The Blind Side and Obama

I don’t agree with President Obama’s view of this country, this economy, or his function in it.  But I feel absolutely no need to demonize the man.  People who start talking about the loyal opposition with spittle flying from their mouths worry me. 

            The biggest problem I see with President Obama is that he sees government in an entirely different light that I do.  In a news conference last week he said he did not care if the government tells him he can’t keep as much money as he has been.  In this ham handed way of saying that he is a rich guy and deserves higher taxes he revealed a difference between the two of us that amounts to a chasm.  He thinks the government should tell us how much money we get to keep. I believe that we should tell the government how much they get to take.  We might agree on wanting to feed the hungry and clothe the poor; help the less fortunate and make sure the richest nation in the world is also the healthiest, but we will forever be at odds on how to accomplish those laudable goals.  President Obama sees government as the great clearing house for money coming in and governmentally sanctioned help going out.  He also is a victim of his environment.  The man has never fed anywhere but at a public trough and it shows.  


I find this difference oddly related to the movie, The Blind Side.  While some people might think that this story of a wealthy, white family taking in a homeless, gentle and talented black student plays up racial problems I would say otherwise.  It is about people who have earned a good living giving assistance to a deserving young man.  The culture he comes from has given up even trying for a decent life; the culture that rescued him believes all things are possible.  It is the difference in how people see their options in life.  I don’t care if you are black, white, brown or any shade in between.   If you are the fifth generation of people in your family living on welfare you are going to have a very difficult time seeing yourself as the source of your own strength.  You are going to see the world as happening to you instead of being a part of its direction. 


I have seen nobility and success through personal effort from people of all cultures.  One of the women I taught with was one of five children of immigrant Mexican parents from Arizona.  Neither parent could read, but all five children had college degrees, many of them master’s degrees.  It was the culmination of a life time of hard work and sacrifice.  There is a reason that immigrants to this country are doing so well while equally poor and undereducated minorities are not.  It is because the immigrants come here with no expectation of help from anyone.  They assume that they are going to make it on their own or not at all.  So they take whatever job they can get, work hard, live frugally, and count on education to move their children ahead.  There is no end of success stories, small and large, from every racial and ethnic group in this country.  But few of these stories come from people who have gotten used to public money making up for personal effort.


For this reason, because I believe so strongly in rewarding people for hard work, I have no problem at all with supporting passage of the DREAM Act.  Why not invest in people who show they can succeed.

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