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Schoenbeck: Juneteenth Just a Fad; Noem Now Silent on Emancipation Holiday

Governor Kristi Noem has established a McCarthyite tipline for reporting liberal behavior at our universities. So where’s the state phone bank for reporting doltish conservative comments by government officials?

Operator, I’d like to report the Senate President Pro-Tem for dismissing the celebration of the emancipation of African Americans as a fad:

One of the state lawmakers who consistently voted against every version of Juneteenth legislation both years was Republican Sen. Lee Schoenbeck. KELOLAND News asked him why on Monday. He replied, “I think we have all the correct historical holidays we need. I’m not into fads” [Bob Mercer, “Juneteenth Didn’t Need to Be Added as a State Holiday,” KELO-TV, 2023.06.19].

Yeah, just a fad started by that Republican loose cannon Lincoln—Schoenbeck’s Republican Party is working on bringing back slavery to address the nation’s workforce shortage.

Operator, can I report the Governor for doltish conservative silence?

After marking a couple Juneteenths with praise of white soldiers and statesmen and no mention of the black Americans they freed after at least 146 years of enslavement, Governor Noem has apparently decided it’s more efficient to give libs the finger (because, as Lee said, Juneteenth is just a liberal fad) without lifting one. The Governor, who has in the past few weeks taken time to post or retweet on National Travel and Tourism Week, Prevention Week, Mother’s Day, her 31st anniversary, Memorial Day, National Dairy Month, National Prairie Day, 605 Day, D-Day, Flag Day, the U.S. Army’s birthday, and Father’s Day, said nothing about Juneteenth yesterday on her widely followed social media channels. Evidently her willingness to even acknowledge Juneteenth (and hey, the fact that our ancestors came to their senses and abolished slavery deserves some celebration) was just a fad, quickly subsumed by her quest to extend her own fad-dom.

Alas, the Governor’s Regental tipline only takes calls about poisonous liberal ideologies. If you observe any other instances of conservative idiocy, you’ll just have to call the Governor’s Office directly at 605-773-3212.

65 Comments

  1. Jenny 2023-06-20 06:35

    Asinine thing to say., but then one never expects anything less from an old white boomer from Trumpistan.
    There should be a holiday when the last boomers finally die off.

  2. Donald Pay 2023-06-20 07:14

    Pretty sad comment, indicating willful ignorance. Freedom is a “fad” only in Republican circles. Celebrations of Juneteenth have been ongoing for a long time in Texas. They came to be a big deal in Midwest cities during the Great Migration of southern blacks to northern cities. Chicago and my city of Madison has had a celebration for years. I remember an annual NAACP picnic.in Sioux Falls held sometime between Juneteenth and July 4th to celebrate both holidays.

  3. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-06-20 08:13

    When can we have a special day for us White Christian Men and Women who stood by our beliefs, remained married for than 25 years? Seems like everyone today wants their own sepcial day, so now there is PRIDE DAY to celebrate Tranny-People, there is now Junetenth to celebrate Black People, there Native American Day to celebrate Indians, there is oops, yep, there is another day, called Black History to again, celebrate Black People, but yet,no special day for White Christian American Day to support and celebrate us “White Christian Men and Women” who supports our history and beliefs….AMazingly, if we had that day, I suppose you democrats would protest and call us racist….shame on you.

  4. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 08:29

    Octoberfest is a month long celebration of white religionism, ffs.

  5. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 08:31

    In South Dakota the Sturgis Rally is a week long celebration of white male privilege.

  6. El Rayo X 2023-06-20 08:44

    Fad may not be the right word, but until we start putting up Juneteenth yard decorations and car dealers and furniture stores have Juneteenth sales, it will remain an odd duck holiday. There seems to be no problem having Memorial or Veteran’s Day sales. Exploiting American service men and women for the sake of retail sales is well accepted. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has been celebrated for 40 years and I’ve yet to hear a a car dealer ask, “If you have a dream for a new car, then march on down to…’ You get the picture. It might take a few generations for us to get numb to the meaning of this American holiday.

  7. Bob Newland 2023-06-20 08:47

    Mikey, you have that day. It’s called April Fool’s Day. You self-identified as racist in your opening sentence.

  8. Donald Pay 2023-06-20 08:50

    Mike Z., We have federal holidays for Christmas and Easter for Christians. We don’t celebrate other religions’ holy days with federal holidays. Maybe we should take those federal holidays away from Christmas and Easter, or add a bunch more for other religions.

    Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery and the long-delayed promise of freedom. Of course, as with everything in this country, we took steps back from that promise and it took a long time to almost get there. The people who persevered through slavery and came into freedom deserve to be honored with this holiday. Many of our white and black and Indian ancestors fought and died in the Civil War for other people’s freedom. That is heroic, and deserves to be honored. Of course, Republicans are busy trying to do away with our freedoms, so I understand your reluctance to join this celebration of freedom. Many South Dakotans have ancestors who fought to free this nation from slavery, but you have no interest in freedom so honoring that history is not a priority for you.

  9. All Mammal 2023-06-20 09:26

    Every moffin day is white christian men doing whatever tf they want to do to other people day- Mr. Zittetich, as you have repeatedly demonstrated every single day. Boo hoo , poor christian nationalist. Better find someone to make sure they don’t ever have the same opportunities as you and ol Lee n KN. Nevermind, it’s too easy.

    Celebrating all American liberation does not subtract any of your privilege.

  10. jkl 2023-06-20 09:30

    Mike, love your post. A perfect blend of racism and ignorance. A true Christian.

  11. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 09:57

    If y’all really want to express your displeasure with Mr. Schoenbeck’s latest outrage go to his twitter and Faceberg pages and tell it to his virtual pie hole.

  12. Francis Schaffer 2023-06-20 10:03

    Abraham Lincoln creating a fad by making human slavery illegal in the United States. Lee wants to avoid fads. I want to hear his stance on removing another fad created by Abraham Lincoln – The Homestead Act. So why hasn’t the Supreme Court gone back and overruled the decision in Johnson v McIntosh which introduce the Pope’s Doctrine of Discovery into settled law in the United States? Because well White Men.
    Larry,
    I appreciate your Octoberfest comment. October 6th as National German American Day to boot.

  13. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-06-20 10:36

    I made a respectful comment(s) that did not attack anyone, but like Democrats do with Donald Trump, they misrepresent the words said.

    Thank God, my closest friends, family, and all those around me, my customers, my co-workers, all those I see everyday, as I activate throughout Sioux Falls, know me as someone who is respectful, caring, and acts like a role model to future generations. That is all that matters. The fact is, “White Christian Men and Women” are not actively searching for, nor clamoring for special days each year. They simply go about their business, their activity conducting their business life, working life, while hanging out with their families, friends, and acquaintances, presenting to each other their understanding, character, and better judgment for one another, that they do not clamor to the government to make a special day just for them.

    People who run into me, in Downtown Sioux Falls, in Stores, in Public Places, know that I am a person who will do his best to thank them, appreciate them, enjoy their company, listen to them, and hear their plight. I do not seek recognition, nor reward, I simply do what I do best. Being a Nice, Caring, and Enjoyable Person to be around

    Do I care if you agree with me, or like me? No. I am not changing who I am to fit your so called stereotypes of who I am suppose to be. I am not going to always say the politically correct comments, nor do I wish, nor choose to be perfect, nor say the proper thing all the time. “WE” speak our minds, we stand on our beliefs, and we take the time to listen and understand the people around us, first, and foremost.

    America was a Great Country when people cared less of individual accomplishments, but simply went about their business of which their purpose in life was meant to be – being the best person you tried to be.

    I must have done something right, cause people come up to me everyday, thanking me for standing up for not only my beliefs, but speaking in defense of their thoughts, and ideas, without trying to over dramatizing the situation, and fact is, I make every attempt to set an example of how I want children to become, as they begin to grow up in future years, becoming excellent people themselves.

    Practice What You Preach, and Good Things Happen to you, without the Recognition you sometimes think you deserve…

  14. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 10:42

    Mr. Z, if you run for the legislature from your district as an unaffiliated candidate I will send you some money.

  15. P. Aitch 2023-06-20 11:25

    Watertown’s Senator Schoenbeck shows continually that it’s nearly impossible to share the joys of being an American when posing as a victim.

  16. Donald Pay 2023-06-20 11:30

    Mike Z., quit gaslighting. You made “respectful comments?” Is “Tranny-People” respectful? You misrepresent Pride Month and Black History Month as holidays. Native American Day was pushed forward by Republican Governor George Mickelson after speaking with Tim Giago and other Native Americans who had been championing this idea. It passed a Republican-dominated. and “White Christian Men and Women”-dominated Legislature, I believe in the same session as Martin Luther King, Jr., Day passed. Back the Republican Party wasn’t dominated by racist whiners, like you.

  17. P. Aitch 2023-06-20 11:43

    Wrong Ideals South Dakota Kids Were Taught 🚽🧻
    – The notion of America being a so-called melting pot is but a farce, a smoke screen to conceal the ugly reality of our societal division.
    In truth, we are a patchwork of incompatible ethnic, cultural, and ideological groups, each clinging obstinately to their own corner of the national fabric. The concept of a melting pot is dangerously oversimplified and only serves to obscure the depth of the problem, as if we were somehow all blending into one homogeneous mass.
    Instead, the reality is that our differences persist, simmering just beneath the surface, waiting to explode like a powder keg at the slightest spark.
    – No, Hillsdale College, we must discard the fallacy of the melting pot and instead confront the raw reality of our nation’s diversity, striving to find common cause and mutual respect amidst our differences.

  18. jerry 2023-06-20 11:59

    African Americans have a long history in South Dakota. Many were homesteaders that hung on even in the 30’s. I have had the privilege of knowing some of them.
    Lee Anton shows his ignorance from the pulpit of state government power to ignore the billions of dollars the US military drops in his coffers on a pretty regular basis. There are a lot of Black troops and their families in the state who now think Lee Anton is just more white trash who loves their money but hates their souls. Lee Z seems to be cut from the same ugly cloth, they are the mean girls.

  19. scott 2023-06-20 12:09

    What are white people’s history and beliefs Mike? Please educate us.

  20. Spike 2023-06-20 12:33

    I can tell you Scott…. To award 25 medals of Honor for killing a bunch of women and children at Wounded Knee. To outlaw Native American religious practices in 1883 and not changing that until 1978 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom act. To outlaw the speaking of Indigenous languages in schools in 1886. To force my ancestors onto a reservation at gunpoint and not allow them to leave.

    To call us heathen savages and send missionaries to take our children into boarding schools where they were beaten for speaking their language.
    To tell us that our belief that we come from the earth and it is sacred is wrong.

    To make treaties and break them.

    To support and elect a president that is a sexual predator.

    You white christian have done a lot of good and A LOT of really bad things in the name of ?Christ.

    Poor Mike. Anybody whom has to pontificate about how much people love him and come to him for guidance has problems we don’t know about.

    Joel Koskan marched to the same drum.

  21. Dicta 2023-06-20 12:40

    I’ve met you in person, Mike. At Lowe’s. You came across as arrogant and creepy.

  22. Arlo Blundt 2023-06-20 12:56

    It’s a tragedy that Republican leaders have decided to shun Juneteenth. Immediately after Emancipation what is now South Dakota became a refuge territory for freed African Americans. Yankton, a thriving river port for about 20 years, was home to as many as 400 African Americans working on the docks and riverboats. Freed slaves also went to the frontier for more opportunity than the old south and became cowboys and workers on the frontier. In an environment where hard work counted for more than skin color, black people were widely accepted as contributors. Buffalo soldiers also served extensively in South Dakota.

    Oscar Micheaux, from Louisiana, homesteaded in Gregory County successfully until grasshoppers ended his opportunities. He wrote about his adventure in several novels and later was a pioneer in the making of early silent movies. Neglected and relegated to the “race movie ” circuit during the racist twenties, he is now a celebrated early pioneer of both African American film and literature, much of which focuses on pioneering in South Dakota. He was largely forgotten and his life work ignored until interest in him was revived in the early 1970’s when Professor John Milton and his assistant Jan Hebert published his works in the South Dakota Review, the USD Literary Magamzine, distributed to colleges and universities throughout the country. Micheaux is now celebrated throughout the film industry. His early silent movies appear appear on Turner Classic Movies.

    We have much to celebrate on Juneteenth. Hopefully the Governor and the Republican leadership will wake up, get hip, and appreciate our unique history.

  23. bearcreekbat 2023-06-20 14:12

    Here is another potential State holiday that could be dedicated as a “special day for us White Christian Men and Women” to celebrate, which could be added to Christmas and Easter, etc. Perhaps September 27, 1927 could be the day that these particular white folks might hope for to balance their distaste for Juneteenth and other days celebrating the activities of non-whites and non-Christians:

    On this day in 1927, about 500 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched through downtown Sioux Falls. The KKK was widely known for racism and anti-Semitism, and many Klansmen in South Dakota were anti-Catholic.

    The original incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan was in Tennessee following the U.S. Civil War. The hate group was revived in 1915 in the southern states and also formed chapters in the north, including in South Dakota. Many communities had a local unit of the KKK known as a “Klavern.”

    In Deadwood and Lead they were fueled by hatred of Chinese laborers who worked in the mines. In South Dakota Ku Klux Klan hate extended beyond the Chinese laborers to African Americans, Jewish South Dakotans, and Catholics. In 1921 a Catholic priest was murdered in Lead.

    In 1924, there was a documented Klan gathering in Sioux Falls that led to the march of about 500 members three years later. The Ku Klux Klan in South Dakota faded away by 1930, due largely to Great Depression and public opposition.

    There have been reports since of KKK activity at the Sturgis Motorcycle rally, and in 2014, homes and businesses in Hill City were blanketed with flyers printed with the words “What is a Klansman?” that urged people to join an order called the “Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”.

    But it was on this day 94 years ago when the Ku Klux Klan marched in downtown Sioux Falls.

    https://listen.sdpb.org/arts-culture/2021-09-27/take-a-moment-remembering-the-day-hundreds-of-ku-klux-klan-members-marched-in-south-dakota

  24. Anne 2023-06-20 14:16

    This thread demonstrates why South Dakota is an intellectual wasteland.

  25. Jenny 2023-06-20 14:20

    I counted around 22 ‘I’s’ and ‘Me’s’ in Mike Z’s comments. It’s always ‘me, me, me,’ with some people I guess. Typical narcissism.

  26. P. Aitch 2023-06-20 14:26

    Jenny – Good one. I was gonna count them, too. lol

  27. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-06-20 15:15

    Well, I am sorry I made you all mad. I will discontinue posting in this blog. I am sorry that I upset you all, and I am sorry that I often times did not say the right things in your eyes. This will be, my last post. I only wished to engage with you all, to better understand your thoughts, and beliefs, but at the end of day, “WE” are just two different peas in a pod. I am not going to get into a love, late, or a name calling fest with anyone, I have to much respect for people to attack them on their beliefs. but I will leave with this message a good friend once told me:

    “We walk this path, it is a straight, narrow line, where we look foward and all we see is eternity, we look behind us, and we can see all our history, both good and bad. As we stand in our present point on this line, we have two choices Either we continue to walk down a pathway of ignorance, or we choose to take that history, learn from it, and move forward in a more positive direction. The moral of the story is this, none of us are perfect, we are all humans, created by god, our heavily father, all in his image, and all prone to being imperfect human beings. If we were all perfect, we would be princes and princesses, but we are not. The only person I know of who was perfect, was God himself. Meaning I spell my name M-I-K-E and not G-O-D, I am not perfect, nor the greatest, nor am I free of sin. None of us are. To those of you who cast stones, cause someone does not speak as you do, or as you wish them to, well, I feel for you, as you have lots to learn, we all do”

    Who provided to me those wise words? A good friend named Bill Nees from Georgia.

    I long for the olden days where we can sit down and talk for hours, not afraid of making the other upset over choice of words, I long the days where you could gently tap a person on their shoulder, without being told you harrassed them, and I long for the days where people simply cared for, and respected each other despite the fact we disagreed, rather than ridicule each other, attack each other, and name call each other.

    I may be Republican, I may have my own beliefs, but I am human first, and for that, I must respect all people who come into contact with me, with the hope to discuss, and peacefully and respectively engage with each other despite those disagrements. But for now, due to all the hateful words being spread in my direction, I must bow out, and leave this forum. I cannot engage with people who do nothing but call me names, and hateful words cause they wish to hate the words I do say.

    Sincerely, and with Respect,
    Mike Zitterich.

    So long..

  28. John 2023-06-20 15:26

    Herr Schoenbeck and his senatorial brother, Josh Hawley, show they evaded learning nearly anything about the founding of this nation. They ought to return their university degrees.

    “Juneteenth doesn’t just celebrate the end of nearly 250 years of Black chattel slavery—a brutal institution of forced labor, sexual abuse and exploitation, and wanton violence.
    The day also celebrates the defeat of the Confederacy, a traitorous entity founded on the cornerstone belief of white supremacy and perpetual Black subjugation, as famously declared by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens.
    For that reason, amidst the revelry of the occasion, it’s also critical to acknowledge that while the Confederacy may be long dead, Confederate ideology is alive and well—particularly among the Republican faithful.”
    . . . “America as a whole has a white supremacist problem, but it is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than on the political right, where openly revanchist, authoritarian, and anti-democratic powers consistently prove they are motivated by white racial resentment and vengeance. In short, the GOP is the neo-Confederate party. This is neither hysteria or hyperbole—the GOP’s neo-Confederate agenda is often open and explicit.”
    . . . “That’s why the GOP is currently consumed by Lost Cause mythmaking, which scholar Mary Anne Franks writes requires “whitewashing the role of slavery in American history; selectively championing states’ rights; and promoting racial, gender, and religious supremacy.” Just as the United Daughters of the Confederacy prohibited the teaching of authentic history and banned books that defied Lost Cause ahistoricism, white conservatives around the country are currently leading censorious campaigns against historical accuracy, with the same end goal of persevering a white supremacist national memory.”
    https://news.yahoo.com/juneteenth-remember-gop-neo-confederate-010248756.html

    Slave labor of Africans built the western hemisphere. Not the farmers, shopkeepers, and shippers of the myth, legend, and folklore. Slave labor was so lucrative for western European nations that the British lost more soldiers fighting for Caribbean slave colonies than they did in fighting in North America in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, combined. France lost more soldiers fighting for Caribbean slave colonies than in the French Revolution and that Napoleon lost in all his campaigns, combined. The British, French, and Spanish colonies in North America were a trifling of economic importance to their European masters contrast to their Caribbean possessions. Learn from, Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, by Howard F. French, 2021.

    Frederick Douglas’ speech in Arlington National Cemetery at the nation’s 4th Decoration Day, May, 30, 1871, was attended by President Grant, his cabinet, the Supreme Court Justice and some justices, leaders of congress. Douglas address recounts the imperative importance of the unknown dead of the Civil War to the nation. [Hint, Herr Schoenbeck, it was not a “fad”.] Reflect upon the fact that this nation had, until trumpism – two threats to its existence: 1) the British overlords, and 2) the confederate attempts to subjugate the nation into bickering fiefdoms. Frederick Douglas was a clear-eyed witness to the latter: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by himself, 1881, r 1892. His Decoration Day address: https://tombguard.org/news/article/frederick-douglass-honors-the-unknown-loyal-dead-at-arlington-national-cemetery-may-30-1871

    Junteenth is as important a holiday recognition as is July 4th – far more important to this nation than are Christmas and Easter,. If Juneteenth is a “fad”, then it follows that Herr Schoenbeck’s Germanic and Catholic heritage must too be a fad.

  29. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 15:27

    Bye Mike. See you at South Dacola!

  30. Dicta 2023-06-20 15:36

    This isn’t an airport, Mike. You don’t have to announce your departure.

  31. e platypus onion 2023-06-20 15:40

    I saved a nickel. I was going to offer someone a nickel if he would go away and he left before I coiuld offer. Absolutely amazing to see how long it takes some people to realize the crowd ain’t buying what is being offered.

  32. Mike Lee Zitterich 2023-06-20 15:54

    Larry, I thank you, but I am committed to my own thing anyways, I did respect a lot of the things you wrote, like me, you write in such manner where you do not attack the members. I like a of you say, and even though we may not always agree, I can respect your thoughts. I am a people person first, lost in these blogs is that ‘we’ are human, and we sometimes misrepresent what our true feelings are based on how one interprets our writing. I have made a valiant effort to respect all the members on this blog, and I relish our discussions. I try to understand each members point of view, whie trying to add to, or take from the discussion. When you talk to me face to face, I am what you see, I am someone who will listen to you, and make an attempt to discuss with you our differences, but I just cant be involved on blogs or on facebook pages were people resort to name calling, or insults, stating what is not true about me or my fellow friends I may use the wrong choice of words at times, but deep down, when people explain to me what I said was not good, I try to understand them, and change for the best. I think at times, we are all guilty of rubbing people the wrong way, however, I am a strong believer that our actions paint a much better image of who we are as a person. And whether its in the business of selling used cars, or the discussion of talking politics, or engaging each other publically, You go tmy word, I wil actually listen to what you are saying. The last thing I do is people names on social media. At least it is not my intent. But you can find me anytime if you wish to talk. I thank you for the kind words – Mike

    p.s ytou know how to find me on Facebook, Email, or Websites…

  33. Dicta 2023-06-20 16:16

    That is +1 posts since Mike Z’s announced retirement. Tom Brady would be proud.

  34. Arlo Blundt 2023-06-20 16:20

    Buffalo Soldiers served extended tours of duty at Fort Randall and Fort Meade. One would think that Governor Noem and the legislative Republicans would want to celebrate these well known volunteers in the frontier Army. But no, Buffalo Soldiers are black, and the Governor and the Senator from Watertown might be assumed to be woke. They’d rather continue to be comatose than even slightly awake.

  35. Jenny 2023-06-20 16:27

    Close to 30 ‘I’s’ and ‘Me’s’ counted from Mike Z’s 15:54 paragraph. Mike, just quit talking about yourself.
    Not even Tom Brady was this full of himself.

  36. Jenny 2023-06-20 16:41

    Back to the main topic, I have a question for Lee Schoenbeck – Lee, would you have willingly made that ‘fad’ statement to a black man or woman?
    (Watertown is 96.25% white with only .14% blacks so Lee doesn’t have to worry about offending black voters.)

    In the state where you were born, you always wish for it to be better, more open-minded, more sensitive, more understanding. Maybe someday.

  37. jerry 2023-06-20 16:43

    Here is the screendoor slapping your behind on the way out.
    “People who wear their religion on their sleeves talk a lot about going to Sunday school, reading the Bible, and doing good works. And I suppose there’s no harm in that. But if I’d gone to the trouble to pull all this together … and people never paid any attention to it, never bothered to try to find out how the world worked, then I think I’d get annoyed.”
    ― Jack McDevitt, Deepsix

  38. P. Aitch 2023-06-20 16:48

    If this was a suicide prevention hotline MLZ would get a call back and be put on a list. He’s clearly depressed as well as unsatisfied and unfulfilled. He’s been looking for a confrontation with a liberal, with the things he’s posted, ever since he got here. He’s blaming us as a group for his problems, won’t listen to anyone here who tries to get him into a better mind frame, has huge paranoid tendencies, and is not heading in a healthy direction. Hoping for the best.
    Here’s something I learned from a Dale Carnegie course forty years ago. “The only way to win an argument is to avoid it.”

  39. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 17:06

    No doubt Mr. Schoenbeck was well into his cups when he outed himself as a bigot to Mr. Mercer.

    Lee Schoenbeck is a reactionary self-aggrandizing cult member, a practitioner of the slippery slope straw man ruse, a crackpot of biblical proportions with delusions of grandstanding; and, if you don’t agree with him you’re a leftist, crazy or nuts.

    To Schoenbeck video lootery is “unfortunate” self-reliance but necessary to keep the South Dakota Republican Party greased while cannabis is a projected moral hazard. He’s called center-right blogger, Scott Ehrisman, a leftist, Cory “crazy” and yours truly “nuts.”

  40. Arlo Blundt 2023-06-20 17:18

    Donald has given us an excellent article from the 1977 South Dakota History Journal, an excellent publication. A couple things I forgot were that the Republican Party, under Governor Archie Gubbrud, took a leadership role in adopting civil rights statutes. Senate Bill 1, in 1962, outlawed segregation in public accommodations and employment three years before federal legislation was passed. Maybe Mrs. Noem could somehow bring herself to recognize and celebrate this landmark legislation promoted by Archie Gubbrud, a rock ribbed conservative who was never accused of being a political Liberal. He did, however, complete a Liberal Arts education. Mrs. Noem was obviously sleeping through her Liberal Arts classes or somehow avoided taking any. She is totally ignorant of not only the history of this country but also of her native state.

  41. scott 2023-06-20 17:20

    Mike still didn’t tell us what white people’s history and beliefs are. But then again, when he is questioned about something he writes, he never answers the questions but says he was attacked.

  42. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 17:30

    Hey gang: Lee Schoenbeck is a far, far greater risk to democracy in my home state than Mike Zitterich will ever be. Pick a lane, people.

  43. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 17:36

    Lee Schoenbeck has covered up or helped to cover up at least six decades of abusive sexual predation on children and vulnerable adults!

  44. V 2023-06-20 17:51

    Mike, you have your holidays; Christmas and Easter. For God’s sake, you’ve convinced the public schools to take 10-17 days off for Christmas to do what? Easter is on Sunday, however schools take Good Friday off and what is now called Easter Monday. As an arrogant family man, you have Father’s Day, and your wife has Mother’s Day, and you both have Grandparents Day. There is no special day for us single without kids’ people, but we don’t whine about it because we celebrate EVERYDAY.!

    Nicely written Cory. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

  45. larry kurtz 2023-06-20 18:24

    Mrs. Noem’s silence on this is hardly surprising. Recall she snubbed SDPB because NPR chose not to read a fundamentally racist document on air.

    Yes, it never ceases to amuse how Republicans paint Democrats as the party of slavery then praise the slaveowners who penned not just the Bill of Rights but the Declaration of Independence, too.

  46. grudznick 2023-06-20 18:25

    Mr. Zitterich, tighten up your blogging, please.

  47. Mark B 2023-06-20 20:12

    I grew up in the middle of the state with no sign of diversity around. Why is it that despite not knowing one black or jewish person, I knew dozens of jokes about them. One I remember in particular was ‘You know what the American Dream is? Every black person swimming back to Africa with a Native American under each arm’ Remember that one? Shameful, just shameful. Friends of mine pledged a fraternity at USD in the 80s that had southern roots, where they learned scores of racist jokes and songs.

    My generation is awful. We fought no wars, and as whites inherited a world designed for us to prosper. We didnt have to be racist because our forefathers had done such a good job clearing the field and installing the system. Our fault? Arguable. Our responsibility? Absolutely.

    Watching my peers try to compare their troubles to those of other races is asenine. Again, the reason we dont see it in our life is because our predecessors ‘took care of it’ in theirs.

  48. Jenny 2023-06-20 20:15

    Today’s Republicans are yesterday’s racist Democrats. Any sane person knows that.

  49. grudznick 2023-06-20 20:30

    Mr. B (Mark), you make some interesting and quality observations.

    Although I bet you knew some Jewish people and just didn’t realize it. grudznick did, and they were fine fellows, albeit my time was quite a bit before yours. For instance, Mr. Stan, a friend of the blog, is Jewish.

  50. Mark B 2023-06-20 20:33

    Mike Z you present on the ASD spectrum. You came here for a reason, and I dont think it was to make friends.

    Your perspectives are not insightful. You parrot Fox News and the former host Tucker Carlson, we get it. Nobody bites because you make no effort to do the work of influence. Nothing you say is original or thought provoking.

    If you are here to change minds, study them first. Dialogue is a back and forth and takes time.

    Take Grudz. He doesn’t agree with the majority here most of the time, but he has gained respect over time with his patient style and well timed darts. And he makes this blog better. I look forward to his take.

    Tell us why you are here, Mike. Be honest, dont have to drop a manifesto, but trickle it out. Help me understand how to hear and understand you.

  51. DaveFN 2023-06-20 22:59

    Your defense of yourself is appreciated, Mike. What I understand from your original post is a questioning of the proliferation of special holidays for any and all supposed identities–for identities are never anything but supposed— that seek same. I am not however of the opinion that Juneteeth is merely a matter of assumed identity recognition as much as a recognition of a historical transition worthy of recognition.

    Unfortunate are the dog whistles calling to some—such as Tranny, etc. Words are highly charged and some so much they are best not used. Freedom of speech is a tenuous thing.

    DFP can and will best benefit by all perspectives, and that includes yours, however much many may actively ostracize you. To their and our detriment as far as I’m concerned. Monocultures of groupthink are forever to be ashewed, in blogs or elsewhere.

  52. DaveFN 2023-06-20 23:07

    …eshewed…One-finger Kindle typing is my sole defense, an acceptable defense or not.

  53. Arlo Blundt 2023-06-20 23:46

    Dave FN-I agree. It is best to eshew GroupThink.

  54. DaveFN 2023-06-21 00:25

    Ouch. Agreement is the first sign of group think :-)

  55. Dicta 2023-06-21 07:00

    Ive disagreed with most of you here. I never tried to push you out. I happily do with Zitterich. If your brayingly simplistic conclusion is that “it’s because he disagrees,” then more power to you.

  56. P. Aitch 2023-06-21 08:04

    I predict MLZ will be back with a pseudonym but he’ll be easily recognizable. Remember Old Sarge?

  57. e platypus onion 2023-06-21 08:20

    Didn’t take long to get a next post after the for sure last post. Maybe should have labeled it ps.

  58. Donald Pay 2023-06-21 08:22

    I have no problem with Mike Z. espousing conservative perspectives, but I just can’t abide hate. He seems to think hate and false victimization is a prerequisite for being conservative. If he wants to present conservative perspectives as racist and hateful, he is going to get some push back.

  59. Dicta 2023-06-21 08:25

    Hint: if the new poster RANDOMLY capitalizes WORDS seemingly WITHOUt consideration to WHY a GIVEN word would be capitalized, it may be Mike. If he continues to believe the election was stolen despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary, it’s him or Dale. Either way, nothing of value is lost when his voice exits the conversation.

  60. jerry 2023-06-21 10:54

    Nailed it Dicta

  61. John 2023-06-27 08:44

    Fad? Over 100 present US lawmakers, governors, judges, justices, and the current and most past presidents have slaveholders in their family tree. Over 20% of members in the present congress have slavery in their lineage. But one will not hear them talk about it – it was just a fad, ‘eh?
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/slaverys-descendants-americas-family-secret-rcna90826

    Census records, as found, in New York colony and later the state show my family’s clean . . . but still as citizens, we all received the fruits of the deadly legacy. Most forebears arrived after slavery — but benefited from the genocide of Indians. Homesteading in NE South Dakota was a direct result from the First Dakota War.

    The “fad” was the doctrine of discovery.

  62. ABC 2023-07-01 11:46

    Freedom is a fad?

    How can Watertown re elect such a dunce?

    Today we celebrate economic freedom.

    That extra 3 cents you save by the sales tax being lowered down to 6.2%? Keep and save and invest every penny that you harvest from this! Soon, a million or more will grace your bank account July and every month from now on (Think Bobby Bonilla’s million dollar plus payday every July 1).

    Lincoln ended human slavery.

    We end economic slavery today, harvesting our

    30 cents extra per $100 spent. Which is n our hands now, easily becoming millions!

    We call it July Uno!

    It is our economic holiday of total liberation!

    In fact, we celebrate it every day! Our liberation and wealth is now!

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