Covington debacle checks all the boxes

Earlier this week, I wrote a column about the Covington Catholic boys, who found themselves in the middle of a fabricated controversy. I say fabricated, now, because I have had an opportunity to absorb many more details, watch countless videos, read numerous tweets, and listen to commentators from all perspectives and extremes.

The bottom line is this: The only reason an unexceptional story about a bunch of young teenagers on a school trip made national headlines is because it checked all of the following off of the hysteria list: Anti-Catholicism? Check. Disgust with “white privilege?” Check. Anger at Pro-Lifers? Check. Hatred of “toxic masculinity?” Check.

Hatred of Donald Trump? Check. Hatred of colonialists? Check. All of these things coalesced in a perfect storm to bring us the Covington Catholic debacle, a situation where everyone involved displayed breathtaking incompetence and indecency. The only exception to this blanket condemnation were some young pro-life Catholic boys of presumed white privilege who displayed, according to some triggered social justice warriors, toxic masculinity.

I think that the reason I was so angered by what happened to these young boys has to do with the reason they happened to be in D.C. Every year, for the past 46 years, groups of somber, hopeful, respectful people have made the journey to our nation’s capital to protest the most abhorrent Supreme Court decision since Dredd Scott: Roe v. Wade.

I have never gone to the March for Life. I have stood in front of abortion clinics and prayed, I have gone to Harrisburg and spoken at the Capitol in defense of life, I have written countless articles and conducted numerous radio programs criticizing the impact of legalized abortion. But I have never made the trip to D.C., to stand in the shadow of the court that changed the way we think about the unborn child.

That’s why I love seeing the crowds filled with young people who converge every January in Washington. Those young people are the face of a movement that will one day take back, for the voiceless, their dignity. The next generation is more pro-life than my own, and I stand in awe of their integrity and engagement. I didn’t have their passion at that tender age.

Since I had never been to a march myself, I reached out to a dear friend of mine who has chaperoned similar marches in the past. I wanted to know from her what it was like to take a group of children to D.C. on a cold January day, and how the group was treated by others who gathered to celebrate the right to abort. Here is what she told me: “More than 10 years ago, I chaperoned my first trip to the March. In the front of a large bus, microphone in hand, I issued the standard reminder: ‘Today, we won’t be the only protesters at the March. If you’re approached by pro-choice or any other protesters today, they may attempt to say or do things to provoke you. Please do NOT engage these protesters under any circumstances. They want to incite an angry exchange, at least. They want to manufacture a situation that can be photographed. So, if you’re approached or shouted at, just remain calm, silent, and, if possible, keep moving.’ Chaperones have given this same advice for decades. Nick Sandmann was an unfortunate and innocent victim of those manufactured faux-dramas we try to avoid while at the march. ... In my book, he is a hero. I also pray that this experience will strengthen his faith and his commitment to the pro-life movement. I hope that he remembers and finds joy in Christ’s promise: Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

After hearing what she had to say, and knowing her to be a person of great honesty, my belief that the Covington boys were made the targets of a fabricated smear campaign has been confirmed.

As long as society keeps making up checklists of things to hate, we will find targets for that manufactured hatred. A decade ago it was a group of lacrosse players. A few months ago it was a lawyer who liked beer. This weekend it was white Catholic teens from Kentucky. As George Orwell wrote, “we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”

And on it goes.