Every day is a great day to be an American, but yesterday had special meaning for me. Winsome Sears became the first woman and the first person of color to win statewide office in the commonwealth of Virginia. Not one major news organization or media outlet reported on this. They report on riots and faux insurrections, and fake Russian collusions. They easily report on man’s failings because it supports the narrative that we are a bad and racist country. But a great and historic accomplishment like the election and inauguration of Virginia’s newly elected Lieutenant Governor happens in a “fake news” vacuum.
I grew up the first five years of my life in a military family moving almost every year to a new duty station. I saw in Jacksonville Florida, and Charleston South Carolina and Norfolk Virginia the legacy of Jim Crow and overt racial prejudice, but I also saw twenty years later when I myself spent 15 years on active duty in Tidewater Virginia the great advances that had been made. I saw how politeness and good manners of Blacks and Whites facilitated assimilation. I saw how the mutual respect for family, work, church, cotillions, and community were able to overcome the divisiveness of the Great Society programs that incentivized the destruction of so many Black institutions. Organizations that after World War II had seen graduation rates from high schools, employment, marriage rates, and graduation rates from college and universities increase faster than any demographic in America.
In November I wrote about our trip to Mathews County Virginia two weeks before the Younkin/Sears election. I wrote of seeing Blacks and Whites working together in businesses, professional organizations, and in schools and universities. I wrote about the mutual respect they showed each other and the inner respect and dignity that was ingrained in all forms of social interaction. There will always be racism and sexism and any other kind of “ism” in the world as long as men and women are willing to expose their hearts to evil. But the real story in Virginia and across all our country is that we have made great strides in creating opportunities for upward mobility and equality of opportunity—not pray God toward “equity” in the manner of Voltaire or The French Revolution.
So many times, people on the political right are called out as being racists or bigots. Being called a deplorable is one thing, a racist or bigot has become an easy way to end a discussion. People so often see in others what they know to be true in themselves. They miss the “log in their own eye”. Trump supporters have endured such derogatory epithets since Mr. Trump came down the escalator to announce his candidacy. People in Idaho have been branded in such a fashion by liberal Eastern elites who have never been to Idaho. That may also include Boise “North Enders” who have never ventured outside Ada County—known throughout the rest of the state a “1-A ers”.
Here is the truth about our country that was played out in Virginia in November and culminated in the inauguration on the steps of the capital yesterday during the inauguration of the new Governor Mr. Youngkin and the new Lt. Governor Mrs. Sears. We are not a racist nation. Great strides have been made in stamping out “systemic racism and bigotry” in our country. There are still a very few individuals who are racist or bigoted even in the face of those on the left who try to expand the definition of those terms. The number is closer to 1% than the plurality of people who supported Mr. Trump.
Watch the video link below of the inauguration yesterday. A Black Judge, administering the oath of office to a Black Lady, with her husband’s arm holding her in this moment of great emotion. Surrounded by her family and friends Black and White, all solemnly smiling proudly. This took place on the steps of the Capital of The Confederacy! When the Judge asked “are you prepared to take the oath” I would have said something like “Hell yes we’ve been waiting 158 years for this” but she said “I am” with a small warble in her voice. She is after all a Virginian where manners are still important. At the end of the oath when she loudly proclaimed with a strong conviction in her voice “SO HELP ME GOD”, one knew that the arc of justice was reaching an asymptote. Where else but in America could this have happened? And what better place than on the steps of the Capital of The Confederacy.
One final note that completely refutes the idea that “Trumpians” are racist. When looking at the election map of counties in Virginia, one sees that Mrs. Sears ran strongest in red counties winning at least 55-60% of the vote in rural and Tidewater Counties (the plantation counties) many times getting a higher percentage of the vote than Mr. Trump received. She lost in the inner city and Northern Virginia counties—liberal blue regions. In Western Virginia the land of Jim Crow and John Brown both, but also the epicenter of “The New Great Awakening”, she was strongest.
I am so proud of Virginia, and I am so proud to be an American.
You won’t see this story in the mainstream “FAKE” news.
One reply on “Proud”
That made me smile, thank you. It IS good to be a proud American.