“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus, we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
Martin Luther King Day will be celebrated on Monday, January 17, 2022. Some people will just view it as a three-day weekend. Others will have already rejected his nonviolent method in favor of violence, threats, bullying, and agitation. But other Americans remember his significant contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and his continuation of the work of Mahatma Gandhi in India.
Dr. King was a highly-educated Baptist theologian who embraced the message of Jesus Christ to fight hatred with love; violence with peace; injustice with education and peaceful demonstration. He used his powerful voice to expose the forces of hatred, racism, segregation, and elitism in America. And he did not back down, in spite of threats, condemnation, and ostracism. He paid the ultimate price – assassination – and became a martyr for the cause of Civil Rights.
And yet, his message of love and peace has been rejected by many young people as old-fashioned, slow, and ineffective. He was too religious and conservative for their tastes. For them, bullying and violence are the only path to justice.
The ideals of the 1960s died because of two things: violence and the commercialization of those ideals. Most people abhor violence and will not support it unless they feel directly threatened. Right now, we live in a society where safety and security have been compromised by errant politicians. People have been hit over the head with COVID, government overreach, and economic uncertainty. The American people need reassurance and HOPE – not threats and violence. People who believe that violence is the path to justice may be in for a rude awakening.
Let’s keep the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. alive and well in 2022.
Dawn Pisturino
January 14, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
(Burning of Atlanta – a Civil War engraving done by an anonymous artist)
Aquinas’s Doctrine of Proportionality in War and Sherman’s Attack on Private Property
St. Augustine viewed social groups as “people bound together by agreement as to what they love” (Johnson, 2018, pg. 29), rejecting Cicero’s emphasis on political states. It is, therefore, an act of love to fight in a just war in order to protect our neighbors.
Aquinas reaffirmed the conviction that “solely those who have no temporal superior – namely princes – are permitted to initiate war” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 55) and the fact that “a unified force” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 55) will be more successful than people acting independently. The “common good” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56) can best be promoted by the leader in power. Part of the responsibility of the leader is to handle “internal disturbers of the peace” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56).
The second condition for just war, according to Aquinas, is “that those who are attacked deserve this attack by reason of some fault (culpam)” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56).
The third condition for just war, according to Aquinas, is the concept of “right intention” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). People involved in a war should fight with the intention of promoting the common good and “the avoidance of evil” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). He emphasized that unnecessary brutality, greed, and hostility should be avoided (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). Harming innocent non-combatants is unacceptable in jus in bellum. Besides sparing innocent lives, soldiers should refrain from “cutting down the fruit trees on enemy territory” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). Aquinas recognized, however, that unintended damage is bound to happen in war, and soldiers are not liable for that damage. Committing deliberate acts of harm, on the other hand, confers personal liability on the person committing them (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). Only force “undertaken by public officers of the law” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 58) can be justified as a necessary action for promoting the common good and punishing a wrong-doing.
In this paper, I aim to show that Sherman’s March to the Sea was a legitimate military campaign, consistent with the conditions of just war as laid down by Augustine and Aquinas.
Sherman’s March and Proportionality
In 1864, the Civil War had been raging for three years, demoralizing the North and solidifying the stubbornness of the South, when William Tecumseh Sherman devised a plan to end the war once and for all (Smith, 2007, pg. 7).
In a speech given on September 30, 1875, Sherman admitted that he and his troops had “transgressed the rules of war . . . and we determined to make it and to subsist on our friends and enemies while making it . . .[for] Georgia was at that time regarded . . .as the arch stone of the South . . .[and] that once destroyed, and the Southern Confederacy dwindled down to the little space between the Savannah River and Richmond, . . . the people of the United States could not only vindicate their laws but could punish the traitors” (Trudeau, 2008, pg. 548).
Sherman blamed the people of the South for starting the Civil War in the first place and determined to punish them collectively by making “the people themselves experience the war” (Smith, 2007, pg. 8). His intention, as he marched through Georgia, was to destroy “the state’s war-making capability” (Smith, 2007, pg. 8). He cared about hastening the end of the war, and he was not so concerned about the means by which he did it. Governor Joseph Brown was given the option to surrender, and when he did not respond, Sherman pursued his plan “to go ahead, devastating the State in its whole length and breadth” (Smith, 2007, pg. 8).
There is no denying that the Civil War – and the North’s punishment of the South – was a just cause, according to both Augustine’s and Aquinas’s conditions for just war. Sherman was acting to promote the common good; out of love for his country and his neighbors in the North; to end the war that had divided the United States; and to ensure that the South would be so devastated, it would have to capitulate and never rise again (Davis, 1988, pg. 3; Johnson, 2018, pg. 29; Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56, 57). Sherman’s actions were authorized by both General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln, so the condition of proper authority was fulfilled (Smith, 2007, pg. 8, 15).
The South had declared war against the North and made the first attack on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, South Carolina (National Park Service, 2021, para. 1). “Southerners gambled that Southern spirit and military elan could overcome the wealth and size of the North” (Smith, 2007, pg. 14). Southern forces refused to back down, even when Sherman gave Governor Brown of Georgia an ultimatum. Therefore, by Aquinas’s rationale, the South deserved to be attacked and punished for the crime of secession and beginning the war in the first place (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56).
The March to the Sea destroyed everything that could be used to support the Confederate military machine. Sherman ordered his foragers to forage for food and necessary supplies, knowing that there would be abuses. But he also ordered that “churches and private homes” should be saved (Davis, 1988, pg. 3). He counseled his men to pick on “rich Southerners rather than the poor” (Davis, 1988, pg. 8) because he blamed the rich plantation owners the most. But Sherman was no fool. He understood that “hard war” (Davis, 1988, pg. 9) was the only way to end the war.
Since the Confederates refused to surrender, in spite of the North’s victories, Sherman claimed, “I had a right, under the rules of civilized warfare, to commence a system that would make them feel the power of the government and cause them to succumb . . .” (Davis, 1988, pg. 25). This actually does comply with Aquinas’s view that the enemy should be attacked and punished for its wrong-doing (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56).
In my estimation, Sherman had no choice but to embark on the March to the Sea because it ultimately ended the Civil War and re-united the country. He fulfilled all the requirements for just war laid down by St. Augustine and Aquinas. And to prolong the war would have led to more casualties and destruction.
It has been estimated that Sherman lost 1,888 Union soldiers to death, wounds, missing in action, and capture during the March (Smith, 2007, pg. 85), as opposed to the official Department of Veteran Affairs statistics of 529,332 Union and Confederate soldiers lost during the entire war (Department of Veteran Affairs, 2020, pg. 1). Thomas Livermore estimated total deaths at 624,000, and the latest figures by J. David Hacker bring the estimate up to 750,000 (Ransom, 2021, pg. 7).
Union foragers on the March managed to acquire roughly 13,294 head of cattle, 7,000 horses and mules, and 10 million pounds of corn. Approximately 300 miles of railroad lines were destroyed. Sherman himself estimated the damages at $100 million, with Union soldiers consuming about 20% of the food and supplies foraged, and the rest left to waste and rot. Confederate deserters and civilians picked over what was left behind (Smith, 2007, pg. 85).
Compare this with the cost of the war itself: total government spending (Union and Confederate) $3.3 billion; lost human capital (laborers, etc.) $2.2 billion; and the overall physical damage $1.5 billion (Ransom, 2021, pg.8). The South bore the brunt of the costs, and “the Confederacy had been reduced to a barter economy by the time Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox” (Ransom, 2021, pg. 11). Freeing 4.5 million slaves cost Southern plantation owners $2 billion alone (Ransom, 2021, pg. 11).
Sherman’s Attack on Civilian Property
As previously mentioned, Sherman’s primary goal was to destroy “the state’s war-making capability” (Smith, 2007, pg. 8), and he was lax when it came to enforcing his orders to not unnecessarily harm civilian property. But bored and drunken Yankee soldiers were known to set fires and engage in wanton destruction, despite Sherman’s orders (Davis, 1988, pg. 5). This does not align with Aquinas’s warning to avoid “cruelty, avarice, unbridled anger, or hatred” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). And yet, the South had been given opportunities to surrender and negotiate peace and had refused to back down. And, according to Aquinas, the enemy must be given the “opportunity to make amends” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 56) before resorting to force. The Georgia governor failed to accept peace terms, so Sherman acted in good faith to take the necessary steps to end the war. Aquinas calls for moderation in war but also recognizes “the doctrine of double effect” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57) which recognizes that good actions can have unintended negative consequences, and that “some missions will be justified, on grounds of DDE, in spite of a recognition that civilian casualties will ineluctably follow” (Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57).
Breaking Southern Morale and Freeing Thousands of Slaves
“[Sherman’s] more limited goal [than total war] was to make any continuance of rebellion so unpalatable to southern civilians that they would view a return to the Union as the lesser of two evils” (Trudeau, 2008, pg. 534). Ultimately, Sherman’s March did end the war, and the South did capitulate, but not without serious bitterness against the North (Trudeau, pg. 534).
Ten years ago, when I was speaking to my elderly distant cousin in South Carolina on the phone about genealogy matters, he referred to the Civil War as “the war of the North’s aggression against the South.” At the time, I thought he was just an old geezer who could not get over losing the Civil War. I did not really understand what he meant until I started reading about Sherman’s March. Such an historic undertaking would have left a lasting negative impression on the collective consciousness of people in the South — even today. This continued divide between North and South is one of those unintended consequences that Sherman did not foresee. He also did not reckon the long-term economic impact on people in the South. Although he understood that the South would be re-built, he did not understand that “the South was locked in a cycle of poverty that lasted well into the twentieth century” (Ransom, 2021, pg. 13).
Sherman’s attack on civilian property also included freeing the slaves. He and his soldiers were greeted with cheers by black slaves everywhere they went. By the end of the March, his troops had picked up hundreds of freed black slaves (Trudeau, 2008, pg. 538) who “came out in groups and welcomed us with delight, they danced and howled, laughed, cried, and prayed all at the same time” (Trudeau, 2008, pg. 531). Slaves gave them valuable information, stood watch, worked as laborers, and foraged for food, horses, and supplies (Trudeau, 2008, pg. 531, 532). Freeing the slaves was an act of neighborly love in St. Augustine’s world view and “advancing the common good” in Aquinas’s (Johnson, 2018, pg. 29; Reichberg, 2018, pg. 57). As a result of the war, 4.5 million black slaves were freed from slavery (Ransom, 2021, pg.11).
Dawn Pisturino
Thomas Edison State University
October 28, 2021
Copyright 2021-2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
(STUDENTS! DO NOT PLAGIARIZE MY WORK. IT WILL SHOW UP ON TURN IT IN AND OTHER PLAGIARISM PROGRAMS.)
References
Davis, B. (1988). Sherman’s march. New York: Vintage Books
Department of Veteran Affairs. (2020). Fact sheets: America’s wars. Retrieved from
Anybody who was alive, breathing, conscious, and living in California during the 1960s remembers Mario Savio and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Savio’s energy and passionate speeches helped to bring the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam war protests to college campuses all across America. He was a fierce champion of both FREE SPEECH and DEBATE. Plaques dedicated to his memory still grace the University of California, Berkeley campus.
He is best known for his speech called “The Bodies on the Gears” and his explicit description of the federal government as violent, intolerant, overbearing, over-reaching, authoritarian, paternalistic, and out of control. He believed that speaking out and refusing to comply with unreasonable government demands was a legitimate form of protest. The interesting thing is that, despite Berkeley’s loving remembrance of Savio and the Free Speech Movement, UC Berkeley does not currently practice what Savio preached. Berkeley may still have the appearance of an enlightened, left-wing, politically active college campus, but the administration has squelched lectures and debates sponsored by political moderates and conservatives under the guise of “security concerns” and appears to have no interest in providing a forum for free speech for ALL AMERICANS and ALL POINTS OF VIEW. In the same vein, Antifa memberships and violence have flourished with the support of intolerant, closed-minded teachers and students alike.
Savio and the Free Speech Movement were not about violence and censorship. They were about speaking up, carrying on healthy debates, discussing the issues, and solving social justice issues through reasonable and intelligent channels. All young people, who have the energy, optimism, and idealism, have the option to engage in social activism without the use of violence and bullying. But it takes a certain amount of critical thinking skills, common sense, self-confidence, and mental agility to debate your opponent, listen to his or her views, and offer a rational and intelligent response. It requires patience and a thoughtful formulation of your personal ideas. The American educational system in the 1960s still taught those skills. I cannot say the same thing for our current educational institutions.
Dawn Pisturino
January 8, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
“Censorship — The Assassination of an Idea.” ~Bookmans Entertainment Exchange~
What’s in the raging flame of banned books burning? Knowledge, truth, learning, courage, freedom, yearning. ~Terri Guillemets~
Banned Books Week will be held from September 18 – 24, 2022. But censorship is an everyday concern, especially for writers, poets, artists, journalists, and other creative people. We’re seeing too much of it right now in the current political climate.
We’ve seen authors mobbed on Amazon and other sites and deliberately given poor ratings simply because the content of a book did not conform to the narrative of the people mobbing the book. This is using censorship and harassment (bullying) to create a politically correct environment where creativity is essentially dead. Show me one writer/artist worth his salt who is politically correct! Only sell-outs conform to the mob.
(Berlin book burning, 1933)
The Nazis confiscated and burned any book that they deemed “un-German.” What does that even mean? No more French porn? No Italian cookbooks? No English poetry? Who decided what was “un-German?” And it wasn’t just books that were condemned. Music, architecture, inventions, paintings, sculptures, and even dress fashions had to conform to a certain German aesthetic. Who wants to live like that? Who wants the government deciding what you can eat, read, think, create?
The Bolsheviks did the same thing after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Anything reminiscent of the previous regime was confiscated, suppressed, burned, destroyed, and labeled “too bourgeois.” The great Russian composer, Rachmaninoff, emigrated to America because his music was condemned by the Communist authorities. The great Russian writer, Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, was censored and suppressed. If his novel had not been smuggled out of Russia, a great piece of literature would have been lost to the world. Doctor Zhivago describes this shameful period in world history.
Chairman Mao did the same thing in China. The Chinese Communist Party is STILL suppressing free speech and writers who speak out against oppression. The CCP STILL controls access to information and the content of that information. American companies like Twitter and Facebook help the CCP censor and control information in China. That’s how they are allowed to do business there.
In the United States, the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment GUARANTEE every American citizen the right of free speech and peaceable assembly to express that free speech. Free speech makes some people uncomfortable. It causes some people to feel threatened. It makes some people close their minds to new ideas. It opens the minds of others. It is divisive, combative, uniting, liberating, threatening, and compromising — all at the same time. Free speech is the basis of CREATIVITY. Free speech is the foundation of FREEDOM. Taking it one step further, FREEDOM is the bedrock on which FREE SPEECH and CREATIVITY stand. If we lose our freedom and submit to totalitarianism, we may as well start looking for another universe to inhabit, because the freedom to CREATE and EXPRESS OURSELVES will be as extinct as the dinosaurs.
(NOTE: violence is not an expression of free speech and is NOT protected by the U.S. Constitution. Devolving into burning, looting, shooting, destroying private and public property, tearing down statues, committing assault and battery, killing police, and threatening people, is just criminal behavior committed by people who have no respect for law and order. These people belong in jail. Furthermore, there is a big difference between exercising free speech and engaging in a two-way debate and just being rude, ill-mannered, and stupid. There was a time when our society valued good manners and intelligent debate.)
(NOTE: Some famous writers banned or partially banned in Nazi Germany: Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, C.S. Lewis, Jack London, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, George Orwell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, and Oscar Wilde.)
Thank you for stopping by!
Dawn Pisturino
January 7, 2022
Copyright 2022 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
As a registered nurse, I took an oath to treat all of my patients equally, regardless of race, color, nationality, religion, sex, or anything else. So, it appalls me when I read stories about doctors, nurses, and even whole hospitals refusing to treat unvaccinated patients. THAT’S POLITICS – NOT HEALTHCARE. If you work in healthcare, you take all the necessary precautions, and you get in there and treat the patient, regardless of your personal feelings. Otherwise, you deserve to lose your license to practice.
In 2008, America had become color-blind enough to elect the first black President, Barack Obama. My husband and I both voted for him and were proud to do so at that time. And yet, here we are, thirteen years later, backsliding as a society into judging people by their superficial appearance and using race, prejudice, and bias to judge and condemn other people. It’s become a real epidemic, and frankly, I’m sick of it, because – once again – this is POLITICS, PROFILING, and BULLYING – something people claim to abhor.
When I was a registered nurse fresh out of school, the housekeeper on our hospital unit refused to clean the room of an AIDS patient. She was afraid, and the hospital sent her home. I volunteered to clean the room since I had established a positive rapport with the patient. I donned the appropriate gear and cleaned the room. While I was in there, she and I conversed, and she revealed how isolated and alienated she felt from other people. I took care of her many times after that incident. And I’m glad I did, because she died a few years later. She was only in her late thirties when she passed away. She was annoying in so many ways! She was demanding and obnoxious! And she had very poor hygiene. She came into the hospital with lice more than once. But she was suffering both physically and emotionally. She was human. I learned a valuable lesson about courage and acceptance. And I never got HIV/AIDS or lice from my interactions with her.
One morning, when I was starting my shift on an inpatient psychiatric unit, two Native American clients came up to me and started complaining about the nightshift nurse. They claimed she was rude to them and, therefore, must be a white supremacist racist who hated natives. Now, I knew this RN very well. I empathized with them because, yes, she could be very rude and abrasive to anybody. But racist? I smiled and informed them that she was a card-carrying member of the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. In fact, she is a direct descendant of Sequoyah, the Cherokee who created the first Cherokee language syllabary. The response I got was, “Well, THAT tribe will let anybody in!” However, they both looked very foolish and never mentioned it again. I informed the RN that patients had complained about her being rude, and that was the end of it.
Another morning, it was very early, and the only client awake and in the dayroom was a black man from Africa. He was ranting and raving about how racist the staff were and how victimized he felt. I got sick of hearing about it because I knew it wasn’t true. We had a very diverse team of workers who were black (some from Africa), Hispanic, Native American, white, gay, etc. I had never witnessed any incidences of racism or overheard any racist remarks made by staff on the unit. We all took pride in working as a team to treat our patients fairly, equally, empathetically, and compassionately. I slammed my fist down on the table, which shocked both my co-worker and the client, and said, “Bullshit!” He stopped ranting and raving, and then we talked about what was really bothering him. He was Muslim and needed a place to say his prayers. So I got him blankets and towels and whatever else he needed, and he went into a private place and said his prayers. He never talked about racism again, he participated in the program, and he was discharged a few days later. It may sound rough, but getting past the racism barrier helped this gentleman get the help he needed. I have never lied to my patients and never will. And sometimes the truth, no matter how raw, is what turns people around and sets them free from the demons they are fighting
The counselors on our inpatient psychiatric unit did not like talking to psychotic patients because they saw no value in it. However, I disagreed and always made a point of talking to them, if for no other reason than to establish some kind of rapport. One client was so manic, she was completely psychotic. She would crawl around on the floor, imitating different animals, eat with her hands, and refuse to talk to anybody. This had been going on for a while, without any improvement. One day, when I came on shift, she was in the quiet room talking to herself, dancing, jumping up and down, and basically “bouncing off the walls.” I sat in there for twenty minutes listening to her, asking her questions, and listening for that “thread of truth” that often came through when psychotics babbled on. It became clear to me as I listened to her that she just wanted to be normal and to be treated like everybody else. When I began talking to her about this, she nodded her head and suddenly stopped what she was doing. She calmed down. After that, she stopped all of her bizarre behaviors, took her medications, and quickly got well enough to go home. Why? Because somebody took the time to listen to her and look past her bizarre behavior.
As a registered nurse, especially as a psychiatric nurse, I have seen people at their worst and their ugliest. I have been called names, threatened, and ignored. I have never let that stop me from helping someone, if I could help them. And it has been the difficult ones, the ones who make you want to tear your hair out, who have been the most rewarding, — because they are the people who truly need the help.
Dawn Pisturino, RN
November 6, 2021
Copyright 2021 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
Since NSBA has taken the stance that parents who care about their children should be dubbed “domestic terrorists,” I am calling for a NATIONAL BOYCOTT against the Public School System in EVERY STATE.
NOBODY tells me and my family what to do.
The Federal government is out of line and out of control, and so are the liberal organizations supporting it.
WE WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO TYRANNY, BULLYING, HARASSMENT, AND DICTATORSHIP.
Thank you.
Dawn Pisturino
October 5, 2021
Copyright 2021 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
“Question Authority” means questioning Joe Biden and Kamala Harris; questioning the Democrats and the Republicans; questioning the actions of Big Tech and corporate America; and questioning Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the motives of people on both the Left and the Right. We are free people – not a bunch of sheep!
Dawn Pisturino
May 8, 2021
Copyright 2021 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
I am much older than you, and what you don’t realize is that the Democrats have been spouting the same rhetoric for 50 years. It never changes, it just gets worse. I have been hearing the same crap for 50 years, only it’s gotten more extreme and insane. I don’t blame you for that because you don’t know any better. The younger generation doesn’t know any better. Especially since they don’t do any research to figure it out. Racism has become a buzz word for the Democrats and the Left which they use when they have nothing else. It’s turned into a form of extortion, which I have pointed out to you in the past. Reverse racism is still racism, no matter who or what color or nationality is involved. Barack Obama is a racist. Rev. Al Sharpton is a racist. John Lewis was a racist. They don’t preach equality, they preach reverse racism and historic hatred. They use the past to promote hatred and racism in the present. They promote racism to gain power and to enrich themselves. Joe Biden – whom I assume you support – voted against every piece of Civil Rights legislation. He supported segregation. He campaigned with Senator Robert Byrd, a well-known member of the KKK. He continues to make racist remarks against blacks and other minority groups. And this is the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party????????? The whole history of the Democratic Party is racist and bloody. The KKK was founded by Southern Democrats to terrorize blacks. It was the NRA which provided guns to former slaves to protect themselves from the KKK. It was Southern Democrats who lynched blacks and tried to suppress the black vote. The Democratic Party continues to exploit black Americans. This is real history. Look it up yourselves. It’s also the reason many blacks are leaving the Democratic Party.
Enforcing immigration laws is not racist. It’s following the law. The plain and simple truth is that our immigration laws have not been enforced by various politicians for various reasons, mostly to get cheap labor. Both parties are guilty of this. Putting American workers first is not racist. It’s common sense. Calling President Trump a racist does not make him one. Enforcing our immigration laws – which a majority of Americans support – is not racist. It’s a matter of national security. The countries which have not secured their borders are now suffering the consequences. In fact, the whole COVID-19 thing has highlighted the importance of controlling immigration and securing our borders.
People who hate America – for whatever reason – should do us all a favor and leave. It’s that simple. No matter what changes are made, they will always hate America. That was true in the 1960s, and it’s true now. So leave. Most Americans just want to go to work, give their kids a good education, enjoy a certain amount of prosperity, and be happy. They don’t want to be bothered with this constant political nonsense 24/7. People are turning off the news, turning off sports, and tuning out Hollywood because of it. The Silent Majority rules – not the people who are always running their mouths.
Denying the violence in Seattle, Portland, and other liberal cities is astounding, at best, and ignorant, at worst. To say that President Trump and the media made all that up is sheer nonsense. For someone like Rep. Jerry Nadler to call it a myth just proves how completely out of touch the Democrats are with reality. Their silence and inability to publicly recognize what’s really going on will hurt them in November and beyond. To put it plainly, average Americans are sick of it. And Antifa and the radical Left have no loyalty to any party. They don’t give a fig about the Democrats or Republicans. Their entire goal is destruction, and they will ultimately destroy the Democratic Party, which tries to exploit them for their own ends. Sorry, but that’s not how these groups operate.
Black Lives Matter started out as a terrorist group that called for the killing of police, and it hasn’t changed. It’s just gotten wealthier as corporations – afraid of being branded racist, and fearful that their facilities will be burned down – donate money and give public lip service to their cause. Defunding the police is the dumbest idea yet, and in high crime areas, that is the last thing people want. They want the bad cops to go, yes, but they rely on the police for protection. In the end, however, there aren’t enough police to protect everyone. That’s why the police tell people to learn how to protect and defend themselves. That’s why gun and ammunition sales are up. Not because “they use any excuse to buy guns,” but because people are afraid.
There’s absolutely nothing you could say to me that I haven’t heard a hundred times before over the last 50 years. It’s not because I think I’m smarter than you or anyone else. It’s because I’ve already lived through it and heard it.
People change as their knowledge and experience change. If I want too know what’s going on and what people think and want, I talk to real people. I don’t listen to Fox, CNN, or any of the other media. I knew Hillary was going to lose just from talking to real everyday people. And the first thing you learn in Sociology 101 is that polls are easily manipulated. I don’t pay attention to polls or political pundits.
“Systemic racism,” “white guilt,” and “white privilege” are all liberal bullshit, created by liberal professors, sociologists, and activists. Systemic racism no longer exists on a wide scale. You will never completely eliminate racism because it’s part of the human condition. Many people become racists based on negative experiences they’ve had, even if they were taught otherwise. Making all white people feel guilty for being white, when they haven’t done anything wrong, just makes people angry and creates a backlash and more racism. And groups like the Nation of Islam promote the misguided belief that all white people are inherently racist, while being racist themselves. As far as white privilege goes, do you two feel guilty for being white, comfortable, and successful? If that’s the case, you should sign over the deeds to your houses to the next black family you meet, and voluntarily give up your jobs to a black person. For myself, I worked for what I have, and nobody is going to take it from me.
American history is an extension of British history. The British, French, and other groups brought slavery to America. Blaming America for slavery is ludicrous when the country didn’t even exist then. Blaming the Founding Fathers is ludicrous because it was an accepted practice AT THAT TIME. And we fought a Civil War to end it, so this constant narrative, destroying statues, and trying to erase history, is harmful, stupid, and a waste of time. YOU CAN’T ERASE HISTORY, no matter how hard you try. My British and German ancestors have been on this continent since the 1600s, and I haven’t found any evidence that any of them owned slaves. Barack Obama’s direct ancestor, Samuel Dunham, who lived in Virginia, owned 2 slaves, and that’s in the census records. Is Barack Obama to blame because he’s half white? Of course not. You can’t judge history by the standards of today.
I love both of you, and regret that our disagreements have turned into such a terrible mess. It’s a reflection of the times in which we live. People have a right to believe what they want and to vote for whomever they want. And to condemn people for exercising their constitutional rights is wrong. That’s what makes America unique and great as a country.
Love,
Your Aunt Dawn
***
Dawn Pisturino
August 9, 2020
Copyright 2020 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
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