"The Arsenal Of Freedom"

Today was the final day of my US History 2 class. I actually really liked this class, and it had a good deal to do with my teacher. Well, the class got into a discussion over affirmative action. We cited certain court cases that have happened in the past 30 years involving white students who did not get accepted to a college even though they were more intelligent than the minority (be it African American, Hispanic, Asian America, or Native American) student. Without going into a word for word recollection for you of how the class felt, I will sum it up real easy. The class, besides 2 or 3 others including myself, hated affirmative action. Now, let it be stated for the record that my class is made up of about 15 white females, 5 white males, and 1 (very slightly) Native American female.

Here is my own personal belief on Affirmative Action. If I were African American, I would be happy and not happy all at once. I would be disappointed that the only reason I was accepted was to fill a predetermined number of students allowed of a minority at whichever university I am attending. I would have wanted to earn my spot in society. I section from the Lord of the Rings comes to my mind, where Bilbo invites 144 Hobbits to his birthday party because that was the combined age of himself and Frodo. One gross indeed!

That being said, I am NOT African American, or Latino, or Oriental or any other minority that exists here in America. I have never felt that I was the victim of reverse discrimination in any walk of life. Of course, living in the sheltered community of Jamestown might be the reason. I posed this question to the class; how many African Americans had no right in this country for centuries? How many were enslaved, and denied basic human rights? How many had to face discrimination in every walk of life for hundreds of years? And how many Native Americans were slaughtered at the hands of us former Europeans? We killed off there food supplies, we drove them out west, and we put them on reservations. Hitler admired our treating of them for Christ sakes!

How many white males and females have been the victims of “reverse discrimination” due to affirmative action? A handful perhaps. Drops in the bucket. But we complained louder when a few of us were forced to go to Harvard rather than Yale! The Supreme Court acted quicker to make one white male happy than it did to free an entire race of people.

A couple of kids actually took this to heart, but there were a few belligerents. One girl (the one who told me I was a racist that hated freedom...go figure) told me she felt no obligations to make amends for the wrongs her ancestors committed. Luckily for her the class ended and we were sent home for winter break.

I feel sorry for her if anything over that comment. I know that if my family had some dark wrong in its past that I would feel very responsible for righting it. I know that that is just my own personal moral code and I cannot enforce it on others, but it would be comforting to know that others felt the same way.

Well, enough of that. I am done ranting for now. Catch you all later

~Oz