Becoming ungovernable

 It’s a little over... blame Thomas Paine!

And so, if you have been able to follow the discourse across editions, our bottom line conclusion is that in most ways, whites and Blacks in America lead very similar lives. The things that we see our friends do through the years – start a family before they were ready, early divorce, alcohol, or drugs. These same early lifestyle markers that would lead one of our white friends to poverty would lead a black friend into poverty as well.

I was reading in one of my magazines a black lady was writing about the “Black Experience” and referring to the time during and immediately after the Great Depression, there was a migration by poor Blacks from the South to the North for jobs. Of course, we all know of that same migration of poor whites from the South that moved North for jobs. My father went North to work in the auto factories, in Michigan, in the late 20s and worked for the Fisher Body Plant, in downtown Detroit. How similar were the stories this black lady told of visits back home from relatives that had gone North to work and their newfound “wealth.”

So the real question is when will we stop allowing ourselves to be played? All these statues coming down all over the United States, costing millions of dollars - has even one black child learned how to read as a result? Have all these millions spent improved a single school district in a predominately black area with failing schools?

On the day when blacks and whites are willing to recognize that we have far more in common with each other than we do with the race hustlers and dividers, we can say we are making progress. But tearing down statues and senseless violence accomplishes nothing! You want change? Put your back into a registration and voting effort. Votes are not counted by color, and no one knows how we vote. It is time for Republicans to reach out as never before to black communities and recognize our connectedness! Imagine the power that move could have! We must band together on our part in white America and demand quality schools for our black and brown brothers and sisters. It is a shame to all of us that, in our country, a child can graduate from high school and be unable to read and write. That is not only the lookout for the black community because we need those children excelling as well.

Just to wrap this series up, what do you think is the game plan short term for our country? I am concerned that what we are seeing is an attempt to make our country ungovernable.

It is only in times of great societal stress that a person can sell as old and ugly a model for society as “socialism.”

We need to all get past the idea that this is about Democrats and Republicans. This is about whether we continue as a functioning, constitutional Republic or a pretend Republic where all the real power is in presidential executive decisions that go unchecked by our courts and uncharged by our judicial system.

Do we really know how many executive orders have gone out concerning the governing of this nation?  Are there classified presidential signing statements and the like creating all kinds of monitoring powers over “homegrown terrorists?”

Kind of like using the government to do your opposition research. But then, we know that happened in the Obama administration, don’t we?

In closing, I give you Thomas Paine:

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”