Dear Ruth: A friend sent me a short video via e-mail recently. He thought it would alarm me, and it did – but not for the reason he thought.
In the video, an elderly African-American man was ranting on and on about President Obama. He clearly did not care for the man. At the very end of the video, he used the forbidden “N” word – referring to Obama. His demeanor was vitriolic. But the “N” word didn’t upset me as much as something else he said. He also criticized Obama for not doing enough for his people.
Where do we get the notion that our government exists for the sole purposes of doing things for select groups and giving us things we didn’t earn?
Troubled in Tupelo
Dear Troubled: You sign your name “Troubled,” yet our entire nation and our democratic form of government is in trouble, and on the verge of extinction.
First let me address the “N” word. Only once in my long and unsheltered life have I heard a white person call a black person the “N” word in the presence of a black person, and that was in the mid 70s in rural Georgia. I cringed when I heard the word, and expected an explosion of fists to follow. Rather, the black man responded almost as if the white man had called him “Buddy.” Maybe the black man didn’t have a choice. I’m not excusing the use of the word for a moment. Yet, I’ve heard blacks call one another by the “N” word more times than I can count. Sometimes fights break out. So, it has become a hate crime if a white man calls a black man the “N” word, but it’s just spirited conversation as usual if a black man uses the word. Maybe “Dear Amy” can explain it. I can’t.
One of the most quoted phrases from a presidential inaugural address was John Kennedy’s plea, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” As a result of Kennedy’s initiatives, young people signed up in droves for the Peace Corp. People responded to his appeal. When Lyndon Johnson took over the reins of government, the appeal changed. It became: Vote for the candidate that promises you the most stuff. And Johnson promised and delivered the most sweeping civil rights package in the history of the world under his “Great Society” program. Did Johnson have a heart for African-Americans? Not exactly. In his many years in Congress as a representative and a senator, he joined with other southern democrats and opposed every piece of civil rights legislation that was written. Perhaps his motivation and his hunger for power changed when he became president. After he passed his civil rights reforms, he said to a small group of confidants, “We’ll have the niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.” I’m simply quoting a former president. I do not use the “N” word. Did his sweeping legislation help? Look at the extreme poverty and high crime in Chicago, such as the Englewood community, before answering the question. Look at Detroit, and Washington DC. But he achieved one thing: he secured the African-American vote for generations. He spent a boatload of the taxpayers’ money, but didn’t make a dent in poverty.
Chicagoans all know the story about the Great Chicago fire in 1871. Legend has it that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a kerosene lamp, ignited the hay in her barn, and started the fire that destroyed most of the city. After the raging fire was finally extinguished, a group of wealthy Chicago businessmen headed to New York City to raise capital to rebuild Chicago. They didn’t even think of heading to Washington DC for a government bailout. It wasn’t easy, but the city was ultimately rebuilt.
Long ago in 1787, about the time our founding fathers were adopting our new constitution, the Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler said, “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think Tyler was not only a history professor, he was a prophet too.
Ruth