Them Bootstraps Aren't Really For Pulling On Your Boots

I confess. I am on a BB in which a majority of the people are conservative Christians. Recently many people on this BB have made repeated attacks on those who are down in their luck,those who are poor, etc and stating their belief that Obama wants to take care of all these "losers" at the expense of all these good God Fearing tax payers. Of course the word Socialism has recently been introduced to instill more fear and justify their irrational hatred of Obama. In fact one person went so far as to write:

The poor keep getting poorer because they keep doing whatever it was that made them poor in the first place. Ditto for the rich. There is nothing at all unexpected or unforseen about the behavior that's responsible for most of the poverty in this country. If you ignore your education, fail to develop a work ethic, do drugs, get pregnant before you're out of high school or before you can afford to raise a child, become a petty criminal, join a gang, hang with what you obviously know to be the wrong crowd, become a drinker, or generally comport yourself like a self-loathing slob, guess what? You're probably not going to make a lot of money!

So let's take a minute and examine this statement and while doing so lets look at it from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Let's examine those persons in the military/captains of business and industry who have used their parents positions/connections and money to circumvent the system to get opportunites that others deserved. They use the system for personal gain not based on merit but on these types of connections. And they use them in order to increase their wealth, grab power, or prestigue . Even worse is their sense of entitlement to those positions. It is truly mind boggling. We don't have to look very far to find examples of these types of people. Do the names Bush and McCain ring a bell? Frankly, these are the people that are far more dangerous to me than any two-bit hooker. Face it, plenty of rich people hang with the wrong crowd, become drinkers, fail to develop a work ethic, etc. Yet, they have the luxury of money, connections and family to sustain them and even promote them to places they do not deserve to be. A lot of people with higher grades/SATS etc do not get into the Ivy league where these connections are further developed and strengthened because someone's Daddy knows someone, has donated to the school, or their parents have attended. During the Vietnam war many kids were able to avoid serving or served in positions that kept them in the states due to the positions their parents held. People can become officers in the military because they can get into the academys that "normal" people cannot or someone who is truly deserving to be there is denied due to those connections. So to try to make the case that the poor stay poor because of their "laziness" while the rich get richer due to their "implied" hard work is not often true.

But even more troubling to me is this. So many of these conservative Christians tout the "Pick Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps" mentality and ,yet, we now have a candidate who stands before them having done just that. And instead of giving him the kudos for doing what they insist all people should do, they turn around and renounce him. So what exactly is it that is a black man is suppose to do? Stay at the bottom rung of society where you are chastised and beaten down? Or rise to the top and then you are labeled an elitist and a terrorist to boot. And if the truth be told many of these people don't want people of color to succeed because it goes against their idea of 'what things SHOULD look like' if all is right with their world. So the next time you hear the speel about bootstraps and the like acknowledge it for what it really is. Racism cloaked in everything but what it is. Hate.

She Loves Me...She Loves Me Not

She Loves Me...She Loves Me Not
By: Cheryl L. Dieter Copyright 7/26/2005

I stare at my new daughter’s chubby cheeks and beautiful brown eyes laden with sleep. Everything is perfect in our relationship. I love her and she loves me. End of story. There is no happy ending that could make life better than it is right now. As I watch her breath in and out so effortlessly, I shed a tear knowing that in the not so distant future it is doubtful that anything will be quite this easy between us again. How do I know this? Easy. My eldest daughter is fourteen.

Fourteen is a terrible age. Not quite old enough to “know better” but just old enough to get in trouble for what you do know. While still the center of my universe, I am but a distant line in hers. And like a line drawn in the sand that constantly shifts with gusts and wisps of wind, everyday my daughter and I tiptoe back and forth across that line of independence vs. dependence, me vs. them, and love vs. hate. An almost grown up version of She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not that we once played together just a few short years ago with the white daisies and red roses grown in our own backyard.

She Loves Me... “thanks Mom for taking me to the mall.”
She Loves Me Not...I make her clean her room.
She Loves Me... “Come on Mom. I mean, I share more about my life with you than most teenagers.”
She Loves Me Not... “Why can’t you just leave me alone,” she yells as she slams the door to her room for yet another time.

As I see it, everyday my daughter and I start out with a fresh flower from an old plant. Sometimes the petals seem to fall off by themselves whereas others it takes days for the bloom to disappear. Some days the petals are plucked and thrown with a vengeance and someday they are removed gently and placed lovingly in a book to be preserved and examined on another day. But even on those mornings when the blossoms are gone before the first cup of coffee is steamed all is not lost. For although the petals are the most beautiful and dazzling thing about the flower, there is so much more to the plant than that. While the center is still young and vibrant and holds the seeds that offer new beginnings and hope; the stem, older and more sturdy, holds the newer parts of the flower aloft. And the roots, well, they provide nourishment to both the old and new parts combined.

This morning the flower was bare by eight but as I bent down to inspect the last petal that landed at my feet, I knew that all was still well. For the plant from which this flower came still continues to grow, blossom and mature just like my relationship with my daughter. And the seeds still continue to be spread and planted for some as yet unknown day in the future. But most of all when the last petal fell... She Loved Me...at least for now.