Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Oops !

“A closed mouth gathers no foot!”

Oops? No, as this was not a mistake, but rather a unique juxtaposition of phrases that was seen on a billboard. However, this mixed metaphor immediately reminded me of Colin Clown-pernick, and his recent statement that purportedly had something to do with an older American flag on Nike shoes. His hypocrisy was then exposed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R,TX) on Twitter.
For those of you not familiar, this is what the ex-NFL kneeler said:“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.” This statement was from an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass, a noted abolitionist.

Sen. Cruz responded as follows:“You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context.”

Two critical points: 1. “This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.”2. “Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows: ‘Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. . . . I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age’.”

Oops! It appears that Mr. Clown-pernick has cherry-picked only that part of the speech that suited his purpose. My guess is that he probably read Douglass’ entire speech, but chose to ignore the ending. Alternatively, he had neither been taught at University of Nevada, Reno to finish reading anything nor that slavery was ended in the 1860s, after the Civil War.

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