Perhaps you, too, remember the education scandal a couple of years ago when some high school officials in Virginia withheld news of National Merit Scholarships from dozens of excelling students because: Woke.
At the time, I wrote this:
Two twisted high school administrators appointed themselves guardians of the feelings of underachievers. For years, they’ve been hiding the names of anyone in their once-renowned school who was honored as a National Merit Scholar.
Their professed thinking: They didn’t want the overwhelming number of non-recipients to feel bad, because 'Equity.'
This wokeness not only cost each of those students and their families well-deserved recognition and thousands of dollars in scholarships. It also flouts the American tradition of rewarding exceptionalism, a tradition that recognizes exceptional effort, skills, work, talent. And is substantially responsible for the countless successes of the American Dream.
Woke is really a way to subvert American success and progress cloaked in a phony mantle of virtuous consideration. And it's a serious threat to our future, like a malignant cancer.
In their far-sighted wisdom, the Founding Fathers, who were generally well-off for the time, created a government and society designed to allow everyone equal opportunity to become well-off, too. Not a guarantee, but a shot at seeking it if desired. Up to the individual to seek, not the government to give.
One of our current presidential candidates is an ardent spokeswoman for Woke. You may have heard Kamala Harris also mention her upbringing in a middle-class home as a rote response to any question about anything.
One way to fight Woke is to watch for, celebrate, honor, and reward excellence wherever you spot it — in the classroom, schoolyard, sports field, dining room, wherever. And encourage others to work toward the same.
That's why I find the emergence this year of Caitlin Clark to be so exciting and encouraging. She's a role model for young females — older ones, too, for that matter — as her work ethic is admirable, and given her explosive success playing college basketball and now in the WNBA.
RedState Sports Report: Caitlin Clark Is Out of the WNBA Playoffs and So Are We
When the poised 22-year-old was not named to this summer's U.S. Olympic women's basketball team, there was no victimhood. Clark's response was, "I'll just have to get better."
That's the topic of this week's audio commentary. (Don't forget to share your thoughts in the Comments.)
Hint: There are reasons.
The most recent audio commentary concerns the multiple hurdles that Trump has overcome in this turbulent year and the methods he uses.
In other world news, Harris indicates she would keep in place Joe Biden's flights transporting thousands of illegal immigrants over the border to inland U.S. cities, where some 10 million have already settled, undocumented and untracked.
Finally, some good news. Joe Biden gave his final autumn address to the United Nations General Assembly this week. Now, the bad news: He was as incoherent and puzzled as ever in front of the wary watching world. Now, more bad news. He told a TV show that he was not going away, even once his White House lease expires.
We still have 116 days left with Biden officially in charge. We don't actually know who is really running the show. His wife took over last week's Cabinet meeting, the first in more than a year.
This dangerous period includes Biden's 82d birthday and numerous holidays when he typically borrows a billionaire donor's mansion somewhere to decompress from taking 40 percent of his term off in vacation days.
Hopefully, one or more of the the nation's enemies will not take advantage of no one being at the country's helm.
P.S. Here is the link to the Taylor Swift post I referenced on the tape.
