Bacon's Rebellion

The culture wars are never ending. My previous Bacon Bits post only scratched the surface. Here’s more….

Crackdown on parents was orchestrated. Remember how the National School Boards Association wrote that letter accusing parents of terrorizing school board members across the country, leading to Attorney General Merrick Garland ordering the FBI to collaborate with local law enforcement to deal with the threat? Well, that NSBA letter didn’t come out of the blue. Emails obtained by Parents Defending Education through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that NSBA President Viola Garcia and CEO Chip Slaven conspired with the White House before sending out the letter, reports The Federalist. In one email Slaven explained that there were “talks over the last several weeks with White House staff” who “requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring.” Of course, as we all know now, one of those threatening “incidents” involved Loudoun County plumber Scott Smith, whose daughter had been raped in a Loudoun school. After the school board refused to let him speak about the incident, he got highly emotional, was escorted off the premises, refused to leave, and was arrested. To cap it off, Loudoun’s woke prosecutor charged him with a misdemeanor.

Free speech for some, not for others. Suppressing conservative free speech is increasingly routine. Most recently, Republican students at Washington & Lee University were banned from displaying campaign material at their booth in an annual activities fair. The material supported Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, reports The Daily Mail. The director of student activities told them that their display violated university policy regarding the endorsement of p0litical candidates. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), however, that policy applies to universities as institutions, not to students. W&L’s stance is beyond ludicrous. The Dudley administration openly supports “social justice” movements on campus, but it’s telling students they can’t pass out pamphlets, pins, and bumper stickers promoting a governor? No wonder W&L alumni are in revolt. (more…)

Sounding more like the Taliban every day! The rhetoric regarding Civil War statues may be undergoing a significant shift: from tear ’em down to melt ’em down. It’s not enough to remove the statues from the public square. Now they must be destroyed. The latest straw in the wind: The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center has submitted a proposal to Charlottesville City Council to melt down the Lee Statue that was removed earlier this year and use the bronze to create a new work of public art. The Swords into Plowshares project has received almost 30 letters of support from organizations and individuals, reports the Daily Progress. The saving grace of the tear-down-the-statues movement has been that the statues have been preserved with an idea that they might be placed in a museum or cemetery. Swords into Plowshares reopens the debate. The statues must be extirpated. One thing never changes. The Left is never satisfied. The Left always pushes for more.

It didn’t take long for that to get racialized! The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9 to 1 this week to allow unions to engage in collective bargaining with the county. Chairman Jeff McKay said collective bargaining will lead to better employee retention and service to the community. Yeah, right. When have public-service unions ever led to improved service to the public? Wokeness is not an ideology attuned to pleasing middle-class taxpayers. Indeed, trouble may be brewing before the ink dries on the resolution. SEIUrepresents about 2,000 Fairfax County employees. But some say it is too White. What? Fairfax Now quotes David Lyson, executive director of the Fairfax Workers Coalition, as saying, “The bargaining units are tilted toward wealthier white employees.” Uh, oh. (more…)