A partial response to Mary Scoles' Second Opinion.

Mary, for three reasons it's not possible for me to respond to this week's Second Opinion.

First, it's addressed to "Dave's Manifesto" which hasn't appeared for many weeks in the Gazette. Secondly, I, therefore, have no reference to attach to your complaints. Thirdly, a reasonable response to each of your objections would take at least 2,000 words, more than we have space for. Without seeing the substance of "Dave's Manifesto" (9-22-2021) nothing I would write would make any sense to readers; a little like giving a list of baseball scores without identifying the teams.

Maybe next week?

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I was struck by comments made by historian and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns recently. "The present day is one of the worst times in American history. It’s really serious. There are three great crises before this: the Civil War, the Depression, and World War II. This is equal to it.” He believes this is the direction the United States is headed. I completely agree, for different reasons.

We rarely hear such outspoken admissions of this current American reality from the Left because they are too busy creating the problems.

I just listened to an hour of The Kalb Report: One for the History Books - A Conversation with Ken Burns on 2020 streamed live on July 27, 2020. I suspected Burns (whom I very much respect) was a liberal simply because he's in the film business. But when he strongly recommended reading the New York Times and Washington Post "cover to cover" every day to be informed, I suffered a gag reflex and decided there was no hope for his recovery. We both recognize that America, which I have loved and defended for eight decades, is sailing towards oblivion. She has tossed her life preservers of God, family, and freedom overboard as we head straight into the hurricane of Godless communism and Islamic Jihad. (Note: All authentic Islam must include Jihad.) That's the way Islam has always said "Hi there!" to the rest of the world.

I appreciate Burns' empathy for social conditions, particularly race relations. But he misses the point. No nation on earth has moved faster and more effectively to abolish slavery and its effects considering where we were. With the Thirteenth Amendment, December 1865, chattel slavery was effectively ended any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. However, this didn't just happen out of the blue. The South demanded slavery to continue servicing its mostly agricultural industry. So, the North had to fight the South to free those slaves -- at a cost of 600,000 souls, more than all the deaths due to WWI, WWII, and Vietnam together - the bloodiest war in American history. Union soldiers, mostly white, gave their lives to free their black brothers from the atrocity of slavery. Burns, an expert on our Civil War, finds our efforts to heal the past have failed.

I was a freshman in high school when our Civil War had its centennial, one hundred years since the last shot was fired, and the last life was lost. In historical terms that's a mere blip in time. During that very short period enormous strides to improve race relations have borne fruit. Those who profit financially by aggravating those relations claim no improvement at all. But we Americans did elect a black president, twice, tens of thousands of black government officials in the highest positions across the nation, and facilitated many thousands of black millionaires.

In contrast, England simply passed The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which provided for the immediate abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire, without a civil war.

So, while I greatly admire Ken Burns' documentaries (especially on the Civil War) I disagree with his depiction of America as a pervasively racist nation. There is no better nation on earth -- although keeping it has become a precarious activity, due to a treasonous Democratic Party faction.

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AFGHANISTAN -- the indelible stain on American honor.

I meant to write something about the debacle of the Afghanistan surrender to the Taliban, but got distracted. Next week I hope to say more on this mind-numbing issue.

We left thousands of loyal men, women, and children behind to face the butchery of Islamic Jihad at the hands of the Taliban. Two boys, 8 and 11, reported beheaded in front of their families recently.

The Biden administration has armed the Taliban with the best of American weapons, about $800 BILLION-worth, outfitting the world's most virulent terrorist army, with a newly provided country in which to expand. Forbes: "Not helping transparency, the Biden Administration is now hiding key audits on Afghan military equipment."

For those Americans who understand the magnitude of this catastrophic surrender, let's not forget the most innocent, defenseless victims, the two busloads of girls. One bus was loaded with girls from a music school, the other from a dance school. Our State Department refused to let them through the Kabul airport. I have to ask, where are they now? What is their fate? Were they killed or married-off?

This sort of moral and military depravity will soon doom our Republic. And Democratic Party activists, agents, and officials are punishment-proof.