Race in America

[JD Barleycorn]

I have never understood why some thing are so hard to understand or you go off on some fantasy tangent.

O'Reilly talks about zero tolerance and mandatory prison sentences. Some here begin to hyperventilate and say that more black people (I include women) will go to prison. I beg to differ based on experience. I was in the navy when Reagan established zero tolerance for drug use. I was once told that I was the only person in my division (that is a navy division and not an army division; 40 people vs 5,000 people) who was not using drugs. People quickly found out that they were very serious and drug use dropped...quickly. After admitting that close to 30% admitted to drug use that dropped to less than 5% in two years and 1% in five years. Yes, some people will have to learn the hard way and will go to prison for some long terms. This will show that it is not a slap on the wrist to get caught selling drugs. I take it that this is more about the selling of drugs than the using. People will make the choice to not get involved rather than to go away for ten years. Those who don't, they will get caught and go away from society.

School uniforms...imagine no more Crips, Bloods, and other color coordinated street gangs. If you can't tell the players then how can you randomly shoot at people. There will no longer be a demand for the latest, greatest footwear which people are being killed for. If you want to be a recognized individual then you'll have to do it by achievement and not how you are dressed.

We have government policies in place that reward young women to have children without fathers. Going as far back as Hubert Humphrey in 1968 the warning was given about the out of wedlock birth rate. Humphrey was a liberal's liberal but he sounded like a conservative when he linked the birth rate to lower education, lower expectations, less economic opportunity, and the destruction of the black community. At the time the out of wedlock birthrate was less than 20% in the black community. Today it is over 70%. Change the regulations, bring back shame into the public discussion, and change the culture.

Simple solutions are to bring back jobs, money, and education but how does that happen? Who wants to put thousands of dollars on the line (if not millions) trying to establish a business in an area that will be the target of the poverty pimps during the first riot? It is not the job of any business to create jobs. It is the job for the business to make money and if they can do it in a bad neighborhood then they will do it. Besides the occassional arson there is just crime and chaos. I have a friend who is part of management at a local Wal-mart. This is not her first Wal-mart store as she has worked over 30 years for them. This story is only three years old and is found on the edge of the black community. She tells me that at least once a week someone goes out the door in handcuffs. Not a customer but an employee. They have been caught stealing from their own place of business and give the excuse that they thought it was okay to steal, that it was okay to take a credit card someone forgot, or to destroy an office when they are facing firing. They though it was okay. In fact, it seems like it was justified and many ask for their jobs back after getting out of jail and don't understand why they are turned down.

You don't get economic opportunity without risk and very few want to take that risk with bad customers and employees. Education will fix some of that but this is Kansas City, MO. What happened here? Twenty some odd years ago a lawsuit was brought to the Missouri Supreme Court that the minorities and poor were getting short changed in KCMO. The judge ordered that the entire state of Missouri must tax themselves and send that money to KCMO. Over a billion dollars changed hands. One of the worst schools in KCMO has a brand new building with a computer lab, they have an Olympic sized swimming pool, they have a very nice looking campus and they still have the lowest graduation rate in the city. Like Warren Beatty said in Bulworth, "there ain't no education going on in there".

It becomes a chicken and egg question. Which comes first? Government is limited to what government can or should do. Education, crime, justice, and infrastructure is what government can do. Businesses will have to come later unless government can sweeten the pot. Who wants to give massive tax credits to a subclass unless they guarantee some results. Missouri has already done that and has the T-shirt to prove it. A billion dollars sent to schools and no demands on the student body or the teachers to produce. Right now the school system has had to close schools and it is working on a probationary status subject to state takeover. Who wants to transfer to this system and put their children into the belly of the beast.

[Yssup Rider]

Muskogee, which one is You?

Im guessing the one in the top photo is your mama.

The middle is your sister/brother.

Bottom one is you, at your job in the truck stop bingo palace mail room...

[cptjohnstone]

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Muskogee, which one is You?

Im guessing the one in the top photo is your mama.

The middle is your sister/brother.

Bottom one is you, at your job in the truck stop bingo palace mail room...

at least my son does not looks like this

[bojulay]

Originally Posted by cptjohnstone

at least my son does not looks like this

Lucky bag of air.