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| The BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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The idea of providing reparations (read: money) to black Americans is getting a lot of attention these days. Naturally, I am going to weigh in on the issue. Naturally, my take is different.
Frankly, I'm all for it. Too many Americans have been robbed by this government for too many years. It is time to get even. This government owes every black American.... oh, I donno, $100,000 or so. Yeah; $100,000 is OK. Start writing the checks.
Twenty-first century black Americans? Sure. Never mind that 300,000 white Americans paid the ultimate price to free their ancestors from slavery, and we never gave them (or their descendents) any reparations for their sacrifices. Anyway, the blacks were robbed, and have apparently never gotten over it. Time to pay up. Case closed.
But wait.... our ancestors brought black people over here from Africa. I have not taken a survey, but I imagine that most black Americans thank their lucky stars that they were born here rather than in Africa. But.... what about the cultural group we so calously call American Indians... or Native American Indians? From what foreign country did we liberate them? Didn't we do far worse to them than make them slaves? We stole their property, we killed them, we ravaged their land. Heck, we swindled them out of the island of Manhattan for $17 worth of junk jewelry. And today, we keep them drunk and trapped on welfare on government-run reservations working in Native American bingo parlors. They are the true 21st century slaves. Surely every citizen who can show he is of American Indian descent deserves money, too. $100,000 for every one of them. Pay up, Mister President!
And Vietnamese refugees.... why, our army tried to bomb them back to the stone age! And those who made it to American shores... heck, we expect them to speak our language and obey our laws; or most of them, anyway. These people are not the descendents of those abused. These are the victims themselves, for crying out loud! Every one of them who dragged their carcass onto our soil.... $100,000.
Jews.... we let Hitler kill off six million of them while we sat here at home and whined about some damn, little depression. And all we do in return is pardon Marc Rich. (There is a connection there, folks... follow the money.) $100,000 for every Jew in the country. Now!
The abused and disenfranchised voters in West Palm Beach... on top of throwing out their votes, we have besmirched their intelligence and ruined their reputations. $100,000 (and a fresh, large-print ballot) for each of them.
Oh, I know what you're all thinking... where is the money going to come from for all this? Hey, the treasury department does nothing but print huge sheets of money... every day (except emergency snow days, when non-essential government workers need not report to work). We have a projected surplus of $10 trillion dollars. Surely we can afford to correct and settle these horrible social injustices. So let's cancel out the tax cuts, bite the bullet and give these people their money! It's a one-time thing. We can handle it.
But you know why I really wanna' give these people money? I donno whether they deserve it or not, but I am sick and tired of hearing a few of their self-proclaimed leaders complain. I wanna' give them the money so they will go home and shut the hell up, that's why! Ever since our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, the United States has been the beacon of freedom and opportunity around the world, for any race, for any religion... for anybody! If you have an IQ over 70 and an able body, you have more opportunity to succeed in the United States than any other country.... by a huge margin. Despite all our imperfections and alleged injustices, if you have the blessed fortune to be an American citizen, you CAN succeed, without government subsidies, without affirmative action, without handouts... contrary to what a bunch of malcontents would have you believe. I don't care where you came from, what color you are, or what you look like; if you are in the United States, you can succeed.
But the press seems to be unwilling to tell that story. The press, and a handful of lazy, resentful, selfish people would rather you believe that the government owes you tons of money for some action that has absolutely no effect on your opportunity to succeed. They would much rather tell you that you are handicapped and that your success depends on the government giving you money... and them, of course, standing up for your rights... your money.
So I am firmly of the belief that we ought to open up the coffers, pay the money, ONCE AND FOR ALL, and be done with it. I want these people to get their money so they will shut up, go home, and quit complaining!
Ah.... if we gave them the money, they would shut up, wouldn't they? That would be the end of it, wouldn't it?
If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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