NO! Not Booker T. the wrestler. Booker T. Washington. I may be a dumb redneck, but Booker T. Washington is one of my heroes. He was not a professional wrestler, he was not a basketball star or a football star. He was educated and educated others.
I've been reading some perspectives and quotes by Booker T. Washington, and frankly, I would have to say that based on his own words, Washington would be greatly disappointed in the leadership of this country today; black, white or other, Democrat or Republican.
Lets just get a look at some of his quotes:
“Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think highly
of them, when instead they should try to get their people to
think more highly of themselves.
It’s wonderful when the people believe in their leader.
It’s more wonderful when the leader believes in their people!
You can’t hold a man down without
staying down with him."
“Character is power.”
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” (Does this apply to jobs at McDonald's?)
“Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.”
“Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.”
- Booker T. Washington
The man understood that the building blocks of society had a foundation of common labor. Without that foundation, the rest does not function well. Our current leaders don't seem to understand this. They have what I call "Top-down" thinking. Only those at the top, the elite, the upper echelon, are those who matter, and the scraps fall wherever they fall.
The elitist idea that intellectual property comes above and before labor and manufacturing will be the ruin of this nation, if that hasn't already happened. I just hope that Obama will heed some of the wisdom of a hero we share in common. Though it is easy for an elitist to forget where he comes from, no matter how humble his beginnings. Unfortunately, he is married to a social climber, and the evidence shows that he is one himself, and experience has shown me that social climbers rarely show true compassion for those who are below their perceived station. That doesn't bode well for most of us.
Booker T. has got me thinking about our current leadership.
I am such a failure! MAN!
I found out today that I am a TOTAL AND COMPLETE FAILURE!
I messed up! I'm a dolt, a maroon, a boob! I didn't go to Yale, Harvard, or Princeton! GAH! Why did I NOT go to one of those schools?
If I had done so, I could be milking taxpayers in D.C. with my Ivy League brothers and sisters.
I hear Cornell is acceptable, as is Brown, but I didn't think of either of those schools. Of course I never looked into studying abroad at Oxford either. Man I'm an idiot!
Well, I guess it is three strikes against me. I'm just another of the unwashed masses. Strike 1. I'm from the South. DOH! That's a big one! Strike 2. I work as a barber. GAH! That's bad. I definitely don't know anything about economics. Strike 3. I attended a private Christian university that ranks higher that some of the "better" schools. Man, I'm such a heel.
Hey? Has anyone called Bill Gates and told him he's a failure? He didn't even finish college, you know. How about some of the fathers of industry who never went to college? Could they be the reason our economy is failing now? Could it be that they weren't lawyers? After all, lawyers who get elected to office are much smarter and better than the rest of us, ESPECIALLY if they went to the right school. Just ask our current president and our Congress.
I'm sure glad we have such fine, smart, sophisticated people taking care of us, because I don't know what I would do without them.
"Bailout"
Wow! Our new president has really topped himself now.
Let me give this scenario again. Say you own a business, and you have to get a business loan or your business will fail. You have a board of trustees and that board determines your salary. So, when you get the loan, not only do they expect you to pay interest, but they tell you that you can no longer have the same salary you had before. They tell you that you have to make the same amount of money as someone who runs one of your offices instead of the whole company. Would that be right?
So, here we have the government lending out money (that isn't theirs and that they don't have), and the government will charge INTEREST on the money lent, but that isn't enough. They then tell you that you have to cap the salary for your execs.
What? When did the U.S.A. become the U.S.S.R.?
Folks, the people in charge right now ARE NOT CONCERNED ABOUT THE COMPANIES FAILING. They see their golden opportunity to push the socialist agenda that they have been dolling out piecemeal for over 60 years.
It has been said by more than one Soviet/Russian leader that Western Capitalism cannot be defeated with conventional wars, but could be routed through the system of education and with careful rhetoric in the public arena. My friends, their plan has come to fruition. Just a few seeds has turned into the ultimate product for them: A president, first lady, and a congress engrossed in socialist idealism.
I would say to be afraid, but I'm beyond fear. I'm ready for change. Our new president may be right that he is an agent of change, but maybe not the change he plans on.