THE BRIDGE:
Strange Ideas
By
Darryl James
As
I sat alone in a restaurant recently, I watched a disheveled man amble
over to another restaurant patron, asking for money. I didn't actually
hear the request, but I heard the patron's response loud and clear
as he admonished the beggar for wanting money to buy alcohol or drugs.
I watched the exchange and made my way to the beggar, pressing five
dollars in his hand. I had words for both sides of the exchange.
To the beggar: "I hope this helps. Take care of yourself."
To the patron: "If you were in a position where you had to beg,
you might need a drink, too."
I understand the thought process that advocates away from giving money
to the homeless or beggars, because the money may be supporting a
habit, but that is simplistic and in many ways, inhumane.
The reality is that many of us who have homes drink and many of us
even imbibe in controlled substances. But, we really have no idea
what will happen to money we donate or give away, and if we are being
freehearted, then it is only important that we give.
We donate freely to non-profit organizations without a thought as
to where the money is going, and many of us tithe to the church without
ever reviewing the church books. Our friends and family hit us up
for loans and God only knows what use those funds will be put to.
Americans have some very strange ideas about people in need.
For example, ask a person who calls themselves conservative or Republican
and typically, they will tell you that too many Blacks are abusing
the Welfare system, an ideology put in place by the late Ronald Reagan,
which was proven untrue.
The fact is that the traditional Welfare Queens are white women abusing
the system, and of course they are the traditional Welfare Queens,
because they comprise the majority of the Welfare rolls.
Truth be told, I, like many Blacks realize that Welfare doesn't work,
but the answer is not to villainize or punish those who need it as
a failsafe for their families. The answer may be to deal with it even-handedly,
like perhaps, curtailing corporate Welfare. But of course, Welfare
Queens like Enron would get all strange on us.
Further, some people hold strange ideas about Affirmative Action,
as though it is being abused and as though it is abusing Blacks. Their
argument is that Blacks who enter college through assistance based
on their skin color feel inferior.
My immediate response is: "Who asked you to think for us?"
My second response is that the idea is dead wrong.
I am unashamedly a product of Affirmative Action and for the record,
I don't feel one bit inferior to anyone. I realized, even as a child,
that the deck was created to be stacked against me and that if I got
assistance with college admission, it would at least give me a chance
to prove my worth.
Employment works the same way. If you give me the job because I am
Black, that ceases to matter on the first day of work, when I will
begin working my behind off to prove that I am qualified for advancement.
But I do realize that Affirmative Action can be abused and misused.
Affirmative Action got our dimwitted president into Yale and the Texas
Governorship. It also got him a baseball team and an oil company.
Finally, it got him into the highest office in the land. Unfortunately,
he has proved that his kind of Affirmative Action is a truly bad idea.
Affirmative Action for Georgie meant that doors opened for him that
he should not have gone into. Opportunities were given to him that
he was not only unqualified for, but at which he failed miserably,
including the presidency.
Yet, I hear voices opposing Affirmative Action for African Americans,
which only benefits the qualified to begin with. No AA opponent can
produce one shred of evidence that a student who nearly flunked out
of high school was admitted to college on Affirmative Action, and
there is no data to show that Blacks with little experience were given
management jobs they were unqualified for.
It's sad, but many otherwise, smart and forward-thinking Americans
speak in platitudes, strongly and vehemently, without knowing what
the heck they are talking about. Moreover, people feel too comfortable
offering opinions about things that they don't even have any way of
knowing.
A glaring example of this can be found in dating. There are too many
single people with poor relationship histories giving advice on relationships.
They have done no research, and have spoken to no more than the people
with whom they are acquainted, yet, they give advice on how to deal
with ALL women or ALL men.
Without a basic examination of the world or at least a piece of it
larger than your own experience, you can do little but offer confusion
to those who probably didn't ask you anyway. It is typically dangerous
to offer advice if you have bad experience or no experience.
So, the next time you are doling out advice, or speaking sanctimoniously
about social ills and who is doing what, think carefully, and if you
don't really know what you are talking about, just keep your mouth
closed and your mind open. You may learn something.
Now, that's a strange idea indeed.
