ALAN writes:

A traditional purpose of libraries was to educate and elevate, not celebrate contempt for law and morality. Six months ago, I wrote about a painting that hangs in the St. Louis Public Library and shows white men dressed respectably and sitting at a table reading. That painting must now share wall space with an “art exhibition” called “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Artists Respond,“ inspired by the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown by Police Officer Darren Wilson.

This is not art for the sake of art. It is not art at all. It is Communist-inspired propaganda for the grievance industry and those who run it:  Feminists, Marxist intellectuals, Fabian change agents, Communist planners, and black race agitators, among others.

Take it from former American Communist Party chairman William Z. Foster: “There must be a clear understanding that art is a weapon in the class struggle…a very potent one.”  It is a cardinal rule of Communist agit-prop never to let any opportunity go by to beat up on productive, law-abiding white men.

A police officer is brutally attacked by a thug and library directors respond by staging a Communist propaganda exhibit aimed at promoting sympathy for the thug or for loudmouth “protesters” who claim they are “seeking justice.”  “Justice” here is spelled “s-h-a-k-e-d-o-w-n.”   More handouts, benefits, freebies, and privileges without responsibility to people who have done nothing to earn them—these are what those “protesters” want, not justice.

Lawrence Auster understood this when he wrote:

“….all that blacks as an organized community have to contribute to our civilization [are] endless complaints about white injustice to blacks, and endless demands for the wealth and goods that white people have produced, and that blacks are incapable of producing. Plus a third “contribution”.…..endless threats of violence and riots if the blacks don’t get their way.”

                       [ “What blacks contribute to civilization,” View from the Right, April 15, 2012 ]

Is there a better current example of this than the agitators cashing in on Ferguson and the fools who agree to present an “art exhibition” on their behalf?

Where today is the moral successor to the black writer Elizabeth Wright?  Imagine what scathing words she would unleash upon those bandwagon-jumping black opportunists, sob sisters, and spineless white men.

Observe the stupidity of white men who cave in to that blackmail—who will agree, acquiesce, appease, apologize, and stand on their head to accommodate those demands—who will do everything but say No.  Such white men are the stupidest people in the history of this nation.  They do not “owe” anyone anything.  It is the other way around:  Those rioters, “protesters”, thugs, and vandals and their excuse-makers owe apologies to all law enforcement personnel and all the decent citizens of St. Louis and Ferguson, black and white alike.

In 1791 Edmund Burke wrote:  “Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity…..   Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without…..”

By that standard, Michael Brown disqualified himself not only for civil liberty but for any claim to tears and sympathy.  He did that (a) by robbing a store, (b) walking in a street, (c) disregarding a policeman’s instruction not to walk in the street, and (d) initiating the use of brutal force against that officer.  He and he alone made those choices—in absolute contempt for the wisdom in Edmund Burke’s words that decent black men and women understand clearly.  At every point along the way, the choice of self-restraint over thuggery was available to him, as it is to everyone.  But he chose thuggery.  He would be alive today had he chosen decency instead.  By his choice, he was a thief and a thug.

He and he alone chose not to apply that “controlling power” to himself.  He had no one to blame for his death but himself.  Why is his companion still alive?  Because he had enough sense to apply that “controlling power” to himself and not to assault a police officer.

These are facts.  And what does the Library say about these facts in its publicity about its “art exhibition”?  Silence.  Blank out.  This is a prize example of context-dropping, a standard tactic of Communist-trained agitators and people who know they cannot win an argument on the basis of reason or evidence.

One of the “art” works includes the slogan “Aim for Justice.” This is classic agit-prop straight out of the Communist playbook.  The bleeding heart do-gooders who run the library and sanction such propaganda did not present any “art exhibition” in remembrance of the 64-year-old white woman who was knifed and killed by a black bum in the church across the street, or for the 60-year-old Korean woman cashier who was shot by a black thug, or for the 72-year-old Vietnamese man who was punched and killed by another black thug (who was “unarmed”), or for the 19-year-old Bosnian man who was shot and killed by another black thug, or for the 89-year-old white man viciously beaten by another black thug, or for the two white college girls who were kidnapped, raped, and shot by two other black thugs, or for the white woman who was killed by a black football player driving while drunk.  Couldn’t care less about them.

The slogan “Aim for Justice” is particularly absurd coming from blacks, who lead the field in crime, destruction, and mayhem, not to mention their stellar performance as fathers and husbands.  Every week they prove that self-restraint—Burke’s “moral chains”—is the virtue they hate most of all.  Consider these examples in St. Louis, since last August:

— A “caravan of cars” pulled up to a shoe store in a shopping mall late at night and their occupants smashed windows and stole shoes.

— 19-year-old black male shot in head and killed

— Black woman arrested for stabbing black man

— Bar and customers robbed by two armed blacks

— 4 young black males arrested for armed robbery

— 2 young black males sentenced for shooting and killing pizza delivery driver

— Black male stabbed in street, dies there

— Young black male arrested for armed robbery

— Eleven cars broken into in a residential neighborhood

— 4 young black males are observed breaking into a home

— Young black male knifes and robs pizza delivery driver

— 2 young black males attempt robbery at pizza restaurant

— 2 black males arrested for burglary and theft

— 3 black teenage females punch, kick, and rob two women pedestrians on street corner three blocks from library.  They were “unarmed.”

— 8 black teenage males punch, kick, and rob lawyer on street corner three blocks from Library.  They were “unarmed.”  Two are named “Jarvis” and “Dwjuan.”

— 4 armed young black males rob restaurant

— Black female knifes and kills her boyfriend

— Black male uses a sledgehammer to break through brick wall of credit union and then walks away without taking anything

— 3 black males enter home and beat 2 men

— Black male shoots two women standing outside market

Are these not splendid examples of their concern for justice?

Note that these crimes were committed after the lawlessness and vandalism perpetrated in Ferguson.  Only white men could be so stupid as to imagine that a tepid response by law enforcement to that mayhem would not be taken as a green light by other thugs, vandals, and opportunists.

A hundred years ago, it was different.  Then, as now, blacks in St. Louis committed petty theft, robbery, and burglary.  They stole money, liquor, jewelry, and even postage stamps.  But with rare exceptions, they did not hurt their victims, as they take delight in doing today.  This is what decades of “compassion”, leniency, sob stories, welfare handouts, excuse-makers, and do-gooders have yielded for fantasy-prone white Americans who are militantly blind to racial differences.  Decent Americans of all races are still paying for the ineluctable stupidity of such white men and women.

Where are the fearless “journalists” with enough moxie to identify the white Communists and Anarchists agitating behind those black “protesters” and rioters?

Fifty years ago, the conservative St. Louis Globe-Democrat assigned its reporter Denny Walsh to investigate Communist involvement in the “civil rights” movement, and he wrote a series of excellent articles naming names.  There is no equivalent today to that principled newspaper or its reporters (Pat Buchanan was one of them).  Instead, St. Louisans can choose among three newspapers pushing this, that, or another variety of Leftism.  There is nothing quite like having such a rich “diversity” of journalism to choose from:  Liberal, Socialist, and Communist.

Angry mobs clashing with police, looting stores, and destroying other people’s property—now that makes for good theater.  It plays well on big-screen color TVs.  But what potential for “live footage” or sob stories is there in Edmund Burke, moral principles, or decent, law-abiding black men and women?  Why would Americans even think about such things when they can be entertained around-the-clock by vivid pictures on their giant-screen TVs instead?

For the Library to promote “art” that features the slogan “Aim for Justice” is especially hilarious in view of the fact that it sits in an area where banks are robbed routinely, black vagrants are welcomed by two Christian churches, others assault and knife each other, others engage in brawls in city parks, others make panhandling their life’s work, a building across the street put a sign in its entryway reading “This Is Not A Bathroom,” a black busboy set fire to a restaurant three blocks away after he was discharged, and the occupants of an apartment building three blocks away were forced out of their apartments and the building was closed because of unrestrained crime and vandalism.

Visitors who are impressed by this “art” exhibition may stop two floors below and browse among the garbage called “urban fiction” or borrow “music” CDs that celebrate vulgarity, ho culture, thug culture, and contempt for the law and police officers.  None of these things would have been allowed in this Library in 1959.

That any Library would agree to exhibit propaganda on behalf of thugs, lawbreakers, or provocateurs is a grotesque insult to law-abiding citizens, black and white alike, merchants, and police officers.  Library directors with any decency would:

— showcase Edmund Burke’s words as a moral ideal, along with the words that appear on an American Legion monument two blocks from their Library: “Liberty is not License”;

— present an exhibit honoring the achievements of black men and women who understood Edmund Burke’s advice and chose restraint and responsibility over rapacity, like George Schuyler, Manning Johnson, Elizabeth Wright, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Julia Brown, Anne Wortham, and Ezola Foster;

— express their unqualified support for police officers and rigorous law enforcement;

— condemn the thugs and thieves who masquerade as “protesters,” as well as those who fill the St. Louis jail and give St. Louis its well-deserved reputation as one of the most crime-infested cities in the nation, as well as municipal courts and judges who compete to set new standards in leniency.

But Library directors choose to do none of these things.  They agree instead to promote sob stories for a militant sub-culture of black whiners and white anarchists for whom cop-killing is a point of honor.  “Support the looters” and “All lawmen fair game” were words that I saw scrawled on vacant storefronts in St. Louis in 2005 on a street where you can also find posters in windows promoting Communism and Anarchism.

In a properly-ordered culture, it would be thugs and predators who live in fear for their safety, not police officers and their families.  That the reverse is now true is conclusive proof that Americans today are living in a morally-bankrupt culture and under a monstrously evil, wholly unaccountable Orwellian Leftist regime.

I understand that the Library’s next “art exhibition” will be held in conjunction with national “How to Become a Doormat Day.”

— Comments —

Kevin M. writes:

Elizabeth Wright, I sorely miss her.

Her blog url stands as a memorial in my browser’s favorite list. I looked at it just yesterday. Her goodbye words still make my lip quiver.

David J. writes:

I agree wholeheartedly with Alan’s comment. I could not have said it any better.

TK writes:

It pains me to say this, but notable exceptions notwithstanding, blacks bring very little to the table except strife, division and expense. The main problem is that blacks see EVERYTHING through a racial prism. This is unique to them. No other racial group does this to the extent blacks do. When it comes to race, they have no perspective. Another problem is that we expect nothing from them as members of a civil society. Liberals expect nothing and conservatives praise them for doing nothing. There is a black family that lives in my neighborhood. The husband and wife both have jobs. Their yard is mowed, the house is well-kept and their cars are washed. They are put on such a high pedestal for doing what is minimally expected of everyone else. They are nice people, but I tire of hearing how great they are.  Until we as a country start EXPECTING something from blacks and condemning bad behavior, nothing will get better race-wise. Maybe it never will. My own patience has run out. All I’m asking for is a little sanity. Great column, Alan.

Laura writes:

Marxist agitators, including those in the media, encourage blacks to “see everything through a racial prism” in the same way Communists encouraged the working class to resent the wealthy.

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