Author: Marissa

bookmark_borderTrump takes action to restore statues on federal sites!

Posted on by Marissa

A very significant piece of good news took place Thursday night, when President Trump signed an executive order titled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” This order directs the Vice President and the Secretary of the Interior to restore federal parks, monuments, memorials and statues “that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.” 

This is objectively fantastic news and for me, desperately needed. I’ve had an absolutely awful few days and this lifts my spirits somewhat. Trump should have signed this order on his first day in office, but better late than never! This executive order means that thanks to President Trump, the statue genocide will indeed be partially reversed, something that my 2020-2021 self did not think was possible.

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bookmark_border“Darkness” – a poem by me

Posted on by Marissa

Another bully
Whose words cut me like knives
Through my laptop screen
Another bigot,
His perspective the only one that matters
Typing words
Whose sole purpose is to hurt,
To punish me
For the crime of being different.

The waves of darkness,
Which I’ve worked so hard to keep at bay,
Crash against the shore
Filling every crevice of my mind
Obliterating joy
Murdering hope
Until consciousness is nothing but pain
And existence nothing but darkness.

The same tightness in my chest
The lump in my throat,
The tears in my eyes
And heaviness in my limbs
That I’ve felt a thousand times
But each time, I remind myself,
The darkness recedes.
I’ve weathered the storm before
And I’ll weather it again.

3/25/25

bookmark_borderGive me liberty or give me death

Posted on by Marissa
I’m a few days late, but March 23 was the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech.
President Trump signed a presidential proclamation honoring this important moment in history.
This isn’t something that I can picture Joe Biden or Kamala Harris doing, because neither liberty nor history is something that they value. Although he is not perfect, it is things like this that make me glad we have Trump as our president.

bookmark_borderThe distinction between settlers and immigrants

Posted on by Marissa

Interesting post by Matt Walsh:

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson)

This is a good explanation of the distinction between settlers and immigrants. People who oppose unlimited immigration are often called hypocrites because their ancestors were settlers. Walsh’s argument debunks these allegations. Additionally, anti-white racists often use the term “settler colonialism” (whatever the heck that even means) as a pejorative, presuming that settlers are intrinsically bad. But as Walsh points out, settlers built this country. They ventured into the wilderness to build a civilization from scratch, something that takes great courage. There’s nothing bad about settlers, and nothing hypocritical about being descended from them.

bookmark_borderAn argument that the statue genocide is unconstitutional

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I recently came across an excellent article by David McCallister at the Abbeville Institute, entitled, “A Modern Bill of Attainder?” In it, he argues that the despicable “Naming Commission,” which erased all diversity from the names of military bases and also completely destroyed Arlington National Cemetery, is unconstitutional because its actions constitute a Bill of Attainder:

Removals of base names, ROTC battle streamers, just to name a few constitute honors granted but removed pursuant to a Congressional Act meant to stigmatize a group’s progeny into perpetuity. By the passage of section 370 of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress did just that when they adopted Elizabeth Warren’s Naming Commission provision based on her contention of universal, and individual guilt for treason, acting as judge, jury and executioner, with a complicit Congress behind her, despite President Trump’s veto of the troublesome Law.  The Law singled out a deemed group unworthy to have any honors based on their military service, over 150 years after the fact, and saddling their descendants with hereditary shame and stigma.  No trial, no treason.  No treason, no condemnation.  No condemnation, no cancellation.

(emphasis added by me)

These sentiments really resonate with me and articulate what is so wrong with the statue genocide in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. The sentiments expressed by McCallister apply not only to the disgraceful Naming Commission, but to all atrocities committed against Confederate historical figures and Christopher Columbus as well.

Essentially, removing a historical figure’s statues, monuments, public art, holidays, names, and other honors constitutes giving that historical figure the death penalty. Yet there was never any grand jury convened to charge the historical figures (and in many cases, no particular crime that they’ve even been accused of committing), no due process, no speedy and public trial (or any trial at all, for that matter), and no jury. And because historical figures are no longer alive, they are not able to be confronted with the witnesses against them, to obtain witnesses in their favor, or to have the assistance of counsel for their defense. In short, what has happened with statues and monuments over the past few years constitutes giving historical figures the death penalty without a trial. And this violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution. Plus, the atrocities committed against statues are the very epitome of cruelty. If these sickening actions are not “cruel and unusual,” then nothing is. Therefore, the statue genocide violates the Eighth Amendment as well.

bookmark_borderKeeping the historical figures alive and why it matters

Posted on by Marissa

Last month, my cousin passed away. Matt was 35 years old, two months younger than me. We both enjoyed cheering on the Boston sports teams, physical fitness, and trying different restaurants. On a deeper level, as we aged out of our twenties and into our thirties, we shared the experience of being “misfits” in a way. Neither of us was interested in getting married or having kids, as so many of our peers were doing, and we both changed jobs several times in a struggle to find suitable career paths. Matt was an amazing poker player, basketball player, and friend. He loved golf, trips to Encore, and his apartment in the Seaport. In the spring of 2021, Matt suddenly lost consciousness while walking down the street and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He underwent various types of surgery, chemo, and radiation, all while living life to the fullest extent that his health situation would allow. All of these worked to slow the progression of the cancer, but it eventually returned. Matt enjoyed the company of family and friends, and retained his dry sense of humor, all the way till the end of his life.

While reminiscing about Matt’s life with family members, someone expressed what I consider to be a very meaningful sentiment: that people are not truly gone until and unless no one remembers them anymore. Matt touched many, many lives, as was evidenced by the droves of people who came to the funeral home and to the reception afterwards to pay their respects. I will never forget the moments that I spent with him, talking about the latest Sox or Celtics game, walking along the waterfront, joking, sharing meals and cocktails at local restaurants. And I’m sure this is true of the countless other family members, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances of Matt as well. In this way, Matt will live on in the hearts and minds of all the people whose lives he touched. 

As I do with everything, I connected this to the historical figures that I love, and that have become the victims of an unimaginably cruel and heartless genocide. This sentiment is exactly why it is so important that historical figures be preserved in the form of statues, monuments, holidays, and place names. These things are what prevent the historical figures from being truly gone. These are the ways in which the historical figures live, long after they have physically died. And this sentiment is the reason why the genocide of the historical figures has been so deeply immoral, so sickeningly wrong, and so immensely damaging. By destroying historical figures’ statues, monuments, holidays, and place names, you are murdering them. You are preventing them from living on. You are obliterating them from existence as historical figures.

This is why honoring the historical figures, via writing, art, and erecting my own statues, is so important to me. This is why I’ve dedicated my life to these activities and why I consider them my source of meaning and purpose. Because these are the activities that keep the historical figures alive. Just like my cousin Matt, the historical figures will live on in my heart and in my mind.

bookmark_borderThe best thing to do is point and laugh…

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Generally, I’m not a big advocate of pointing at people and laughing. Generally, I consider this a pretty mean thing to do. But honestly, I 100% agree with the below posts from Twitchy and the Firearms Policy Coalition:

I am so utterly sick and tired of Democrats and their hurtful and intolerant words and policies. I am so tired of being insulted, attacked, shamed and ridiculed. I am so tired of the vicious, nasty, and pompous condemnations of people who have done nothing wrong. I am tired of innocent people being hurt, and then when they express their hurt, treated as if they are the problem. I am tired of people violating the rights of others, and then acting as if they’ve done something positive, something that gives them a claim to the moral high ground. I am tired of the self-righteous intolerance, tired of the bigotry mischaracterized as virtue. I am tired of the hypocrisy, the inconsistency, the double standards, the lack of logic, and more than anything else, the lack of empathy.

They hurt us, and then criticize us for being hurt.

They anger us – by taunting, insulting, ridiculing, and attacking us – and then criticize us for being angry.

They violate our rights, and then criticize us for protesting (after they themselves have spent months and months engaging in the most violent and vicious protests imaginable).

They are cruel to us, and then accuse us of being cruel.

They exclude us for being different, and then accuse us of exclusion.

They engage in a campaign of systematic obliteration of all diversity from our world, and then pontificate about the importance of diversity.

They insult us because of our skin color, and then accuse us of being racist.

They condemn us for being “insurrectionists” and “traitors” – as if resisting authority is self-evidently pejorative – and then characterize themselves as “fighting back” and “the resistance.”

They have demonstrated, again and again, the most abject and appalling lack of empathy imaginable, and then accuse us of lacking empathy.

For so long, Democrats have pointed and laughed – and far worse – at people who have done nothing whatsoever to deserve such treatment. For so long, Democrats have piled on – inflicting additional pain and harm on people who are already hurting – and then acted as if this somehow constitutes moral virtue. It’s past time that they get a taste of their own medicine. Maybe then they will actually understand the magnitude, the severity, the sheer enormity, of harm that they have caused and the pain that they have inflicted.