LaTarndra Strong could do no wrong. Though she had a checkered past, the 55-year-old North Carolinian was elevated to prominent-leftist-activist status: She became president of an NAACP chapter, was given awards and plaudits, was invited to give talks and influence educational policy, became part of the impetus behind the renaming of schools, and is even part of an agency that advises on child care and pre-K education.
Now she faces felony neglect child abuse charges for allegedly giving her five-month-old foster baby an alcohol-laced bottle, which almost killed the infant.
The News of Orange County reports on the story, writing that Strong
turned herself in to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office where she was booked. Her secured bond was set at $10,000. Strong is expected to appear in Orange County Court in late October.
According to the News & Observer, Strong’s arrest warrant alleged that on March 18, she made a bottle that contained alcohol for a 5-month-old baby, then left the child in the care of “adults who were not physically or mentally capable” of providing emergency care for the baby.
The warrant also alleges these adults failed to call 9-1-1 when the baby became unresponsive and stopped breathing.
On March 20, Strong resigned as president of the Northern Orange NAACP, citing “personal reasons,” according to current president Matt Hughes. Strong was elected as president in January 2021.
Hughes is also president of the Orange County Partnership for Young Children, where Strong serves on the group’s board of directors.
As for the infant, the child’s current condition is unknown. But our culture’s condition is clear, given how Strong was exalted by the weak-minded (and sometimes malevolent). Per American Thinker (AT):
For the past several years, radical progressives in North Carolina placed Strong and her mission to eradicate any symbol she deemed racist on a pedestal. Strong received a Newsmaker of the Year award from the Triangle Tribune for her “leadership in the fight against racist symbols.” The UNC School of Education hosted Strong on a panel about political climate effects on public education. The Chapel Hill news outlet, Chapelboro.com, named the activist a “Hometown Hero.” Until her arrest, she had been … a board member of the Orange County Partnership for Young Children, a Smart Start agency that collaborates with the state to advise on issues of childcare and education to pre-K children.
Progressive politicians also championed Strong. NC state senator and founder of Education Equity Collaborative [Graig] Meyer tweeted support for Strong and her Hate-Free Schools Coalition, urging donations to her organization. Hate-Free Schools sponsored racial equity training for high school students, who then received honors from Governor Roy Cooper.
Strong, of course, checked all the right boxes, being black and female. While, as AT also tells us, she was invited by education officials to speak at a Community Engagement Committee Meeting in 2021 and talked about “the privilege afforded to white, male Christians,” do you think a “white, male Christian” with her background would enjoy the privilege of being exalted as she was?
If you’re not sure, consider that the “progressive activist’s history included multiple court appearances for driving without a license or insurance, a worthless check charge, and apparent rental disputes,” AT further informs. Despite this, Strong was apparently treated like an Expert in the Area of Everything. Not only was she advising on childcare (80 or 120 proof?), but also “actively advised the school board chair on land acknowledgements [sic] and racial violence resolutions despite board policy prohibiting influence by special interest groups,” AT also relates.
Even more noteworthy about this story, however, is that Strong is just one more example of a common phenomenon: left-wing degeneracy. Consider that, by my calculations, approximately 90 percent of the individuals implicated by the #MeToo Movement were liberals. (This is perhaps why MeToo fizzled: The Left wouldn’t proceed with an agenda that was consuming their own.)
Then, there’s also how the “Democrats have a pedo problem” and a violence problem (see Violence, Inc.: A Leftist Enterprise), and how research shows that “right-wingers really are nicer people.”
All this may seem terribly partisan. Many will say, “How can you possibly claim that one ideological group has a monopoly on sin? This is all politics.” Of course, no one has a monopoly on sin — but vice can characterize a group. Moreover, politics isn’t just about politics; in point of fact, people’s ideology/politics is generally a reflection of something far deeper: their philosophical/moral foundation.
To add perspective, though, consider the old stereotype about the reprobate who masquerades as a good, holy-roller Christian as a cover and to gain community respect. While this would no longer work because Christianity isn’t held in high esteem in our secular age, there is a truth here:
Evil people will take on a guise of goodness to advantage themselves.
But what that guise is will change as civilization’s definition of “good” changes.
So what face, then, will immoral people assume today? If Strong had become an espouser of traditional morality and inveighed against wokeness, it would’ve gotten her nothing but, perhaps, canceled. Tout political correctness, however, and you can enjoy precisely what came her way: acclaim, awards, prestige, power, respect, and money.
In other words, the woke realm is precisely where narcissists, sociopaths, and other assorted demons-in-the-flesh go to play — and to play others.
There also is the fact that modern leftism’s inversion of morality, calling virtue vice and vice virtue, appeals to lovers of vice. In fact, you could say that people get the ideology they deserve.
