SCOTT DREYER: What’s Good For The Goose?

Leadership is not having the right answers–it’s asking the right questions.  – Andy Stanley

In my March 12 column, I erroneously claimed that US Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) lived on Richmond’s Confederate Avenue. An eager reader of my columns pointed out that “Confederate Avenue” has since been renamed, and that Sen. Kaine was in favor of the renaming when it was done in November 2020.  I have since added a correction to that column.

The longer I live, and the longer I teach, the more value I see in asking good questions. Have you ever had the experience, when you get the answer to one question, several new questions spring to your mind? The fact that the Kaines lived on Confederate Avenue for 28 years–all while Kaine served as Richmond City Council Member, Mayor, and Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and US Senator–has piqued my curiosity.  

  • In a city as big as Richmond with as many streets as there are, why did the Kaines choose to reside on Confederate Avenue?
  • If the word “Confederate” is objectionable today, why didn’t the Kaines move away before November 2020? 
  • Why was Sen. Kaine calling for the renaming of US military bases with the names of CSA generals while he was still living on Confederate Avenue?
  • When Kaine ran for Virginia Lieutenant Governor in 2002, Governor in 2006, and the Senate in 2012 and 2018, how much attention did the media give to his living on Confederate Avenue?
  • In 2016, Mrs. Hillary Clinton hand-picked Kaine as her running-mate for vice president in their failed bid for the White House. How was it possible, in the 21st century, the Democrat Party chose a resident of Confederate Ave. for the second-highest elected position in the land? 
  • With Orwellian irony, Clinton called half of the Trump voters a “basket of deplorables.” How many Trump voters have ever lived on Confederate Avenue? 
  • If you are a Virginia voter, were you aware that Kaine was living on Confederate Avenue?
  • Was that issue ever raised in any of the campaigns? Do you think it should have been?
  • If a Republican ran for office while living on Confederate Avenue, would he or she get as little media scrutiny? 
  • With Orwellian irony, an email from Sen. Kaine hit my inbox today. In his missive he boasted, “I believe that all people should be treated equally” and “Please be assured that I will continue to fight for equal protection under the law for all Americans.” How are we supposed to believe that when Kaine lived on a street named after racism and oppression for almost a third of a century?
  • Speaking of “Confederate,” during the tight 2017 race for Virginia governor, allies of Democrat Ralph Northam ran an outrageously nasty and dishonest TV ad. It featured a white man driving a pickup truck flying a Rebel flag who was trying to run over and kill terrified non-white children. Did Sen. Kaine call out the Northam campaign for allowing such a hateful ad designed to spread fear and racial tension by depicting white pickup truck drivers as psychopathic mass murderers?

On a very different note, this week the US is to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. “Everyone” knows that St. Patrick was from Ireland. Except for the fact that….Patrick was not from Ireland. He was from England.

Speaking of questions, why do so few people know that fact too?

To be continued….

Scott Dreyer in his classroom.

– Scott Dreyer

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