The warning signs of a society that is reversing its moral compass surrounds us. It normally happens when people who think they are superior breeds of human beings start to reject the moral tenets that have properly guided human society for eons. Such people arrogantly think they've learned a better way to live, and in abandoning what has guided society for centuries, they lose their way.
How else to explain many of the bizarre developments that have happened just this past week.
A professor at George Washington University has been "outed" for lying about her race. To advance her career, she pretended she was black. In reality, Jessica Krug is white. GWU is shocked to the point where they have not yet even put out an official press statement. Frankly, the statement they should put out is one that accepts half the blame for this grand lie, with the other half belonging to the professor.
The essential problem is that our society has abandoned the common sense creed that all men are created equal, and are equally ordained by their creator with the same unalienable rights. It does not matter in reality what race one belongs to. Except for medical science, the idea that a person's race has any value or meaning is about as vacuous a concept as one can fathom.
Yet, for the last fifty years, race has been taken as something of extreme value, as organizations and our society at large, has tried to apply various racial and gender litmus tests to so many opportunities. This particular humiliating example is what happens when society abandons truth and tries to replace it with lying social engineering.
Women who are born white lie about it to obtain decided advantages in hiring opportunities. It is the same shameful effort that now has young men and older boys claiming they have experienced gender re-identification, so that they can compete in women's sports in high school and college, hoping to translate the obvious physical advantages of being male, into opportunities to parlay their gender-lying into college scholarships. Meanwhile, the actual girls in high school are beaten in athletic contests, and see their dreams of athletic success vaporize because the school system lacks the basic wisdom and courage to call a boy a boy and a girl a girl.
Sadly, this reversal of morality shapes itself into issues even more important.
We should all by now be fed up with supposed adults, all of whom took oaths of office to uphold the laws, and protect the societies they live in, instead cowardly charging the brave citizens, and allowing the criminals to roam free. Children should not have to defend America. We have hired plenty of adults, and pay them, to perform that essential duty. But, when those adults fail to perform this service, and the children have to do it for them, we don't treat those children like they are the criminals.
Several weeks ago, a homeowner couple in Saint Louis was terrorized outside their front lawn by a mob of hundreds of people who broke through an iron gate leading to their private property, heard these protesters shout threats to kill them both, burn down their home, kill their dog, and illegally occupy their home. Rightfully fearful of their safety, they armed themselves, with the wife using a pistol and the man using an AR-15, both perfectly legally owned by all municipal and state laws, and certainly in accordance with our Second Amendment liberties.
Nevertheless, a politically motivated leftist, who was bankrolled by George Soros, is abusing her municipal district attorney position to try to prosecute these two home owners for a fictional crime of publicly displaying firearms on their own property, even though Missouri is an open carry state.
But, it isn't merely Missouri that's out of control. This notion of turning the criminals into saints and the law-abiding victims into criminals, has become a trend. Two recent examples in two different locations point to the severity of this problem.
In Portland, a man who was exercising his First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and protest, arrived for a properly permitted rally in the city. Very soon into the night, he was approached by a man who was openly affiliated with Antifa, who produced a pistol, and shot that man in the chest, killing him. The Antifa thug, Michael Reinoehl, was so arrogant, that he recorded himself on camera and posted it on social media, openly bragging about the murder, trying to say that he was justified in murdering the victim, Aaron Danielson, whom he called a fascist, who was threatening the life of a black person. All this was grand lies, but in the warped mind of Antifa types, who knows whether this deranged lunatic actually convinced himself it happened that way. The victim was actually armed only with bear mace, as a personal protective option, which was entirely ineffective against someone intent to murder him with a pistol in cold blood.
Regardless, Federal Marshals had to be sent in because the Portland police were prevented by their leftist mayor from arresting the known fugitive. When the Feds showed up to arrest him, Reinoehl pulled a pistol and initiated a firefight. The Feds killed him, fortunately without suffering any casualties themselves. One Antifa thug received justice of his own choosing.
But, the Antifa thuggery did not end there for last week.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, a 17-year old child, was asked by a business owner to stand night vigil to protect his third business, given that the night prior his other two stores were burned to the ground by Antifa and BLM Marxists, who think now every time cops use force to arrest someone, it's a license to travel across the nation to engage in nightly orgies of arson, looting, and mass violence.
Facts of this encounter are still a bit fuzzy, but video of at least a portion of the incident was released on social media, and even that video shows a very disturbing reversal of morality. Kyle Rittenhouse was the 17-year old, and the video clearly shows him trying to flee from an angry mob chasing him, as the young person is trying to reach a known police defense line. While fleeing the potential scene of harm, he is struck in his back by a thrown object, likely a stone, which causes him to lose his balance and fall to the asphalt of the street. While he is on the street, two Antifa thugs try to bum rush him to kick him in his head, and use a skateboard as a club to his head, with another armed thug perhaps intending to shoot him.
Rittenhouse is a remarkable 17-year old. He had just enough time to sit up, aim his AR-15 at two of the would be assailants, and shoot them both, wounding one in the arm and killing the other. Statements from witnesses, and Rittenhouse's attorney, say that prior to this scene, Rittenhouse was shot at by some of these same Antifa thugs, while he was standing as a protector of the store that the owner asked Rittenhouse to guard.
It was during this shooting that Rittenhouse returned fire and presumably killed the Antifa rioter who tried first to kill him. Again, Rittenhouse is a young man with amazing courage and poise. It was after this initial shooting that Rittenhouse tried to flee to where he knew police were located. Make no mistake, a huge difference between police authority and citizen authority is that police are authorized to pursue a suspect, citizens are not allowed that authority.
Nevertheless, the Antifa mob pursued Rittenhouse, tried to harm him further, and then saw the courageous young man shoot two more assailants. Finally, the mob caught on to the reality that they chose to attack a young man of extreme bravery, who wasn't about to allow himself to become the victim.
As of this moment, police in Kenosha have not arrested a single one of the Antifa mob that repeatedly chased and attacked Rittenhouse. They have arrested Rittenhouse and have him in jail now, and the district attorney is intending to charge this minor with one count of first degree intentional homicide, another count of attempted first degree intentional homicide, two counts of first degree reckless endangerment, and another count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under age 18. These are in total five felony counts, at least one of which contains a mandated sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Gravely has much to answer for.
For his own part, Rittenhouse was armed, with both an AR-15 but also a medical first aid kit, which he used that very same night to provide medical treatment to other people who were protesting, who were also injured by the Antifa thugs. These other protesters were from BLM, who were assembled peacefully. By rendering first aid to others that same night, it is clear that Rittenhouse was not some crazy lunatic looking for an opportunity to kill people.
A more basic question emerges though. Why did Kenosha, Wisconsin need a 17-year old minor citizen to arm himself to stand guard outside a privately owned business, render first aid, and be forced to endure being repeatedly shot at, chased by an armed and violent mob, and have to engage in solitary defense of his life? Where were the Kenosha police during all this?
This column also apologizes to Rittenhouse, for last week wrongly repeating the wrongheaded initial media story, that Rittenhouse murdered two people. The media got that wrong because that's the lie this district attorney told the media. Regardless, no murders took place by Rittenhouse's hands that night, just lawful self-defense.
When a society reverses morality, it sends a courageous minor child to jail for defending his life from a vicious mob, and allows the members of the vicious mob to go free. That's exactly what happened early this week in Kenosha.
We should all by now be fed up with supposed adults, all of whom took oaths of office to uphold the laws, and protect the societies they live in, instead cowardly charging the brave citizens, and allowing the criminals to roam free. Children should not have to defend America. We have hired plenty of adults, and pay them, to perform that essential duty. But, when those adults fail to perform this service, and the children have to do it for them, we don't treat those children like they are the criminals.
Abdication of moral duty is bad enough. Terrorizing the brave citizens who stand in the breech is far worse. We've seen too much of this. If we love this country, then it is time we demand that public servants actually serve the public, or resign in disgrace. Right now in Kenosha, there is a 17-year old child who would make a better district attorney or police commissioner than the two currently filling the role. But, sadly, at least for now, the officials in Kenosha instead want to treat him like a felonious criminal.
We all need to focus now on this out of control reversal of morality, and end it immediately. Courageous common sense needs a desperate return to duty, and we shouldn't need 17-year old children to be the ones to do it for us.
-- Ken Stallings
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