Another Dolt

Quoted from Oprah Magazine:
James Gilligan, author of Preventing Violence offers this as one of the millions of ways to save the world.

"In our thermonuclear era, the most immediate threat to our continued survival is human violence. So how do we prevent it? By eliminating inequalities of power and wealth based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Throughout the world, the most powerful predictor of violence is the size of the gap in income and wealth between the rich and the poor. The answer? Elect a Democrat as president. Historically, that has been the most direct and effective way to reduce the gap. As equality increases, the violence decreases. This is love in action."

What?

First: thermonuclear war age.
Who are the only people to drop an atomic bomb on anyone? The US. Who was president at the time? Harry S Truman. What party was he affiliated with? Democrat.

Second: equality.
The Great Depression began with the crash of the stock market and continued for years. FDR, bless his heart, tried to dig his way out of this by creating a New Deal where he took money from anyone not his friend who still had some left and created a way to deliver it to the poor. His New Deal is credited by historians with prolonging the depression that followed the crash of the markets. What party was Roosevelt affiliated with? Democrat.

They have tried pure equality for wealth, but never power. It was called Communism and was the closest to socialism the world has yet seen. I do believe that the prisons were not emptied with the relieved citizens dancing in the street. Instead, there was increased persecution of anyone not touting the party line.

One of the more famous politicians who helped with the reuniting of the country after a horrific split caused by the Civil War was Boss Tweed. He and his cronies nearly collapsed New York City with their help. Boss Tweed was a Democrat.

So who are the horrid Republicans who do nothing to ensure peace and equality?

One of the first Republicans was Abraham Lincoln. You might remember him as the man assassinated at the theater. He is also known for the Emancipation Proclamation. It is theorized that had he not been killed at the theater, reconstruction would have taken a much different turn. But we will never know.

Now about those pesky Communists whose system didn't work. Who was President when the Cold War ended and the Communist regime gave sway to a more egalitarian way of government? Ronald Reagan. Another darn Republican.

Mr. Gilligan, a white male whose sexual orientation is thankfully unknown to me, does not say if he is accepting royalties for his book. Perhaps he is living just like a welfare mom and donating all funds generated by his hard work to the poor, disenfranchised, and unequal.

As a side note, we are not equal. We are to be treated equally under the law, but that doesn't make us equal. If we were truly all equal, there would be no gold medals at the Olympics because everyone would complete the event with the same time or score. We would not pay ridiculously high wages to men who can pass or catch a football, shoot a 3-pointer with ease, slam one out of the park over the head of the right fielder. There would be no movie or rock stars because everyone could act or sing.

There is no such thing as equality in the human condition. Some people are far more gifted than others and willing to work with the diligence necessary to make that gift pay off. While we have no control over the gifts we were born with, we have somewhat more control over what we do with those gifts.

Some people seem to be preternaturally lazy. This may be an innate condition. Like those who are born with dyslexia, with effort it can be overcome. Somehow that seems ironic. Laziness can be overcome by diligent work. No kidding.

Why should someone who works industriously be forced to give up the fruits of those labors so that someone less willing and/or able to do that work can have equal buying power? While it may be true that not everyone can be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist, aren't ditch diggers necessary, too? The answer is that it takes about ten minutes to figure out the intricacies of a shovel while it takes years of education and training to become a surgeon or scientist. While that means that the professionals should and do make more money, it does not mean that the ditch digger should not be paid appropriately for his work. It is just that the work done is not as costly to produce.

What do we do about the inequality of the human condition? Is it proper to punish the hard-working people who produce goods and services that are wanted or needed by the buying public? Does capitalism create a world in which all can succeed if they are willing to put forth the time and effort? With free public education on the books, whose fault is it when a child doesn't attend school?

When you have a right to something, does that imply that you also hold responsibilities? If you have a right to an education, do you also have the responsibility to work for the knowledge? Is it some Republican's fault that you didn't? Now, as a hard-working old coot, get off my lawn and keep your hands out of my wallet.