Where I Am Part 01

Each day brings the United States closer to the next election. While it is important to me to keep one eye on the political structure of our great country, I am going to resist the urge to make this blog be a 100% political blog. I tend to side more with Republican policies than Democrat policies so when appropriate, I use the tag "Republican Tendencies" to indicate the post is going to be political. The funny thing is that the tags for a post are at the bottom of the post so it's stupid to read an entire post and then find out that its subject is political. I doubt I will be able to exercise the discipline to put "Republican Tendencies" as the first line in my posts so I won't even promise I will try. I am not going to reduce this blog to be solely essays or links to essays about the current hot topics in our country. I think the three hot topics in our country are:

1. the Supreme Court's ruling that grants a gay or lesbian couple the right to have their marriage recognized in all 50 states (not just those that previously had passed laws that did this)
2. the wretched scum that are racists who believe that a man of one color can be superior to a man of another color
3. the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag and whether it should be displayed any more. 

The latest news about the Confederate flag is that the TVLand station is no longer going to broadcast the "Dukes of Hazzard" series because their vehicle, the General Lee, has a Confederate flag on it. I chuckled when I read about this. I email a lot of articles that I read on the Internet to myself to use as references in blog posts but, for some reason, I didn't email the link to the article I'm about to summarize. The article stated that anyone that believes not showing reruns of a popular TV series on TVLand because the vehicle has a Confederate flag is doing anything to stop racism in the United States is delusional. I agree with that theme. It's not like we can delete our history that offends us.

Many want to do just that. I'm trying to be very careful to not make this a "Democrats are loons; Republicans are sane" essay, but when I read articles about a college professor declaring that all white people should commit suicide because white people owned slaves and another article about a gay editor declaring that all straight people should cease making their profile picture have an overlay of a rainbow because there is no way straight people can know what it is like to struggle with sexual orientation, it makes it hard to not adapt an "us versus them" mentality.

If only life were that simple. Life is not that simple. Republicans are not making it easy for me. According to this article, Rick Perry said:

When it comes to race, America is a better and more tolerant and more welcoming place than it has ever been. We are a country with Hispanic CEOs, and Asian billionaires, and a black President.
So why is it that even today, so many black families feel left behind? Why is it that a quarter of African-Americans live below the poverty line, even after the impact of federal programs like food stamps and housing subsidies?
The supplemental poverty rate for African-Americans is nearly double the rate for other Americans.
Democrats have long had the opportunity to govern in African-American communities.
It is time to help black families hold them accountable for the results.

Perry was doing so well until he pointed out that it's the Democrats that black families should blame for their discontent. While I suppose he had to say that because he is a Republican candidate for president, I don't think blaming someone else - whether it's the same political party or a different one - coincides with Perry's stated goal of "to help black families" because since when did blaming someone else help resolve an issue. In other words, blame is not action. What is Perry going to do, if he sincerely wants "to help black families" and improve their situation? Action, not words!