I trust that most readers here at AD are highly intelligent, and will finish reading this entire piece before getting upset, or pre-judging me.

LIFE IS NOT FAIR - EMBRACE IT - AND MOVE ON!

GIMME A BREAK!

© - Tom Hyland - Note: TODAY is 08-08-08


Yesterday I was listening to NPR - National Public Radio, while driving in my car, working. I got so upset with the topic and callers that I just had to try and dial in to the station, 88.1 FM.

But ALAS - it was a pre-recorded show and not taking any calls.

Some guy ? had written a book recently - “Slavery, by Any Other Name” - I think was the title? Anyway, this guy had spent days, months, years? Researching through old records of arrests and trials in various southern states, like maybe: South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The bottom line, or gist, of the entire book was - the Plight of Blacks AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War. ‘THEY’ were still suffering, wronged, and people were calling in - raising the question of RECLAMATION.

The crux of the entire matter could be summed up by saying:

BECAUSE BAD WHITE PEOPLE ABUSED GOOD BLACK PEOPLE - 200, 150, 100, 50 YEARS AGO - even though the WHITE descendents did NOT do it - and were NOT responsible in any way, some felt that the CURRENT BLACK descendents were somehow ENTITLED TO some monetary restitution NOW!

WHAT A CROCK!

What about what the WHITE man did to the RED MAN? He/They were here BEFORE us! AND WERE SCREWED OVER!

What about the YELLOW man? He/They were used as SLAVE LABOR to build Railroads across this wide Nation, AND WERE SCREWED OVER!

What about the WHITE - IRISH DUMB MICKS? Of which were my ANCESTORS! They came over here by the Thousands, because of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland - AND WERE SCREWED OVER!

What about the Spanish/Mexicans who were in the South-Western Territories, BEFORE they were States, and who had LAND GRANTS, but were FORCED OUT - AND WERE SCREWED OVER!

What about the WHITE ETHNIC GROUPS: French, Canadian, Italian, Polish, German, Finnish, Swede, Norwegian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Welsh, English, Scottish, and others - AND WERE SCREWED OVER?

As I see it, with basically only TWO exceptions, the greater majority of all of these Nationalities, ASSIMILATED themselves INTO the fabric of American Society.

The two exceptions - now referred to as AFRO-AMERICANS and MEXICAN ILLEGAL ALIENS - each DEMAND SPECIAL TREATMENT! WHY?

INSTEAD of the old adage - “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start right over again!” - OR - “Pull yourself up by your boot-straps!” - OR - “United we stand - Divided we fall!” - Some of the members of these two groups act like: “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - YOU OWE ME because … thus and so!”

There are many successful AMERICANS in both our history, as well as currently, who not only assimilated, but also achieved GREATNESS - IN SPITE OF BEING BLACK!

BILL COSBY - TIGER WOODS - BARACK OBAMA - OPRAH - COLIN POWELL - CONDOLEEZZA RICE - JAMES EARL JONES - LAURENCE FISHBURNE - SAMUEL L. JACKSON - THURGOOD MARSHALL - CLARENCE THOMAS - MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. - and Thousands More!

They didn’t just “CRY OVER SPILLED MILK” - they grabbed the Bull by the horns and WORKED - and EARNED everything they achieved - and as a WHITE man, I am PROUD of them, as AMERICANS - not BLACK Americans, or AFRO-Americans, but as AMERICANS - people who ‘had a dream’ and worked hard to achieve it!

Is this not what America is all about?

I leave you with one simple and final question:

If their ancestors had NOT been forcibly dragged here as Slaves - WHERE WOULD THEY BE NOW?

Perhaps in some Genocide-Ridden African Nation? Starving and dying of malnutrition in some Third-World Country? Maybe never ever even BORN?

To my knowledge, the GATEWAY OF AMERICA does NOT have any LOCK on it, to prevent anyone from ESCAPING!

Restitution? Reclamation? Monetary Entitlement?

GIMME A BREAK! BURY THE CONCEPT -

PICK UP AN OAR - AND START ROWING -

THIS BIG BOAT IS HEAVY-LADEN!

ALL ARE WELCOME WHO -

ASSIMILATE AND PARTICIPATE!

© - TKH

P.S. - No comprende Espanol !