Race Hustlers

                One of the results to come out of the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri, is the saying “black lives matter.”  Some politicians, notably Hilary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, Democrat presidential contenders, have said that not only do black lives matter, but “white lives matter” – in fact, “all lives matter.”  They received much backlash and had to walk back their comments.  It appears that race baiters will have none of the “all lives matter;” to them only “black lives matter.”  Why are they so adamant on this?  Why can’t they understand that in fact life itself matters?

                Mark Alexander posted a very thoughtful article about this subject at The Patriot Post; his article is entitled “If Black Lives REALLY Mattered.”  He included a quote by Booker T. Washington that is probably the best answer to my questions.  The quote is as follows.  “There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”  I consider Mr. Washington to be an intelligent man!  He saw how things really were.  It is important to the race baiters to keep people angry about race; otherwise, they have no source of income.

                Black lives do matter as do all lives, but there is no reason to destroy history.  We must maintain our history in order to maintain who we are as a nation – the good as well as the bad.  There is much in the news about the Confederate flag and why it must not be allowed to hang in public. I first heard Walter Williams speak many years ago; I was very impressed with what he said and how he said it and still am.  He wrote a very interesting article about how history is written by the victors of wars entitled “Historical Ignorance.”  

                “The victors of war write its history in order to cast themselves in the most favorable light.  That explains the considerable historical ignorance about our war of 1861 and panic over the Confederate flag.  To create better understanding, we have to start a bit before the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.”

                Mr. Williams explains that the first article of the 1783 Treaty of Paris declared the 13 colonies “to be free, sovereign and independent   states.”  He added, “These 13 sovereign nations came together in 1787 as principals and created the federal government as their agent.  Principals have always held the right to fire agents.  In other words, states held a right to withdraw from the pact – secede.”

                After a long explanation and many details, Williams concluded with this comment:  “The War of 1861 settled the issue of secession through brute force that cost 600,000 American lives….

                “The War of 1861 brutally established that states could not secede.  We are still living with its effects.  Because states cannot secede, the federal government can run roughshod over the U.S. Constitution’s limitations of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.  States have little or no response.”

                Thomas Sowell, another very intelligent black person, also wrote about the Confederate flag situation in an article entitled “Is the Civil War Over?” He wrote that “Professional race hustlers have no incentive to see our current civil war end.  They see in this shooting [in a South Carolina church] only an opportunity to escalate their demands.”  The blacks and the whites in South Carolina “came together to condemn [the murderer’s] act and the race hate behind it” of the dismay of the race baiters; they in fact told the race hustlers to stay away.

                Mr. Sowell continues:  “Now there are rumblings of demands that statues of Robert E. Lee and other Southern leaders be destroyed – and if that is done, it will only lead to new demands, perhaps to destroy the Jefferson Memorial because Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.  And if that is done, no doubt there will be demands that the city of Washington be renamed, for the same reason.

                “In short, there is no stopping point, just unending strife as far out as the eye can see.  And just what will that accomplish?  It could ultimately accomplish the killer’s dream of racial polarization and violence.

                “Neither blacks nor whites will be better off if that happens.  With all the very real problems in this society, can we really spare the time and the wasted energy of trying to refight a Civil War that ended before our great-grandparents were born?

                “The past is irrevocable.  We cannot change the smallest detail of what some people did to other people after both have gone to their graves.”

                I hope the people of America will follow the example of the blacks and whites in South Carolina and tell the race baiters to bug off.  We have too many problems in this nation and world to constantly be fighting old battles.  We must make peace with each other and move forward!