Editorial
Ralph K. Ginorio was born in Manhattan to parents with Yankee-Irish and Cuban-Puerto Rican origins. He grew up in the Bronx and in south-central Connecticut and fondly remembers being allowed to participate in the Sunday dinner conversations, in which his extended family debated politics and religion. Ginorio’s overwhelmingly liberal relatives gave him a love for the vibrant discussion of ideas.
During the 1970s, the Bronx streets resembled 1945 Berlin, Germany, where buildings reduced to rubble were as common as those which were intact. In the 1977 Blackout Riots, Ginorio watched as crowds of people gave up their individuality and became a mob. Garbage was piled high in the streets because of strikes, and the subways were filthy and covered with graffiti. Ginorio watched the downhill spiral of a once-thriving community and learned at a young age the consequences of how liberal Democrats govern.
Ginorio’s political awakening occurred during the Iran hostage crisis. He saw the impotence of Jimmy Carter replaced by the moral clarity of Ronald Reagan. These experiences are what made him a conservative American.
For 20 years, his single mother, Patricia Miranda, dealt with cases of rape and child molestation as the first female police detective in Wallington, Connecticut. To this day, Ginorio exclaims, “My mom is my hero!”
While studying history at Bates College, Ginorio’s innocent hopes of joining a refined world of reasoned discourse were shattered by folks like a feminist professor who equated saying words like “mankind” with rape. When Ginorio told her that she was trivializing rape, she kicked him out of her office. According to Ginorio, she was typical of the kind of college leftists who “exhibited no intellectual curiosity, no tractability to reason, and no respect for dissenting free speech.”
He progressed farther, and became deeply embroiled in politics during college. This, in addition to what he refers to as “poor self-discipline,” led to his failing out of college. But, as is often the case, failure is what made Ginorio who he is today. With God’s help and the ongoing love of his wife Tina he learned how to work hard, attended night school, and earned successful management experience by establishing a new line of group homes for the developmentally disabled. Ultimately, in 2000 he became a history teacher at Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Maine.
Ginorio calls his vocation “an introduction of young people to their cultural heritage.” He firmly contends that history tells us who we are as Americans and depicts both wisdom and folly. He has the honor to help acculturate coming generations by coherently teaching the full scope of Western Civilization’s history from universal creation to the present.
A decade ago Maine’s schools became too progressive for him to live out an acceptable standard of his vocation, so he moved 3,000 miles westward to find here in Coeur d’Alene parents and schools are still more interested in education than indoctrination.
The heart of what Ginorio teaches is how the principled individual can always change the world. Ginorio is adamant that “No one is irrelevant!” Our opinions, whatsoever they may be, matter. He contends that it is our duty as free people to develop thoughtful convictions about what is worth living for, dying for, and even killing for.
Ralph articulates his mission stating, “I write to express why we each must engage fully in the struggles that will sculpt our future. We cannot be spectators in our own lives. We must participate and take sides, embracing controversy, if that is what our conscience demands. We must protect innocence, serve what we deem to be right, and bear witness to truth. We must walk worthy of our freedom.”
Since July 2018 Ginorio has been advocating for adding a year of study in the history of western civilization to Idaho’s high school graduation requirements. This coming legislative session, Representative Joe Alfieri and Senator Ben Toews will be introducing such legislation in their respective education committees in the house and the senate. Ginorio remains hopeful the study of courses in the history of Western Civilization will deepen every Idaho student’s understanding of why America, and the West, are exceptional.
Ginorio is the standard bearer of Kootenai Journal columnists, producing works for publication since the summer of 2022. He will continue to speak boldly to express what his conscience demands via his “Keep Right” column. He has found a home in Kootenai Journal, where discourse of religion and politics is encouraged with enthusiasm.
