Sam Brinton (standing) was a Biden appointee as a deputy assistant secretary, Dept. of Energy
As a nation, ashopefully compassionate and reasoned people, we need to understand and admit “transgenderism” is not real. Gender (or sex) is an immutable thing, and can no more be changed than eye color. My eyes are the most drab of colors- brown- and even though society has declared blue and green are the most desirable, mine are brown, and always will be.
That is not to say there is not something called “gender dysphoria.” The word “dysphoria” is of Greek origin and basically means difficult mood. We see the prefix “dys” in a number of medical words (dysuria- difficult urination) and “phoria” is often prefixed with “eu,” i.e. euphoria- a state of happiness, perhaps excessively so. Dysphorias of any type are an emotional state, in which a person typically has poor self-esteem, an inner directed dislike or even hatred, and a general dissatisfaction in life, as if something is seriously missing. These people are inclined to search for an explanation for how they feel, and are exceptionally susceptible to those offering easy answers, to those who are more than happy to exploit them. You can see this by watching predatory televangelists: “Send me a donation of $$$ and you will find everlasting comfort and joy in God’s love.”
There are a number of basic tenets that should be considered when analyzing this thing called “transgenderism,” with four of them as follows. First, it is almost exclusively a concept/luxury found in wealthy societies- people who live in impoverished countries and societies- most of the world- are busy worrying where they will find something to eat or if they will die of a tropical disease, not what pronoun they might prefer. Second, it went from essentially having no historical precedent to what amounts to a cultural pandemic in the blink of an eye, which is consistent with a fad and/or intentional propagation. Third, and relatedly, there are a significant number of upper caste people who profit, both financially and in regards to political and cultural power, by “transgenderism.” Finally, This type of frenetic movement inevitably takes on the characteristics of the harshest of religions: You WILL bow down before Baal and you WILL offer up sacrifices, lest you be destroyed!
A "drag queen" invited to read to children at a Binghamton, NY library
The Roxborough High School football team in a post-scrimmage huddle just before they were ambushed; two stills of the "coon hunters" taken from a video of the deadly incident(full video at bottom)
I would venture to say most Americans have never met an actual, true believer racist white supremacist. I am not talking about someone who doesn’t subscribe to “climate justice” or voted for Trump. I’m referring to white people who truly hate black people and find satisfaction in the oppression, maiming, and even killing of them. I have known, or at least met, a handful of dyed-in-the-wool white supremacists; they are people who don’t believe in the American ideals of equality, justice for all, and E. Pluribus Unum (out of many-one). More to the point, they are deranged losers. In the mid-80s I worked in a Federal prison where there were a few Aryan Brotherhood types, but they were much more violent criminal entrepreneurs than ideologues. When we (my wife and I) lived in South Alabama 2008-2012 our neighbor was a pathetic guy, a lifelong drunk in his 80s, who loved to talk of the KKK glory days of the 1960s (“When niggers knew their place!”). But it is a recent and tragic event in Philadelphia where several black high school football players were hunted down and shot, killing a 14 year-old boy and wounding several others, that got me to thinking about an honest to goodness white supremacist I came to know a little in the late 1970s.
The fantasies of a true Jim Crow racist
This verifiable racist I met in the 1970s was, curiously, a lawyer in Mississippi. His uncle was a long-serving Democrat Congressman, which might explain his admittance to the Mississippi bar. I recall him wearing camouflage clothing and talking about the joys “coon hunting” and “black topping,” the former meaning hunting down and shooting black people and the latter running over them with a car. I am pretty sure he never engaged in his fantasies, thank goodness. He was simply a hate-filled cowardly ass who happened to be born into social and economic privilege.
by Reid Fitzsimons (note: below are images of 12 very wealthy and powerful people who embrace "racial justice" and "diversity, equity, inclusion," yet all have a distinctive demographic quality).
The summer of 2020 was an intoxicating time for the elite and affluent: politicians, academics, celebrities, and corporate CEO’s. George Floyd had recently been killed and urban areas were filled with rioting and violence, and privileged liberals, those who lived in a world of materialism and money, could find meaning, and even adulation, in their otherwise superficial and vacuous lives. They could make grandiloquent pronouncements that they- especially those who never ventured outside their white privilege- were not just opposed to racism, but outraged by it, contrasting themselves with the ignorant masses who, whether realized or not, were all bigots and racists. Yes, the gilded members of the elite class would hop on that bandwagon, declaring Black Lives Matter! and, like the titled aristocrats and feudal lords of centuries ago, believed they could obtain salvation by words and gestures: even better than the of corrupt class of centuries ago, they didn’t actually have to pay for indulgences to pave their way to heaven. The acolytes of this new enlightenment- that America and tens of millions of its citizens were vile and disgusting racists- merely had to repeat trite and predictable slogans, and their white privilege could remain intact at no cost to them.
Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner
Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
Bob Chapek, Disney CEO
Going on two years later, what exactly did they get for their sophomoric and pandering rhetoric and support of BLM? First, BLM vilified the police and demanded they be “defunded.” So how did that work out? From 2019 to 2020 we witnessed the largest single increase in the murder rate in all the years it’s been recorded, about 30%, and it apparently didn’t level off in 2021. As always, a hugely disproportionate number of victims were black people and, contrary to the coveted narrative that police enjoy hunting down and killing black people, or that some nefarious “white supremacists” were responsible, the overwhelming majority of the killers were black, and they put an awful lot- 100’s- of truly innocent and beautiful black children caught in the cross-fire in the grave. A price the insulated virtue signalers were more than willing to pay for feeling warm and fuzzy and meaningful.
Sometimes there is little diversity among diversity-equity-inclusion activists
Note: The previous posting discussed the Salvation Army jumping on the “woke” train, so to speak. I sent the link to the heads of the Salvation Army administrative office closest to us, that being in Scranton, PA. I quickly received a friendly and brief reply (below at bottom) from Major Bob Schmig (they use military ranks in the Salvation Army hierarchy. Maj. Schmig offered no comment regarding the topic at hand, and I composed and sent him a follow-up e-mail/letter, which is the main text of this posting. Note that the term Pharisees is used, which defies simple definition but were basically a group of learned Jews around the time of Jesus that formed somewhat of a social/political class and emphasized adherence to the Laws of Moses and oral tradition. They tended to be privileged and numbered perhaps in the 1,000s. They received the animosity of Jesus because he perceived then as hypocrites in the “do as I say, not as I do” realm. In today’s terms, they might be referred in the political world as the Establishment, or more invectively, “the Swamp.”
Greetings Major Schmig:
Thank you for your prompt reply to my e-mail from several days ago, and I appreciate your taking the time to read my article, “The Salvation Army: Let’s Talk About Elitism.” You might have noted I mentioned a time as a volunteer medical director at a remote clinic in Kenya- this was in the early 2000’s and at the peak of the African AIDS crisis. It was a rare day in which a tragedy did not present itself, and I want to describe one so that you might better understand my perspective.
One horrible day we received word that 3 or 4 children were ill because they had eaten rotten fish that had been laced with insecticide and laid about in hopes of poisoning rabid dogs. I dispatched a vehicle but by the time it arrived all but one of the children had died. The one girl that returned, perhaps 7-years-old, was terrified, having witnessed truly miserable deaths of her younger siblings, and we couldn’t determine if she too had consumed the poisoned rotten fish. Nevertheless, though there was no protocol on how to treat such a thing, I empirically induced vomiting (if I recall) and had her drink slurry of charcoal through her tears and sobbing. Ultimately I assumed she hadn’t consumed the insecticide because I don’t think she would have survived regardless of treatment, and thankfully she was okay. Maybe you’ve witnessed and experienced similar events, but having seen so many children die during my time there, I developed a particular revulsion to children dying, perhaps especially black kids.
The current Salvation Army leadership, with the heads of their "International Social Justice" commission on the right
by Reid Fitzsimons
An interesting thing happened to the venerable and widely respected Salvation Army (SA): they were caught, so to speak, in the ether of political “wokeness,” and a lot of disappointment followed. Specifically, they posted on their website a “guide” entitled “Let’s Talk About Racism,” sometime in the Spring of 2021. This was outed, so to speak, by non-traditional media, specifically a group called Color Us United, in October 2021; the resulting publicity led the SA to delete the document in November. As part of their defense, they referred to it as a “study guide…for internal use,” and issued a rather acerbic and juvenile preamble on Nov. 25th: “This statement is in response to a politically motivated group that is trying to force The Salvation Army to conform to the group’s ideology of choice.” Here is a link to the full SA statement: https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/story/the-salvation-armys-response-to-false-claims-on-the-topic-of-racism/
It’s never a good idea to take grandiloquent positions based on snippets from others so, after some difficulty, I did track down the deleted “Let’s Talk About Racism” document, and an associated study guide; it can be found at an internet archiving site called Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/). After reviewing the materials I, as a heretofore enthusiastic supporter of the SA, concluded the critics were correct, and that the apologetics issued by the SA were misleading and even self-righteous, and one of the terribly frustrating things about this controversy is that it was entirely unnecessary. So... Let’s Talk About Racism Elitism.
To be a bit acerbic myself, Let’s Talk About Racism is less a thoughtful and serious paper than one written for extra credit by a sophomore college student in a sociology class (minus the Biblical references), a class where the professor is an ageing hippie who yearns to be pertinent while dreaming of the halcyon days from the 60’s of “free love,” i.e. easy sex without responsibility or consequence, days long before “#MeToo.” It is rife with the vocabulary of the progressive word salad, and indeed begins with a specious argument, presented as established fact, that “Race is a social construct.” For anyone unfamiliar with the phrase “social construct,” it a means to diminish or deny what until now has been generally accepted, and is often used in a pejorative, disdainful manner; it is most commonly seen in the world of “transgender” polemics: gender is merely a social construct, and to believe there is a factual or biologic basis for male and female means you are an ignorant moron.
By Reid Fitzsimons (see the image gallery at the end of this article)
Many forces in our culture, which could properly be described as elite and privileged, have begun invoking a mantra- essentially an incantation with trappings of religiosity- consisting primarily of three words: diversity, equity, inclusion. These words especially emanate from the mouths and pens of the "woke" in academia, partisan political circles, corporate-financial-globalist interests, the celebrity world, university students, government bureaucracies at all levels and, increasingly, the military hierarchy. They are vacuous words, of course, used by people who shouldn’t have vacuous minds, but nevertheless tend to frame their thoughts with slogans and chants. I suspect if one of them were asked, for example, “What do you mean by ‘diversity?” the answer might be, ”People who don’t look like me. Diversity is our strength!” Does “equity” imply equality of opportunity or mandated outcomes, regardless of effort? Do those who demand “inclusion” embrace people who have contrary beliefs and opinions, or those they otherwise deplore?
This mantra has been incubating and evolving for many years, but its prominence greatly accelerated with the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020, and the many opportunities his death afforded, such as the power and money amassed by the elite black racialists of “Black Lives Matter.” If a mantra can be considered to be underlying principles, so to speak, then associated slogans are often calls to action, for example, “No Justice! No Peace!” or “defund” the police!” While mantras and slogans can be emotionally satisfying, they really shouldn’t form a foundation for law and social policy, and certainly not by those who are given authority over such things, yet sadly, and often with horrific consequences, they do. With this in mind, let’s consider a sobering historical fact and how it is applicable to today.
Accusing others of Racism in our present political and social climate is an efficient means for a person to find validation and meaning in their lives, at least for the kind of person that needs a bad “Them” so they can be part of the good “Us.” This is not unlike ill-balanced religious zealots who need others to serve as sinners so they can view themselves, in contrast, as Saints. Of course, as with so many things of this nature, word meanings are vague and often remain poorly defined.
In reality, racism is a concept that resists simplistic definitions, but rather it is better explained by category and example, which this article endeavors to do. First, an introductory warning: to anyone reading this who is emotionally and culturally fragile- prepare your fainting couch, because in a few instances the “N-word” is going to be spelled out fully.
Those who are inclined to hurl out the insult of “Racist” typical do so mindlessly, and they largely mean nothing more than anyone who disagrees with them, but if they were able to attach to it some significance, these are some possibilities:
True vile and hate-filled racism: In prior times, up into the 1960’s perhaps, truly vile racism was often public and even proud, but, where it exists today, it’s more of an hidden internet phenomenon among a handful of losers: the mostly mythical “white supremacists.” It is, fortunately, the least common form of racism, despite what social justice activists yearn to believe.
In my 62 years I have encountered this type racism twice. The first was in the late 1970s in Mississippi, where a complete jerk from a privileged family, who somehow became a lawyer, talked to me about “blacktopping the road-” intentionally running over black people. He also talked about the joys of “coon hunting” at night. As far as I know he was (fortunately) a despicable coward and never lived his fantasies.
The second encounter I had was in South Alabama soon after my wife and I moved there in 2008. I went to introduce myself to our new and elderly neighbor, and was asking him about lawn mowers when he spontaneously declared, “I don’t care much for niggers.” He went on to talk about the good old days when “niggers knew their place” and one time they got uppity and had to be driven from (presumably by the local KKK) a town in the area. We came to learn he had been a lifelong angry drunk who, ironically, had a hypoxic brain event soon after, and ended up being cared for by black caregivers.
Biased racism: this is a form of racism that has existed in my lifetime and was somewhat common- an inculcated a belief among certain whites that blacks were, simply, inferior. A perfect example of this type was as follows: I knew a person who owned (in the government backed loan sense of the word) a large amount of farmland in Mississippi, and he had a habit of hiring people as his farm managers right out of central casting for thieving rednecks.
Once, just after the latest manager absconded with pockets full of loot, I asked him if he might consider hiring Archie as the manager. Archie was a black man who had long been a dependable employee and knew farming front and back. He, the land owner, replied succinctly that Archie could not be considered because, “He’s a nigger.” He did not say this with any animosity and indeed he treated Archie and all his black farmhands well. It was simply a belief that a black person couldn’t function as a manager. In his defense, sometime later a woman with an agricultural related college degree applied to be the farm manager. I asked him why he didn’t hire her and his response was a predictable, “Because she’s a woman.”
Observational and descriptive racism: When I lived in East Africa many years ago it was common for kids to run about excitedly as I passed by shouting “Mzungu,” which essentially means “White Person” in Swahili. They were certainly not racist, simply observing that they saw a relatively rare white guy. Unfortunately, invoking a description of race, for example saying in a rural mostly white small town, “I saw a black guy crossing the street,” might be construed by easily offended “social justice” activists as racist.
Progressive politicians, feeling anointed and obligated to somehow shield black Americans from reality, have decreed that using race in describing a suspected criminal, for example, is prohibited. Hence, in some cities it is disallowed to say, “The suspect is a young black male of average size.”
Unfamiliar racism: There was an old widow neighbor (recently deceased) who my wife and I helped quite a bit- we live in a mostly white rural area and she simply hadn’t been around black people much. I was telling her that we were going to bring over from Kenya a black man to attend college in the US, that he was going to spend some time with us, and that she would enjoy meeting him. She said, “I don’t know, I’ve never had a black person in my house before,” a statement that could easily elicit a charge of racism from sensitive activist. Once he arrived she was very welcoming, was quickly and thoroughly charmed by him, and even gave him a hug when he left for school. This man is from a very dark-skinned tribe, and she observed, “He’s the darkest black person I ever saw!”
Note: USAA (United Services Automobile Association) is a membership based insurance company begun in the 1920s by a group of Army officers. Over the decades they grew considerably and branched out into financial services. Some type of military association is required to be a member and they have developed a deserved reputation for integrity and service. I’ve been a member for 37 years, and I (along with my wife) use them for our car and house insurance and many of our banking needs. One great plus of USAA is that it has been operated by serious and competent adults who never gave in to societal and political fads and pressures, until now. Below is a letter to Wayne Peacock, the newly installed CEO of USAA and the first who has never served in the military, in response to a position statement he released fully aligning USAA with the woke social justice activism (that statement can be found at the bottom of the page).
Greetings Mr. Peacock:
I had thought to myself with satisfaction that USAA was one of the exceptional companies that had the strength of character and sobriety to not succumb to the coercion and disingenuousness of the popular culture of the moment. That is, until I found your letter of supplicating mea culpa apologetics when I signed on to my USAA account.
I cannot recall in my lifetime a situation in which there has been unanimous agreement on a value- in this case revulsion at the brutal murder of George Floyd- that was so quickly exploited so as to create division and foster hatred and even violence. The underlying premise, that black lives matter (BLM), is fine as far as it goes, because everyone’s life matters, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. What we know is that the political and cultural movement known as BLM in fact embraces racism by selectively applying worth to black Americans on a commodity basis, and finding marketable value only when the manner of death can be used for profit: if a black American is one of the handful killed by a white cop, for example, there is titillation; if a black American is one of approximately 6,500 killed by intra-racial violence every year there is something between silence and embarrassment: the former must be exploited, the latter ignored.
A reference to Bruce Jenner receiving an ESPN "courage award."
by Reid Fitzsimons
We live in a rural and decidedly Republican area of
Northeast, PA- our county went for Trump something like 70/30 in 2016. Down the hill is a little town of perhaps
150 people, and in the 8years we’ve been here a house on Main Street has
distinctly displayed several flags, including the US flag, a “rainbow” flag
that contained the words “Don’t Tread On Me,” and one that stated, “Born This
Way;” the flags have weathered and faded over time and have been replaced. I have never seen the person or persons who
live in this house but I assume he, she, or they are homosexual activists of
some sort. I’ve never heard of any
trouble, such as the flags being stolen or anti-homosexual graffiti, but this
is not surprising as the overall conservative philosophy in such matters is
“whatever you do, though it might not be my cup of tea, is yours to do as long
as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of others.”
The progressive left has certain immutable beliefs that
paradoxically often prove to be quite fluid. The above-mentioned sentiment,
“Born This Way,” implies there is a genetic imperative connected to
homosexuality. While I’m fairly certain
there is no established “homosexual gene,” this concept has been a mainstay of
homosexual activism, which disallows any suggestion that a homosexual can
change, therefore any treatments or therapies (“conversion therapy”) are not
only scorned but in some cases have been made illegal. Curiously this is in direct opposition to
what is called transgenderism, the advocates of which declare that scientific
genetics (xx versus xy) can and should be ignored, because concepts of gender
are merely “social constructs,” specifically those created by oppressive
conservative males of European descent. Also, curiously, conversion therapy in
regards to transgenderism is not only allowed but demanded by activists.
I can’t help but think the displayer(s) of these flags
wouldn’t mind a little “homophobic” action, some vandalism or the like- they
are obviously trying to make a statement and I suspect they would like some
kind of confirmation that they’ve been heard.
Ironically for decades “tolerance,” which is plentiful, has been the
catchword of such activists, their ostensible goal, but it is really approbation
that is being sought, and the problem with affirmation/approbation is that it
is an extrinsic phenomenon that by nature requires the participation of
other people. Tolerance is a passive
live and let live thing; approval, and the associated demands of “embracing”
and “celebrating” is active, and herein lies a political and social
dilemma.
Virginia's enlightened progressive Governor Dr. Northam's medical school yearbook photo
Part 1, Milton
We first knew Milton when he was perhaps 5 or 6 years
old. He was a fairly regular attendee
at our charity children’s program (breakfast, story time, playtime, lunch, arts
and crafts, sports, games, snack, finish up by around 4 pm) near a small
village in rural Honduras. To be honest
he wasn’t the brightest of kids, but he was very cute as he sat on the swing
and said, “Reid, calame (Reid, swing me).”
We would open in the morning, often with 20-30 kids, and by
the afternoon 40 to 50 wasn’t unusual.
They largely had one thing in common in regards to the following: pretty
much none of the parents (mothers) had any idea where their kids were. There is no tradition of, “Hey mom, I’m
heading off to the guarderia, be back around 4:30,” but rather the kids go off
to do whatever they do and all is well if they end up back home by dark. By our “we are right in the latest
incarnation of whatever we do in the US at the moment” standard this might
sound negligent, but it’s more similar to the way my generation was raised than
not, plus our project had a pretty good reputation. For the most part the mothers in the village sincerely care about
their children, fathers typically less so, considering so many of them are
absent from their children’s lives, which is pertinent to Milton.
Briefly, the last full session of the kids’ program was in
2011, for a variety of reasons we did not leave the US in 2012, and beginning
in 2013 I (now with my wife staying at home) began spending about two months a
year in the village, not doing a program for kids per se but more young adult
and adult oriented, especially teaching English, carpentry, and sewing. Not surprisingly on each trip down there I
catch up on the latest, especially asking about how the kids we had gotten to
know quite well in past years are doing.
This past March (2019) upon my arrival I inquired as to Milton’s status
and learned he had recently gone to los Estados Unidos illegally, which was
unexpected. In learning the details I
was told his father had taken him. I
mentioned that to the best of my knowledge his father was never part of his
life, and this was confirmed, i.e. Milton simply became a pasaporte for his
hitherto absent father.
We are funny in America in regards to children, at least the
left is. In any social policy, or political debate, invoking “the children” is
supposed to stifle the other side and assure their acquiescence (which
unfortunately has often proven to be true, at least in pre-Trump times). Though the left gleefully ends the lives of
children by the boatload under the guise of “women’s rights,” they seem to drip
with compassion for non-aborted children as long as it advances their
narrative. This has very much filtered
down to the villages in Honduras in the form of, “if you show up at the border
with a kid you will get in.” This explains Milton’s father’s newly discovered
love for his dear son. It also explains
why 13 year-old Julia’s aunt was planning on returning to the village and drag
her with her to the border (“remember Julia, I’m your mother!”).
We hear a good deal about child/human trafficking these days
and what I’m describing is at the lower end: certainly the parents aren’t
knowingly giving up their children to be sex slaves, and not even selling them
per se. There is simply an implicit understanding that “when you get into the
US using my son or daughter as your passport, I will expect to be spending time
at the Western Union office to receive remittances from you.”
Although I could fill pages talking about immigration, I
merely want to end this section with a few thoughts. First, our progressive
Democrat policy, which is essentially in effect Trump or no Trump, turns
children into commodities, and indeed makes them susceptible to full-blown
exploitation.
Second, our policy ignores the most basic and humane (though
most difficult) solution, which is to improve the situation in the countries of
mass emigration. This should not mean
everyone has to have the American middle-class standard of SUVs, big screen
TVs, streaming video, smart phones, wine coolers, and air conditioning, but
there are basic modern comforts that, if more universally available, would
certainly improve living standard.
Third, a common aspect to the immigration debate is the idea of assimilation, and there seems to be a reluctance to embrace this ideal culturally and linguistically, at least when compared to the widely held narrative pertaining to prior immigrants. The concept of assimilation simply doesn’t exist in the minds of the current wave from Latin America: there are no tired, huddled masses yearning to breath free. They are not refugees with legitimate asylum claims planning to assimilate, but rather have seen plenty of Hollywood movies with all the glitter and materialism and say to themselves, “I want that.” And you can’t really blame them.
Part 2, The Blind Girl
In modern progressive Western culture the most odious
creature is the white male Christian conservative, even worse if they are from the
South, and even worse if they are credentialed as a Baptist pastor- the horror!
I will call him Leonard, and yes, he is all of these things. Around 15 years ago his fictitious (I am a
non-believer) God called him to Honduras to help children, and eventually he,
along with his Christian Mexican- American wife (I forgot to mention he is also
a dreaded heterosexual), established an orphanage. It wasn’t your typical orphanage, however, with cottages and
hired caregivers, but rather the kids were their kids, and they lived with the
kids. They peaked at perhaps 20-some
children, lost a few for a variety of reasons, and now have about 15. Needless to say, these kids were from the
worst situations of neglect, abuse, and abandonment imaginable, for the most
part have been with them since infancy, and they are “children of color.” More
on this shortly.
About 13 years ago a baby girl was born, named Xiomara who
was obviously blind, and there was some concern she had a “syndrome” that would
make her mentally retarded, deaf, or what have you. During the time the baby was a neonate an American physician
(OB/Gyn, who traveled on a somewhat tortured road that led her to Honduras,
then back to the US) happened to see this baby and declared it would be better
off if she were simply left to die.
This did not happen, and shortly she was taken in by Leonard. She grew and thrived and a couple of years
ago she was adopted by, yes, a despicable Christian, conservative heterosexual
American couple from, Lord help us, Texas.
I’ve known Xiomara since she was a baby and had the chance to see her
this past March (the adoptive parents bring her back to Honduras to visit her
siblings, i.e. the kids she grew up with until her adoption), and she was
everything wonderful in a child- happy, vibrant, engaging, etc.
Not to long ago the Democrat Governor of Virginia became embroiled in some
controversy, especially in terms of a black face/KKK medical school yearbook
photo. Though this has faded away
(together with a sexual assault accusation against the Democrat Lt. Gov. it was
conceivable a Republican could have ascended to the VA executive office, so the
initial progressive outrage had to be quelled), there was a lesser-reported
controversy that reminded me of Xiomara.
The Governor, who graduated medical school and is a soft-spoken
progressive extremist, was prompted to muse about a bill to end any
restrictions on abortion, to include allowing the abortion of baby while the mother
was in natural active labor. In the
event the child survived the abortion and continued unwanted by the mother he
suggested “comfort care,” in other words putting a blanket over the infant and
allowing it to die from dehydration or starvation. He added, “And it's done
in cases where there may be severe deformities.”
My primary career was as a medical provider, Physician Assistant (PA), and I worked or associated with many physicians over the years. I can say some of the finest people I’ve known were physicians, many were of average integrity, and too many were disingenuous reprobates, the kind of people like VA Governor Dr. Northam who couch barbarism- starving and dehydrating babies to death- in feel-good terms such as “comfort care.” Needless to say, under Dr. Northam’s professional and august guidance, Xiomara would have died an agonizing death. It’s ironic to note that it would be less cruel to simply use a pipe or hammer and smash the baby’s skull, but with all the blood, bone fragments, and brain tissue it would be less sophisticated and less quaint, and wouldn’t qualify for the soothing term “comfort care.”
The children under the care of Leonard and his wife, their children (the oldest are now 15) are a true joy to know. They are kids and have all the normal concerns and problems of kids certainly but are pretty well adjusted, enthusiastic, and are also truly fluent in both Spanish and English- and it’s quite a bit of fun to watch them switch back and forth with ease as the situation requires. Less than two years ago Leonard (known as Papa to the kids), was diagnosed with an adult form of muscular dystrophy and can no longer walk or stand, and is losing the use of his arms. As much as the left finds solace and satisfaction in ridiculing Christians, Leonard endures and even thrives because of his Lord and Savior and because he believes in something greater than himself. I doubt very much that those who would call him a racist bigot simply because he’s a Christian could bear riding in his wheelchair: they wouldn’t sacrifice materialistic comfort for a moment to care for “children of color,” no matter how much they claim to love them.
