Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:43:31 -0400
From: “Tom Glendinning”
Subject: Party Line Prejudices
Well, I am glad to know someone caught me in the act. I am now prejudiced, uncompassionate, Hispanophobic, and, by inference, close-minded.
Pardon me if I recount social history of Chatham County. I moved here fifty years ago and have seen too many changes to list. I have absorbed viewpoints with which I once disagreed, educated myself on the major movements of society, seen politics alter our lives, and have become friends with political foes of decades past.
One folk tale needs clarification, or truing, for my peace of mind. The term “native American” is false and needs a specific date to determine citizenship, or right. Genetic testing of the indian populations of North and South America linked tribes of both continents to tribes in northern Russia, who must have migrated here across the ice bridge ca. 10,000 years ago. I assume that the tribes of Abraham populated that part of Russia, there being no other written or documented history to explain it. So, please, if nativity is date specific, name the year of the citizenship so we can all agree on it. This argument is the same as the Politically Correct encyclopedia, which grew daily as people added lines of propriety to the list without ever publishing the definitive law of who was right and who was wrong. We are all immigrants in this country.
I do have major social prejudices. I do not like lazy, feckless, criminal, immoral or otherwise socially unfit members of our society who prey on the majority of hard working, moral, faithful, law abiding citizens one way or another. I am, however, willing to help anyone in need until they can stand on their own or land where they need to be.
I walked in a civil rights parade at the age of seven, helped in the election of the first black commissioner in Chatham County, promote(d) justice in every way I could afford, employed people of all races, nationalities, ages and sex for over forty years, and worked to make the American dream a reality. If these attributes are prejudice, then, I will wear that coat with pride.
The observations on the Hispanic migration here are based on fact. Comments from law enforcement and citizens, records of crimes and accidents, the records of those who receive social services benefits, and general social changes over the last thirty to forty years are history, not speculation or prejudice.
If one wishes to cast a cliche on another with whom one disagrees, that is a shallow and easy choice. I find it disheartening, especially from someone who purports to understand the human psyche. The tact appears to fall in line with the liberal argument that all conservatives are heartless, prejudiced, immoral and Godless. That tact would place them on the high road, with or without factual or historical foundation.
If name calling is the best argument against facts and history, I pity the thought process and where it leads us socially, politically and morally.
Tsun Tsu said:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.”
“The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him.”
Tom Glendinning