Thoughts on the Supreme Court nominee and on calls of racism
Steve Kavanaugh thinks that strict construction of the Constitution is a myth. He doesn’t know what the Sam Hill he’s talking about. For instance, he thinks the 14th Amendment was “meant to protect blacks from discrimination.” Not so. It was meant to grant citizenship to the blacks who had once been slaves and not to every child of illegal aliens born on American soil. The author of that amendment said as much. Too bad he didn’t envision revisionist lawyers we have today.
As far as the entire Constitution is concerned, either use the definitions of words and phrases in use when it was written or scrap the whole piece of paper. Changing definitions is in effect amending the Constitution without going through the process, and means that anarchy becomes the law of the land. Any president with “a pen and a phone” can simply rule by executive action. Congress and the Supreme Court become useless, even more-so than now.
Leonard Pitts again showed his racial bias in his op-ed piece “Tired of having to explain ourselves.” I agree that nobody should have to explain themselves just because of skin color, but let’s use all available information, shall we? He specifically mentioned the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case but ignored a few pertinent points.
That neighborhood had experienced several burglaries in recent weeks prior to this case. Martin was dressed like the suspects were. He was acting suspicious. Zimmerman was on neighborhood watch, so it was incumbent upon him to note any suspicious activity. Martin was no “child.” He was a high school football player in good physical condition. He was used to rough-and-tumble activity. Zimmerman was not.
Martin was repeatedly banging Zimmerman’s head against the ground or concrete sidewalk. As someone who has survived almost fatal head trauma, in my opinion Martin was trying to murder Zimmerman when Martin could have easily escaped from Zimmerman. Instead he chose to attack. Why? Something smells here. Martin was either paranoid or guilty of something.
Many people are afraid of blacks for many reasons, partly from generations of fear being passed down through the years. Plus, look at the news today, concerning blacks and what do you see? Nothing much good, and that’s a shame, but that isn’t “whitey’s” fault. Blacks who deal drugs, run in violent gangs, get involved in shootings, etc., are the ones who get the air time in the news. Whites are just as guilty of these offenses as blacks, but the population of blacks is a very low percentage of the population, while their crime rate is way out of proportion to their numbers.
In short, if the black community would clean up their own back yard instead of crying “racism!” every time something happens, we’d all be far better off. Unfortunately it’s much easier to stir the pot than to fix the problem.
Cameron Triplett
Brooksville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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