Jamestown & Political Correctness
********************************************************************
The New Jamestown Tragedy
by Ed Hooper
This month Queen Elizabeth II will visit Jamestown, Virginia as the nation marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the colorful British colony that eventually gave birth to the United States. Instead of the pomp and circumstance that is normal for commemorating such an event, Queen Elizabeth and U.S. citizens alike will discover how the prelates of political correctness have hijacked the commemoration and found pliant allies in the Virginia state government with the unknowing assistance of Congress, who initially chartered the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission (H.R. 4907 / Public Law 106-565). Do you want a sample of your tax dollars at work?
The word “Celebration” has been banned from the Jamestown anniversary because influential members of the organizing committee have stated the colonial settlement was, in fact, an “invasion” that led to a “holocaust” of American Indian tribes and the institution of slavery on American soil. It gets better. The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, among others, were paneled on a committee to discuss the Jamestown “tragedies” – a surprise to me since I was unaware their esteemed resumes included expertise in 17th century American Colonialism. There was also a discussion on the settlers’ ecological habits – earning the glorious accolade for Jamestown as the “origin of environmental injustice in America.” Let’s not forget that two self-professed “Native Americans,” are also selling a new book called “The True Story of Pocahontas.” It is allegedly a wonderful addition to the misery of what was thought would be a day of importance in modern American history by depicting the colonists as murderers, rapists, slavers and thieves. The book’s release was timed to the “commemoration” date and is supposedly based upon what the authors claim is the “sacred Mattaponi Tribe’s oral traditions” unheard for 400 years. Not to be outdone at Jamestown are the official tour guides, who now cautiously describe the role of Christianity in the settlement’s founding referring to plaques bearing the Ten Commandments, The Apostles Creed and The Lord’s Prayer as simply “religious” in nature and even the National Park Service’s official “commemoration” display minimizes the role of the settlers at Jamestown.
As thinking Americans, we are all for free thought and discourse, but let us push aside for a moment the historians of minutia; disregard that the first African slave owner in Jamestown was a free black man, who, like thousands of poor whites, was a former indentured servant himself, forget the “environmentally-friendly,” Indian tribes who, instead of cutting down trees and building homes from the timber to make room for gardens, torched the forest and planted crops in the blackened soil or had their own slaves do the work, and lets forget that most tribes acquired their ancestral lands by force from neighboring tribes. In addition, some colonists, as noted by the records of the day, were far from saintly in their own lives. Dispassionate scholars will tell you it’s called life and people in the present cannot morally judge the past or be expected to redress the grievances of ancient sins. Man will hopefully advance further and opinions possessed now on morality, or the lack of, may seem unthinkable to our descendants in the future.
In 1607, however, slavery had been a globally accepted practice since Biblical times and had the American Indians found a common language, mobilized under centralized leadership and mastered the oceans with the riches of America in hand, Jamestown, Virginia could have easily been Tanasi on the Thames, Pocahontas the Indian equivalent of Queen Victoria and the aristocracy of Europe replaced with the meritocracy of American Indians. Why? Because it is the principal nature of human beings to explore, advance and colonize. It is a trait common to every color and creed as evidenced by the archaeological records of ancient and modern civilizations around the world. The goals and values established by the early Christian colonists at Jamestown that gave birth to this nation were Utopian in their day – a fantasy thrown in the lot of mythical civilizations like Atlantis and El Dorado, but by hard work, tough times and near disaster their goals were achieved and this nation’s people are a testament to their existence. A nation where black, brown, red, yellow, and white, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew and Muslim people stand and speak with one voice.
The controversy over the CELEBRATION of Jamestown’s founding is proof the enemies of western civilization have finally found this nation’s Achilles heel and can successfully exploit it. These enemies have also reemphasized that a real war is a multi-faceted assault. The tree of liberty is like any other tree. Simply cutting it down will not kill it. You have to attack its roots. The enemies of the west couldn’t defeat it on the battlefield, in the marketplace, or in the arena of ideas. Instead they turn their attention to its greatest weakness – the noble conscience of its people who pride themselves on fair play and justice. While they have absolved themselves of the sins of their forefathers, they don’t extend that same privilege to Americans or Europeans. They romanticize historical victimization, implant it like a Trojan horse in the social classes and practice psuedo-intellectual extortion against a honorable republic under the guise of political correctness. It has unfortunately proven to be a gold mine for them and their accomplices in academia, the popular media and politicians straining to show they all possess commonness. In fact, political correctness survives by capitalizing on the American idea of the common man’s struggle, but it fails miserably because that is where “p.c.” philosophy dead-ends. It disregards the facts that all people bear the scars of racial injustice at one time or another in their history and outright ignores that the United States and most people around the world celebrate the uncommon in our ranks.
President Herbert Hoover once stated during a 1948 speech at the Wilmington College of Ohio: “We are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a cult of mediocrity. Let us remember that the great human advances have not been brought about by mediocre men and women. They were brought about by distinctly uncommon people with vital sparks of leadership. Many of the great leaders were, it is true, of humble origin, but that alone was not their greatness. It is a curious fact that when you get sick you want an uncommon doctor; if your car breaks down you want an uncommonly good mechanic; when we get into war we want dreadfully an uncommon admiral and an uncommon general. I have never met a father and mother who did not want their children to grow up to be uncommon men and women. May it always be so. For the future of America rests not in mediocrity, but in the constant renewal of leadership in every phase of our national life.”
The political correctness exhibited at the 400th Jamestown commemoration is far from a celebration of the uncommon, but the die is cast and unfortunately the “Manhattan mindset” that prevails in the network news media seems to lack the common sense to see a story in this modern tragedy.
If there has ever been a time for the people of this republic to man their battle stations, assume a leadership posture and take a stand against the commissars of political correctness to preserve the American heritage, it is now. The pressure to change what is happening in this nation must be brought to bear by the common citizen to news desks, bully pulpits and elected representatives’ offices across the nation. If we stand by and allow this to happen without raising our voices in protest, we will become accomplices to the egregious acts at Jamestown and can only blame ourselves for the devastating results that will affect every U.S. commemoration from this day forward.
********************************************************************
By the way, in a related matter, I have had several individuals recommend Tim Hashaw's: The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown Mr. Hashaw is, himself, descended from some of the first African-Americans that landed at Jamestown. He is also the descendant of at least one Confederate soldier. (We have a complicated history, do we not?) I hope to be able to get my hands on a copy soon. Hashaw is currently working on a biography of William Ashworth. Ashworth was a free black colonist who moved to East Texas from Louisiana in 1831. According to Hashaw, Ashworth went on to become Texas' "first great cattle baron."
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home