

Education
In School or On the Streets, Belligerence is Deliberately Destructive
The impact of belligerence in the classroom or anywhere else in society is real and destructive
As Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle experience renewed turmoil propagated by Antifa and other anarchist groups, I am reminded of a time many years earlier. While my daughter was in middle school and high school, and even after she graduated, I volunteered on ‘career day’ to teach in classrooms about being an author and speaker. Other parents in other professions did the same.
Constant Commotion
I eventually gave it up because, invariably, one or two of the minority students — African American — in each class simply could not sit still. These were 14 and 15 year olds, and this happened in 2014, in President Obama’s sixth of eight years in office.
Obviously in writing this article I could avoid citing their minority status. That might be deemed the ‘politically correct’ thing to do, nevertheless I’m duly recounting what led to my departure.
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One certainly could engage in a long sociological discussion about their behavior and what prompts it. They would be disruptive, make one-line comments, sit on their desks, make noises, intentionally seek to distract me, and diminish the quality of interaction in the room. At 6’3″, and an athletic 188 pounds, I could have physically intimidated any of the disruptors, but I did not.
Elective Not Mandatory
These students were not forced to attend such sessions; all of these classes for career day were elective. Students signed up in advance for the presenter in the field in which they were interested, or at least feigned interest. In class, most students listened attentively.
Some asked serious questions. Many were thankful for the session. You could see the look of disdain on their faces when others sought to disrupt the class. It was apparent they had witnessed such intentional disruption many times before.
On this last time that I would volunteer in this capacity, and following my last session, I went downstairs to the school office. I told the vice principal and a secretary the reason why I would not return in the future and waste my time. Confidentially, the secretary told me that other presenters had shared the same experience.
The Progression to Belligerence
If I had been a full-time teacher, the unprovoked, continuing belligerence of some students would have changed my perception about the profession and about such students. How might I have reacted if the disruptors were Caucasian? I would, unquestionably, have been equally agitated. This didn’t occur, but it could have.
Was I naive in thinking that I could make my annual presentation and remain unscathed? Perhaps. Maybe it was a matter of time before I ran into such belligerence, but I don’t think so.
What happened was a progression: All students in my earlier years were polite. Then, in subsequent years, some disruptors began to emerge in small ways. Then, disruptors set about to openly flaunt classroom decorum.
At least subconsciously, the disruptors incrementally determined what they could get away with, in a variety of situations, without penalty. Undoubtedly, this was in motion long before I arrived on the scene. I surmise that they were constantly testing the waters – with substitute teachers, instructors, coaches, trainers, and any adult authority figure with whom they felt they might gain leverage.
To No One’s Benefit
Don’t discount the impact of belligerence in the classroom or anywhere else in society. It is real and destructive. Presently, municipal city police officers face constant war zone-like conditions in areas of high belligerence. Such intense, daily experiences have a deleterious effect on their homeostasis, well-being, judgment, and reflexes.
In that regard, U.S. police officers face more conflict than many soldiers in war zones and suffer the same type of traumas such as PTSD. One can’t help but wonder to what their daily, repeat-exposure to domestic war zones leads. Perhaps PTSD like symptoms are at the root unfortunate, fatal encounters in recent times.
Liberal Mayors and city-councils, in Democrat-run municipalities, who do not support their police forces, play a dangerous game with all of the citizens whom they were elected to govern. Squeamish mayors end up helping no one, and indeed, hurting many.
Only in Imagination
The media machine censors news items about those who act aggressively, but only in the ‘progressive’ imagination are police officers invariably at fault, and the array of perpetrators that they encounter are universally law-abiding and upstanding citizens.
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Education
Learning About My State’s History
In school, everyone should be taught the complete history of their state
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I grew up in Connecticut and all of my schooling was there. Were we told about any of the innovations and inventions, below, in school? Yes, for the cotton gin, helicopter, and maybe a few others, but for the most part, no mention. Everyone should be taught the complete history of their state.
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Not Told About So Much
Little did I know that through 1954 Connecticut had the most historical firsts:
First constitution adopted, establishing representative government (1639)
First newspaper (1764)
First submarine (1775)
First American law school (1784)
First insurance company (1795)
First cotton gin (1799)
First dictionary (1807)
First movable parts mass production in use, making clocks (1808)
First revolver (1836)
First public art museum (1842)
First portable typewriter (1843)
First use of anesthesia (1844)
First sewing machine (1846)
First ice-making machine (1853)
First can opener (1858)
First tape measure (1868)
First pay phone (1877)
First collapsible toothpaste tube (1892)
First hamburger (1895)
First submarine (1900)
First lollipop (1908)
First Frisbee (1920)
First vacuum cleaner (1933)
First Polaroid camera (1934)
First helicopter (1939)
First color television (1948)
First atomic powered submarine (1954)
Education
My Woke Local Library in Woke America
At the rate of new woke holidays, the whole year will eventually fill up
American Thinker: I took time out during a weekday, two weeks ago, to visit my local library for the first time in many months. I know they’ve already changed the name. It used to be called the “Cameron Village Regional Library,” but apparently Cameron was a very bad man, a long time ago.
The name change, however, came because owners of the shopping center, which was built on land owned by people who had held slaves, chose to drop its connection to the contemporary Cameron family. Hmmm, I wonder how many properties, owned by people who had held once slaves, the shopping center owners have lived on.
Ultimately, the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename the library to the “Oberlin Regional Library.” Is that not a heartwarming move?
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Change Happens
As I stroll around the library, I notice numerous changes. There are many more large-print books. The youth section is larger as well and offers a variety of woke titles which, in some instances, would alarm even the most liberal of parents. Every other book is about “brown girl” or “the boy who feels like a girl inside.”
In perusing the audiobook shelves, I see that it is a fraction of what it used to be. Most everyone has switched to downloads. The physical CDs, the kind I like to pop into my car player, are becoming rare, but isn’t it safer to insert one into the CD player than to fiddle with one’s cellphone to air a podcast?
At the librarian’s desk, I see all manner of flyers and announcements. One flyer stands out in particular. It is a page which lists all library activities for the coming month. This list interests me because one never knows — there might be a visiting author or some type of how-to program that is worthwhile to me.
Closed in Observation
The middle of this sheet says: “The library will be closed on June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.” Juneteenth, bad grammar and all, is a federal holiday since 2021, commemorating “the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.” Wait a second, the Emancipation Proclamation occurred on January 1, 1863. Did I miss something? The library will be partially open on July 4. Is that now a lesser holiday?
Juneteenth is acknowledged on the anniversary of the order by a Major General Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865. So, now we ignore the Emancipation Proclamation? One keen social observer commented that the left still thinks of minorities, especially black people, as their pets who they like to spoil with little baubles like Juneteenth.
Real equality is out of the question. To let people rise of fall on their own merits? Well those poor folks would never find their way without the largess of tax payers. And that’s the ploy to keep them “in their place.” Simply vote Democrat and eventually you’ll be just fine. In the meantime, enjoy all the great gifts. And don’t forget to vote.
Perpetual Baubles
What about Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, celebrated on the third Monday in January? It is now a federal holiday. Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays in mid-February used to be known by every school-aged kid as I was growing up. These birthdays have now been homogenized and combined, and called Presidents Day, with not even 1 in 10 Americans knowing what that relates to.
Malcolm X said: “The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man who runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal, then Negros would get together and solve our own problems.”
“I only cite these things to show you that in America, the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man.”
Dedicated Months
We have a whole month devoted to black history, each and every day in February. Depending on where you turn, you’ll gain news and information about black authors, politicians, poets, cooks, freedom fighters, soldiers, actors, inventors, and pioneers of industry.
The consequence of note of all these holidays is that government employees receive yet another paid day off without having to bargain for it. Nearly everybody else, who actually work for a living, still go to work on those days. Few people care about the holiday except for those seeking to conjure up the next one.
Still, perhaps we ought to have Black History Month for a few more years but, eventually, it needs to fade and simply be part of American history. Otherwise, are we also going to have a Hispanic history month, Jewish month, Asian month, Muslim month, and so on? Are not all the historical experiences, and contributions, by all these groups simply a part of American history?
Years ago, when I lived in D.C., one of the morning radio shock jocks made an inexcusable joke for which he should have been fired but he was not. This was long before the wokesters took over the media and he knew what the boundaries were. In observation of Martin Luther King’s birthday, he said, it’s too bad four more civil rights leaders weren’t slain so that we could have a whole week off. A terrible statement by any means, but he thought it was funny.
Fill Up the Year!
The odd thing is, at the rate of new woke holidays, it wouldn’t be surprising if the whole year was eventually filled up. Every group that has ever been aggrieved in one way or another, at any time, gets a holiday or a week, or why not a month?
So let’s have a short people’s day, a stutterer’s day, a nearsighted people’s day, and on and on, until every single person in America is covered (except, of course, white males, Christians, and Jews). Let’s devote a whole month to those who have a different sexual outlook, inclination, or orientation than everyone else. Let’s hold it in, say, June. Let’s call it “Pride Month.” What do you think of that?
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