Two pieces occasioned by reports of Thomas Jefferson Foundation trashing its own namesake.
Yes, Jefferson was a great, great man (July 11): The Sage of Monticello deserves defending.
Alas, the woke Left has become so successful at trashing the reputation of Thomas Jefferson that even the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has joined the misguided mob against its own namesake. Its character assassination and revisionist history must not go unanswered.
A recorrection of the record is necessary — not just for Jefferson’s sake but for a proper understanding of this nation’s ideals and beneficence….
The man who lights the way for turning a horrid situation toward healing and resolution merits more praise for his advancements than he does blame for not completely cleaning up a mess he inherited.
The moral worth and empirical success of a historical figure cannot be determined by measuring how much farther in the right direction mankind has gone (or thinks it has gone) in the decades or centuries since that figure’s life. Rather, it must be measured by how far that person moved things in the right direction from where he started. And by that measure, Jefferson deserves not scorn, but munificent praise…..
The sad tale of Monticello becoming a moronic anti-Jefferson showcase (July 11):
The bad news is that even the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Jefferson’s famous Monticello estate as a museum, now trashes Jefferson more than it honors him.
The worse news is that there’s little hope of this changing anytime soon.
As usual, conservatives and centrist traditionalists have been asleep at the switch as left-wing ideologues take over cultural and educational organizations nationwide. That’s because conservatives tend to look past ideology when filling board positions and top staff, but modern leftists deliberately exclude conservatives as if non- “progressive” ideology is itself a disqualifier. And once leftists reach critical mass at an institution, there’s no looking back.
The subject arises because Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the libertarian Brownstone Institute, late last week began making the media rounds about his “demoralizing” Fourth of July tour of Monticello . He now becomes the most prominent of numerous visitors who say the main focus of Monticello now seems to be to ruin Jefferson’s reputation …..