8/13/20
Thoughts
Ever since the horrific killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police office on Memorial Day weekend we have had a great deal of unrest, particularly in our largest cities. The nationwide protests that followed spoke to the empathy the people felt for the plight of their fellow Americans. This being the disproportionately poor treatment that people of color have long endured at the hands of a few rouge officers who took advantage of their authority. Let me state that black lives matter to me and to most Americans, but there’s a distinct difference between that sentiment and the organization Black Lives Matter. Peace and freedom loving Americans believe that all lives matter including black lives. Black Lives Matter is not a social justice group. If they truly are and all black lives do matter to them, then why are they not out demonstrating on a weekly basis? In Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle, where even children are being killed, we hear nothing from them. I am left to contend that black lives only matter if a white police officer is involved. After a resent night of rioting and looting in Chicago a Black Lives Matter representative stated it wasn’t looting because the businesses had insurance and even if it was looting it was reparations for past injustices. The actual injustices are to the hardworking people of color who don’t concur with this type of behavior and work hard every day.
The protests were widespread and peaceful by day, but at night they turned ugly. Some would say this was understandable given the rage in the black community. I would posit that this behavior lessened the impact of the vast peaceful demonstrations in almost every city large and small. That rioting only lasted three or four days and then burned out on its own. In this period these mayors had what appeared to be an epiphany. They all at once said “Oh my lord, we have a problem with the police. Did you know that? I didn’t know that.” For over fifty years they’ve been running these cities and for over fifty years under their watch this has been happening. Now, suddenly there is a problem and what do they do? They turn on the police, their partners, who helped get them elected with large donations from the police union. While campaigning they decry police brutality but as soon as they have taken the oath of office, they turn a blind eye to the injustice allowing it to continue unabated. I would submit that one of the ways to reform the police is to decertify their union. This would solve two issues, first municipal employees contributing to the very people they will be working for hence creating a conflict of interest. Second, the unions support for rouge officers that allows them to stay on the job even after they have multiple accusations of brutality and excessive force. Individual contributions by employees are not the problem. It’s the large block contributions that cause conflicts. Also, we do need to protect the rank and file from unreasonable accusations so there needs to be a middle ground. I have heard nothing like this in any of the endless commentary on “reforming” or de-funding the police. A concept such as this would be considered nothing less than heresy in a situation where solving the problem is not really part of the equation, but posturing is.
For the past two months we’ve had rioting in major cities around the nation on a nightly basis. All of which is being done behind the guise of social justice. It couldn’t be further from the truth. They start out as peaceful protests, but fifteen to thirty minutes into them they start turning into something entirely different. There are marauding bands of youth mixed in the protesters, who very quickly start to stir up trouble. These rioters are Marxist anarchist like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Some are ultra-right skinheads masquerading as Antifa, never the less, all these malcontents have one end in mind, the downfall of our system of government. The Marxist would replace it with a communist style government and skinheads with some form of fascist government, similar to, the Third Reich. Neither of which are acceptable. They are both authoritarian and would lead to the subjugation of the American people. With very little online research, you can find out what these organizations stand for. So, I must assume that these mayors are either woefully ignorant or are true believers in the cause. The mayors of these cities have abdicated their responsibilities in order to placate these rioters. They, along with the media believe this will help them politically. I find this hypocritical. The media has said that the protests are mostly peaceful and only show the police in riot gear firing tear gas. What they are not showing are the radical throwing projectiles such as frozen water bottles, batteries, bricks, stones, ball bearings, and pointing lasers directly in the eyes of the officers who are out there only because the rioters are there. In Portland, OR the rioters set fire to a police HQ after blocking all the exits, in an effort to trap the occupants. Portland mayor’s main concern was that the rioters were giving the president film footage for his campaign, with little or no concern for the occupants or the building (city property). He promptly blamed the president and his administration. Anybody it would appear, but himself for his own incompetence. All these cities have been run by the same party for fifty years or more. They have failed every metric available. City governments job is to provide services to the community. Two of these are protecting property and the safety of the citizens. They have allowed the rioters to destroy city property, private property and assault any citizen they deem not sufficiently radical enough. One would hope that in the next round of elections these politicians pay a political price for their utter malfeasance, but alas I fear this is not to be. We may be too far down this road if these politicos stay in power.
I believe that there is institutional racism particularly in the failed school systems of these cities that don’t teach. The same party that runs these cities and their schools is also against “school choice” which would give the inner-city poor an opportunity for a better education. Oh no we can’t do that, it may anger the teachers’ union. By putting politics above of the welfare of our children, the city mayors are contributing to the caste system their party has had in place since reconstruction. These inferior school systems only perpetuate the need for all the social programs their party promotes. The social programs are a necessary, but cynical use of the schools to create a permanent lower class and therefore a voting block dependent on the largess they are encouraging. Similarly, they advance the concept of English as a second language to our Latino students. In a country where English is the primary language, why in heavens name would you diminish English as a primary language? Second languages are rarely spoken even moderately well. How well do you speak French or Spanish from your time in school? This point is pure nonsense and only adds to the permanent lower class. At the root of all this institutional racism is the belief in the construct of the soft bigotry of low expectations. They try mightily to hide their true feelings by saying things like “we feel your pain” or “we’ll fix all these problems” but they never do. They can’t and they won’t because it doesn’t fit their agenda. The teachers’ unions contribute heavily to political campaigns on the national, state, and local level. This again creates a conflict of interest particularly when the unions lean toward one party and they see political advantage in not opening the schools. When children don’t go to school, their parents can’t go to work, and the economy doesn’t grow. These are the same mayors that are keeping the schools closed and that are slow walking the opening of the economy with no “science and data” to support it. Teachers are, in my opinion, essential worker; just like doctors, nurses, EMTs, food service, supermarket, gas station employees who have kept our country going during this pandemic. Teachers need to put on their big boy/girl pants step up and do their jobs. If they are unwilling to do their jobs, then they should not be paid. Then they would be unemployed, by choice, unlike so many other Americans. Let’s see how quickly opinion changes if that were to happen. Now, accommodations will have to be made, school system will have to provide and require masks, shields, hand sanitizer, and some cases social distancing. The older teachers could do the online courses for the students with pre-existing conditions or whos’ parents would rather they not go to school. Remember our children and the teachers go to school during flu season and have for many years. The number of cases and the death toll is much higher in any given year from the flu than it is from covid and we soldier on regardless.
Unfortunately, none of this will happen because it’s not politically expedient. This is another reflection on the state of our government. It would seem that, just like in Communist China, “what’s good for the party and what’s good for the country” are one in the same. There was a time when we put country above party. Well, am I the only one who finds this troubling?
