Memories of June 6, 1944 … June 6, 1984 … and June 19, 1999
Today we should pause to remember June 6, 1944 – D-Day, when the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy. On June 6, 1984, at the 40th Anniversary celebration, with a number of veterans present, President Reagan delivered one of his more memorable speeches:
“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped win the war.”?
My personal memory came on June 19, 1999, when my wife and I had the honor of walking the cliffs over the Normandy beaches. Below is a photo I took of Pointe du Hoc, wishing I could have been there to hear Reagan’s speech.
Unrelated Commentary
Last week, when President Biden was speaking to a predominantly black audience in Philadelphia, he reminded them of his promise to “put racial equality at the center of everything I do.”
I found it odd that he used the word equality rather than equity, the word he used extensively in Executive Order 13985-Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, an order so important to him that he issued it on his first day in office.
While using the order to launch his whole of government agenda, it wasn’t until June 25, 2021 that it was all spelled out in a 16-page document in which equity became one piece of an order that included diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, intended to “strengthen the federal workforce.”
Learning of internal grumbling in military quarters as Defense Secretary Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley pushed the effort as ordered by the Commander in Chief, I wrote about it in my April 3, 2023 blog.
Colleges and Universities and corporations were urged to establish DEI, but it soon fell out of favor.
On May 4, 2023, the left-leaning Vox published a piece, “The Equity Wars: Equity is Everywhere, but what is it – and why is it so controversial?”
Interestingly, the author of the piece, Andrew Prokup, related how HBO talk show host Bill Maher asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, “How would you differentiate between ‘equity’ and ‘equality?” A good question.
“Well, equality we talk about … I don’t know what the answer is,” Sanders confessed.
Even though Biden’s agenda states that “the term ‘equity’ means the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals,” isn’t that the meaning of ‘equality?’
“Equity is indeed about trying to make group outcomes more equal that they are now,” explains Prokup.
On October 6, 2023, Michele McGovern, writing in a Human Resources publication on “The Death of DEI,” but with a plea to bring it back with the belief that DEI “is closely linked to organizational success. She’s dreaming.
In January, the demise of DEI was loud and clear, even from the left, where it was hatched. In David French’s opinion piece in the New York Times, “This is the Actual Danger Posed by D.E.L.” he says, “to put it simply, the problem with D.E.I. resides primarily not in these virtuous ends but in the unconstitutional means chosen to advance them.”
Then, on March 11, 2024, Nicquel Terry Ellis, writing in CNN digital, “What is DEI and why is it dividing America?” reporting that DEI programs have “come under attack in boardrooms, state legislatures and college campuses across the country.”
Ellis included a number of comments on DEI. Ryan P. Wiliams, president of the Claremont Institute views the ideology behind DEI as “fundamentally anti-American.”
“DEI is just another word for racism,” says Elon Musk, “Shame on anyone who uses it.”
In his in-depth article in the New York Times, “America is Under Attack: Inside the D.E.I. Crusade,” Nicholas Confessore had thousands of documents that cast light on the anti-D.E.I. movement.
The documents – grant proposals, budgets, draft reports and correspondence – show how the activists have formed a loose network of think tanks, political groups and Republican operatives in at least a dozen states to fight the “leftist social justice revolution” by eliminating “social justice education” from American schools.
He noted that “embracing the D.E.I. efforts had made universities intolerant and narrow, resulting in a belief that D.E.I. programs made black and Hispanic students feel less welcome instead of more.”
While DEI programs are being dismantled in colleges and in businesses, Biden is clinging to DEI initiatives as if they were his own, but we know the 16-page document backing his first day in office executive order was the work of progressives in his administration.
“The president wanted to make sure that the federal government dealt with racial equality and racial justice,” said, Karine Jean-Pierre, foolishly claiming that “we’ve seen 2.6 million more black Americans have jobs because of it.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion sound great, but it’s really nothing more than affirmative action. It’s inherently a racist movement purporting to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed. Good riddance.
On this and every day may God continue to bless the United States of America.
