While searching for a Sunday meme, I came across a picture of a sign titled “The American’s Creed”, which reads as follows:
I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, “this, with God’s help, I have done”. All this is what it means to be an American.
– Dean Alfange
With able assistance from our personal Rogue, who is a Unicorn, the author of this wonderful creed was found.
Dean Alfange
He was Dean Alfange, born December 2, 1897, in what was then known as The Ottoman Empire to Greek parents. His parents moved to Utica, New York in 1902. There was not a political party he was not part of; American Labor, Democrat, Liberal, Republican. Although he was very much an activist, he is best known for writing what he simply called My Creed. Publication of the Creed was in This Week magazine in the early 1950s. I could find no information on what precipitated his writing of this Creed.
His statements are not in keeping with the current mindset of those currently “protesting”. In fact, he would find himself as one of the people the “cancel culture” placed on their list. The mere idea of seeking challenges rather than accepting government as his provider is abhorrent to many groups. Most assuredly, thinking for one’s self is verboten as is any hint of religion, unless it is the religion of anarchy.
Editor’s Note: While helping AuntiE to research the origin of this creed, I found several references to it in a variety of sources. As it is written on the sign, and reprinted here in its original form, the second to last line reads: “this, with God’s help, I have done”. Interestingly, in several of the places it was referenced, the text was censored (ahem) edited, to read: “this, I have done” Even this obscure essay has now been altered to conform to a revisionist/apologist’s ideal. (RU)
Missing Kansas dog makes 50-mile trip to old home in Missouri
I am always astonished at pets who travel long distances to return to a previous home.
Of course, growing up, one of our three cats took an annual spring trek back to a previous residence several miles away. We would receive a mid-afternoon call telling us Amber was in the back yard, napping. It was our feeling he missed the gold fish pond.
I came across this story and it reminded me of our Amber.
By The Associated Press July 18, 2020, 9:57 PM
A dog that disappeared in the US state of Kansas earlier this month has been found more than 50 miles (80.4 km) away – at her owner’s previous home.
Cleo, a four-year-old labrador, was reported missing from the town of Olathe on 12 July.
Several days later, she showed up on the porch of her old home in Lawson, Missouri.
Colton Michael, the house’s new owner, told local media he and his wife had moved there almost two years ago.
At first, Cleo was anxious when anyone came near her, Mr Michael said.
“She finds her way home, and there’s some strangers living in it.
Eventually, Mr Michael earned Cleo’s trust and had her scanned for a microchip, which owners often fit with personal information so their pets can be traced if they go missing.
The microchip revealed the name of Cleo’s owner, who had posted a missing appeal on Facebook a week earlier.
Mr Michael said his wife recognised the name as the former owner of their home.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Michael said Cleo’s owner, Drew, was “kind of speechless” when told she had been found.
“It’s the most bizarre story. Really, she’s everything to us and to my mother,” her owner said.
From door to door, Cleo would have walked 57 miles from her current home in Kansas to her old one in Missouri, according to KMBC.
The dog may have crossed busy roads and a river, a journey Mr Michael described as a “mystery”.
“Now that we know who she belongs to, if she pops up again, we know who to call,” Mr Michael said.
Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for a new original article from Paul Evancoe, to be published at 1000 EDT. It is titled Commander’s Intent, and will truly strike a cord with this crowd.
Jeff Sessions: ‘It’s Time For This Republican Party to Listen to the Donald Trump Agenda’
(CNSNews.com) – Former Sen. Jeff Session (R.-Ala.), who lost a primary runoff yesterday to former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, said in his concession speech that it “is time for this Republican Party to listen to the Donald Trump agenda.”
“My view about things at this point in history is the political parties have not been sufficiently sensitive to, understanding of, and responsive to the legitimate wishes of the American people, and I have come to that belief more strongly in recent years,” Session said.
“It is really why I chose to make this race,” he said.
Sessions then talked specifically about immigration, trade and unnecessary wars.
“The American people are not against immigration, but they want a lawful system and they want the kind of immigration that serves the national interest, and does not become a mechanism by which their wages are pulled down and their ability to find a decent job is reduced substantially,” Sessions said.
“They are right about that,” he said.
“I think the American people have been right to resist this religious free-trade idea that no matter how bad a competitor cheats you or if they sell products–China sells products–to the United States below cost, closing an American factory, laying off hundreds of Americans workers, these people, these religious free-traders think we should send them a thank you note–because you can get a little cheaper at Walmart or one of our other stores,” Sessions said.
“The American people are not happy with that,” he said.
“They are not happy that we have allowed China to dominate our trade situation and they have massive trade surpluses with us,” he said. “They are not happy with that.
They think that’s wrong.”
“They think we’ve got involved in too many wars that don’t have an end to them, have not served the national interest, and hasn’t even helped the people we thought we were trying to help,” said Sessions.
“In all those areas, the American people are right in my opinion,” he said.
“And I think it is time for this Republican Party to listen to the Donald Trump agenda because he has talked about those things frankly and openly,” said Sessions. “And I think they were huge factors in his ability to win that past election.
“And if he gets on message and stays on those principle positions, I think he will be in a position to come back and win this election,” Sessions said.
Here is a transcript from the part of Sessions’ concession speech where he talked about immigration, trade and “wars that don’t have an end to them”:
Sessions: “My view about things at this point in history is the political parties have not been sufficiently sensitive to, understanding of, and responsive to the legitimate wishes of the American people, and I have come to that belief more strongly in recent years. It is really why I chose to make this race. I thought I might have the ability to contribute in some way to the future of our country–in that the Republican Party has the greatest opportunity to build a leading majority in America.
“But to do so, they need to be more attuned to the values of the people of our country. They really do.
“For example, immigration. The American people are not against immigration, but they want a lawful system and they want the kind of immigration that serves the national interest, and does not become a mechanism by which their wages are pulled down and their ability to find a decent job is reduced substantially. They are right about that. They are exactly right about that. But powerful forces out there on the other side. They want more labor and cheaper labor. That is just what certain businesses do. That is what they always seek.
“Secondly, I think the American people have been right to resist this religious free-trade idea that no matter how bad a competitor cheats you or if they sell products, China sells products to the United States below cost, closing an American factory, laying off hundreds of Americans workers, these people, these religious free-traders think we should send them a thank you note–because you can get a little cheaper at Walmart or one of our other stores.
“The American people are not happy with that. They are not happy that we have allowed China to dominate our trade situation and they have massive trade surpluses with us. They are not happy with that. They think that’s wrong.
And they think we’ve got involved in too many wars that don’t have an end to them, have not served the national interest, and hasn’t even helped the people we thought we were trying to help.
“In all those areas, the American people are right in my opinion. They are essentially correct.
“And I think it is time for this Republican Party to listen to the Donald Trump agenda because he has talked about those things frankly and openly. And I think they were huge factors in his ability to win that past election. And if he gets on message and stays on, stays on those principle positions, I think he will be in a position to come back and win this election.
“So, we have borders in our country. We have a Constitution that applies within our border. And we need to understand we are a nation state and our government leaders should be protecting the interests of the American people.
“We expect CEOs to protest the interests of their stockholders. Government officials should protect the interest of their citizens. It is just that simple. And too often we have allowed the focus to be on GDP, on growth, on Wall Street, and trading issues like that, and not enough on the struggles of that single mom who’s got to buy four tires for her old care, it’s going to cost $600 and she doesn’t have it and it has to go on a credit card that charges 25 percent interest.
“This is the world that most Americans live in, and we need to be more sensitive to it. And I think they are right about where we are. So, I believe that that is good and those are the kind of issues we should be advancing. I want to see our Congress do so. And I think the party that does so will be the party that can govern in the years to come.”
Original:CNSNews; It’s Time For This Republican Party to Listen to the Donald Trump Agenda’
AuntiE Says: Jefferson B. Sessions is a class act and one of a dying breed, a true gentleman!
This week, gadfly New York Times columnist Bari Weiss resigned her position at the so-called newspaper of record.
She did so after years of fielding slings and arrows from her own colleagues and editors, who treated her as an ultra-conservative enemy — this despite the fact that her perspective on the world is an eclectic mix of social progressivism, skepticism toward regulation, and foreign policy hawkishness. (Personal disclosure: I, along with many people right, left, and center consider Bari a friend.) The pressure on Weiss from within the newspaper had reached extraordinary proportions: Excerpts of staff Slack chats revealed colleagues openly discussing why Weiss ought to lose her job, maligning her as a bigot, and suggesting publicly that she is a liar.
So Weiss quit, and she burned the bridge behind her.
“The lessons that ought to have followed the election — lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society — have not been learned,” Weiss wrote in her resignation letter. “Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”
This is the nature of the game: Mirror the perspectives of de facto Times editor Nikole Hannah-Jones and her woke colleagues, or find yourself ostracized, publicly shamed, and pressured to leave. And the actual editors of The Times have caved to this nonsense time and again.
As Weiss raged: “If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome.”
Weiss is hardly the exception inside the bastions of leftist groupthink. At Vox.com, co-founder Matthew Yglesias was shamed into silence for suggesting — sin of sins! — that cancel culture is wrong. His co-founder, Ezra Klein, subtweeted Yglesias, even as Yglesias remained quiet. At Princeton University, professor Joshua Katz wrote an open letter decrying demands from fellow Princeton faculty that the university engage in open racial discrimination in favor of minorities. He was quickly labeled a threat to decency, with fellow professor Eddie Glaude complaining, “Professor Katz, at times in this letter, seems to not regard people like me as essential features, or persons, of Princeton.”
The list goes on. And on and on.
In fact, there is only one way to avoid the blacklist: to surrender, utterly and completely. Any sign of remaining dissent must be purged. Bow before Zod, or pay the price. Thus, Ben Howe (again — personal disclosure — a friend), an anti-Trump Republican who edited videos for the pro-Joe Biden Lincoln Project, found himself fired from the project for two- and four-year-old tweets. Thus, Gary Garrels, senior curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was forced to resign his position after he insisted that the museum continue to acquire the odd piece from white artists. The mildest sign of unwillingness to become an “ally” in the Great Culture Purge of 2020 ends with your neck in the guillotine.
Have we finally reached the glorious age in which Absolute Truth is known with such fulsome certainty that our cultural betters should be trusted to wish dissenters away into the cornfield? Of course not. We’re just watching the latest cultural revolution in real time. Which leaves those who wish to not be purged with two simple choices: Stand up together against this round of Maoist purification, or hang separately.
