Sunday, November 17, 2013

150 Years After Gettysburg

150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln spoke the Gettysburg Address, to a crowd of about 20,000 to commemorate the battle and burial ground of the same name.  Never has an American President uttered so few words, in just a few minutes, that meant so much to so many.  In doing so, Lincoln became immortal.  Socialist President Obama. who often claims a direct line to Lincoln of Illinois, could take a lesson; yet for some reason Obama has chosen not to speak at the commemoration ceremony.   Go figure.   In any case, it was also 150 years ago that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to unofficially free the slaves.  It would take a Constitutional Amendment a few years later to end slavery officially. 

The Civil War resulted in several hundred thousand dead and wounded on both sides.   The war was not just about slavery.  It was also about States Rights, the power of the federal government and competing economic systems.  When the North won the war,  the federal government officially became predominant for better and sometimes for worse.   Free Market Capitalism, under attack today, was established once and for all as our economic system, which ultimately made the United States a super power and brought more wealth to more people than in any other country in human history.

Yet, even after the Civil War and all the Civil Rights Acts enacted over the years and trillions of dollars spent on the War on Poverty, the poverty rate today, under Obama is higher than when Bush II left office and Jimmy Carter was President.  Slavery is gone and so is the plantation master, but the plantation master was replaced by the federal government that provides Welfare and Food Stamps and the public school teacher unions that keep poor kids in failing public schools for their own benefit.  

Slavery was evil; but so is dependency.  Unfortunately, since Martin Luther King uttered his famous "I Have A Dream Speech" that inspired so much hope, instead of encouraging poor people to work hard to lift themselves up, those that work in the Poverty Industry, getting rich in the process, have convinced the poor and particularly Blacks in America that they are victims, deserving not just a hand up, but instead a hand out.   In many ways, 150 years after Gettysburg and the Emancipation Proclamation, inner city Blacks in America have made little progress despite all the government programs and money spent to help them.  

The American Dream is still available to all regardless of color; but it requires hard work and education, not excuses.   Let's not forget that the American people have elected a Black Man as President of the United States twice.  And, though Obama is likely to go down as one of our worst Presidents in American history, it is because of his Socialist ideology and policies, not his color.  In fact, there have been many incompetent White Presidents proving that color is not the issue. 

Obama the College Professor, Obama the Community Organizer, Obama the Campaigner In Chief simply does not have the experience, integrity, or the temperament to govern our nation.   We see it everyday,  It is what it is.  It is time for all living in poverty to recognize that the federal government and Obama, in particular, is their enemy.  Whose bread they eat, whose song they must sing.   Freedom is not possible while living in dependency.  President Lincoln should have added this notion to his Gettysburg Address to speak the whole truth on that fateful day 150 years ago.  

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