Last weekend I overheard two recent grads (both musicians) discussing America’s greatest composers. The usual names were raised: Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein, Sousa … Foster.
“Who?” said one.
“Stephen Foster,” replied the other.
Only one knew who Foster was, and neither knew he was from Pittsburgh. Both, ironically, recently spent a lot of time in Oakland, where the Stephen Foster statue once stood outside the Carnegie.
That statue, depicting Foster above a banjo-strumming Black man, representative of his song “Uncle Ned,” was removed in April 2018 after a contentious debate.… Continue Reading
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” said Santayana. Many young people today claim to prefer socialism—and in some cases, even communism (which is socialism’s more violent form)—over capitalism.
Recently a candidate for city council in Denver declared that capitalism has failed and that socialism is the future. Candi Cdebaca said that we are in the “last phase” of capitalism—as if it is dying. In contrast, she said, “I believe in community ownership of land, labor, resources and distribution of those resources.”… Continue Reading
Thirty years ago, the good guys won the Cold War, yet today we have a frontrunner candidate for president, Bernie Sanders, who is an out-of-the closet socialist. He loved the old Soviet Union so much so that he spent his honeymoon there.
For decades, the Communists were aiming to take over the whole world. “We will bury you,” claimed Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1956.
Thirty years ago, two men played pivotal roles in helping to speed up the end of Russian domination—President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.… Continue Reading
It’s likely been quite a while since most of us cracked open a world history textbook or attended a political science lecture. So, if someone were to engage you in a conversation extolling the virtues of Marxism, would you be knowledgeable enough to form a response? Do you have a clear understanding of the Marxist ideals that laid the foundation for the monolith of communism?
Watch as Dr. Paul Kengor, a political science professor at Grove City College, details the inherent deception and devastating legacy of Marxism.… Continue Reading
On August 8, 2017, Dr. Paul Kengor, executive director of The Center for Vision & Values and political science professor at Grove City College, gave a Reagan Forum lecture at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. Kengor discusses his new book, A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century.
From the Reagan Foundation:
“Based on Kengor’s tireless archival digging and his unique access to Reagan insiders, A Pope and a President reveals: The many similarities and the spiritual bond between the pope and the president—and how Reagan privately spoke of the “DP”: the Divine Plan to take down communism, a startling insider account of how the USSR may have been set to invade the pope’s native Poland in March 1981—only to pull back when news broke that Reagan had been shot, and more.
Faith & Religion, Federal Issues | Benjamin D. Smith | 
July 18, 2020 4:00 AM | 
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