There they go again

by Dr. Ada Fisher, Republican National Committeewoman, August 17, 2017.

When confronted by his opponent espousing well worn phrases, President Ronald Reagan would repeatedly say to President Jimmy Carter, “There he goes again.”  His timing was impeccable likely from his training as an actor and his demeanor was not confrontational.  Mr. Trump could learn much from one of his revered Republican predecessors.

Republicans have stood with President Donald Trump and he must be accountable for what he says and how he says it for the implications could be devastating to the binding of this union.  All of the Nazi’s were bad unless they stood up to tyranny and tried to save as many as they could.  Black revolutionaries preaching destruction of this nation and white racist espousing elimination of  those who aren’t white, are wrong and such shows their ignorance.

Some  presidential rhetoric is not unlike the protesters on all sides who see ghosts where there may be none and who wish to hang on to old non-functional traditions rather than move on.  The confederate statues in question are being attacked not just for philosophical reasons but because other groups don’t have their heroes equally displayed.

Racism, Sexism and many “isms” are wrong by their very nature for they assume I’m right and the other is wrong. White racist are nothing to explain away nor are the black revolutionaries whose rhetoric often prompted many to violence.  It is what it is.  Huey Newton, Fred Hampton and the Honorable Elijah Muhammed often told it as they saw it; yet somehow were allowed to espouse racist positions which too many blacks fell in line behind while the needle of progress still has not moved one iota for too many. President Barack Obama eulogized the former Exalted Cyclops of the Sophia, West Virginia KKK, Senate Minority Whip and former President Pro Tem, Robert C. Byrd.  Where was our outrage then? The infidelities and indiscretions with women for many prominent men are to me equally repulsive which is why many of the older black preachers refused to stand behind Martin Luther King, Jr.  The subjugation of women is as rampant as slavery ever was and this male thing crosses all colors.

My mother loved to tell me about southern history and her home in Richmond, VA which was the capitol of the Confederacy.  Every night WRAL in Raleigh, NC closed with a rendition of Dixie.   At the W. G. Pearson Elementary School, J. A. Whitted Junior High School or Hillside High School of Durham, NC, the Negro National Anthem was played for important occasions. History  recounts that Maryland represented the Mason Dixon Line.  My father’s research showed  a boundary allowing freedom to escaping slaves in North Carolina’s Deep River, now along highway 85, another point on the Underground Railroad which a spiritual by the same name also revealed.

Statues must stand whether we like them or not for they are a concrete example of free speech. Slave owner Thomas Jefferson wrote the US Constitution which is a brilliant working tribute to freedom and liberty.  The contributions of George Washington, another presidential slave owner, cannot be diminished because of a moral flaw. George Santayana  noted “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  Those destroying or defacing private property should also face prosecution under state laws.

As I watched the young black lady in my hometown of Durham, NC put a noose around the old courthouse confederate memorial statue, which we marched pass in many a holiday parade, I thought how ironic.  It was the lynching efforts which silenced so many of our people.  Given that, will whites go down the street to the campus of  North Carolina Central University and remove the statue of its black Republican founder, James E. Shepard, or even destroy the  Washington, DC monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?  This ignorance and non-peaceful acting out being displayed should not be tolerated.

Before he died, I asked our state US Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat) why he had not supported any of the Civil Rights Bills during his tenure.  The essence of his response in its simplicity was profound—the US Constitution already contains the language proclaiming that all men are created equal.  When you write such supplementary Civil Rights Bills you acknowledge that some aren’t equal.  We simply need to enforce the law for all as originally written and other bills won’t be necessary.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in Psalms in the Key of Life, “Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate . . . “  Each individual engaging in quiet acts of random kindness can produce revolutionary butterflies in spirit.

Ada M. Fisher, MD, MPH is a licensed teacher, retired Corporate physician, former county school board member, speaker, author of Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions Good for What Ails Us Book 1 (available through Amazon. Com) and is the NC Republican National Committeewoman.