Governmental bigotry

Our current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice along with the First Lady-Elect, Michelle Obama have yet again made statements that this country has moved toward true maturity by electing a person of color. They both have qualified that statement by saying that we still have a ways to go until racism is forever gone from this land. What surprised me was the quality of the debate that followed. I did not hear one mention of Dr. Martin Luther King. Have we moved along the path of political correctness so far that his words, "by the quality of his character and not the color of his skin" have now vanished over the horizon? This is all only a symptom. If you have skin as pale as mine and you question Obama's continued lack of any substantial plan, you will be called a racist. If you wonder if Jesse Jackson will ever get a real job, you are accused of bigotry. Character is ceasing to matter and color is in. Well, today's culture could not be more wrong. Character does matter, regardless of your race, regardless of the circumstances you were born into, regardless of your peer group and regardless of your parents, or lack thereof...character matters. How you speak matters. How you treat your neighbors matters. How you add to the lives of the people around you, rather than taking away matters. Color should have to do with art, not politics.

Of course, this is all wishing upon a star. Bigotry exists and it is growing. Bigotry and racism are not simply the opinion of a white southerner concerning uppity blacks. They also encompass the opinions of blacks concerning whites, Hispanics concerning Orientals, everyone concerning Jews and so on. And, every combination there can be mixed and matched depending upon which bigotry is at the fore. It has been said that the media, that bastion of compassion and fairness, has its own preferred scapegoat, White Christianity. They will of course admit to that prejudice when hell becomes a hockey rink.

Giving preferential treatment to any group is simply wrong. This country, even though the founding fathers did not notice their own failure in this regard, was intended to be a place where fairness prevailed. Programs that give preference to minorities, simply because they are minorities are violations of that principle. Affirmative action only affirms that some people are recognized by the government as having privileges the rest of the population do not. That is bigotry in action. It would be far better to simply hire the best person for the job regardless of what they look like or how old they are. Higher education should have the same criteria. Those who show they have the capacity and the drive to succeed in school should be those enrolled, even if they have pale skin, blue eyes and testosterone.

If you object to this opinion, you are a bigot.