IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
# 151
June 23, 2013
“From Tara to Terror…”
Shades of Margaret Mitchell, folks. It’s not Big Sam, but Uncle Sam.
It’s not Twelve Oaks’ neighboring plantation, but it does have a big white house — just not among cotton fields. Oh, no. This one sits among the most famous buildings in our nation. It sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Tara is terror, from the standpoint of those of us who revere the U. S. Constitution and fear its consistent erosion and assault through courts that legislate from the bench.
I had a marvelous professor at Butler University. Her field was named, but not correctly. She deemed it African-American history. It is not. It is Black history in America.
Eight years ago, I wrote a column entitled “The Tragedy of a Hyphenated America.” We see it coming full circle today. Any dissention from the administration view is labeled racist, yet federal policies have affected the black community far more deeply than any other sector of our society.
No matter what ethnicity is plugged into the hyphenated form, it is wrong. An American is an American — period. No matter his or her country of origin. We value every person equally, despite what the social justice screamers claim.
By the way, if the Democratic Party has done so much for the blacks in this country, why have we spent trillions of dollars on the War on Poverty and never won a battle. More people live in poverty than ever before and the statistics show that the disparity among the races is not only stark but also very deadly.
Consider this. The unemployment rate among young blacks is 50%, and that may be low in some areas. Schools are in decay and there is little real effort to change that. Why? A subservient and dependent population is easy to control. Keep telling folks that they can’t do without you and keep handing them just enough to survive and the recipe is not gourmet — it is grimy.
Control is the name of the game, people. It is not simply core politics. It is abhorrent. To even talk about bringing in more than 30 million guest workers into a population awash in unemployment is insulting to anyone with common sense. To err is human. To forgive is divine. But to give in order to dehumanize is akin to insanity.
Tell me that none among the poorest of our kids will not thrive with discipline tempered with love… that they won’t feel better about themselves with a healthy dose of Scripture… that they can’t appreciate success if they are encouraged to expect it….
To not raise expectations is to destroy a generation. I’ve watched this slippery slope since I graduated from high school at age 16 in 1961. The turbulent, drug-laced 60s did nothing to instill pride in our young people. Artificial experience crushed the work ethic and morals dug into a pit that now seems bottomless.
The change is up to every one of us. We need to get out and talk with our fellow citizens and not leave all the talk up to elected officials. They seem to lose track of their moral compass once they find that their high ideals fall on deaf ears and the undergirding bureaucracy that considers all elected persons “part time help” continues its rigid hold on the movers and shakers at the federal level of government.
When departments are rewarded for poor or non-performance, when nobody worries about how much money they spend (It’s not their money, however!), and when the younger generation disregards all this misbehavior and goes its merry way playing with cell phones and video games or watching sporting events. How sad, how incredibly sad…
Now the feds want an end to Catholic or Jewish schools. Why? They are a threat to the agenda. They put God first. Secularists fear those who follow God. God trumps all. No sports hero, no comedian, no singer, no moviemaker can compete with the Ten Rules that will save mankind.
Where is Tara? It’s become Terror. Not the Islamic terror that the main stream press roundly ignores, but the terror of central control that is creeping into our lives more and more every day.
The new plantation is not a pretty place. If we don’t put a stop to it now, I fear what our grandchildren must face. It has spread across the nation like the plague and yet the populace stands aside and watches without great complaint. The future is in our children, yet even their lives are at risk. The laws allow a woman to kill an unborn baby and call the death “choice.” Whose choice? Not the child’s — that is for sure.
Failing schools are commonplace. They should be the exception rather than the rule. What on earth do we need with a Department of Education? When I grew up, that was the home. The fact that 80% of black children grew up in two-parent homes in the 1960s and that 70% of today’s black children grow up in a home without a father should tell us a lot.
It takes two parents to make a baby and it takes two parents to rear that baby. Granted, some parents die early and lose the chance to see their children grow up, but others are alive and yet completely detached from their progeny. So many of those children do not even know the identity of their fathers. Also, some divorced couples make concerted efforts to see that their children grow and mature with good guidance from a mother and a father. But, for those who grow up in poor conditions, the schools have the opportunity to guide them on the right path.
That path does not end at the welfare office. That path ends with goals set, education under the belt and a work ethic that is not easily dissuaded by setback. The old-fashioned term “sticktoitiveness” applies perfectly.
We are the observers of an artificial division. We are artificially divided by gender, race, and — of all things — sexual preferences. Divide and conquer? Well, we are divided. We cannot allow ourselves to be conquered.
Parents and students should pour into the streets and demand school choice. Options encourage competition. Competition fosters excellence. Excellence builds self-esteem. The human condition is fragile. The human soul is the strength of this nation.
The soul thrives on faith. Faith supports even the most downtrodden or mistreated person. Faith gives rules that point people toward a better life. Everything I see today more than hints that a movement is afoot to dismantle religious institutions and marginalize the faithful.
There are groups that need to be dismantled and the biggest is big government. Strike fear into the masters at the new plantation. So is this current version of Tara promoting terror? It is if you worry about losing your freedoms.
Please don’t let this country go to waste. Don’t sit back and do nothing. Make sure your voice is heard. Think about it.