Dear Reader, I am going to let you in on a deep dark family secret. I am doing this more for me than for you. I hope exposing this humiliating skeleton in my family’s closet will be a cathartic exercise. I have always heard the preacher say we must confess our sins, but I’ve never been man enough to confess this degrading episode in my family’s history.

Ever since the Sage of Monticello founded the University of Virginia, the males in my family have gone there, and this is the locale where I made this horrid discovery. I was never a serious student, as I spent 98% of my time boozing, chasing women and breaking things (as did all the previous generations of my lineage). But it was Spring semester my 4^th year, and I had a history thesis to write. I asked a fellow student where I could find the library and soon found myself deep in the basement of Alderman Library surfing through old Richmond Times Dispatch articles on a microfiche machine. This was “Pre-Internet.” By happenchance, the machine stopped on a 1920 article dedicated to my great-grandfather. The article read “VPI Honors H.M. Smith, Jr.” VPI is now known as Virginia Tech. I asked myself, “why would Va Tech honor my great-grandfather?” I fast fowarded the microfiche, my hands began to sweat, I read on, my heart was now hitting 160 beats a minute. When I read the terrible unforgivable crime he had committed, I got dizzy and blacked out for about 60 seconds.

Here it is and this is extremely hard to admit in front of the whole world, but my great-grandfather went to Virginia Tech, and even worse, he was a longtime trustee and great benefactor of the school. I never knew. He had gone to law school at Virginia, so I just assumed he went undergraduate there as well. For years, I have tried to reconcile why? He got there in 1874 as a 15-year-old during the Reconstruction. Surely this has something to do with the heathen Yankees. Perhaps after those thieving Visogoths burned and stole everything, my great-great grandfather was just too poor to send his son to school in Charlottesville? I was searching for an excuse, anything to explain such poor lack of judgment. Anything to assuage the shame.

This secret tortured me for years. Oh the angst and pain! Suppose people found out? How would I live with the embarrassment? I just finished a book by Phil Robertson. Phil says if you own up to your past sins, no one can cancel you out. You are redeemed. So I hope this public confession works and ends my inner turmoil.

On Saturday night I tried to make amends. Va Tech played Duke in the ACC Championship game, and I rooted for Tech. Of course rooting against Duke is mandatory for all good Christians, but I rooted enthusiastically for the Hokies. Then, last night I actually invited a Va Tech graduate into my house for dinner. Before he and his wife arrived, I hid all the silver and other valuables. But you know what, they didn’t try and steal anything. Neither one of them spit tobacco juice on my floor. No one burped during dinner. They were delightful.  I now realize how wrong I was to hold such views and by admitting my error, I ask for repentance.

This expiation of sin on my part is feeling pretty good. I let my prejudices and tribal allegiances get in the way of my good judgment. I feel cleansed and redeemed. I highly recommend this cathartic exercise for our political leaders and their army of experts. Let go of your Snopes family ways and tribal allegiances and recognize clear and unequivocal truth.  For example:

* admit that a sound monetary policy curbs price instability,

* admit that when the dollar has a stable definition. i.e., a strong dollar, prices stay low and stable,

* admit that government stimulus payments do not stimulate the economy,

* admit that a so called “over heated” economy does not cause inflation,

* admit that a collection of Philosopher Kings, aka the Federal Reserve cannot in any respect manage the economy,

* admit that tax and spend policies thwart societal advancement by starving the private sector of capital which drives all growth,

* admit that government industrial policies (i.e. EVs for all) are a massive waste of resources as only the market is capable of weeding out winners from losers,

* admit that over regulation retards growth and that only through growth and prosperity does society have the resources to address whatever issue the regulation enacted was intended to remedy,

* admit that markets send signals and advice that are manyfold more reliable than your ego driven sophistry,

* admit that free trade and competition between countries not only drives prices down and advances civilization to new heights but strengthens ties between countries making bellicose hostilities much less likely.

* admit that your tribe of establishment insiders has contempt for the genius of the American people and their ability to make decisions for themselves, and that they do not need your condescending and sneering involvement in their lives.

* admit that y’all are not as smart as you think, and that every goal of a prosperous and thriving society can be achieved if you worthless bastards would just stop meddling in everybody’s business.

If I can reconcile myself with a school that has classes in “Manure Spreading” and “Toothpick Etiquette” and admit I was wrong, then perhaps you Washington insiders and experts can admit the errors of your ways? Turn away from your political family’s tribalistic adherence to  economic illiteracy. Throw off the shackles of ignorance that bind you to a false prophesy.

Walk towards the Light of freedom.