Timothy Lawton

A captain is called to the sea not to control it, but to guide us over its’ waves.

     Recent events have forced me to address the issue of race relations in the United States of America. The NAACP has issued a resolution calling on the Tea Party movement to expel the “racists” from their ranks. Doing this without one shred of evidence to support their contention. Eric Holder’s , so called, Department of Justice has refused to prosecute members of the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation during the Presidential election of 2008 in Philadelphia. This despite the fact that there is video proof of threats being directly made by those charged. And, of course, the constant litany of the left that anyone who opposes President Barak Obama is a racist. If real racism is to be taken seriously the people levelling these accusations need to stop crying wolf.
     Anyone who knows the history of this country knows that racism, prejudice, and sexism have played a large role in our past. Yet, the schisms we see today on this issue reveal how we in our various groups view the life of this country. On one hand we see the liberals which attribute every malady that affects any minority in any way to the injustices of earlier times. On the other we see those like myself who look to the continued inclusion and expansion of the places of minorities in our society. It is easy to drum up emotions about the hardships faced by various groups throughout our history, but that denies the progress we have seen over the last 234 years. That progress does not alleviate the sufferings of the individuals that endured them, but it does point to the fact that our society has grown ever closer to that clarion call of 1776 that we are ALL created equal. This is our ideal, this is what our country was founded upon, and it is the core belief that defines us as a nation.
     Yet, there are those that cannot let go of years gone by. They define everything in our culture based only on our failings. Yes, racism exists today. Yes, the structures of power are still disproportionately in the hands of those who represent those who dominated in the past, but we would be foolish to even compare the year 2010 to even 1960. And, even more foolish to try to compare today to 1860 the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States of America. The Civil Rights act became law in 1965. We have seen 45 years of legal equality at the Federal level and we can no longer look back over two generations to define what it is we see around us today.
     Often when I am witness to, or am party to a discussion, on race relations a peculiar mentality of some of those on the left is revealed. They have a world view which is entirely constructed on the injustices of the past. They act as if the times we live in now have no difference from those that existed decades or even centuries ago. To these people every black person is still a slave and every women is still barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Every white man is an illustrious landowner given every privelege that society can offer. Every minority is still at the mercy of the whims of the elite who hold the reigns of power. Not only is this ridiculous, but it flies in the face of the realities that are our everyday lives. No one who truly is observing our current culture can honestly say that race, sex, religious viewpoint, sexual orientation, or ethnicity play but a small role in what we are able to achieve as individuals. Yet, racism and other prejudices are used time and time again by the liberals to attack anyone who holds an opposing point of view on any issue from them. This not only dilutes the validity of real oppressive acts, but it weakens the foundations for what they believe they are fighting.
     Marc Lamont Hill, a black man that I have very much respect for, was recently on a television show discussing this very issue. He is a PHD and quite an intellectual. Yet, as is usually the case with him, he found his way to defending the indefensible.  Rather than condemn the NAACP’s resolution against the Tea Party without any evidence he espoused a twisted path of logic to defend it. When he, and others like him, use antiquated aspects of our past to define our culture today they only serve to deafen the ears of those who are parts of these supposedly priveleged classes. According to him I am one of those who holds “institutional power” due to the fact that I am white, male, straight, and middle class. Wasn’t it he who was on TV? Isn’t it he who is having his voice heard by millions? If I hold so much power why am I not in his position? Simply put it is because he has done the things that it takes to get that kind of recognition and I am still trying to replicate similar efforts to achieve the same goals he has reached. So who has the power in this instance?
     Similarly the administration of the first non-white President repeatedly defines everything by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religious belief. The head of NASA has stated that his main goal was to show the muslim contributions to man’s achievements in space. Arizona’s law respecting proof of legal residence in the United States is challenged by Eric Holder’s Department of Justice despite the fact that the law only mirrors Federal statutes that have been in existence for decades. And ending the military’s don’t ask don’t tell policy takes precedence over clean up from the Gulf oil leak. Who is it that cannot simply see us as individuals, but must always define us as part of some sub-category or group?
     There is real racism. There is real inequality. There is real injustice in this country and the world. Yet, the constant iteration of our differences rather than our similarities only serve to divide us. They only serve to separate us from one another. The double standard that is so consistently applied by the left that allows certain groups, in their minds, to say and do things that another group cannot in open society stratifies us into different classes. It is the liberals who perpetuate this concentration on our differences. It is their focus on classifying everyone as a victim or an oppressor which aids in maintaining the microcosms from which we all come. Yes, we have different experiences, backgrounds, and oppurtunities, but aren’t we all human beings?

     FROST: I prepared for warmth and I got cold. What a surprise!!!

     This is the first year that I have started to clear out my greenhouses so early. Usually in northern New Jersey our target date of the last frost is between May 10th and 20th. This year I took a calculated risk and brought all of my trays of seedlings out around the last week of April and the first week of May. Hopefully any truly cold weather will hold off and this will not be a mistake on my part. The next few days will be a little iffy between wind and possible frost, but it was a chance I had to take.

PS I’ll be trying to design fences of fishing line to protect some of my gardens from the EVIL deer. I’ll try to post about how it works out.

     Why is our President following failed economic models? Socialized medicine, Cap and Trade, and higher taxes are all PROVEN disasters. Yet, Obama continues to take us further down the red brick road. His penchant for Marxist professors not withstanding, does he really believe that what he is doing is best for the country? Or does he have some ulterior agenda? His policies are so detrimental to the nation that it is necessary to ask these questions. The socialist economies of Europe are on the verge of economic collapse. Every state in the Union that has similar policies are on the verge of collapse as well. New York, California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are just the most salient examples. If it hasn’t worked it seems that this President is willing to try it.

     Rather than cut spending he has dramatically increased it. The deficits he is running are 300% over the worst deficit of the Bush years. On top of that he, and his liberal cohorts, managed to ram through a 2700+ page health care bill that no one read in its entirety. According to Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader of the House, we needed to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it. That sounds like genius to me. So, maybe we should pass other legislation on blank paper and the dictatorship could just fill in whatever they want whenever they want. Then we could at least stop calling ourselves a Republic. What exactly will be the Democrats crossing of the Rubicon? When will we actually see that we are no longer citizens in a democratic society, but slaves in a liberal fascist totalitarian state?

     As it stands now we can be personally regulated by the federal government at any point. This is due to the fact that CO2 has been designated a pollutant by the Supreme Court. This essentially means that the EPA can, without Congressional consent, devise any scheme it wants to reduce emissions of this “dangerous” greenhouse gas. Mind you that water vapor is the most prominent heat trapping gas and we breathe that out as well. We now live at the whim of whoever heads the EPA and under this President that is a truly frightening prospect.

     This imminent decline into socialism is further evidenced by the fact that the public sector is hiring more employees than the private sector. Our GDP is now over 40% federal government spending. What does this say about the future if we do not change the course that we are on? When will the pensions of these public employees become so onerous that we will have to enact austerity measures to curb their exhorbitant cost? Will our federal dependents act like the leftist hooligans in Greece and riot? I marvel at the fact that so many people in this country do not see the coming disaster if all of this is left unchecked. We are now not only spending the money of our children, but the money of our grandchildren as well. This is unsustainable!!!

     Mr. Obama continually does anything he can to sabotage the long running well being of this nation. Every economic policy he has enacted, or proposed, will lead us to financial ruin. Yet, we still have financial reform and cap and trade on the horizon. Who will invest money when the capital gains tax goes over 40%? We’d be better off avoiding the risks of investment and hiding our hard earned dollars under our mattresses. With taxes going through the roof, investment hindered, and businesses regulated out of profitability what will we do to survive? The economic recovery we see right now is only a mirage. When the full actions of this President, and his socialist allies, are realized we will descend into an economic abyss. Take a look at the healthcare bill that we supposedly needed so urgently that no one had time to read it. If we were so pressed for time why are so many of it’s provisions not enacted until 2013? Could it be that the leftists who pushed for the bill knew how unpopular many of these new laws and taxes would be and that this could cost Obama the 2012 Presidential election?

Europe is crumbling under the weight of entitlement. Numerous “blue” states are facing tremendous budgetary problems. Our Federal debt is nearly 100% of our GDP and it is forecast to become almost twice that in the next ten years. Now is the time to stop wasteful spending. Now is the time to reign in this runaway train. If we do not stop this profligate spending we will become Greece, Portugal, and Spain. It is time to stop the bailouts and let this house of cards fall. Every day that we continue this unsustainable path only increases the economic pain that it will take to correct the situation. True leaders have to explain this to the majority of the masses that still do not understand. All this spending has to stop and today is the day to begin.