𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗖𝗖𝗘𝗣𝗧 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗜𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗦, 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣'𝗦 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗢𝗡

Unfortunately, some disingenuous folk in the Republican Party don't want America to learn anything from the events we watched on TV January 6, 2021, calling J6 a "legitimate political discussion," not a "violent insurrection."

Sanitizing history, rewriting it with alternate facts to obscure historic atrocities, does not improve our world, but simply prevents learning from those mistakes and preventing those horrendous abuses in the future.

History, accurately recounted, proves this, while trying to sanitize or whitewash history stifles, stymies and squelches our progress.

Yet, that's what the German right-wing group, AfD, is endeavoring to do, the very group Elon Musk recently said was the "only" group "that can save Germany."

AfD would like all of us to forget about the Holocaust, the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews in poisonous gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the brutal experiments performed on live humans and so much more.

The German right-wing group is calling for a "180 degree turn" in how that history is reported, for Germany to "stop atoning for Nazi crimes" and "be proud of the achievements of German soldiers in two world wars." 

We also notice Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, obsessed with anti-wokeism, taking a similar approach, manipulating the history books in his state to ignore the considerable economic and personal affect of our country's 400 years of inhumane Black slavery, even mouthing the stupidity that Blacks "benefited" by picking up skills like blacksmithing.

DeSantis, and others of his ilk, ignore the slaughtering of hundreds of Black people who were financially successful against all odds, wiping out legacies of black enterprise that could have traced a different economic trajectory for Black America.  Besides simply lying about history, this approach creates a false eqivalency, erases historical context, making it appear that Black Americans still struggle financially because they're too lazy or too inept.

DeSantis's dishonest effort to hide slavery, just like Donald Trump’s “very fine people, on both sides” defense of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, is simply a lie.

In contrast to the liars mentioned above are two individuals convicted of crimes in the J6 insurrection who are rejecting Trump's offer of pardon because they do not want to live a lie. 

Pamela Hemphill

Pamela Hemphill, a 71 year old woman from Boise, Idaho, states: 

"Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation. . . .  I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative. . . We were wrong that day, we broke the law - there should be no pardons.

On the left; Jason Riddle, January 6, 2021, celebrating with a bottle of wine in a Senate office, on the right: Jason Riddle today

Jason Riddle, a Navy veteran, also rejected Trump's pardon, but for different reasons:

“It’s almost like he was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable. I don’t want the pardon. And I also learned that I can reject the pardon. . . . I did reject the pardon because I’m thinking down the road [if] an employer looks in my background, they see misdemeanors … Misdemeanors with a presidential pardon — I think that tends to draw more attention,” he said. “And I’m sure that’s fine in the MAGA world with whoever supports Trump, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if the job I’m applying to, if they like Trump.” 

Damn!  With so many on the right-wing fringe wanting to gloss over and hide the horrendous, it's refreshing to see that there are still people of integrity in this world.