Man of Steel

I'm going to break the mold once again and write about our 'perfect' president, but this column won't be so much political as it will be cultural.  Multiculturalism is good, isn't it?

We, the American people, have put ourselves in a quandary that seems insoluble.  The problems we have with our government's actions, and more specifically our debate about those actions, are the cause of a lot of dissention, divisiveness and discord among the various factions of our society. 

You all know where my politics and philosophy lie, as I make no secret of it.  However, I'll wager that you don't know that I have no loyalty to any political party, or organization or group.  I quit the Republican Party years ago, and I absolutely refuse to join any other political party.  I also avoid like the plague the Tea Party or any other PAC group.

Like many others too numerous to count, I am opposed to the current administration, and have not yet, in over five years, seen anything come out of Washington that I like or even remotely agree with. 

Also, like those others, I hesitate to express my opinions in 'mixed' company for fear of offending someone.  Many of you good friends and relatives continue to state that any disrespect for President Obama shows disrespect for the office of the president and is not tolerated.  I disagree with that, but for now I'll let it ride.

If I, or anyone I know, says anything negative about our president's policies or actions, the first thing that seems to be thrown out is that we are being 'racist'.  It seems to be assumed that if we are against Obama, we must be 'racist' rather than opposed to ideas.

Here is the crux of our dilemma... We cannot oppose this man for anything he does, or else we must be given the epithet, RACIST.  End of discussion, end of debate, end of conversation.

You may correct me if I am wrong -- and I mean that literally, but I don't think anyone will be able to do so -- but to my recollection and my knowledge of history, the United States of America is alone in the world as the only nation to ever fight a civil war of the Caucasian Race over the freeing of the Negroid Race.  In the American Civil War we caused the death or maiming of about one third of our population. 

Think about that for a moment... Virtually every nation on earth, every civilization in the history of mankind, has had slavery of some kind and to some degree.  Some nations in Africa and Asia still practice some forms of slavery today, to wit, the young girls recently kidnapped in Nigeria. Yet, among all those diverse cultures, we are the only one to have fought, bled and died among the non-slave populace to free those who we were holding in chains.

What did we get for our trials and tribulation? We have the gall to label each other 'racist'.  And we further have the gall to label anyone who disagrees with a president who just happens to be of a minority race, with that epithet in order to silence them.

Come on, Folks, get real!  Do you really believe that mantra that any American wants to starve children, the poor and the downtrodden? Can you honestly believe that we are happy to see people live in filth and squalor here in America, or anywhere in the world?

Is it really possible that you think I want to take away anyone's Social Security benefits,

or their temporary lifelines such as welfare and  unemployment and food stamps? And

finally, do we, either side of the issues, really swallow the Kool-Aid that the other side is close-minded and uninformed? 

We are all Americans, and that means we are 'exceptional' in so many ways that the rest of the world cannot comprehend.  We should be a united people with similar goals and aspirations.  However, since the 1980s, or maybe the 1990s, we have become more and more polarized and hostile toward one another to a point where even families are divided over everything.

When the late Rodney King uttered those words, "Can't we all just get along?" it was prophetic, because it ushered in a new era where we definitely do not get along, and we now go out of our way to stifle debate and compromise. All sides have the position that, 'it's my way, or the highway."

One of our famous presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, once said, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

Political?  I think not!  It is just good common sense.