| With a backdrop of colonial architecture which Jefferson helped inspire, the college town of Charlottesville has become a synonym for the devolution of American values. Thomas Jefferson, himself, built this great university in the same Virginia town where he penned the original draft of our Declaration of Independence. It is this abject defiance of the values of Jefferson which saddens so many of us. See, Charlottesville has has a very active community calendar of protests. Most of those protests have been leftist-led. And that's okay with me. Let them march peacefully and go home. But when those same leftist begin dismantling the historic narrative of our nation, I do have a problem with it. Let's explore an example of extremists seeking to destroy historic icons and any memory of them. When the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan, very few folks knew that they would destroy icons of world history and supplant that narrative with their own propaganda. Many see the destruction of the memorial to Gen. Robert E. Lee as a similar and seminal event. The mantra of today's self-obsessed radicals is; "Liberty for me, but not for thee!" |  Protesters planned for non-peaceable assembly. |
| The protesters of the '70s were, at times, far more honorable than this generation. My evidence is bountiful. Exhibit A: Skokie & the Nazis. Skokie Illinois was home to several Jewish holocaust survivors. The American Nazi Party decided to hold a march in that city. The municipal and state govt. tried every manipulation imaginable, to stop the event. There were injunctions, mandated fees, and several other 'hoops' to jump through. Eventually, a Jewish man stood and said to his fellow Jews; "This is not an American way." He helped mount a 1st amendment challenge against the city, and he did prevail in the courts. The Nazis did have a march. The Jewish community let them alone and they went away. No injuries, No looted shops. No litigation in the aftermath.  The Jews of Skokie eventually demonstrated the proper way to secure liberty, mostly by ignoring the Nazi demonstrations and instead, organizing separate events. In contrast, Today's generation decided to follow the Blues Brothers version of confrontation. When Hollywood decided to spoof the events of Skokie, the inadvertently incited the violence we now see playing out and leading to mayhem and death. Watch the movie clip... My concern is that this crisis will result in a call for govt. to curb the constitutional liberties of all of us. And the masses will probably demand it. Jefferson would lament it. He admonished us... "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure..” - Thomas Jefferson |  Taliban extremists in Afghanistan destroyed several massive sculptures from an era when Buddhists prevailed in that region of the world.  The great legacy of the Lee family has impacted Virginia commonwealth history, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The very colonial achitecture stands as a backdrop to remind us of how we've disavowed the founders' commitment to tolerance for the sake of liberty.  A lone supporter of the Confederate legacy is surrounded by a mass of counter protesters, Saturday, in charlottesville. |
