WARNING & DISCLAIMER: In this post I may mention some “racially charged” terms. I am in NO WAY using them to describe anyone or label anyone with these terms. It is simply hard to discuss some aspects of racism without using the terms. Having said this, I hope I don’t offend anyone. Remember, This is a discussion. I will not refer to ANYONE (other than maybe myself) by a racial slur.

So. I sat and watched a montage of clips where liberals were saying the Tea Party was nothing but a bunch of racists. Some even said the Tea Party was a racist party. Now I’m not going discuss how many people in the Tea Party are racists, but I would like to know what percentage of a group has to be a certain thing before the whole group is considered that thing. Is it 10%? 25%? 50%? Technically it would have to be 100% for you to be able to call the group as a whole that, right? So the KKK would be considered a racist group because, face it… it IS a racist group.

But let’s not get that extreme. Let’s talk about everyday life and labels we as a country apply to groups of people. Let’s get the “N word” out of the way first. I personally believe that there is no excuse to use this word simply because of the history of HOW it was used… NOT what it “means”. The “N word” as a word is simply a bastardization of several languages’ words for “black.” in Spanish and Galician it’s “negro”, in Catalan it’s “negre”, in Esperanto it’s “nigra”… All of these are derived from the Latin word “nigrum” and they all simply describe a color. It has nothing to do with people. And even in the “pure” language form it is still an acceptable word. If it wasn’t would we have the United Negro College Fund? It’s when it was changed specifically to make it a hateful and derogatory term against an essentially helpless people that it became wrong. And in my opinion it doesn’t matter WHAT color you are, it should not be used.

It’s interesting how words get their meaning, isn’t it? Did you know that originally a “red neck” was a poor white farm worker that couldn’t find work anywhere except manual labor in the fields? Picking cotton, planting, plowing, whatever was available…. sometimes working side by side with freed slaves? They wore tough long sleeve work shirts and overalls and the only place they got sunburned was on the neck. Most of the time they were proud to have work, just like the blacks they worked beside were proud to have work. Remember, this was a rough time in the south. Today, we ALL know what a redneck is…. you hear it and think mullets, house trailers, 4x4s, and cases of beer every weekend. But usually the TRUE rednecks still work hard at jobs that, while much better than the original “rednecks”, is still considered lower class. Remember, I’m speaking in general here and while I’ve been called a redneck before, I’m technically a hillbilly, which is a totally different post so we’ll leave it for later.

So let’s get to a VERY misunderstood term. I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people using the term and even the people being CALLED this term do not understand where the word comes from. Before we talk about the word itself, let’s talk abut the cowboys that still have farms in central Florida. Unlike what we normally think of when we picture western cowboys, they don’t use dogs to herd the cattle. They ride their horses and they carry whips. When they want the cows to change direction they crack the whips so the cows shy away from the noise and go the right direction. Locally in central Florida they are known, not as “cowboys”, but as “crackers”. Let’s go back several decades… on most farms utilizing slave labor they ALSO had someone on a horse carrying a whip… and although they might be called “foreman” or “boss”, the slang for this person was “cracker.” Personally, I find it extremely offensive to be called a cracker. When someone does that they are inferring that I am so racist that I would be the one on the horse whipping the slaves.

Now, if you are still reading, and I haven’t offended you, I’d like to make some suggestions and statements.

First… AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO CALL THEM “RACES” SOMEONE IS GOING TO TRY TO WIN!

Second… Let’s just quit referring to ourselves as Irish Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans (Although that one almost makes sense), and start calling ourselves AMERICANS. Let’s stop calling ourselves White, Black, Hispanic, etc. and just call ourselves PEOPLE. Is that asking too much?

Ok… now the Political Correctness and Other Assorted Stupidity. Recently I posted the following on Facebook while I was working and copying some files…

You can’t legislate morality
You can’t legislate common sense
You can’t legislate work ethic

I am so tired of hearing that the rich must pay their “fair share” that I want to puke. Let me put this into perspective…

1: At the end of the school year let’s take 40% of the grade point away from the top 10% of the student body and give it to the bottom 50% of the student body. After all, it’s not fair that only the ones that are the smartest and work the hardest get all the good grades.

2: At the end of the season let’s take 40% of the wins away from the top 10% of the college football team and give those wins to the bottom 50% of the teams.

3: Let’s take 40% of the stock shares away from the richest 10% and give them to the poorest half of the country. After all, they should be able to have stock, too.

4: While we’re at it, let’s take 40% of the land away from the wealthy land owners and redistribute it.

5: And while we’re talking about fair… I want to be in the Olympics, so let’s figure out a way that only have to run the 500m race while the athletes that worked and trained so long run the 1000m race. I’m slow and overweight, so it’s only fair that I get special treatment.

6: There is no number 6

7: Let’s redistribute the credit scores. Let’s take points away from those people who have worked to pay their bills on time and have built up a good credit score and give those points to the people that don’t make their payments and have bad credit.

OR…. since you CAN’T regulate Morality, Common Sense, or Work Ethic. Let’s try this…

1: If a child has a failing grade, call it what it is. If they are special needs, get them help. If they are lazy, make them take the grade over again. Maybe a little embarrassment from being held back will motivate them!

2: Well, that’s just silly. But it does make a good point.

3: Hey… we’re already doing #3 in a different way… we’re making rich people pay a MUCH higher percentage of their income in taxes and then giving it to tens of millions of people. Why don’t we quit doing that! Let’s require the unemployed to prove they are trying to get a job before we get them a single check. Let’s also take the billions we spend totally supporting them and set up vocational/technical schools to teach them a new skill. Require that after a certain time on unemployment or you forfeit your checks.

4: OK… forget that one too, again… it was just silly.

5: LIFE ISN’T FAIR! You don’t get a trophy from your boss for failing an assignment “just because you participated!” Quit training our kids to expect the real world to work that way. I knew before I was out of grade school that the world was one huge competition after another. If you want to win… or at least not lose all the time… you had to work hard and get better at what you did. And you weren’t give respect until you earned it!

6: There’s not a number 6, remember?

and finally:

7: If you’ve got bad credit because you over-extended yourself and lived beyond your means… well… STOP DOING THAT! Either that or you can always vote Democrat and hope the country doesn’t run out of money before you die. I wouldn’t bet on it, though, if we continue to be ran by a man that thinks you can fill up a swimming pool by taking water out of the deep in and pouring it into the shallow end.

To sum up: Why did I write all this? It’s simple. I’m copying a huge file up to the server and it’s taking a while and I got bored. So all I ask is…
1: Share this. Spread the word and see if people will read it
2: Quit passing laws that protect people from themselves
3: Sorry… the file just finished copying. I’ll talk to everyone later…. bye.

One of the things I (sarcastically) suggested was this…

5: And while we’re talking about fair… I want to be in the Olympics, so let’s figure out a way that only have to run the 500m race while the athletes that worked and trained so long run the 1000m race. I’m slow and overweight, so it’s only fair that I get special treatment.

Imagine my surprise when I see the following headline on the news tonight…

A California youth football league is fining teams if they win by more than a certain margin

Yes, you read it right. They are fining the coach $200.00 if his team wins by more than a certain margin. This is supposed to promote sportsmanship. My NON-sarcastic response in my post was…

5: LIFE ISN’T FAIR! You don’t get a trophy from your boss for failing an assignment “just because you participated!” Quit training our kids to expect the real world to work that way. I knew before I was out of grade school that the world was one huge competition after another. If you want to win… or at least not lose all the time… you had to work hard and get better at what you did. And you weren’t give respect until you earned it!

OK… So I didn’t nail it completely but I ALSO said…

2: At the end of the season let’s take 40% of the wins away from the top 10% of the college football team and give those wins to the bottom 50% of the teams.

If you add the two together, you’d think the California Athletic Association was reading my Facebook posts!

Welp… I’m finished now, Hope I didn’t offend you, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. If you are the type that wants to be offended, you’ll find something up there to offend you. Trust me, I’ve had plenty of reasons to be offended over the years. It doesn’t pay. Usually the person that offends me doesn’t even know it, so the only person it affects is me. If you know me at all, you know I’m not the type to want to offend people, but I AM the type that doesn’t mind sharing my beliefs and opinions. Hopefully some of you will comment on this TASTEFULLY and RESPECTFULLY. I hope I showed taste and respect while discussing some touchy subjects, so please do the same if you reply.

Michael