Last night we all found out that the Grand Jury chose not to charge Officer Wilson with any crime, as the evidence showed no crime was committed. This, however, is completely irrelevant to the “protesters” in Ferguson, MO. Rather than standing outside the court house with signs, or going online or what have you with their complaints, they are destroying businesses that are not their own, many of them owned and operated by black men and women, completely destroying their claim that they only want justice for the racist crime. Since Brown was shot, they have screamed that he was running away, or facing away with his hands up, even after reports were released showing that the bullet wounds were impossible from that angle. Once that happened, they instantly either ignored the reports, or attacked them as racist. Never mind that exit wounds are larger than entry wounds, and this was born out on Brown’s body. Video was released of the “innocent teen” robbing a store and bullying the man working there, but this was ignored and, just like Trayvon, only photos that would be favorable were used, while Officer Wilson’s either made him look bad, or were at least bad quality. I fully expect Sharpton and/or Jackson to claim that a “white jury cleared a white man,” or claims that the jury was “stacked.” Never mind that Grand Juries are formed each year, and that means it would have been done long before this was even a case.
This is exactly the problem we face today, selfishness and entitlement. We saw riots in Watts in the ’60s where the people burned blocks down, and even had snipers to take out Firefighters trying to stop the fires. If you look at history, the 1960’s are also when the changes began for many parts of life. Granted, there were many parts of the country where Jim Crow laws were in place, and yes, discrimination was a major issue, but we also see teachers begin to move away from what had been taught for years, “examining history” as some now call it, while I call it re-writing history. Only a decade later, the 1970’s saw the Founding Fathers portrayed as “slave owning white men who didn’t want to pay their taxes,” and students more concerned with sit ins, peace and love, and protesting the Vietnam war. For the first time in U.S. History, we had young men burning draft cards (a crime as well as stupid), we had soldiers, who had been held in high respect spat on and attacked by citizens, and worse.
It seemed to get better in the 80’s and early 90’s, only to have the spectacle of an impeachment trial for the President, and the circus that brought. But, what wasn’t seen at that time was the effect of over 20 years of the new “education.” I was lucky to have gone to school in a very conservative area, so what had been taught for years wasn’t just chucked out for the new ideas, and no, I wasn’t taught that evolution is dumb and the other crap some claim was taught. Now, however, we have students graduating high school barely able to read or perform the simplest of math problems, yet they demand to be paid $15.00 an hour to run a cash register or flip burgers at McDonald’s because they’ve been told it’s their “right” to be paid what they “feel they deserve.” When companies buckle to this, and then let half their staff go, because they can’t afford them, the company is attacked for “firing people rather than paying a living wage.” Leading back to the culmination of this mindset eventually, the mindset that leads people to firmly believe that when a black person is killed by a white officer, it’s instantly murder, no evidence can change it, and the evil bigoted racist cop must be hanged at mid-day. When the evidence is examined, the situation proven to be different, the one now dead proven to have been a thug, thief, and so on, riots break out “honoring the victim’s memory” and WHEN the rioters are arrested (or worse) it will never be their fault.
So, the ultimate question, how do we fix it? It’s simple, and it’s not, but it must be done or society will collapse and we will all live in fear for our lives. First, we have to stop with the idiocy of everyone makes the team, everyone gets a ribbon, and that kind of crap. It’s a contest for a reason, and in any contest, there are winners and losers. Yes, by all means, we must not denigrate those who don’t win. I’ve seen track meets come down to less than 6 inches between 1st and 4th places, but 4th place wasn’t recognized at all, despite having done far better than many could have done. I’ve seen spelling bees go on for hours, only to finally get a word most college graduates couldn’t spell for a child, which finally ends it, meaning that the “loser” can still spell words most of us never have heard before! So, while we go back to contests having winners and losers, we must remember that just because you don’t win doesn’t mean you’re bad or stupid, it just means you learn from it and come back. Along these lines, we need stop the idiocy of “little Johnny can’t compete in this contest any more since he wins every time,” as it shows only one thing, winners are punished, not the others encouraged to work harder. This encourages kids to muddle through, and complain that so and so always wins, it’s not fair, as that gets the one who always wins punished, rather than them having to actually work..
Second, force students to actually learn. There have always been stories of coaches intimidating teachers to pass this kid or that so they can continue to play, but those are more rare than you think. No, students are taught the test today, not the material that would allow them to do better on their tests. We allow students to speak in “ebonics” which would be laughed at by anyone still living in the regions of Africa these students claim to now be embracing. We allow them to dress in ways that would have them suspended or even expelled only 20 years ago, girls are allowed to wear what wouldn’t be accepted outside of a night club, only to have them be confused when their dress and their actions end up with their being pregnant. Yes, rape is a crime and there is nothing that makes it the victims fault, but when girls have sex and get pregnant, it’s not rape. We have seen too many decide it was rape when it starts affecting their lives, ruining someone else’s life in the process. We see women in their 20’s now screaming “no I won’t sleep with you” when a man says good morning or opens a door for her, and this is seen as normal. Only when young people are taught that their actions have consequences, that they can’t “change their mind and make it someone else’s fault,” will we get back on the road we should be on.
Moving on, the current push for equality, which isn’t one. We have groups of feminists who just want to punish men for daring to “eye rape” them when all that was done was a glance. They scream when a man opens a door that they “don’t need a man to do that for them,” yet they will also claim that men need to be more courteous, complain that “chivalry is dead,” when men don’t treat them like a princess. As a man, it’s very confusing when a woman screams at me like I’m trying to drag her away for smiling at her, tells me she doesn’t “need a man” to open a door, then minutes later when I don’t open the door for them to leave, I get told I’m a rude person and should be more courteous. That’s not a push for equality, it’s a push for immunity from societal rules. Women like that want everything, they want men to be chivalrous and kind, but also want to be able to scream and yell, possibly even attack, whenever they want and have no consequences. Another group that is taking advantage of many things are the “gay rights” people. They claim to just want equal rights, but marriage isn’t a right I have, yet they have the “right” to marry. They couch it as rights to having the same rights as married couples, but that doesn’t require marriage, it requires the government allow a same-sex partner be named next of kin, and medical power of attorney allows that. It needs insurance companies to cover same sex partners, which can be done without marriage. It means a change to tax code, which can be done without marriage. They don’t want equality, they want special treatment.
For those who are curious about the rights that are protected, read the Bill of Rights, these are not granted by the document, they are listed there so that we know they are protected. Sadly, even this isn’t enough, as the first amendment is cited when a school is sued for having a Christmas celebration, when the document clearly states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” meaning a school using the word Christmas isn’t even part of what is regulated, but no one cares, outside of when caring means getting what they want. There is no right to food stamps, free phones, marriage, jobs, anything of the sort. You can’t sue the Four Seasons Hotel for not hiring you because they don’t hire people with tattoos, and you have them, as long as it’s policy and written down, they aren’t “discriminating” against you, they’re following policy. You don’t have a right to make more than some managers in retail stores immediately after you graduate high school and while working at McDonald’s, you have the option to go to college, or change careers, or both, so that you can make more money, but it’s not a right to have the easy job you want and the high salary you want. And no, Bill Gates isn’t an evil person for not hiring you at $30 an hour to test XBox games, he’s a man who has worked for decades to build a company, and put his money and livelyhood on the line to get it where it is. If you make him do that, then you can’t defend anyone who does exactly what Gates is evil for not doing.
It comes down to this, you are special, as there is only one you on the planet. But that doesn’t mean you can demand others do something and then riot when they don’t. You do deserve respect, but so do others, and you can’t scream at someone for doing something, then moments later, for not doing it. If you want respect, earn it, when you act like an adult, you will be treated like one. If you want to be heard, make your point in a civil and logical way, rioting is only good for destroying property that belongs to people who had nothing to do with what you feel was “done wrongly,” and will possibly lead to your own arrest or worse. You don’t have a right to the salary you want, you have the right to work for it, and earn it, which may mean years of working to get where you need to be go get it. Simply put, you don’t have any rights that everyone else doesn’t have, and those you do have, are clearly laid out, so you can read them. If we don’t stop this push for “rights” and “equality” that ends up with the exact opposite happening, our country will be torn apart from the inside, with the groups who demanded these rights confused as to why the country is being torn apart. They’ll scream that it’s the bigots being unwilling to honor their rights, when it’s companies going bankrupt and out of business. They say it’s racists not wanting to give minorities a chance, when it’s really families who fear for their lives in areas were riots happen fleeing for another state.
Which future do you want? The one where we watch America burn, or where she once again stands tall and proud?
Smokey out
