On the 405th Anniversary of the landing at Cape Henry

This stone cross set up in 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists commemorates the 1607 landfall at Cape Henry, in Virginia Beach.

On April 26, 1607 British colonists landed at Cape Henry, Virginia and there began what would become the most free, the most propserous nation in the history of mankind.

And try though others might to rewrite that nation’s history, it began with a prayer. In fact, though the ships reached shore on April 26, the settlers did not come ashore until April 29 because the Reverend Robert Hunt, who later founded the Church at Jamestown, called for three days of prayer and fasting. Reverent Hunt said “From these very shores the Gospel shall go forth to not only this New World but the entire world.”

And in the First Charter of Virginia, King James I assigned lands for the stated purpose of propagating the Christian religion. The Charter reads in part:

“We greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government; DO by these our Letters Patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well-intended Desires.”

Even more significant in those days land referred to as Virginia streatched from South Carolina to Maine and far to the West.

That beginning is marked today with a monument in the shape of the cross. The Bearing Drift logo bears the Cape Henry lighthouses. The original light was the first public building in the new U.S. government.

Earlier today, Governor McDonnell issued the following statement:

Statement of Governor Bob McDonnell on 405th Anniversary of First Landing at Cape Henry

RICHMOND – Governor Bob McDonnell issued the following statement this afternoon on the 405th Anniversary of the Virginia Company’s first landing at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach. The landing marked the beginning of the British colonies in the United States; colonies that would become the United States of America.

“It was 405 years ago today when Captain Christopher Newport and settlers from the Virginia Company first reached the New World. They stepped ashore at a point of land they named ‘Cape Henry’, located at the southern entrance to the Chesapeake Bay in what is today Virginia’s largest city, Virginia Beach. Traveling from Great Britain in three ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, the settlers had been traveling for 144 days. Upon making that first landing, the settlers planted a cross to thank God for the safe journey and this new land. They then continued up the waterway they named the ‘James River’, going 40 miles inland before establishing the Jamestown settlement.

With that first landing Virginia, and by extension America, was born. Fittingly, this nation was born as part of an entrepreneurial pursuit. The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company created in order to establish colonies in the New World and to promote free enterprise. The Company was meant to not only settle, but also to profit. After many struggles and setbacks, the Company would do so, before losing its charter in 1624, at which point Virginia became a royal colony.

It is fitting that the 405th Anniversary of this occasion falls in 2012, which we have marked as ‘The Year of the Entrepreneur.’ Today, Virginia’s heritage as a land of opportunity lives on in the pursuits of our job-creators. They innovate, expand, create, and grow. They take great risks to follow their dreams. In so doing they enrich our Commonwealth and they employ our citizens. They have made Virginia the most business friendly state in America. And it all began, 405 years ago today, with a quiet landing on the sandy shores of Virginia Beach.”

 

Cross posted at Bearing Drift.

RTD’s Schapiro steps in….macaca…

But unlike “macaca” the word “novelty” was already in the dictionary.

The RTD’s Jeff Schapiro never met a good scandal he couldn’t exploit…or manufacture. But this time he’s gone too far.

What did Jeff do? In an article about the GOP Senate primary, Schapiro writes:

Radtke, of Chesterfield, is banking on her rapid emergence in 2010 as a face and voice of Virginia’s tea-party movement; Jackson, of Chesapeake, on the novelty of a black minister-broadcaster running in a heavily white party.

A Harvard graduate and former Marine is a “novelty” just because he happens to be African-American? A label, by the way, which Jackson himself chooses not to wear.

Jackson issued a press release with this to say:

“I find it disconcerting that Mr. Shapiro, when given a chance to briefly encapsulate my U.S. Senate campaign, summarized my efforts to win the Republican nomination the following way: “Jackson, of Chesapeake, [is banking on] the novelty of a black minister-broadcaster running in a heavily white party.”

First of all, Mr. Shapiro is obviously a mind reader. He knows what I am banking on. We’ve never spoken or exchanged communications, yet he knows me. This is typical leftist stereotyping. If you don’t tow the liberal line, particularly if you belong to one of their designated victim classes, you get marginalized and demonized. You would think that by now they would have come up with something original, but it’s the same mundane obsession with race. By the way, Shapiro may not have noticed it, but the Democrat party is “heavily white.” Of course the problem with Democrat elites is not the color of their skin, but the content of their minds.

For Jeff Shapiro and any other liberals who would like to know what I am banking on, let me relieve them of trying to read my mind. I am banking on my Marine Corps background to indicate that I will be a warrior for my convictions. I am banking on my Harvard Law School background to prove that I can expose the liberal kool-aid drinking of Tim Kaine and Barack Obama, both of whom also graduated from HLS. I am banking on my background as a small business owner to demonstrate that I understand what it is to start and grow a business against a headwind of government regulations. I am banking on the fact that I am a Pastor helping me make the case that I am driven by a higher principle than personal ambition. I am banking on the fact that I am not a career politician, hoping voters will view me as a citizen statesmen.

Frankly I am not seeking a single Republican vote in the primary – or from anyone in the general election – because I am black. However, it is my earnest hope that being an American of African descent will help me expose the liberal lie that Republicans and conservatives are against minorities. The truth is that conservatives see people as individuals, and evaluate them as such. Liberals see people as part of the masses. And when one of the masses fails to play his or her proper role as liberals define it, that person must be attacked and if possible, destroyed. Mr. Shapiro and every other lefty who wants to take a shot at me will find out very quickly that Marine Corps colors don’t run.”

I admire Bishop Jackson. However, I’ve told him that in this primary, I am fully behind George Allen.

Still, Schapiro’s statement is reprehensible. Sure, we expect obnoxious from Jeff. But there’s a line, and he’s crossed it.

At Bearing Drift Norm Leahy writes: Congratulations, Jeff. And here’s hoping that whichever company decides to plunk down two mules and a ball of twine in exchange for the RTD sends you on a multi-year, statewide self-abasement tour, where you can explain to the world that you had no idea that your throw-away line was at all offensive, but your heartily sorry for any pain it may have caused anyone. Or they could just sack you (I understand Keith Olbermann is holding auditions for a side-kick/valet, so chins up, chest out and remember to hit your marks!).

And at Virginia Virtucon, Riley says: Seriously? A “novelty”? Why doesn’t he just call him a “token,” “Uncle Tom,” “Oreo” or some other equally offensive racial term? Tell us what you really think, Jeff…

Schapiro and the RTD both owe Bishop Jackson an apology. Perhaps several.

This kind of racism in the name of journalism doesn’t belong in the Commonwealth.

Or anywhere.