War on American Amnesia
June 17, 1971
Statement from President Richard Nixon
[Revised June 24, 2019]
America’s public enemy number one in the United States is American Repression and Amnesia1. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. I have asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds to fuel this kind of an offensive. This will be a world-wide offensive, dealing with the problems of sources of cultural trauma2, as well as communities3 who may be, to varying degrees, and in striking correspondence to their skin color, gender identity, expression, and performance, economic class, and other social markers, the perpetrators, perpetuators, or victims of said trauma, both in the United States and abroad4. It will be government-wide, pulling together the nine different fragmented areas within the government in which this problem is now being mis-5handled. And it will be nationwide in terms of a new educational program that we will actively construct and pursue6 from the discussions that we have had.
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Sarah DeYoreo is a writer, educator, and social activist living in Portland, Oregon. Much of her work deals with racial equity, reparative justice, and intersectional social justice. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus and Propeller.