Unless you’ve been living in a cave with no TV or radio, you may not know the country is under assault by people who want to burn it down, rip it up, remove statues and change the country into a Marxist nation. That’s really the intent of the organization, Black Lives Matter.
Other socialists are joining in the fray. People like Jake Pickering of Arcata who wrote newspapers a letter suggesting the Northern California town of Fort Bragg needs a name change ASAP! He writes: “No self-respecting Californian could ever possibly justify or countenance any town or city in the Golden State being named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who was not only a traitor and a slave owner, but an especially intemperate and incompetent military commander as well. Why would any patriotic American want to set foot in a town named after a racist traitor to the republic, like Braxton Bragg? Too bad, Fort Bragg, but you’re not getting another dime from me until you change your town’s name.”
Pickering suggested the following substitutes of Fort Lincoln, Fort Grant, Fort Sherman, Fort Roosevelt, Fort Eisenhower, Fort Patton, Fort Marshall, Fort Bradley, Fort Kennedy or Fort Powell.
Fort Bragg dates back to 1857 before the Civil War and was named after Braxton Bragg. Bragg fought in the Mexican-American War which resulted in Texas being wrestled away from Mexico.
Changing names is kind of silly, when you think about it. It doesn’t rewrite history nor change geographic boundaries. You can argue all day about a name but it doesn’t change the fact that the town has been branded with that name and it really serves no purpose to change it up now 163 years later.
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House Democrats stood in the way of HR Resolution 1007 which condemned rioting and violence and the “deliberate targeting of law enforcement officers” in the aftermath of the George Floyd death in Minnesota. Despite Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube’s resolution supporting peaceful protests, the Democrats apparently didn’t like the mention that protests have been “exploited by violent extremists” carrying out “acts of violence, looting, destruction of business and personal property, and additional loss of life.” They also are unwilling to say they oppose the defunding of police.
The Democrats are afraid of stepping on the toes of the Marxist organization, Black Lives Matter. BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors remarked in a 2015 video that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists.”
No House Democrats voted in favor of Steube’s resolution. Rep. Justin Amash (I., Mich.) voted with Republicans to support the measure.
The vast majority of sane Americans support police in our country. Communities like Ceres approved tax increases to keep a strong police (and fire) department because they know evil will flourish when there is no one to catch the bad guys.
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Democrats save the day. You can now not only get away with not paying your bill for water service and be protected against your water shut off but now the state is paying for a new phone line for people who speak Spanish in English-language California can rat on your city if they do shut off your water. Isn’t that great? So the rest of us who do pay our bills diligently can fume over Gov. Newsom’s waving of his magic wand in an executive order.
Want to hear what Gov. Benziger would do? He’d reopen the entire economy – because all businesses are essential to people’s livelihood – so that people can work and earn a paycheck and pay their water bills and feed their families. Those who feel at risk are welcome to stay home.
He’d also open up all schools since children rarely ever get COVID-19 or die from it. If California doesn’t open up the schools this fall, I say layoff all the teachers because distance learning is a joke. Kids are falling through the cracks like never before. And if you lay off the teachers than reduce our tax burden too.
The truth is I want schools reopened like they were in August 2019. Schools are the number one agency to learn about and report child abuse, which is on the ride. Schools also detect vision and hearing and learning problems.
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I have to share something I think is profound. This well written and thoughtful article written by a 26-year-old college student named Alyssa Ahlgren, who is in grad school for her MBA. It is titled, My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
“I’m sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.
“I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it.
“Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought.
“We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average – 31 times!
“Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful??
“Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”
“Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.
“When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.
“My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let’s just say I didn’t have the popular opinion, but I digress.
“Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.
“People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they’ve never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.
“Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn’t live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn’t see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.
“We don’t know what it’s like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don’t have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it’s spreading like a plague.
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
