Charlie Rangel Needs to Learn Some Manners.

Okay, I have had it.  Maybe it was Charlie Rangel deciding he can call anyone in the Tea Party a, “cracker” and get away with it.  Maybe it was the double standard of punishing Riley Cooper for his use of the n-word, while giving Rangel a pass.   [I consider both terms ugly and demeaning, and would not allow either to be used in my presence without a challenge.]  In either event, I am sick unto death of being the whipping boy for every second rate, failing and desperate person who wants to avoid responsibility by calling me names.  YOU DON’T KNOW ME! 

Since I abhor ignorance, and recognize it as a curable condition, let me try to explain a few things to Charlie Rangel.  This is what I know:

 

1.       It is not my fault that you are black any more that my being white was a choice.  I am, however, educated, disciplined, polite and hard working by choice, you are none of these.

2.      I was born poor—really poor.  I know what it is like to be cold, hungry and sleeping in a car but I don’t think that gives me a special right to other people’s money.

3.      I went to public schools in poor parts of town, but I learned because any education is better than none at all.

4.      I worked any job I could get, worked more than one job at a time for decades and lived frugally.  Guess what?  I’m living a comfortable life now because I have earned it!

5.      Most people on disability are disabled, but there are tens of thousands of people who use the word, “disability” when they really mean they are too lazy to work and thus parlay any physical distress into a reason to take welfare instead of a pay check. 

6.      I used a racial epithet once when I was about 10 years old and have never used one since because I was taught better (and immediately) by my parents.  You practice racism and hatred as a means to power without responsibility.  I marched for civil rights at the start of that movement and believe that the protections of the Constitution apply to all citizens of this country.  You, on the other hand, believe in a privileged status for blacks, to atone for the past sins of slavery.  You are ignorant of the fact that slavery was practiced by black Africans for centuries.  

7.      There are some people who are in need because nature, circumstances or simple bad luck have put them in a difficult spot.  I have a Christian obligation to help these people.   But there are tens of thousands of people who are poor because of the choices they have made.  If you don’t pay attention in school, use drugs, have unprotected sex, produce children you are ill prepared to raise, choose crime and generally do onto others as you would not want done onto yourself you deserve to be poor, and have earned society’s disgust and punishment.

 

Mr. Rangel, you are a common tax evader, pimping out a living by selling, “victimhood.”  You play to the hoards of people who have chosen to trade their dignity for a meager economic existence that involves welfare and government subsidy but plenty of chances to sleep late and live a profligate life.  You should be ashamed of yourself because you are an embarrassment to all of the black people who have made successes of themselves through hard and diligent work. 

Have a little dignity and keep the faith.