Entitled Couple Live-Tweets Their Abortion Journey, but What About Their Baby’s Right to Live?

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A blessing and a curse of the Internet is that it allows us to peek into the living rooms — even bedrooms — of other people’s lives. Often now, many people invite us into their lives purposely, and reveal intimate details intentionally, for altruism, pity — a redress of grievances — and so on. Last week, an Irish woman was so frustrated and outraged she couldn’t have an abortion in her country (abortions are banned in Ireland) that she trekked to Liverpool, England. She documented the entire journey live, Twitter-ranting, complaining, and justifying her decision as she went.

The circumstances

The Daily Mail reported that, using the name “Heartbroken&Punished,” an anonymous couple living in Ireland began tweeting the story of her unfolding abortion. The couple, who already has one living child with a several disability, left that child in care of family members in order to travel to Liverpool, about 150 miles away, to abort their unborn baby. Prenatal testing had revealed the unborn child had “Edwards syndrome, which is a fatal foetal abnormality.” The father said, “We were told that even if carried to full term, the period of life would be counted in the minutes and hours after birth.” According to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, abortion is only legal in Ireland if the life of the mother is at risk.

In their pinned tweet, the couple writes that they tried several times to conceive, despite knowing that baby too would risk the same genetic abnormality as their first child. They were told if the wife gave birth to a child with Edwards, “if carried to full term the period of life would be counted in the minutes and hours after birth.” The father called it a “crushing sentence” and the “most humane thing possible to do to a baby that will never survive.”

The couple wrote about how they chose to document their journey because they “hope this may enlighten those who do not want to listen or even allow the people of this country to decide for themselves” since their government has “kicked the can down the road and we must decide if we can allow this to happen.”

The blame game

The majority of the tweets were aimed at the Irish government. In fact, almost every tweet along the journey includes the hashtag “it’s time to repeal,” referring to Ireland’s law. In 2014, less than 4,000 women travelled to the U.K. to receive an abortion due to Ireland’s strict law. The woman concluded because she decided to abort her children, due to the results of the genetic testing, her “country doesn’t care.”

Because of the unborn child’s diagnosis with Edward’s, the couple assumed they have no other choice but abortion and then assumed the government should allow it, simply so they don’t have to be inconvenienced. Both these conclusions, while understandable (and indeed heartbreaking) are misinformed.

Tell me: Is there anything more ironic than complaining about the hardship it’s been to travel to abort your child? More narcissistic than demanding you’re so entitled, your government should adjust its laws so you can terminate your baby? Indeed, nothing says your “country doesn’t care” more than forcing a woman to travel a few miles to abort her child. How selfish; how egocentric; how greedy.

Wrong on both counts

The idea of getting an abortion to end a pregnancy — especially in cases of rape, incest, or when a child will likely not survive long past birth — can be understandably attractive to a woman or her husband, it is still wrong. Adoption is always a viable, positive option that is truly a “win-win-win” for mom, baby, and a couple waiting to adopt — particularly in the case of rape or incest. And according to this news story, there are 14 times more couples in Ireland waiting to adopt than there are children to adopt. In the case of fetal abnormalities, like the unborn child of this couple, it would likely be more humane to allow the baby to be born and die a natural death. Babies feel pain during abortion as early as 8 weeks. (It appears this mother was about 12 weeks along.) This outcome, while still tragic, may have been less painful for baby, and less emotionally devastating for the parents — and it certainly would have avoided a trip to Liverpool. Abortion, contrary to popular belief, is rarely a humane option for baby or mom.

Not only that, but it’s deeply saddening to see the couple attempted to use this experience as a way to redress their grievances to their government — to appeal to change their abortion law. They essentially argued, “I want to terminate my baby. How dare the government not acquiesce to my every whim!” While the story did pick up traction, think of how upside down that sounds when the people of Ireland think abortion is a right and the government should provide it. I can assure you, the unborn babies growing in the wombs of Irish mothers are thankful for Ireland’s law, even if a few frustrated mothers are not. (For more from the author of “Entitled Couple Live-Tweets Their Abortion Journey, but What About Their Baby’s Right to Live?” please click HERE)

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Clinton: ‘All I Wanted to Do Was Just to Curl up’ This Past Week

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Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that in the week since her stunning loss in the presidential election, there have been times when she’s wanted to hole up at home and “never leave the house again.”

But she urged her supporters to stay engaged and fight for the values that propelled her campaign.

“I will admit, coming here tonight wasn’t the easiest thing for me,” she said to the audience at a gala for the Children’s Defense Fund. “There have been a few times this past week where all I wanted to do was just to curl up with a good book or our dogs and never leave the house again.”

But Clinton struck a positive note, saying that her presidential campaign was about the “country we love.”

“And about building an America that is hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted,” she said during the ceremony, where she was being honored for her child advocacy work. (Read more from “Clinton: ‘All I Wanted to Do Was Just to Curl up’ This Past Week” HERE)

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‘The Lord’s Been Good’: Mother Reunited With Daughter After 62 Years

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In 1954, Goldie Waltman was young, single and unemployed. She’d just given birth to a daughter, Patricia Lorenz, when she realized she couldn’t take care of the baby and left her in the care of a couple she’d been staying with. She prayed for her daughter every day, but leaving her wasn’t easy. “I gave her up, and it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life,” the 85-year-old Waltman said, in a story reported by Fox8.

She kept her daughter a secret from her five children born later. Waltman’s daughter Kellie Taylor said that it was at a doctor’s visit five years ago that she and another sister found out about Lorenz. The doctor asked Waltman how many children she had and she said six. “No, you have five,” her daughter said. When Waltman responded, “No, I have six,” her daughters realized they had a sibling they never knew.

For the last five years the family has searched for Lorenz without luck. Two weeks ago, Waltman connected with her daughter through ancestry.com and the two sent messages back and forth. Waltman got a phone call the same day from the little girl she gave up so long ago. “She said ‘It’s Patty,” and I said ‘Oh!’” said Waltman.

Waltman’s family flew Lorenz to see her mother this week, reuniting mother and daughter after 62 years. “I finally got to see her,” said Waltman. “The Lord’s been good. I didn’t think this would ever happen.”

Lorenz was just as excited to see her birth mother after searching for her for 47 years. “I don’t know how to explain it,” she said. “I’ve been excited about coming to meet her and see her for so long, and it’s like a reality come true.”

Lorenz will meet the rest of the family throughout the weekend. (For more from the author of “‘The Lord’s Been Good’: Mother Reunited With Daughter After 62 Years” please click HERE)

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How Infantilized Campuses Threaten Our Nation’s Future

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What are we to make of higher education when students and institutions respond to the recent presidential election with cry-ins, canceled exams, therapy dogs, Play-Doh, coloring books, group screams, Legos, bubble-blowing, and trauma counseling? Well, college “ain’t what it used to be.”

For some time, higher learning has been a political matter, one where the primary aim is to usher students into the club of elite (supposedly enlightened) progressive opinion. Gone is the formation of keen, analytical habits of mind and rational argument.

The result is not just a poorly educated student body, but an infantilized one. Mature discourse is out, and fragility, dependence, and bad temper is in.

Rather than cultivate habits of sustained and sober thought, we encourage manufactured outrage and self-indulgent victimhood. Anyone who has spent time with 2-year-olds recognizes the behavior. In our case, however, we appear to cultivate it on our campuses.

An infantilized campus is bad enough, but it becomes intolerable when these are the places where leaders of a self-governing republic are usually formed.

Regardless of party or position, a citizenry incapable of facing adversity or unwilling to reason about and discuss difficult, public things will not likely produce leaders who can do so. If college campuses steep our future leaders in habits of entitled fragility, the only politics they will be able to imagine is that of the tantrum.

Tellingly, this is exactly the kind of politics we have seen on campus, and, increasingly, off campus as well.

A darker view would regard our infantilized campuses as something more sinister than the accidental byproduct of politicized higher education. When the noise of a tantrum becomes a primary political instrument in place of reason, persuasion, and evidence, then volume, not thought, wins the day.

And volume is coercive. When 2-year-olds throw tantrums, they attempt to force matters and get their own way. A set of people taught not to reason but to huddle in safe spaces and throw the occasional tantrum is a people taught to impose their will. They have not been denied a voice; rather, they are intent upon being the only voice.

This is not to say that all post-election anxiety is necessarily irrational. But it is a lack of the aforementioned habits that makes aggression and extremism so common.

Genuine higher learning requires (among other things) time, intense application of thought, patient reflection, and maturity. Rather than an education in elite and coddled groupthink, real learning is an education in honed and sound thinking—thinking that is not victim to every fleeting passion.

This is precisely the kind of learning poet Robert Frost had in mind when he wrote, “So when at times the mob is swayed/ To carry praise or blame too far,/ We may choose something like a star/ To stay our minds on and be said.”

If we cannot restore the “higher” to higher education, if we cannot put down our Play-Doh and take up our Plato, it’s unlikely we’ll see a return of either to our politics or our learning. (For more from the author of “How Infantilized Campuses Threaten Our Nation’s Future” please click HERE)

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DC City Council Approves Assisted Suicide Again, Sends Bill to Mayor’s Desk

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The Washington, D.C. city council voted again to approve assisted suicide, sending the bill to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s desk.

On November 1, the city council voted 11-2 to pass Bill 21-38, the Death With Dignity Act. On November 15, the council approved the bill 11-2 again. The Death with Dignity Act would allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients who they think have less than six months to live.

The November 1 vote featured a heated discussion of the bill in which numerous pro-assisted suicide members of the city council became choked up describing how they had watched relatives suffer before death. In her arguments in favor of the bill, Councilmember Elissa Silverman recalled how her grandmother had been hooked up to a ventilator.

There was no debate before the November 15 vote. Councilmembers Brianne Nadeau and Yvette Alexander, the same councilmembers who opposed the bill on November 1, voted against it Tuesday. (Read more from “DC City Council Approves Assisted Suicide Again, Sends Bill to Mayor’s Desk” HERE)

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Mother Sues as County Gives Teen ‘Sex Change’ Treatment

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A Minnesota mother is suing local school and county officials for allegedly attempting to facilitate her teenage son’s “sex change” and usurping her parental rights.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday morning, Anmarie Calgaro accused Child Services and education officials in St. Louis County of denying her the right to raise her 17-year old son. The lawsuit also names multiple non-profits that have assisted the minor, identified as only “J.D.K.” in the suit, in claiming legal “emancipation” from his mother.

Calgaro is asking a federal court to revoke the county’s ability to deny her rights as a parent until she has her day in court. She is also demanding access to all records related to J.D.K., as well as attorney fees.

Erick Kaardal, a Thomas More Society Special Counsel and Calgaro’s attorney, told The Stream that J.D.K.’s claim of “emancipation” — that is, providing “a minor child … the same legal rights and obligations as an eighteen year-old adult,” according to Kaardal — is invalid because neither the teen nor state officials have proven Calgaro to be a deficient parent.

“There are no set standards” in the state, explained Kaardal. Emancipation “would be determined case-to-case; if there were a court hearing, the minor would have to prove that the conduct of a parent or parents is such that they have given up control and custody of the minor.” However, “under Minnesota Statute § 144.341, it appears that a minor who is living separate from his parents or guardian — with or without consent — and is managing his personal financial affairs ‘may give effective consent’ to medical services.”

The Stream was unable to reach County Child Services officials or state judicial officials about the state’s view of emancipation.

Kaardal said that “the minor child was simply rebellious at the time” when he claimed emancipation, but that things have improved. “Presently, they are communicating with each other and have visited each other in person. Ms. Calgaro has and continues to encourage J.D.K. to maintain their relationship. Ms. Calgaro has welcomed him home.”

Meanwhile, county taxpayers are on the hook for J.D.K.’s treatment. “Medical services are being paid or approved or both by St. Louis County through related agencies and entities providing the services to J.D.K.,” said Kaardal.

The State Law

The legal basis for the county to facilitate J.D.K.’s “sex change”can be traced back to Minnesota’s Minor’s Consent to Health Service Act passed in 1971. [Minnesota Statutes – Chapter 144, Sections 144.341 – 144.347] Kaardal quoted a March 2006 Minnesota Public Health Association publication as explaining the law was meant to address “the critical and unmet health needs of minors during a time of enormous social change.”

Kaardal further quoted the document:

Changes in family structures and the broadening of the individual rights of minorities, women and children showed that minors were particularly vulnerable if they needed to seek health services. While Minnesota law was silent on the ability of minors to access health services, practitioners declined to see or treat minors without parental consent, fearing potential liabilities. Minors, apprehensive of parental reactions, embarrassment or disrupting family harmony, were not receiving needed health services, often jeopardizing their health and future lives.

(For more from the author of “Mother Sues as County Gives Teen ‘Sex Change’ Treatment” please click HERE)

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Second Man Convicted, Third Man Arrested for Helping Ex-Lesbian Christian Mother Escape Country With Child

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A second man was convicted and a third was recently deported to the U.S. from Nicaragua and arrested in the case of a former lesbian turned Christian mother who fled the country to shield her daughter from what she felt was a dangerous homosexual lifestyle at the hands of her former lesbian partner. The original article was published here.

Defendants

Philip Zodhiates, 61, was convicted of international parental kidnapping and conspiracy to commit international parental kidnapping in September and could be sentenced up to eight years in prison and fined $500,000 at his sentencing hearing on January 30, 2017. Authorities believe Zodhiates drove Lisa Miller and her daughter, Isabelle, to Buffalo, New York where she and the little girl crossed the Rainbow Bridge into Canada.

Timothy “Timo” Miller (not related to Lisa Miller), was detained in Nicaragua in August, 2016 and eventually deported to the United States where he was arrested for his role in helping Lisa Miller and her daughter make their way through Nicaragua. Timo Miller, a missionary in Nicaragua, was snatched suddenly by Nicaraguan officials, leaving his bike in the road, without any word to his family for days. He spent around three months in cramped, dungeon-like conditions until Nicaragua deported him to the U.S. On October 14, 2016, Timo Miller appeared before the United States District Court, Western District of New York, and consented to pretrial detention. He is now being held until his trial begins, unless he reconsiders and moves for a pretrial release.

The Story

Lisa Miller had previously been involved in a lesbian relationship with Janet Jenkins and joined with her in a civil union in Vermont, since their home state of Virginia did not recognize same-sex marriages at the time. In 2001, Lisa Miller underwent fertility treatments and became pregnant with her daughter, Isabella. Isabella was born on April 16, 2002, but within a year, Miller became a Christian and decided to leave the homosexual lifestyle and her relationship with Jenkins. “It wasn’t a struggle,” Lisa told the Washington Post in 2007. “I felt peace.” She began attending a local Baptist church with Isabella and eventually enrolled Isabella in a Christian school where she taught.

In the beginning, Lisa Miller and Jenkins shared custody of Isabella. But when Isabella began exhibiting concerning behaviors, such as wetting the bed, having nightmares, touching herself inappropriately and threatening suicide after her visits with Jenkins, Miller refused to send Isabella for her visitations. After a series of court dates, Janet was awarded custody, which was scheduled to begin on January 1, 2010.

By the end of September, however, Lisa and Isabella were gone.

Lisa, with the help of several Mennonite Christians, fled the country with her daughter to Nicaragua, crossing the Rainbow Bridge from Niagara Falls, New York, to Canada, according to court documents, around September 22, 2009.

The Arrests

Timo Miller was originally arrested in April 2011 for aiding and abetting the “kidnapping” of Isabella. Authorities believed Timothy Miller helped Lisa Miller travel to a “safe house” in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua.

In December of that year, the prosecution dropped the charges against him in exchange for his testimony and cooperation in their investigation against Mennonite pastor Kenneth Miller (no relation to either Timothy Miller or Lisa Miller).

Kenneth Miller was convicted for “aiding international parental kidnapping” in December 2011 and sentenced 27 months in prison, reported The Charley Project. The pastor of an Amish-Mennonite community, he helped Lisa and Isabelle by getting fellow Amish-Mennonites to purchase plane tickets for a flight from Canada to Nicaragua through Mexico and El Salvador. He also purchased the typical Mennonite dresses, which Lisa and Isabelle wore to conceal their identities.

Standing With Lisa

Before he reported to prison in March of this year, Kenneth wrote on his blog about why he did what he did. “I’m going to prison today because a woman’s faith and modern society collided,” he said. “About 12 years ago Lisa Miller discovered that Jesus of Nazareth was powerful enough to take away her sins. He transformed her life and her lifestyle. In the long, winding journey since then, Lisa has sought to remain true to her Savior and her conscience.”

“I am greatly privileged to stand with Lisa in her quest for truth and freedom,” he added. “Some things can never be locked up inside prison walls. Truth. Conscience. Moral righteousness. And the saving Gospel of Jesus.”

What Now?

Upon hearing of Timo Miller’s 2011 arrest, Lisa Miller and her daughter disappeared from their Jinotega, Nicaragua home and haven’t been seen since. According to the New York Times, authorities believe the two are still in Nicaragua. Isabella is now 14 years old.

Liberty Counsel’s Rena M. Lindevaldsen, co-counsel with Mathew Staver on Lisa’s case, said that she knew Lisa could go to prison if caught and that would hurt Isabella, but she doesn’t blame Lisa. “It’s sad that in America a woman was faced with this choice,” she said. “The court overstepped its bounds, calling someone a parent who is not a parent and turning a child over to a person who lives contrary to biblical truths.” (For more from the author of “Second Man Convicted, Third Man Arrested for Helping Ex-Lesbian Christian Mother Escape Country With Child” please click HERE)

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Lawmaker Proposes Bill That Could Defund Post-Election Student Coping Sessions

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“Suck it up, buttercup,” an Iowa lawmaker tells college students upset over President-elect Donald Trump’s win.

“I’m trying to prepare kids for the fact that life is going to hand you lemons,” Iowa state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, told The Daily Signal. “And every time it does, if you don’t get your way, you don’t get to go into a cry room.”

After Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, professors canceled college classes and students held a cry-in, used coloring books, and played with Play-Doh, among other reactions from universities around the country.

“I don’t think that universities are doing their job … of preparing people for adult life,” Kaufmann said. He added:

Because when your car breaks down, when your kids get sick, when you get a first bad job review, you don’t get to go to a cry room, you don’t get to go play with Play-Doh or color books. You have to be an adult. That was the inspiration for the name ‘Suck it up, buttercup.’

Kaufmann expects to introduce the “Suck it up, buttercup” bill in January. The bill would clarify rules on state tax dollars funding “cry zones,” election-related sit-ins, and grief counseling set up at public universities.

“As I saw other universities using taxpayer money on Play-Doh and coloring rooms for people who couldn’t handle the election results, I had a significant number of my constituents reaching out saying, ‘Hey, make sure my tax dollars aren’t being used for that,’” Kaufmann said.

The three state universities in Iowa have not used extra money on post-election coping sessions, The Des Moines Register reported.

“I made it crystal clear to people that I have no problem with guidance counseling. I have no problem with these services that were already set up,” Kaufmann said. “What I had an issue with is any possible new dollars that were going to be contributed towards this cause while the tuition continues to skyrocket.”

In Iowa, protesters blocked and briefly closed Interstate 80 last week.

“This time nothing happened, but they promised to do it again and heaven forbid somebody is headed to the hospital or someone could possibly get hurt or die from this,” Kaufmann said.

Kaufmann said his bill will increase penalties for people who block interstates.

“I think people have been frustrated a lot with the post-election protests,” the Iowa lawmaker said, adding:

I believe in your right to protest. I believe in your right to defend. But when you see people looting, rioting, throwing bricks through windows, stomping on police cars, blocking interstates, all because of a fair election … You know the caveat for me here is you got President [Barack] Obama coming out and saying, ‘Hey guys, we lost this time. Let’s move on.’ And when your top guy is saying that and you’re still out there blocking interstates and throwing bricks through windows, that to me is hysteria that is making a lot of people mad.

Kaufmann says he has a problem with protesters putting the lives of his constituents in danger and wasting people’s tax dollars. He believes this message has “struck a nerve with people.”

“Surprisingly enough, I’ve gotten a significant amount of support from people from almost every state across the country that say that they want to see my finished product, they can see this become more of a national movement than just Iowa movement,” Kaufmann said. (For more from the author of “Lawmaker Proposes Bill That Could Defund Post-Election Student Coping Sessions” please click HERE)

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Donald Trump, Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ and the Church

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If President Trump does not nominate pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, I will be surprised and disappointed, although not shocked, since I do not put my absolute trust in people, especially political leaders. If President Trump does not oppose same-sex “marriage,” I will be disappointed but not surprised.

That’s why his recent comments on 60 Minutes were disappointing but not surprising.

After all, he had his good friend Peter Thiel speak at the Republican National Convention, and Thiel was warmly received as he proudly proclaimed his gayness. Thiel is also part of the president-elect’s transition team, with the potential of a high-level position within his administration. And Trump (along with Pence) has not made a major point of saying that he wanted to overturn the Obergefell decision, instead putting his emphasis on overturning Roe v. Wade, sending abortion-related decisions back to the states.

Trump has also spoken of a test for immigrants regarding their attitudes towards LGBTs, so he clearly cares about their safety and well-being.

It is true, of course, that at various times in the campaign he spoke of his opposition to same-sex “marriage,” even saying at least once that he would “strongly consider” appointing justices who would overturn it. But less than one week later, he assured a lesbian reporter that under his administration, there would be great progress for LGBT Americans

In short, opposition to same-sex “marriage” has never been his mantra, nor did he emphasize this in debates, nor has he ever attempted to offer a clearly articulated answer in terms of what to do when perceived gay rights conflict with perceived religious rights.

I was not surprised, then, when he said to Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, “I’m pro-life. The judges will be pro-life.” And I was not surprised when, in reply to Stahl’s questioning on same-sex “marriage,” he said, “You have these cases that have already gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled, and I’m fine with that.”

Of course, I was disappointed with his answer, and I was not alone in wondering, “Why is Roe v. Wade not settled but Obergefell v. Hodges is settled? Why should the court overturn the one and not the other?”

At the same time, there’s an excellent chance that the pro-life justices President-elect Trump has promised to appoint would also stand for religious liberty and against the court’s redefinition of marriage. Consequently, in the coming years, as cases reach the Supreme Court on these volatile issues, the conservative, pro-life-leaning majority would likely side against many of the goals of LGBT activism.

The Three Key Takeaways from Trump’s 60 Minutes Interview

For me, though, there are three key takeaways from the 60 Minutes interview. (I’m speaking specifically in terms of the culture wars, not in terms of the interview as a whole.)

First, as bold, strong-willed, and anti-establishment as Trump may be, he is still a human being, and the temptation to “get along with everybody” in Washington is still there. We must strongly encourage him, then, not to compromise his pro-life promises for a single moment of his presidency.

He has made a sacred commitment, and it’s one major reason that many Christian conservatives voted for him.

Second, Christian conservatives who voted for him should not suddenly turn on him in light of his same-sex “marriage” comments. Again, we had no reason to expect him to take a strong stand here – although that is certainly something to pray for and work for – and since he knows he owes his election to conservative evangelicals, it would be foolish for us to burn our bridges now.

His door is still open to us, and we need to do our best to walk through that open door.

Third, the president-elect’s comments remind us that it is the church’s job to change society, not the president’s.

As I have said repeatedly in recent months, Jesus never said that the White House was the salt of the earth and the light of the world but that rather that we, His devoted followers, were.

Of course, the president has a tremendous bully pulpit, and his comments on divisive issues influence many, just as President Obama’s “evolving” views on same-sex “marriage” influenced many. But did any of us who voted for Donald Trump really think to ourselves, “We’re voting for him because we believe he will change the moral climate of the culture and speak out against LGBT activism”? Was this even on our radar? I think not.

Either way, I didn’t vote for Trump expecting him to spark a moral and cultural revolution in America.

I voted for him with the hope that he would not do what Hillary Clinton was expected to do and with the prayer that he would keep his word regarding Supreme Court justices and make some healthy decisions for the nation as a whole.

As for transforming the culture, that is the role of the church through the many facets of the gospel. Are we up to it? (For more from the author of “Donald Trump, Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ and the Church” please click HERE)

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Thomas Jefferson Now Politically Incorrect at the University He Founded

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A group of students and professors at the University of Virginia want to give the founder of their school the shaft. In a letter to the university’s president, Teresa Sullivan, they asked her to remove Thomas Jefferson quotes from messages to students, according to the Washington Examiner.

“For many of us, the inclusion of Jefferson quotations in these emails undermines the message of unity, equality, and civility that you are attempting to convey,” the group wrote. Sullivan said in a response that she would not backpedal from quoting Jefferson, according to another report from the Examiner.

The Sage of Monticello—as the author of the Declaration of Independence has often been called in tribute to his home in Charlottesville, Virginia—had such high hopes for the school that he wrote of the students toward the end of his life, “they will exhibit their country in a degree of sound respectability it has never known, either in our days, or in the days of our forefathers. I cannot live to see it. My joy must only be that of anticipation.”

Jefferson was so proud of his creation that he put it on his tombstone, and left off the fact that he was president of the United States. Many generations of students and faculty have shown their appreciation for their school’s founder. According to stories told on campus, students rushed into the school’s rotunda to save a statue of Jefferson in an 1895 fire.

Unfortunately, a few of UVA’s current students think Jefferson’s legacy is problematic.

This is not the first time Jefferson has come under attack. Local chapters of the Democratic Party, which used to celebrate Jefferson as one of its antecedents, have increasingly removed Jefferson’s name from their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners. Jefferson’s detractors have generally cited his slave ownership as the reason he can no longer be championed.

Though Jefferson was a slave owner, no single document in human history besides maybe the Bible has done more to undermine slavery than the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln was sometimes privately critical of Jefferson, but he gave enormous credit to the Virginian’s philosophy for sealing the institution’s fate.

Lincoln wrote for a Jefferson birthday celebration in 1859:

All honor to Jefferson—to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men at all times, and so to embalm it there, that today, and in all coming days, it should be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression.

It is particularly sad, but not unexpected, that Jefferson has come under fire at the university he held out such high hopes for. There has been a concerted effort to remove any mention of symbols or great leaders of America’s past who have fallen out of favor with the current political climate.

In the past year alone, activists have attempted to remove monuments across the country: from more controversial Confederate monuments, to Andrew Jackson’s statue in New Orleans, to even paintings of progressive hero Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University.

The justification in most of these cases was that the figures were racist and supported values that are no longer accepted, so they need to be removed from the public sphere entirely.

When does this war on American history stop? If every figure must be held up to the constantly evolving values of the times, we will eventually find that we’ve purged all of the good along with the bad elements of what made this country what it is. We may even find that tomorrow, we are the ones being erased from history. (For more from the author of “Thomas Jefferson Now Politically Incorrect at the University He Founded” please click HERE)

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