American Culture Archives - Page 3 of 4

Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner

January 25, 2025August 28, 2020 by Tom McGinley

I wrote this essay that was originally published by the American Thinker on September 14, 2014, the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s writing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Given that Vice-President Pence gave his Republican VP nomination acceptance speech at Fort McHenry last evening, the site of the famed battle with the British Navy in Baltimore Harbor late in the War of 1812, I thought I’d re-publish the article and the story behind Key’s inspired poem.

* * *

Two hundred years, on September 14th, it was the unlikely convergence of a physician and a lawyer that produced the most recited poem in American history. Its inspiration occurred just a few miles from Fort McHenry, located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the site of one of our nation’s most important military conflicts.

The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization
Part 3: Christianity’s Surprising Growth during the Bloody Roman Persecutions

September 24, 2020August 26, 2020 by The American Citizen

(Part 3 of a multi-part series on The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization.)

In the first century, the Israelites were a relatively small ethnic group held captive by the Romans but in possession of one of the keys for unlocking humanity’s advancement. Their Jewish Bible contained the “secrets” for progress but was largely unknown beyond a tiny region in the Middle East.

For the Jews, the way in which their Bible was introduced to the word was the unlikeliest of situations: It was the followers of a man they did not believe was the long-awaited messiah who ultimately took their sacred scriptures to the world.

No human in history has had the impact of that Jewish carpenter from Nazareth whose public ministry only lasted for a few years. It was the birth, ministry, death and – for believers – the resurrection of Jesus Christ that changed the world.

Part 3: Christianity’s Surprising Growth during the Bloody Roman Persecutions

The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization
Part 2: God, Greeks and the First Sexual Revolution

September 24, 2020August 21, 2020 by The American Citizen

(Part 2 of a multi-part series on The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization.)

The greatest surprise for European explorers, especially those like Columbus, was the backwardness of the people they came upon. They were stunned by the tremendous technological superiority they had. It made proud, brave peoples like the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas virtually and ultimately helpless in their defenses.

Even the highly regarded civilizations of the East like China, India and the Muslim world were quite backward by comparison with 15th century Europe.

Why had Europeans (for centuries) been the only people to “possess eyeglasses, chimneys, reliable clocks, heavy cavalry, or a system of music notation?”1 Why did the Europeans blow the rest of the world away when it came to things like “metallurgy, shipbuilding and farming?”2

Part 2: God, Greeks and the First Sexual Revolution

The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization
Part 1: America and Western Civilization Under Attack

September 24, 2020August 20, 2020 by The American Citizen

(Part 1 of a multi-part series on The Moral Triumph of Western Civilization.)

Nothing in history has benefited the human race like the ascendancy and dominance of Western Civilization. In this multi-part series we’ll prove it.

Many think of Europe when Western Civilization is mentioned but Europeans got a very late start toward civility. “Half of man’s recorded history had passed before anyone in Europe could read or write.”1

When the Roman Empire officially ended in 476, the European continent was a wasteland of crumbled “roads” and barbarian marauders. How then was it possible, that this disorganized, illiterate, unconnected region would come to dominate the world over the next millennium?

This is the first of an occasional series on the unlikely miracle of Western Civilization. Much to the dismay of multiculturalists, modern civilization grew and matured in Europe due to an amazing confluence of events unquestionably directed by a very patient God.

Part 1: America and Western Civilization Under Attack

Burn the American flag? No problem. Burn the LGBTQ flag? Get 15 years in prison.

January 25, 2025December 19, 2019 by The American Citizen

An Iowa man, Adolfo Martinez, 30, was just sentenced to 30 days in jail for “third-degree harassment” and one year for “reckless use of fire” when he stole an LGBTQ flag from a local “church.” That doesn’t sound so bad but what sets this case apart is Martinez was sentenced to another 15 years on a hate crime charge.

Martinez may have thought this act could be no worse than if he had burned the American flag since the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Texas v. Johnson (1989) that (American) flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment.

The hypocrisy of the Yankees and the cowardice of the Flyers in the Kate Smith controversy

January 25, 2025April 24, 2019 by The American Citizen

Partially covered statue of Kate Smith at the Philadelphia Sports Complex. (Photo: NY Post)

This week the New York Yankees stopped using a recorded version of Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” that had been played during the seventh inning of each home game since 9/11.

Just a day later, the Philadelphia Flyers announced they were removing the Kate Smith statue next to its sports complex that was erected as a tribute to the deceased singer whom the team had adopted as its good luck charm after it won the Stanley Cup in 1974.

The Flyers released this statement: “While Kate Smith’s performance of ‘God Bless America’ cannot be erased from its place in Flyers history, that rendition will no longer be featured in our game presentations. And to ensure the sentiments stirred this week are no longer echoed, earlier today we completed the removal of the Kate Smith statue from its former location outside of our arena.”

The media said this was the face of an intimidating bigot. How wrong they were.

January 25, 2025January 26, 2019 by The American Citizen

Photo: (Screen shot) NBC Today program. Nick Sandmann

Behold the face of a cocky, intimidating bully. Obviously an all-American bigot. A man, err, boy who needed to be summarily condemned by many of the most powerful media organizations in the country. And all this long before the 15-year-old grows his first whisker.

The mainstream media’s portrayal of the incident in Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 18th was far worse than the incident itself. It was deliberately caused by a well-traveled activist, whose background the media conveniently chose to ignore or not even look into. (See tweets at the end of this article.)

News organizations and reporters just didn’t get it wrong, they rapidly jumped to their desired conclusion by overlooking tons of evidence to the contrary right in front of their biased noses. They WANTED this Catholic kid to be a bigot; they NEEDED the kid to be a bigot. He just fit the narrative too perfectly.

Why? Mostly because he had a red MAGA hat on and was coming from an anti-abortion rally. But also because he is white, male, Christian (and Catholic to boot).

In just two years, six-year-old James might face chemical castration. Can he be saved?

January 25, 2025November 29, 2018 by The American Citizen

There is a tragic story coming out of Dallas, Texas published in The Federalist about a 6-year-old boy named James who is caught in a life-changing, ideological tug-of-war between his divorced parents.

Divorce scars a child of any age but recent actions by the adults supposedly operating with the child’s best interests at heart may take the permanent damage to a much higher level.

We don’t know how it began but his mother, a pediatrician, took young James to “counseling” with an outwardly pro-LGBT therapist who diagnosed the boy with gender dysphoria. She advised his mother that he should be raised as a girl.

James’ mother enrolled him in first grade using the name, “Luna,” while dressing him as a little girl.

The diagnosis is tremendously critical for young James because he may be required to undergo life-altering physical changes — sterilization — in just two years when he is only eight years old.

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