Steve A. Stone
History repeats, whether you know it or not
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By Steve A. Stone
June 6, 2020

Dear Friends and Patriots,

Today’s missive is based on a Facebook post I posted today, Saturday, 6 June 2020. Before I get into that, I want to pause and render honors to all who died and all who participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy that began on this day in 1944. If anyone deserves acknowledgement today, it’s them.

We watch our TV screens today and see demonstrators attacking statues, defacing them if they can’t destroy them. The people doing such things are ignorant of actual history, know and care nothing about the place of such artworks in all nations of the planet, and are motivated solely by misdirected emotion. They understand attacking symbols enrages those who appreciate reminders of the past. That’s their real intent, to enrage us. They’re actually too uninformed to have any intent more rational than that.

All should pay heed and understand there will be a day in the future when there won’t be a living veteran of the Normandy invasion, and later there won’t be anyone alive who personally knew any of those veterans. When that happens, you should understand the statues and other monuments erected to commemorate the heroes of that terrible page in world history will be in jeopardy of being similarly defaced and demolished in some future effort by similarly ignorant young people to demonstrate revulsion over the fact that wars happen. The cemeteries in Normandy where the war dead are buried, the WWII monument on the mall in Washington, D.C., the museum of the Eighth Air Force outside Savannah, GA, the Nimitz Museum in Fredricksburg, TX, the WWII Museum in New Orleans, and the McArthur Shrine in Norfolk, VA – all and more will be vulnerable. Every statue of every American hero of WWII anywhere in the nation will be similarly vulnerable. Bank on it.

The text below is a rumination that’s intended to reveal the incredible ignorance of destroying history. Destroying, as in burning historical artifacts, statues, buildings, and documents. Destroying, as in re-writing history, so that it fits a modern politicized context instead of reflecting well-documented facts and truth. Destroying, as in allowing irrational emotions to be used as filters for comprehension instead of objective thought and logic. To us, history is history. It’s not something to be accepted or denied, but something to be studied from all possible perspectives with the intent to understand and learn from it. But, that’s us.

This was my post, in unedited Facebook format:

    Okay, I'm about to try to stress some people by drawing a parallel between today and events of over 1,000 years ago. Please be patient and maybe this will help you comprehend what's happening from the perspective of history. Back in 642 AD the Muslim armies descended upon the northern regions of Egypt. They fought anyone who stood in their way and set up to permanently rule the captured territory. Their jewel in that campaign was the city of Alexandria, which at them time was still a beautiful city with a mix of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman influences. One of the most famous places in Alexandria was their library, which was founded at a time when Egypt was under Greek rule. It was renowned throughout the civilized world for its collection of scrolls. The Greek librarians who founded and ran the library for over 200 years had worked for generations to scour the Earth to collect original and accurate copies of all written knowledge. The library contained the complete works of Aristotle and all the plays of the classic Greek playwrights. Plato's "Republic" was based on reports he received from Solon, who claimed he read accounts of Atlantis while on a trip to Egypt. Those accounts were later housed in the Library. The library was targeted by Julius Caesar as a diversionary tactic during the Roman's Egyptian Campaign in 48 BC. It's believed his troops burned a warehouse next to the library where uncatalogued archives were stored. When the Muslims invaded they found the library and it became one of their official buildings. But, the occupiers weren't certain what to make of or do about the thousands upon thousands of scrolls. They sent word of their find to Caliph Omar Ben-Hebraeus in Medina. They asked for guidance on what to do with it all. Were they supposed to preserve the collection, box it all up and ship it to Medina, or ... what? The Caliph's response finally came. He reportedly stated, "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them." The occupiers were not curious about the scrolls, but realized they did have a use. When the weather turned chilly in the winter the scrolls were burned to heat the building. There's no record that tells us how much of the collection of ancient human knowledge was fed to the fires. The library sank underwater due to the Crete earthquake of 1303 and was not re-discovered until 1995. Here's the point of the story. Ancient Greek writers told of the amazing things in the great library's collection. It was the greatest single collection of ancient knowledge ever amassed. It's true that the collection was diminished by the time Rome sacked Alexandria, and it's also true that an anti-scholarship movement during Roman times had resulted in a decline in public regard for it, but it was thought to be largely intact at the time of the Muslim conquest. But, the Muslims were only concerned with their own understanding of history, as found in the Qur'an. They were true revisionists. All that ancient knowledge went up in smoke. There was no effort to preserve any of it. And, what we are seeing today is a modern version of that same mindset. Today's young, progressive-educated Americans, and indeed young people all over the world, have decided their truth is the only truth that matters; that the only thing our heritage can teach them is how to make mistakes. Their truth is superior and it demands to be heard and observed. All previous truth is of no use and should be erased. Today's youth are as wise as Caliph Omar Ben-Hebraeus, but with even less justification for their mindset. They are unknowing ideologues, and many so-called political leaders are bowing to their incredible foolishness. This must end.

Last night, I saw a video that was posted to a social media site. The video was a selfie-production by a white girl who looked to be around 15. In it, she is wailing and weeping about how terrible everything is and how sick of it all she is. She declares her hatred for the violence in the country and the hatred white people show to black people. She declares she hates her parents, hates her life, and hates having to live in Louisiana, which she declares full of racists. She was in a real snit and seemed to hate everything in her experience. I know you might think the video is disconnected from the previous commentary, but it isn’t

If you saw the video, I’m pretty sure your response was one of amazement, derision, confusion, or disgust. Most people would have one of those reactions. I would expect comments like, “That girl is just a spoiled brat,” or “See, that’s what’s wrong with America, little commies like her,” or “What IS her problem?” Those might be common reactions, but if you’ve ever been or are the parent of a girl that age, you might recognize what you saw was a typical mid-teen in the midst of hormonal fluctuations. It’s perfectly normal for girls that age to react in the way she did. Teens are all emotion and little logic. That’s just nature. We understand the science that pertains. Besides, no one at that age has enough experience in the world to be taken seriously. Their ability to understand the truths of life varies, but isn’t very good in the best of cases. That young girl needs some understanding and guidance, but is probably okay in general. But, there is one aspect of her performance that we all need to be aware of.

Teens are targets now. The display of emotion seen in the video of the young girl is exactly what progressive propagandists and indoctrinators in public schools look for and focus upon. They cater to those emotions and justify them. They tell the young people they’re exactly right. They tell them they’re wiser than older people; that their emotions are honest and are superior guides to the truth than mere objective facts. And, history doesn’t really matter; it’s just not relevant to today. History is dead. Today is alive. They tell them the world needs them to lead us all into the light. That’s the danger each young person faces. They’re all in danger of being used as tools in the progressive efforts to change the order of all aspects of our lives. Think of Greta Thunberg. She and her experience areis a great example of exactly what I’m pointing out.

Today, we’re watching riots and vandalism. The targets are objects that have been carefully re-conceived as controversial and inflammatory. Segments of our population have been conditioned to view works of art and events of past history as being examples of oppression. Conditioned, yes, that’s the correct term. No one has ever been oppressed by the existence of any work of art, even unpopular art. It’s possible to be offended, but not oppressed. It’s also not possible to be oppressed by events of 135+ years ago. Oppression is a current event and something experienced in person. It may be possible to be angry at some level over a past wrong and to take offense at the way it’s portrayed, but that is not oppression. People who are irrational and illogical enough to not understand the truth of these things can be dangerous. Antifa is filled with such people. So is BLM. So are many activist groups. They all have some odd belief that they are owed immunity from ever being offended. That belief guarantees they soon become the perpetually offended who look for reasons for their offense in every one of their life’s interactions. That same belief makes them the targets they are. Their irrational emotions make them easy to manipulate and direct.

Our future seems destined to see periodic renewals of such nonsense. It is a phenomenon that could be stopped; could be changed. But that’s not likely. To change it, we would have to re-learn skills that have largely been forgotten. Our society would have to embrace real parenting once again. You know, parenting, as in actually paying attention to the activities and mindsets of children and giving them the corrections they all need from time to time. And, we’d have to return our schools to the task of teaching academics instead of socializing them to be ignorant little progressive automatons. We would have to learn how to be real Americans again. When I watch what’s going on in the country today, I see far too many people fully invested in what they claim as their rights, but not invested at all in doing what is right. They don’t understand the difference and they refuse to be told.

The Romans developed a militaristic society that was focused on raw power. They weren’t much concerned with art or refinement, except perhaps in architecture and military matters. The appreciation for arts was a trait the Romans believed made the Greeks weak and vulnerable. After all, if Romans wanted art in any form, they just went to Greece and either copied or stole it. The Muslims who conquered much of the world in their campaigns that lasted over 200 years were true iconoclasts. They considered anything not within the context of their belief system to be impure, apostasy, or heretical. Their habitual response to any influence that didn’t originate from the mind of Muhammad in the form of the Qur’an was to reject it out of hand. Today’s anarchist cadres are pretenders who emulate the Romans and the early Muslim invaders, though I’m certain they are ignorant of that truth.

Another truth of today that should have been learned forever from the experience of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain regards appeasement. He tried to appease Hitler; to give in to demands in hopes of satisfying the Nazi leader. How’d that turn out? It really doesn’t matter what level of society appeasement is tried, it always leads to the exact same result. If you have a child in your home throwing a fit over being told “NO!” and you relent and allow them to continue doing the thing you know they shouldn’t, you’re practicing appeasement. And, every parent soon learns that unless they teach their child to understand and accept “NO!” as a final declaration, they’ll always be yielding and always give just a bit more next time. The same principle applies on every level of society. When the mayor of a city yields to pressure to remove a statue in the dark of night, stating it was done to “remove a thorny issue from public discussion,” what he or she has done is to appease. All they’ve done is set themselves up for the next demand from the same direction. They haven’t solved any problem because the statue was never the problem. It was only a proxy for the actual problem. It’s literally impossible to remove all proxies; they’re in infinite supply. Appeasement never works. There is no point of satisfaction for the perpetually offended. If feckless and craven politicians continue to yield to every demand from every single niche interest group that confronts them in the belief that they’re solving problems, they’re only kidding themselves and betraying the vast majority of their constituents. It’s a road to nowhere.

I want to make one last stab at this discussion to ensure you all understand it completely.

One day in the not-so-distant future, France will be dominated by today’s minorities. France will be France in name only. French culture and heritage will slowly begin to disappear. It will be replaced by immigrant cultures, and stands a very good chance of very quickly becoming a Muslim-dominated nation. The demographics of that phenomenon are well-understood. It’s just fact. But, beyond that, what do you think the native French, who will be relegated to minority status in their own historical lands, will think when their new Muslim rulers begin to strip the nation of its artwork? Muslims do not approve of most of the artwork in France. They especially disprove of imagery of any woman who is not fully clad. They will not tolerate religious art of any kind, especially Christian art. They will begin a slow and subtle transformation of France and will turn it into an Islamic republic. This is the future for France, and most thinking French are fully aware of it. But, because of their societal acceptance of the rules of political correctness, such things are rarely discussed in public. To do so, risks complaints from those who claim offense. In France offending another person is almost a felony. Native French may one day wake up to the realization that they have all become Charlie Hebdo. Unfortunately for them, there’s nowhere else for them to go.

I brought up the example of France because it’s something we all might live to witness. If we do, we need to pay very close attention, because what happens there could easily happen here. It’s all connected. Our experiences are connected. Our history is connected. The demise of America’s culture may also be connected.

Our future is up to us. Our culture is something we can either passively give up or fight for. The time to decide is coming fast upon us.

Know the truth and you stand a chance to live as a free American.

In Liberty,

Steve A. Stone

© Steve A. Stone

 

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Steve A. Stone

Steve A. Stone is and always will be a Texan, though he's lived outside that great state for all but 3 years since 1970, remembering it as it was, not as it is. He currently resides in Lower Alabama with a large herd of furry dependents, who all appear to be registered Democrats. Steve retired from the U.S. Coast Guard reserves in 2011, after serving over 22 years in uniform over the span of four decades. His service included duty on two U.S. Navy attack submarines, and one Navy and two U.S. Coast Guard Reserve Units. He is now retired after working as a senior civil servant for the U.S. Navy for over 31 years. Steve is a member of the Alabama Minority GOP and Common Sense Campaign. He is also a life member of SUBVETS, Inc., the Submarine League, and the NRA. In 2018, Steve has written and published 10 books.

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