Attacking Truth

As the nation prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks next week, the Virginia Department of Education released an outrageous video entitled, "Culturally Responsive and Inclusive 9/11 Commemoration."  

The video was meant to inform Virginia's teachers on how they should instruct their students to think about the attacks that day. And it's as awful as the title sounds.

In the video, social justice lecturer Amaarah DeCuir tells teachers to understand that there are "multiple perspectives" and "worldviews" regarding 9/11. She urges teachers to refer to the 9/11 hijackers as "extremists," not "terrorists."

DeCuir states flatly that the "false assumption of Muslim responsibility for 9/11" is out, adding, "We're just going to begin right there and say there is no responsibility." 

Certainly, it would be wrong to say that all Muslims are collectively responsible for 9/11. But you can't teach 9/11 truthfully without noting that all 19 Al Qaeda hijackers were Muslims, that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were motivated by Islam and that the Taliban, which protected Al Qaeda, is also motivated by Islam. 

But there's more. DeCuir also told teachers to reject "American exceptionalism."

The Pilgrims and our founding fathers believed that America was "a shining city upon a hill." That's where the idea of American exceptionalism comes from. It's the exact opposite of what the left believes. They are constantly telling us that America is a horrible place. 

If these so-called "progressives" really think America is so bad, take a good look at what is happening in Afghanistan today, which is, once again, under the brutal control of Islamic supremacists. That's what real oppression looks like!

It's more than ironic that the left has chosen to implement this obscene curriculum that denies American exceptionalism in Virginia. Many historians would argue that a good bit of America's exceptionalism sprang from Virginia. 

Many of our founders – men like Washington, Jefferson and Madison – were born, raised and educated in Virginia. Such were the men who came out of the Virginia schools of their era. What they wrote about God, liberty and freedom has impacted the entire world. 

Today, the left seems determined to ensure that we don't graduate any more men like that out of Virginia's schools. When progressives say they want to "fundamentally transform America," we better take them seriously.