By James H. Shott
Harry
Belafonte is an African-American entertainer best known for the 1956 Calypso
hit "The Banana Boat Song"; who in more recent years has been known
for his civil rights activism, left-wing activism and his admiration of Third
World dictators; and who has now voiced his opinion on gun control, claiming
that “white Americans” who support the 2nd Amendment's protection of gun rights
are ignoring the black “river of blood that washes the streets of our nation.”
"America
has the largest prison population in the world," he noted. "And of
the over 2 million men, women and children who make up the incarcerated, the
overwhelming majority is black. We are the most unemployed, the most caught in
the unjust systems of justice, and in the gun game, we are the most hunted.”
He
continued: “The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows
mostly from the bodies of our black children. Yet, as the great debate emerges
on the question of the gun, white America discusses the constitutional issue of
ownership, while no one speaks of the consequences of our racial carnage.”
Columnist
Walter Williams notes that, "though blacks are 13 percent of the nation’s
population, they account for more than 50 percent of homicide victims.
Nationally, the black homicide victimization rate is six times that of whites,
and in some cities, it’s 22 times that of whites. Each year, roughly 7,000
blacks are murdered. Ninety-four percent of the time, the murderer is another
black person."
Mr.
Belafonte tries to hang the responsibility for black-on-black murder around the
necks of white America because they want to honor the U.S. Constitution, an
argument that wildly misses the mark. Black youths dying in the streets is
indeed a tragedy, but it is not because white people defend the Constitution.
Mr.
Belafonte is also confused about the results of the 2012 election, believing
that President Obama's thin victory in the popular vote constitutes a mandate
from the people to do whatever he wants. But the margin of victory was only
3.84 percent. That constitutes a win, but it’s far from a mandate. This win was
just over half the margin in 2008, which means that American voters are less in
love with Mr. Obama and his agenda after seeing it in action for four years.
He
also does not understand the American system of government, which in his mind
enables President Obama to jail those that disagree with him. “The only thing
left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a Third World dictator and just put
all of these [white] guys in jail. You’re violating the American desire,” he
said on the Al Sharpton TV program.
Perhaps
Mr. Belafonte should review the founding principles of the country that was so
good to him before he fell into the irrelevance that mediocrity brings. Maybe a
better idea is for him to move on from what he believes is a horrible country
to one of the paradises he so admires, like Cuba or Venezuela.
Harry
Belafonte's racist and communist ideas are grossly un-American and are
blessedly shared by only a small minority.
Others on the left, however, are also confused about what is going on.
Nancy
Pelosi, the House Minority Leader from California, also harbors some nutty
ideas. Despite consistent budget deficits exceeding a trillion dollars a year
throughout Barack Obama's tenure and a $16 trillion national debt that has
increased by about 50 percent over that same period, Ms. Pelosi not only says
with a straight face that we don't have a spending problem, but she is miffed
that the pay raise proposed for all federal employees seems destined for the
trash heap.
"I
think we should respect the work we do,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters. “I think
it’s necessary for us to have the dignity of the job....” Just because the nation
is drowning in red ink is no reason to fail to show due deference to our
employees in the Congress, right?
Congressional
Democrats twist themselves into knots trying to convince us that it's okay to
spend 40 percent more than the revenue we collect every year. Iowa Sen. Tom
Harkin commented that “We are now the richest nation in the world. We have the
highest per capita income of any major nation. That kind of begs the question,
doesn’t it? If we’re so rich, why are we so broke? Is it a spending problem?
No.”
Sen.
Harkin and Congresswoman Pelosi, and a whole gaggle of others see salvation in
taking even more hard-earned money from the citizens, or at least some of them.
However, a new poll shows 83 percent of Americans disagree. They have had it
with fiscal irresponsibility and piling debt on future generations.
Here's
a lesson in good government for public servants from someone who actually
understood the concept: “A wise and frugal government … shall restrain men from
injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” — Thomas
Jefferson
Cross-posted from Observations
