STORY: "Let Texas Secede" by Legal Editor David R. Hoffman, published by Pravda on May 19, 2016;
GIST: "Several years ago, during the nightmare of the Bush dictatorship, controversial comedian Bill Maher remarked that America might have been better off if the South had seceded from the Union. At first glance, such a sentiment appeared impossible to justify.......... But the state of Texas has been a particular cancer on the people of the United States, not just because of its number of Electoral College votes, but also because of the inordinate number of demagogues it has unleashed on the national landscape, such as Tom Delay, George W. Bush, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, and Greg Abbott. In fact, if there is anybody that personifies how readily the "good-old-boy" Texas political system can result in the most egregious of actions, it is Perry and Abbott. Several years ago, a man named Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of setting a fire that killed his children. Despite evidence that the so-called "arson science" used to convict Willingham was seriously flawed, Perry signed Willingham's death warrant, and then, after Willingham's execution, pathetically tried to justify his actions by noting how, shortly before being executed, Willingham had used foul language to criticize his ex-wife, whose testimony had helped to convict him. Logically and morally it would seem that any politician so rabid to execute human beings despite evidence of their innocence would find his/her career in shambles. But not in Texas. To a majority of Texas voters, the survival of its well-oiled execution machine, fueled by one of the most corrupt legal systems in the nation, was more important than "minor nuisances" like executing the innocent. Needless to say, not only was Perry reelected, he even endeavored to run for President of the United States. As if that isn't vile enough, Texas voters weren't done yet. After Perry left office, they elected Abbott, who had, while serving as Attorney General under Perry, done everything in his power to thwart any official investigations into Willingham's trial, conviction, and execution.........So, while allowing Texas to secede would dilute its negative impact on the rest of America, it would also be an interesting sociological experiment: It will give revisionists, homophobes, racists, anti-intellectuals, and pseudo-Christians a safe-haven for their philosophies, and the world could watch this new country implode as these respective groups fight for dominance. So, while there are many treatments for cancer, one of the most drastic, but sometimes the most necessary, is to cut out the affected area. Since many in Texas want to secede, I say let them. The rest of the United States will be better because of it."
The entire story can be found at:
USA: Let Texas secede
Several years ago, during the nightmare of the Bush
dictatorship, controversial comedian Bill Maher remarked that America
might have been better off if the South had seceded from the Union.
At first glance, such a sentiment
appeared impossible to justify. After all, despite all its platitudes
about "states' rights," what the Confederacy was really defending was
the horrific institution of human slavery. Not only did the Civil War
end this institution via passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, it also
applied the Bill of Rights to the states and guaranteed Equal Protection
of the laws via the Fourteenth Amendment, and promised African-American
males the right to vote via the Fifteenth.
But once one realizes how rapidly these
lofty amendments became nothing more than empty words, it's not
difficult to see why satirist Thomas Nast called the plight of
African-Americans during the post-civil war years "worse than slavery."
Refusal to honor promises
First, Lincoln's successor, Andrew
Johnson, rescinded or refused to honor many promises made to
African-Americans; then, in order to win a hotly disputed election,
Rutherford B. Hayes terminated Reconstruction Policies that had protected the newly freed slaves; the United States Supreme Court, in the now infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case, made racial segregation the law of the land; and lynchings and massacres of African-Americans became commonplace.
For decades, the perversity of Southern
racism and political backwardness served as an anchor on the ship of
progress, elevating to political prominence men like Strom Thurmond,
Jesse Helms, and George Wallace, and even today it has plagued America
with people like Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Roy Moore, Phil Bryant, and Pat
McCrory.
This, of course, is not to say that the North
doesn't have its share of political backwardness, as evidenced by the
governorships of Paul LePage (Maine), Scott Walker (Wisconsin), Rick
Snyder (Michigan), and Mike Pence (Indiana)-although, in fairness,
Indiana's unofficial nickname is "the Northernmost Southern State."
Texas has been a cancer
But the state of Texas
has been a particular cancer on the people of the United States, not
just because of its number of Electoral College votes, but also because
of the inordinate number of demagogues it has unleashed on the national
landscape, such as Tom Delay, George W. Bush, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, and
Greg Abbott. In fact, if there is anybody that personifies how readily
the "good-old-boy" Texas political system can result in the most
egregious of actions, it is Perry and Abbott.
Several years ago, a man named Cameron
Todd Willingham was convicted of setting a fire that killed his
children. Despite evidence that the so-called "arson science" used to
convict Willingham was seriously flawed, Perry signed Willingham's death
warrant, and then, after Willingham's execution, pathetically tried to
justify his actions by noting how, shortly before being executed,
Willingham had used foul language to criticize his ex-wife, whose
testimony had helped to convict him.
Logically and morally it would seem that
any politician so rabid to execute human beings despite evidence of
their innocence would find his/her career in shambles.
Corrupt legal system
But not in Texas. To a majority of
Texas voters, the survival of its well-oiled execution machine, fueled
by one of the most corrupt legal systems in the nation, was more
important than "minor nuisances" like executing the innocent. Needless
to say, not only was Perry reelected, he even endeavored to run for
President of the United States.
As if that isn't vile enough, Texas
voters weren't done yet. After Perry left office, they elected Abbott,
who had, while serving as Attorney General under Perry, done everything
in his power to thwart any official investigations into Willingham's
trial, conviction, and execution.
Unfortunately, the cancer spread by Texas
doesn't just infect America's political system: It infects its
educational system as well, as demonstrated by several members of the
Texas Board of Education who sought to rewrite school textbooks so they
could indoctrinate students with their distorted version of history and
politics.
While this would be contemptible enough
even if it was just confined to Texas, the reality is that the state's
consumption of textbooks is so immense that publishers were concerned
that the costs of publishing two different versions-one for Texas and
one for the rest of United States-would be too prohibitive, which, in
turn, created the very real prospect that Texas's textbooks would become
the norm throughout America.
The unspoken motive behind this textbook
manipulation is simplistically sinister. The "Great Lie Theory,"
outlined by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf and exploited by
demagogues, tyrants, megalomaniacs, hypocrites, and pseudo-religious
leaders throughout history, asserts that if great lies are repeated
often enough, people will come to accept them as truth.
The major flaw in this theory is that
"great lies" can readily be recognized by informed people. As I stated
in several previous Pravda.Ru articles, there is a
difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance is a conscious
decision by an individual to intentionally refuse to research and/or
seek out information, while stupidity results from an inability, beyond
one's control, to conduct such research and/or locate such information.
The manipulators of Texas's educational
system know that ignorant people can always become informed people, but
stupid children are destined to become stupid adults if they are denied
the proper educational resources.
And this stupidity is what the Texas political machine hopes to thrive on.
Those who doubt this only need to
examine a recent ruling by the right-wing Texas Supreme Court that
upheld the "constitutionality" of Texas's unequal funding of public
schools.
So, while allowing Texas to secede would
dilute its negative impact on the rest of America, it would also be an
interesting sociological experiment: It will give revisionists,
homophobes, racists, anti-intellectuals, and pseudo-Christians a
safe-haven for their philosophies, and the world could watch this new
country implode as these respective groups fight for dominance.
So, while there are many treatments for
cancer, one of the most drastic, but sometimes the most necessary, is to
cut out the affected area. Since many in Texas want to secede, I say
let them. The rest of the United States will be better because of it.
David R. Hoffman, Legal Editor of Pravda.Ru
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The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com;
Harold Levy;
Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
