Posted on 06/11/2021 8:00:29 PM PDT by MtnClimber
As the left vainly tries to deceive Americans into accepting the toxic reign of identity politics, they are forced time and again to contort American history and falsify heroic stories from our past because a truthful telling would reveal the mendacity of their narrative and the bankruptcy of their agenda. The forgotten tales of two Americans—both named James—are the perfect reminder of why.
Born in the 18th century, James Forten worked odd jobs along Philadelphia’s waterfront to support his mother and sister after his father died. By 1781, he was fifteen and old enough to volunteer to join the Continental Navy.
In his first taste of combat, he demonstrated his physical courage. But it took getting captured to demonstrate his moral courage.
A British warship, the Amphion, captured his ship’s crew off the coast of Virginia. The British captain quickly sensed his intelligence and made Forten a generous offer.
In exchange for freeing Forten from life as a prisoner of war, Forten would serve the British captain at his country estate in England.
Forten didn’t hesitate. He turned it down.
He told the British captain, “I have been taken prisoner for the liberties of my country and never will prove a traitor to her interest.” Instead of a comfortable life tutoring the captain’s sons, Forten re-joined his crewmates in a prison ship, waiting for freedom for himself and his country.
James Forten didn’t want comfort. He wanted to serve his nation.
Two centuries later, in 1961, Jim Zwerg joined his Fisk University classmate, John Lewis, to participate in bus trips through the Deep South to fight segregation.
These ‘freedom riders’ challenged the real Jim Crow, not what progressive activists today label as Jim Crow with shameful nonchalance. In a time of segregated drinking foundations, targeted fire hoses, and brutal killings, the real Jim Crow meant real risk.
Jim Zwerg accepted that risk gladly. He later said that “my faith was never so strong as during that time. I knew I was doing what I should be doing.”
When Zwerg’s Greyhound bus pulled into Montgomery, Alabama, the bus station appeared empty. Then the ambush came. From his window on the bus, Zwerg could see young white men outside holding baseball bats and chains.
The police had left. Their protection had abandoned the area.
But Zwerg stood up from his seat anyway, walked down the aisle, and got off the bus.
The crowd did what it came to do. It smashed Zwerg’s face with his suitcase, pinned his head down, and methodically knocked teeth out of his mouth. He only regained consciousness two days later. Newspapers published pictures of his bruised face and shocked the nation.
James Forten and Jim Zwerg shared courage, a sense of purpose, and a love for the promise of America.
But these attributes have seeded the American experience for centuries. What makes their stories so special, aside from their common name and age?
You might have guessed that James Forten and Jim Zwerg did not have race in common. One was white. One was black.
But it might surprise you to learn that James Forten, the Revolutionary War sailor, was black and Jim Zwerg, the civil rights activist, was white.
For each, their race made them singular targets in their time.
Every time James Forten sailed into a southern port, he risked seizure for chained slavery. Forten’s acceptance of that risk for the sake of the American cause as it existed then would befuddle the woke mob today, addicted as they are too crude and distorted history, as exemplified by the 1619 Project.
Jim Zwerg, on the other hand, knew the mob in Montgomery would treat him more harshly than his fellow passengers.
The stories of these two brave men do not conform to the identity politics narrative that has taken over our culture.
Remembering these tales—and others like them—can help bring our culture closer to Martin Luther King’s ideal, in which every individual is treated as a unique person with dignity and a soul that transcends their ethnic or racial identity.
If the antidote for tribalism is individualism, individuals like James Forten and Jim Zwerg show us the way.
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To the left only the narrative matters.
The left lies. They lied about it when it happened. Now that it’s history, they continue to lie.
Or, when it was true and good, they now lie to make it evil and corrupt. Like they are.
To implement Communism they must destroy America. To destroy America they have to destroy Its history with lies.
The people in the picture have no connection to the original Americans. Lying about them comes naturally because they don’t have anything to do with them.
What don’t they have to lie about?
The left only lie when they move their lips or write something down.
Bookmark
You mean aside from lying is just what’s to be expected of them?
The left lies about everything. Not just about history - but about everything.
Like - the big increase in shootings and other violent crimes in the large cities is due solely to white supremacists and racial discrimination. I’m not kidding - that is what candidates for DA and public prosecutor and US Congressman are saying in my district.
It began around 1865 in the U.S., and has become more apparent with the proliferation of technology.
OK, THAT was a great piece! Thanks for making my night.
Nice!!!
It humbles me that I share their first name. America is a nation full of centuries of heroes.
Bfl
It began around 1865 in the U.S.......
Go much further back. Who was the first President impeached and why? Why were the Federalist Papers written and published? What was King George lying about to the Colonists?
Lies have been an integral part of the left since even before this country was founded and continued on. What you don’t get is that the lies back then are out of sight out of mind so they aren’t talked about today. In general, its the SoS just a diff day and the names are the only thing that has changed. The lies have remained the same.
Actually the lies go back much further but the author remains the same.
“But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Leftists can never tell the truth or they would be tarred and feathered.
Saul Alinsky taught in his book “Rules for Radicals” that leftists should clean themselves up and never reveal what they have planned because it would frighten people too much.
Why does the left lie?
They are the children of the father of lies; when he lies, it is entirely natural for he is the father of lies; there is not an ounce of truth in him — and every child takes after the father sooner or later.
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