I had a conversation with a friend the other day that has been through the wringer of life. As he readily admits, many of his difficulties he brought on himself, and he paid for part of it with time behind bars. The wonderful part of this man, the part which makes him such a joy to me, is that he has used his past to make him into a wise, insightful and caring individual.
I told him I had heard Dr. Ben Carson speak recently, and it was my first exposure to this author of four bestselling books. Carson could have become another, center-city black casualty, but because his single-parent mother shut off the TV and forced him to read and write a report on two books weekly, this horrible student with a horrible temper, instead became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and probably the most renowned specialist in his field, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal thinks so highly of him that they recently featured him in an editorial entitled: Ben Carson for President.
Notable, he led a 70-member surgical team in a 22-hour operation which performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the head.
So I asked my friend, who like Carson is black, what insights he could share with me as to what society can do to assist at-risk youth to achieve their potential? He said, “People need to be responsible for their own lives, and not have government taking care of them.” He added, “I see personally the state handing out far too much money to healthy people who could work. If someone can’t get a job in Cape May County in the summertime, he doesn’t want a job.”
He passed on this observation: “It is the state workers’ job to hand out money. If you have a job, they don’t have a job. They go through the motions, but they’d rather you didn’t get a job. That’s their job security.”
I replied, “That is the difference between getting assistance from the church vs. the government; the church really wants to see people get on their feet.”
* * *
Speaking to the American Bar Association recently, Hillary Clinton said that more than 80 bills have been introduced in 31 states which restrict voter rights, saying that they disproportionately impact African-American, Latino and young voters. She added that not all these laws are attempts at racial discrimination, “but anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem in American elections must not be paying attention.”
The fact is, however, there isn’t a black voting problem. In 2012, blacks, as a share of all eligible voters surpassed the turnout of non-Hispanic whites 66.2 percent to 64.1 percent. Fortunately for all Americans, the forces which stood in the way of blacks voting have been effectively gutted. So why is Hillary working to make blacks feel like underdogs on the voting issue?
My conclusion is, blacks and all minorities have been very well served by the Democratic Party for decades. The whites have had a superiority complex for centuries, and this has contributed to an inferiority complex on the part of many blacks. Both whites and blacks are now starting to see the fallacy of such thinking.
The presence of these complexes and their influence on people’s action created a political opportunity which the Democrats filled. But now it is clear the Party believes blacks are coming to feel the Party may no longer be able to count on the undivided loyalty of blacks as they attain their rightful place in society. Thus Hillary is pretending blacks have not achieved their just representation at the polls.
* * *
At this point in our history, instead of continuing to help to improve the position of blacks and other minorities, the Democrats are doing damage to the black families by giving in to the teachers’ unions, in blindly supporting the bad schools, and relaxing educational performance standards, in order to perpetuate unions’ support. The teachers’ unions have long supported maintenance of the status quo, which means leaving bad teachers on the job.
Now, speaking directly to you, my black brothers: For you to live fulfilling, productive lives, you need to make the Democrats earn your support. Right now, you are doing so blindly, and they therefore don’t have to do what is right by you. This Democratic, Big Brother, we’ll-take-care-of-you attitude, is depriving our nation of far too many potential Ben Carsons. Art Hall
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
