Maybe the Rangers Did the Best They Could?
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4A Monday, June 21, 2021 OPINION dentonrc.com || Denton Record-Chronicle A view from the right From the left Published by Right to bear Founded from weekly newspapers the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882, arms does and the Denton Record, established in 1897. Published daily as the Denton Record-Chronicle since August 3, 1903. not extend to EDITORIAL BOARD PAST PUBLISHERS Bill Patterson William C. “Will” Edwards Publisher and CEO 1903-1927 Black people Sean McCrory Robert J. “Bob” Edwards Executive Editor 1927-1945 onservatives have a special purgatory Jenna Duncan Riley Cross for uppity Black women who dare Digital Editor 1945-1970 Cquestion America’s founding myths. Mariel Tam-Ray Vivian Cross New York Times journalist Nikole Han- Nightside Editor 1970-1986 nah-Jones — her Pulitzer Prize-winning Scott Sackett Fred Patterson “1619 Project” centralized slavery in Amer- Community Member 1986-1999 ica’s origin story, a heresy that inspired laws banning her work from classrooms Editorials published in the Denton Record-Chronicle — now lives there. And she’s about to have are determined by the editorial board. company. Questions and suggestions should be directed to: In her new book, The Second, Emory Denton Record-Chronicle Local voices University history professor Carol Anderson 3555 Duchess Drive, Denton, TX 76205 takes on an even more sacred cow: guns. Phone: 940-566-6800 She argues that the Email: [email protected] Second Amendment — which supposedly Maybe the Rangers did came about solely as a Guest View hedge against tyranny — had at its heart a much less noble con- the best they could? cern: Southern states demanded the right Delta variant calls amiro Valdez’s June 5 guest essay who were astonished that those Scotch-Irish to bear arms because Leonard titled “The truth is, the Rangers did settlers matched their own audacity but with they feared rebellions Rmany bad things,” based on Doug repeating weapons. The Mexican border by enslaved Africans. Pitts for a strong push Swanson’s Cult of Glory, disparages the suffered many outrages from both sides, for All that talk about Texas Rangers. Similarly, Jeff Guinn’s War example, Leander McNelly’s fierce reprisals “a well-regulated on the Border and Monica Martinez’s The against Juan Cortina’s thievery, illustrating militia”? Anderson told me in a telephone on COVID-19 shots Injustice Never Leaves You condemn those the principle “like begets like.” After the Civil interview that that was just the cover story. lawmen. Undercutting law enforcement War, Texans expanded into lands claimed by State militias had not performed well either This editorial first appeared in Bloomberg Opinion. has become a sport for Democrats. the Comanches and Kiowas, bringing more in fighting off the British or in defending Guest editorials don’t necessarily reflect the Denton Re- University of Texas-Austin professor brutality on each side, as those natives had against a domestic uprising: Shays’ Rebel- cord-Chronicle’s opinions. Walter Prescott Webb inflicted upon neighboring tribes. Deploring lion. “What the militia was really good at, wrote The Texas Lewis the atrocities from our safe distance serves however, was putting down slave revolts.” he rise of the dangerous delta variant of the corona- Rangers: A Century Toland as virtue signaling, but how do two peoples So the South held America hostage. It virus gives new urgency to the effort to get people of Frontier Defense with radically opposed concepts of owner- refused to join the new nation unless it was Tvaccinated. Delta has been spreading phenomenally (1935). He over-gen- ship share land? Americans conceived legal guaranteed the right to keep its guns. Not fast. It’s already the dominant strain in India, the U.K. and erously praised title to a surveyed plot, even up to four sec- that this was the region’s only demand. Ulti- Singapore, and it has a foothold in more than 80 coun- the Rangers but, unlike leftist teachers, tions in area. The tribes regarded territorial mately, the Constitution contained several enthused thousands of young Texans about ownership by the group, not by individuals. clauses protecting slavery and slave owners. tries. While it accounts for only about 10% of U.S. cases of their history. Reviling historical figures Where and when in world history have It was to be a recurring theme. From COVID-19 so far, that share is expected to balloon. rather than accepting them as fellow radically different cultures encountered each the Founders in 1787 to today’s refusal to There’s evidence, too, that the variant may cause more humans with varying degrees of good and other gently? enact needed voting-rights reform because severe disease. Data from the U.K. suggest people who evil, which is human nature, distorts our The Rangers acted decisively in extreme of so-called bipartisanship, protecting contract this strain are twice as likely to be hospitalized as frames of reference by which to live. Mike circumstances, so why don’t we consid- Black people’s humanity has always come those who caught a previous form of the coronavirus. Cox’s two-volume history and Robert er the possibility that they did the best in second to other concerns deemed more The saving grace is that vaccines keep people safe. Utley’s Lone Star Justice affirm the Rangers’ that they could with what they knew and vital. But as Anderson noted, “When you’re Those who’ve had two doses of the Pfizer shot, for in- virtues and acknowledge their vices, thus believed? What room do we have to be willing to sacrifice Black folks for what you stance, are 88% protected from the delta variant. But countering Swanson’s detractions. Playing self-righteous as immigrants who come consider to be the larger issue, you end up those who have had just the first dose are only 33% pro- the iconoclast tempts many of us. here illegally scorn our border, egged on sacrificing the larger issue as well.” tected, and of course the unvaccinated are utterly vulner- Iconoclasts smash an idol, tear down by an administration afraid to visit that Meaning that America cannot cred- a monument or ridicule a tradition while border? Some settlers and Rangers acted ibly practice racial discrimination, then able. No doubt, delta will flourish in places where most evading the essential duty to replace the stridently, but those transgressions pale tout itself as a beacon of freedom. That’s a people haven’t gotten their shots. shattered image with something at least as when contrasted to our slaughter of over 60 hypocrisy with which geopolitical foes have This makes it more urgent than ever to expand vacci- good. Raging at the racism of our ances- million aborted innocents. The same polit- taunted presidents from Kennedy to Biden. nation. So far, public-health leaders and many business tors, whether real or imagined, cowardly ical party that opened the border has done But as Anderson observes, the Second owners have tried coaxing — patiently explaining the ben- assaults those who can no longer defend nothing to stop the violence in their cities, Amendment betrays Black folk not only efits of vaccination, giving away burgers and doughnuts, themselves. The practice scorns the Golden especially Chicago, where each weekend in its origin but also in its application. Put holding big prize lotteries, and sending mobile vaccina- Rule by treating them more severely than Black lives do not matter at the hands of simply: The right to keep and bear arms tion units to underserved neighborhoods. Thanks in part we would want our descendants to treat us. other Black residents. Let’s be grateful that does not extend to Black people. If it did, to these efforts, 65% of American adults have now had at Since all humans are flawed, why should we nearly all law enforcers act honorably. would the National Rifle Association — least one shot. But that share needs to grow. It’s thought presume that we would have done better in LEWIS TOLAND, a Denton resident, is that vigilant defender of gun rights — have that at least 70% of the population needs to be fully vac- those circumstances? a professor of English emeritus at the New kept silent when a John Crawford III or a The early Rangers defeated some of the Mexico Military Institute and a member of Tamir Rice, the one a man legally carrying a cinated to keep infection rates down without other social world’s best light cavalry in the Comanches, the West Texas Historical Association. firearm, the other a boy legally playing with restrictions. At this point, stronger measures are needed. a toy gun, were executed by police? Major sports leagues are right, for example, to demand By its loud silence, the group gave tacit proof of vaccination from people who attend games — Letters to the editor approval of what Anderson calls the “frac- and to make the unvaccinated be tested and sit in special tured citizenship” of African Americans. sections. Universities should also make sure students and “When they were enslaved or free blacks, professors have their shots. Skewed and full of holes when they were Jim Crow blacks or when Companies should begin to exercise their authority Repeatedly, I read articles, not in this JOIN THE CONVERSATION they were post Civil Rights Movement to require employees to be vaccinated before entering paper, but on the Opinion page of The Wall For consideration, letters and guest essays black folks, that did not alter how the right Street Journal, such as the June 17 op-ed ti- must be original and include the writer’s to bear arms, the right to a well-regulated the workplace, as some have already said they’ll do.