Monday, January 21, 2019

Something important happened this weekend. And we were not told the entire truth. Yet, most believed the young smiling teen was a villain. I don't think he really was.

This whole episode has a lesson for us all.  It reminds me a little bit about the film, "The Outrage."  And there is a lesson too for us JFK researchers, because a falsehood was put forward.  The falsehood was easy to believe because it played to our prejudices.

Many people have seen some of the video of what appeared to be young Catholic teenagers wearing the Trump "Make America Great Again" hats taunting an elderly Native American man on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial.

One young man in particular stood in front of an elderly Native American as he beat a hand held drum.  Videos of this event went viral, as they say.




This young man was vilified to the nth degree on social media sites.  There was such outrage that the school and the Diocese where this kid is from denounced the actions of these young men.  They said they were investigating the incident and would take action that could include expulsion.


Some people thinking they were Sherlock Holmes sought to discover the young man's name.  One person on Twitter claimed to have discovered his name but chose to not reveal it.  His reason was that  people on social media were denouncing what they perceived to be a racist mob of young men harassing a single, elderly Native American and the response to him was what he saw as on online mob attacking a single person. 

So, what really happened? Did all these kids really decide to harass and mock one Native American Indian? 

New information has come to light.  First, of all some context.  The young men are from a private Catholic school in Covington, Kentucky.  They were in Washington, D.C. as part of an anti-abortion protest called "The March for Life." You can Google that for more information. Now this particular school is pretty hard Right school and they are pretty extreme in their Catholic beliefs too, to the point where some want the Pope to resign.  I admit I took a look at the school to find information about them. I did not really care what the name of the young man was.  I too went to a Catholic high school. So, I know the kind of people this kid has for teachers and what his environment is like. 

I believe it was late on Jan 20th when he came forward with a letter detailing the event from his perspective.  And CNN has found evidence from videos confirming his version of events.

In his letter, Nick Sandmann wrote that after the "March for Life," his group were told to go to the Lincoln Memorial area where there would be buses to take them back home.  Now Washington, D.C. always has someone or some group protesting something.  And Jan19th was no exception. 

Also at the Lincoln Memorial was another group.  This group consisted of some Black men who call themselves "Hebrew Israelites." They started shouting obscenities at these Covington kids and at a group of Native American Indians who were there for the Indigenous Peoples March.   

This is the guy who apparently videoed himself and his group, the Hebrew Israelites.  It is from this video "Mirror of Shar Yaqataz Babyamyan video," ( It's on Youtube, though it's hard to find and might have been, or soon will be taken down ) that I am taking screen images.  


This is the guy shouting at the Native American Indians.  He is critical of these Native Americans for "worshipping a totem pole."  He claims that because they worship false idols their land was taken from them.  





This is one of the Indians he yells at. 


One person who I think is from the Indian group comes over to this "Hebrew Israelite."




He keeps ranting that the one high God is, as he pronounces it,  Ya How Wa.  He also shouts at a young woman wondering what is he mad about? 


When asked why is he so mad? He asks this guy to give him Proverbs 7:7.


The woman curses at him.  He shouts "Show me your passion, make a wise man mad."  These two women shout back.


He claims "Indian," means "savage."  He taunts them, asking do you know where that name came from, "it came from the White man."  Now some Indian men come over.


And the jackass taunts them too.  This man (above) tells him Indian come from the Spanish word Indio, as in God like people.  It did not come from the White man.  The jackass insists it means '"savage."  The Indian men turn away and walk away from this fool.

One of the Hebrew Israelites is holding a sign.


The jackass starts to denounce Trump and talks about the government shutdown.  Then he notices the kids with the MAGA hats on. The jackass asks why the woman isn't angry with them.  


The woman continues to talk to the jackass. And surprisingly she gets the fool to shut up.  He is exasperated with her and stops taunting people as they pass.  

Then this genius who is filming puts the camera on himself. He doesn't like women "with their loud mouth."  He calls her a distraction and says she's "being wicked."  


The jackass doesn't want to talk to her anymore.  He asks where is her husband, "let me speak to him."  The jackass's followers proclaim "That's right, that's right." 

He then exclaims "the white man has his foot up your ass."

Well, that was enough for this woman.  She exclaims, "That's why you talk like that because the devil is in you!" 


She then moves slightly away and blows into some horn as if she's calling for reinforcements.



After she moves away the camera moves over to where the kids with the MAGA hats are standing.  They are then taunted. They are told to "bring their cracker asses over."  "You little dirty ass crackers, your day is coming!" 


Only a few feet away from these "Hebrew Israelites" the Native American Indians form a large circle, holds hands, and dance.  


At about 20 minutes into this video you can hear someone talking to the Indian group.  He has a microphone, or something, and is talking to the crowd.  He's facing towards the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. This may be Nathan Philips. 

This jackass taunts everyone who goes by.  Some young black kids walk by and they're called, "Little Kanye N-words."   

At about 36 minutes in someone curses back at the jackass. He then tries to direct hate towards the young men with the MAGA hats on. He wanted the man who cursed at him to curse them.  On and on he rants. At one point calling the kids with the MAGA hats on "child molesting faggots." The jackass rants on and on mentioning how Trump kissed Giuliani when Giuiliani was in drag, "like a damn faggot." No one escapes his taunting, even a skateboarder "you an asshole on a skateboard."  

After about an hour and 9 minutes of this jackass spouting off one of the Covington kids takes his shirt off and starts to lead them in a chant, like something from a pep rally.  

And at about an hour and 12 minutes Nathan Philips leads some people and they position themselves between the MAGA kids and the Hebrew Israelites.  Philips faces himself and his followers towards the Covington kids. Why did Philips move toward and position himself amongst the Covington kids?
This is the most provocative physical move anyone has really made to anyone so far in this video.  

The kids seem to surround Philips and his followers while jackass taunts the kids between him and Philips.  

What happens between Sandmann and Philips cannot be seen in this video but it does substantiate Sandmann's version of the event.  Everything in the video substantiates what Sandmann wrote. Sandmann is not a villain here.  Philips got in his face, not the other way around.   


I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me. 
I am the student in the video who was confronted by the Native American protestor. I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:30 p.m. I was told to be there by 5:30 p.m., when our busses were due to leave Washington for the trip back to Kentucky. We had been attending the March for Life rally, and then had split up into small groups to do sightseeing. 
When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I am not sure what they were protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group. 
The protestors said hateful things. They called us "racists," "bigots," "white crackers," "faggots," and "incest kids." They also taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that we would "harvest his organs." I have no idea what that insult means, but it was startling to hear. 
    Because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a student in our group asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission to begin our school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group. The chants are commonly used at sporting events. They are all positive in nature and sound like what you would hear at any high school. Our chaperone gave us permission to use our school chants. We would not have done that without obtaining permission from the adults in charge of our group. 
    At no time did I hear any student chant anything other than the school spirit chants. I did not witness or hear any students chant "build that wall" or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions to the contrary are simply false. Our chants were loud because we wanted to drown out the hateful comments that were being shouted at us by the protestors. 
    After a few minutes of chanting, the Native American protestors, who I hadn't previously noticed, approached our group. The Native American protestors had drums and were accompanied by at least one person with a camera. 
    The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face. 
    I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me. We had already been yelled at by another group of protestors, and when the second group approached I was worried that a situation was getting out of control where adults were attempting to provoke teenagers. 
    I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand. 
    During the period of the drumming, a member of the protestor's entourage began yelling at a fellow student that we "stole our land" and that we should "go back to Europe." I heard one of my fellow students begin to respond. I motioned to my classmate and tried to get him to stop engaging with the protestor, as I was still in the mindset that we needed to calm down tensions. 
    I never felt like I was blocking the Native American protestor. He did not make any attempt to go around me. It was clear to me that he had singled me out for a confrontation, although I am not sure why. 
    The engagement ended when one of our teachers told me the busses had arrived and it was time to go. I obeyed my teacher and simply walked to the busses. At that moment, I thought I had diffused the situation by remaining calm, and I was thankful nothing physical had occurred. 
    I never understood why either of the two groups of protestors were engaging with us, or exactly what they were protesting at the Lincoln Memorial. We were simply there to meet a bus, not become central players in a media spectacle. This is the first time in my life I've ever encountered any sort of public protest, let alone this kind of confrontation or demonstration. 
    I was not intentionally making faces at the protestor. I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation. I am a faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up to the ideals my faith teaches me -- to remain respectful of others, and to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence. 
    I harbor no ill will for this person. I respect this person's right to protest and engage in free speech activities, and I support his chanting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial any day of the week. I believe he should re-think his tactics of invading the personal space of others, but that is his choice to make. 
    I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family's name. My parents were not on the trip, and I strive to represent my family in a respectful way in all public settings. 
    I have received physical and death threats via social media, as well as hateful insults. One person threatened to harm me at school, and one person claims to live in my neighborhood. My parents are receiving death and professional threats because of the social media mob that has formed over this issue. 
    I love my school, my teachers and my classmates. I work hard to achieve good grades and to participate in several extracurricular activities. I am mortified that so many people have come to believe something that did not happen -- that students from my school were chanting or acting in a racist fashion toward African Americans or Native Americans. I did not do that, do not have hateful feelings in my heart, and did not witness any of my classmates doing that. 
    I cannot speak for everyone, only for myself. But I can tell you my experience with Covington Catholic is that students are respectful of all races and cultures. We also support everyone's right to free speech. 
    I am not going to comment on the words or account of Mr. Phillips, as I don't know him and would not presume to know what is in his heart or mind. Nor am I going to comment further on the other protestors, as I don't know their hearts or minds, either. 
    I have read that Mr. Phillips is a veteran of the United States Marines. I thank him for his service and am grateful to anyone who puts on the uniform to defend our nation. If anyone has earned the right to speak freely, it is a U.S. Marine veteran. 
      I can only speak for myself and what I observed and felt at the time. But I would caution everyone passing judgement based on a few seconds of video to watch the longer video clips that are on the internet, as they show a much different story than is being portrayed by people with agendas. 
      I provided this account of events to the Diocese of Covington so they may know exactly what happened, and I stand ready and willing to cooperate with any investigation they are conducting.

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