Erica Lee has made me a believer that America is a racist nation. I see her point from two different view points: 1. Americans still tend to dislike people they don’t identify with, and 2. There are a whole lot of different people in our country than we know about. We are a catch basin for all races.
When people associate racism in a hateful way I believe it is because the people we pick on don’t fit into our metric of people we admire and relate to. Another reason might be that we can’t relate to people who look radically different from us, namely blacks and Asians. They are so easy to pick out of a crowd and so easy to pick on that we tend to do it, i.e. pick on them. Ms Lee presented some interesting facts in her book “The Making of Asian America” that we should all become aware of. For instance the segregation of Japanese during WW II. I, for one, feel that the government made a wise decision to separate people who look so different from the general population during time of war with their country. I believe we saved these Japanese from a severe backlash of hatred by our white population. Ms Lee points out that the Japanese kept in the camps felt very different about their treatment. They felt that we should have treated them as loyal citizens which most of them were. What we didn’t learn from our history lessons was that the government deliberately treated them harshly. Never the less that period of history is over now and we must move forward. She wrote that after 9/11 a similar backlash against Pakistanis occurred against Sikh followers who could be easily picked out of a crowd. What surprised me about her timeline is how the United States created racial problems with our wars and then willingly took in refugees from those countries. I have not seen huge numbers of these ethnic groups in and around Chicago, but the numbers she gives are very large. Her description of the fall of Saigon at the end of the war cites hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese coming into the country, most of them undocumented. It didn’t end with Vietnamese because thousands of people from surrounding countries helped. Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmongs came as well. Recently, we experienced the need to do the same with Afghanis. With all of these people coming in from so many different places the cultural mix of the country is changing. The assimilation of so many different cultures, and languages will be difficult at best, perhaps impossible. Now, we also see an influx from South and Central America with additional cultures, customs, and languages. We also need a way to give these people work so they can feed and house themselves. There are just so many cleaners, dish washers, and grass cutters that we can occupy. One problem Ms Lee points out is that many of the people coming in are educated, but because of language differences they cannot find work that they are trained for. The result is that Phd level teachers, doctors, and nurses are finding work as truck drivers to provide for their families. It is sad, and the result is we have taken in too many people without any plan for providing meaningful work.
The assimilation of the millions of immigrants we’ve taken in since the seventies will take several generations to happen. As these new people change so will we. Together we will learn to love and help and integrate our new neighbors into a melting pot society. Perhaps by 2121 we will no longer be writing books about systemic racism. Or maybe the opposite, we will be writing more books about how bad it has become since the great influx of the twenty-first century.
While watching the riots around the country last week I wondered how long it would be before the creeps began to pick on George Washington. Well, yesterday I saw an article that showed poor bronze George laying laying face down wondering what the hell happened. I am wondering the same thing. There is nothing that divides a country more then civil strife. I often declare myself a bigot, and a racist, but I live with black neighbors as well as brown and yellow. These people are fine people. All they want is to live in peace, raise their families and to have a good life, they are okay, or at least they appear to be. Frankfort is a magnet for minority families because of the fine reputation of our schools. They come here to give their kids the same chance as I gave mine. They don’t want their kids hooked on drugs, nor recruited into gangs. Yet, Frankfort has both of these problems within the boundaries. My own grand daughters told me exactly where they could go within the school to get drugs. It was a different place for different desires. I read the police blotter in the locals and the number one reason for being pulled over is to examine for drugs. Lately there has been an explosion of burgled cars and homes. I can only reason that these thieves are feeding habits. The number one house that gets robbed is one with doors unlocked, the same for cars. Stolen cars are easy pickings when the owners leave them unlocked with the keys in the console.
What we haven’t seen yet in our town is unpeaceful protesting, rioting, and looting. These activities seem to be organized by political groups mostly leftist or communist for the purpose of creating division between peoples. These are ruthless criminal types that will betray their country for money. Many are highly educated and brainwashed into leftist thinking that they have it bad. Never do these people listen to logic nor understand statistics about how more black lives are lost within their own community perpetrated by blacks. Black lives don’t really matter if it is a black killing a black.
Blacks are progressing in this country. Although because I, a white man has said it they will disagree. There have been myriads of laws passed dictating that blacks are equal to whites, trillions of dollars have been spent to make their lives better, and it has done so, but they don’t think it is enough, they want reparation too. This rioting and protesting will only end when the entire country is communist, poor, and starving. In other words, never. We will never succumb to communism peacefully.
This week I heard the term “Juneteenth” for the first time. The word is completely strange to me, but since that first time it is a ll I’ve heard. Evidently, it is a term used to commemorate freedom from slavery. Southern states have been celebrating this day, but not in my half of the country. There is now a movement to make Juneteenth a National Holiday. I suppose the day will rival the National Holiday of July fourth with picnics and concerts on the National Mall, fireworks, parades, and time off from work. Hell, if we celebrate more and more none of us will have any time to work for a living. Life will be more acceptable if we didn’t have to work. What an awful four letter word work is.
I am so sick of hearing people apologizing for being white. Each time, I say to myself, “this person is severely mentally warped.” What would that person want? Would they want to reverse the race of his/her parent? Why? and why would you be sorry for your parent’s race? There is nothing in the universe that one can do to change it. I suppose if you are like the Rachel Dolezal dame who paints her face black, and gets her hair done in kinky curls that one can say they have done something about it. To me, people who apologize for their race have zero respect and love for their parents. There is absolutely no basis for apology. If anything I would criticize the parents for conceiving the child at all. Perhaps there should be an eleventh commandment added to the ten Moses brought down from the mountain. “Thou shalt not conceive a child with a person of your own race.” Maybe we should insist that at the time of birth we ask the child which race it wants to be. We’re headed that way with gender, why not race? Or better yet, we should make a law that once a woman announces she his pregnant that she have the embryo tested for DNA. If the child is pure white it must be aborted and the woman given a directory of men of non-white color for impregnation. How the hell stupid are we going to get?
Here is my proposal to fix the problem: Make everyone who apologizes for being white the slave of a black person.
These liberal progressives disgust me. I’m sure Dr. Frankenstein would reject them for a brain transplant.
Today, I can say without any doubt that we live in a white-world. Sorry Al, sorry Jesse, this is my world. No matter how much you like the color black or how much Black Power is in the world, today it is a white world. There is one qualifier, it is a white-world in the Mid-west and on the East coast of North America. So far, we have had several inches of snow, and yesterday it began snowing at four o’clock and it hasn’t stopped yet. So far my town of Frankfort has accumulated a foot of snow, and the temperature is in the teens.
This day brings back recollections of the 1980’s when we had freezing white-world winters every year. The liberal main stream media screamed a pending Ice Age bearing down upon us, then something happened. Our white-world disappeared and the liberal-media began screaming global warming.
Before you jump on me about global warming let me admit that global warming does exist, but it is due to cyclical variation of the Earth’s weather cycles. Yes, I also admit that CO2 can raise the temperature of the atmosphere, but it does so naturally. Oceans put out CO2, and so do forests and vegetation. Maybe even the output from burning hydrocarbons will do it, but there is no proof that my driving a car, or heating my house or cow farts contribute to man-made global warming. Do they contribute to increasing CO2, yes, but are we the primary reason the level is rising? We will never know unless we try a grand experiment to stop driving cars, period. No more cars, buses, trucks, trains, ships, planes or hydrocarbon fueled power of any kind. We would then have to stop heating our homes with gas, oil, wood or with anything hydrocarbon. We must also forget about using any appliance or tool that consumes electrical power from an outlet, battery, or fossil fuel generated electricity. If the CO2 levels drop after we stop all that activity, and the temperature of Earth drops, then I might agree we are the cause of global warming. The problem is that such an experiment is totally impractical to conduct. Planet earth would stop functioning and millions of us would perish. For those of us old enough to have lived through some history, the conclusion is that the earth’s weather goes through cycles.
We even go through moisture cycles. I recall a time in the eighties when the water level in big, bad Lake Michigan rose by three feet. The water level was so high it caused major shore erosion. Many people living along the edge lost houses because the high water eroded the shore from under the houses. Has the mainstream media ever calculated how many gallons it takes to raise that body of water three feet? I haven’t either, but it is in the billions, maybe even the trillions. Later, in the nineties I took a vacation to Traverse City, Michigan. One of the unique scenic features of Traverse City is Traverse Bay which comes up to the edge of US 33. During the year we visited Grand Traverse Bay could not be found. We had to look for it. Barb and I eventually found it a half-mile out toward Lake Michigan. All we heard from the media were stories about how the loss of water would cause people to die from dehydration. Entire towns would lose their water supply. The government contemplated denying towns from pulling water from the lake as a method of conservation. Where did all that water go? The answer is found in unique weather cycles which we are just identifying. Why has it taken so long to recognize the cycles? One answer is there are several different kinds of cycles and many years between them, and we have only kept records for about one hundred years. Most recently we are seeing the effect of sun-spot variation and have begun to notice the effect solar flares have on the electromagnetics of Earth. The same sun-spots also cause weather variations. Eventually, the Farmers Almanac will publish these cycles and put man made Global warming to bed forever.
The eighties gave us a January during which we had thirty days straight of deep snow cover during which the daily high temperature never rose above thirty-two degrees fahrenheit(this is a correction from my previous statement of never having gone above zero. It seems my recollection is about temperature is about the same as a fisherman’s recollection about the size of his fish.) After a few days of zero, when it jumped to ten degrees we felt like a heat wave had descended upon us. The eighties gave us record snowfalls, I shoveled eighteen inches of snow regularly. Then I began to notice in the nineties how easy the winters had become. Today, we enjoy the same weather we enjoyed in the nineteen-seventies and eighties.
So Jesse and Al, call me a racist, but even you are white today in this white world. If you don’t believe me try standing still outside for about an hour or more in thirteen degrees fahrenheit and tell me what color your skin has turned.
This is another story sent to me by a dear friend. This one represents the feelings and thoughts of many people in the USA today. This author had the moral courage to put his own thoughts in writing for me, and you too.
I’m 63 and I’m Tired
by Robert A. Hall
I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.
I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.
I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .
I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.
I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.
I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.
I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.
I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.
I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.
This post is copied from his BLOG, The Old Jarhead. Go there to see all the comments he received for this piece, and for a complete profile of Hall himself.
