Interesting placement of letters in the Feb.14 Cochrane Eagle. One using misinformation to justify a turn away from socialism (L.Leugner), and the other addressing how misinformation causes a mob mentality (Jacques Sauve). Leugner uses a quote from Dr. Adrian Rogers, written in 1931, as the crux of his argument that socialism is ruining the human spirit. This quote is in fact presented in false pretences. Dr. Adrian Rogers was a southern Baptist pastor BORN in 1931 who used the quote in a sermon in 1984. The quote was authored by Gerald Smith, a white supremacist who was known for denying the Holocaust and was founder of the Share Our Wealth Society, which was a socialist movement begun by then-Louisiana Governor Huey Long, designed to redistribute wealth and provide a common standard of living in the 1930s (before the Civil Rights movement). Leugner also refers to the work of Ayn Rand, an objectivist and capitalist who valued capitalism as a means to promote self-interests. Which then makes me wonder, whose human spirit is Leugner so concerned about in his letter?
As Sauve, states in his letter: “facts have become obfuscated by arguments based on opinions,” and “it is the meeting of our unconscious shadows looking to wage war on anything that irks us or conflicts with our beliefs.” Both letters speak to the dismantling of privilege that is being challenged in the broader discourse by those that are currently benefiting, and both letters are examples of the need to instead look at patterns in our social fabric rather than the individualism that Rand and Smith (aka, Rogers) are promoting. For example, it is easy for a person to look at past president Barrack Obama and say that a black person was president, therefore all black men could become president which is a false and dangerous individualistic view as it ignores the layers of racism and systemic oppression that is fuelled by the type of society capitalism profits from.
Sauve’s focus in his letter regarding the stand-off between a white privileged teenager and an Indigenous elder highlights this individualistic perspective and disregards the history of racism enacted at the Covington High School. Members of this school have been seen wearing black face and viscerally abusive towards a black basketball player at a school basketball game and the same boys in question in the incident in Washington, D.C. (attending a pro-life march for life rally) were recorded yelling sexist comments towards a group of females. While the media seeks to discredit an Indigenous elder (misinformation also repeated by Sauve such as Philips service with the U.S. Marine Core), Nick Sandmann’s parents hired a lawyer and public relations firm to navigate/control this in the media.
So again, whose human spirit is suffering? Perhaps it is this dismantling/revealing of privilege making people like Leugner and Sauve uncomfortable and yearning a return to the good ol’ days.
Teresa Anne Fowler
