America, Built to Last
The View from the Middle
Let me give some badly needed factual counter evidence to the fatalistic, extremist stories that are being passed around on college campuses, the Democrat party and even the NFL these days. If you just listened to them, you would think that America is a horrible place to live that hasn’t made any progress since 1776 and needs fundamental change for us to survive. According to critics and Hillary Clinton, anyone who doesn’t agree with the Democrat Party’s agenda is a bunch of racist bigots who are deplorable and irredeemable. I take offense to those charges.
While we are not perfect, I believe that The United States of America is the greatest place in the world to live and we will only get better because of the foundation that our founding fathers put together for our country. I don’t think, for example, that the words “all men are created equal” were thoughtlessly plugged into our Declaration of Independence because they just sounded good. In 1776 those words were not true in America and I believe the founders knew it. It was their hope, however, that over time we could live up to that vision.
And we have made fantastic progress toward that end since then. We fought a civil war at least in part over the issue of equal rights for all and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation to legally make that wish become a reality. But, with difficult issues like this, it takes time for legality to become reality.
In 1870 the first two Black Americans, Hiram Revels and Joseph Rainey, were elected to Congress. After some set backs and a complete dry period from 1901 to 1929, Black America truly began it’s journey. By 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act was signed, there were six African Americans in Congress. Today there are 51, which is almost 10% of the 535 members of the House and Senate. We’ve come a long way, and I expect that we will continue to make progress in the future.
Under Jim Crow, Blacks saw little justice in America as they were regularly harassed, and over 4,000 were brutally lynched. Today, while our policemen and women are accused systemic racism, the actual facts tell a different story. In 2015, law enforcement made over 11 million arrests and only 965 of those arrests, .0086% or one in every 11,674, ended in a fatality. Only 90 of those deadly shootings were of unarmed people (one out of every 125,166) and 36 of those were black males. 36 of 90 is 40% of the total while black men represent only 13% of the male population in America, so there is a discrepancy. While prejudice is a factor in that discrepancy, it is not the only factor, so solutions need to address more that just racism in our law enforcement.
I will bet that these numbers shocked most people, in a positive way. With all the emotion over this issue most people would guess that there were 900 fatal unarmed shootings, not 90, and 360 Black males killed, not 36. And 2016 brought us even better news. In 2016 the number of unarmed black males killed by police was down to just 16. I don’t want to be insensitive by calling this “better news” and saying “just” 16 unarmed Black males were killed by police. Every life is precious. Each of these deaths is tragic, but this also represents progress, not an epidemic. BTW – most of all unarmed shooting victims were resisting arrest or fleeing police, which is another lesson.
Finally, the NFL needs some fact checkers on their staffs. They not only should check out the real figures as I have outlined them above, but they need to realize that 72% of Americans think that kneeling for the National Anthem is unpatriotic. These are the people who fill the stands each week or watch games on TV. It is a big industry, but no business can alienate its customer base with impunity and survive. Ratings are down and will continue to decline until the NFL figures out how to address the issue and celebrate the country at the same time.
Maybe the Cowboys are on to something. The team knelt BEFORE the anthem and then stood for it. They still got booed when they knelt, but got applauded when they stood. Bottom line, the NFL needs to become about football again and maybe the Cowboys can be America’s team again by leading the way through this issue.
I didn’t write this article because I think that America is perfect or that we have experienced total harmony of the races. I write this to bring some balance to this discussion. I believe that America today is the best place to live in this world and even at any time in its history. Because of our foundation, we have made great progress over the years and I have no doubt that we will make more in the future. I have great confidence in the vast majority of the American people who are united behind the concepts of equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all people.
We all need to ignore the emotionally charged, vitriolic rhetoric of the extremists who are trying to tear this country apart for their own selfish purposes, and listen to the good hearts of the average American. We need to stop the finger pointing and focus on solutions, and for that just watch my video entitled – Race in America, Solutions. Here is a link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVsN7TO-XU.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Thursday, September 7, 2017
DACA - What Does it Really Mean?
DACA – Don’t Ask Congress to do Anything
The View from the Middle
President Trump has just given our Congress an opportunity to begin to claw its way back to credibility. So far, this Republican Congress has delivered an epic failure in passing any meaningful legislation. Paul Ryan specifically misled President Trump when he suggested that he start his legislative agenda by repealing and replacing Obamacare. He led Trump to believe that this was a slam-dunk and yet he failed to get his initial proposal through the House and ended up barely passing a weak alternative, which Mitch McConnell pronounced DOA in the Senate.
Then Mitch McConnell botched his effort to pass anything on repeal and replace. This was a slap in the face to the President and to every person who voted for a Republican Senate based on Republican promises to fix our healthcare problem. Finally, John McCain made a mockery of his promises to his constituents and to the President with his grandstanding rejection of repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.
I’m not even going to get into the appropriateness of Obamacare. This is impotence, plain and simple, and is exactly what the American people are sick of. Now Trump has served up a soft ball for the Republicans in Congress. 86% of Democrats and even 69% of Republicans (about 80% overall) support this group defined as “dreamers”.
Who are these people anyway? They are young people who were brought into this country when they two, three, four years old and now are productive citizens. This is not MS-13. These are not rapists, murderers or thieves. They know no other country than the US! Even if we were able to round them up, where would we send them? Yes, we must secure the border as we come to grips this group, but there should be no doubt that these are the very people to whom we should show compassion.
This is the biggest favor that the President could have done for Congress. DACA is an unconstitutional executive order, which was about to be challenged, and I’m sure thrown out by our judicial branch. Even President Obama alluded to this before he signed this order when he said, “I’m President, not a king.” Even after he signed it he said that it was not a permanent solution. DACA was a short term measure meant to give these young people some piece of mind while Congress delivered the appropriate, constitutional, legislative answer which would deliver real security and peace of mind for this group. Of course, in classic “swamp” style, Congress has delivered nothing.
Now is your chance, Republicans. Trump has cleared the decks for you by compromising with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (not my favorite people) on the debt ceiling, government funding and Hurricane Harvey relief. There are two messages in this compromise. First, to the Republican Congress - get your s—t together. Here’s an issue with massive public support and you better deal with it now. You’ve got six months you slugs. Get off your dead butts and pass some meaningful legislation.
The second message is also clear. If the Republican majority doesn’t start supporting the Trump agenda, there are things Trump can accomplish with Democratic support. Remember, he was once a Democrat and even ran as President with some very moderate positions on healthcare and even immigration. Trump may turn to the Democrats, be successful and run for a second term…as a Democrat. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has anything like that happened. Now, that would be historic. Is that what this Congress wants to be remembered for?
The View from the Middle
President Trump has just given our Congress an opportunity to begin to claw its way back to credibility. So far, this Republican Congress has delivered an epic failure in passing any meaningful legislation. Paul Ryan specifically misled President Trump when he suggested that he start his legislative agenda by repealing and replacing Obamacare. He led Trump to believe that this was a slam-dunk and yet he failed to get his initial proposal through the House and ended up barely passing a weak alternative, which Mitch McConnell pronounced DOA in the Senate.
Then Mitch McConnell botched his effort to pass anything on repeal and replace. This was a slap in the face to the President and to every person who voted for a Republican Senate based on Republican promises to fix our healthcare problem. Finally, John McCain made a mockery of his promises to his constituents and to the President with his grandstanding rejection of repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.
I’m not even going to get into the appropriateness of Obamacare. This is impotence, plain and simple, and is exactly what the American people are sick of. Now Trump has served up a soft ball for the Republicans in Congress. 86% of Democrats and even 69% of Republicans (about 80% overall) support this group defined as “dreamers”.
Who are these people anyway? They are young people who were brought into this country when they two, three, four years old and now are productive citizens. This is not MS-13. These are not rapists, murderers or thieves. They know no other country than the US! Even if we were able to round them up, where would we send them? Yes, we must secure the border as we come to grips this group, but there should be no doubt that these are the very people to whom we should show compassion.
This is the biggest favor that the President could have done for Congress. DACA is an unconstitutional executive order, which was about to be challenged, and I’m sure thrown out by our judicial branch. Even President Obama alluded to this before he signed this order when he said, “I’m President, not a king.” Even after he signed it he said that it was not a permanent solution. DACA was a short term measure meant to give these young people some piece of mind while Congress delivered the appropriate, constitutional, legislative answer which would deliver real security and peace of mind for this group. Of course, in classic “swamp” style, Congress has delivered nothing.
Now is your chance, Republicans. Trump has cleared the decks for you by compromising with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (not my favorite people) on the debt ceiling, government funding and Hurricane Harvey relief. There are two messages in this compromise. First, to the Republican Congress - get your s—t together. Here’s an issue with massive public support and you better deal with it now. You’ve got six months you slugs. Get off your dead butts and pass some meaningful legislation.
The second message is also clear. If the Republican majority doesn’t start supporting the Trump agenda, there are things Trump can accomplish with Democratic support. Remember, he was once a Democrat and even ran as President with some very moderate positions on healthcare and even immigration. Trump may turn to the Democrats, be successful and run for a second term…as a Democrat. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has anything like that happened. Now, that would be historic. Is that what this Congress wants to be remembered for?
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