Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Dr. Carol Swain in studio to talk about an upcoming education event that is taking place in Franklin on January 14-15.
Leahy: In studio right now, Carol Swain, our all star panelist. Good morning, Carol.
Swain: Good morning. And happy 2022 to everyone listening.
Leahy: Yes. We have to catch up with Carol. Carol, it’s 2022. So you started out correctly. Unlike Joe Biden last night. Did you see this last night?
Swain: No, but I heard about it.
Leahy: Joe Biden, the somnambulant occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That guy in a statement yesterday said 2020 is going to be a very good year.
Swain: He’s giving older people a bad name (Leahy chuckles) because I know people that are in their 80s and 90s and their shoppers’ attack. Yes. Exactly.
Leahy: What are your plans for 2022?
Swain: Well, we’re kicking off the year with an event. In fact, you will be at that event, as MC, on January 14th at the factory.
Leahy: That’s right.
Swain: Yes.
Leahy: Now, January 14. That is Friday, correct?
Swain: It’s a Friday, and it’s a two-day conference that Friday evening. There is a dinner with Dr. Ben Carson being the keynote speaker. I will also speak that evening. Pamela Fur is singing the national anthem.
Leahy: Let me just say this. I’ve known Pamela for years and years and years, and she’s a radio broadcaster with another station in town. (Swain chuckles) And you think, well, this is just Pamela. She can really sing.
Swain: I know.
Leahy: She’s very good.
Swain: And the Gatlin brothers will be providing entertainment that evening.
Leahy: This is a good thing for you. I’m going to share something with you, Carol.
Swain: All right.
Leahy: That you probably didn’t know about yours truly. But one thing that I will do to make the event even better, I will not sing at the event.
Swain: All right.
Leahy: But back in the distant past, I was a second tenor for a couple of years in the regionally famous Harvard Glee Club. Did you know that? I sang second tenor. There was a famous song, Loch Lomond. Right. And I always wanted to sing that song. I was never good enough to be the soloist on Loch Lomond. But you won’t hear Loch Lomond at the event that I’m MC at on Friday, January 14.
Swain: And I want people to know that are interested in the event that the cutoff date for the dinner as far as registration is January 9th. For the rest of the conference, the cutoff date can be up until the day of the event, the 15th. But for the dinner, we have to get the caterer’s account, so it will be January 9th as the cut-off.
Leahy: Okay. Now, let me ask you this, Carol. You have been, I guess, moving around the country, shall we say?
Swain: Well, I’m not finished about my conference.
Leahy: Oh, you got more! I’m listening.
Swain: Do you know the name C. J. Pearson?
Leahy: I don’t know CJ. Pearson.
Swain: He was the young man some years ago who got quite a bit of attention when he was, like, 12 or 13 criticizing President Obama. Now, do you know CJ? He’s a black young man from Georgia.
Leahy: Okay. Yeah. The kid from Georgia. Okay. That does ring a bell. Okay.
Swain: Now he’s in his early 20s. He’s in college, and he has an organization called the Free Thinker Project. He’s going to be a morning keynote speaker. And the lunchtime keynote speaker is James Lindsay.
Leahy: Now, James Lindsay.
Swain: He wrote cynical theories, and he has been an outspoken critic of Critical Race Theory.
Leahy: Yeah, I saw something. It’s not a Critical Race Theory. But I saw a report. Our good friend Dr. Susan Berry at Breitbart wrote a story that teachers are now including in their lesson plan, the details about the January 6th riot and portraying it in a way that’s it’s Not Make America Great friendly.
Swain: And Winsome Sears is supposed to do the opening announcement, but virtually. And that’s the same day she has been sworn in as lieutenant governor of Virginia.
Leahy: Now, by the way, if you want to make liberal heads explode, (Swain chuckles) take a strong black, conservative woman who can defend herself like, oh, I don’t know, Carol Swain or Winsome Sears, right? The lieutenant governor of Virginia. That’s great.
Swain: And she’s a lovely person. She’s very mild and gentle. And personally, she’s a devout Christian, and it’s just kind of hard to attack someone like her because she’s not a person that’s mean. She also has a military background as you know. (Laughter) She can handle all kinds of weapons.
Leahy: Yes, I saw that.
Swain: And the morning panel is going to focus on public education and whether we can reform it, or should we just pretty much abandon the schools?
Leahy: Now, that’s a topic of great interest to me. We just had the folks from the Beacon Center on, and they were talking about the issue of the funding formulas here. I’m very skeptical about what those changes are going to be, and if they’re going to have a positive impact. Nonetheless, that’s going to play out. I’m also of the point of view now, most politicians don’t have this point of view, but I’m not a politician, so I can say this. I don’t think public education is salvageable. Is that going to be the kind of issue that will be discussed?
Swain: Yes. And I guess a lot of us feel the same way. And for myself, I’m torn because I have a great-grandson in Virginia. He’s in public school. He doesn’t have to be in public school. As you know, I tried to try to bring him here. But at any rate, we have to stay engaged to fight for the children that are left behind. But when it comes to our own, I think we have to save our own. And every private school is not the right place for your child, because many of them, including the Christian schools, are also pushing that social justice agenda. So parents just have to be very vigilant and not trust what they’re being told. And the talking points of the political left is we’re not teaching Critical Race Theory.
Leahy: Except…
Swain: When they do.
Leahy: Right.
Swain: All the time.
Leahy: They teach it all the time, right? They just call it something else. What do they call it? Social, emotional learning and various things.
Swain: They call it so many different names. But if you look at what they’re teaching, but even when you take something to factual from the civil rights movement, they teach it in a way that demonizes white people. There’s never anything good about white people and their role in the civil rights movement or their contributions to history. And it’s just a very racist, anti-White agenda. And so the speakers that we’re going to have January 14 and 15th, and that is Doctor Martin Luther King’s birthday. And regardless of what do you think of Dr. Martin Luther King, he was imperfect like the rest of us. We are having the event because we want to get people focusing on the content of our character rather than the color of our skin. And you think about New York, where the governor said that when it comes to life-saving treatments, that White people have to get to the end of the line and that minorities would be given priorities. That’s a violation of our Constitution’s equal protection clause of our civil rights laws. And this has taken place pretty much all across the country. And if we don’t equip ourselves to understand it and fight back, then we’ve lost our nation.
Leahy: Yeah, well, that’s a very interesting point that you raised. I mean, you see this all the time, and you’re excellent at pointing these flaws out. Just to get your thoughts on this, I have a positive view about our future as a country.
Swain: Based on what?
Leahy: Based on natural optimism. (Chuckles) But the other reason, there are a lot of forces working against us. But I’ll tell you this. I bring this up. You saw Marjorie Taylor Greene said the blue states, red states should divorce.
Swain: I totally disagree with that. I mean, I disagree with that. But when we look at our nation as a whole, I don’t see that America that I grew up in, that I loved that I saw making progress on all fronts.
Leahy: Well, I see your point. We’re going to keep fighting.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Carol Swain” by Carol Miller Swain.
