The Power Of Conviction

In a recent post entitled "Obama's Change Can Change Quickly", I pointed out how fickle our dear new president can be. But that's to be expected, he's a politician. Forgive me for forgetting. For eight years we dealt with a president who took a position and stood by it. Whether or not people liked it. That is the power of conviction.

As the poet wrote, you gotta stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. That could be the problem. I understand the presidency is a figurehead position, but it shouldn't be a puppet position, jerked around on the strings of public emotion. It's interesting to see our current puppet...er, president, stand up at Notre Dame and talk about finding common ground between the pro-life and abortion camps. Especially when, truth be told, this is from a guy who consistently voted an even more militant stance, killing live, breathing babies who survived an abortion, than even other Democratic congressman from the state of Illinois would vote. Sounds like someone on the campaign trail to me. Someone who will say one thing when talking to the crowd in San Francisco, and the complete opposite when talking to the crowd in Iowa. I hope that being a smooth talking liar is not what Americans want from a politician. But I fear.

So here we go again, as our beloved puppet falls for anything, and signs a silly presidential resolution in his first few days, promising to close Guantánamo in a year. Nice. You sure appeased all the people who listened to you on the campaign trail talk about the failed policies of your predecessor, and how wrong it is to detain people without giving them the rights we so dearly cherish. After all, (sarcastically speaking) you needn't be a citizen of the United States to receive the protections of our Constitution. You don't even need to be an illegal alien who manages to have a baby in the United States. You don't even need to be a Colombian drug lord who manages to get arrested in the United States. You don't even need to be in America, you simply need to shoot at an American soldier as he does his job defending freedom overseas. Yes, (sarcastically speaking) that action alone should transport some terrorist from the despot like rule they grew up under, into the utopia of the American Constitution, and defense lawyers. And Obama wants to announce his release of terrorists and other people like that, without ANY PLAN for what to do with them. Maybe we can put them in an American prison. Yay. Good one. Genius. Turns out the Democratic lead congress cant even believe the President, and instead voted not to fund his one year program. Pretty bad when even your friends wont help you out with your bad ideas.

Again and again, Obama's change is changing quickly. Like any good politician, with his thumb in the wind, our puppet reacts to the pulling of the strings. Well at least he does that, at least he's listening. Now all of a sudden it's not a good idea to release pictures the ACLU wants in their witch-hunt of American soldiers doing their best to obtain information from folks who were trying to kill Americans. Obama reverses himself again last week, finally admitting that his policy would cost American soldiers lives. Oh, and now all of a sudden we need a plan of where to put the detainees who, by golly, are trying to kill Americans, and no other country wants to accept. Who would've guessed? Guess it takes more than a little show of signing a presidential directive doesn't it? Oh, and I guess Bush wasn't wrong on the military tribunal thing either. After all the incindiary things Obama said on the campaign trail, he's going to reverse himself, go ahead and do the same damn thing, military tribunals to try folks who attempted to kill American soldiers (as it should be). But will Obama have the grace to apologize for his mistakes and misleading statements?  Well, no. Apologizing is something else Bush did, so it must be bad.   

Dear reader, I guess I live in the real world. In my world, my wife, my family, my employees, and my customers all expect me to say things that I've thought out. Things that make sense. Things that I believe in. They don't expect me to change my mind tomorrow, constantly, on every issue. After all, I only get so many chances to be a father to my daughter. I only get so many chances with my wife before she would lose trust in me. My employees look to me for leadership, and wouldn't respect waffling, vacillating, and thumb in the wind syndrome. And my customers, most of those I only get one shot with.

Our President needs to get off the campaign trail. It's time to shut up and stop the rhetoric.  Less news conferences and more learning about the issues, sir. Charm, charisma and slick speech are not leadership. False flags and red herrings only work for so long. Following the leader as he makes one mistake after another and turns around to "lead" in the opposite direction after all, well, it makes you dizzy.  

Leadership is thinking things through, making a wise decision, and standing by it. Without this, America can fall from her position of moral and economic authority. Our friends, allies and those around the world who look to us as icons, can lose respect. And what happens then?

 

Why You Have to Cut Your Household Budget, and the Government Doesn't.

If you are anything like the average American these days, you are counting your pennies. The average American is taking a pay cut, their working hours have been cut, jobs have been lost. Unemployment is rampant, some counties here in South Carolina are way over the 20% unemployment mark. Foreclosures are up, people are losing their homes, their cars are being repossessed, its not pretty. The stock market tanked, 401k's are decimated, its official, we are in a recession.

 

So, the average folks, wise beings that they are, are reacting. They are being smart, paying off credit cards, eating out less often, and going without. Americans are buying less expensive clothes, cutting the cable bill to the cheapest service, and canceling yard care expenses. Americans get it, times are tough, its time to spend less, and save more.

 

Except for our do nothing, Democrat led Congress. While average Americans are taking pay cuts and cutting costs, the Congress voted themselves a pay increase for this year. Nice. I see you guys get it. Oh, and thanks for voting yourselves a significant increase in the amount you are allowed to claim as "expenses". Americans should not only give you a raise, but buy you lunch and limo rides more often. That's awesome. I wish I could vote myself a raise, and a bigger expense report too. Hell, I wanna limo ride too, if Im paying for you to take one.

 

And Obama? While he is living it up in limos and servants, does he keep it real to the street, and pay tribute to the little guy? Nope. Screw the little guy. While Americans scrimp and save to get by, Obama raises the federal budget from $2 trillion to $3.6 trillion, increasing spending and the deficit hugely. In other words, while most Americans don't have money to shop, Obama goes on a spending spree. While most Americans are desperate to pay of their credit, Obama is running America's credit with foreign governments up. Nice, I see you get it too.

 

And who gets to pay for this giant spending increase? Why of course, you, the little guy. I wish I could vote myself a nice new credit card and have you pay for it. And pay for it we will.

 

Why do Obama and his cronies in the Congress do this? Because they were trained to. In all the public service textbooks, only one solution is pointed to, when there is a budget shortfall. The textbooks only list one action when government spending gets higher that what the American taxpayer is providing. And what is that answer? Raise taxes. The textbooks never say to cut spending. So YOU, dear reader, should cut spending when you make less money, in fact you HAVE to. But the government should NEVER cut spending, sarcastically speaking.

 

So about Obama's plan that he learned, does raising taxes make more money for the government? If history repeats itself (and I hear it does), the answer is no. California raised taxes a few years back, and did that make California more money? No. Instead large numbers of businesses left California, and now California has a $40 billion budget shortfall, because as all these businesses left, all their tax revenue left too. Ditto New Jersey, read up and educate yourself on that one. The same thing happens not just to states, but to federal governments. Enter the exodus of American manufacturers, who can easily set up shop in Mexico, China or Eastern Europe. But I mean hey, if Obama and his henchmen in Congress are trying to drive more American businesses overseas, they have the right plan.

 

The point is that Obama simply cannot nearly double the federal budget without raising taxes. If you need a car, and you only make enough money, dear reader, to buy a $10k used Honda, you simply cannot go out and buy a $18k used Mercedes. Well you can, but there's a name for that. Foolishness.

 

And I fear that's we have in our current crop of elected leaders.

 

How the Unions Screwed the Auto Companies (And Will Continue To)

 In our brave new global manufacturing world, those who travel the globe have an interesting perspective to manufacturing and the costs associated. For instance, warehouses in Mexico, China, India, Hungary and the USA all look remarkably alike. They all use the same yellow forklifts, made by the same company. They all have some form of green and orange painted steel pallet racking, where pallets of automotive parts are stacked all the way to the ceiling. The concrete floors are nearly identical, as are the steel roll up dock doors, and the trucks that are parked as they are unloaded. The folks that are driving the forklifts, and doing the work may look different, but they are much the same, and they do much the same job.

The massive disparity is only seen when you go outside the factory, and you see the houses in which the workers live.

For instance, in Mexico, the government builds housing outside of the maquiladoras (factories) for the workers. In an effort to draw companies to Mexico, modern looking concrete tenements are in place outside of many of the factories, and many folks have cars and some of the trappings of the Western world.  

 Not so in China where few own cars, and most take public transportation to the ghettos of corrugated aluminum housing where they live. Some are lucky enough to have dormitory like housing in the factory where they work.  

In India, many ride bicycles to the huts constructed of mud that they call home.  

In Hungary, the wood from the discarded pallets thrown out of the back of the factory as trash, can be seen in the construction of the houses where the workers live. 

In South Carolina where I live, the average forklift driver wage is in the $9-$12 an hour range. Folks may have older cars, and often live in single wide trailers out in the country.

All these folks do the same job as the union autoworkers. So how do the autoworkers live?

Let's take Randy for an example. He's been with the union 14 years. His aggregate salary is $76 an hour, when all benefits and perks are included. In some cases he's paid overtime after working only five hours in a single day. He lives in a 2500 ft.² brick house, has a summer cottage up north, a nice 23 foot boat, a nice motorcycle and drives an Escalade. In another 16 years, at the age of 48, he will be able to retire with nearly a full income, and full medical and dental benefits at little or no cost to him. Like most of his coworkers who have retired, he is likely to take a job to "supplement" his income. If he is caught being late repeatedly, showing up drunk or high at work, has low production, makes a lot of mistakes, his company cannot fire him. He gets raises regardless of his production or performance,  and if his company goes through hard times  and needs to lay him off, he will likely draw full benefits and wages.  Hard for an automaker to save costs in tough times that way. 

When it comes time for his company to negotiate new wages, he will vociferously fight to retain or even gain more compensation than he already has. He will likely cite Henry Ford as saying that the workers should be able to afford the vehicles they make. No matter if Henry was referring to an Escort rather than an Escalade.

All this, when Randy has a high school diploma, and no more education or ability than the workers doing the same job in other parts of the USA or the world.

Non-US auto companies, and manufacturers of all kinds across the USA, are paying fair wages (aggregate $20-$30 an hour) to folks who are doing the same work as Randy is for $76 an hour. In Mexico the same kind of worker makes four dollars an hour. In China, four dollars a day. And Randy is campaigning and complaining about his $76 an hour.   

In other companies competent managers push for higher productivity and increased pay to incentivize good workers. But the unions do not allow such "nonsense", instead pushing for less production for the same pay, setting limits for production during an full workday and forcing promotions for even low producing workers. In other companies employees buy into productivity, quality products and competition, in the union making it to retirement with as little work as possible is the motive, and your job pays the same if you make a quality product or not, and whether you make a lot of it during your eight hours or not. 

Which brings up the issue of productivity.  Truck drivers to deliver to union auto plants become frustrated by the obtuse regulations that govern how slowly the UAW can do its job.  At most non-union facilities, you pull your truck with him into a loading dock, and a forklift driver will look at your paperwork, quickly and efficiently unload your truck and sign the paperwork. The process should take no longer than an hour, by one person.  

But in the union plant there are hoops to be jumped through to ensure that all sorts of people who don't have anything to do are given a piece of the pie. A truck driver will first have to find the office where the paperwork should be turned in. Usually this paperwork person is on break, so the truck driver has to wait 15 minutes to an hour just to find out what dock they should pull into. When the truck is finally in the dock, a forklift driver may not unload the truck. You see, the dock plate is hydraulic, and is operated by pushing a button. This complex task can only be accomplished by an "engineer" from the electricians union. And guess what, the "engineer" is on break. Another 15 minute to an hour wait while the "engineer" is located, and comes cruising up slowly on his three wheeled bicycle. His work is easily accomplished in 30 seconds, he pushes and holds the green button that lowers the hydraulic dock plate into place. This complex job being done he wheels away to sit in an office and do nothing until someone else needs him.  

Now finally after all this time a forklift driver is allowed to enter the truck. But does this forklift driver move quickly? No, there is no incentive for him to move quickly. The slower he goes the better off for him. I have quite literally seen forklift drivers creep at a slow crawl that enables them to stretch a one hour load into four hours. When asked why, they will honestly answer that they are paid by the hour and there is no point in going faster. Now comes the charade of the "engineer" being summoned to make the 15 minute trip from across the plant to do his thirty second job again. And of course the paperwork person who is required to sign off what the forklift driver unloaded is on break for lunch again. Four to eight hour waits are not unusual for truck drivers delivering to union auto facilities, an infuriating fact for those who are paid by the load, not by the hour, and know that an hour at most is needed.

Extrapolate this small picture of UAW inefficiency on one truckload of materials being delivered, into hundreds of trucks per day.  Or into thousands of vehicles made on assembly lines using this slow unproductive approach by frankly lazy union workers desperate to keep and protect their job rather than to keep their company productive and profitable.  How can I stretch the four hours of work I have, into the eight hours it needs to be so I can keep my job? 

Look, the unions had a good effect on the system 75 years ago when low wages and worker abuse were the norm. No one disputes they were necessary then. There was nothing wrong with Americans leading the way to a prosperous and happy middle class.

So its high time now that they take a look at the reality felt across the rest of the world now.  The UAW workers should understand the incredulity and anger toward the UAW that all the other Americans have across the USA who do the same damn thing for a living. They should understand that there are many Americans who have little or no sympathy for this whining of the union workers who are now being forced to give "concessions" that "lower" them to a new level of employment still far above most American workers. Really, who do these uneducated folks holding $76 an hour day labor jobs that should pay $12 an hour thing they are?

Other companies are slashing workforce, cutting salaries and benefits, and asking workers for more production in an effort to be profitable. But the UAW provides a foolish charade that they are making "concessions". What deep cuts are they taking? That overtime be paid after 40 hours a week on site, like all other Americans. Oh, wow, like, that was really a big one, good job guys. Lets see some serious cuts brought to the table, wage reductions bringing them into line with  what Americans in the rest of the country make, lets see some serious effort at incentivized pay for quality and production. Instead its more complaining about how bad they have it. Well go to India dude, and let me know how that makes you feel to see the same job done, with far better quality control than you have done, for so much less. If you want to make $76 an hour, go to college and make something of yourself. Be real.

In the Obama administrations view, the right thing to do is continue and empower this disastrous UAW model by turning 50% of Chrysler and GM over to the very entity that strangles it. Over the last 15 years, GM and Chrysler have been loaned over $36 Billion of cash by average Americans, and this has subsidized the losses caused by the UAW. Now the Obama administrations view is that all these people should walk away from the cash they put into Chrysler and GM, and just give it to the union workers. What insanity.

Until the UAW brings itself and its pay structure into line with reality, the companies it strangles will continue a slow choking death. Lets hope there is some change....

 

Please Stop Pointing out the Cover of People's Skin, When the Conversation Is about the Content of Their Character

While many Democrats and liberals may not understand this, for a conservative who closely follows politics, Barack Obama is a nightmare.  This is a man who stands for the killing of babies and consistently refused to support legislation that would define an infant who survives a late-term induced-labor abortion as a human being, believes in socialism and writes in his book that he sought out his Marxist professors, tries to portray the Bible in a controversial and questionable light (see his speech from Jun 28 2006), and has now appointed a judge who believes that prayers spoken before legislative sessions should not say “Jesus” or “Savior”. While these viewpoints may delight some, they are the antithesis of my beliefs, and those of many across the nation. I don't understand how any Christian or conservative could feel differently. 

However it's interesting to note that people of color are regularly suggesting that folks who do not agree with policies of Barack Obama are racist. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, that we should judge a person not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I understand and empathize with the deep feelings of emotion that people of color feel when they see our first black president.  In fact I believe that it's high time our country put our money where our mouth is when it comes to race and politics.  But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alluded, the color of the man's skin should not be the reason he is supported. 

I think that many have lost sight of this.  I have repeatedly heard African-Americans say that they voted for Obama because they wanted “someone that looked like them”.  Is this the right reasoning? I also repeatedly heard during the election that Obama would not win because “they aren't going to let a black man win”.  This was clearly an absurd statement, and did not reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans, black, white or otherwise. 

Recently my wife was discussing policy issues she does not agree with that the Obama administration holds, with a black friend.  It wasn't very far into the discussion when the question came up “is all this about 1 man/woman or is this a racist statement about a President that happens to be a Black man?” I was shocked.  If you are a diehard conservative, you are unlikely to ever support a liberal, and vice versa. 

America needs to regain focus here.  Other than an interesting historical fact, the color of Barack Obama’s skin really doesn't matter, except perhaps to a few radical people who either love or hate him because of the narrow viewpoint.  The rest of us need to come together and understand that it is the content of his character, the things that he does, the beliefs and viewpoints that he holds that can shape the destiny of this country in a very positive or very negative way. 

And for God's sake, please stop pointing out the cover of people's skin, when the conversation is about the content of their character.

Obama's "Change" Can Change Quickly

Today's world needs calm US leadership that shows a steady trusted hand. For instance, Russia and China are calling for the demise of the dollar, asking the IMF to create a new currency that will be the Global Standard. When it comes to a steady trusted hand, the Obama administration is letting us down. They are constantly flip flopping from one position to the other, showing that character and principle are not their guiding purpose. When the Bush administration took a stand, whether you agreed with it or not, you could be sure they were willing to ride the tide of public and global opinion to stand for their belief in what was right for America. Let’s look at how quickly our current administration drops its leadership ball:

 

Nailing the Soldiers: Last week the administration floated a plan to save $500 million a year on the cost of veterans insurance.  The idea was that if a veteran comes back from war wounded, and manages to get a job with private health insurance, that the Veterans Administration would bill the veterans private health insurance for the healthcare related to their war wounds.  Now I ask you, what hiring agent would give a job to a wounded veteran, if they knew it would drive up health insurance costs for the rest of the employees of the company?  Answer: none.  The administration demonstrated that it could not be trusted to think out the disastrous outcome of the plan in advance of scheduling them for review with Congress.  The outrage over this plan by the administration caused an immediate outcry from all angles.  Powerful Democrats in the Congress came out against the plan, questioning the administration's integrity toward veterans.  Showing a lack of principled integrity to his policy plans, the Obama administration came out the next day reversing this widely decried and unethical plan.  To cover the wound, Obama promise to stop the controversial Stop Loss program, effectively stealing credit from Robert Gates, who for six months has been suggesting an end to the program.  Or did someone think that overnight the administration could create their own plan that had been six months in the making?

 

War with Mexico: this month, the administration abrogated the NAFTA treaty, ignoring the requirements in it by canceling the Mexican Trucking Pilot Program, prompting Mexico to raise tariffs on $2.4 billion of US goods bound for Mexico, one of the four largest importers of American goods. This program showed real revenue savings for American companies who no longer had to pay extra fees at the border for good to be transferred from one truck to another, and allowed the Mexican or American truck to deliver the goods from the shipper to the consignee without interruption. Yo at u can read more about that HERE. Bowing to pressure from the Teamsters Union, the administration moved to hurt the US, make business more expensive for American companies, and broached the integrity of American signatories to the NAFTA treaty, citing safety concerns.  But this was an outright malfeasance that the administration tried to hide, burying it in the $400 billion omnibus spending bill, and making liars of themselves when it comes to being open and accountable.  If there were safety concerns, why not address them through the mediation program set up for NAFTA, that has been openly and accountably negotiated for years?  The truth was there were no safety concerns.  The Mexican truck program shown by the data compiled by the US Department of Transportation that the Mexican trucks coming into the US were safer, less likely to have accidents, better maintained, and met far more stringent safety requirements than the US trucks headed south of the border.  Indeed the Mexican trucks had a safety rating as high as or higher than any trucking company operating in the United States.  But the administration is showing that it doesn't care about facts, saving American businesses money, or the accountability that comes from the democratic process of open debate, opting instead to hide their decisions by burying them in unrelated bills hundreds of pages long, and sent to Congress. And now, due to the immediate trade war with Mexico it started, it turns out that the administration will create a new Mexican trucking program.  This is yet another example of Obama bowing to special interest group pressure, making choices that are bad for the United States, acting on them before thinking about them, and then having to reverse himself after the fact.

 

Let us Hope that the administration can Change, and will begin to carefully weigh policy initiatives prior to making them, so that the end result can be stated policy that makes sense for America, and doesn't require an immediate backpedaling from the president.  American global leadership does not start with breaking international trade treaties, and reversing our policy initiatives constantly.

Carolina Culture Shock

It sure is culture shock moving from Michigan to South Carolina. One of the biggest shocks is the blatant racism that I've noticed. In Michigan racism is something that is there, but more muted perhaps. Here it punches one in the face. Some examples: 

The sales lady I first had to deal with here came to see me in my office often. Tall, white, gray haired distinguished old lady type. As we trade the usual sales call chit chat, she asks where Im going to buy a home. When I answer that Im moving to Lexington County she tells me something odd. “Oh good, there’s not a lot of THIS there” and she points to the white skin on the back of her left hand knowingly. 

I was shocked.

“Do you mean skin cancer?” I said, pretending ignorance, and hoping she would get the point. “On no, the OTHER” she replies, “You know, undesirables”. Because her hand is a milky white, not a nasty black. And that makes her better than, oh, just a hell of a lot of folks, mostly starting blacks, probably Mexicans, and certainly Jews (who she also complained about to me). 

Now what the hell was she thinking? Im a Yankee and she is a salesperson, shouldn’t her better sense tell her better? Shouldn’t she be more careful, professional and have Southern Charm? Guess it’s so prevalent that she just never considered that I as a white person would be disgusted by her. Guess that type of ugly racism must raise her net sales, so she just assumed I was 'down with the sickness'. 

I was so surprised I never challenged her, and I wish I would have. 

Instead I bought a framed Martin Luther King Jr poster the next day and hung it behind my desk. I noticed a lot of sales people doing the same thing I do when I sell, looking around my office for clues to who I am. And many noticed old Martin on the wall, some commented, and all of them understood what that meant. 

But the painting crew didn’t see my office, so as they were painting our warehouse, I happened to hear one of them yelling to his coworker about the “whores and n******” that he was mad at. I stopped him, almost in a rage, and asked him his name and who he worked for. He told me with perfect confidence what company he was from and his name, then I told him to please put down what he was doing and leave. He was stunned, the very thought that another white man would suggest that what he had said was wrong was clearly perplexing to him. He started to argue with me, I raised my voice, set my jaw and told him to get out. 

Turns out he worked for his father, a very country man in a hunting camouflaged baseball cap who arrived not long after, and fired him, apologizing to me the whole time. But I still got the feeling that the only issue was that I had complained. Later, in talking to my black employees about the situation they made it clear that it was no big deal. It had been happening before I saw it, and they had raised no complaint. “That’s just how they were raised,” said one, “I don’t pay them no attention.” I would be hard put to imagine any of my black union worker friends in Detroit saying that. But then some blacks here have confessed privately to me that northern blacks are uppity, and they don’t pay them no attention either. 

But they know what restaurants not to eat at. 

Not at Malice’s BBQ: I have changed the name because I don’t want this guy suing me, but if you are from South Carolina you will know the chain immediatly. There is a restaurant chain here that specializes in BBQ. I ate there once and was kinda surprised that here in SC, a 50/50 white and black state, there weren’t any black folks in the restaurant or in the kitchen. Guess they aren’t big on the brothers. That was weird, until I started noticing the pictures on the wall. Like a General Lee (may his beard perpetually grow long or whatever, please don’t lynch me) picture with an inscription about how the South would have won if Lee had been at one battle or another. And the table of racist crap by the door, with books about the South and Confederacy in general. 

As an avid military history enthusiast, I can understand the interest in the “War of Northern Aggression” and all, but racist hiring practices, and muted hostility that makes all the black folks I know here not want to go to that restaurant…well I guess it’s the South. 

Blacks here get to deal with all sorts of reminders, daily. 

Rebel flag: Here in South Carolina, the rebel flag hangs prominently in front of the state capitol. My first day researching Columbia South Carolina with my wife, we arrived at the state house for a peaceful Sunday afternoon walk. To my amusement we happened to park behind a camouflaged pickup truck with Sons of the Confederacy license plates. I pointed it out to my wife with a grin and we had a good joke. It so happened that we ran into the owner later, as we were questioning different folks about the area. Rather than giving us meaningful information, the guy gave us details of where not to move so as not to encounter the “n******”. This while stroking his Nathan Bedford Forrest beard (may it also perpetually grow long, or whatever). 

As an avid military history enthusiast who grew up in Georgia, I completely understand the feeling the stars and bars inspire in the hearts of white folks. In fact, when I was 14, I had a jean jacket with a big rebel flag on the back of it, and I loved it. For me it stood for standing up against the man, the government, taxes, and being rebellious in general. But as I matured, I had black friends, and came to understand that it also stood for a hateful oppression, a cruel indicator or wrongs that should belong in another century, akin to the swastika. 

There is some sort of controversy about the NCAA not allowing certain college sports events until the flag comes down, but fly it still does. Because it is necessary to piss off and piss on the black folks who see it so commonly. 

Then there are the hiring practices. Listen oh ye temporary agencies, and hear. When I tell you to send me warehouse employees, I do not solely mean black men. You really can mix it up a bit, even throw some women in there. And when I ask for office employees, I don’t need just white women. I’ve tried hard to overcome that, as a hiring manager, but it takes constant work compared to the hiring practices in Detroit. 

That brings up the whole SIR thing: I mean everyone says sir and ma'am to some degree here, but with some of the folks that work for me it’s almost ubiquitous. “Oh yes sir, Mr James” I must hear 15 times a day, despite my protest that Im just James. “Oh yes Mr James, whatever you say!” and a little polite laugh. In Detroit I think many of my black friends would choke before they would pay me such obsequiousness (and you guys are reading this, correct me if Im wrong). Darn sure the white folks here rarely say such things to me. 

But with the Plantations still here, it’s not hard to understand. It’s not something that can really be understood up north I think. It took a lot of aimless driving through the country down here, and a lot of interviews collecting information from prospective employees and their resumes before I began to understand the reality out in the South Carolina countryside. 

Plantations still exist here. Old giant white country houses with big white pillars, surrounded by fields of cotton, or groves of walnuts. The same white families still live in many of them that did 200 years ago, having been passed down through the ages since time immemorial. The towns built up around them still have mainly poor minority residents whose families still mostly live there in that same town, and can trace their heritage back a handful of generations to when they were slaves. And they still work on those same plantations, now called farms, and they still make pitiful tiny wages. 

Oh I can hear the cynic saying let them find some gainful employment. And how will they find this gainful employment when the primary employment is agricultural, and the illegal immigrants will work for half the minimum wage? And there just aren’t factories in the South Carolina countryside. 

So the cynic says let them get a job in the city! With what transportation? There isn’t any public transportation when you are an hour away from a city. Then let them buy a car! With what money? Certainly not a car whose reliability and gas efficiency is such that it doesn’t break down and lose you your job for no call no show, and cost you an arm and a leg just to fuel once a week. 

I have seen one after the other of their resumes, they were trying to buy a car, got a job in town, the car broke down, they lost the job and are back to square one. They work part time half the year on the plantation farm for pitiful wages and no health care, and seem to never get ahead. It gets piled on them from birth that they are never going to be able to leave the plantation, never going to be able to succeed, and if you hear it enough it becomes true, and tiresome. And somehow it doesn’t change, generation after generation. When I drive through those country miles I see how little it’s changed since 200 years ago. 

As I shine a light on it I see how complicated it all is. There is no way to change generations of feelings overnight, but as we all become aware hopefully we can begin our own personal changes. Did you know a black guy was dragged behind a pickup truck not so long ago, making national news? Or that South Carolina State Troopers yell things like "You better run, n-----, because I'm fixing to kill you," (go to YouTube to see it if you don’t believe me) because even though they are on camera they aren’t thinking, just reacting naturally. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. 

Therefore, let us all search our hearts. Answers lie within, if truth has not been extinguished. A candle will not burn where there is no fresh air. Many other Yankees are moving here from the Rust Belt, and confess to me that they never understood racism claims in the Northern progressive towns they lived in where affirmative action and interracial marriages were common. But they are seeing it clearly down here, an unwelcome education. 

Perhaps this new influx of thoughts will provide the fresh air that will make the candle burn anew.

 

 

 

 

The Crazy White Woman

I was shamed at church by the Crazy White Woman last night. Sitting in my cozy seat with my cozy wife and kid, wearing our cozy jackets, bellies full, listening to the plight of starving children. Not around the other side of the world, or on some TV commercial where I give .29c a day to adopt a kid, but right around the corner here in my cozy hometown. 

There she stood, microphone in hand, tears streaming down her face while she described the things I drive past every day, and yet never see, or choose to never see. How does it happen that I have become so comfortable, to glibly walk past those who are hurting, and never see the pain in their eyes.  

She laid it all out so calmly. The 55% of children here in my hometown that are on the public school Free Breakfast and Lunch, not just reduced price. How they often fold their sandwich up at lunch and carefully keep it, because there is no other meal for them, Friday to Monday. The toddler children of the prostitute mother, forced out until late hours to roam the street because mommy has "company", if you know what I mean. 

It’s easy for me to walk past some homeless guy and respond that I don’t have any cash. I don’t, its all plastic for me, and if he can take plastic, well, he doesn’t need my help.  

But children? 

She goes on. The child with the ear infection that she took to the doctor, the mother just didn’t care. Only it wasn’t an ear infection, it was roaches. This happens in America? Or does it not matter because it’s so easy to ignore, if I want to. 

When did I stop asking my inner voice what to do, when I see the homeless guy? When did I lose my shock, sometime between now and when my parents used to rush me by and tell me not to stare? I don’t even consult my conscience to see if maybe something about THIS guy is different and I can hope and believe he will use my dollar and change for food not fire water? 

Or does it not matter because these children don’t look like mine? After all, they are of all cultural origins, dirty, unkempt, misbehaving, certainly we shouldn’t have to take pity on them! Far easier it is to sit back and take potshots, decrying the parenting and lack of structure in their family. And right we would be, but unkind, unhelpful, missing the point. 

For these are children. 

I cannot sleep; my thoughts are ever with the Crazy White Woman and her crusade, as many of the black residents of our town have taken to calling her. Perhaps she really is crazy too. Isn’t it crazy to take your paycheck and buy food, rent a hall every other weekend, and feed the hungry children who make their way there, every other Saturday night? Isn’t it crazy to take concern over little ones not your own, and take not just concern, but action? Isn’t it crazy to play with the four children out late in the park, until mommy's "company" is gone, so they can be safe until they return to their beds? 

So I am taking a stand with her, if she will have me. Too long I have been oblivious to the world around. Too long it has been someone else’s problem. Too long I have been blind, because they were poor, or look different, or are from the other side of the tracks. It is time I start taking responsibility for my community, and all of its members. 

Starting with its most helpless, the children.