By Edward Achorn
The Summer of Hate shows no signs of abating. Night after night, people are being injured or killed and property destroyed. Thousands of young Americans, after being locked down for months, are erupting with savagery and destruction.
This has gone on for two months now.
As a historian of the Civil War, I can see where it leads.
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By Edward Achorn
My thanks to Andrew Bostom, M.D., a Brown associate professor, internist, and epidemiologist, for this latest chart of national COVID-19 deaths.
The revised numbers do display that, after deaths fell for 10 straight weeks, America underwent a slight and unnerving uptick earlier this month. The raw numbers, as of July 27, are HERE.
The recent turnaround prompted near-hysteria in the news media, leading to new and economically damaging lockdowns. Americans were terrified.
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By Edward Achorn
Freedom of speech is the bulwark of all our liberties. Take it away — no freedom.
It is being taken away.
Strategies developed at universities to silence dissent and drive out those who support freedom have infiltrated our culture. People are being fired, doxxed, threatened, punched, smeared, and otherwise bullied for expressing views that were once at the heart of America.
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By Edward Achorn
The science is crystal clear. Children should return to school in the fall. They are remarkably safe from catching COVID-19 and from spreading it.
Cheating them of an education and social development again this fall would be incredibly cruel.
Yes, the news media have scared many people out of their wits. Polls find many parents are terrified of sending children to school. Teachers unions and other political entities hope, as always, to exploit these fears to advance their own interests.
But I pray it is still possible for parents and leaders to muster enough courage and decency to focus on children. Young Americans need thoughtful and well-informed adults on their side.
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By Edward Achorn
Could we stop panicking a bit now? Would the dictatorial governors let up on the lockdowns that ruin businesses, destroy jobs, rob children of their education, terrify citizens, and destroy human interactions? Might the news media be shamed into sharing this reassuring news?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released data showing that deaths from COVID-19 have declined for the 12th straight week.
Is this the impression you get from watching the news?
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By Edward Achorn
As a newspaperman for 41 years, I have watched with great sadness as many newspapers lost subscribers and advertisers. That decimated their ability to provide news and opinion.
Even sadder, though, was seeing newspapers abandon their core mission of holding the powerful accountable and defending America’s freedoms, especially the First Amendment.
When I started in the business in 1979, that mission served Democrats and Republicans alike.
As the years went by, people employed in the news media increasingly dropped the cloak of objectivity. They became advocates for progressive ideology. Journalists came to regard fairness and, in some cases, accuracy as impediments to their advocacy, which they believed served the public better than old-fashioned attempts at objectivity.
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By Edward Achorn
Many Americans remain terrified of COVID-19. The narrative of panic advanced by much of the news media fuels that feeling. In recent days, the focus has been on skyrocketing numbers of people testing positive for the coronavirus.
But there are very promising signs that the virus is burning itself out. After spiking earlier this year, death totals have fallen steadily — for 11 straight weeks, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. While every death is sad, the curve reassuringly looks like charts of flu deaths in past years. Deadly viruses tend to strike hard, claim lives, and then mutate and weaken.
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By Edward Achorn
Another American icon bit the dust this week. Brooks Brothers, the great men’s clothier founded in 1818, filed for bankruptcy.
Brooks Brothers, already facing pressures as a brick-and-mortar retailer, cited the stresses of COVID-19, which has been a nightmare for businesses all over America.
The company boasted of clothing 40 presidents. I touched on its most important suit in my new book, Every Drop of Blood.
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By Edward Achorn
Every American would benefit by reading Frederick Douglass’s gut-wrenching address on the Declaration of Independence, which he delivered on July 5, 1852, at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. That was more than ten years before Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation and 13 years before slavery was finally abolished.
It is a scathing denunciation of America’s hypocrisy in perpetuating slavery while celebrating the signing of the Declaration, which declared that “all men are created equal” and that all are endowed with rights no man or government could justly take away.
I write about this speech in my new book, Every Drop of Blood.
“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” the great black leader and former slave asked.
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By Edward Achorn
Has it become “dark” and “divisive” to celebrate America and honor such icons of freedom as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln?
According to elements of the American news media it has — at least if a politician they detest is doing the celebrating.
“Trump pushes racial division, flouts virus rules at Rushmore,” the Associated Press headlined its coverage of an ostensibly patriotic speech the president delivered at Mount Rushmore Friday night.
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