"In San Francisco a federal appeals court upheld California's controversial Proposition 209, the first
state law to bar 30 years of U.S. affirmative action programmes." ~ Reuters
Well halleluiah! Finally, a little sanity in the area of race relations!
Not that things are completely perfect. The bilious poison of Racial Prejudice
was bad indeed, but adding to that the poison of Governmental Interference
with the private sector didn't help. Nor did it help matters that the government solution was
Reverse-Discrimination. Say what?!
If that strikes you as convoluted thinking, let's break it down into it fundamental parts:
Racial Prejudice has been with mankind since Day One of the
second race. Before that, I guess we had to make do with just Sexual Prejudice.
Prejudice - of any kind - is based upon 4 things:
1. Fear of the Unknown.
2. Unpleasant memories of something that we equate with an unknown.
3. Stupidity which makes us de-value the potential of the Unknown.
4. Sloth which keeps us from making the effort to satisfy Justice & Curiosity.
Prejudice is handy. It provides a non-thinking method for avoiding unpleasantness. But it
has a high price. Without the sense of Curiosity and Adventure, we would never have crossed the
Seven Seas, and we certainly would not have gone to the moon! When prejudice causes us to
shun others it costs us some joys of friendship - and some profits of customers. Prejudice is
therefore costly. To fail to realize this fact is Stupid. To fail to act in accordance with
this fact is Cowardly. Therefore: Prejudice is an ignorant and lazy person's trap and a limitation
upon their potential.
In the public sector, Government, rightly being of, by and for all the people, must
be unprejudiced. It must be color-blind, age-blind, sex-blind, etc, etc. It must set an
example for its citizens of the highest virtue and more than that, it must treat them fairly and justly
and to do that it must treat them equally. Lady Justice is not blind-folded without good reason.
Governmental Interference in the Private Sector, however, is
intolerable. It is intolerable, because Government is created by a compact among Citizens - a
compact which cannot grant any right to any degree beyond that which is naturally possessed by an
Individual. One cannot grant what one does not possess. If one person cannot deprive
another of the right of Freedom of Association - then no group of people can grant Government the
right to deprive anyone of that right. The Right to Associate implicitly contains the Right NOT
to Associate.
True, there will be fools who misuse that right - Anything can be misused. But that is far from
sufficient reason for Government to intrude on the private life of any Citizen. Government has no
right to compel or prohibit between consenting adults, any Religion, Philosophy, Politic, Sex, Charity -
or Association!
Reverse-Discrimination is merely the current Politically
Correct term for a different kind of Racial Prejudice. (See above for why it is wrong.)
Therefore: the Appeals Court decision was a definite step in the right direction and President Clinton
with his ``mend it, don't end it'' attitude, misses the point entirely.
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