Honoring Our Heroes
Today is Veterans Day. The day originally began as Armistice Day to mark the 11:00 AM ceasefire on November 11, 1918, that ended World War I. In 1954, Congress renamed Armistice Day as Veterans Day to honor the veterans of all our wars.
Sadly, we are living in an era of increasing hostility toward America. Thank God Donald Trump is confronting this, but he has a big battle ahead. A false narrative has taken root on our college campuses. We are teaching our children not American history, but anti-American history. President Trump has a major initiative to reverse this.
We are teaching that our nation is an evil, oppressive force, founded on slavery and genocide. No wonder growing numbers of young Americans do not describe themselves as patriotic.
Increasingly, the values that used to unite us now divide us. Monuments to our founding fathers are under attack. Even the Pledge of Allegiance is protested and denounced as "an instrument of white nationalism."
Of course, our veterans know better. They understand that America is a force for good in the world, that it is worth defending, that it is, as Abraham Lincoln once described it, “the last best hope of Earth.”
Please find an opportunity over the next few days to talk to your children and grandchildren about what happened at Concord Bridge and Gettysburg, on the beaches of Normandy, and in more recent conflicts. We are able to celebrate our 250th Birthday next year because of our veterans.
To the millions who have always been there to stop the tyrant, protect the weak and preserve the peace -- we have not forgotten you. A grateful nation thanks God for giving us heroes like you.
Gangs of Chicago (and New York, etc.)
With all eyes on the partisan politics of the federal government shutdown, the media have more excuses than usual for ignoring bigger stories. The escalating threats and violence against federal immigration officers is a national scandal and big media is under-reporting it.
In recent days, the “capo” of a gang called the Latin Kings in the Little Village section of Chicago has ordered his members to shoot border patrol officers “on sight” and offered a $10,000 bounty for each kill. It’s no empty threat.
ICE and border patrol members, who are our fellow citizens, have been demonized for enforcing duly-passed laws on immigration. Their investigations and arrests have generally been aimed at the worst of the worst – criminals with histories of violent crime, narcotics smuggling, and human trafficking.
But the thugs ordering these attacks feel comfortable with their public threats because of the atmosphere created by the language and actions of one political party. That party has seen fit to ignore the assaults on federal officers in their relentless pursuit of renewed health care subsidies for illegal aliens. It’s a chain reaction of lawlessness.
In Chicago, now it’s all but routine that whenever federal immigration police go into a neighborhood, there’s widespread resistance. It isn’t spontaneous. It’s reminiscent of the resistance mounted by forces in the Deep South when federal officials tried to advance school integration. What is happening now is near-Civil War intensity in its level of violence.
Over the weekend in Little Village one of these thugs drove by and fired shots at ICE officers attempting to enforce our immigration laws. Meanwhile, a crowd of rioters heaving bricks and paint were also trying to disrupt the arrests. The officers gathered shell casings and quickly tracked the shooter down.
Who was he? Was he an offended member of a local “social justice” concerns ministry? No, the man was ID’d as an illegal alien from Mexico who – surprise – has a criminal record including weapons charges.
Good luck searching online for any Democrat politicians who have condemned rhetoric and crimes like this. Notice, for example, how quickly coverage has disappeared of the sniper who fired at federal agents in Texas and managed to kill two detainees instead. Maybe there are just too many of these incidents to cover? Well, no, the media’s interest lies elsewhere.
I’m no prophet. But there is an intensifying pattern here. The toll of shot and injured agents is rising. Lead stories on the shutdown this morning say the Democratic base wants more ruthlessness. We are already at the point where men and women seeking to enforce laws duly enacted by the United States are being wounded and killed by drug dealers and deranged leftists.
All the while the chorus on the left is to blame the police. This won’t end well. Unless the Democrat screed-writers back down, this will inevitably end in a bigger tragedy. When it does, the blame will be on the chorus of voices who cheered the violent resistance. The blood will be on their hands.
The Terror Plot Too Big for Media Attention?
There’s even more to the major media’s blind eye. Ten days ago a story popped up in the press about a terror plot planned for Hallowe’en. The story focused on suspected plotters in Michigan, later connected to other states, who were allegedly inspired by ISIS.
Again, the media almost immediately acted like this was a “Trumped-up” story. The potshots started against FBI director Kash Patel. The FBI did not immediately elaborate on its investigation, with media voices suggesting the Bureau was backing away from its charges.
Now the news is coming out that this wasn’t just a couple of “gamers” on the Internet. At least six young people have been arrested in multiple states. The FBI had not been talking because it has been seeking more evidence before it evaporates.
The suspects, it turns out, include several young men from well-to-do families. There is talk of interstate travel for meetings, encrypted messages, gun ranges and rapid reloading practice. Potential terror targets included an LGBTQ+ neighborhood in Ferndale, Michigan, and the Cedar Point amusement park in northwest Ohio – both targets that would normally draw massive media interest.
This may turn out to be a story the media can’t bury, despite its best efforts. But if the likes of MSNBC and CNN aren’t interested in history, rest assured history is interested in them. Violence against orderly implementation of our laws – and our election results – is rising. So too is antisemitism, the history-repeating viciousness that has inspired many of the worst actors of the past century.
We can try to look the other way, as millions of Europeans and Americans did in the 1930s. But history has a way of grabbing us by the throat and forcing us to see what’s in front of us – in Chicago and other major cities across the nation. We will answer for our silence.
The Tragedy of Tucker Carlson
The only thing worse than silence is speaking out to dismiss or downplay persecution. In recent days, that has been the shocking role of the very popular Tucker Carlson. Tucker has interviewed me several times over the years, before he became the huge force he is today, and I have been a great admirer. But he has taken his contrarian role beyond the pale.
Carlson hosted a podcast with an attorney who contends the Nigerian government has not selected Christians for pillaging and death. In the course of the interview, Carlson offhandedly remarked, “I’m not defending Nigeria. I don’t have strong views on Nigeria.”
Well, as it happens, I do.
I spent three years as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. We met with delegations from Nigeria and other countries to learn about conditions there. These conditions are long-standing and well-documented.
The reality is understood on a nonpartisan basis. Back in 2014, more than 200 Nigerian girls were abducted in the middle of the night by Islamic radicals determined to ensure they did not receive an education. Michelle Obama elevated their story through her “Bring Back Our Girls” initiative.
The evidence of targeted anti-Christian persecution in Nigeria is overwhelming from the reports of diplomats, relief agencies, and even the media.
Millions of people, especially young men, listen to Tucker as I once did. He has a huge following, and it matters when a figure like him has no “strong views” on the most lethal bigotries on the planet.