Stench from racist vitriol lingers. IN Lt Gov Micah Beckwith brags: superintendents & principals “in today’s culture [do] not want someone like me coming in and teaching on true history [] and what it means to be an American.’” [FN1] Beckwith doesn’t know “true.” [FN2] 1/15

Free expression, protected by Fed & State constitutions, might disappear w/the far right’s hostile takeover of the GOP. [FN3] Apr 1945, Gen Eisenhower:
1) “was unprepared” for brutality of the Nazi camps: bodies piled like wood & living skeletons struggling to survive; 2/15

2) foresaw the Holocaust might be denied;
3) had media document & compelled Germans in nearby towns & any soldier not fighting at the front to see the atrocities. [FN4]
Likewise, horrors of slavery in this country must be remembered & the truth taught. [FN5] 3/15

Beckwith advances falsehoods about slavery that he would have schools teach. [FN6]:
A) “the 3/5 Compromise was neither pro-discrimination or slave-driving compromise, but
B) the opposite because it ensured "justice was equal for all people" & 4/15

C) “a smart move by the North” which didn’t want to give The South power to enshrine slavery, since slaves weren’t allowed to vote. [FN7]
On “A”: while there was a “compromise,” [FN8] the human beings at issue (i.e., slaves) did not have a voice & were considered property. 5/15

Still on “A”: the 3/5 clause constituted “discrimination.” [FN9] It treated people differently based on race. Slavery was discussed at the convention (August 21 & 22) as to limits on “importation.” Pinckney: if “slave trade” was prohibited, South Carolina would not ratify. [FN10] 6/15

Still on “A”: Apologists for our country’s racist past seem ignorant of how much this of country was built by slave labor. The “possession of slaves” made “the South the wealthiest section of the nation.” [FN11] What I’ve written has taken longer than usual because of something. 7/15

IN Lt Gov Micah Beckwith does not engage in meaningful debate. He’s goddamn stuipid, but smart enough to avoid certain doom. We cannot allow the Beckwiths to gain office & cut our public schools down to their own microscopic, Christofascist level of intellect. 8/15

The institution of slavery is evil, its effects as pervasive, and as impervious to treatment, as a horrible illness. You don’t seek to cure or overcome contagion w/upbeat words & ignorance. If we do not study & understand our past, we cannot expect to overcome our problems. 9/15

Footnotes:
FN1. From Beckwith speech at IN GOP State convention. Nathan Gotsch, 6/10/24.
FN2. “Let the people know the facts and the country will be safe.” That quote from Pres Lincoln was taped it to the wall of my bedroom when I was in high school. 10/15

FN3. Ppl who praise Jan 6 insurrection, complete w/an idiot strolling through the Capitol, confederate flag over his shoulder, have no right to claim to be “the party of Lincoln.”
FN4. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Eisenhower’s Foresight: Protecting the Truth of the Holocaust,” accessed 4/30/25. 11/15

FN5. Mintz, Steven, “Historical Context: The Constitution and Slavery,” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,” accessed 1/10/25.
FN6. This is a reasonable inference. See FN1. Also, neither IN law nor constitution confers such authority on Lt Gov, but Beckwith wants more power. 12/15

FN7. “Senior CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere quoted the National Constitution Center, which said the measure was ‘a purely mechanical and amoral calculation designed to produce harmony among conflicting interests.’" 13/15

FN8. “compromise, n. An agreement between two or more persons to settle matters in dispute between them.” Black’s Law Dictionary, New Pocket Edition, (1996), p. 119.
FN9. “discrimination, n. 1. The effect of a statute or established practice that confers privileges on a certain class or that denies privileges to another class because of race, age, sex, nationality, religion, or handicap.” Black’s, Id., n. 8, p. 195. 14/15

FN10. “Slavery and the Convention,” The Anti-Federalist Papers, 2003, pp. 153-58.
FN11. Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln Collier, “Decision at Philadelphia,” 2007, p. 185.
15/15