A Brief History
On August 21, 2017, we look back on this past week, a week that has been incredible for the news cycle, most of the news bad! War, maybe nuclear war with North Korea? Gone from the news! (For now?) Replaced with stories about hatred and violence in the US and in Europe. President Trump’s message condemning violence became a liability instead of a political asset for him, and we learned his Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, had been fired. Here we list some of the people who either inspired us or made us sick this past week.
Digging Deeper
1. Jeers to Antifa, the KKK, et al.
The various hate groups on ALL sides of the spectrum, while free to voice their opinions and to protest legally and civilly, have no business committing acts of violence as they did this week in Charlottesville. All lives matter, whether they be Black lives, White lives, Blue lives, etc. We condemn all forms of hatred and bigotry that encourage any acts of violence against any group of our fellow Americans. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families of the three Americans who lost their lives in Charlottesville.
2. Cheers to President Donald Trump!
While we far from agreeing with everything our current president says and does, we applaud him for rightfully condemning those responsible for the tragic events in Charlottesville, be they the original protesters for espousing detestable ideas in the first place, the counter protesters for initiating the violence by showing up armed and armored and then physically attacking the original protesters, and of course the creep who drove into a crowd of pedestrians. We should criticize our president when warranted, but we should be fair and not do so whenever he actually is right.
3. Jeers to disingenuous politicians and yellow journalists.
Instead of focusing on the strong condemnation of the hate groups of all sides of the spectrum and condolences to the victims offered by our president, numerous disingenuous politicians and yellow journalists virtually ignored or dismissed the violence of the counter protesters and fixated so much on their own hatred of President Trump that a Black Missouri State Senator posted publicly that she hopes for President Trump’s assassination and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (pictured) actually speculated that the recent ISIS attack in Spain might be a copycat of what happened in Charlottesville! Given that numerous Islamic terrorist attacks using vehicles have occurred in Europe well before the Charlottesville attack, if anything one might suggest that the Charlottesville white supremacist goof was inspired by the methods of ISIS terrorists but certainly not the other way around. In any case, this blind and even dangerous condemnation of our president as well as the unjustifiable fanning of the flames after the Charlottesville tragedies instead of calling for peace and unity is not helping to bring Americans together. If anything, it is dividing us more and thereby weakening us when we have far more destructive forces at work in our world to contend with.
4. Jeers to ISIS.
The horrors in Spain (pictured) are some of several such atrocities to have been committed by these religious fanatics. On Tuesday, for example, suicide bombers killed 27 and wounded 83 in Nigeria, where Boko Haram, an ISIS affiliate, operates. Killing Europeans is not the way to get immigrants accepted into European countries! Instead, this sort of killing and terror is likely to garner more support for far right wing politicians and policies, and undermines the efforts of progressive Europeans.
5. Jeers to Cop Shooters. Cheers to Cops!
On Friday night, August 18, 2017, 2 Kissimmee, Florida (see map above), police officers were shot and killed by an African American suspect, Everett Glenn Miller, in custody for murder. One of the officers murdered was an African American, Sergeant Sam Howard. Meanwhile, in Jacksonville, Florida, 2 Sheriff’s Deputies were shot and wounded by a man with a rifle. That suspect, Derrick Brabham, was shot and killed by police. Brabham had posts about the KKK and Black Lives Matter on his Facebook Page. Brabham was African American. Also, in Fairchance, Pennsylvania, 2 Pennsylvania State Troopers were shot and wounded by a suspect that was killed by police. Suspect Clarence Belsar III, a White 26 year old convicted felon and sexual offender had pulled a .38 caliber revolver on the troopers when approached about a robbery.
Toll for the night: 6 Police officers shot, 2 of them dead. 2 suspects shot and killed, 1 suspect arrested. Extra jeers to every jerk that thinks every police related shooting is unconditional murder or racially motivated. Irresponsible hysteria over police shootings is quite possibly resulting in even poorer police-community relations and increased violence toward police. This knee-jerk reaction may also be squashing police enthusiasm for pursuing aggressive patrol, and is decreasing numbers of good, qualified candidates from taking police tests.
6. Cheers to J. David Markham!
Finally, we applaud renowned scholar of Napoleonic history, J. David Markham, for the digital publication of his latest much praised book, Simply Napoleon, co-authored by the owner of this site! This outstanding new book became available digitally on Napoleon’s birthday, August 15th. A print version is forthcoming.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who would you add to the list, and which side would you add them to? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Markham, J. David and Matthew Zarzeczny. Simply Napoleon (Great Lives). Simply Charly, 2017.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Anthony Crider of an unidentified alt-right male arguing with a female counter-protestor after Emancipation Park was emptied, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
