Daily Headlines | Thursday March 17, 2022

Good Morning! 

Writing in his autobiography, “Confessio” – better known as “The Confession of St. Patrick,” the British-born missionary whose day we celebrate today wrote: 

“For daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of Heaven; for I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, who reigns everywhere. As the prophet says: ‘Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you.’” 

There are those in Ukraine who can relate: 

 

Ukraine President Appeals to America’s History in Address to Congress 

From The Daily Citizen: 

American philosopher George Santayana is best known for his quote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The maxim reminds the reader that we can, and should, learn from the past in order to avoid committing the same mistakes others have made. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leaned heavily into Santayana’s wisdom in his address to the U.S. Congress on March 16. In his appeal for help to fend off the Russian invasion of his country, Zelensky offered illustrations that ought to be familiar to Americans, with references to Mount Rushmore, Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. 

On Mount Rushmore: “Just like anyone else in the United States, I remember the national memorial, Mount Rushmore. The basis of your prominent presidents, those who laid the foundation of the United States of America.” 

On Pearl Harbor: “Remember Pearl Harbor, the morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you.” 

On 9/11: “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when people tried to turn your cities into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked from the air.” 

On MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “I have a dream. I have a need. I need to protect our skies. I need your help which means the same you feel when you hear the words, ‘I have a dream.’” 

Did you understand Zelensky’s historical references? If you happen to be 20 years old or younger, you weren’t alive when the last of those events occurred. Parents, do your children understand history? Would they be able to explain to you the significance of any of Zelensky’s historical references? 

 

RELATED: 

Zelensky Defines Courage in Our Time 

Karl Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal: 

A former comedian who came to office almost by accident, he’s now entered the pantheon of great wartime leaders. His words and personal courage have stirred the world to action. Whatever fate awaits him and his nation, those who watched Mr. Zelensky’s address to the joint congressional session won’t soon forget it. It was a privilege to see a leader in whom honor is personified. The least we can do is have his back. 

 

Speak Out for Life at Colorado Capitol: Oppose House Bill 1279 Urge Your Senator to Oppose Radical Abortion Bill 

From The Daily Citizen: 

A radical abortion bill – HB22-1279 – is making its way through the Colorado State Assembly. 

Pro-life lawmakers in the House filibustered this extreme abortion bill that removes any restrictions on abortion in Colorado. Despite their best efforts, the bill was passed on a party-line vote and has now moved to the Senate for a vote. 

This bill is an attack on life in the womb, parental rights and human rights! 

If passed, HB22-1279 would: 

Make abortion on demand legal under Colorado law at any time and for any reason. 

Declare that preborn babies have no rights under Colorado law. 

Invalidate all existing laws that limit abortion – like parental notification for minors. 

Prohibit the creation of any new pro-life laws – like banning late-term abortion. 

Pro-abortion activists are pushing for a vote on this measure because they are worried that the US Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade.  

If this bill were to become law, it would be the most radical abortion law in the United States. 

 

‘God knows’: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s faith to share spotlight at confirmation hearings 

From ABC News: 

On her 18th birthday, just days into her freshman year at Harvard in 1988, Ketanji Brown Jackson says she broke down in tears on the university library steps, overcome by homesickness and seeking solace in faith. 

“Even in my loneliness, I thanked God for the opportunity he’d given me, for the firm foundation he had provided, and also for how far I had come,” Jackson recounted years later in an address to graduates of Montrose Christian School, a private Baptist-affiliated high school in Rockville, Maryland, where she served on the advisory board. 

“The Bible is filled with people who, through faith, were able to see beyond the present, to a world of hope and glory,” she said, according to a copy of the 2011 speech reviewed by ABC News. “God knows what lies ahead of each of us. The best that you can do, as you look forward, is to take the long view.” 

Just over a decade later, Jackson addressed the nation from the White House as the first Black woman ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Putting her faith into public view, she opened her remarks by “thanking God for delivering me to this point.” 

 

4. Male Athlete Set to Win Women’s NCAA National Swimming Championships 

From The Daily Citizen: 

The Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships are starting on March 16, and most likely, a couple of the events will be won by a man. 

Will Thomas was born a male. And because sex is neither fluid nor changeable, he is still a male today and always will be. 

However, Thomas now believes he is a woman and goes by the name Lia. 

After swimming for three years on the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) men’s swimming team, he took a year off to go on testosterone suppressants, and most likely female hormones, to make his body appear more feminine. 

Last week, The Daily Citizen reported on one of Thomas’ female teammates, who spoke out against his participation in female athletics. She chose to remain anonymous out of fear of backlash. 

“To allow Lia the ability to be on the women’s team … is not fair … There are categories for a reason because they make sense, and they ensure fairness,” the female athlete said. 

She disclosed that when she, and several other of her female teammates, went to their coach to express concerns about Thomas sharing a locker room with them, they were told to “suck it up and deal with it.” 

“I’ve been discriminated against and most of my teammates have too. And the NCAA has allowed it to happen, and it’s shameful,” she added. 

 

5. CA Mom Says State Pushed Teen Daughter into Transgender Treatments, Leading Her to Commit Suicide 

From CBN: 

One California mother is speaking out against her state’s public school system, accusing it of brainwashing children about gender ideology. She wants to shed some light on the devastating effect it can have on their lives.  

During a recent panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation, Abigail Martinez shared, for the first time, the tragic story about her 16-year-old daughter whose struggle with gender identity led her to take her own life.  

During seventh and eighth grade, she started to display signs of depression.   

Martinez said she reached out to school officials for help and asked them to “keep an eye on her.” 

She said her daughter was bullied at school and that kids called her ugly. Once she arrived in high school, the young girl decided she wanted to be a boy. 

“When she started high school, the doors opened to what she was talking about, like transgender, going to meetings, going to all the support that they think they have for these children … which is not,” Martinez recalled. 

“The school counselor was involved, DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) was involved, LGBT was in there too, trying to ‘help’ my daughter on the transition of being transgender,” Martinez noted. “I was accused that I didn’t want to open my eyes since she felt since she was a little girl that she was a boy which was not true. She was not even close to a tomboy … she was the girlie girl in the house.”  

Martinez said she met with the school principal and counselor but they actually made things worse.  

 

 ‘God and Man at Yale’ Turns 70 

Focus on the Family’s Tim Goeglein writes: 

In “God and Man at Yale,” the estimable Buckley peeled back the layers of the onion at Yale University and exposed its leftist core. As Richard Brookhiser wrote, “Yale in 1951 still pretended to be a bastion of capitalism and Christianity; Bill told the world this was a con, to keep alums sending their sons and their money to New Haven.”

Unfortunately, more than 70 years later, we have all seen that what started in New Haven did not stay in New Haven. While “God and Man at Yale” served as the launching pad for the conservative movement, much of America remained blissfully ignorant of what was happening to their children as they entered the ivory towers of American academia.

The campus protests and the emergence of the radical left that Buckley warned about became reality in the 1960s. American society would be transformed as those leftists groomed at our nation’s colleges and universities moved in the positions of power in all aspects of American politics and culture. Our national debt would explode as individual reliance was replaced with government dependence. Religious faith, which brings people together and provides hope and healing, was scorned and eventually attacked, both legally and politically.

But sadly, despite Buckley’s warnings, wealthy alumni would continue in denial and write six- and seven-figure checks to their alma maters while muttering, “Well, that’s not happening at my school.” American parents would save and scrimp for years to send their children to colleges and universities, where a degree was seen as the golden ticket to success in life.

These alumni would see their monies used to attack the very systems that had made their wealth possible, and these parents would, in many cases, see their children thoroughly indoctrinated in the leftist worldview and reject the values of hard work, personal responsibility, and faith that they, who had worked so hard for their children to have a college education, had instilled in them. 

 

9 dead after crash involving New Mexico university’s golf teams in West Texas 

From NBC News: 

Six students and their coach were killed, along with two others, when a van carrying members of a New Mexico university’s golf teams and a pickup collided Tuesday night in West Texas, officials said. 

Two more students were critically injured in the crash involving members of the University of the Southwest’s men’s and women’s golf teams, according to the school. 

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Steven Blanco said the collision happened around 8:17 p.m. on a two-lane road about nine miles from the city of Andrews, northwest of Midland-Odessa. 

“For unknown reasons, the Dodge pickup drove into the northbound lane and struck the Ford passenger van head on. Both vehicles caught fire and burned,” the state agency said Wednesday in a statement. 

 

Liberal US cities change course, now clearing homeless camps 

From the Associated Press: 

Makeshift shelters abut busy roadways, tent cities line sidewalks, tarps cover broken-down cars, and sleeping bags are tucked in storefront doorways. The reality of the homelessness crisis in Oregon’s largest city can’t be denied. 

“I would be an idiot to sit here and tell you that things are better today than they were five years ago with regard to homelessness,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said recently. “People in this city aren’t stupid. They can open their eyes.” 

As COVID-19 took root in the U.S., people on the street were largely left on their own — with many cities halting sweeps of homeless camps following guidance from federal health officials. The lack of remediation led to a situation that has spiraled out of control in many places, with frustrated residents calling for action as extreme forms of poverty play out on city streets. 

Wheeler has now used emergency powers to ban camping along certain roadways and says homelessness is the “most important issue facing our community, bar none.” 

 

This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain 

From The New York Times: 

Coronavirus cases are receding across the United States, and face masks are coming off. Little green shoots are finally poking through the earth, signaling the arrival of warmer weather. The pandemic has not been declared over, but after living in survival mode for the last two years, some would say we are emerging into a “new normal.” Though that doesn’t mean our minds are at ease. 

Many have endured illness, economic upheaval, the climate crisis, grief and racial inequities. Add to that inflation, supply chain issues and the ripple effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine — three of the biggest sources of stress among people in the United States right now, according to a recent poll for the American Psychological Association. 

Perhaps, experts say, the arrival of spring can serve as a natural point to take stock of our mental well-being and reconnect with the things that bring us purpose and joy, offering our brains a respite when possible. 

“It really is — for a number of reasons — a perfect time for folks to turn their attention to taking an inventory. Where do I find myself? What have I been through?” said Paul Napper, a psychology consultant to business leaders and co-author of “The Power of Agency: The 7 Principles to Conquer Obstacles, Make Effective Decisions, and Create a Life on Your Own Terms.” 

 

10. The ‘Irish goodbye’ is a great way to leave a party—and not only on St. Patrick’s Day. 

From the Wall Street Journal: 

As a proud Irish-American and lover of all things Gaelic, I have much to celebrate this St. Patrick’s Day. And rightly so: The contributions to civilization by the sons and daughters of Éire are too many to count. 

Let others praise for good cause the virtues of Yeats, Irish whiskey, Donegal tweed and the Chieftains. Today I celebrate a different, no less meaningful, Celtic benefaction: the Irish goodbye. 

For the uninitiated, an Irish goodbye is the silent and early departure from a large social gathering without formally alerting the host. The smaller the gathering, the riskier the tactic. It’s verboten at sit-down dinner parties, and rarely a good idea to attempt at your own soirée. (I’ve tried.) 

Curious, but not sure you’re up to it? Try it at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, where you can learn from the masters. 

Observe the room: You’ll never see so many people predisposed to the maneuver all in one place, planning their early exits. Notice how they place their coats strategically on the backs of their chairs for easy exfiltration. Watch couples in cahoots communicate across the room, signaling silently like batters and third-base coaches. 

They can do it, and so can you. Just remember, leaving too early is thoughtless, staying too long positively imperial. Neither suits the Gaelic temperament. The Irish goodbye seeks a balance born of fatalism: That’s enough fun, lock in your gains, things can only get worse from here. 

If as host you find some guests have bid you an Irish goodbye, don’t think it rude. The silently departed know your reputation for warmth of heart and hearth—they’re sparing you the burden of exit pleasantries.