Monday, August 24, 2020

August 24, 2020


MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey

Abbeville, LewRockwell, and Reckonin’ Publish MY CORNER Columns  
  
 And a Plea for Action

Friends,

Since August 13—scarcely ten days ago—several installments in the MY CORNER series have been picked up and published by larger, national Web journals. Indeed, the traffic at my blog site has been greater and more intense than at almost any time in the past, with hundreds of readers checking in to read items. (How soon will it be before the Internet Gestapo notices and bans me?…Thank the Good Lord I no longer work for the State of North Carolina, or that I use Twitter or Facebook!)

In several cases, I went back, edited and corrected those original columns—there are always a few words or expressions that need changing or rephrasing. LewRockwell.com has published three essays, and both Reckonin.com and The Abbeville Institute have published one each.

As these columns were corrected slightly for publication and so read a bit differently, over the next few days, I will offer them here in their published forms.

First, in chronological order, the column “The English Language and Grammar are Racist! Get Rid of Them!” published by LewRockwell.com on August 13, 2020:

LewRockwell.com anti-stateanti-warpro-market

The English Language and Grammar are Racist! Get Rid of Them!



By Boyd D. Cathey  My Corner    August 13, 2020

Friends,
In these revolutionary times it had to come sooner or later—any brief moment of serious reflection (rare these days, it seems) would reach this point inevitably. And it is not like it’s totally new, but this time it’s with us with a force that we should expect to grow inexorably and be picked up by the advance guard of the cultural fanatics as a magic talisman that will be foisted on our schools and on us.
If “white supremacy” and “racism” are purveyed and maintained by the use of the structures and historic foundations of “white” language and grammar, well then, that language and grammar must be undone, critically deconstructed, and “other” forms of written and verbal communication admitted as equal. Indeed, if our historic means of communication is so infected with traditional “whiteness,” is there not an extreme case for not only reducing its importance and influence, and recognizing, for instance, “black English,” but maybe even eradicating “white language”? After all, by the logic of this argument, language is and has been a “weapon” of historic cultural racism and control by “white oppressors.”
While this agenda has not yet asserted its dominance over the literary canon or the accepted norms and style for serious writing and communication, it has in fact had tremendous success in modes of communication such as Twitter and Instagram, which increasingly control cultural expression. And one can argue that it is just a matter of time before the swirling linguistic revolution, with its already de facto acceptance and everyday normalcy, reaches the college classroom and the publishing houses, as well as the media. Indeed, the entertainment industry no longer resists it to any great extent.
As a sign of the future, just recently I ran across the statement of the chairman of the English Department at Rutgers University (June 19). The open letter of chairman Rebecca Walkowitz will, no doubt, be the precursor of additional actions, some stated, others just implemented, to follow.

Here is how the Reuters News Service characterized Walkowitz’s intentions:
The letter expresses the Department’s plans to respond to the calls of BLM to “create and promote an anti-racist environment in our workplace, our classes, our department, our university, and our communities; and to contribute to the eradication of the violence and systemic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color members of our community.”
Within the letter Walkowitz outlines a series of concrete steps to promote departmental changes, including expanding the availability of seminars engaging with discussions of social justice and improving graduate student life.
This same section also includes Walkowitz talk[ing] about incorporating “critical grammar” into the university’s pedagogy. This approach, according to Walkowitz, is meant to “challeng[e] the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard “academic” English backgrounds at a disadvantage.
“Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them w/ regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on ‘written’ accents,” the letter noted.
If you can read through the fashionable pseudo-intellectual framework that surrounds what Ms. Walkowitz is essentially saying, it is this: “we’re going to eliminate standards in grammar and writing, and let students who don’t speak or write ‘traditional English’ express themselves accordingly.”
And more ominously, there is the assertion that traditional modes of communication are inherently biased and oppressive. Is not the next step in this process a radical deconstruction in grammar? Already great works of our literary heritage have undergone this deconstructive process to reflect critically the goalposts of “woke” anti-racism and feminism, standards that now regulate how we read and interpret them.
Grammatical expression is next.
The logic, as I say, is inexorable. For the cultural revolution to succeed it must transform or suppress the language of the oppressors.
My friend Dr. Clyde Wilson’s solution to our academic problems grows more attractive by the day: “Napalm our universities,” he once wrote me. Although written mostly (I suspect) in a jocular vein, there is much truth to what Professor Wilson wrote and observed. Until we get control of higher education—and until our Republican-dominated legislatures stop buying into the dangerous practice of trying to outdo their Democratic cohorts in throwing millions of dollars at those financially-bloated sinecures of lunatic leftist plutocracy and revolution—there is simply no way we can even think about saving our culture, much less restoring it.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
Copyright © Boyd D. Cathey
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Secondly, the installment “Cancel Culture Comes to Wake Forest, North Carolina,” reporting on the expulsion of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans from The Forks Cafeteria, their meeting venue for the last twenty-eight years (without ANY adverse incidents, only praise), was picked up both by LewRockwell.com and The Abbeville Institute.

The access link to the LewRockwell publication, “Cancel Culture Comes Home: The Forks Cafeteria in Wake Forest, North Carolina,” August 20, 2020, is:


The Abbeville Institute edition appeared on Monday, August 24, 2020:

ABBEVILLE INSTITUTE

Cancel Culture Comes to Wake Forest, North Carolina


By Boyd Cathey on Aug 24, 2020
I have written previously about the very real dangers of what is called “cancel culture.” Indeed, what we have—what we see and experience today in the United States—is a massive attempt, increasingly successful, to not just inhibit the rights of more conservative and right-leaning citizens from expressing their views, but to “doxx” them, get them fired from their jobs, publicly shame them, instill in them fear to effectively shut them up completely. This is happening not only on our college and university campuses, controlled almost in their entirety by totalitarian leftists who talk excessively about “our democracy” while doing their damnedest to suppress it, but also in society generally. (Again, I ask—I demand—to know why our conservative legislators continue to throw millions in taxpayer dollars at these bloated, overpaid excuses for Marxist indoctrination camps?)
The increasing instances of suppression are to say the least deeply deleterious to whatever future this American republic might have. When you have as many as one third, maybe one half, of the persons in these United States now whipped up fanatically into a vicious ideological frenzy, with a desire to ban and repress and punish their fellow Americans—when you have local and state governments seemingly paralyzed by, if not supportive of the anarchic chaos in dozens of American cities—when you have a news media in its near totality abetting this process and purposely shaping (and suppressing) the news to reflect an extreme revolutionary agenda—when most of the Internet and tech industry monopoly zealously undergird this process and censor opposing voices, then can the real fate of “our democracy” be secure? Are not the extremists, with their unbridled—and learned in school—hatred, actually engaged in a form of projection when they talk about equality, democracy, racism and bigotry: guilty of the very same things they accuse others of?
All this was recently brought home locally in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Wake Forest, once a small college town and still the seat of Southeastern Baptist Seminary, from its tradition as a desirable small town about fifteen miles north of Raleigh to its present condition as a “bedroom” community of nearly 45,000, is host to a large branch of the North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the 47th Regiment NC Troops, Camp 166. The local SCV has been very active there, civically and publicly-mindedly, for nearly thirty years participating in everything from the local Christmas parade to support for Adopt-a-Highway and Tri-Area Ministries programs.
Then came last week one more insane effect of cancel culture, like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, an example of the lunacy and the real ideological sickness that seems to possess so many of our fellow citizens. For twenty-eight years the 47th Regiment NC Troops Camp has been meeting at The Forks Cafeteria & Catering in downtown Wake Forest, in one of the Forks’ private conference/dining rooms, without any adverse incidents at all. Indeed, a state divisional SCV meeting was held there a few years ago (again, with no problems at all). But this past week David Greenwell, the owner of The Forks, notified the SCV that it could no longer meet there because the organization represented “hate and racism,” even though he could not cite even one example where such “hate and racism” were on display. Indeed, he admitted: “I have never had any problem with the group at all. They were always nice and friendly.”
This in microcosm is where we are in society today—this is what has happened and is happening to our culture. While too many of our folks, regular citizens who work and raise families, sit by and indifferently watch, our traditions, our heritage, our beliefs and values, the very symbols we honor are uprooted, spat upon, defiled…and we are told to shut up or else face the bitter effects of cancel culture.
But this cannot continue without end. Either we stand up and oppose this destructive and devastating frenzy, or we will simply disappear into the bowels of history, perhaps to be cursed by our grand-children to whom we leave the barren desert of the Gulag.
*****
I pass on a news article from a local online journal about the decision of The Forks Cafeteria; at the end of the story is contact information if you should wish to make your views known to the owner (please, if you do so, be polite).

Sons of Confederate Veterans kicked out of the Forks Cafeteria

By wsj30 on Aug 15, 2020
By JAY LAMM | editor@wsj30.com
The local Sons of Confederate Veterans has been kicked out of Forks Cafeteria because of customer complaints about Confederate symbols visible during meetings.
The group has been meeting at the downtown Wake Forest iconic restaurant off Brooks Street for the last 28 years. The group was notified by phone Wednesday night by David Greenwell, owner of the Forks Cafeteria. 
Greenwell said Friday that he understands the position of the group, but he did what is best for his business in a progressive time in history.
Frank Powell, former commander of 47th Regiment NC Troops Camp 166, a chapter of the SCV, received the phone call from Greenwell.
“The call was out of the blue. Unexpected. We were shocked and upset,” Powell said. “We have been meeting there for 28 years. We started when the restaurant was in the old Seminary cafeteria on the Seminary campus. He said he had received complaints and he didn’t want us meeting in his restaurant. His tone sounded as if he was mad at me.” 
Powell said his group met in a private room and disturbed no one. A Confederate battle flag was on display in the room during the meeting. Powell said it couldn’t be seen from outside of the room. 
“We meet the first Thursday of every month. We have about 50 members, but we average about 25 at a meeting — young and old,” said Powell. “The owner doesn’t know what we do at our meetings. He’s hardly ever around when we are there.”
Greenwell said he didn’t make the decision hastily.
“I have never had any problem with the group at all. They were always nice and friendly,” said Greenwell. “People started to complain. There was a placard in an easel the nights of the meeting that displayed Confederate symbolism. It could be seen from the cash register station, and it upset some customers.”
Powell said Greenwell never asked him to remove the flags or signage. 
“Our meetings usually feature a historical program and the speaker will sometimes bring artifacts. This has never been a problem,” said Powell. 
“The Confederate Battle Flag represents hate and racism in this country, at this time. I just couldn’t have a group with that symbolism in my business anymore,” said Greenwell. 
“None of us will ever eat at The Forks again,” said Powell. “We have received much support in such a short time. So far about 100 people have said they will not eat there again”
Greenwell said he has learned a lot about some of his customers and people in the community since he made the decision to not allow the Sons of Confederate Veterans to meet in his business. He said he realizes he might lose customers. 
“I have received calls, messages from people who say they will no longer support my business.  You never know about some people, friends, you thought, but I do now,” he said.
Powell said his group is not a hate group but a group preserving heritage and making a difference in the community. 
“We have a section of US-1 for the Adopt-a-Highway program we keep clean. We participate in the Wake Forest Cemetery Walking Tour every year. We have supported the Wake Forest Purple Heart Banquet for the last five or six years with a financial donation and buying tickets to attend the event. We’re a member of the Wake Forest Community Council for the last few years, and I’m serving as treasurer this year. We support Tri-Area Ministries with donations every month,” Powell said.
The organization also marched in the Wake Forest Christmas Parade for 26 years before it was cancelled in 2019.  The parade was cancelled due to threats of protest and violence because of the same Confederate group’s intended participation.
“We are misunderstood. No one knows what history is anymore. We feel we are a victim of pure discrimination,” Powell said, adding that the group has sought legal advice. “Just about every community group in Wake Forest meets at The Forks, but now, not us. We just want to be treated like everyone else.” 
Now, the group is looking for a new meeting place, but nothing had been decided.
“We have a couple of places we are looking at,” said Powell. 
The next meeting is Sept. 3. 
Greenwell said he was prepared for the fallout of his decision. 
“I know I will lose business because of this decision,” he said, “but I needed to be progressive for the future of my business and its place in the community.”
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Here immediately below is contact information for The Forks Cafeteria & Catering, if you should wish to let them know how you think about this application of “cancel culture”:
Telephone number: 919-556-6544
                                                        **********
This essay was previously published in a slightly different version at Boyd Cathey’s blog site, MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey,
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A Plea for Action: 

This essay has gotten more traffic than most of my pieces, as it documents the outrage caused by cancel culture, now in our smaller towns and cities.

These attacks—these assaults which are increasingly local and community oriented—symbolize and are emblematic of what is occurring also nationally and internationally. The frenzied lunacy about race and gender, for that is what it surely is, threatens to dismantle and utterly destroy our two millennia old civilization.

Yes, even at the local level, in places like Wake Forest, North Carolina, and at the local cafeteria that goes by the name The Forks.

And I ask you: Do you understand what is happening? Do you see not just in a “micro” sense, in a local next-door sense, but also in a global, “macro” sense, what is happening to us, to our world, and to YOU and YOUR family and your beliefs and heritage…and culture?

And then the question, the critical question: But what can I do? How can I oppose this, change this, if possible? For we feel in too many cases that we lack influence, that we are essentially powerless, that too often the “Deep State” agents control far too much, and that our elected representatives and others above us, dictate what is happening…and that they are in league with those who would do us in.

Previously I have suggested that there are steps we can take, and the first of these is to be well-informed. Web sites like the ones I’ve listed, including Chronicles magazine (both online and in print), Abbeville Institute, Reckonin.com, VDare, Breitbart, and a few others. Then, there are columnists like Pat Buchanan, Ilana Mercer, Paul Gottfried, “The Dissident Mama,” Phil Leigh, and others.

Secondly, despite the Coronavirus, it is important that we maintain the same kind of communication as our forefathers did in 1775 and 1776, revamped “Committees of Correspondence,” that is, sharing the information we find and read, correcting or adding to it as needed, and maintaining a close contact with like-minded friends and neighbors.

Thirdly, although presently (during this epidemic) gathering together for meals with friends or to meet and discuss issues is difficult, we still must attempt that, even meeting in small groups in friends’ homes. And in such cases, depending on the size of the group or the venue and topics, it may be good to have a rough agenda, especially if action is discussed (writing letters to local journals, petitions to this or that local government, etc.).

Fourthly, there have been a few organized public protests and meetings recently directed against the draconian measures instituted due to COVID-19. But it is our declared enemies—the Revolutionaries in the BLM movement, Antifa, etc.—who are masters of mass demonstrations. Our folks are orderly and law-abiding, not use to such activity. That must change, even if it strikes us as a bit unnatural to get out in the street and hold up placards, and uncomfortable to be called “racists” or “bigots” by the local press which is now almost totally controlled by Marxist-types and those I would call “post-Marxists,” who have gone well beyond the old Marxist playbook.

Fifthly, on the personal level, each of us in family must evaluate our own personal safety and the requirements for us and our families to be safe and secure in this climate of spiraling violence. It is time for us to get licensed in firearm usage, to have protective weapons on hand for any necessity, to protect our families and our property—and really, thus, form part of the necessary defense of public safety and public order that is always required for any society to exist. We should also, when possible, work with our friends, even coordinate potential self-defense measures.

Sixthly, on November 3 each and every one of us must vote, and vote not just for our own personal welfare but for the very survival of the country and our civilization.

Finally, most of us profess the Christian faith. As such we know instinctively the immense power of prayer and penance before Our Lord.  Thus, our re-dedication to Him and to the triumph of His Reign as Sovereign King here below is absolutely imperative.

Long live Christ the King! must be our battle cry….And to Hell with false political and “religious” leaders in sheep’s clothing!

My favorite Psalm is number 26, and I quote from it (first in the Vulgate):
“Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum. Si exurgat  adversum me praelium, in hoc sperabo”: “Even if entrenched armies stand against me in battle, my heart will not fear. In thee I will trust.”

This, then, is our task and our command, but also the promise by Faith which will overcome our enemies.

“Christus vincit! Christus Regnat? Christus Imperat!” – Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ commands! This antiphon—the Royal Laudes—was sung in the year 800 A.D. at the coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor signifying the establishment of one thousand years of Christian civilization.

Although since the French Revolution and the Enlightenment, our civilization is severely damaged, this is our objective: that in prayer and penance we take up the Sword of Faith and send our enemies back to Hell where they belong.


As the Crusaders exclaimed eight centuries ago: “Deus vult!” – “God wills it!”

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