In a recent monologue, talk show host Bill Maher had some interesting things to say.
Recently finding himself fed up with the woke culture and the general whining of America’s citizens about oppression, racism and the like, he has begun to speak out about the nonsensical upsets that our citizenry is complaining about.
Bill Maher and myself would certainly have very little to agree about if we had a long dinner conversation; of that I have no doubt. However, his indictment of the whining class is spot on.
He said a number of things that I feel no need to repeat. What he did say – which bears repeating – is, “There’s a reason Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us.”
Now, I realize that there is an enormous list of complaints that we could raise about our involvement in Afghanistan. We could be here until the eschaton, finding a detail here and a detail there that we have a problem with. I am no supporter of the concept of establishing democracy in Afghanistan and I never was. It was a fool’s errand if ever there was one.
Regardless of that fact, it becomes clear that despite the failures of America to set the right goals and achieve them, the Afghan mothers can recognize that we were a force for good.
After all, would you give your babies to someone who wasn’t?
“We’re not the bad guys,” Maher said. “Oppression is what we were trying to stop in Afghanistan. We failed. But any immigrant will tell you, we’ve largely succeeded here.
“And yet the overriding thrust of current woke ideology is that America is rotten to the core, irredeemably racist from the moment it was founded and so oppressive, sexist and homophobic, we can’t find a host for the Oscars or Jeopardy.”
The Afghanistan debacle is messy. It is concerning to watch what is happening and consider what the future will hold. However, it is more concerning to me that we have raised a generation of people who believe that our country – from its founding – is no better than Afghanistan. That our leaders were no better than the Taliban. That our country had no more toleration or freedom than Sharia Law could provide to the Afghan people.
It’s shameful that we have such a low view – as Americans – of what our country was founded upon. We have allowed the promulgation of ideas that suggest that what was, or is, broken couldn’t be fixed without a revolution. Maher used the word irredeemable. This is the idea presented by the culture these days and that is why they suggest the revolution in the first place. Not all things can be redeemed. Sharia Law, for example, will never be redeemed. However, America and her founding ideals most certainly can be redeemed.
It would be wise for us to recognize the simple truth that the rest of the globe understands. America was a city on the hill. A beacon of hope. Despite her failings and her recent ignorance, it can be restored.
Jeremy Wiggins writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, jeremywiggins87@gmail.com.