Quote:Well, that didn’t take long. The Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore early Tuesday after being struck by a cargo ship, and the bodies of all the victims have not even been recovered yet. The economic catastrophe now facing Baltimore will certainly last months, but it has the potential to harm the region for years. Grieving families are still processing the loss of their loved ones even as investigators try to piece together what happened.

Yet the Associated Press thought now would be a good time to bring up the history of the bridge’s namesake—"Star-Spangled Banner” lyricist Francis Scott Key—and drag up his ties to slavery. Because what better time than in the aftermath of a horrific accident is there to try to make the story about racism when it has absolutely nothing to do with race?

That’s our laughingstock national press today, folks.

The AP framed its story as just a little background piece about Key:

Fair enough. Not most people’s particular concern at the moment as the recovery efforts continue, but hey, AP, you do you. They detail the circumstances under which Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner, which became our national anthem—but it’s at the end that they get to the real reason they wrote the article: Key’s association with slavery is evidently important to the story of a cargo ship crashing into a bridge over two centuries later.

While the first verse of the anthem is the most well-known, there are a total of four stanzas; in the third, there’s a reference made to a slave. Key, whose family owned people and who owned enslaved people himself, supported the idea of sending free Black people to Africa but opposed the abolition of slavery in the U.S., according to the National Park Service’s Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

His personal history has made him a controversial figure in some quarters; in June 2020, a statue of him in San Francisco was taken down.

Go ahead and say it, Associated Press: the bridge probably deserved what it got. That’s the point of your story, admit it.

I’m not saying Key’s past should be glossed over; historians are absolutely free to discuss it—but what I am saying is this is 100 percent not the time to delve into it. The survivors and the families of those who perished certainly aren’t focused on that, and neither are the millions of empathetic Americans watching the tragedy unfold and feeling for those affected.

Post 9/11, do you remember any stories in the immediate aftermath about Lt. General Edward Lawrence Logan, a Spanish-American war hero from South Boston? I certainly don’t. Boston’s Logan Airport, where the 9/11 attackers boarded the planes that eventually crashed into the Twin Towers, is named after him. Yet somehow, journalists and readers thought the 3,000-plus deaths and the collapse of our iconic towers was the story of the day, not who the freakin’ airport was named after. That, and they evidently couldn't use his background to incite racial animus, so the press didn’t bother.

I’d love to believe that some enterprising reporter thought to themselves, “Hmm, this is a terrible tragedy; I could write a background story on this bridge and relate the history of our national anthem.” But I don’t believe that for a second (most "journalists" despise the Star-Spangled Banner)—I believe the writer went, “Oh! There’s a racial angle. Let’s hit it pronto despite the fact that it has nothing to do with anything!”

Because sadly, that’s how they roll these days.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only attempt by leftists to force-feed politics into this story. Here's former California Assemblyman Mike Gatto's head-scratching take on the disaster: it's really about "immigrants":

They have no shame.

Link

We need common sense bridge laws

We need common sense container ship laws

Bridge and container ship background checks NOW!

Frick prog filth idiots

Unbelievable. The liberal-leftist mindset is completely insane.

WTAF?

Wow. I never noticed before how the whole freaking world is subject to lefty talking points.

I knew that media would eventually make this be about racial stuff.

(03-27-2024 10:55 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I knew that media would eventually make this be about racial stuff.

Hell, I didn’t but I hear ya.
Never thought a bridge collapse tragedy could be made racial. In any way.

If there’s a way to create a false narrative, the left will figure it out.

Well Biden should make a proclamation that it be named after someone who wasn't racist... Robert Byrd, former Senator from WV, who was a mentor to Biden.

(03-27-2024 10:55 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I knew that media would eventually make this be about racial stuff.

Worse still - the GOVERNMENT made it about racial stuff.

SMMFH

“What do we want? Dead bridges!”

(03-27-2024 10:46 AM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  Wow. I never noticed before how the whole freaking world is subject to lefty talking points.

It's a chronic problem that will never be addressed becaus there are too many people in the world that are afraid to challenge said talking points.

Shameless 'Journalist' Op-Ed Brags About Playing Race Card in Bridge Collapse—I Am 'Doing Precisely That'

Quote:I wrote about how the almost demonic Associated Press waited mere hours before trying to inject polarizing racial politics into the disastrous Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, even though the calamity has exactly zero to do with race. But that doesn’t matter to progressive journalists; they want to get their woke takes in regardless of what topic is actually at hand.

It didn’t take much imagination to see where this was going—it was an obvious pre-game maneuver preparing for the future demand to rename the bridge, when it’s reconstructed, after somebody who more represents modern leftist culture—perhaps they’ll call for the Rev. Al Sharpton Bridge or the Hillary Clinton Crossing. Someone who is shrill, loud, and polarizing but who has done little to actually improve the lives of average Americans.

As many noted on X/Twitter, it won’t be long before someone at MSNBC demands that it be named “The George Floyd Memorial Overpass.”

And the hate-mongers didn’t disappoint, quickly forgetting about the dead bodies still at the bottom of the frigid Baltimore Harbor, the pain of their families and loved ones, or the reality that this collapse will bring intense economic pain for years to Baltimore and its residents.

None of that matters to them; what’s more important is dividing our country. Enter Wayne Washington, who the self-described black news website “The Root” called a “brilliant journalist based in Florida,” who proudly and unabashedly plays the race card in a nasty op-ed published to the Root’s cyberpages Wednesday.

He makes no effort to hide his divisive intent:

I know there are those who are frothing now, pointing out that I’m “playing the race card” during this tragedy.

And my response is…yep, I am most definitely doing precisely that.

There you have it; neither shame nor decency seems to be in his dictionary. Only pushing hate between the races.

He trashes Francis Scott Key’s legacy and says that his 200-year-old mores are worthy of permanent cancellation. Key has a paradoxical past, that’s true; he went on record opposing the practice of slavery, but it’s undeniable that he also owned some. Yet what does that have to do with a cargo ship slamming into a bridge in 2024?

These names should be considered for the future bridge, argues Washington.

So, when the new bridge spans the Patapsco [River], name it something other than the Key Bridge.

Lots of Americans — hell, lots of Marylanders — are far more worthy of the honor. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass immediately come to mind.

Hell, we don’t even have to go back that far. What about Thurgood Marshall? Or the late congressman, Elijah Cummings?

Wait, what? The only decent Marylanders that should be considered for the honor are black Americans? The implication is that obviously white people should not even be looked at.

It’s so tiring—and yet so predictable—that leftists try to divide us along racial lines at every opportunity. A horrific bridge catastrophe? Forget the dead people, let’s talk about racism!

"If, after this tragedy, we can focus on the urgent need to turn away from spit-in-the-face insults to Black Americans," he continues, "count me in on some of that." Wayne, newsflash: we are not at the point where we are "after" this tragedy; we are still right smack in the middle of it. Can't you have the decency to wait until at least we have the bodies recovered before you shove your racial polemic down our throats?

Wasn’t Obama supposed to bring us a post-racial nation? It seems to me that he and his legacy have brought us nothing but outrage and a permanent distrust of each other among a citizenry that had been moving closer to unity and equality (not “equity”) before his arrival on the scene.

Washington’s words—and the AP’s—show a complete lack of empathy for the souls who perished at the bottom of the Patapsco River and a narcissistic obsession in reliving the past of two centuries ago.

None of this does anything to improve the America of 2024, and yet, here we are, and a writer is proud of race-baiting in the midst of misfortune—"playing the race card... yep, I am most definitely doing precisely that."

This is progress?

(03-27-2024 10:06 AM)450bench Wrote:  Unbelievable. The liberal-leftist mindset is completely insane.

They get paid well to keep pitting people against each other.

(03-28-2024 10:00 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 10:06 AM)450bench Wrote:  Unbelievable. The liberal-leftist mindset is completely insane.

They get paid well to keep pitting people against each other.

And why not? It’s capitalism. It’s a profitable industry. That’s the name of the game here.

In another thread, there was a guy that was up in arms that people shouldn't use tragedies for political points.

He seems to be missing from this thread. Weird.

(03-28-2024 11:24 AM)Todor Wrote:  

(03-28-2024 10:00 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 10:06 AM)450bench Wrote:  Unbelievable. The liberal-leftist mindset is completely insane.

They get paid well to keep pitting people against each other.

And why not? It’s capitalism. It’s a profitable industry. That’s the name of the game here.

No issue with them doing it, it's just unfortunate so many are so stupid to actually tune in to the nonsense.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the surviving victims and the dead's' families are not only going to collect damages from those legally responsible for the electrical system failures on the MV Dali; but also from whomever was responsible for not putting adequate bridge protection systems around those piers.

(03-28-2024 11:36 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(03-28-2024 11:24 AM)Todor Wrote:  

(03-28-2024 10:00 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(03-27-2024 10:06 AM)450bench Wrote:  Unbelievable. The liberal-leftist mindset is completely insane.

They get paid well to keep pitting people against each other.

And why not? It’s capitalism. It’s a profitable industry. That’s the name of the game here.

No issue with them doing it, it's just unfortunate so many are so stupid to actually tune in to the nonsense.

I agree with you. I think one thing most all of us will agree with is this-

People have limited to time to research and discern the truth from all of the information floating around. They also have access to such a vast array of information and opinions, it would take a lifetime to listen to 1% of what is produced each day.

And people with an agenda to push, whatever it may be, have huge amounts of expertise from marketing, research into human behavior, access to large amounts of money, as well as access to platforms that give them clout-be it on TV, twitter, YouTube, in print or what have you. Even podcasters that may appear to be a guy in a tiny studio may have a full time staff of producers, researchers, and assistants putting in hundreds of hours to produce what appears to be just a guy sharing his opinions.

Knowing what is true is not as easy as many people think. Knowing the motivation behind information we see is not easy. Knowing when others are being manipulated seems so easy to see, but acknowledging that we are also likely being manipulated is a very hard thing to see or admit.

I think most people (and society) would be best served by identifying a handful of principles that are important to them, work towards them in whatever way they are able, and to tune out most things that don’t advance that cause in any meaningful way.

I think most people of any political stripe will largely agree. But what do I know? I’m a barely literate and undereducated person without millions of dollars or influential friends. I don’t even have a Pelaton!