Ann Coulter asked a question in an essay she published online on July 17th:
"Instead of turning every story about a black person killed by a white person into an occasion to announce, "The simple fact is, America is a racist society," liberals might, one time, ask the question: Why do you suppose there would be a generalized fear of young black males? What might that be based on?"
As a liberal, I thought I might take a try at answering this question for Ms. Coulter. But first, here is her answer:
"Throw us a bone. It's because a disproportionate number of criminals are young black males. It just happens that when Lee Van Houten and George Zimmerman were mugged by two of them, they survived the encounter."
And just so we are clear on what she really thinks, here is another quote from the Fox & Friends media darling:
"Perhaps, someday, blacks will win the right to be treated like volitional human beings. But not yet."
But there is no racism, isn't that the song conservatives keep singing? Their "fair and balanced" talking heads keep saying so. We are all equal, well, except for the fact that there is a "generalized fear" of one group because there is a "disproportionate number of criminals" in this group that isn't quite ready to make a "conscious choice or decision," because that is the definition of "volitional."
So, let's be clear, there is absolutely racism. And the ever so rude Ms. Coulter just made it glaringly apparent where it comes from.
Ignorance, my friends, her name is now and forever Coulter.
So let's think about what she said. Because it may shock you to read that I absolutely agree with Coulter on one point, there is absolutely a disproportionate number of young black men who are arrested and prosecuted.
But why is that? I suggest to you it is because we have a disproportionate number of old white men who run this country. They are the lawyers and the senators, the judges and sheriffs. And most importantly, they are the CEOs.
It is time to call a spade a spade. The deck is stacked and the game is rigged. And as we all know, the House always wins.
Our country is no longer the land of milk and honey. The American dream is only true for few, the rest of us, well, they'd let us eat cake, if they hadn't already stuffed the whole thing in an offshore freezer for later.
Money, like anything other creation, is finite. There is only so much of it. And we've allowed it to be shoveled offshore and into a private economy while the rest of us were losing our jobs and our houses, the same way we lost our pensions and health benefits, to conservative dogma.
But look around folks, not everyone is "hurting," the rich are doing just fine. In fact, they are doing fabulous. The stock market is making "historic" gains, and the real estate market for mansions is doing great. While we are trying to figure out how to provide a quality education for our children, and save for our retirement, the rich just keep getting richer. And all while Congress fiddles.
So why is there more crime? Why are more black men and women arrested and prosecuted? Why are our jails now filled? Well, other than the fact that prisons are now making a profit for other rich old white men, I'd have to say we have a problem with racism.
It starts with our schools. It starts with our neighborhoods. It starts with the way we apportion taxes and fund schools and neighborhoods.
Let's ask Ms. Coulter this question, why are there a disproportionate number of young black children in underfunded schools?
And let's also ask these questions: Why is there a disproportionate number of young black children with nowhere to go after school? Why is there no funding for sports programs? Why is there no funding for counseling? Why is there no funding for college?
We have been led to believe that this is just "the way it is." To question it is to be a "Socialist." It is "anti-American." You are a "taker" if you want to change the system, to make it more fair and balanced. Well then, I guess the Founding Fathers were all a bunch of Socialists. Just a bunch of liberal, Socialist, community organizers.
The truth is, the Founding Fathers believed in a free education for everyone. Some of our greatest national treasures, our public education system, our free public libraries and our postal service have been under attack by people who claim to want to preserve and protect the foundation of our nation. Well guess what? These things ARE the foundation of our nation.
This is our country. We get to make the rules. We decide who plays and when. And now it is time, we need to be ALL IN. It is time to speak out and act up. We have to be better than this.
We need to shut down for-profit prisons. We have to stop the privatization of our education system. We have to stop allowing private profit from our national land and resources. We have to fight for our schools, libraries and post offices.
People, there is plenty of money. We have simply forgotten that once upon a time we had a fair and balanced system. CEOs did not make millions, and companies did just fine. Executives did not fly in private jets to skyboxes for games with tickets that cost thousands so grown men making millions could throw balls at each other. It is ridiculous.
There is a simple way to stop it. Vote.
There is a better way to change it. Get involved.
Do more than bitch and post on Facebook. Call and write your legislators. And I've got the first thing you can ask them to do. Limit the corporate deduction for salaries to the Social Security Wage Base, $113,100. The balance to be taxed as a dividend. Simple, and very effective. How much you want to bet corporations will fight to increase the Social Security Wage Base?
And if you are feeling really fired up, how about telling your legislator to limit the corporate deduction for travel, meals and entertainment to the Federal Per Diem? Sure, go watch that millionaire throw that ball, just not on the taxpayer dime, that too would be a dividend.
And guess who wins? We do. Taxpayers. We can fund education for everyone. We can fund programs. And we can once again be the land of milk and honey.
Now isn't that better than the piss and vinegar Coulter keeps spewing?
You can support True Entitlement Reform by signing the petition I created, here.