There’s Something Wrong

From the June 2002 issue of Resource Roundup... by Angie Many

To many of us, it’s so clear that we can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see it. There’s something terribly wrong in our country. And it’s getting worse.

There’s something wrong when personnel in our ‘professional’ land management agencies let our resource of trees burn, and when dead and dying trees are left to waste instead of providing paper, lumber, and thousands of products for Americans. There’s something wrong when less that 2% of our land mass has ever been impacted by mining, yet this activity that provides cars, power, computers, and much, much more is persecuted to the point that many companies just leave the country. There’s something wrong when we can’t harvest oil from a barren part of Arctic tundra. There’s something wrong when ranchers and farmers are bankrupted because someone thinks a minnow might die if cattle and crops drink. And there’s something wrong when we increasingly depend on foreign countries for everything we eat and use.

There’s something wrong when government biologists allegedly try to falsify lynx study data, and when they put large areas of land under onerous restrictions because it ‘looks like’ good owl habitat. There’s something wrong when an agency shuts off irrigation water for a season, bankrupting farmers, before a study can even determine if such devastation to people will save even one fish.

Jail for Filling Private Property

There’s something wrong when a couple is threatened with jail and a fine for trimming the bushes on their land. When a family can’t build a garage because a spotted owl might light in their tree one day. When two men are jailed for putting clean fill dirt on their own property. When people can’t clear the brush from their property for fire protection because a rat might live there.

There’s something wrong when our military’s training maneuvers are limited to the point of being almost useless because a turtle might be harmed. And when training portions of military bases are put ‘off-limits” because woodpeckers may live there.

There’s something wrong when an eighth-grader throws a potato chip at another student and is suspended for a day and banned from a school dinner and dance and from assemblies for a month. When little boys are suspended for pretending that their fingers are guns in a century-old game of cowboys/Indians/cops/robbers now cops-and-space-aliens. When a second-grader is sent home for ‘sexual harassment’ -- kissing a girl. When a high-school honor student is not allowed to graduate because a table knife from a house-moving day was left in her car... and found by ‘campus cops.’

There’s something wrong when we are so caught up in ‘protecting diversity’ that the state of Florida backed down and issued a driver’s license to a Muslim woman whose ‘identification’ photo shows her with face covered. (How many people could use that license?) Something is wrong when airport screeners concentrate on old ladies and little children to avoid ‘the appearance of profiling’ those groups responsible for the 9-11 tragedy. When our government promotes Black History Month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month, but never a White History month. And when newspapers honor Hispanic students -- can you imagine what would happen if the headline instead read “Outstanding White Students Recognized”?

Just one hospital is footing a $650,000 bill this year for treatments for three illegal alien children -- which the hospital is forced by federal law to provide.

There’s something wrong when illegal immigrants can attend some state colleges cheaper than legal Americans. When illegal aliens in Arizona can get free kidney dialysis and cancer chemotherapy while legal American senior citizens struggle without necessary medications because of the costs. When in North Carolina (not even a border state!) alone last year, the Medicaid emergency services program for aliens -- many of whom are illegal -- cost taxpayers $31.9 million.

Just one hospital in Chicago is footing a $650,000 bill this year for organ and stem cell transplants and treatments for three illegal alien children -- which the hospital is forced by federal law to provide. Like other medical care providers across the country, reports the Associated Press, the hospital is grappling with massive Medicaid budget cuts that will curtail services for American citizens whose money supports the system in the first place.

There’s something wrong when, if trends continue, taxpaying voters will soon be outnumbered by voters who don’t pay taxes. When Florida is accused of ‘not providing sufficient interpreters for Hispanic voters’. Good grief! People who vote in America should be able to read and write our language well enough to mark a ballot.

Peanut Butter Banned

There’s something wrong when one student’s life-threatening allergy means that peanut products -- including peanut butter sandwiches brought from home -- are forbidden in a school cafeteria. Peanut butter is an inexpensive way to provide nutrition. Although everyone no doubt sympathizes, can’t that one student eat in a separate room with a friend for company? Why are reasonable accommodations no longer enough?

There’s something wrong when a father asks the courts to stop Virginia school students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance... because its words ‘exclude foreign nationals and offend some religions.’ When one parent objects to prayer in school, or the Pledge of Allegiance, or prayer at football game, and that takes precedence over the majority who prefer to honor God and country. When people insist that it is impossible to teach patriotism, yet feminism, environmentalism, and every other liberal -ism is inculcated in our schools.

There’s something wrong when governments can forbid smoking in private businesses (and are now even beginning to target homes attached to businesses). The existence of many non-smoking restaurants is not enough for zealots. It’s never enough. While it is understandable that many people prefer to eat sans smoke, business owners should be allowed to decide policies for their own establishments and then let consumers decide which restaurants to patronize.

Santa Banned From Tree-lighting Ceremony

There’s something wrong when Christmas has become so controversial that an employer asks his staff to say ‘Happy Sparkle Day’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’, to avoid offending anyone. “And how quickly we have become a society of people easily offended!” said a writer to the Delta County (Colorado) Independent regarding the idea. Greeting people with ‘Merry Christmas’ is not forcing religion on anyone, he added. ‘If someone came up to me and said ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ I wouldn’t be offended. He would be wishing me something positive, with warm regards.’

Even Santa Claus is becoming persona non grata, compliments of a few people. The jolly old elf was banned by the Kensington, Maryland town council because of two complaints that Santa would offend some citizens at a tree-lighting ceremony. (Santa showed up anyway.) Red poinsettias were banned from the Ramsey Court House in St. Paul, Minnesota because they offended one person who believes the flowers to be a symbol of Christianity. At a Plainfield, Illinois elementary school, all holiday celebrations were banned because of “diversity” concerns. And in Maine, a school district banned Christmas trees because some cultures don’t believe in them.

This is not ‘some culture.’ This is the American culture. If people cannot tolerate American traditions and culture, they should not be in America.

While we watch, our history is being transformed into politically-correct fantasy. The three white fireman who raised an American flag on September 11 at the World Trade Center created a beautiful, emotional, inspiring, and historic moment for the United States of America. The clay model of the statue to be made from the event showed instead one white, one black, and one Hispanic man. (What! No women?!) Creators stated that “The artistic statement of diversity (s)hould supersede any concern over factual correctness.” Translated: politically-correct fiction takes precedence over historic fact. Ever wonder what our kids are learning in our universities... or even in our grammar schools?

Many of them are not learning the three R’s, for sure. A record number of students are having to take remedial reading classes when they reach college. And homeschoolers are surpassing -- greatly surpassing -- the students who come out of the public schools that cost us billions each year. This year’s winner of the National Geographic Bee was a 10-year-old homeschooler who beat out nine older finalists.

There’s something wrong when schools can have ‘gay pride’ days -- complete with informational brochures -- but won’t allow conservative student clubs to exist in fear of ‘offending someone.’ When boys who exhibit the natural rowdiness of boys are put on drugs for hyperactivity, often at the urging of school officials. When textbooks contain biased information, imparted without hesitation by teachers, and when courses are aimed at teaching tolerance instead of facts. When the Boy Scouts, for Pete’s sake, are banned from meeting in public buildings.

Where Does Protecting Group Rights End?

Our Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of the individual and private property. Yet individual rights are being diminished, and the government now owns 40% of our land mass and, through excessive regulation, controls much of the remainder. Our nation is among the foremost in protecting the rights of minorities -- but that should not mean giving minorities the right to dictate to the majority or letting group rights supercede individual rights. Protecting minority rights should not mean accepting -- and having our children taught to accept -- that terrorists are freedom fighters, that homosexuality is normal, that competition and achievement denigrate others, that those who work are obligated to support those who don’t, that some races or ethnic groups deserve preferential treatments, that nature -- not God -- is sacred, that America should be blamed for all the world’s ills, and that a human is no better than a snail or a snake.

We tout ourselves as being a diverse nation, but what liberal activists are really doing is creating division -- separating people into Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Gays, Lesbians, etc., instead of uniting everyone as Americans. At the same time, they’re trying to stuff everyone into the same politically-correct mold.

We’re making taxpayers, who often struggle to meet their own needs, support every feel-good program instituted by a government which seems determined to find more ways to spend our hard-earned money to garner votes of non-taxpayers or special groups. We’re disemploying the people who supply the natural resources for everything that we use every day. At the same time, we’re wasting our precious natural resources in deference to radicals who want us to return to the hunter-gatherer -- or just gatherer -- days of cavemen.

The ‘tyranny of one’ and the tyranny of one group has got to stop. And the only people who can stop it is... us! Start today to become a full-fledged member of ‘we the people’!

(Posted By: Angie Many | 12th July 2002 | 10:09:40 PM. )