Double A to Me

I have a downfall or two in life, as does nearly every man. I’d like to claim perfection of course. Barring that, I would actually like to strive to be better, but I am constantly too busy doing other things with my meager allotment of 24 hours per day. Really important things, like making one more trip to the old icebox for a cold Miller Lite and one of those mini microwave meals. Heck, when I stop to relax, pull off my boots, crank the Lazy Boy back and turn on the television, it seems that I am being constantly bombarded with action news stories. The kind of simplistic Dan Rather as godfather to an ailing, inner-cranially damaged society shtick that brings the wars on terrorism, social disease, poverty, and illiteracy right into my house. My existence is a single serving easily palatable combo meal, high on flavor but low on real value that I unintentionally absorb. I am truly unaware of anything save the drone and noise in the background of life itself.


I rarely take a stand on issues. Stands are for people who have a stake in the outcome of society, not for a proletarian worker bee like myself. Stands are for people who have time to make a difference. I can watch hundreds of armed men of different religious ideologies battle over the holiest building in the New Testament Middle East with barely a raised eyebrow, and no comment. However, even with my near legendary disregard for the world that goes on around me, there is one debate that raises my ire like no other. I dislike possibly even loath affirmative action. Not the idea of affirmative action, but the bastardized devil it has become.


I have nothing against people whose skin is a different color than mine, who are poverty stricken, or who hold different religious beliefs or values than my own. I believe this great nation to be a mixing bowl, and her people should always be free to do as they wish when it comes to matters of worship, sexuality, or any other moral question. However, I do question the value of giving people anything based only upon their minority status. I would rather see a hand up for the poor of this nation not just an across the board hand out to people based upon their race. If you want to lessen a divide, declare war on poverty, not on segregation.


I didn’t have to watch the nightly news, or read the weekend paper to hear about poverty; I took the time to live it. I grew up surrounded by five sisters, and four brothers, one of whom would succumb to cerebral meningitis at age three. We lived in a ramshackle house built from old boards scavenged from torn down chicken barns. The small, dirty, fly speckled windows barely let in light. Due to my father’s surly refusal to pay Central Maine Power Company for Mr. Edison’s greatest invention, kerosene lanterns slowly grayed and smoker’s teeth yellow painted the walls and low hung ceilings. The lamps constantly battled with shadows for supremacy of corners and the hallowed space beneath the table. The house was situated in the middle of some of the finest swampland on the backside of Patch Mountain in western Maine. The surrounding meandering fences, fields, blackberry brambles, and wetlands hosted a menagerie of goats, pigs, chickens, mosquitoes, cows, ponies, black flies, crops, crabgrass, weeds, and children. All critters were allowed to wander with the only constraint placed upon them being no treading upon or eating the new corn and peas, nor tracking mud onto the age worn linoleum.


If affirmative action meant a poor, ignorant family, black or white, holed up in a shotgun shack battling the icy winds of winter that constantly sneak through boarded window openings could gain an education, I would applaud it. A real education, based upon aptitude not quotas, thereby getting off the great teat of the government, and give something back to society, I would stand and applaud. If it meant a white male, didn’t have to bake in the summer, and freeze in the winter, barely scratching a living from unforgiving Georgia clay, I would be first in line to support. If the man would be hired at a factory and learn a trade, instead of being turned down in favor of a minority needed to fill a quota, I would stand and applaud. I would be at the front of the line of supporters who sell affirmative action as one of the greatest advancement in equality since racial segregation was outlawed. I would question where the advance is when a man is now known as a means to fill a quota, and not judged on his value as a man.


We need to pull up the roots of oppression, racism, and general maltreatment of those constantly oppressed. now. I think it is impossible to remove generations-deep roots without leaving a hole in the neatly packed and swept earth. Not just any hole either, but an honest to God ragged edged twisted earth Badlands trench. We would be left with a chasm the size of the abyss of sin and misery the condemned man’s soul withering under the gaze of an angry God must be.


What we must do is create a system or blanket policy for education, better jobs, and the like across the board for all poor without looking at race, religion, or any other factors. Let the measuring stick start at the wallet and extend to the bank. The measure should not be skin color; a truer measure would be achieved by adding a foot high stack of bills, and a six-inch stack of cash.