Segregation In the USA

This really doesn't have anything to do, directly, with the Constitution. But I feel compelled to talk about it.

I was in my teens when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered and the Civil Rights Act was signed by Lyndon Johnson. Growing up in the Southwest U.S., I had never really seen much in the way of racial segregation. I had a black friend in high school that I played football with. I know there were some that felt some bias toward him but I really didn't notice it. When another young black man who had graduated from our high school was killed in Viet Nam, everyone in school mourned his death.

Granted, teenagers can be a bit naive. I know I was. But it sure seems there have been big changes in the last 40 years. As a youth I heard of the the Black Panthers, the Weatherman movement and the SDS. We heard about Black Power from bigots like the Black Panthers and White Power from bigots harking back to before the Civil War or the Nazis.

Now today we hear about "Pride". White Pride, Black Pride, Gay Pride, Lesbian Pride, Hispanic Pride, Indian Pride, "Name Your" Pride. Or perhaps a hyphen is more to one's liking: Spanish-American, African-American, Native-American, Irish-American, "Some other kind of"-American. What happened to just being an "American-American", first and last? Since 1968 segregation in all forms has been illegal, but we continue to find ways to separate and even segregate ourselves. Why? What in the world is wrong with us?

Do you think it may have something to do with the entitlement life style that has been promoted by the Federal Government since 1935 with the inception of Social Security? For the last 75 years we have been deluged with 'entitlement' programs to help the poor (Welfare, Medicaid, Housing Projects, Title I) and the aged (Medicare, Social Security) as just a few examples. There is one problem with this. You must segregate yourself as a poor person or an 'old guy' to gain the benefits. Of course, there are many other examples that could be made but I think you can see the point. To become a part of one of these entitled groups often requires that you must see yourself as a 'victim' of something or someone. Minimum Wage Laws create victims of 'big business' that are oppressing the common worker and keep them down. Welfare laws require you to make sure that you live in poverty so you can collect those monthly checks, a victim of 'the system' or perhaps 'big business' again. There is a fundamental problem and as usual there are 2 sides to this problem. They may not be what you think.

One side is the Government. For us to become victims there must be someone to victimize us. The progressive government therefore must create these enemies. Enemies of the people that include 'big' business, 'bad' heath insurance companies, 'evil' conservatism, 'anti'-environmentalism, 'big' oil companies, and the list goes on. It is imperative that the 'government' (read that as politicians trying to justify their existence) must have 'victims' to be recipients of there 'largess' with our tax money.

The other side is the Victim. First and foremost we must be willing to be victimized. Second we must be willing to give up our freedom of self-governance or self-determination to those who want to 'give' us these great 'benefits'. It also requires us to petition the 'Government' to include us as a victim somewhere. Why would anyone do this to themselves?

I see, again, 2 reasons. Greed and laziness. The urge among men and women to 'get something for nothing' is very strong and the more we get the better. When I say laziness I don't mean the kind where we sit on the front porch and watch the world go by, although sometimes that is what it becomes. I mean the mental and moral laziness to take responsibility for oneself.

It does take 2 to tango. You can't have an entitlement without a victim. You can't have a victim without blaming someone.

Our Founding Fathers declared "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They never promised us that we would be happy nor that we would have 'happiness thrust upon us'. The also declared that we are, in the eyes of the Creator, equal because He has given all of us these rights. These rights are the basis of self-determination, or personal responsibility. This is the great truth discovered by the Founders: we are responsible for ourselves and we have rights given from the Creator to be so.

May God Bless America and our Military

The Constitution of the United States

Article. 1.

Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

The Bill of Rights
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

In Article 8 the Founding Fathers designated exactly what the federal government's responsibilities were. If I count correctly there are 18 duties. Just 2 years later they felt it necessary to expand on this article by adding the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment specfically prohibits the Federal government from taking to itself any other powers. ALL other powers and duties belong to the indvidual states or to the people. The Founding Fathers had a great fear of too strong a Central Government. They strove valiantly to limit its power.

A careful reading will show that they did not envision a Federal Department of Education, a Social Security Administration, Medicare, Medicaid, or Universal Health Care. There is no power given by the Constitution to create these or any similar entities. They can effect tort reform, interstate competition.

How have we come to the state we are in? We have been slothful, greedy, perhaps even arrogant in voting for those who would give to us the things we are "entitled" to. We have abrogated our personal agency, our freedom of choice for what we consider to be 'security' in a difficult world. We have denied our personal responsibility and allowed others to lead us according to their will and desire. "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it to tyranny." Thomas Jefferson. And we just sit back and watch it happen.

It may already be too late but we can no longer sit back or hide our heads in the sand, pretending that it won't affect us. We cannot let it go any further. Now is the time for all free people of the United States to stand and be counted on the side of the Cause of Liberty. On the side of the Constitution. And on the side of God. Maybe, just maybe, we can stop it from going any farther along the road to enslavement.

What are You going to do about it?

A 'Wall of Separation'?

In his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, President Thomas Jefferson coined the now famous (and oft' mis-quoted) phrase "a wall of separation between Church and State". I say mis-quoted because a thougthful reading of the Association's letter to the President in conjuction with his reply will provide greater insight into what he called a 'wall of separation'. But that is not our real topic for today.

Recently President Barack Obama, Thomas Jefferson's successor, has quoted scripture and given a call to action to the Citizens of these United States that we have a moral imperative to be 'our bother's keeper'. He is one hundred percent correct, up to that point. Then he described how it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to take up that role on behalf of the Citizens and tax them accordingly.

To me this smacks of either establishing a 'state religion', to which the Founding Fathers were vehemently opposed, or it is the beginnings of establishing 'the state' as a religion. What we see in this disingenuous attempt is a humanistic approach to Charity by surrounding the thoughts and words of men with a few, purposely chosen, scriptures to support the basis of but not the foundation of a 'cradle to grave' state system of care for its' Citizens.

Where are the a-theists and the ACLU?

We cannot, we must not allow this travesty to relieve the people of their Constitutional right to care for one another in the way our loving Father in Heaven has given to us.

More Thoughts On Blogging

I am of the opinion that the Constitution should be the foundation and the final judge for any action, law or ruling by any branch of the government. Those who contend that the Constitution is a 'living, growing, document" are patently absurd. There is nothing in the document itself or the writings of those who wrote it that would indicate that. Indeed, the framers made it very difficult to change it.

To coin a phrase, the Constitution was written in such a way as to "erect a wall of separation between" the people and the government. It is imperative that we understand the Constitution in the light of what the founding fathers were saying and doing as they wrote the Constitution and then served in the government thus created.

Why Blog?

It is my intention, with this blog, to post an article about once a week. In them we will explore the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United Staes and what our founding fathers said and did in relation to them. Along, of course, with my own marvelous insights.