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My 2021 Anniversary Love Note to My Wife

8/31/2021

It’s been another rough year with pandemic, lockdowns, wildfires, smoke and left-wing nuttiness. Perhaps my annual love note will make things better:
Cartoonist Gus Arriola knew he was a blessed man in many ways – one in particular – and he illustrated it beautifully in his 1941-85 daily comic strip Gordo. I, too, am blessed many ways, especially the particular way he was.
Gordo Lopez, Arriola’s comic-strip alter ego, was a poor Mexican bean farmer who later became a tour-guide dandy with a sharp eye for pretty ladies. As a bean farmer, he dressed simply: floppy-brimmed sombrero, short baggy pants with a rope belt, formless shirt and perhaps a serape – all in peasant off-white – plus sandals. He lived in a small adobe hut and spoke broken English. But he was a carefree happy man.
Then a neighbor moved in, Mary Frances Sevier, a lovely, vivacious, sophisticated belle with a puhh-fect southern accent. Actually, Gus had married the real “France” (as he called her) a few years before.
Over time, Gordo’s clothes, home, life and everything about the strip evolved toward great beauty. His peasant togs yielded to “el vestido de Charro”: high-healed leather boots, brocaded trousers, ruffled shirt, waist-length jacket and flat-brimmed sombrero – with silver and gold decorations, colorful embroidery, buttons and even a large billowy bow tie. His home became beautiful and his tourist taxi stylish. Even his guitar morphed from plain to exquisite mariachi.
Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz said Gordo was “probably the most beautifully drawn strip in the history of the business." It was also quite funny with sophisticated puns and wordplay.
Arriola once explained the change in Gordo’s life reflected the effect France had on his own life. She had made his life beautiful, he said. There I began to see my own story.
Unlike the bean farmer, I mis-spent the 1980s and 1990s as a single yuppie in San Francisco’s Marina district – a prolonged young-adulthood. The dream come true for a small-town boy from the Midwest.
I had a strong career as an economic, engineering, financial and policy analyst, expert witness, and consulting executive. Jetting to Atlanta, Anchorage, Honolulu, Boston, etc. Attending grad school at one of the world’s top universities in a unique academic program, Engineering Economic Systems, that was just what I wanted. Finally, law school.
Plus, the symphony, opera, ballet and all the movies and theatre anyone could want. Eating out in the culinary capital of the West. Weekend drives along the stunning coast or skiing at Lake Tahoe. And, of course, Sunday brunch. All with friends in a beautiful and exciting place.
Running or bicycling the Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge and Marin headlands. Basketball, racquetball and weights at the Bay Club. And benefitting from ladies’ complaints that almost all the attractive men were married or gay.
From my business and social life, unlike Gordo, I already had the clothes. But my small, dreary, poorly furnished apartment on a noisy corner was another matter. It indicated the important things I was missing: home and family.
Then, I met Kathy. She enjoyed the social whirl and activites, but slowly our relationship took on dimensions others hadn’t. I moved into a large unfurnished classic yuppie pad. We spent weekends looking for grandfather clocks, dining room sets and antiques. China, crystal, silver and Christmas ornaments. Plus dinner parties Mary Frances Sevier herself would have adored.
When Kathy stepped up in a key crisis, I realized she’d already brought me the gift of home and it was time for family. Marrying her brought the bonus of the best mother-in-law ever – although Kathy argues that’s the one she acquired.
As she was carrying our daughter, we agreed we had enjoyed as much of California as we could stand. Her mom agreed, and we all headed for the sane side of the Sierra, landing in Carson City after Karyn was born. For 23 years, I’ve been blessed with a nearly perfect home and family life. Kathy has made my life beautiful.
So, on our anniversary this Monday, I’ll start the morning as I do each day: by kissing her lips as she sleeps and whispering in her ear: “I’ll love you forever, Kathy, with all my heart and soul.”
Ron Knecht is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Previously, he was State Controller, a higher education Regent, college teacher, Senior Economist and Assemblyman. Contact him at RonKnecht@aol.com.

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Answers to Progressives on American Racism Claims

8/24/2021

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Last week, I wrote that our educators and media mislead people by claiming subjects such as social justice, systemic racism, equity, diversity and inclusion being introduced in our K-12 schools are not Critical Race Theory (CRT).
These subjects are simplified versions of CRT just as high school civics is in part an introductory version of Constitutional Law taught in college and law school. And CRT and other Critical Theory subjects involving gender, ethnic, sexual preference and practice, feminism and cultures are all social neo-Marxism. They’re simple-minded and destructive of human wellbeing and fairness.
In response, an acquaintance referenced my use of “alleged victimization” in today’s society, saying:
“I think of our countries [sic] slavery, I also think about jim crow. Then there were poll taxes, lynching until the 1950’s. Didn’t hear about the Tulsa massacre of 1921 until a few years ago. The difference in pay between whites and blacks is pervasive. We mustn’t forget about redlining either. Segregation in our schools which still continues. I went to college in the 1960’s in Louisiana and I saw first hand how the black community was treated.
“And now states are passing laws to make it more difficult for the blacks to vote. And many states are passing are passing laws forbidding the teaching of black history. I truly don’t understand this thought process. What am I missing Ron?”
First, he’s missing the clear progress his parade of horribles illustrates. Yes, America joined the rest of the world in the evil tradition of slavery. We didn’t invent it and were not unusual in it. But our Constitution included the revolutionary aspirational statement: “All men are created equal.”
We moved ever more toward our aspiration until we led the world in this regard. In our Civil War, a larger fraction of white Americans died than in any other conflict – to end slavery.
Jim Crow, poll taxes and lynching were bad, but not as bad as slavery. I heard about Tulsa long ago, as well as the government’s syphilis study crimes at the Tuskegee Institute. Pay gaps have long been closing, and redlining has ended. School segregation is now mainly due to residential segregation. The South in the 1960s? A higher percentage of blacks now vote in some southern states than whites.
It’s a lie that states are now passing laws to make it more difficult for blacks than whites to vote. He refuses to recognize the inherent fairness and reasonableness of voter ID. It’s also a lie that new laws forbid the teaching of black history. They forbid the lies of alleged social justice, systemic racism, equity, diversity and inclusion.
We still have a way to go. However, I challenge anyone to show me another major nation that’s doing better. Racism and related issues? Chinese communists versus Uighurs. Tutsis versus Hutus. Iran versus the Jews. Japanese versus the world?
So, listen to Derrick Wilburn, a black man, in his recent address to his school board:
“I’m the direct descendent of the North American slave trade. … I’m not oppressed and I’m not a victim. … I am treated with kindness, dignity and respect, literally from coast to coast. … We are not victims of some unseen 190-year-old force that kind of floats around in the ether. …
“I can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today that she has grievances against another baby born today simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago.”
Black radio host Larry Elder explains some lingering inequalities we’re trying to end:
“The number one problem domestically in this country is the breakdown of the family. … A kid raised without a dad is five times more likely to be poor and commit crimes, nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in jail. …
“The biggest problem that black people have … is the percentage of blacks, 75 percent of them, that are raised without fathers. And that has every social negative consequence connected to it: crime, not being able to compete economically, … being more likely to be arrested.”
That’s what you’re missing.
Ron Knecht, MS, JD & PE(CA), is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Previously, he served as State Controller, a higher education Regent, Senior Economist, college teacher and Assemblyman. Contact him at RonKnecht@aol.com.

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Schools, Media Mislead Public on Social Justice, etc.

8/17/2021

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Many people around the country have accused schools of teaching or planning to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) to K-12 students. Schools have denied it, claiming they’re teaching subjects such as social justice, equity, systemic racism, diversity and inclusion.
Also, programs such as “No Place for Hate,” “Teaching Tolerance,” “Learning for Justice,” “Black Lives Matter at School” and “The 1619 Project” from the New York Times.
Mainstream media, including Associated Pres, join the educrats in going to great lengths to distinguish CRT from these subjects. They insist CRT is an arcane subject taught only in law or graduate schools and unreachable by younger students. So, implicitly the K-12 subjects and programs are unrelated to it.
That claim’s a lie. Pure CRT is indeed taught mainly in law and graduate schools, but also in some undergraduate classes – just as, for example, Constitutional Law is taught. But just as ninth-grade civics is integrally related to con law, these K-12 subjects and programs go hand in glove with CRT.
CRT and these K-12 subjects are all based on treating society as composed of identity groups inherently in conflict, not free individuals as the elements of society, politics and economics. CRT’s essential groups are race based; other Critical Theory bases include gender, sexual practice and preference, feminism and cultures. The new K-12 teaching usually includes these variants too.
What all this has in common is that their approach to analysis, doctrine, advocacy and practice is essentially social and political Marxism. That is, they are based on the idea that certain characteristics such as race (gender, etc.) are the key factors in defining rather rigid social and political groups that are inherently in conflict with each other. Marxism, of course, used economic groups such as the proletariat, capitalists and bourgeoisie.
Critical Theory posits that some groups – men, whites, straights, Christians, western cultures – are privileged over others by law, social structures, economics, education, etc. The privilege is so ingrained, pervasive and strong, even when not apparent, that it permeates all of society and persists despite social change, anti-discrimination laws and reform. It continues through decades and centuries to unfairly benefit the privileged groups and allow them to oppress the others.
The privilege and dominance even resist integration and intermarriage.
Hence, the essence of all social, political and economic interaction now, in the past and future is unfairness, dominance, subjugation and exploitation. That is, systemic racism (sexism, etc.) that results continuously in exploitation of the allegedly powerless by the supposedly privileged. Since this pattern is so resistant to any change, the only outcome is perpetual oppression of disadvantaged groups by privileged classes.
Unless, of course, the powerless organize by their social identities as determined by Critical Theory, and continuously and aggressively confront and challenge the alleged oppressor groups. To the extent this conflict takes place in legal terms, it requires analyzing all matters in terms mainly of the defined neo-Marxist groups and basing law now and in the future on reverse racism, on favoring minority sexual preference groups, etc.
To the extent this conflict takes place in political terms, the politics is based on the poisonous identity-group conflicts with which we’ve struggled in recent decades.
In any event, the basic solution is to replace individual equality and real fairness with group equity, very strained and limited notions of diversity, and coerced inclusion.
Traditional high school civics and K-12 history teach individual sovereignty and liberty, separation of governmental powers, private property and economic enterprise without getting much into the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings supporting these practices and institutions. Similarly, the new subjects and programs taught in K-12 present systemic racism, social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion without getting much into the legal, social, political and economic theory underlying Critical Theory.
But Critical Theory is the essential basis of all this doctrine and dogma.
Moreover, all this alleged victimization; this evil supposedly inherent in the structure of America, the West, free markets, private property, enterprise and democracy; the resentment and hate taught as a motivator of progressive and radical activism; and the solution to dismantle America and the rest are truly pernicious and destructive of human wellbeing and real fairness.
Parents are right to insist this crap end.
Ron Knecht, MS, JD & JD(CA), is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Previously, he served Nevadans as State Controller, a higher education Regent, Senior Economist, college teacher and Assemblyman. Contact him at RonKnecht@aol.com.

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