most conservative Republican state, public school leaders promoted Che Guevara as their 2022 role model for Hispanic Heritage Month.

President Trump joined the battle by issuing an Executive Order on January 29, 2025, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”:

“In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.  Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.  In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics…These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.

Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority…Similarly, demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.”

Trump’s Executive Order directs federal agencies to end funding for any activities deemed undermining America’s civic culture. It is a clear signal that the decades long battle for the soul of America is a priority. 

While Trump is waging an office-by-office struggle to gain control of the Federal Government, parents and local activists are fighting to regain America-affirming education school-by-school, and classroom-by-classroom. 

Generations of young people are adults with at best ignorance about America, or at worst, a Leftist set of assumptions about their country.

What took the Left decades to destroy, may take years to reverse. Time is short.

All the world’s freedom loving people are watching.

 

 

 

[Constituting America: Why So Many Ambitious Men Exist in the US, but so few Lofty Ambitions (Vol 2 Pt. 3 Ch. 19)]

Alexis de Tocqueville was a keen observer of America’s emerging civic culture.  His insights on how democracy shapes individual and community existence resonant with us to this day.

In his chapter on ambition, de Tocqueville outlines the attributes of equality in its classic sense.

American democracy in the early 19^th Century provided a framework for liberty and equality in the law and the marketplace.  He celebrated how the framework gave everyone an equal mix of opportunity and challenge.  Such a mix ignited the passion in Americans to seek better lives. 

“The first thing that strikes one in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to get out of their original condition.”

Individual ambition in a free society was the engine for economic vitality.  Government provides a stable and honest environment for individuals to test themselves against their environment.

De Tocqueville contrasted American equality with the remnants of aristocracy and lust for power.

“So when once the ambitious have power in hand, they believe they can dare all: and when it escapes them, they immediately think of overturning the state to get it back.”

He knew firsthand the extremes that arise from a revolution that topples aristocracy.  His own family endured imprisonment and the guillotine in the wake of the French Revolution.  France’s cycle of chaos, violence, tyranny, and return to aristocracy served as cautionary lessons. 

“As the former barriers that separated the crowd from renown and power are suddenly lowered, an impetuous and universal movement of ascent is made toward this long-envied greatness.”

France never achieved the promise of its revolution.  The French suffered through monarchy, anarchy, revolutions in 1848 and 1870, an Emperor, military humiliation in 1870, and malaise leading to World War. De Tocqueville notes: “The passions that the revolution had prompted do not disappear with it…on all sides one sees disproportionate and unfortunate ambitions ignited that burn secretly and fruitlessly in the hearts that contain them.”

The French revolutionaries strived to change everything.  They even renamed the calendar months, established new weights and measures, and toppled every institution that was tainted by the old regime. Thousands were slaughtered.  Europe was ravaged.

Frenchmen’s lofty ambition to change the world led to their ruin.

Americans’ personal ambition was not to change the world, but to change their personal world. 

America’s cultural strength was unleashing individual creativity to strive for this end. 

De Tocqueville rejoiced in how America’s focus on personal ambition avoided France’s post-revolutionary vortex.

De Tocqueville toured America during an era of unbridled technical achievement.  The Erie Canal went into operation in 1825.  The first segment of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal opened in 1831.  America’s first railroad, the Baltimore Ohio Line, moved freight and passengers starting in 1827.

These were realistic and pragmatic ambitions.  They were human scale for the benefit of humans. 

De Tocqueville understood that what set Americans apart from all other nationalities was their focus on “a multitude of small, very sensible ambitions…they finish many undertakings rapidly rather than raise a few long-lasting monuments; they love success much more than glory.”

He concludes his review of ambition with a warning against complacency. The benefits of democracy and a free society can lead to stagnation and the waning of ambition. 

“I avow that for democratic societies I dread the audacity much less than the mediocrity of desires; what seems to me most to be feared is that in the midst of the small incessant occupations of private life, ambition will lose its spark and its greatness…so that each day the aspect of the social body becomes more tranquil and less lofty.”

For De Tocqueville, leaders “should want one to strive to give them a vaster idea of themselves.”

This is his challenge for America and the ages.

 

 

ASSAULT ON JULY 4th

Erasing celebrating the 4^th of July and replacing it with Juneteenth is the Left’s Holy Grail.

Denigrating the American Flag, removing our National Anthem, and ending the 4^th of July are the Left’s trinity for destroying America’s civic culture.

Changing calendar references eradicates the old order to establish a new radical one. The Bolsheviks replaced Christian holidays with May Day (May 1) and their October Revolution (November 6).  The French Revolution zealots went so far as to rename the months of the year.

Making an obscure moment in the Civil War our new “more inclusive” national holiday is fundamental to shifting the inspiring narrative of America’s founding in 1776 to the darker, anti-American, narrative of the 1619 movement.

Just before the 4^th of July, Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and James Lankford (R-OK) called for establishing Juneteenth as “a national holiday to remember the 1865 emancipation of slaves in the United States”.   They eliminate the Columbus Day holiday, because “as a holiday that is lightly celebrated, and least disruptive to Americans' schedules”.  Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) co-sponsored Juneteenth legislation with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

The moment Juneteenth is in and Columbus is out, the Left will move to eliminate the July 4^th holiday as being just two weeks apart and “disruptive” to summer work schedules. 

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the intellectual force behind eliminating the 4^th of July and the 1619 movement, barnstormed cable news to assert, “Independence Day does not mean the same thing to everybody.  We are forcing white people to confront what this holiday has meant to black people”.

On one show, Hannah-Jones’ assault was supported by historian Jon Meacham, who reported that the 4^th was “only about a document not about shaping a nation”, while Juneteenth is a fully inclusive culminating moment in America’s story.  They both recommended that Americans “evolve”, and to end the “divisive” and racist 4^th in favor of the “more inclusive and accurate” Juneteenth:  “For generations we have looked at 1776 as our founding moment, our “nativity”, when it was actually 1619… For too long we have taught this one narrative that glorifies white supremacy, glorifies colonization.”

Attacking July 4^th began on July 1, 2011.  That was when Harvard University released a study revealing that “children who attend July 4 celebrations are more likely to identify themselves as Republicans in life”.  The study observed, “The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats”.

The study continued, “attending one rain-free July 4 celebration before the age of 18 increases the likelihood that children will identify as Republican by two percent, and increases the likelihood that they will vote for a Republican candidate by the time they turn 40 by four percent”.

Overnight, patriotism became partisan. 

During the summer of 2019, the New York Times, armed with the revisionist history of Nikole Hannah-Jones, launched the 1619 history curriculum. 1619’s goal is to completely recast America as the most demonic, racist, destructive nation that has ever existed.  According to the 1619 narrative, America began when a ship with African slaves arrived at Jamestown during the summer of 1619.  Everything since is a steady march of white racism destroying dark skinned people and polluting the world with white supremist and white privilege dogma, as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

 

Since the 1960s, colleges and universities have indoctrinated students with anti-Americanism.  K-12 is the next battleground. A recent study found that 66 percent of high school students believe America is exceptional, and 70 percent look favorably on America’s history.  Only 47 percent of College students think America is exceptional, and 44 percent are favorable to our nation’s history.

 

The 1619 curriculum is already being used in over 3,000 schools.  Changing history to eliminate July 4^th, and replacing it with Juneteenth, is a critical part of 1619’s anti-Americanism strategy.

Juneteenth is based on the false narrative that slavery in America ended on June 19, 1865.  That was the day a Union General marched into Galveston, Texas and announced the Civil War was over and the slaves being held in the region were free.

It took ratifying the 13^th Amendment on December 6, 1865 to officially free all of America’s slaves.  Border states were not included in the Emancipation (Kentucky still had 40,000).  Over the next year, Federal officials had to personally enforce the Amendment as some slaveholders withheld news of Emancipation so their slaves could be used for additional harvests.

Elevating Juneteenth as the end of slavery and the Civil War is like celebrating the end of World War II based on Japanese soldiers surrendering on isolated Pacific islands in the 1950s.

Making Juneteenth a national holiday must be opposed at all costs.

THE LEFT’s FINAL SOLUTION

[Also Published on Newsmax]

Leftists have launched their final assault on America.

Their goal is to obliterate America’s memory and sow the seeds for future generations to revile and reject everything that is good and noble in our country.

They intend to fundamentally change America’s historical narrative away from events and circumstances that made our country the world’s beacon of hope for freedom and representative government.  They strive to replace well-documented reality with a false narrative of America being the scourge of the world, based on its enslaving and stealing from everyone to enrich and aggrandize the white ruling elite.

Their plan is called the “1619 Project”, an alternative history curriculum for American elementary and secondary students.  It was announced in July 2019 with a series of front-page stories in the New York Times, and other major newspapers, explaining its content and the need to:

“reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.”

The 1619 premise is, “our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written”.  Everything that happened in American history flows from the “original sin” of slavery.  Every concept, document, and institution that shapes and guides America was designed to promote slavery and therefore must all be eradicated to atone for centuries of racial oppression.

1619 proponents declare that we must “make amends” for America’s crimes against humanity by eliminating monuments, the Electoral College, the Senate, appointed Supreme Court justices, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, federalism, capitalism, and all vestiges of white history and culture.  The 1619 Project is partnering with those who deem the American Flag, Pledge of Allegiance, and National Anthem as offensive vestiges of racism, slavery, and white privilege.

We could ignore the 1619 Project if it was just the ravings of a coddled leftist professor in some Ivy League sinecure.  It is not.

The New York Times leads an array of news media, academia, think tanks, and public officials who see the 1619 Project as the final solution for turning America against itself.  Once they indoctrinate the current generation of elementary and secondary school students with hatred for America, drowning out dissenting voices with charges of racism and white privilege, they will have free rein to establish a permanent socialist state.

The 1619 Project was embraced by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when she led members of the Congressional Black Caucus to Ghana during the August Recess.  They wanted the 1619 narrative of the first African slaves arriving at Jamestown to upstage commemorating the first session of an elected government at Jamestown.

To succeed, the 1619 Project must ignore mountains of facts, and fabricate a mountain of lies.

The centerpiece of the 1619 Project is that slavery was a uniquely American crime, infecting everything and everybody it touched to the present day.

The capture and enslavement of defeated foes is as old as humankind.  Slavery was integral to establishing regional dominance for the Egyptian Pharaohs, Muslim Emirs, Roman Emperors, and countless other rulers.  The Western Hemisphere’s great civilizations of the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs enslaved their subjugated people for labor and ritual sacrifice. African rulers trading their slaves to Europeans was born from new sailing technology and the need for forced labor.

The 1619 Project ignores the fact that only 9.7 percent of the Atlantic slave trade involved England’s American colonies.  90.3 percent of African slaves were shipped to South America and the Caribbean.

The 1619 Project ignores that while 12 million West Africans were shipped by Europeans to the Americas, over 17 million East Africans were shipped by Arabs into the Middle East.  The 1619 Project ignores that the American colonies began banning slave importation in 1778, during the Revolutionary War, leading to a formal ban for the entire United States in 1794.  England did not ban slavery in its colonies until 1807.  Conversely, the Arab slave trade in East Africa was not eradicated until England destroyed the last slave forts in Zanzibar in 1909.  Slavery remains active, if officially banned, in much of the Arab world today.

The year 1619 is important, not because slaves arrived in the new world, but because for the first time in the Western Hemisphere, a free people elected representatives to govern and be held accountable at subsequent elections.  This was the first step to America becoming the most exceptional civic culture in world history.

Americans must do all they can to stop the 1619 Project and stand-up for the greatest nation on earth, before it’s too late.

PATRIOTISM WITHOUT A PARADE

Published on Newsmax. #LoveAmerica #DrainTheSwamp

The swamp at center stage is the last thing Trump should want.

Trump ran to drain Washington, DC’s swamp. He ran on dismantling America’s corrupt and unaccountable power center.

The last thing America needs is for the world’s attention to be fixed on a parade in Washington, DC. The swamp’s elite will hold viewing parties and be comforted in the visual validation that really important things only happen in Washington, DC.

America is a federal system. This means power is distributed to the states. Republicans embrace power being based locally. Republicans embrace the private sector and actions centered within families and neighborhoods.

A big national parade, like Bastille Day in France, is not America. France is a national government. Its entire history is based on centralized government. Even regionalism is discouraged.

Military parades in France versus America are not about Parisian cobble stones bearing the weight of tanks better than Washington’s pavement. Washington, DC hosted military parades after the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the First Iraq War. No parade occurred for the end of the Cold War, one of the most important victories in world history.

Americans honor heroes, military and first responders, in countless community events. Every Memorial Day, honoring those who died for America, and Veterans Day, honoring those who served America, ten of millions of ordinary citizens attend local events. Parades, speeches, memorials occur on main streets, public squares, in churches and cemeteries. Americans do not need or want Washington, DC upstaging them in honoring our heroes. The swamp should not prevail.

President Trump can do something very patriotic and meaningful that will last far beyond one flashy display in Washington, DC. He can reignite patriotism in the next generation.

Civics are rarely taught in American classrooms. History is shrunk and dumbed-down. For America to remain America, the young must be taught why we should love America and the ways to express that love.

Organizations like Constituting America make America’s founding principles and documents come alive to young people. Their lesson plans, contests, and creative programs should be promoted in the curriculum and content of all K-12 classrooms.

A rural middle school holds an award-winning immersion on what it is was like to be a Civil War soldier. A small university has students write the life stories of local soldiers who died and have them read their paper while standing next to that soldier’s grave. Every school day, inspired teachers find ways to make learning a life changing and affirming experience.

President Trump should make sure these proven ways to establish patriotism among America’s young people are promoted and funded. The Department of Education could establish grant guidelines that fund patriotic and civic education. The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities could fund projects and programs that promote patriotism and civic education. Trump should appoint leaders to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting who will make honoring America’s military a program priority.

There are proven ways to make sure the legacy of Americans who served, and who gave their lives, live on in the hearts and minds of the young. Teaching patriotism to future generations assures America remains America.

Parades are fun and can be very moving, but they are fleeting. Honoring America’s military, and America, should be timeless.

[Scot Faulkner advises corporations and governments on how to save billions of dollars by achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served on the White House Staff, and as an Executive Branch Appointee.]

KILLING OUR PAST

Published on Newsmax.              #ALT-LEFT

America’s identity is in danger of being destroyed before our very eyes.

ALT-LEFT activists on the streets, in academia, the media, and government are wantonly assaulting the physical touch stones that support our nation’s civic culture.  There is no turning back from chaos if the connective fabric of our society vanishes.

America is unique.  It is a country based upon ideas - not geography, language, or tribe.  Our historic sites and markers ground us in who we are, and why we are. 

History is about collective memory and frames of reference.  Statues and historic sites are there to commemorate and remind, not to celebrate. Knowing and discussing our origin is fundamental to a civic culture where shared values hold us together.  Civil dialogue with those we disagree is the structure that allows our institutions, our communities, and ourselves to exist. 

Our Constitution is about forming “a more perfect union”.  This means America is always a work in progress.  The Constitution itself is the greatest “rules of engagement” for collective action that has ever been written.  Looking beyond ourselves reaffirms our nation and our individual and collective roles in it.

Recent actions erasing history are unraveling our civic fabric.  For one group to anoint itself as morally entitled to determine what should be saved and what should be destroyed is the very essence of tyranny and fanaticism.

Humans have attempted to alter collective memory since competing Pharaohs chiseled away Cartouches and defaced hieroglyphs.  Carthage was destroyed, Rome was sacked.  Mongol hordes obliterated cities along the Silk Road.  Islamic hordes burned the Library of Alexandria.  Vikings ravaged monasteries and burned centuries old manuscripts.  Cromwell’s Puritan army smashed stained glass windows in countless churches.

World history has been saved by those who transcended their immediate impulse for destruction.  Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella calmed their Christian fervor when they saw the wonder of the Alhambra.  Napoleon’s armies avoided destroying European cities and towns during nearly twenty years of war. 

The Twentieth Century saw a disturbing shift in how history was viewed.  The rise of Communism and Nazism led to intentionally obliterating history on a strategic scale.  Worse, the followers of these dogmas made fabricating history a priority.  Destroying reality and then faking an alternative became one of the greatest threats to civilization.  Cultural treasures were lost to the ages as the Nazi’s raped Europe, the Soviets raped Eastern Europe, and Mao’s minions unleashed their Cultural Revolution.

The 21^st Century brought a new wave of Islamic hordes whose primary mission is to destroy anything, and anyone, not sufficiently promoting their fanaticism.  From the Taliban blowing up thousand year old Buddhist statues, to ISIS smashing the Tomb of Abraham and leveling Palmyra, the erasure of irreplaceable historic sites and artifacts has known no bounds.

ALT-LEFT vandalism against statues they deem offensive is now threatening America.  The chorus of ALT-LEFT commentators from the media, academia, and politics has woven a tapestry of excuses justifying official and unofficial destruction and desecration. 

America’s Civil War was complex and controversial in its genesis, conduct, and aftermath.  Our Civil War tore apart families, friends, communities, and the nation.  It killed 2.5 percent of the U.S. population and impacted all who lived during the war. Its ramifications ripple through America to this day.  The nuances of 21^st Century American voting patterns, politics, law, culture, and language are better understood, the more one delves into Civil War history. 

Arrogance and ignorance are fueling the current wave of mayhem.  The ALT-LEFT’s clarion call for ridding America of racist Southern symbols becomes indecipherable babble when people torch a bust of Abraham Lincoln, spray paint the Lincoln Memorial, attack a Joan of Arc statue, and deface statues of Catholic Saints. 

There is clearly more going on. 

Fanaticism is all about intolerance and silencing opponents.  It is all about indoctrination and erasing individualism.  Fanatics are not satisfied until they completely destroy independent thought.  Their dream is a “hive mind” - thinking and acting as one.  Like Bumble bees, ALT-LEFT, Islamic Terrorists, and Communists want to anoint one leader who is all powerful, surrounded by blind devotion.  Their goal is the end of civilization, the end of humankind as we know it. 

The ALT-LEFT, and its supporters, have this bigger goal in mind. 

George Orwell, a Socialist who grew to understand the threat of tyranny, sent us a timeless warning: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

[Scot Faulkner advises corporations and governments on how to save billions of dollars by achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He also served on the White House Staff, and as an Executive Branch Appointee.]

smf53@aol.com  304-716-6235

TRUMPING THE PARKS

#TRUMPING

[Also published http://www.newsmax.com/ScotFaulkner/trump-national-parks-preservation-friends-groups/2017/05/01/id/787459/] 

President Trump signaled his commitment to the National Parks by donating his first quarter’s salary to their upkeep.

America’s nationhood is based upon ideals.  America’s National Parks are the physical touchstones that reaffirm who we are and why we are.

America remains America if our Parks remain integral to our lives.  It means making our Parks relevant and relatable to all Americans through the 21^st Century and beyond.

National Parks have three primary customers.  Each requires diverse actions to meet their needs.  Visitors are one customer.  However, the environmental and historical resources a Park protects are also customers with their own unique needs. 

Making sure a Park’s plants and animals are healthy and thriving is grounded in science linked to creativity.  The 1995 reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park was a master stroke that is improving the Park’s environment on a daily basis.

Making sure the historical resources of a Park remain viable is a daunting challenge.  Natural parks even have historic structures, sites, and viewsheds.  Time, the elements, and visitors constantly assault this historic fabric and context.  A leaky roof today may become a collapsed one a year later. Unfortunately, Park maintenance has been neglected by Presidents and the Congress far too long.

Making sure visitors gain the intended insights, and leave with a sense of civic renewal, is complex.  Young people no longer bring to their Park experience the language, historical, geographical, or scientific knowledge of previous generations.

There exist highly successful best practices that will help President Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and the Park Service address these challenges.

Expanding Partnerships – every National Park should have its own Friends Group, corporate partners, and, where appropriate, Cooperating Association.

Lack of funding has devastated America’s National Parks for more than a generation.  There are less than 100 Friends groups among the 415 National Parks.  These groups are formed by local citizens and chartered by the Department of Interior.  Friends groups generate support within the communities surrounding each Park.  Partners can supplement Park resources with volunteers to staff special events.  They also serve as advocates to win preservation battles.

Cooperating Associations are another vital Park partner.  These groups run Park bookstores, build a membership base, raise funds, and co-develop and present interpretive programs. 

Corporate partners have provided vital funds for major maintenance projects. Target raised $5 million to help repair the Washington Monument in 2000, while Chrysler CEO, Lee Iacoccca, spearheaded raising $36 million for the restoration of the Statute of Liberty in the 1980s.

Embedding Parks in Schools – Young people must grow up with National Parks being an important part of their life.  Parks need to be a learning resource. This will help the next generation embrace the role Parks play in preserving America’s civic culture. 

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (HFNHP) has been at the forefront of highly successful education initiatives.  In 1988, the Park partnered with the local county schools to create an award winning living history immersion.  Each year the Park provides educational material to local K-12 schools, including a full day Civil War simulation where students experience being raw recruits.

In 2009, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground and HFNHP developed “Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student” video workshops.  8^th grade students studied a major Park theme (i.e. John Brown’s 1859 raid) and then, working with media coaches, wrote, acted, directed, and produced short videos on some aspect of that theme.  The multiple avenues of learning, from history to film making, has become a national model for engaging young people.

Making Parks Virtual – iPhone and Android screens have become our window to the world.  Bringing the Park to the visitor, creating unique experiences, is one way of engaging more people, without expanding the number of Park staff.

Recently, HFNHP launched “Time Trek” which uses smart phones and virtual reality to immerse young people in history.  They peer through their smart phone cameras with images from historical story lines overlaying their surroundings.

Google Street View now has technology for mapping trails and off-road environments.  “Guide by Cell” and applications like “Wikitude” and “Detour” enable nonlinear tourism.  Imagine virtually hiking the Appalachian Trail from your own home or having real time access to experts in a park you are visiting.

President Trump’s and Secretary Zinke’s leadership and vision can make Parks Great Again.

[Scot Faulkner is President of Friends of Harpers Ferry National Park and a former Trustee of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. He helps private corporations and governments save billions of dollars by flattening organizations; achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He also served as Director of Personnel for Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Campaign and on Reagan’s Transition and White House Staff.] 

THE SOUL OF A COMMUNITY

Also published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/soul-community-scot-faulkner

What gives a community its soul?

A community’s sense of self, and its ability to steward that core identity for future generations, often lies in the hands of that rare citizen who devotes their life to the betterment of all.

One such person was Elizabeth “Budge” Blake.  She passed, age 91, on Friday, January 9, 2015, after a long battle with cancer.

Budge was a good friend and political “comrade in arms”.  More importantly, Budge embodied the moral core, leadership, intellectual vitality, and devotion to the community that sustains America’s civic culture.

Whenever you attend a local public meeting you rarely find a full house.  Usually it is a sea of empty chairs.  If you are lucky, your community will have a Budge Blake in attendance.

Budge would always be the one who attended even the most obscure public meeting.  She was also the one who took notes to share with others.  Her critical role was to act as a one person oversight committee – holding public officials and public processes accountable to the law and the citizenry.

Budge served both from the audience and in public positions, including as the Town Attorney, representing Bolivar in legal matters before the District Court as well as the West Virginia State Supreme Court, and as the town’s representative on Jefferson County panels.

Most people are content that their contributions to the future are the children they raise.  Budge not only raised a son and a daughter, she raised a generation of community activists.  

For over two decades, Budge recruited, trained, mentored, and promoted her neighbors to positions in local Government.  She helped establish the first Bolivar Planning Commission, filled it with like-minded citizens, and served as its President.  Many of Budge’s protégés went onto to serve as a majority of the Town Council and its governing panels.   This meticulous and strategic approach to fundamentally changing the government of a small town served more than 1,100 Bolivar residents.  Bolivar is a vital twin town to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with a pivotal role in preserving the historic and scenic resources of one of the truly unique places in America.

Budge’s battles were to preserve history and the integrity of public processes.  She was well prepared to meet these challenges.  She graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1946, received her Juris Doctorate degree from the Ohio School of Law at Capitol University and the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1969.  Budge would be the one who found the key phrase or act that laid the ground work for challenge and standing.  Many scenic and historic acres remain intact because of Budge staying up all night diligently reviewing transcripts and documents.

America has survived for many generations and will survive for many more because Budge Blake, and people like her, wake up each day committed to helping our nation live up to its democratic ideals. 

 

2013 IN PERSPECTIVE

2013 was like any other year. We found new ways to be humane and inhumane. The frontiers of knowledge advanced both in discovery and dissemination. Creative genius existed next to odd people and events that were undeserving our attention.

Throughout these past twelve months, there were also patterns and trends that appeared or expanded into our lives. These will shape our existence in 2014 and merit further discussion.

SOURCE VERSUS SUBSTANCE
The quality of civil discourse declined along with its quantity. Rational thought, critical thinking, and reasoned engagement all declined sharply among politicians and pundits. Save for rare instances of good governance at state and local levels, hyper-partisanship reined supreme. The continued collapse of functional democracy was on vivid display in Washington, DC. To the credit of Americans, trust in Congress sank to historic lows and support for President Obama fell to his lowest ebb.

Incompetence, corruption, and deceit played their roles in the deterioration of our civic culture. However, the biggest factor was the expanding inability of people from across the political spectrum to keep an open mind when encountering opposing views. Who was saying something trumped what was being said. Even the old adage that “a stopped clock is still right twice a day” was discarded.

Shutting out differing viewpoints closes the mind to new ideas and prevents everyone from obtaining important “reality checks” for their actions. On a good day, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow provides cogent and insightful analysis. On any day, Fox’s Charles Krauthammer is the most knowledgeable and articulate pundit on an amazing range of topics. We need to return to a time when no one should have to pass a litmus test prior to pulling a fire alarm in a burning building.

CORE VERSUS FRINGE BELIEFS
Pope Francis was named Time’s “Man of the Year” for many good reasons. His most universal contribution was returning to the core message of his church – anyone seeking salvation will be granted it. Communicating and embodying the Catholic Church’s core message immediately welcomed back those wishing to return to its faith and opened a dialogue with all others desiring a caring and tolerant world. In one masterful leap, Pope Francis made his church relevant in the 21st Century.

Pope Francis’ accomplishment should be embraced by the Republican Party. A movement of faith or policy is not the sum of its parts. Its core values and beliefs inform and guide its parts. Specific issues will come and go, but its core should remain timeless. Transient passengers should not be allowed to steer the ship.

WASHINGTON VERSUS AMERICA
Our traditional concerns over government over-reach, and our dismay over its incompetence, were joined by a new and disturbing issue – fairness. “Crony capitalism” moved to the forefront of America’s psyche. The record disparity in wealth has made increasing numbers of Americans wonder if the “America Dream” has been hijacked by a well-connected oligarchy.

These fairness concerns are not about depriving productive people their well earned rewards. It is about those in power rigging the game for everyone else. Special interest tax breaks, regulatory waivers, and program funding have created an undemocratic oligarchy constructing a public trough from which they devour the spoils. This has worsened as large companies and banks continue to get away with wanton abuses, as long as they pay a small percentage of their “ill gotten” gains to complicit overseers.

One of the great missed opportunities for real change occurred when political powers did everything possible to keep the Tea Party from allying with Occupy Wall Street. Both groups arose out of a deep mistrust of established power and concern over unaccountable and incestuous elites perverting America. Such an alliance was the one true chance of a third party challenging the status quo.

In the wake of Washington dysfunction, corporate statism, and consumer exploitation, Americans are growing more restive. The latest Gallup Poll reported that seventy-two percent of Americans say big government the greatest threat to the U.S., a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. Unfortunately, Americans are disengaging from activism, even voting, feeling that little can be done. Opting out is a recipe for civic decline.

AMERICA VERSUS THE WORLD
America continues to suffer from not having a global strategy since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our “war of terror” fixated on misdiagnosing symptoms in one region of the world. America’s role in the world, it competing with 200 other countries for economic well-being, and preventing slippage back to 18th Century amoral adventurism have been absent from meaningful dialogues.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are willingly filling the void. These nations view 18th Century style power politics as their salvation from their respective internal failings. America’s missteps and miscues are being exploited to the detriment of global stability and morality. A world dominated by any country other than America will be nasty and brutish.

America remains the most parochial world power in history. Only a third of Americans currently hold passports (that’s fifteen times more than in 1970) . Only 19% of Americans travel outside the U.S. and most of them go to North American destinations. Americans consistently score near the bottom among developed nations on geographic knowledge. Much of this is based on the fact that America’s imperialism occurred within what is now its own borders. While European armies, traders, and missionaries spanned the global, Americans conquered our own continent. Except for the Spanish-American War, America’s overseas military activism was not acquisitive. Certainly, American brands and culture remain the top influencers of world consumption, but only a microscopic portion of our corporate and political leaders have actual overseas experience.

SECURITY VERSUS PRIVACY
You do not improve your chances of finding a needle in the haystack by creating more haystacks. That is the fundamental flaw in America’s counter-terrorism strategy. In the 1970’s, Americans worried about who was on President Nixon’s enemies’ list and who his minions bugged. Now we are all on our government’s enemies list and we are all bugged. This is not progress.

No amount of Orwellian intrusions will find and stop every terrorist. The odds will always remain in favor of the lone zealot or psychopath. Security forces have to get it right 100% of the time – they will never achieve this certainty. Innocent people will be killed or maimed when bad people slip through these defenses.

They key to success is to remove the roots of terrorism. Unless and until moderate Islamic leaders end the official teaching of hatred, and the perverse interpretations of the Koran, there will always be a threat. Until we establish policies and processes to recognize and treat mental illness there will always be a person using violent means to destroy lives and communities.

TECHNOLOGY VERSUS HUMANS
The irony of our age is that all the amazing advances in communications are creating as many problems as opportunities. We are all part of a technological Tower of Babel. Our common frame of reference ended years ago, to the detriment of our civic culture.

Diversity is a good thing, unless no one can effectively reach out to others. We have to keep track of friends, family, and colleagues who use different communication platforms and environments, and when they change without telling anyone. It is Apple versus Windows; iPhone versus Android; LinkedIn versus Facebook, versus countless other social networks. It is having to remember which of our friends and colleagues prefer emails to telephone calls; texting to Skype, and texts on Skype. It is about not only which people follow which television show, but whether to spend money to subscribe to cable, premium cable, Netflix, and Amazon in order to follow the latest award winning series.

Reaching key people for business or pleasure is bewildering. Platform convergence (who uses a separate camera any more?) is complicated by user divergence. The challenge for 2014 and beyond is having technology enable more than hinder our cultural advance.