“We did not belabor the point.” No words better capture the lack of intellectual and historical content of much of the cancel culture sweeping the nation. It was the response of Jeremiah Jeffries, the Chair of the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee. The Committee has recommended the renaming of Abraham Lincoln High School as well as targeting the George Washington High School, Herbert Hoover Middle School and Paul Revere K-8. Even an elementary school named after Dianne Feinstein is being targeted. This is not the first such effort around the country that focused on Lincoln. We recently discussed the effort of University of Wisconsin college students to remove the prominent statue of Lincoln on campus as not sufficiently “pro black”and a single-handed symbol of white supremacy.”
Jeffries declared “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building.” This is the signer of the Emancipation Proclamation, the vocal advocate for the 13th Amendment, and the man assassinated for his war against the South and slavery. The reason such culture cancel efforts succeed is that academics and others are intimidated from challenging such ahistorical and unhinged views.
Jeffries is a first-grade teacher who also co-founded Teachers 4 Change and Teachers 4 Social Justice. He has been a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders and Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. However, some liberal politicians like San Francisco Mayor London Breed have opposed the effort.
The Committee emphasized Lincoln’s treatment of Native Americans, which we have previously discussed. One issue that was raised is that Lincoln ordered the execution of 38 Dakota men and signed the Homestead Act, which gave settlers land forcibly taken from Native Americans.
Lincoln’s role in the Dakota executions is legitimately controversial but has been presented without some countervailing facts. The Sioux or Dakota uprising occurred not long after Minnesota became a state and involved the death of hundreds of settlers. The Army crushed the Sioux and captured hundreds. A military tribunal sentenced 303 to death for alleged crimes against civilians and other crimes. The trial itself was a farce with no real representation or reliable evidence. Lincoln reviewed the transcripts of the 303 and told the Senate:
“Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I ordered a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females.”
However, only two men were found guilty of rape and Lincoln later expanded the criteria to include those who participated in “massacres” of civilians as opposed to battles with the Army.
Lincoln however commuted the sentence of 264 of the 303 convicted.
I have heavily criticized Lincoln for the unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus and the loss of free speech rights as well as other decisions. However, historical figures often have such conflicted elements that can be discussed and understood in context as we did recently with a pre-revolutionary hero.
Dianne Feinstein is being targeted because she allegedly flew a Confederate flag at City Hall when she was mayor. It is an ironic moment as those who have supported (or declined to condemn) the cancel culture become targets of it. As discussed earlier, As proven by the French Revolution, today’s revolutionaries are tomorrow’s reactionaries — or victims. We also saw recently as Democrats called for blacklisting anyone “complicit” in the Trump years, including those connected with the Lincoln Project despite the vicious attacks launched by the Project against Republicans. Indeed, these hair-triggered attacks are why most academics have remained conspicuously silent in the face of a wholesale attack on free speech and academic freedom on our campuses.
In the case of Feinstein, her standing with the left seemed to plummet when she exhibited civility toward a Republican colleague by hugging Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham after the Barrett confirmation hearing. That simply hug sent the left into orbit and soon thereafter stories began to appear calling for her resignations and saying that she was no longer mentally competent.
What is striking is that Jeffries held out the possibility of a type of political reeducation for Feinstein:
“On a local level Dianne Feinstein chose to fly a flag that is the iconography of domestic terrorism, racism, white avarice and inhumanity towards Black and Indigenous people at the City Hall. She is one of the few living examples on our list, so she still has time to dedicate the rest of her life to the upliftment of Black, First Nations and other people of color. She hasn’t thus far.”
Just for the record, flag allegation occurred decades ago. She was first elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 — over 50 years ago.
It’s actually good for America that somewhere at least one school bucks the insidious obeisance that anoints certain figures of history sacrosanct. Not that my personal view matters but I have no use for naming anything after any politician, especially any president. The office itself is largely about making war and helping banks. Lincoln for his part was a consummate power monger, and indeed solidly bigoted. His motivation for the Civil War was the dubious goal of keeping himself president of the largest possible nation, see his explanation in his own words in a letter to publisher Horace Greeley: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
I would not diminish his leadership and accomplishments, I am comfortable with the size of his monument in DC that ensures his legacy. But it is important that people be able to state a criticism of any human we elect to any office. One school acting out is helpful here, not a problem. Let the politically correct flail away, they will find their own level, their extremity is conveniently self-destructive.
agree 100% john
i also like the lincoln monument, especially the use of the fasces. read about it in the artistic interpretation below
Sal Sar
https://www.nps.gov/nama/blogs/secret-symbol-of-the-lincoln-memorial.htm#:~:text=The%20fasces%20he%20carried%20symbolized,mean%20all%20this%20and%20more.
Secret Symbol of the Lincoln Memorial
June 23, 2013 Posted by: Nathan King, Park Ranger
Recognized around the world as a symbol of the United States and one of its great presidents, the awe-inspiring Lincoln Memorial attracts millions of visitors every year. In the main chamber of the memorial, some of these visitors lean against the back wall, crane their necks and contort their faces looking for a face in the rear of Lincoln’s head. Some will attempt to decode Lincoln’s hands. Looking for some deeper meaning, convinced that it must be here in this exalted chamber, most of these visitors will end up shaking their heads, shrugging, and walking away unconvinced of what they have seen. The irony is that the deeper meaning surrounds them, and has probably gone overlooked.
While distracted by myths about faces in hair and letter-signing hands, many visitors miss the true meaning of the memorial and the ubiquitous symbol that carries that meaning. Instead of being hidden somewhere inaccessible, the symbol is deceptively obvious, right there under Abraham Lincoln’s hands. So overlooked is this symbol that even when pointed out, many observers will assume the lines represent books. In fact, the symbol is that of fasces (FAS-eez), a bundle of rods bound by a leather thong. Repeated elsewhere in the memorial, the fasces throughout the Lincoln Memorial reveal the higher meaning of the memorial and the man.
Lincoln
Daniel Chester French’s “Abraham Lincoln” prominently depicts fasces. (NPS)
In ancient times, fasces were a Roman symbol of power and authority, a bundle of wooden rods and an axe bound together by leather thongs. Fasces represented that a man held imperium, or executive authority. Exercising imperium, a Roman leader could expect his orders to be obeyed, could dole out punishment, and could even execute those who disobeyed. The fasces he carried symbolized this power in two ways: the rods suggest punishment by beating, the axe suggests beheading. On its surface, the fasces imply power, strength, authority, and justice. Depicted throughout the Lincoln Memorial, the fasces mean all this and more.
As one approaches the Lincoln Memorial from the plaza below, he or she passes by the first of these fasces at the base of the main stairs. The carving is easily missed even though it is more than ten feet tall, but to miss it is to miss the introduction to the theme of the memorial. There on the end of the wall is a carving of rods with an axe bound by a leather thong, the classic Roman fasces. The fasces indicate the power and authority of the state over the citizens, commanding respect. But there is a twist. A bald eagle’s head sits atop the axe, an American touch on an ancient Roman symbol. Adding to the American-ness, there are thirteen rods shown in the fasces, suggesting the thirteen original states that achieved independence from Britain and formed the United States. Seen as symbols of the states, and the American motto “E Pluribus Unum,” or “Out of Many, One,” the rods bound together suggest the union of the states and their bond by the Constitution. Each state is weaker individually, but together, they are stronger. This concept is so important that it is presented long before visitors reach the building itself and see the representation of the Savior of the Union.
You completely over look the substance of his points to babble about a non sequitur, a common architectural detail that by no means has any secret meaning, that is repeated endlessly in Western architecture and art since Roman times. A waste of words.
Stating a personal criticism and rewriting history for everyone are two very different things. I used to think you were just contrary, now I think you aren’t particularly bright. Would love to know how honest history is actually currently oppressing you or anyone else in this country outside of the confines of your mind. Last time I checked, taking the pandemic into consideration of course, every single one of us is free to leave our homes in the morning and do pretty much whatever the absolute heck we want to assuming it doesn’t harm others.
It’s fine to dislike ideas, it’s another matter to pretend un-manifested thought is a source of anything but your own inability to control your response to your own thinking (in fact, that is known as reaction, an unconscious act, not response). What you state in your first paragraph is an opinion, not a universal truth, and though you are certainly free to state your opinion, other people are not required to agree with you and fall in step. If you can’t control your own mind I personally can’t put much credence in anything that spills out of your mouth, or fingers, as the case may be. Some of us actually come here to express ideas and engage in discourse, that i sort of the whole point of the legal profession, and by extension, a legal blog.
This is utter nonsense from the first sentence to the end. John Smith’s comment was original, balanced, and historically accurate & thus informative and useful. It points out that railing against small time reactionaries is petty and shortsighted, and in fact small time reactionaries have a useful role to play in America. Your post makes so little sense it’s amusing.
The attacks on Feinstein and The Lincoln Project are totally predictable. Did they think that they would be exempt? As soon as they are no longer useful they are cast aside and demonized. Feinstein has been a loyal soldier at every turn and now she is thrown under the bus because she broke ranks and hugged a Republican. She should have known that those who loved her the most would turn on her. After all, she knows their nature.
Turley uses Lincoln’s quote “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves” Funny that Turley supports Trump, who did everything his lawyers could think of about taking away a persons right to the vote. That Trump had people removed from a public park so he could hold up a bible that he has no idea what it means. We have destroyed America with Trump’s help, and Putin could not be more proud.
Where did you get the mistaken impression Turley supports Trump? He does no such thing. Invoking Putin is evidence you’ve drowned in msm koolaid.
ha ha you are a fool fishhead. you have been sold a bill of goods that are false, chiefly, that Putin was the world’s boogeyman in the first place, secondly, that Russia is bad, and thirdly, that Trump was his puppet. none of these are empirically supported by fact. you just keep parotting some line that war pigs taught you to say in the first place
We should be engaged in nuclear de-escalation with Russia and also diplomatic negotiation on other mutual interests such as economics and limiting the spread of PRC’s budding military adventurism by diplomatic and peaceful means
if you recall, Obama undertook a renewal of diplomatic initiatives with Russia at one point, which was a wise overture, but it was quashed by the war pigs
who flogged these shibboleths mercilessly against his successor and foolish dogs like you licked up the vomit from the military industrial complex on every occasion
Saloth Sar
Maybe you can recount how many times Trump said something to Putin about the hacks, 4 years ago and now.
insignificant fish. you are fixiated on trifles and miss the point.
Then, there’s the Helsinki incident–publicly siding with Putin over American Intelligence, after which he fired Dan Coats for standing up to him. Oh, and the bounties paid to kill US service members. How about microwaving our diplomats? Trump is pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Germany because Putin wants him to.
Fisher. It gets to a point where it’s no longer a disagreement on policy, but an obsession.
White Supremacy ? Equal opportunity does NOT guarantee equal outcome! To paraphrase: ‘ Those who can, DO, those who can’t demonstrate, riot, and destroy . . and blame White Supremacy ‘.
When the statues started coming down, President Trump asked what’s next — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln?
He was mocked for saying that. And now…..here we are.
The word statue does not appear in this article. It is, with respect to your comment’s names about one school.
When will they bring down Bill Clinton’s statues?
Clinton could be memorialized by some statuary incorporating images of the Roman god “Priapus”
Saloth Sar
How much more proof do we need to call these people what they are, idiots.
If Lincoln had shown “through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to [him] outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building”, he felt that the nation would sit back and watch helpless as infants as slavery spread from the American south into South America. I know it’s distasteful to contemplate, but sometimes, in politics especially, you have to defer to facts and work within a realistic framework that allows you implement a solution. It’s not as much fun as sitting back and making useless condemnations, but it gets the job done.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPfihz9-Ls0&w=560&h=315%5D
I will not be satisfied until it is re-named obedience production facility no. 219.
Enough!
Thankyou for this commentary and your perspective. During our country’s current societal upheaval and “cancel culture”, critical race theory/intersectionality and identity theology and conflicting worldviews in a world desperate for unity and redemption etc etc, my wife and I have found the content in shenviapologetics.com on those topics and others to be very helpful to us in navigating “these times” as followers of Christ Jesus.
The left has become remarkably stupid.
Curious to see if our lefty posters will condemn this stupidity or counter with their usual: “But Trump…”.
The brainhumped minions of the quivering mobmind have a candy land view of the world and its inhabitants – a high fructose gmo corn syrup approach to every problem. They cannot comprehend that their present “morals” on the subjects of race and freedom are due entirely to the efforts of people like President Lincoln who lived in an age when those morals were questioned, conflicted, and outright assaulted. He lived in a new era of freedom and enlightenment – where historically timeless institutions such as slavery were finally being confronted.
In this article we meet a first grade “teacher” whose greatest accomplishment is getting out of bed in the morning judging the legacy of one of the most politically courageous leaders in world history. Get real.
If any of these these brainhumped minions had lived during Lincoln’s time, every single one of them would have been proslavery. How do we know? Just look at where they stand on moral issues like basic individual rights like freedom of expression, or abortion – the current national abomination in the sight of God.
Lincoln has always been controversial, at least for some (Southern) people in our country. This doesn’t surprise me; although there’s been a Washington Day, there has never been a Lincoln Day. The current argument is just a re-phrasing of an old hostility.
Lincoln’s Birthday celebrates the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular presidents in United States history. It is a state holiday in some states on or around February 12. It’s also known as Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, Abraham Lincoln Day or Lincoln Day.
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/lincolns-birthday
Washington barely deserves that.
Washington was the head of an adventure against the King to make his own friends a new aristocracy on this side of the pond, by a new name, called Citizens
Lincoln sent 300,000 white men to die for the enfranchisement of blacks and yet white people praise him and are sad when his name is dragged through the mud by blacks who claim he did not not make it clear that he cared for them. Well, I guess he should have sent 500,000 whites to die for blacks, would that have been enough?
I am not going to lift one finger to apologize for the Founders or Lincoln anymore. They are dead and gone but we yet live. And we better figure out soon how to be as bold as these adventurers of old, or we will be mopped up by the billionaires who want us gone, as useless co2 emitters
Sal Sar
This should be fun to watch, assuming Democrats don’t cheat,steal and fudge ballots again like they always do
https://recallgavin2020.com
Governor Gavin Newsom Has Failed Californians
Unaffordable housing. Record homelessness. Rising crime. Failing schools. Independent contractors thrown out of work. Exploding pension debt. And now, a locked down population while the prisons are emptied. Hold Gavin Newsom accountable. Gavin Newsom must go.
Recall Effort Against California Governor Gavin Newsom Reaches Major Milestones
800,000 signatures collected and the magical “10 Percent Threshold” plateau has been crossed; Secretary of State issues new petition verification procedures
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020
MEDIA Contact:
Randy Economy, Senior Advisor
press@recallgavin2020.com
The official recall effort against California Governor Gavin Newsom reached a major milestone on Thursday (Dec 10, 2020) when they were notified by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla that they have collected and met the 10 percent threshold of signatures requirement per state election code.
This now mandates that registrar recorder officials in every county in California must begin hand verifying every petition that has been collected.
The campaign is also announcing that they have also collected more than 800,000 signatures that have or are in the process of being hand delivered to county election officials throughout California.
1.5 million verified signatures are required to trigger a special election to recall Newsom.
What is happening now is a direct result of events of the Sixties, when colleges and universities established nonsensical fields such as “black studies,” “women’s studies” etc. and Black Power and the Chicano movements were active along with various “native American” (there’s no such thing) organizations, all led by left-wingers with violent hatred for whites. Now the second and third generation followers of these movements, who have been brainwashed in those same colleges and universities are seeking dominance. It’s not going to end well.
Stupid people. Those who can do, those who can’t teach or cancel.
Name the Lincoln School after John Wilkes Booth.
The characters who serve on that advisory committee are mostly people from the familiar sort of occupation and you can bet the rest were selected for attitudes similar. Any dissents there? Diversity, and all that.
It’s indicative of the decadence of the age that our politicians entrust decisions of this nature to the worst and the stupidest among our salaried bourgeoisie.
The Left is dumb. Otter and the Gang of Four or Gang of Whites suck.
That word Whites should be Whores.
Maybe white whores?
Change the school name to Dumb Schmucks Elementary.
Love it.
Nikita Khruschev in 1956 famously stated “We shall bury you!” referring to Capitalism and the United States in particular during a speech at the United Nations.
I am beginning to think that the counter culture is just one tentacle of many belonging to the attack upon our country designed to achieve that. goal.
The Russians saw how that. played out beginning with their own Revolution then purges, starvation, gulags, and murder….only to emerge later returning to a capitalistic system of sorts.
Is that where we are headed….if we do not wake up and defeat these radical Leftist attacks on traditional American values and plain ol’ history?
Where are the Healers, the compromise, the sense of being one Nation working together to resolve our differences….that made us great in the past?
Professor Turley is right on this. one….now watch the attacks begin on him begin with no effort to debate the issues.
Can the Left no just look to the issues and challenge a poster’s position without being mean spirited in the process?
Persuade us….as you know attacking us never works….and only shows your lack of ability to hold an intellectual debate when you do resort to personal attacks rather than discuss the issues.
Persuade you of what exactly?
You are exactly right.
And in other news: the Senate doubts why they ever granted the public the right to eat cake in the first place, it’s time for large swaths of the population to starve and then die. And they take further steps to set precedent on not having to recognize election winners unless they approve of the result.
We are naught but gerrymandered lizards on the way to squandering whatever representative democracy we’ve ever enjoyed.
Elvis Bug
The US has never been more democratic in it’s election processes in it’s history. If a large swath dies, it will be of obesity from what I see.
MIT physics professor says the real problem is not people dying but not enough dying. literally said it in the clip i link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzT4EwaHl0w
why? because to achieve the desired outcome of “green” policies against global warming, he says we must:
1. reduce global population dramatically. numbers vary and he did not throw one out there but i have seen claims that the true carrying capacity is less than half today’s population
2. reduce western carbon emissions by a factor of ten. just think about that for a second. how would we reduce our carbon emissions that much? considering that food is dependent on fossil fuels for production and distribution. i guess that takes us back to item 1– a lot of people are going to have to die, for the “carbon net neutral economy” to become reality
Sal Sar
Solid 1950’s answer.
See, even though many millions newly unemployed or “locked down” to working at home cut their automobile use so dramatically the worldwide price of oil fell to zero at one point this year, still they say, a “negligible” impact on CO2 emissions
https://www.ecowatch.com/covid-lockdowns-global-warming-2646918569.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2
Come on Green advocates, don’t shrink from your ardently wished for task now. Admit this: billions would have to die over the next decade, or, else, global warming is inevitable
so if you seriously plan on achieving that net neutral emissions economy, come out with the truth of how it must be done!
Saloth Sar
Repeal the 17th Amendment. Return the Senate “oligarchy” to the State Legislatures as the founders intended.
“Where are the Healers, the compromise, the sense of being one Nation working together to resolve our differences….that made us great in the past?”
the Left do not play by the principles set forth by the Founding Fathers of this once great nation. Scorched earth is what they follow, and this coming the morality gestapo they claim to be that rails against hate speech, violence, guns and fascists.
“Antifa and Black Lives Matter crowds “share the same goals and the same sympathies” and ultimately seek to dismantle American capitalism, American democracy and the police force says Sky News host Rowan Dean.”