TOS,
You seem to live your life looking in the rear view mirror and alot of what you see is backward.
In 1629 the English Empire along with the Spanish Empire and the African Slave traders bought the first slaves to Jamestown Virginia. No one can deny a terrrible day for what would eventually become the United States.
At the same time the English Empire had my ancestors as conquered people and slaves in Ireland. They faced poverty ,starvation and death.When they fled to the new world many were taken off the ships to fight and die for other peoples freedom in the civil war. My father arrived in Ellis Island alone with no money in the early 1900's as a teenager and was subject to racism in the"NEW YORK" of course you know the old York was in England.
He found many places with "Irish do not apply" -of course old Al and Jessie and affirmative action was not around then --so he did what he had to do --work or starve--he dug ditches for the railroads for 44 years until he died, he and my Irish Mother Raised six children in the slums of the South Bronx. No welfare ,no food stamps, no education,no house and no car. He worked all day she worked as a cashier nights. The only thing they had to give us was love,teach us a hard work ethic and altough Catholic told us not to bring children into this world unless you could afford them.
They also taught us honesty and to value our Catholic educations that they desperately paid for to keep us out of the Public schools.
Do not preach to me how hard people have it today. Way to many are LAZY, create chaos in schools,are allergic to work. With all the entitlement programs and affirmative action in the U.S. even a black man from a broken home rose to become the most powerful man in the world--you cry about the top 1% and envy them and through your rose colored glasses you do not see the lack of personal responsability, lack of work ethic and people not moving forward but complaining about the past.
I am surprised that a well read person such as yourself cannot realize that I too have decended from slavery and as Jim Casey would say "Determined people make their conditions, they do not become victim of them.
Anyone in America can be successful if THEY choose to be.In this country EVERYONE has the opportunity to have a better life than the past generation had.
My father and Mother worked hard and their reward was to have Six college Graduates all successful and contributing to society.
Stop being stuck in the past --no one can change it--but the future --it is there for anyone to grasp.
Island,
I congratulate you on your efforts and in no way want to diminish the value of your "hard work". I think you do have my point however. I listed the "Irish" in my post, and pointed out how they were "trapped" into a tough life for years and once they were "integrated" into the "new world", they rose and made good lives for their generations to follow. African americans and Mexican americans are in that same mode now.
Unlike the Irish, who had the opportunity to "Assimilate", africans and mexicans have had it tougher mainly because of the color of their skin in this country. The "new world" didnt have the same opportunities for minorities of color as they did for white minorities. The new world didnt want these people in their neighborhoods so they created ghettos for them to live, out of the way and unseen in the white communities.
They created GOVERMENT programs to KEEP them there, not to help them escape and integrate.
Some lost their lives trying to break free from these ghettos and improve their lives. The new world created laws to keep them there. As more and more of them learned and yearned for a better life, they were greeted by violence and a group of new world citizens called the KKK. Knowing that the goverment was eventually going to allow african americans the freedom to move about more freely, the KKK took matters into their own hands.
This terror group was able to convince a good portion of african americans to never ever want to leave their "ghettos" out of pure fear.
Today, generation after generation live there with the help of the goverment and you call them lazy. Nobody wants them in our public schools, in our suburbs, in our restaurants or in our industries. Some have managed to escape the grip of poverty but the percentage is still small in comparision to the overall number of those still living in poverty.
For almost 200 years, african americans have been held back by either laws or social barriers.
When this is the overall concept that they face day to day, how do you expect them to think any differently? Some are just tired of trying. Others are making it. Indeed, we have a black president, but the repubicans and its followers still want to call him names, make fun of his race, connect him to every radical black person in the world and you say weve evolved?
By percentage, neighborhoods are becoming more integrated with minorities, but in some areas, once minorities come in, "white flight" takes over.
Using only the concept that capitalism and the free market will help minorities escape the need for goverment assistance is foolish at best. No matter how many tax cuts you give large corporations, they will NEVER EVER build a factory or business in a minority community. If they did, they could solve this "welfare" society and the mindset that goes along with it.
As a nation, we have created the poverty we see today. Now you want to complain about it? Americans bitch about the goverment spending tax dollars on the poor minorities because its costing millions of dollars every year and climbing, but nobody was complaining about it when it kept those minorities out of the suburbs.
We need to change the mindsets of not only those trapped in the ghettos, but also those in the rest of america to open their minds to accepting them in the communities as they did the Irish back in the 1800's.
I dont cry for the top 1%, they had all the opportunities that the rest of us dont have. Not all of us follow the carrot at the end of the stick ISland. Some of us dont even see the stick.
I am also a minority. I grew up in a hispanic ghetto as a child, watched and suffered with my relatives. My grandfather worked hard and put my father in school and then a community hispanic college. My father then worked hard and was able to get me to a better school and college but it wasnt that easy. We were targeted by other kids and families as we moved to a "white area" in 1965 and they just didnt want us there. It was tough as a kid dealing with this kind of discrimination but our father asked us to be brave.
At the end of the day, we made it out, went on to have great lives, I have two sisters who are now lawyers, my brother is a captain with LAPD and this with hard work from all of us. I recently took my own daughter to the area where I grew up and showed her around town. We eventually made it to the one bedroom home we lived at with 2 parents and six kids. She about cried. She wondered how I escaped from that environment and was able to live where we live today.
Hard work, determination, leadership and acceptance. Without acceptance, everything else means nothing. Sure it was tough, but today, its tougher than ever. With millions of jobs leaving the country over the last 25 years, there are fewer opportunites for minorities to make it on their own without the help of our goverment.
We can agree that all people should be given a chance to succeed in this country, but it starts with the top 1%. They have to "invest" into america and not third world nations. The unintended consequence of investing overseas is the collapse of our own society at large. Those of us that are left with jobs and assets are being asked to pay MORE for the rest of america as the top 1% ask for a tax break.
At no time in the history of tax breaks for the top1% has an major investment in america occured. Our current manufacturing to GDP sits at 9%, whereas prior to Ronald Reagan and the first tax cuts to the rich manufacturing to GDP sat at 43%.
This decline in manufacturing to GDP was solely based on the tax cuts which allowed corporations to invest those savings overseas.
By taking those jobs overseas and out of this county, what is there left for americans of all races to do? In eight years of BUSH, weve managed to become a "service industry" nation. Fast foods, hotels, mom and pop shops are all thats left for employment. We no longer build furniture, clothes, shoes, paper products, pencils,appliances,electronics,toys, paints,dog food,toothpaste etc etc etc.....
In todays ghettos, you want a kid to go to work for mcdonalds for 8 bucks an hour-part time, whereas, he could sell a "rock" for 25 bucks every 15 minutes. Where do you think he would rather work? Why not teach him to build cars with a living wage and teach him to raise his family to follow in his footsteps?
Its all about changing the mindset of this whole country. From the top to the bottom. Investing in america, investing in our people. I travel all over this country and I see good people and bad. I am treated well in some parts and frowned upon in others.
You said : ""Way to many are LAZY, create chaos in schools,are allergic to work.""
Well ISland, poverty creates chaos. So the solution is to solve poverty. The one thing that was overlooked when the ghettos were created was the rate of reproduction. Each area has growth numbers that are staggering, and it was only a matter of time before the rate of births would exceed the rate of ability to cover the costs.
Since Ronald Reagan, the richest americans achieved the most power in the country and its those interests that are being protected while the bottom rungs of the country asked to fix the nations problems.
We can agree to disagree, but hard work is not the answer, its only a process, the answer is employing our citizens and paying a living wage. Only then will we be able to save this country.
Peace.
