The most famous war story, the one that will forever be told, is that of the Trojan Horse. It looks like this: About a hundred or a thousand years ago, the Greeks and Trojans had been fighting there for a decade. The Greeks were unable to penetrate the city walls of Troy to seize the valuable lands and eventually declared that they had given up. The two groups collided and the Greeks moved away while the Trojans entered the walled city with the giant horse of their parting gift. The Trojans celebrated a little too much Coca-Cola and passed out. Meanwhile, there are 40 Greek MMA warriors dabbling in Red Bull and shadow boxing. The ultimate warriors emerged and opened the gates to their fellow Greeks who had returned in the shadows of night to help defeat the unsuspecting Trojans.
Our country is not surrounded by giant walls, but we are protected by our geography, our technology and our strength in numbers. Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks were coastal attacks that resulted in the deaths of approximately 5,500 Americans. In retaliation, around three different countries and hundreds of thousands of people were razed to the ground. The United States, like the Trojans, must not be defeated in the traditional sense.
By all available indicators, studies and common sense, the last decade has revealed some troubling trends. Our citizens are less patriotic than ever. We are bigger than ever. We are taking more drugs, prescribed and illegal, than ever before. Suicides and drug overdoses have increased. Crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder receive almost no attention due to their increased prevalence. There are more fatherless homes than ever before. Birth rates and overall life expectancy fell for the first time. Porn addiction and divorce rates are increasing. We still see people walking around with masks. Each of these things contributes to the rot of our great society. How was all this accepted to this extent? If it’s the end of an episode of Scooby-Doo, the villain’s removed mask bears the face of a college president.
Inflated salaries for university employees whose job titles sound like jokes are only the beginning of the problem. Give someone a prestigious degree, a prestigious title with a high salary and it makes a little more sense that these professors believe that their opinions outside of their area of expertise should be heard. The effort was made to create not only guilt about life in what had been a predominantly white Christian country, but also contempt for it. We are a nation of evil colonizers pushing our beliefs and methods.
Walk around any university and you’ll understand why Osama bin Laden is trending on social media and you’ll get a better idea of the messages that permeate college campuses. Students shared the slain terrorist’s “Letter to America,” which details why he orchestrated the September 11 attacks. A young Jewish student is a warmonger if he maintains that Israel is doing whatever is necessary to eliminate the evil resulting from the unprovoked attack by Hamas terrorists.
It is considered chauvinistic to say that you want your daughter to marry a man, have children and become a housewife. Or to encourage your son to remain stoic about his feelings, manage his complaints, and protect his own. It is racist to believe in academic standards if the results of those standards do not also meet the diversity of the population. It is homophobic to believe that marriage should take place between a man and a woman.
It is transphobic to claim that children should not be subjected to painful surgeries and dangerous hormone treatments. Or that women’s rights advocate Riley Gains is speaking the truth and Leah Thomas is a cannonball destroying women’s athletics. This same sports fan is prejudiced if he wants the name of his favorite team not to be changed from Indians to Guardians or Redskins to Commanders. It is even considered sexist to say that the right to vote should be reserved for men. OK, OK, I’m kidding a bit about the last one, but I’ve made my point.
Universities must stop imposing their contempt for Western tradition on their students seeking formal education. The same tradition that pushed our country to innovate and feed the world. It’s not fake news that is weakening our country, it’s false narratives. It is never better to make yourself, your family or your community a victim. “From the River to the Sea” is at the top of the iTunes charts for a reason. Our universities bear the greatest responsibility for creating heroes out of real terrorists while turning the man in the Viking hat and Donald Trump into Hitler.
Dan Oleksak is a Westfield resident. Greater Westfield residents interested in writing a guest commentary in The Westfield News should contact the editor at mballway@thereminder.com.
