OPINION:
One of the most disturbing bits of news in recent weeks comes from Washington, D.C., and the National Archives Task Force on Racism.
In a little-noticed report issued in late June, this task force argued that our nation’s Capitol Rotunda is an example of “structural racism.”
The proposed solution to America’s sin of stating that all men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights is to “reimagine the Rotunda” and to post “trigger warnings” to “forewarn audiences of content that may cause intense physiological and psychological symptoms.”
And there you have it. If you need any more proof that America’s nation-hating elites (but I repeat myself) have completely lost their way and have no idea as to the hell to which they are leading us, look no further.
In my book, “Grow Up! Life Isn’t Safe, but It’s Good,” I offer the following.
“Without a map, you have no perspective; your vision is limited. As the old axiom goes, without a map, you can’t see the forest for the trees. Without a map, you’re always fixated on the immediate and have no understanding of the bigger picture. Without a map, you will drive over the cliff rather than stop short and enjoy the view.
The ’mapless’ navel-gazing of our political class becomes more evident than ever with each passing day. With every new crisis, their loss of perspective becomes more and more obvious. They seem to see no further than the end of their nose. Segregation. Victimization. Balkanization. It’s as if E Pluribus Unum has been flipped on its head, as they now proudly shout ‘E Unum, Pluribus! We will divide the one into the many!’
Not only have they discarded common cause and common purpose, but they have also lost any modicum of common sense, rationality, logic, and civil discourse. If you listen carefully to any of the present political debates, you will hear a litany of disjointed and contradictory ideas made by the same person, the same party, and the same pundits.
One politician says that he stands for children and government funding of infant care while at the same time suggesting the government should be paying for the killing of infants just seconds before they exit the birth canal and ’officially’ become children. Another pledges allegiance to one nation under God then acts as if she is God. In their oath of office, our leaders swear to ’defend and protect the Constitution of the United States,’ but then they deny that the United States has the right to defend and protect its Constitution and its borders.
Without a map, our perspective is limited. Our vision is truncated. We don’t know where we are going. We are crawling on the ground when we could be using a drone.
Without a map, we can never make sense of the political landscape, nor any other landscape for that matter.
Without a map, we will make rash decisions and rush ahead, never considering how our ideas and consequent actions are interconnected with history, reason, experience, and revelation.
Without a map, we will always act like islands unto ourselves.
Without a map will never be a community of interconnected people.
If you disregard or disparage the map, you will never see the big picture. You will only see one tree at a time. You will never see the whole forest.”
One of the most remarkable aspects of our nation’s map – our Constitution with its Bill of Rights and antecedent Declaration of Independence – is how forward-thinking its authors were. They anticipated not only the issues of their day but also how a certain set of ideas would impact the future of our country. They understood Locke and Montesquieu. They read Hume and Voltaire. They discussed Plato, Cicero, and Socrates. They knew their Bibles like the backs of their hands. They knew what Moses said, as well as Jesus. They could see backward as well as ahead. They knew where they had been and where they were going. They saw the promise of a republic and the dangers of a Robespierre. They understood the freedom of a covenant and the bondage of hierarchy. They saw the risks in the rule of the gang. They believed in a big God rather than Big Brother. They had perspective. They saw not only the forest for the trees but also the paths and roadways that history and providence had carved on their behalf. They had a map, and they used it. And who in their right mind could possibly argue that we aren’t better off today because of it?
Maybe our friends at the National Archives should pump the brakes a bit. Maybe they would do well to read the map rather than shred it. It might stop them from hitting that oncoming wall of anarchy head-on.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Daycare: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery) and, most recently, “Grow Up: Life Isn’t Safe, But It’s Good.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.