I am a black man. I do not like the direction of the government under President Barack Obama. Does this mean that I am a racist? I am a black man. I am a proud member of the Republican Party. Most of my family have been members of the Republican Party, and they have voted that way for as long as I can remember. Does this mean that most of my family members are racists too?
I am a black man. I did not like the TARP Program under President Bush. I did not like the stimulus package under President Obama. I do not like the government bailouts, the "Cash for Clunkers" program, and I certainly do not like where we could be headed with health care. I believe that the government is spending too much, trying to do too much, and it does not have a firm grip on what it should be doing, such as lowering taxes as China has just done to stimulate its economy. Since I disagree with the proposed direction of this administration, do I run the risk of being labeled a racist? Let me be clear: I have a fundamental objection to this president's policies. Is it possible not to have my opposition viewed in racial terms as has happened to so many others because they do not have my good fortune of being black? So many of my friends who happen to be white hold the same opinion of this president and the direction of his administration, but because they are white their motives are questioned. How do I know this? The news media tells me that the main reason for their opposition is the color of the president's skin. The Progressives (i.e. those formally known as Democrats) tell me that this is so every time they are on television, in print, or on the radio. Even former President Jimmy Carter has told me so. Is it possible they are doing something I was taught not to do by my parents -- prejudging people? I know about prejudgment all too well.
I was born in Rye, N.Y. I was the only person in my immediate family who was born north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Everyone else was born in Augusta, Ga. You know it. It is where they hold that golf tournament every year. My mother used to work there, in the kitchen, but she went in through the back door. That is how they did things back then. I was the first person in my family to be born in a hospital. They did not have hospitals for black people in Augusta, or at least ones that black people could go to.
Like most black people in Augusta, and all over the south, we were Republicans. It was easy to see why. The symbol of oppression and subjugation was expressed by the sheer power of the Southern Democratic Party. Some of the first votes cast by members of my family were for Eisenhower in 1956, and for Nixon in 1960 -- despite Kennedy's endorsement by the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. My family just did not trust Democrats, and when they left the south to escape the degradation of real racism, it was Republicans in the south and the north who lent a hand. Then they did something else. They treated us like everybody else and left us alone, and we did just fine.
My maternal grandmother, Georgia Johnson, was one-quarter Cherokee. That makes me part Cherokee as well. Before she died at the age of 92 in 1989, she would tell me the stories of our ancestors. She told me how the Cherokee adopted the ways of the white man in dress, farming, and language. She told me how the Cherokee adopted the Christian religion, all in the attempt to keep the land they had lived on since before the white man came to America. When they were told they would have to move, they went to court and won their case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, made them move anyway. Until the day she died my grandmother would not hear the word Democrat in her house.
I know racism. I am a black man. I do not like the direction of this administration. Does this make me, and anyone who thinks like me, a racist? Or is the true act of racism the current prejudgment of those who have valid concerns without any attempt to understand the nature of those concerns?
Rogers Johnson of Stratham is a member of the Tri-Town Republican Committee and a former N.H. state representative. He served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2004 and as director of intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. Department of Education.
SOURCE: SeaCoast Online - Rogers Johnson
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SALUTE!
Carl V. "Sam" Lamb and I served side-by-side as rifle-squad
leaders Fox Company, "Chesty" Puller's 1st Marines, 1st Marine
Division. He wrote a book about our experiences in the Korean
conflict, 1950-1951. He included my remarks about an incident in
which one of our people threatened to punch-out a fellow squad-
leader who had black skin.
+ + +
THE LAST PARADE
by Carl V. Lamb Page 296 (1951)
James Fletcher Baxter
Sam and I had a lot in common. We both resisted evil. After I
got out of the hospital, 'Big Jim' Causey told of driving along
in his police cruiser and hitting a black man in his head
with his pistol. He thought it was funny how the guy sprawled
into the street. When he made this comment we were in a card
game. I didn't say anything, but then he said he was going to
kick the ____ out of Joe Goggins and I had heard enough.
I said, "If you're going to try that, you'll have to go through
me to get to him. I'm willing to give my life for a country
that values each individual. If that isn't true, I don't want
to fight for that country - but, it is true, so I'm not going
to let you rob me of the very good reason I may lose my life
tomorrow or next week. If you attack him, you attack me. I
may lose, but I guarantee I will make it very expensive for
you to get to him. Let me know what you decide."
He got up from our card game and said, "I'll have to think
about it."
I said, "Let me know. I'll be here."
He came back a little later and said, "You're right. I was
wrong." I thanked him for his manliness.
Joe Goggins came to me later and thanked me. He had wet eyes.
+ + +
(9/28/09)
Shortly after the above event, Causey was sent home on a
medical emergency for a family member. On the way, he
made a stop at a Naval medical facility stateside and ran into
my brother, Sgt. Howard "Barney" Baxter, 5th Marines, with
Chosen Reservoir frost-bitten feet. My brother said Causey
told him what had happened, and that it had "changed his life
forever." Never again would he do "the collective thing" of race
abuse. He saw the value of each individual, regardless of race,
station, or gender. He even forgave himself and became a worthy
and honorable U.S. Marine.
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC
WWII & Korean War
semper fidelis
a follower of The Lion of Judah
INDIVIDUAL VALUE - Gift of Y'shua JESUS
The Old World method of measuring human value was,
and still is, by the group. Whether tribe, clan,
city-state, color, ethnic, or gender, the Old
World, ancient and modern, measures by the plural
unit. Individuals had and have no value of them-
selves but only as they were and are part of a
collective.
When Y'shua Jesus died on the cross, the veil of
the Temple at the Holy of Holies parted from the
top down. The individual believer in the congrega-
tion had, for the first time, a face-to-face, one-
on-one relation with his Creator. The Creator,
Himself, had validated each individual for the
first time.Thus, the Individual became the corner-
stone for later human value measuring systems:
socio-political, philosophical, religious, educa-
tional, economic, etc., henceforth and forever.
Western Civilization, America, English Law, civil
Rights, the 'democratic' process, etc., all sprang
from that single event. (Greco-Roman 'democracies'
were 95% slave throughout their entire histories.)
Biblical principles are still today the foundation
under Western Civilization and the American way of
life.
Many social systems attempt to borrow ideas of
"democracy" without the basic premise in The Indi-
vidual. Such a system is only superficially and
temporarily 'democratic.' The cornerstone of the
democratic process is The Individual and the
cornerstone of the value of The Individual is
Y'shua Jesus! It is not possible to have one with-
out the other. There is only One Source - there is
no other.
It is additionally interesting to note that all
value measuring systems are based on the single
definitive unit of the system. Ex: Number, Time,
Distance, Weight, Heat, Money, Angle, Volume, etc.
Only humanism makes the abusive error of measuring
human value by the plural unit and attempts to
build social structures, relations, and institu-
tions thereon. Such man-made systems can only be
abusive and oppressive because in reality there
are only individual persons. Groups or collectives
are merely convenient verbalizations about indi-
viduals. They are not reality.
I have yet to see a 'group.' All I have ever seen
are individuals.Have you ever seen a group - or is
it a verbal convenience? Reality is only in the
individual person. And, such a validation never
derived from a human source without the initiative
of the Creator. (The French Rationalists of the
18th Century favored the fruit - but rejected the
branch, tree, and root.)
Today, wherever Y'shua Jesus is rejected, the
group or collective is still the basic way of
measuring human value - or human non-value.
We thank the Lord God for revealing His validation
of each individual person. We thank Him for creat-
ing each person uniquely, in His image, and call-
ing each one to a courageous ascension by Y'shua
Jesus, who said, "I AM the Way..."
Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
His Son of Man, Y'shua Jesus.
Reference: Exodus 25:30,40 Hebrews 9 Matthew 27:51
Mark 15:38 Luke 23:45 KJV
Jim Baxter
Teacher, 5th Grade - 30 wonderful years!
vincit veritas
pointman/follower of The LION of JUDAH