It never ceases to amaze me that millions of people from other countries want to come to America, the United States of America because of the opportunities, freedom and liberty that our country represents. Untold thousands of them are willing to literally risk their lives to come here illegally for a chance at a better life. Not the guarantee of a better life, but a chance at a better life. I can’t help but feel privileged to be an American.
The thing I admire about the immigrants is their courage to face the unknown; the only hope being that there would be the opportunity to work hard and be successful as in “the American Dream”. What an incredible motivation.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big proponent of “the land of opportunity” here in the USA. I can’t say that opportunities don’t exist in other countries, but the entrepreneurial attitude in America is special.
At the same time a significant segment of our population continually alleges that they are being held down, prevented from being successful “by the man”. Most often, the “man” is white men.
I don’t doubt that they have good reasons why they feel that way, but I wonder which “man” is really holding them down. I think sometimes that the industry of civil rights activists would be severely damaged if those people in the down-trodden communities discovered that they were being held down by their own leaders. Think about the quality of life of the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson and other “leaders” in poor black communities, how many of them are poor black men? The leaders all seem to be doing well.
From an anecdotal perspective it appears to me that the communities that have received the most government assistance (supposedly to raise poor black people out of poverty) for the longest time (40 or 50 years) are the ones still in the worst condition. It is from my observations that I conclude that the type of assistance they are getting isn’t the type that produces the stated goals of the programs. Opportunity is the answer. Even in minority communities opportunity prevails. Just look at the kids who have athletic ability and make it out of the ghetto in sports. Or, look at the ones who have other obvious artistic ability like musical talent. Keep in mind that talent alone doesn’t get you out. Those athletes and musicians worked their butts off to be successful. They did take what they had and develop it enough to get to a higher level.
There is no question that a percentage of the population in any ethnic group will be victims and another percentage will be victimizers. I’m not just pointing my comments to black communities; the same thing is true in Hispanic, Asian and White communities as well. The vast majority of them will do what they must to not be the victims; they educate themselves and work their butts off.
Just as the immigrants who come to America don’t come with the intent of being a burden to society, but are victimized by the system (good or bad), native Americans can also be victimized. That’s native with a small n; Americans who have been here for generations.
That’s not to say that they can’t overcome that victimization because there are millions of examples of black Americans who work their butts off to get out of their personal ghetto and be successful along with white, brown and yellow Americans who have overcome their own challenges.
I don’t live in a minority community so my comments are just observations from the outside. I do know immigrants who have come to this country both legally and illegally and they are all hardworking people dedicated to being contributing members of American Society not looking for or expecting anything but an opportunity to show what they can do.
Posted on December 3, 2014 at 8:59 am in Social Commentary | RSS feed
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No Loss for Words
America – The Land of Opportunity or Entitlement?
by Steve DanaIt never ceases to amaze me that millions of people from other countries want to come to America, the United States of America because of the opportunities, freedom and liberty that our country represents. Untold thousands of them are willing to literally risk their lives to come here illegally for a chance at a better life. Not the guarantee of a better life, but a chance at a better life. I can’t help but feel privileged to be an American.
The thing I admire about the immigrants is their courage to face the unknown; the only hope being that there would be the opportunity to work hard and be successful as in “the American Dream”. What an incredible motivation.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big proponent of “the land of opportunity” here in the USA. I can’t say that opportunities don’t exist in other countries, but the entrepreneurial attitude in America is special.
At the same time a significant segment of our population continually alleges that they are being held down, prevented from being successful “by the man”. Most often, the “man” is white men.
I don’t doubt that they have good reasons why they feel that way, but I wonder which “man” is really holding them down. I think sometimes that the industry of civil rights activists would be severely damaged if those people in the down-trodden communities discovered that they were being held down by their own leaders. Think about the quality of life of the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson and other “leaders” in poor black communities, how many of them are poor black men? The leaders all seem to be doing well.
From an anecdotal perspective it appears to me that the communities that have received the most government assistance (supposedly to raise poor black people out of poverty) for the longest time (40 or 50 years) are the ones still in the worst condition. It is from my observations that I conclude that the type of assistance they are getting isn’t the type that produces the stated goals of the programs. Opportunity is the answer. Even in minority communities opportunity prevails. Just look at the kids who have athletic ability and make it out of the ghetto in sports. Or, look at the ones who have other obvious artistic ability like musical talent. Keep in mind that talent alone doesn’t get you out. Those athletes and musicians worked their butts off to be successful. They did take what they had and develop it enough to get to a higher level.
There is no question that a percentage of the population in any ethnic group will be victims and another percentage will be victimizers. I’m not just pointing my comments to black communities; the same thing is true in Hispanic, Asian and White communities as well. The vast majority of them will do what they must to not be the victims; they educate themselves and work their butts off.
Just as the immigrants who come to America don’t come with the intent of being a burden to society, but are victimized by the system (good or bad), native Americans can also be victimized. That’s native with a small n; Americans who have been here for generations.
That’s not to say that they can’t overcome that victimization because there are millions of examples of black Americans who work their butts off to get out of their personal ghetto and be successful along with white, brown and yellow Americans who have overcome their own challenges.
I don’t live in a minority community so my comments are just observations from the outside. I do know immigrants who have come to this country both legally and illegally and they are all hardworking people dedicated to being contributing members of American Society not looking for or expecting anything but an opportunity to show what they can do.
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Posted on December 3, 2014 at 8:59 am in Social Commentary | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL