Who overcomes
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book One (1667).
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
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John Milton
On March 17, 1780, General George Washington granted the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”
On March 17, 1941, the U.S. Selective Service held its first lottery for the draft, in preparation for World War II. (Image, above, from the Morning Oregonian, from that year.)
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West Virginia Citizens
The idea that non-citizens should vote in America’s elections has gained ground among Democrats. But, as reported here earlier — see, for instance, “Alien Nation Capital” (March 7, 2023) and “Blue Boston Democracy” (March 9, 2024) — the idea is being beaten back. Take the case of West Virginia:
A House of Delegates resolution that would create an amendment to the state Constitution ensuring only United States citizens can vote in West Virginia elections is now with the state Senate.
House Joint Resolution 21 passed on a 96-0 vote February 6. It was introduced February 7 in the state Senate and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee before it would go to the Senate Finance Committee.
Chris Dickerson, ”Proposed amendment to add U.S. citizenship to W.Va. voting requirement passes House,” West Virginia Record (February 7, 2024).
A co-sponsor of the State Senate’s version of the bill, State Sen. Mike Stuart (R-Kanawha), is quoted making a commonsense argument: “As an American citizen, I don’t vote in other countries’ elections, and they shouldn’t vote in ours.”
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Mike Stuart
While I support legal immigration, no one likes line skippers at Disney World or the border. Legal citizens who are here pursuant to our laws should have the right to vote — no one else.
West Virginia State Senator Mike Stuart, as quoted in “Proposed amendment to add U.S. citizenship to W.Va. voting requirement passes House,” West Virginia Record (February 7, 2024).
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Belated Confirmation
On March 16, 1995, the state of Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state of the Union to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment had been officially ratified in 1865, one hundred thirty years earlier.
James Madison, fourth President of the United States and “Father of the Constitution,” was born on this date in 1751.
“You get paid good.”
So said one student when asked “Why should students
How well-paid? $1,400, for learning to fight for “racial justice” and “social justice.”
Parrot left-wing propaganda, that is.
The activist group Californians for Justice has paid at least 78 public high school students a total of around $100,000 to take CFJ’s ideological training. Another $20,200 has gone to parents for participating.
The training apparently does not include lessons in independent thinking or assessing alternative viewpoints, such as the view that “social justice” is typically a euphemism for collectivist injustice.
One teacher, who preferred to remain anonymous lest she lose her job, told The Free Press that it’s helpful to know what students think “would help them learn better, but” the students were “obviously reading scripts that have words that they don’t know how to say.” One trainee advised this teacher that students would “come to class on time if we built relationships with them.”
Another teacher in the district, agreed that “CFJ is not helping students find their own voices. . . . They’re teaching them parroting . . . the exact opposite of how you empower children.”
The focus on “racial justice” is manifested in CFJ’s own recruiting: its website reports that CFJ has “trained hundreds of youth of color in Long Beach to be community leaders and organizers.” Why only
The training is not funded by strictly voluntary donations, of course. Long Beach Unified School District has been subsidizing it, using taxpayer dollars. The district has already given CFJ nearly $2 million.
The whole operation stinks to high heaven. But they’re “paid good.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Friedrich Schlegel
There are people with whom everything they consider a means turns mysteriously into an end.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel, Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 428.
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Two Men, Two Republics
March 15 was “the Ides of March” in the Roman calendar. On that date in 44 BC, Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a handful of prominent senators.
On the same date in 1783, General George Washington eloquently entreated his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. His plea was successful: the threatened coup d’état never took place.
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Race-Based Handouts?
The decision won’t be the end of the matter, but it’s a good sign.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman has ruled that a federal agency established to give subsidies to businesses, in its current form called the Minority Business Development Agency, may no longer use race or ethnicity as a criterion for distributing benefits.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on behalf of three business owners who weren’t allowed to apply for help from the MBDA because they’re white. The plaintiffs argue that the Agency violates the constitutional requirement of equal treatment under
According to Judge Pittman, although “the Agency may intend to serve listed groups, not punish unlisted groups, the very design of its presumption punishes those who are not presumptively entitled to MBDA benefits.”
Supporting rights-based governance, I’m no fan of any welfare programs. As long as we have them, though, why should the handouts or the ability to apply for them be determined by race?
Government-imposed racial discrimination is unjust on its face. It should be extirpated wherever it exists. The Minority Business Development Agency is one of
If Pittman’s ruling is allowed to stand, it may have a salutary effect on many other agencies and programs.
The MBDA’s name presents a problem, however.
I guess it won’t be too hard to remove the word “Minority” and call the agency the Business Development Agency.
Or just shut it down.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
Titus Livius, History of Rome, Book I, §17.