President Clinton has said and done some pretty amazing things, but his official proclamation declaring this “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” takes the cake in my book.
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| Not the Liberty Bell |
“Thirty years ago this month, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a courageous group of citizens resisted harassment and mistreatment, setting in motion a chain of events that would become known as the Stonewall Uprising and the birth of the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement,” Clinton said in his statement of June 11.
The White House went on to say that homosexuals celebrate the anniversary every June and that earlier this month the National Park Service had added the Stonewall Inn, plus nearby park and neighborhood streets surrounding it to the National Register of Historic Places.
Historic indeed. Here are the actual events of Friday, June 27, 1969, as recorded in the New York Times, other newspapers and the accounts of the most famous homosexual chronicler, Martin Duberman, author of “Stonewall.”
Police raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village because of reports the establishment was selling liquor without a license. As police began loading some patrons into a paddy wagon, a crowd gathered. Bottles, beer cans and garbage cans were hurled at officers. An uprooted parking meter was turned into a makeshift battering ram, blockading some of the police inside the bar and then setting it on fire.
Reinforcements were called out to rescue the police officers trapped inside, but the rioting continued for two hours with a total of 12 arrested. The disturbances continued for four successive nights.
Courageous? Harassment? Mistreatment? Is that how Clinton views this tempest in a teacup? A bar is raided because its liquor license is not in order. That must be the harassment. A few people are arrested. That must be the mistreatment. That touches off rioting and arson. That must be the courage.
This is mind-blowing stuff. The Stonewall riots of 1969 are now being mythologized as something comparable to the Boston Massacre. Hel-loooo. This was a riot outside a bar, folks. Get real. If I were a homosexual political activist – which, thank God, I’m not – I would be embarrassed that the seminal event of my “resistance” movement was a skirmish outside a gay bar. I’d be mortified that the way my colleagues define freedom is the ability to drink alcohol in an unlicensed club. Hey, I’m as much of an anarchist as the next guy, but this is, well, pathetic.
But the most unbelievable part of it is that the president of the United States buys into the whole lie — or at least pretends to because it’s the politically expedient thing to do these days.
Does Clinton suggest to young people today that it is appropriate behavior – even “courageous” – to riot outside bars because of police actions? How would Clinton like it if we rioted the next time some of his hooded and jackbooted BATF goons swooped in on some innocent victim? Is he advocating violent civil disobedience? It would seem so, if Stonewall is now deemed a heroic action. It’s a strange position for a president of the United States. But then, again, this is no ordinary president.
Imagine, folks. June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month by official proclamation of the president of the United States. Your tax dollars are being used to enshrine the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village and surrounding streets and parks as a historical monument to the pointless mayhem that took place there for four nights in 1969.
“America’s diversity is our greatest strength,” said Clinton for the umpteenth time in the last seven years.
No it’s not, Mr. President. I’m so sick of hearing that cliché. There’s absolutely no truth in it, yet people like Clinton believe if they say something enough times people will just start believing it.
What is America’s greatest strength? America’s greatest strength has always been its freedom. Remember that word? They have diversity in the Balkans. And Bill Clinton has, quite intolerantly, seen fit to bomb them over their multicultural differences of opinion. Is that what we’re shooting for in America now? I think not. Let’s remember what’s held us together in America. Let’s never forget what made us great as a nation. It’s not diversity, it’s liberty. Get a grip, friends. Stonewall is not Lexington and Concord.
