[Vision2020] Fw: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....

[lfalen]

-----Original message-----

From: rowan33 at suddenlink.net
Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:25:48 -0700
To: rowan33 at suddenlink.net
Subject: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....

 
 
Back  on Uncle Sam's plantation - Star  Parker - Syndicated Columnist
  Six  years ago I wrote a book called Uncle Sam's  Plantation. I wrote
the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare
state and  my own transformation out of it.

I said in that  book that indeed there are two Americas -- a poor
America on socialism  and a wealthy America on capitalism. I talked
about  government programs like Temporary Assistance for  Needy Families
(TANF), Job 
Opportunities and Basic  Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to
Needy Families  with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food
Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all
initially set  into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the
nation's poor out of poverty.  A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly
poor black Americans  onto the government plantation. Those who accepted
the invitation  switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?"
to "What do  I have to do to stay on the plantation?"

Instead  of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism
created monstrous  moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems
that  are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for  their
lives over to others.  The legacy of American socialism is our  blighted
inner cities,  dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black
families.

Through  God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood
what freedom  meant and how great this country is.  I had the  privilege
of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican Congress
and signed 50 percent.  I thought we were on the road to  moving
socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with
wealth-producing American  capitalism.  But, incredibly, we are going in
the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on
capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like  poor America on
socialism.  Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and
they  have said, "Thank you, Suh."  Now, instead of thinking about what
creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking
about what they have to tell  Massah in order to get their cash.  There
is some kind of irony that  this is all happening under our first black
president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new  young president.
And  maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to
move onto the plantation.

In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is
clear  that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is more than
short term economic stimulus.  "This plan  is more than a prescription
for short-term spending -- it's a strategy  for America 's long-term
growth and  opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, healthcare,
and  education."

Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking
over an  economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government
can take place "with unprecedented transparency  and accountability."
Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he  created the Department
of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of  Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 --  The War on Poverty
-- which President Johnson said "....does not merely expand old
programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new  course.
It strikes at the causes, not just the  consequences of poverty.."
Trillions of dollars later, black  poverty is the same. But black
families are not, with  triple the incidence of single-parent homes and
out-of-wedlock births.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept  Barack Obama's invitation to
move onto the  plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility
and freedom.  Does anyone really need to think about what the choice
should be?   Trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of
other people's  money.

-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: <rowan33 at suddenlink.net>
Subject: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 17:25:48 -0700
Size: 21993
Url: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090810/91ab97a5/attachment.mht