Pete Hegseth’s anti-DEI speech at West Point is a template to save American lives
If you have not read, watched, or listened to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recent commencement address at West Point, you really should make the time to do so. It’s about protecting the lives of you and your family.
During his desperately needed remarks, the Secretary of War reminded the cadets before him that: "The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy. Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it."
Hegseth then rightfully singled out the United States Military Academy by calling out the "woke and weak leaders" who sought to transform West Point into a "woke Princeton." His alma mater.
Said the combat decorated Secretary in part regarding those "leaders" of West Point: "They embraced the DEI craze and tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies. They hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls…" How correct Hegseth is. On this point, I have a personal connection with the warning the Secretary of War delivered; West Point; and the Secretary himself.
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Back on July 2, 2022, I was on the hallowed grounds of West Point to appear on Fox & Friends Weekend to discuss my just authored book titled: The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who Risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence. A book I had only written to protect our Founding Fathers from the "Woke" mob continually seeking to cancel them.
Soon after my segment finished, a senior officer at West Point quietly approached me and asked if he could speak with me in private. After we walked off to the side, he outlined in detail how West Point was not only "going far left but eliminating or watering down one standard and tradition after the other." With tears in his eyes, he begged me to get the word out.
To be sure, I tried, but it is a word Secretary Hegseth is much better positioned than I to amplify. As he just did so admirably.
With regard to Hegseth himself, while staying on the grounds of West Point, I had the honor to speak with him one on one several times. To say that he is one who deeply cares about our military and the exceptionalism of our nation would be a vast understatement.
He just proved so with his words calling out the destruction DEI is deliberately visiting upon our military. During his commencement speech, Hegseth also reminded all: "Many of you, even in your short time in uniform have endured what I call the slow slide of the U.S. Army. You’ve seen standards lowered, you’ve seen an obsession with race and gender, you’ve seen the watering down of discipline, codes weakened and traditions tossed aside in the name of political correctness, statues taken down, paintings placed in the basement…"
It is here that I would like to make the most critical point of all. For it is not just the Army or our military in which we see "…standards lowered…an obsession with race and gender…the watering down of discipline, codes weakened and traditions tossed aside in the name of political correctness…" but in every single occupation which ultimately holds the precious lives of American citizens in its hands.
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Be those occupations: our police and fire departments; the health care industry; the airline and transportation industries; air traffic controllers; 911 operators; and our utilities. All in the age of Obama and Biden which have become infused with draconian DEI edicts which have dangerously watered down the quality and effectiveness of those occupations.
Hegseth’s warning about the corrosive – and nation-weakening – effect of DEI in our military applies as much or more to those fields. Jobs which every single day, do hold the lives of every single American citizen in their hands in one way or the other.
I don’t believe "Identity Politics" should be the metric used to fill any job. Real world experience and merit should be the only criterion when seeking to fill any position. But most especially, when it comes to our military, our police, our firefighters, our doctors, our nurses, and our pilots, "Identity Politics" should never be employed.
Hegseth’s West Point commencement address should be superimposed over all these occupations. The welfare, health, and very lives of all Americans depend upon those careers and callings being filled only by those most qualified.
Regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, we need the best of the best to protect us. A common sense — and life saving — point every American should agree upon.