The Sage Observer

Our Second Class

“America still has no capital city but already contains very large cities. In the year 1830, Philadelphia reckoned 161,000 inhabitants and New York 202,000. The ordinary people who dwell in these huge towns form a populace even more dangerous than that of European towns. In the first instance they are made up of freed Blacks condemned by the law and public opinion to an hereditary state of misery and degradation. In its midst you also meet a crowd of Europeans forced by misfortune or misconduct to sail for the shores of the New World; these men bring to the United States our most serious vices and they possess none of those interests which might counteract that influence. Since they inhabit the country without being citizens of it, they are ready to turn all the passions which agitate the community to their own advantage. Thus, for some time we have seen serious riots breaking out in Philadelphia and in New York. Such disturbances are unknown in the rest of the country which is not alarmed by them because population in the cities has not exercised up until now any power or any influence over the inhabitants of the countryside.

Nevertheless, I look upon the size of certain American cities and above all the nature of their inhabitants as a genuine danger threatening the future of the democratic republics of the New World and I do not hesitate to predict that that will be the source of their downfall unless their government succeeds in creating an armed force which will remain under the control of the majority of the nation, but which will be independent of the town population and thus able to repress its excesses”.

                                                                                             Alexis De Tocqueville, author,

                                                                                  Democracy in America,

                                                                                                    Published 1830, 184 years ago

         

The history of black slavery in America goes way back. Where we got them, how we brought them here, bought and sold them, broke up their families, treated and abused them, barred them from education, and treated them like animals—all this is documented in the annals of American History. Abraham Lincoln freed them by Executive Order, The Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, and they were given the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, February 3, 1870. And yet, still, through such measures as new state constitutions, poll taxes, literacy tests, etc., blacks were effectively disenfranchised throughout the land until the beginning of the twentieth century when the courts begun to interpret the Fifteenth Amendment more broadly. Then with the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which forbade poll taxes and later in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act, black participation in the American political system finally begun to increase. But, even now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, still, there are powers at work scheming to degrade these people, take away their voting rights, and subjugate them to a life of misery, treating them worse than we treat our household pets.

Sit and close your eyes for a moment. Imagine living your life, everyday with people all around you hating and loathing your very existence. I submit to you that the biggest insult that anyone can levy on someone else is to ignore them. Of all the wants and desires of every one of us, the greatest is to be accepted, to be wanted, to be loved by others—even more than sex, food, clothing, and shelter. How do you feel when it is you being rejected and ignored? I’m sure there are none of you who are unaware of the vital importance of instilling a positive self image in our children from birth and on. Our first view of ourselves in life comes from seeing how others view us. Jesus tells us we are how we think. Doesn’t that say it all?

In an article written by Josh Voorhees, www.slate.com, he wrote of  a video clip of events in Ferguson, Missouri wherein a police officer is recorded as shouting, “Bring it, all you fucking animals! Bring it!” I’ll be the last to agree with the actions of these people at Ferguson. In fact, I never will. I despise the way they have acted. Vandalism and looting are not protests. Vandalism and looting are an abomination to society, lawless and unacceptable. But, how did these people get this way? Who molded them this way over these past more than 184 years? Who made them the animals of which this ignorant and obnoxious police officer is accusing them? Let’s ask an even more urgent and important question. What are we going to do to solve this social problem in our society? Our prisons are overflowing (more than any country in the world) and euthanasia is certainly out of the question (aren’t we the ones who have been preaching human rights all over the world?). And last, but not least, when? When are we going to do it? It should be obvious that this can’t wait. We have been waiting since the existence of this country. It must be done.

Let me tell you this. When it is done, we will be downright fools if our solution doesn’t include equal opportunity mandated non-discriminatory education for everybody, pre-school through college or vocation school (depending upon the student’s proclivities and personal desires). By saying mandated and non-discriminatory, I mean taxpayer paid education with equal opportunity and resources for all, black, white, green, rich, and poor—whatever color. We must do this for the good of our country and our people. We already see where “drop-outs” get us.

Can we afford this? You darn right we can, if all of us pay our fair share based upon our ability to pay. We can’t afford not to. Also, if we want to be successful in our effort, we must increase standards and emphasize the teaching of values, the arts, history, economics, and government, right along with reading writing, and arithmetic. We should begin ASAP (As soon as possible), beginning with a special emphasis on pre-school and kindergarten and proceed from there with a target completion date in fifteen years. Surely, I don’t have to discuss the relevance of, and need for, jobs in this matter.

This is another one for our do-nothing political parties. There can be no doubt. This is much more important than politics. Republican? Democrat? It doesn’t matter. This is about the ultimate survival of our nation. This is a cancer, eating and drinking the life blood of our country. Let’s gitter done and gitter done now. Let us really become United—a United People.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net