"Our experiences as men and Anglo-Saxons affect our decisions. I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latino woman who hasn't lived that life."
If I made that quote in public, I can only imagine the outcry that would result. I would be ridiculed and harassed for being racist, sexist and part of the unfair "oppression" in this country. So how does a person get to say those words and rise to the top of their profession? I'm not sure, but rest assured there is a double standard at work in our society. Any white, Christian man in Congress that makes a quote like that will be resigning the next day. The same is true for any school system administrator or teacher, community leader, or even the postmaster for crying out loud.
But our latest nominee for Supreme Court Justice gets to make that statement, and be congratulated for it. Here is the quote, "Our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."-Sonia Sotomayor.
Make no mistake, she will be appointed with little opposition, because who can speak out against her without being branded a racist? A brilliant political move by President Obama, and a continuing result of the past election, but the fact remains that we are still an oppressive and racist nation no matter who happens to be on the receiving end. Until we are strong enough to stand up to this kind of divisive talk and correctly label it, we will simply be subject to the pendulum swinging back and forth instead of fixing the true issues in our hearts.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Abolish Slavery...Again
We are undergoing a rather significant change in vocabulary these days, learning new terms reflecting green technology for our homes, cars and industry for example as well as new twists on old terms. One of these terms that conjures up a lot of different meanings is the word slavery, that "peculiar institution" that has not existed in the United States for nearly 150 years. Other countries have had to deal with the same issue in the past century, although the path toward abolition of slavery was not nearly as catastrophic as in the US. In Britain for example, the results of lifelong stands against human slavery by men such as William Wilberforce did not lead to civil war, but a gradual changing of hearts and minds over time. It could easily be argued that the slavery issue in the US was not the root cause of the Civil War, but rather a larger issue of States vs. Federal rights, but no one can deny that our country is better off without that institution.
Human slavery can be traced to biblical times, when a very different cultural view accepted and treated this type of bondage as acceptable. Slaves could have conformed to our modern view of forced labor, with strong taskmasters holding whips at the ready, but also could have been managers, bankers or even political figures that looked after the interests of their "masters." A slave belonged to a particular class, not so much to a group that was shamelessly abused for the benefit of another group. It seems that many today want to return to that definition of slavery, and use a wider meaning of that word to create another movement against human bondage. I wonder, however, if this movement to be has identified the right target...
The definition of slavery is being widened to include references not only to human bondage, which still exists in many cultures and eventually needs to be rooted out, but also to situations where people can be motivated to rise up against "the man" who has held them down and enslaved them. This is the "company store" argument, where workers are invited to get in debt and then owe their lives to the company store, never quite getting ahead enough to buy their freedom and becoming enslaved to the company as a result. This is yet another example of an attempt to demonize our capitalist system, that same system that has led us to prosperity unheard of in the history of the world, and is laid squarely at the feet of those who are running the businesses and industries that power the US economy. Now is it certainly true that there are evil people in this world, bent on treating those in their care with little regard, but you can encounter people with poor motives in any place you care to look. There are also good people there, who care for the health and well being of those entrusted to them. This argument against slavery is really an attempt to pit people against each other and replace good business practices with socialist "fairness" issues. The truth is, there are only a certain group of people capable of leading, inspiring and creating positive growth in business. Most personality models would place that number between 3-5% of the population. The vast majority of people are more capable of following instructions, completing tasks and allowing those with the ability to manage to focus on their gifts. What we are trying to do is skew the relationship between people and how we are made to function. It is true that is takes all kinds to create something positive, but those that have the vision and skills are worth more to that venture than those who are either not capable or not interested in that type of endeavor.
If you are looking for a realistic meaning of slavery in our world today, we should first focus on those countries that need a William Wilberforce type of movement and eradicate human bondage in our time. Secondly, we should approve and mandate proper limited government principles that do not enslave this and future generations in mountains of debt to pay for services that are used today. We are enslaving our children by spending money we do not have, on services that we do not need! This next year alone, we will borrow 50 cents of each dollar that is spent by our national government. No household, business or corporation in America would even think of buying a new car when they were already unable to pay for the one they have, but our government continues to do so, and will continue to do so until we put a stop to it or our AAA rating is downgraded. We are not a slave to the company store, if anything we are slaves to our own complex lives, allowing marketers to help people make a choice to get in debt, to spend and not be satisfied on top of it. We have a choice, yet are pushed along by messages we are bombarded with at every turn that are in opposition to the simple, community existence we are turning aside. Abolish slavery? You bet, and it starts with each one of us...
Human slavery can be traced to biblical times, when a very different cultural view accepted and treated this type of bondage as acceptable. Slaves could have conformed to our modern view of forced labor, with strong taskmasters holding whips at the ready, but also could have been managers, bankers or even political figures that looked after the interests of their "masters." A slave belonged to a particular class, not so much to a group that was shamelessly abused for the benefit of another group. It seems that many today want to return to that definition of slavery, and use a wider meaning of that word to create another movement against human bondage. I wonder, however, if this movement to be has identified the right target...
The definition of slavery is being widened to include references not only to human bondage, which still exists in many cultures and eventually needs to be rooted out, but also to situations where people can be motivated to rise up against "the man" who has held them down and enslaved them. This is the "company store" argument, where workers are invited to get in debt and then owe their lives to the company store, never quite getting ahead enough to buy their freedom and becoming enslaved to the company as a result. This is yet another example of an attempt to demonize our capitalist system, that same system that has led us to prosperity unheard of in the history of the world, and is laid squarely at the feet of those who are running the businesses and industries that power the US economy. Now is it certainly true that there are evil people in this world, bent on treating those in their care with little regard, but you can encounter people with poor motives in any place you care to look. There are also good people there, who care for the health and well being of those entrusted to them. This argument against slavery is really an attempt to pit people against each other and replace good business practices with socialist "fairness" issues. The truth is, there are only a certain group of people capable of leading, inspiring and creating positive growth in business. Most personality models would place that number between 3-5% of the population. The vast majority of people are more capable of following instructions, completing tasks and allowing those with the ability to manage to focus on their gifts. What we are trying to do is skew the relationship between people and how we are made to function. It is true that is takes all kinds to create something positive, but those that have the vision and skills are worth more to that venture than those who are either not capable or not interested in that type of endeavor.
If you are looking for a realistic meaning of slavery in our world today, we should first focus on those countries that need a William Wilberforce type of movement and eradicate human bondage in our time. Secondly, we should approve and mandate proper limited government principles that do not enslave this and future generations in mountains of debt to pay for services that are used today. We are enslaving our children by spending money we do not have, on services that we do not need! This next year alone, we will borrow 50 cents of each dollar that is spent by our national government. No household, business or corporation in America would even think of buying a new car when they were already unable to pay for the one they have, but our government continues to do so, and will continue to do so until we put a stop to it or our AAA rating is downgraded. We are not a slave to the company store, if anything we are slaves to our own complex lives, allowing marketers to help people make a choice to get in debt, to spend and not be satisfied on top of it. We have a choice, yet are pushed along by messages we are bombarded with at every turn that are in opposition to the simple, community existence we are turning aside. Abolish slavery? You bet, and it starts with each one of us...
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