Are we all on The "Plantation?"

 Humans are made uneasy, sometimes even scared, by "different."  When we were kids, a new kid in school had to be... what is today's grown-up word?... "vetted" before he became a part of the integral group.

This has been true all through human history.  It won't change.  And... it isn't a bad or good thing, just an element of life.

What used to make America Great (among a number of things) was that people who were "different" came here ready to contribute but also ready to assimilate.  They assimilated habits, attitudes, ideas from those already here BUT those already here also learned about and adopted habits, attitudes and ideas from the newcomers.

Were there fights?  Yes!  Was there disrespect and derision coming from both sides?  Of course.  But the end was that when a person who came to this country showed that they could do a job, would respect the truth and tell it, as well be happy for the opportunity to become part of the country... there was acceptance, assimilation, and the "melting pot" became a fact and was proven to work.

Even today, Blacks see discrimination when they are not automatically accepted as they are, or their behavior and ideas are not embraced.  Why is that discrimination?  Why aren't they expected to go through the same "rite of passage" that the rest of us had to experience?  Italians were disrespected, not accepted, nor were their ideas of life when they arrived.  It took time for them to embrace American life as it existed, get used to the habits and mores of those already here... but when it happened, they became a part of the whole. 

The exact same thing happened to the Irish, the Scandinavians, the Spanish, and all the other nationalities that came to American shores.  There was no difference in the challenge.

There WAS one difference, though.  and that was that most people of color did not choose to come to America.  They were enslaved by their own people, sold to middlemen, and the brought to America where Plantation owners continued the enslavement.  THAT was profoundly different... and injurious.

But no person of color today in America that wishes to be a part of America has any impediment different from every other citizen if he or she wants to strive to be a successful part of America.  Look at the success of President Obama... of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court Justice Thomas, Senator Tim Scott and others.  They succeeded because of effort and showing a desire to join with others to accomplish positive things.

The biggest impediment to to Blacks today is an attitude that many of them hold that was fostered by the very political party that claims to want to "help" them... the Democrat Party, together with the portion of them that can be labeled as "Race Profiteers."  Giving anyone, regardless of background, education, skin color or foot size, money because they are not succeeding in school or in the workplace is not helping them...It rewards the imprisonment of dependency.

What should have happened was the creating of programs that rewarded success, mandated successful teaching, in school and in trades, that was proven by accomplishment.  Don't reward birthing children into single parent homes.  Hunt down "fathers" and enforce their support of the children they father.  Show respect by expecting accomplishment and success even as you make tutorial help available where needed... provided the recipient(s) work to benefit from the help.  Reward 100% attendance in schools.  Then step back and see how the colored community matches and may even outpace the accomplishments of those from other parts of the world when they come to America.  They are just as able and I claim we disrespect them by not expecting superior accomplishments and contributing to American Life in major ways as a regular thing.

But...back to the headline...

Has anyone else noticed how all of America is starting to look like one giant plantation?  One controlled by a limited group of "overseers" and brooking no challenge to their authority?

We now life under a dual dictatorship of the government bureaucracy and angry minority of various deviant purposes.  We now are being forced to promote beliefs, actions and attitudes of which we disapprove.  Once we were prepared to ignore beliefs found abhorrent in the interest of civil individual freedom. 

Suddenly we have to promote behavior, mistreatment of children, and deviant lifestyles or we find ourselves fired and unable to support our families.  That is no different from being enslaved on a plantation or being an indentured servant!  We no longer even have the right to decide what power we want to use to power our cars, or cook with, or walk around without a diaper over our faces if the overseers declare that we must.  And that is also true about medical procedures.  Now our plantation overseers can declare we need to be injected with something on the grounds that "IT IS GOOD FOR US," all to be taken on "trust" and without any proof that has been checked for truth and accuracy.  That has already happened during the COVID fiasco.  And it is being threated again, and will be activated whenever the overseers deem it necessary to prove to us that THEY are in control and that WE must obey.

It is a large plantation and often feels as if we have a degree of freedom, but stop and look around and you'll see the same walls being built around us that emulate the process that hunters used to use to trap wild pigs.  Put out free food!  Put up a fence next to the food!  Keep putting out more food!  Add a second side of the fence!  More food!  Build a third side of the fence and add more food.  Finally put up the gate and you have the pigs trapped and you can feed them OR NOT at your discretion because you now own them.  Our government denies it but that is what they are doing to our entire country.  When they have the right mix of people here they will finish the fencing, shut the gates and they will own us and no longer try to hide it.

Re-establishing a Meritocracy will restore equality in America!

 One of the biggest negative factors in America in 2023 is the perception(s) of racial inequality.  Arguably overblown by politicians and media, there is nonetheless an ongoing existence, and it is worth considering the likely causes of the survival of that inequality.

Over just the last century, trillions of dollars have been spent, advertised and publicized as dedicated to erasing that inequality.  A close examination of those expenditures strongly suggests that those funds were not only not effective in the asserted goal(s) but in fact exacerbated the inequality.  Why?  Consider:

• The government funded those not working with no requirement to do any work or train for future employment, thus sending the unstated message that not working was not only acceptable, but that to expect the poor to actually train for employment was beyond their ability.
• Poor women who had out of wedlock children actually were given more publicly funded money the more out of wedlock children they birthed, abandoning any effort to identify and hold the men fathering those children responsible for supporting their families.
• Funding of education became oriented to meeting the demands and aligning with teachers' union's definition of education as well as their focus on teachers' salary increases independent of schoolchildren's level of achievement, leading to "social" advancement from grade to grade without requiring minimal student accomplishment of learning goals, thus granting High School diplomas to children not educated to a level that enabled them to hold meaningful employment.

For many poor and virtually all minorities, these steps all served to artificially handicap and often block advancement in the business world and resulted in valid resentment on the part of those subjected to this disparate treatment.

Not being able to deny the factual basis of the resentment, government has for years tried to illegally and imperfectly make up for these underlying and causative errors by granting employment and admissions not earned to those who did not receive the promised or implied level of education needed, and this was done in a manner that left the unstated and unadmitted impression that those in charge of these programs were doing so because the recipients were not capable of success

on their own initiative.  This was and remains absolutely untrue and serves to insult and disrespect the abilities and potentials of the poor, whether of minority status or not.

But once identified, what can and must be done to provide true equality to all?

No one can perfectly and completely identify and promise results... but there are a number of steps that may be worth considering:

1. Stop rewarding failure.  Make unemployment and any grants dependent on some public work effort and/or job training.  Doing so provides the recipient not only with the potential of future employment but the working and study supports his or her own sense of self-worth.
2. Stop financially rewarding out of wedlock births, instead increase the public effort to identify and hold the father(s) of such children financially responsible.
3. Stop social promotion in schools.  There was a time when if a child didn't pass the tests (and tests ARE needed) they were held back.  That has to be restored as the norm.
4. If children in a class are not learning, the teacher has to be held responsible.  It is time for them to be accountable for results.  If a person cannot effectively teach, they should not be being paid for or holding the position of "teacher."  That insults the children, their parents, and the school district and school in which that person is employed... as well as pulls down the respect other effective teachers deserve to receive.
5. If a school or school district will not serve the children first, parents must be able to transfer their child to a school where their child's learning and accomplishment is paramount.  That means educational tax money moving with the children, not based on residence address.
6. No child cannot learn, and any argument to the contrary must never be accepted.  If a child is recalcitrant and refuses to learn, at a certain age they should be made to enroll in the military where many youth used to be saved by the installation of discipline absent acceptable excuses.  It did work.  It will work again.

There are certainly more possibilities and readers may want to add those for consideration.  This is not a "save all" or "perfect" list.  It is but a starting point for a discussion... a realistic one... about recognizing what is, what is wrong with what is, and some of the ways worth considering if America wants to get back to valuing what it used to and what its success is based and dependent upon... Meritocracy.

We claim to guarantee a chance, not a result, ... but we do need to re-establish access to that chance instead of implying that some are not able and thus preventing a mental attitude dedicated to achievement and self-worth.  It isn't money.  It is respect, with the concomitant responsibility, that must be taught, expected and honored.

America has left me behind...and I miss her!

I am glad that I am in my twilight years and won't have to suffer the emotional pain for long.  It hurts me and I feel sad when events force me to think about what has happened to and in the America that I have loved my whole life.

My parents were immigrants.  My father came to this country poor, but with a work ethic and a friend who guaranteed the government that there would be a job and a place for him to stay...a requirement for legal immigration in those days.  That may still be so...I don't know.  But...my Dad just wanted a chance to see what hard work on his part might accomplish.  No guarantees, no promises...just a chance.  He didn't speak English, so he took whatever job was available.  He learned the language...not perfectly, but well enough, and to read and write it...he wanted to; he saw America as the embodiment of what he wanted to become.  He wanted the freedom to put himself on the line and see if he could succeed.

It took him some time to achieve what he saw as success.  He and, later, my mother worked long hours.  First it was for others then for themselves.  They went through the Great Depression and were intent on being prepared should another ever occur. They saved.  The borrowed only to purchase a house...and that with misgivings.  We never spent money we did not have...that was anathema to them.They taught me to read and to do simple math early in life and explained that those skills would enable me to educate myself and not be dependent on others.  And there was no such thing as an excuse for not taking advantage of schooling:  I was required to have perfect attention, to do all homework (and show it to my parents daily), and to achieve good grades as they explained that education was the key to getting a chance to succeed in life.

My father never took a Social Security payment...ever...despite living to almost 70.  He had saved and he saw taking anything from the government as a hand-out.  He had left his native land at a time when his mother had no money and the family had significant debts.  Over the years, with increasing means he paid every one of those debts off in full, with interest (even if interest was not demanded).

He gave to those who came on hard times through no fault of their own...but refused even the time of day to those who did not try; those who were slackers, liars, cheaters and what in those days were called naer-do-wells were to be looked upon as unworthy and disreputable and not to ever even be around.

I grew up in an America where to be respected, your word had to be good...it was your bond.  And work was honored, and doing your utmost was the standard.  Dependence on the good will of others was seen as embarrassing and a failure and you would all you could to get out of that situation, pay back what had been given and again regain your place as a contributing member of the community, not a taker.

Civil discourse was the norm.  People could argue on many things: religion, politics, raising children and more.  But those arguments were conducted with personal respect of each other...for the right of every person to his or her opinion.  And we used good language: whole sentences, with decent construction.  In those days, "Sailor's" language was not used in mixed company and only occasionally even when men got together.  And even then there was a certain embarrassment after some of the utterances...it just wasn't polite and generally was seen as a sign of an inadequate vocabulary.  How much more effective, we felt, to use a word of criticism that required the other person to run to a dictionary, rather than revert to clearly inapplicable scatological utterances.

Classmates of mine in High School got jobs upon graduation:  good jobs that paid well.  Some of them used the pay from those jobs save up enough to later get a College Education to pursue and dream to which they were dedicated.  And some took an occasional course to extend their knowledge but were content to live in the practical world of having a loving family and supporting it and themselves.  Those of us who went to college, went with a dream.  We wanted to achieve something in particular.  Of course in the midst of the striving, the dream often changed a bit...but there was never the thought of spending on a College Education because of any right or entitlement: it was a gift of opportunity and not a way of avoiding the real world or military service.  That would have been dishonorable and a waste of our money...or, in some cases, our parents' money...in in even more cases, both our and our parents' money.

That America no longer exists.  I liked my country.  I respected my country.  I respected the morals and the ten commandments of that country.  And I respected the immigrants who come to this country according to its laws and with the intent to become Americans...not to bring their previous country's practices and attitudes and languages and make America more like them.  They wanted to become Americans.  And, except for the grandmothers and grandfathers...they did just that.

Now, everyone seems to believe that consequences of one's actions are a thing of the past.  That no one should be either expected or required to earn a living, but should be given any job they want and not held to standards.  People "working" for the government don't do their jobs, lie about it and are never held accountable.  Our government spends money it doesn't have and claims that it doesn't matter.  Our politicians lie to us with increasing frequency and are not only not embarrassed by it...they don't even admit it.  And the Press which for decades was a watchdog over all facets of government activity, protecting the public by shining the light of truth, now joins with those in power to protect them from any revelation to the public.  Meanwhile the "public" apparently has come to believe that there is such a thing as a "Free" lunch...or free anything.  Make that everything.

I miss the America that called out to my parents.  I miss the America that I grew up in and both enjoyed and revered for much of my life.  I don't recognize the country I now live in...it is still called America, but it no longer has the soul of the country into which I was born and raised.  And it makes me feel sad.