It Only Took a Short Time for Americans to Mingle?

[Michael]

Once again, I’ve indirectly been accused of hating America. My ilk was included in the accusation. I can’t control my ilk, but I sure as hell don’t hate America.

I mainly believe that those making such accusations don’t know what the hell America is.

I’ve been asked what’s better than capitalism, if capitalism is so bad.

I’ve been asked if I know of any other nation in which there is so much freedom. I was asked if I knew this from experience, i.e., had I lived in another nation so I’d have a point of reference.

What works better than our form of government, so I’ve been asked.

I've been asked what I've done to make this a better world.

Finally, and I thought that this wasn’t used anymore, it’s been suggested if I find a better place to live with more democracy and more freedom, that I should up and move there.

So I answered.

I worked for a Fortune 500 global mega-corporation for 25 years. I started as a lowly operating technician way back in 1972 and became an Operations Supervisor in 1988.

As such, I was on the team that did the hiring for the plant site at which I worked.

Before I go into the specifics of that hiring process, I can tell you that, when affirmative action was introduced in the 60s and busing was initiated to basically force Caucasians and African Americans to look at each other as human beings, I saw news reports that showed White people shouting “Go back to Africa!” to the Black students getting off the school busses. Obviously, these people never learned that Black people didn’t chose to come to America in the first place. Ignorance isn’t only bliss, it’s hate as well.

I can remember another unbelievable scene during which Caucasians were yelling, “Go back to Africa!” to Black people.

In the fall of 1962, President Kennedy ordered 5,000 National Guard troops to basically escort James Meredith to school. He’d been trying to attend The University of Mississippi for some time. He was twice denied entrance simply because he was African American.

In fact, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett vowed that Meredith would never attend that university.

Once again, the government, who can’t, I admit, legislate morality, at least forced a majority of human beings to allow another human being to attend college.

In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Caucasian bus driver James Blake noticed the unthinkable. White men were standing while an arrogant young Black woman had the gall to remain seated.

It took until 1955, almost one hundred years after the enslaving of African Americans became illegal for an actual honest to goodness on the books law behind which White people like James Blake cowered, to be lifted from the books. Who ultimately supported Rosa Parks? The court system of the United States of America, a branch of the US government.

Africans were inhumanely and savagely stuffed into vessels and forced to “emigrate” to this continent starting in 1619. 1619! Descendents of Africans had been on this land for 336 years before the government of the United States of America began to insist that they be treated like the human beings that they are. It was a long time coming and the government was slow, but, in the end, after protests and demonstrations, aided by an almost truly free press, the unconscionable treatment of a large segment of American society was brought to the attention of the American public.

336 years later, a woman was finally able to remain in a seat on a bus.

It took 343 years for descendents of African “immigrants” to be able to attend the public school of their choosing.

It took 346 years for Blacks to gain the unfettered right to vote in the United States. The right was gained by the 1965 Civil Rights Act, an act of the government of The United States. Today, agents of the private sector want that Act overturned.

Africans weren’t here as slaves in 1492. Women were, though. It took women 428 years to gain the right to vote for those that would govern this land. Again, it was a law, an amendment to The Constitution of The United States of America passed by the US government that forced those who didn’t believe women had the intelligence to make such important decisions to stand aside and let women vote.

It took a miniscule 284 years for white, land owning males to gain all of the above rights and all it took for that was the birth of a nation.

Shortly after I became an Operations Supervisor, the hiring team met. I showed up a little late for that meeting. I walked into the conference room. There was grumbling.

The Operations Supervisors of the other three production plants on site, as well as the Human Resources manager, all white men, were bitching because the Plant Manager, another Caucasian male, said we were being “forced” to hire Blacks, but they didn’t refer to them as Blacks. They referred to them as *******, the word beginning with an “n”, so that they could ensure one another that they were all on the same page.

We were being “forced” to also hire Hispanics, but, in describing them, they forgot to use the “h”, “a” and “n” and only used one “i” and “s” (referring to the plural). I remember one member of the hiring team referring to the Hispanics as “gibbering idiots”.

We were being “forced” to hire women to do jobs previously done by men only. They referred to women as “god damned spit-tails”.

For me, this was a surreal moment. I had no idea that this was still going on. I was appalled, not to mention not on the same page. My “commie, pinko” views didn’t win me any friends on that day, either.

I was asked, “What are you, Mike, some kind of ******-lover?”

When asked “what are you doing to make this a better world?”, I can point to that day and many hiring team meetings that followed.

Where was this? This was in the “blue”, liberal state of Connecticut.

When was this?

This was 33 years after Black Americans were legally allowed to sit in any seat on any public transport system in any state.

This was 26 years after Black Americans were legally allowed to attend any public school in any state.

This was 23 years after the government of the US finally got serious about outlawing the games that were being played in parts of the nation to keep African Americans away from the polls.

We’re having work done in our home. A contractor looked the job over last week so that he could give us an estimate. He said he’d get back to us. He said he’d bring his partner next time. He said, “Don’t worry, my partner’s White.”

We said, “You’re too expensive.”

When asked “what are you doing to make this a better world?”, I can point to my meeting with that contractor.

Where was this? This was in the “blue” liberal state of California. In fact, I’m not sure if the man was referring to African Americans or Hispanics.

I’ve never lived anywhere else in the world, but I’ve traveled. However, it doesn’t take having lived somewhere else in the world to know that the above examples of prejudice are wrong. I fear that those examples aren’t as isolated and unusual as they should be in 2006.

One might say that this is proof that the laws that were passed by the government didn’t work.

However, who is the private sector? I gave two examples. Employers in the private sector range form multinational, Fortune 500 mega-corporations to local small contractors.

The small contractor will obviously never hire non whites. There goes the opportunity for even illegal immigrants to work, let alone non white American citizens.

The corporation may never have hired African Americans, Hispanics or women if it wasn’t for previous laws passed by the government.

Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice may never have become Secretary of State if the government hadn’t previously passed certain laws. Now Rice is part of a Regime that wants to hand the welfare of the citizens back to the private sector of which one large member, as recently as 1988, wouldn’t have hired her based upon two irrelevant characteristics. In this case irony doesn’t bring justice, does it?

The private sector is now running the country. I call it The Corporacracy. I’ve been calling it The Corporacracy for quite some time. They’re pressuring the government to deny responsibility for ensuring that average Americans are paid more that $5.15 an hour for their labor. The pressure is working. The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour for nine years. This while the Chief Executive Officer of the corporation mentioned several times herein was compensated with $15,569,239 last year. In comparison, the $5.15 an hour wage equals a yearly salary of $10,712.00 which is below the poverty line and 1/10,000 of the CEOs compensation.

“Get up off your ass and get a job” won’t cut it today nor did it ever cut it. In the 230 years of this nation’s existence, it’s been only during a relatively short time that employment was such that all people had to do was to “get up off their asses and get a job”. I refer to White people here since, as recently as 1988, a multinational Fortune 500 mega-corporation resisted hiring Blacks, Hispanics or women.

I’ve lived under a better government than this. That government was right here in the Former United States of America (The FUSA). It wasn’t the democratically elected socialist government that would make equality a meaningful word in this country. It was, however, a government that didn’t mind governing, at least a little bit.

In fact it liked to govern so much that it tried governing Vietnam.

I want a government that governs. If I have to be taxed to help the less fortunate, so be it. The private sector would let those who they don’t hire anymore begin counting on “churches” to keep them above water. If you believe, you get a reprieve.

I want a government that recognizes greed when it sees it and controls it to the best of its ability. It can’t cure the illness, but it can control the consequences. I also want a government that isn’t, itself, afflicted with the disease.

I want a government that’s ready to defend this nation, but keeps the troops home when this nation is not under attack. If this nation is under attack, I want a government that fights those who are attacking us and no one else. I don’t have to live elsewhere to see that most governments don’t go around putting out fires that don’t exist.

Nothing of what I wrote here is unique to the FUSA. It’s just that the FUSA has been working for years on taking regression to a whole new outlandish, outrageous, unreasonable level. The FUSA has the means to make it a very dangerous level as well.

Controlling greed and ending war and poverty are not mutually exclusive.

To friendship,
Michael

“You can not hold a man down without staying down with him.” – Booker T. Washington

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