(This is a continuation of Prometheus 6 - Into The Lions Den, where a lively discussion ensued centered on my post, My Ancestors Owned Slaves. It was me against the website, and after a short while I felt I had them surrounded.)
Reluctantly, I say my goodbyes to Prometheus 6. They initiated the discussion, I chimed in with comments, and it didn't take long for the whole process to deteriorate into them posturing and posing. Once the "trash talking" takes over, nowhere is where you're getting fast. It was interesting and exciting for me, but I sensed I wasn't playing my part. I'm a foreigner in their culture and don't understand the significance of the profanity and put-downs. I think I was supposed to respond in kind, but that would come across as phoney. Since I haven't watched TV (except football) for over ten years, my "jive" talk would sound like ten year sit-com "jive"talk. And I bet no one but me calls it "jive" talk anymore, anyway.
I sent the following "goodbye" letter, but it appears I didn't need to, because Prometheus 6 already pulled the plug on me. I sent it a couple of hours ago, it went into their "comment moderation" cycle, and it hasn't appeared yet.
Worn Out My Welcome
It has been fun. I still have a lot of points on the table none of you have touched, for example, the General Motors analogy. Still, I see that you have declared victory, without breaking a sweat. So just sit back now and wait for the reparations checks to roll in. (See Cargo Cult, Reparations, and Casinos for more of my thoughts on Reparations)
Your boasts and brags are like tales “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” But for a few brief moments my article and comments stirred you, and you unleashed your torrents of “bigot, red neck, racist dog, Major Asshole,” and plantation imagery of mint julep sipping while watching the slaves sweating for ‘Ol Massa.
When you said in your comments I was “Beat Down,” I looked up "Beat Down," but didn’t find me there. Then I looked at what I have written, and I found someone who was happy to be brought to your Garden Party, even though you did so selectively by cherry picking my article. I didn’t write the article to be a race baiter, but I did hope to stir controversy. Mission accomplished. Why? Because I am a descendent of slave owners, and many Blacks are too. Blacks want reparations paid for slavery, but only because they are living comfortably in a nation that can afford to waste its money - on them. The Blacks living in Africa, most of them descendents of both slaves and slavers, know that descendents of the ones who were taken to the United States are the lucky ones.
Plus I don't suffer from the Liberal guilt that would make me keep my mouth shut.
In the meantime, my thoughts take me back to the over 21 years I served in the greatest meritocracy the world has ever seen, the U S Air Force in particular, and the U S military overall. The folks I served with proudly didn’t need reparations, or affirmative action, to get ahead and do a great job. Many, like me, were born and raised poor, but we took our opportunities and made the best of them. It feels great when the one responsible for your accomplishments is you, and you’re the only one to blame for your failures.
The person who says he can do it, and the one who says he can’t, are both right.
Shalom
UPDATE: This comment from Prometheus 6 just popped up on their web site:
Major Mike
I haven't declared victory. I just see no reason to subject the folks here to 20 year old race-baiting lines.
You've established nothing. You've only expressed your unsupported opinions.
Meanwhile, I think I'll stop past your place and see if you deleted my comments.
How interesting. He decided not to subject his folks to my comments, after earlier going to Real Clear Politics, selectively copying from my article, and commenting on it. I suppose I can understand why he doesn't want to subject "the folks" to my ideas - they definitely don't fit in on his plantation. Then he gratuitously declares them 20 years old - I didn't realize my ideas were time/date stamped - and that they are "race-baiting" because I don't support reparations and affirmative action.
These are not unsupported opinions. My article was opposed to paying reparations to Blacks for slavery because none of us were slave owners or slaves. Prometheus 6 never proved any of us were, and further never made a logical case - remember the General Motors analogy? - for a collective responsibility to pay Blacks reparations for slavery.
Other support for my "unsupported" opinions comes from Bill Cosby, Dr. Walter Williams, and Dr. Thomas Sowell. These learned gentlemen believe Blacks are responsible for their problems, and for their solutions. Making Black failures a collective responsibility that somehow can be solved by giving money for nothing is something that no fair and rational being could support.
Then his argument moved away from reparations for slavery, and morphed into living under Jim Crow. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended the vestiges of Jim Crow, over half of Blacks today were born after 1964, and many Blacks prior to 1964 did not live in the South, it is logical to say that only a small minority of Blacks alive today lived under Jim Crow.
Therefore, it is illogical to pay reparations to all Blacks for living under Jim Crow when most didn't, and since the vast majority of Americans alive today did not uphold Jim Crow or have anything to do with it, to have them pay for it.
But then it was time to move on to the book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (Hardcover) by James W. Loewen , $29.95 marked down to $18.87, currently number 72,062 in Amazon rankings. Dr. Loewen's anecdotal "proof" is very interesting, but not sufficient cause to pay all Blacks reparations because a small minority can't live in towns such as Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Darien, Connecticutt, and in all of Idaho (Huh? I didn't know they wanted to).
At this point I am wondering what the NAACP is doing to earn all the dues they collect, if they can't get their army of lawyers on these cases and end illegal housing discrimination.
While Dr. Loewen is at it, he should check on why so few Blacks live on The Sea Ranch, California. My buddy Don is one. I can't think of any others. I wouldn't want to live there myself - too many rules - but the median home price there is also $835,000, which makes it even easier to not live there.
His final statement, that he is going to check on me to see if I deleted his earlier comments, is illustrative of his warped viewpoint. I don't delete comments. I don't even "moderate" comments, as he does. I think he suspects me of being like him.
He visited and left a comment. Darn. I was hoping he wouldn't get there until after I added this update. I'll email him and let him know what he missed.
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