America's Racial Divide

I happened to tune in to the cable news program "Hardball" with Chris Matthews on MSNBC this afternoon, quite by mistake. I confess I rarely watch that channel because I already take blood pressure medication and I just can't afford to expose myself to that much pressure! There was a woman on there who was absolutely raving about how those people who were criticizing our President's policies were doing so out of a viciously racist motive. What!!? Now this was a white woman, and granted, she might have drank some really bad kool-aid, but she was espousing a view that, had there been any truth to it, we would still not have a black President. Actually we don't even now. We have a half-black and half-WHITE President. So what? His white side doesn't get much attention

I don't think our problems in this country center around color anymore. At least not black and white. I think the problem colors are green and red, and I am not talking about Christmas here. Money is green and when we don't have the green flowing, we are awash in red. Ink, that is, and it's on the fiscal balance sheet, not our skin. I am sick of the what we can "say" and what we can't freaking say. Could we be real for a minute? Ideology, we got it. We have culture, class, and caste. Yeah the world is certainly diverse, isn't it? Are you kidding me? I am talking the county I live in, my region, and my country too. Labelling! We've got that too, in spades. No pun intended.
We are living, breathing mammals, including humans that claim a Spirit too. Personally I think everything alive has a spirit if not a Spirit!

And anything with a Spirit can feel put down, denegrated by and vulnerable to another group. Our only way to prevent being unhappy in another person's power is to amplify our swagger and join up with others in our same predicament. I realized, just this week, and it really became clear to me that we are devolving, not evolving any more. I belong to the biggest generation living today, called the Baby Boomers. I just found out that they have added a few more years to the end of that. It used to be 1946-1959. I remember that because I remember thinking when I married my husband that since he was born in 1959, I had narrowly dodged a bullet .If he were just a few months younger than me, we would have been in different generations. That just wouldn't have felt right to me. To my spirit and my Spirit!

My husband and I witnessed as young impressionable children, a country at its strongest and business booming. War was looming and waning and we had an invincible military we admired and leaders we believed in. Then we observed the racial divide: far enough post-slavery for hope and prosperity to be coming for people who had long awaited its providence. Not far enough for institutionalized racism and prejudice to have unentangled itself. Most people of good will deplored the prejudice. We just didn't say anything loud enough for many others to hear. We talked among families and friends, the same way we do now. You had a few nuts around out at the edges that ascribed to whatever weird theory that promoted some stupid out-of-the-common prejudices about the differences between black and white. It's dumb. There are only superficial differences. Differences of culture and thought exist not only between races, but generations, personalities, beliefs, ideologies, and every other -ologies we can come up with.

That, right there, is where all the trouble leaks in. The more the populations grow, the more differences we have because we all have our own unique constellations of experience. That largest and most difficult uniqueness is perception. In my perception, another large can of worms was opened by Barack Obama a couple of weeks ago. As a nation we hit that benchmark
when Obama opened his mouth and commented on the arrest of his mentor, Professor Gates, by the Cambridge policeman, Sgt. Crowley. You didn't seriously think President Obama didn't bring his prejudices with him into the White House, did you? He is just a human being. He isn't above us except he has anything money can buy, and people fawning over him like he is some kind of Egyptian pharoah! Do you think someone has to be exceptional as a human being to be elevated to those dizzying heights of power?

Nope. Can I remind you of Hitler, Caligula, and Prince Vlad of Transylvania? Relax, I am not saying that Obama has any resemblance in any way to any of those historical figures or their personalities. No one really knows yet. I am not a revisionist of history, just an observer, and it is only far into the future that we know how history will judge him. Nixon was a villainous figure to most people for a little over a decade and then gradually people started to see that he might have gotten some things right. By the time he passed away, some years ago now, he functioned almost as an elder stateman. Senator Byrd from my home state of West Virginia just outlived all the guys that could recognize his shoes under the white sheet! So now, he charms the crowds with his cute "elderliness" and he still plays the violin. So, although I don't know what history will say of Obama, I do know what they probably won't say. They won't say he ever made anything that contributed to the problem of racism. Obama is the post-racial president. Yep.

My generation saw the civil rights battle in this country. Some of us from closer vantage points than others. My husband who lived much of his young life in southern Mississippi saw it first hand, not just on TV. He was one of the white kids who was bussed to a black school, and as a result, my husband had an education that was far inferior to mine in West Virginia. I was in an all white school. I do remember the black people from Huntington were going to march down route 60 between Huntington and my hometown Ceredo. There were pickups lined up down both sides of the road with shotgun barrels out of every window that went on for over 7 miles. The black people wisely chose not to march. I remember President Kennedy and Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy being shot. Those things didn't just affect Black people. It affected all of us. Society started to change.

We began the Age of Aquarius. Many of us resolved not to carry on the sins of former generations when it came to race, creed, and color. Many of us who had already let go of it, or never really had much prejudice in the first place, breathed a sigh of relief! My family collectively never had enough wealth or power to have really figured much in the whole business ever. My dad's side was probably the most prosperous having owned a slave or maybe two in a few parts of the family stretching across time from the beginning of this country. Mom's family probably never did though I don't know for sure. All I know is that my parents weren't even racist. Mom was raised in coal camps in Kentucky living with and playing with children of every color and nationality. In her elder years, she could still say a few things in different languages. In any case, I did not grow up hearing bad things about black people. We knew prejudice existed because we most certainly saw it happen on our TVs. In some cases, we might have witnessed some, but segregation essentially meant that black and white traveled different roads. We weren't ever in a position to defend anyone.

I think southern whites and southern blacks used to have more in common than northern and southern blacks. That is what my experiences have taught me. But when people started analyzing and exploiting the racial problems and putting all that on TV and in print, they made a lot more people mad. Every time someone says or does something stupid, why are we surprised? Why does it spread like wildfire? We have been going down this road almost as long as we have been a country. I am really tired of it. I know I am not alone in this. My mom used to say the more you stirred s--t the worse it smelled. The older I get, the more I agree. Germany has recovered more from the Holocaust than we have from slavery. Abraham Lincoln would be sad, I think, good old Kentucky boy that he was. I know you always hear he was "from" Illinois. He didn't go to Illinois until he was a adolescent, and as crooked as Illinois is now, he would probably try to get as far away "from" it as possible!

What most white people want to say is that slavery was stupid. We're sorry. Now get over it. Forgive us and move on! Blacks have opportunity now. Many of them are in the highest ranks of military, government, society and celebrity. White people might still have more as a whole, but we also out-populate minorities too. I feel a lot sorrier for the Native Americans who used to own and rule this vast expanse, and now they are stuck on little patches of land that aren't even technically the United States. They suffer from higher rates of poverty and disease than any other Americans. I am so tired of all the propaganda. I believe most white people are ready to move on, but when some black people want to keep stirring the pot, it stirs up the nuts too. When did Billy Graham ever show up and advocate for anybody just because he was white and they were too. I think the scorecards are evening up pretty well. Yeah we have Martha Stewart, but they have Oprah! At least their billionaie didn't lose a lot of her money and position by going to jail. I have never felt defensive like this in my whole life! When some black people started talking about "reparations", it started making a lot of white people defensive. When black people aren't held to the same standards as white people now, it doesn't make sense. Slavery was a bad institution but in my view God gave black people some intrinsic "reparations". Roman 8:28 in the new testament of the Bible says:

" And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose.

Black people have this unique brotherhood that exists between all of them whether they know them or not. The only time I have ever seen that level of brotherhood among white people is the masonic organizations. With black people, they have been able to draw on their unique experiences to excell in every walk of life. They have created a standard among the music arts that has not been enjoyed by any white ethnicity in centuries. I am not generalizing unequally here either. I am sure there are white people that have suffered for their art and black people who don't sing or dance well either. I am just saying that God has allowed a lot of great breakthroughs for black people to use their talent to reach splendid levels of success. Our government tried to level the playing field with Affirmative Action. There is no inferiority in any race. It's all in your head. But the change doesn't just have to be in white people's heads. Change has to occur in the minds of black people too.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton need to stop coming to the opening of an envelope! African-Americans need to just be Americans. Black people need to get the chip off their shoulder long enough, so white people can quit trying to knock them off, or amass a pile of their own chips to shoulder. No one who is even halfway educated or intelligent is proud of the history of slavery. But it is time for us to quit being slaves to our history. Every incident that happens, every time someone sticks their foot in their mouths, the media is all over it. It's one thing if it is a real injustice that is happening to someone. Why didn't Professor Gates think, "wow, my Martha's Vineyard home is safe. My neighbors look out for me and my property. I will show my identification and my respect to this police officer that is just doing his job, making sure someone isn't in my home that shouldn't be!" Why didn't Sgt. Crowley say to himself, "boy this guy has gotten me all wrong! I am going to explain to him clearly the premise of my visit.( Oh, he's not getting it, because he is a black professor with a chip on his shoulder.) I am just going to pull out my citation book and write him one for verbal assault and go back to the precinct and talk to my superior about it."

Because Professor Gates had the "you just saw me as a criminal because I am black and in this fine home" chip. Sgt. Crowley had the "you are making a fool out of me in front of this crowd, and I can't overtalk your big, irrational mouth" chip. Those are two big heavy chips to carry around. Obama had the "I have to show you I am a regular brother, and defend my friend whose facts didn't quite match up to the official report" chip when he blurted out that the police had acted stupidly when they arrested his mentor, Professor Gates. Well at least he is giving good old "foot-in-the-mouth" Biden a run for his money now

I know this is long and complex. So is life.I hope you stuck with me till now. I have not tried to offend anyone with this opinion. I am just trying to have an honest discussion about our problems between the races. I don't care about this stupid incident because it is irrelevant. Welcome to our crazy world. If people of conscience and good will let our better selves show up at every place we go and with everything we do, we can begin to fulfill the dreams that Martin Luther King talked about. This kind of infighting doesn't help. It only hurts the cause of equality and liberty along with our pursuit of happiness. We can't guarantee or legislate "attitude". We just have to change it! And could we please quit making a racial issue out of every misspoken word?

Who's Playing and Who's Paying?

There are many times in the last couple of years that I have become extremely disheartened with the direction our country is headed towards. The funny thing is that lots of other people who don't normally follow the news much, are starting to notice. Listen I don't blame anybody who tries not to watch things that depress them any more than everyday life and its myriad problems we encounter every day! It is a testimony to the escalation of drug and alcohol problems that life in these United States has seen better days. I am talking pharmaceuticals here too. We are not only the Prozac nation, but I think we are the Xanax nation too! Most everyone I know admits to having anxiety. It's hard to make a living. Many of us have our adult kids at home; either back after a lost job or relationship, or one never having left home at all. Some of these kids you can't get rid of with WD-40 and a crowbar!! But, that being said, my Facebook tells me, people are talking!

Violence is up; Crime is up; Unemployment is up, the political divide is getting wider. Why can't we all just get along? Most of us keep our heads down and don't look up very often. One of my nephews told my brother that he "wasn't concerned about anything except his job and family"when his Dad tried to talk to him about political issues. My brother got very upset. He was telling me this on a recent visit, and we discussed at length the fact that people with that attitude don't seem to understand that job and family with its attendant freedom, rights and responsibilies, is the entire reason the people that do care, show it by doing whatever lay within their power to affect positive outcomes in politics. We elect leaders that then have the power to manipulate the policies that give us those rights and privileges. It is frustrating when no one seems to care.

I haven't done all with my life that I have wanted to do. It has been tough to find the time to be an activist when you are the custodian of a family. I mean that literally too. I failed to reach the intended audience when I taught "Pick-Up After Yourself 101" some years ago. But I digress. I did try to pass my values on to my kids. We found a church when they were small and kept them going until they were around 16 and 17 when most children turn heathen on their parents. We definitely talked about the issues. I have always been a pretty avid follower of the news and what is the point of hearing interesting news stories unless you talk to other people about them?
So I knew my kids were listening sometimes at least because I overheard them parroting my views when they were teens. It feels good, in a way, but I did always want them to really pay attention to the issues and look at both sides before they made their opinion. If they didn't end up agreeing with me, it was okay. They have their God-given right to be wrong.

My point is that if someone else was in charge of your bank account, you would be watching what they were doing with it. You would want to know what kind of a person it was that was making decisions about what to do with your weekly paycheck. If they took it and bought all kinds of things that left you too little to pay your mortgage or buy food, you would have something to say about it. That's what it's like because the people we put into power affect the policies that allow us to live our lives the way we need to do it. If they make mistakes because they aren't experienced enough, or are bad managers, or are character-disordered, it is our fault because we put them there. If we didn't raise Cain when we felt they were doing the wrong thing, or we failed to pay attention because we felt like we were powerless and alone in our efforts, then they used us to fix their own agendas without caring about ours! We have to get together with our friends, our families, our churches and civic organizations and do what we can do. If you can watch someone's kids while they do letter-writing campaigns or phone-calling, that is a great contribution. If you write one letter, make one call to your representative, donate a little time or money to a worthy cause that is representing your viewpoint, whatever that is, then I believe America can yet be changed for the better.

I know things are tough right now; tougher even than it has been for awhile in our country. Most of us struggle somehow, and I know how hard it is to make any effort than we don't absolutely have to in our lives and work. But I think the stakes are pretty high right now on a lot of issues. The Universal Health Care Initiative and the CAP and Trade legislation have not yet been passed. Everyone has an electric bill and everyone needs health care, so we will all be affected by these pieces of legislation. There seem to be a lot of people on Capital Hill that believe that they can do what they like without impunity. Both political parties try to divide and conquer by distracting the American people with all these emotional side issues while they go about their business feathering their own nests with commissions, bonuses, and pork. It's time to let them know WHO their employers happen to be.

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, I think we have a symphony orchestra playing in Washington DC.

Starke County Drivers

I have been a Starke County resident for most of the last 13 years, with the exception of about 9 months between 2007 and 2008 when we moved up to Portage. I don't miss that. I was living around my extended family for that time, and that is another complete blog I will entertain at some later date.There seems to be road rage all over the place. We don't seem to have much of that here, but we definitely have frustrations. My husband and I talk about the way people drive here all the time. I wonder if anyone else notices these things.

For example, you are driving through town and come to a four-way stop. Now typically,by law, the first one to stop is the one who is supposed to proceed first through the intersection. Do you remember the cartoon with the little gophers (or whatever they were supposed to be) that were so polite that they continually made excuses for the other one to go first: "after you! No, no, no, after you!" Well, that is what it feels like everyone is doing! My husband is continually complaining and yelling at people who thankfully can't hear him, "it's your turn! What are you waiting for; an engraved invitation!" I see no point in this, and I tell him that, but it is annoying.

Another thing that puzzles me is the new trees on Lake Street. New is relative really because they have been there for a few years now. They are very pretty, but I wonder who the genius was that placed them in positions that would obstruct the stop signs when they get foliage in the spring and summer? No offense to whoever that was,but it was short-sighted unless it was a police committee that needed more revenue for running stop signs. I have even forgotten about them a few times when I was pre-occupied or talking to a passenger in my car and had to screech to a stop! I know they are there, but I do admit to having senior moments once in a while, but surely I'm not that bad! I am only 52 so there must be a few more people who will admit they have trouble with it too!

All rural areas are different compared to the big cities, and that means the people are different too. I can't be the only one who's noticed this! I prefer even the absent-minded drivers like m e against the "road ragers" up there. Man, one time a few years ago, we had a guy chase us down because he was weaving in and out of traffic and scaring us all the way down McCool Road in Portage, and we were talking about him in the car. My kids were taking it all in from the backseat. My daughter flipped him off. She was 15 at the time and my son was beside her who was only her senior by one year! This man lost his mind and came after us with a vengeance until he finally caught up with us at the stoplight on route #6 and McCool, yelling all the way with the windows open. He was yelling at "the fat bastard in the back seat", and cursing him out crazily and with much malice. My husband tried to talk rationally to the guy and apologize and explain that it wasn't even our son, but our tiny, delicate-looking like butter -wouldn't- melt- in-her-mouth daughter who regrettably flipped him off! This man was in no mood to listen. I happened to be in the driving seat that time, so I just rolled up our windows, locked all the doors, and took off like a bat out of you-know-where! I know when to get out of Dodge!

So all in all, I am happy to be in Starke County with all of its peculiaries. I am even down with the trees. It's a lot better than living with a roadway parking lot down route #30 between Hobart and Schererville. I am sure I added my percentage of peculiarity when I moved here too.
So, I guess I am in for the duration, folks!

Letter I wrote to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

You said you wanted good ideas from everybody, so I figure that I fit that description pretty well, so here I go: My name is Linda Gutierrez and I am a conservative Christian American citizen and patriot. I have a B.A. in clinical psychology from Purdue and I got pretty good grades. I ended up being in case management for my whole career after college. Fix problems and put out fires. That's a good job description for any kind of case manager. You were a community organizer, and I have done a bit of that too, so I think we might have a chance for a meeting of the minds. My faith does definitely play into my worldview, and manifest destiny. But I also know myself capable and desirous of treating my fellowman that disagrees with me with proper respect. And I will listen to other points of view, and if I disagree, I will still accord you, your First Amendment rights.

All that being said, I want to propose some of my ideas for you to mull over. You can't tell me that my ideas won't work, unless our government really does have an agenda that opposes America's Best Interest. If I get a little wordy, forgive me. I am passionate about the belief that this country can right its ship. America has always contained the greatest environment for dreaming of a better day. I dream of a better day, and I want Americans to step up their game. Not just those of us who must consume so others can make. Not just those of us who must pay the taxes on the hard-earned paycheck that barely stretches from week to week. I want our government to step up their game. Now.

We need line item veto. We need for the ones who stick a program that people are kind of ambivalent about onto one that they know is a shoe-in, and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. It gets done all the time, and you know what? We notice. Many of us. This is not the same world it used to be. You are not going to get away with that with a representative-style government anymore.
There is too much technology available. There are too many people watching you, and everyone has a camera phone, and there are too many people with no class willing to pay a buck for a picture of you doing something un-presidential, or some dirt from a servant or a driver, etc. We need to be able to trust in our government's honesty. You sure haven't delivered on the transparency any better than anyone else and in some cases, worse.

We need to see the end of "pork" by law. If you need to sneak it in, you don't need it. Just have a general appropriations bill and prioritize these needs. If it is a worthy cause then you can probably have your turn at getting your bill passed for your "pet project" if it meets a standard of need with regard to federal funding. If it doesn't pass muster and the federal government agrees it is a good project, you can try for State funds or municipal funds or even private funding.

We need, ironically, a lot of case managers to get those problems addressed. We don't have enough oversight for accountability within our government, much less in the marketplace. You need to do a lot of that same bottom-up management you did when you organized for the community. As you know, it's a lot of calls and hands-on help. What you can't do, you delegate, and then you check up on whoever you delegated the work done. You are an ambitious man with an ambitious agenda for your administration, but I don't think you are being advised right. But you have to lead us, not drag us, and it needs to be worth going to for most Americans. You are dragging us, and it's not working for you and it's not working for us.

We need to fix the healthcare system in this country. The better way and the most free market way to get everyone covered isn't socialized medicine or government option in my opinion. I do have some ideas you might use, if you haven't heard these from anyone else:

1. We don't have enough family practice doctors. Use incentives and encouragement to recruit more nurse practitioners, if they go into family practice for five years.
2. Organize a consortium of insurance companies to bid on covering small businesses. Let all small businesses opt-in on coverage with a lot of other companies in order to get insurance at a competitive rate.
3. There is no need to create a new infrastructure. There is already medicare and medicaid. Open that to cover everyone, and have the state’s pay for the administration of the system, and answerable to the federal government. Offer tax incentives or breaks to hospitals and clinics that forgive and absorb debt by consumers making a certain percentile of the poverty level. Encourage churches, community organizations to have a program to help cover co-pays. Have a Medicaid or Medicare case manager follow up accountability over medications and tests and ascertain what the ability to pay is for that individual and lead them through the system in the best direction. There are lots more ideas that I have, but this missive would be enormous if I detailed all of them.
4. Food items that contribute to health problems and obesity need to be taxed to pay for the health care. Right now, food in grocery stores isn’t taxed. This needs a tiered approach to levy taxes on the unhealthiest of fare. Food that is natural and least processed such as meat, dairy, produce, frozen and canned produce should remain untaxed to foster healthier eating choices. Convenience foods might be the first taxed tier. The lowest tier might be those items which have little nutritional value such as soda pop and snack cakes, for example. Fast food should be taxed. None of these measures will be popular or pleasant, but if we tax smokers and drinkers for their unhealthy lifestyle choices, there is no reason to exempt people who eat poorly.

We need a clean environment and we need to gain energy independence for our own security and financial interests. See, once again you are dragging us, rather than leading up with the Cap and Trade legislation. Just like with health care, there is a certain amount of mandate, but it has got to be sweetened with a lot of choice. And it has to be pretty easy. Once again, this needs bottom-up organization too. Things like recycling. If you are going to make it mandatory, you have to make it easy. But you have to involve us much farther than just taking our money to pay for a system. If you are going to have carbon offsets for companies, you need to have them for the individual too. You have to have incentive to do something that might well be in your best interests, but you can't see the profit right now. It's too subjective. You need to show us that we can, through our own sweat equity lower our tax bill for carbon offsets in some way.

There is much more I would talk to you about if we had a meeting but I felt that I needed to at least let you know what I think about. I didn't vote for you, but you are my President. I want you to do well because I want America to do well. I want you to represent well because I want America to present well. There is no substitute for honor. If our government would be great, it would be working for all American's interests honestly. And there is no substitute for confidence. You have it. That is easy to see. But we have to have it. Americans have lost a lot of their confidence. Especially recently. Especially white Americans. Why can't white Americans be proud? There is no race that doesn't have barbarism in its past. We've had much good deeds in our history as well. Why can't we just all be proud of ourselves, no matter what color or religion? Wait, I had better stop. Now I am trying to do God's work. Sorry, it is so tempting to dream.

Best of luck to you and your family.

Linda S Gutierrez
402 Main Street
North Judson, IN 46366