As I note at Breitbart, the National Archives has produced a report that declares themselves racist -- including, specifically, the Rotunda in which the nation's founding documents are preserved.
I don't think there could be any serious objections to adding exhibits to the Rotunda that reflect broader participation in the nation's founding. However, the casting of the nation's Founding as racist -- or, at best, incomplete -- is a real problem.
The report declares: "Freedom wasn’t fully chartered by the three documents in the Rotunda." That reflects what one might call a "soft" version of Critical Race Theory: not that the documents are racist as such, but insufficiently anti-racist.
President Trump offered a (p)rebuttal to that argument when he delivered a speech at the Rotunda last September: "America’s founding set in motion the unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism, and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history." In other words, freedom was inherent to the documents. Other, later documents simply elucidated and elaborate the original idea.
It is true that later documents -- like the post-Civil War amendments, for example -- added to, and subtracted from, the original text. But a nation that wants to survive must believe that its founding is transcendent. You can have an academic debate, or you can have a nation that preserves the right to that free academic debate, but if you only have the former, you won't for long.
https://www.archives.gov/files/news/archivists-task-force-on-racism-report.pdf
I should have noted in my message about the weekly Torah portion that this week is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. We are about to mourn -- but see through that pain to something better that lies beyond, on the other side.
Wishing you the best vision -- and an incredible reality to follow. It happens!
We begin the final speech of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. He relates the ups and downs of the years of wandering in the desert, before, finally, the people have the merit to enter the land itself.
This Sabbath always precedes Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the anniversary of the destruction of both of the Holy Temples, and a catch-all for many calamities that befell the Jewish people.
A word on Tisha B'Av. This year I am leaving for an overseas trip during the afternoon of the holiday -- in the middle of a fast day. Not idea, but there was no other choice. But my flight is in the afternoon, which is significant.
We relax some of the harsh, mournful customs of the day in the afternoon. We start to pray normally; we sit on regular chairs; we start to have hope again in the redemption that will, one day, lead us all back from exile to our home.
I'll be taking a trip to a land where an important part of ...
President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and making big trade deals -- a major deal with the EU, in fact. Meanwhile, there is a global outcry about humanitarian aid to Palestinians (not about the Israeli hostages, mind you).
On top of that, Democrats are at their lowest polling numbers ever -- so they are trying to win control of the House by redistricting in the middle of a 10-year Census cycle. Oh, economic optimism is up, so they have a tough road.
And Tulsi Gabbard's revelations about the Russia collusion investigation make it clear that Obama's lieutenants lied to Congress. How deeply was he himself involved? The media continue to ignore the evidence, but we certainly won't.
Special guests:
Nick Gilbertson - Breitbart News White House correspondent, on EU deal
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Trump abroad and Russia
John Spencer - urban warfare expert, on humanitarian aid and war in Gaza
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on the ...
