It was at nineteen when I joined the Marines that I first came into contact with non-whites to any great degree. However, the USMC didn't harbor much tolerance for any form of bigotry. If I'd had any prejudices, they would have been quickly polished off by boot camp training. After that initial haircut, and getting uniforms, it was difficult enough to tell one person from another by sight, and way beyond reason to buck the "we all wear green, and bleed red" mentality that the Corps pushed. Boot camp training was a melting pot. There was a significant majority of whites, but not so much that the combination of Blacks, Hispanics, Filipino's, Orientals and Indians gave them any advantage. And like I said, the Corps had a zero tolerance for racial bigotry. During my four years of active duty, I worked with and grew to know many fine men, and women, of many races. The military in my time treated all with equality, so there was never any real pattern to be noticed with anybody receiving special attention. That all changed when I got out.
A few days after "coming home", I went down to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department (yep roosting ground for our contemporary Sheriff Joe Arpaio) in answer to a job search where there was listed an opening as a deputy sheriff. After waiting in line for the better part of half a day mostly listening to a foreign language and screaming kids, I finally got my chance at an interview. I stood before the department recruiter for maybe ten minutes before I received this response, "Do you recall the Hispanic lady in front of you in line that had the three kids hanging on her legs?" To which I replied "Yes sir, I do", to which he responded, "She has a better chance of getting this job than you do". When I asked why a twenty five year old, 6'2" 200lb chunk of ornery Marine would get passed over by an overweight woman with three infant kids he responded with stats from his quota requirements for minorities in the department. Thus was my introduction to Affirmative Action.
We have taken this Affirmative Action thing, which kinda like the labor unions, was first started because specific people, of a specific characteristic, needed some specific protection, and turned it into a monster of epic proportions.
If I walk into a doctors office and have need of medical assistance, I need an insurance card. If I don't have that card, or cash money, I don't get help. A person of color, any color other than white, can walk into any emergency room and get whatever assistance they desire or require. They get food stamps, EPT's, financial aide, legal aide, educational aide, privileges and handouts without ever having to say a word.
And here's the kicker. My dad's mother was a full blooded Cherokee who in 1982 qualified for a reparation check on behalf of a screwed Cherokee Nation. His dad was a half breed Cherokee. I'm not sure what content that makes me, but I can guarantee you that I'd qualify for minority assistance if I pushed it. I never have though because I've never felt like I needed anyone else to do for me what I was perfectly capable of doing for myself. I could have gotten that job in '83 with the sheriff's department if I'd have claimed my "right" under Affirmative Action. But I didn't want the job based on how I was born. I wanted the job because I was a trained warrior, qualified for the job, and knew I could do it.
All of that to say this. There are enough instances of the ethical use of that status, by truly needy people who wouldn't otherwise be able to survive, to tax the coffers of the system. We certainly don't need the Warren's of the world exploiting it unethically, if not illegally, for personal gain. In my book, using the distinction of belonging to a "minority" for the purpose of getting a leg up on someone else, when working just a bit harder would achieve the same ends, is criminally lazy.
I'm damn tired of driving down the streets of the city I live in and seeing individuals who don't work, won't work and yet could, thriving off of programs that are entirely paid for by those of us who will, and do. I'm sick to death of standing behind the obese lady in the grocery store who used her EBT card for groceries, and then drags her six kids out and loads them into the Tahoe with four grand worth of DUBS on it that's parked in the fire lane. I'm tired of following that same Tahoe down the road and watching burger wrappers and pop cans fly out the window because they have no respect for what's been given them.
I'm tired of driving through our neighborhoods and seeing the idle porch sitters in the same seats they were in when I went to work. I'm tired of having to call the police every weekend following the first or the fifteenth of the month because those same porch sitters got their party on at the public expense.
I'm tired of religions shoving their irrational beliefs down our throats and not being able to counter with anything because it "offends" them. I'm tired of the atheist condemning my religion and forcing my God off of territory held for centuries. I'm tired of these "minority" status groups in general having the power to tell me how to live my live, where I can go to worship, what I can read, eat, do and say.
I'm tired of hearing how ignorant white people decided to vote for an asshat nobody knew simply because he was black and they didn't want to be perceived as a racist. I didn't vote against him because he was black, I voted against him because he was, and still is, an asshole.
I'm tired of having to see the butt cheeks of urban thugs walking in public calling themselves "nigga" and daring anybody that even looks at them to say anything about it. I'm tired of MSM telling us we have to tolerate the violent abuse because if we don't we're racists, or intolerant.
Most of all I'm tired of white liberals calling me a racist, homophobic and a radical because I believe in God, the Bible, and the Constitution, and they think that makes me weak.
It's time we pulled the plug on "Affirmative Action" and just took some plain old action to take back this country. I can live peaceably with any color, any race, and any religion or ideology. So long as they don't try and force what they believe down my throat, or try to make me pay for their lifestyle just because they're too damn lazy to pay for it themselves and they know that if they cry "minority entitlement" loud enough and long, somebody else will.
It is high time, that if we are a majority, and are going to be punished for being so, we act like one and take back control. My give-a-damn is busted. It's time to say "Okay, lets just do this...." Keep it legal, keep it ethical within the boundaries of what WE believe, but keep it real.
This country was built by people ready, willing and prepared to etch it out of a wilderness on the merit of their own capabilities. Because of that it has a rich and firm foundation. But if we don't get sensible, and stop giving away the resources needed to keep it strong and viable, somebodies going to come along and take it away from us. It would be a damn shame to have nobody but a bunch of slack ass moochers sitting on the front porch watching the new owners march down the streets and taking possession without a fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment