Guest Essay: The Poisoning of America
From America's Premier Editorial Cartoonist
Happy Saturday,
We want to highlight a fellow Substack writer’s thoughts today. Chris Burr is a retiree who writes about his experience as a businessman and teacher. You can subscribe to him HERE, and we will publish future edited work with his permission.
A Letter to the Nation from a Retired Businessman and Teacher
by Chris Burr
Dear America,
I’m 72 years old, and three years ago, I retired after a successful business career of 21 years that was followed by 14 years teaching and coaching wonderful students who were a profound blessing in my life.
With that as background, I’m a proud, patriotic American who is deeply concerned to see America in the steepest decline in my lifetime. So, I wonder, how did all of this happen? What worries me most about today’s America is the lack of civility, the absence of thoughtful discussion, and the tribalism that is disintegrating our once great nation. What can we do to change course and provide our children and grandchildren with a more hopeful future by providing them with a much better example of citizenship?
It's hard to know how we turn this around, but I believe it’s important to try. I grew up in an America that had its problems, but today, and for a long time, our discourse, our relationships, and our politics are, for the most part, disgraceful. Why is this, and how can we change course?
Throughout my years in business, I read a good deal about what was going on in the world of education. Also, while running a business, I graduated from Divinity School, and I was shocked by much of what I saw and heard in my classes. For me, Divinity School wasn’t a religious place, it was a political cauldron, a precursor to the poisoning of America known as Wokeism. Here's one example from Divinity School. In one of my classes, a student described America as a “melting pot,” and our theology professor exploded, saying, “America is NOT a melting pot! In a melting pot, the ingredients surrender some of their distinctive flavor to make a flavorful stew. America is more like a salad because, in a salad, the ingredients retain more of their distinctive flavors. Her anger was triggered by the notion that any individual would surrender any of their characteristics for the sake of what she clearly believed is a disgraceful country, and she said, “You don’t ever want to surrender anything for America.”
My wife and I enjoyed going to a Boston church that we loved, but before our wonderful preacher departed due to illness and after the 2016 Presidential election, things began to change rapidly, and sermons became more and more political. Right after the election, those leading our church suggested we stay after the service to share our thoughts in small groups. I was in a group of four, and for the most part, I just listened. At the end of our gathering, a long-time vestry member wanted to have a longer conversation with me, which I was glad to do. We talked for 90 minutes in the lobby of a nearby hotel, and while we had very different points of view, I enjoyed our conversation until we got up to leave. It was then that she walked toward me angrily while wagging her finger and said, “Look, do you know what this is all about?” She could tell that I was perplexed by her tone and surprised by her anger, and she said with considerable force, “This is about abortion and white supremacy!” I was surprised by her fury because those two issues were never brought up in our conversation, so I thanked her for her time and walked away, more than a little puzzled. For a time, my wife and I continued to attend church services, but over time we left the church because we believe that our faith is meant to explore the transcendent lessons and deep wisdom of the Bible that might help us navigate the thorny issues of our lives, issues that might well touch on politics, but in short order, politics seemed to have eclipsed the Gospel.
While still in business, I continued to read about various high schools, their curriculum, and their direction, and it sounded to me like their new agenda was to teach their students to hate America. I wanted to discover more, so I left a successful business at age 51, and with no prospects, I began looking for a job as a high school English teacher, work that I loved for six years after graduating from college. In time, I had the good fortune to be offered a job at a large urban high of 2500 students from 75 countries. The kids were wonderful, but I was less than impressed with the administration, who were all about advancing their incurious, intolerant, and boring political agenda.
I was then hired to teach and coach at a high pressure/high achievement private high school outside of Boston. I loved the work of teaching, coaching, and advising students, but I quickly discovered that the world of education was continuing to descend into a monolithic, incurious, political cult determined to ignore and refuse to allow different points of view on a variety of important issues.
The morning after the 2016 Presidential election, I walked into the schoolhouse and saw groups of teachers and students sobbing, and it was then that I wrote an essay called “We Are What We Teach,” which I sent to administrators in advance of asking to stand before our school community to suggest a different way of thinking about a variety of important issues. I intended to end my address with these words. “So, I want to thank all of you for your patience, and I’ll end this with three words I have never heard in my 14 years at our school. “I love America.”
When I sat down with the Head of School to ask when I could speak to our school, her answer came quickly. “Absolutely not.”
I then asked, “But I thought our sacred words were diversity and tolerance.” With that the meeting ended, and I decided to retire from work that I loved.
So, with that as background, it seems to me that things are getting worse with each passing day. Bludgeoning those with different points of view seems to be our new national pass time, and we seem to be poisoning ourselves with uninteresting, predictable slogans that get us nowhere.
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Great essay. The two areas that you spotlight are exactly where we lost this war.
I was in grade school in the late 60s and 70s and I started to see signs of change once Murray-O'Hare won her SC court case when a very political anti-Constitutional Court. Once God and Faith were completely out of the picture, a humanist world-view took over.
Students were taught a lie that there was no God, and Darwinism was a fact, which was completely untrue. No counter was allowed under a bastardized interpretation of the 1st amendment language prohibiting ONLY Congress from creating a State religion, and not prohibiting God or faith from government.
From the humanist world-view kid's were being taught that feelings trump facts, which is where we get this transgender nonsense. Somewhere from this same world view more nonsensical theories were raised to the level of fact, such as an entire race and an institution are racist, not because they are indeed racist, but only because of history they have nothing to do with.
I'm pessimistic for the future because all these brainwashed and anti American people or in positions of power (government & business) and influence (education). They can't win when logic and facts are introduced in the argument, so they deny, bury or walk away. I don't see how to get this power and control back
It’s devastatingly sad that more people/teachers like Mr. Burr haven’t been involved in our educational system and we didn’t notice this transition from love of America/patriotism to the opposite, until just recently. Many decades ago, I noticed some fragmentation when people called themselves Mexican-American or African-American rather than simply “American”.
I’m always open to discussion but have found that many people, including some long term friends, are not. What’s the solution, at this late date??
As much as I greatly admire Michael Ramirez, I see he sure is NOT a fan of Donald Trump. I attended many Trump rallies with a group, The Remembrance Project, who supports family members whose loved ones were killed by illegal aliens (we are not against LEGAL immigration). Up close I saw Trump’s love of America and our people. When he was elected, we flourished in so many ways—I can tolerate his egomania and boastfulness, in addition to the sometimes wacky Tweets (Xes??), when I know he’s on the right track about our military & no wars, energy policies, border control, and so much more. No one else out there is strong and resolute—what he’s endured!-- enough, especially having learned so much in his first term, to help us out of our current MESS.
Is there another viable solution???
Born and raised in once golden California