In it, I came out of a building, and my car was gone. This very, very tall black man came up to me and apologized and said he had stolen it, and it was 8 blocks away. I was angry at first, then wondered why he had told me, when it would have been much easier to deny it. I was warned by someone that he was a prison guard, and very tough, but I decided to ask him anyway. I don’t back down in dreams, much more than I do in real life.
His answer was incoherent in the dream, but amounted to the fact that he needed it. He was sad that he needed it, but he had felt he had no choice.
For whatever reason, I suddenly had a burlap bag full of stuff, which I decided to give him. It was full of tree seeds, and all the tools to fertilize them properly. I gave them to him, and suggested he plant them, which he agreed to do. End of dream.
As I think about it today, there are some interesting ideas here. First off, it is undeniable that we have many people suffering in ghettoes around the country. Maybe kids act tough, talk tough, and get tough. But they are sad. They are outside of the society most of the rest of us live in. Jeremiah Wright likes to talk about ghettoes as prisons. This man was a prison guard, symbolically, since he controlled prisoners.
Who built the prisons, though? Was it rich white men? Why are they poor? Are they not poor because there are not enough good jobs around for them to do, and because many of them were born into and recreate single parent homes which do not provide enough love, support and GUIDANCE to use those tools for self improvement that our system offers to them?
For the last 40 years or more, the incessant hum of the theme of victimization has poured throughout all these neighborhoods. It has resulted in constant Democrat victories, year on year, decade on decade. Elect us, they are told, and manna will fall from the sky. But it doesn’t. It never does. Promises are made and broken. A few benefit, but only those connected with the private wealth that flows through governments via taxation. City government members benefit. Teachers benefit. Unions benefit, or at least those who keep their jobs once the job roles continue to decline.
50 years ago, Detroit was a good place to live. Slowly, all the companies that provided good paying jobs left town, or shuttered their doors. This has not happened everywhere, but it has often happened selectively in inner cities. Why would this be? Is it racism? Or is it the fact that the same people who promise their electorate the sun and moon consistently enact policies that cause job and business flight? There are very nice areas AROUND Detroit. They just aren’t IN Detroit.
Tax rates, attitudes, business support or neglect: these are the things that affect jobs, both their quantity and quality.
I have used this metaphor: what the Democrats provide this constituency is salt water for thirst. It always feels like it should work. It always sounds plausible. But it always makes things WORSE. The problem is not a lack of money spent. It is HOW it is spent.
I gave this man the seeds to sprout a new life. I asked him to take care of and tend it, then washed my hands of it. This is all most people need.
What Democrats don’t want to grasp is that black communities need to have demanded of them self organization, personal responsibility for the quality of life in their neighborhoods. They should not look to government for it.
What I am saying is trust them. Let them figure things out. People who are never challenged never learn. Obviously, working three jobs to make ends meet is a challenge. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about minds meeting to figure out how to improve lives.
Black people in this country have by and large been trained relentlessly to look to their Democrat saviors to, well, save them. This is foolishness. This has led to an atrophy of will and capability that would otherwise have been there. Virtually all black neighborhoods were every bit as peaceful as everywhere else 50 years ago. They had families, went to church, made sure their kids did their homework, and said their prayers at night. They were systematically excluded then, but can anyone argue with a straight face they are included now? The cure has PREVENTED integration.
This is either the height of incompetence, or malignancy. And incompetence prolonged sufficiently long becomes the latter in practice, since stupidity at some point becomes willful.