response to Morgan Freeman

A crowd of white and black Americans gathers at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington in August of 1963. The paper reads, "They're Pouring In From All Over."
Source: Library of Congress

About a year ago, at a "Tea Party" rally in Washington DC, a group of us discussed an ironic realization: the last time we'd been in DC for a rally like this was back in the 1960's, when we were there to protest racial segregation... yet as "tea party" people, we were now being called "racists."

Freeman's remarks brought this to mind. Is he right? Another possibility is this: perhaps the real culprit at work is our culture of blame.

It is said, great leaders look in the mirror when things go wrong and out the window when things go right. But gone are the days when "the buck stops here" can be found on a presidential - or any other - desk in Washington.  Our government is riddled with finger-pointing, distrust and risk avoidance. Self-interest, greed and all-consuming fears about re-election are running the show.

When something goes wrong, blame is the answer. We don't acknowledge mistakes and try to learn from them. We look for scapegoats. And it seems that name-calling - like "racist" - is exactly that. Something to blame - to account for dissent.

It cheapens the entire political life of these United States to label dissent as racism.

A simple example. A well-documented study of the Spanish government’s green jobs experiment  found  there were “2.2 jobs destroyed for every “green job” created.” Due to the subsidies expended per worker in the renewable sector, government financing the creation of green jobs led to a reduction in overall employment opportunity at a rate of 9 jobs destroyed for every 4 added. (reference)

When Tea Party folks disagree with presidential energy policies, it is not a mindless expression of racism against a black president. It is an expression of concern for the well-being of our country, based on some very real data.

Our country is in trouble. We have a Congress hamstrung by its own self-interest. Decisions need to be made, responsibility taken, and - somehow - we've got to end the finger-pointing and name-calling and start acting like mature adults. Learn from mistakes and move forward.