LTP News Sharing:

In advance of Super Bowl LVIII this weekend, ambassadors with the Project 21 black leadership network are voicing their thoughts about Andra Day performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — often referred to as the “Black National Anthem” — during the Super Bowl pregame celebration.

Donna Jackson

Donna Jackson, Project 21 Director of Membership Development:

If the goal was to divide us, the NFL’s decision to include the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Super Bowl missed the mark. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by James Weldon Johnson for the celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, 1900.

Lincoln was a conservative, and no doubt Johnson was inspired by the bravery and courage Lincoln showed in making this country into a great nation. Lincoln refused to allow our great country to become a divided nation, and today that goal is more important than ever. During the Super Bowl, this song should cause us to reflect on the sacrifices Lincoln made to keep these United States as one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for ALL.

Michael Austin

Michael Austin, Project 21 Ambassador:

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” once served as a reminder to former slaves to show gratitude and faith to God for their freedom, but its inclusion in the Super Bowl 120 years later is less of a strategic move and more of a desperate Hail Mary to exploitation.

The NFL is shamelessly following the leftist playbook, shaming Americans for crimes they didn’t commit and victimizing Americans for injustices they never suffered. It’s a divisive play, where the only trophy hoisted will be an award of resentment and division instead of a celebration of America and a thrilling game we deserve to see.

AK Kamara

AK Kamara, Project 21 Ambassador:

The NFL has once again bowed to the pressure of Marxist racial identitarians. The “Black National Anthem” will be performed by Andra Day during the Super Bowl 58 pregame broadcast.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a spiritually deep and powerful hymnal song. FULL STOP. It is NOT the “Black National Anthem.” Nations have national anthems, whereas ethnic and racial groups do not.

Performing this song as the “Black National Anthem” destroys the true beauty, meaning and power of the song. The “Black National Anthem” narrative foments racial divides and animosity.

Maybe every person opposed to this divisive racial narrative should start taking the knee any time “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is performed under the banner of the “Black National Anthem.” Now that’s not a half bad idea.

Marquita Bushrod

Marquita Bushrod, Project 21 Ambassador:

As long as the intent is pure, I am all for the NFL’s decision to have the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the “Black National Anthem,” be sung at the Super Bowl.

While no anthem can or should ever replace the National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is an important song in the history of black Americans that is a prayer to God of thanksgiving and freedom.

The song is not being performed during the game, nor it is replacing the National Anthem; rather it will be sung during the pregame which is appropriate during Black History Month. The National Anthem will still have its rightful place immediately prior to kickoff, which is customary.

For this reason, I see no issue with the song being performed. America needs all the prayers it can get as we are fighting for our freedom every day. Bringing this song to the NFL’s biggest game of the year is a win-win in my book.

Author: The National Center

LTP News Sharing:

This year we’ve seen Anheuser-Busch, Target and other companies sacrifice both their bottom lines and reputations in order to be seen as woke.

Turns out that didn’t quite pan out for them.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) touts its Corporate Equality Index (CEI)  as “the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.” For years we’ve criticized the companies that continue to kiss the HRC ring even as HRC’s polices become ever more illogical, offensive and even predatory.

This year, despite their best efforts to stay atop the rankings, it seems almost 300 companies have seen their CEI scores decline.

Members of our Free Enterprise Project team, who have been vocal opponents of HRC’s corporate manipulation, are responding to this news.

Scott Shepard

Free Enterprise Project Director Scott Shepard:

HRC was once a legitimate civil rights organization that represented the genuine interests of most gay people. Now it has become both a lunatic asylum and an unvarnished cog in the leftwing pressure conglomerate.

Its Corporate “Equality” Index reflects this, being revised every year to make ever-more-radical demands on corporations in defense of positions that harm everyone — including and perhaps especially most gays and lesbians.

Because the CEI requires companies to take — and spend shareholder money to advance — the hard-left position on matters wholly unrelated to their business purposes, a company that scores 100 percent on the CEI has proudly declared its violation of its fiduciary duties.

Any companies that aren’t seeing lower CEI scores are betraying their duty and their shareholders.

 

Ethan Peck

Free Enterprise Project Associate Ethan Peck:

HRC constantly shifting the criteria for its index is part of its modus operandi – it keeps corporations fearful of a bad score, on edge and ready to succumb to new and more radical demands.

It’s right out of the Hamas & PLO playbook: If you give them a finger, they want your hand. So then you give them your arm and they take your head. They view appeasement not as an act of good faith or attempted compromise but as weakness – as an opportunity to exploit and keep exploiting.

That’s why Bud Light couldn’t buy its way to a good score, because HRC does not have an end goal – it is prepared to keep moving the goalposts indefinitely.

 

Stefan Padfield

Free Enterprise Project Deputy Director Stefan Padfield:

Radical leftism is built upon unsustainable lies. We are told that despite all the natural diversity of individuals, we should expect equality of outcomes. We are told that despite their long history of being oppressed, Jews fall on the “oppressor” side of the oppressor-oppressed spectrum and thus may be “decolonized” by any means necessary.

And in the case of HRC, we are told that a man can become a woman simply by identifying as such.

These lies are ultimately unsustainable, but we must confront them nonetheless because of the damage they can cause before they are fully exposed.

And when it comes to corporate executives and directors, we must continue to exert pressure on them to stop placing their personal beliefs and self-interest ahead of their fiduciary duties, including by bending the knee to HRC.

Author: The National Center

LTP News Sharing:

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File

I typically write my Townhall columns a couple of days ahead of time, and I hope that events don’t overcome this one. Why am I worried? Because what I’m writing about now is the deadly threat that our incompetent elite, led by that senile, corrupt, dust puppet masquerading as our president, have allowed to fester in our country. Last Thursday, I wrote about how the left literally wants to see you raped and murdered. Well, the left has also left the door open for the murderers. Now, half the Third World is waltzing across our southern border, and how do you think this is going to end? Think it ends well? Does it seem like a really smart idea? Of course not, which is why they are doing it.

Though around the world sociopaths stabbed some folks, the Day of Jihad fizzled in America – how many bummed patriots slammed in a mag hoping some mutant was going to choose his small town to prove Jason Aldean right? But it is only a matter of time. When you allow millions of military-aged males to come unvetted into your country, including many from bizarre hellholes where hatred for Americana is more common than food and indoor plumbing, there is a non-zero chance that some of them are part of sleeper cells waiting for the signal to murder Americans here at home.

Oh, now I’m just a pundit, albeit one who actually has a little experience doing things, and it is not beyond the realm of pundit possibility that a commentator may exaggerate for effect. So ignore what I say. Ignore this heartfelt warning that our country is vulnerable to a massive insider threat made up of illegal aliens who have walked across the open border and can, at the time of their own choosing, decide to slaughter mass numbers of Americans. Put aside that it has happened before, from 9/11 to San Bernardino to the Pulse nightclub, and for all we know, in Las Vegas, because the FBI is too busy arresting scary grandmas for praying outside abortion clinics to figure out what the hell happened there.

I had the opportunity to ask probably the most respected senior White House official of the Trump Administration, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, whether he thinks there’s a threat. Well, I’ll let him speak for himself:

“The border is open. Thousands of military-age males from adversary nations enter the United States without women or children every day. Suppose only one-tenth of one percent of the millions of people who have crossed into America illegally over the past three years have malign intentions against our country. In that case, we have a serious national security problem.”

When serious guys like Ambassador O’Brien are worried, maybe people should pay attention. Just look at those facts and decide for yourself, understanding that most people will refuse to do so. It’s scary and unpleasant. Based on our elite’s legacy of failure over the last few decades, it takes a lot of dead Americans for people to sit up and pay attention. Our elite actually supports our enemies. You have an organization, Black Lives Matter, that actively celebrates the murder of innocents and that has received millions upon millions of dollars from mainstream corporations. On our allegedly most prestigious universities’ campuses, you have a bunch of sophomore psychopaths cheering on the rape and murder of innocent people, all in the name of “decolonization.” 

Meanwhile, the regime media and the Democrat Party are doing everything they can to neuter our ability to respond. 

Our ruling class decided they would take the risk. After all, if you’re going to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. Except you and your family are the eggs. When jihad cretins go on a killing spree, they’re not going to attack college campuses. They’re going to attack where normal, patriotic people are. They’re going to attack churches, ball games, shopping malls, movie theaters, and other places where you and your kids are.

Why? Because they want to murder you. Actually, your death is a fringe benefit. They believe there’s political gain to doing it. If they spill enough American blood, maybe we will withdraw from the world. Maybe we will roll up into a fetal position and allow them to run rampant across the rest of the globe until, after their jihad has put the rest of the world under the black flag, they can finally concentrate their forces upon us and purge us from the face of the Earth.

I know you want to call me crazy. Next, I am probably going to tell you that a bunch of Arabs allowed into our country might band together, hijack four planes, and fly them into major buildings, killing thousands. How nutty is that?

Luckily, we have our crack law enforcement and intelligence communities on the case. I might feel a little more confident if the targets the FBI has been focusing on – people taking selfies in the rotunda, folks criticizing their school boards, people going to mass – were the actual threat. And, of course, our intelligence community saw 9/11 coming, got Iraq right about the WMDs, and warned Israel about what would happen in Gaza a couple of weeks ago. Oh, right, none of that is a thing. If you’re putting your personal safety in the hands of this coterie of clowns, all I can say is that you ought to go get yourself some good-term life insurance.

As always, your security is your problem, but luckily, the Second Amendment provides a solution. You need to buy guns and ammunition. I know I sound like a broken record, which is another reference that no one under 30 is going to get. When all hell breaks loose, you can expect communications to be down, you can expect chaos to rain, and if you think your local gendarmes are going to roll up in their back and white cruiser to solve your problem, you have got another thing coming. You need to do it yourself because there’s no one else who’s going to be able to do it for you. Not the cops. Not the army. Not Spider-Man. I was there in the Los Angeles riots when civilization literally collapsed in a matter of hours. You don’t think it can happen? Buddy, that is the natural state of man, not this beautiful illusion that we live with here in America.

You have got to step up, especially now that the people you trusted to protect you have utterly failed and invited in the jihadi hordes. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. I would love to hear nothing but “Kurt, I told you so.” But that doesn’t change the reality. The risk is real, and your family’s life is your responsibility. Don’t be one of those terrified people in the next set of terrorist selfies with no way to fight back. Channel the warrior heritage that belongs to every American. Be ready to fight. You might die anyway, but at least you’ll die like a man.

Just because you’ve heard it before doesn’t make it any less true. Buy guns and ammunition.

____________

RELATED ARTICLE

What FBI Director Says People Should ‘Be on the Lookout’ For in US After Hamas’ Attack on Israel

By Leah Barkoukis| Townhall.com

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

FBI Director Christopher Wray said domestic threats have increased since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, urging increased vigilance amid the “heightened environment.”

“There’s no question we’re seeing an increase in reported threats and we’ve got to be on the lookout, especially for lone actors who may take inspiration from recent events to commit violence of their own,” he said Saturday at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego.

“History has been witness to antisemitic and other forms of violent extremism for far too long,” Wray continued. “Whether that be from foreign terrorist organizations, or those inspired by them, or domestic violent extremists motivated by their own racial animus, the targeting of a community because of their faith is completely unacceptable.” 

The FBI director said the agency is committed to “confronting those threats” in the U.S. and abroad.

Last Monday, the FBI said it “does not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel,” but that it will be “closely monitoring unfolding events and will share relevant information with our state, local, federal and international law enforcement, intelligence and homeland security partners to ensure they are prepared for any impacts to public safety.” 

The agency added, “We will not hesitate to adjust our security posture, as appropriate, to protect the American people.”