The Paycheck Fairness Act

This is an act that is stated to collect the sex, race and national origin of employees working in the US to ensure 'fairness' in the paycheck. S182 is suppose to make pay equality for women better...on the initial glance this sounds great. But on second look, it stinks of a government control of business. It is currently "ILLEGAL", may I stress that again...."ILLEGAL" to ask the national origin of an individual - period. Check out Title VII. All that is required is that an individual is a US citizen or legal alien/resident. Race and Sex can requested only after hiring for use in the company's affirmative action programs, and the employee is entitled to deny and request that this information is not shared with any outside agency since it is voluntary. In fact many of the forms I signed in the business world states just that, "This information will not be shared to third parties". I refused to participate in many of these info gathering items in my company because after they took into account my age, sex, race and department all information gathered about my opinions led directly to me since I was the only one in my department matching the information requested.

This act does not seem to take into account that many businesses give woman maternity leave compensation which men do not receive. This would have to be added into the quotient, or the data for pay would be null & void. I would hope it would take into account identical positions and length of time in the company for pay purposes, education et al...but again, it comes down to this -that this information is not the government's business and to order a business to provide this information to the government - unless they are seeking a gov't minority owner contract with the government IMHO is illegal and unethical. I don't know...seems like the government's main purpose is suppose to be protection of our country and it's interests...not telling businesses, who they can hire and what they have to pay as long as it is minimum wage.

What are Those Medals for Anyway.

To my disappointment I continue to see our legislatures 'misstating' their military records and accomplishments. I mention the latest being Senate candidate Mike Kirk from Illinois. You can read the slew of 'misstated' facts of him or Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, Wes Cooley from Oregon, Joe McCarthy, or President Ronald Reagan. I don't even want to mention the fight between John Kerry and President Bush about their military careers...since there appears to be undetermined misrepresentations by both individuals. I admire people who served - even a private in the mess deserves a measure of appreciation for their service to our country as well as the general who leads us into battle. People who 'misstate' or 'misrepresent' their military service for personal gain are NOT the people I would chose to represent me. As the infamous Jack Webb on Dragnet stated, "Just the facts, mam." That's all I ask for.

Bombers and Aliens

The US is quick to offer praise for capturing the failed attempt in NYC and yet, seems to glaze over the fact that this is a person that was naturalized, but retained sympathies for his birth country. I am amazed that I have heard nothing from the Demozillas or Republizillas that mention the fact that we are currently debating naturalizing many other illegals, most not speaking English, having NOT assimilated into the US culture and having loyalties to their birth country. Am I missing something? Is it easy for the government to make a link between our economy and Goldman Sacs and yet avoid Freddie and Fanny Mae, but not naturalized citizens and sympathies to other countries and illegals? Yes, surely two different topics, but AMAZING, how the press and Congress skirt the subjects that put egg on their faces.

How I Learned Prejudice

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, America was going to church on Sunday’s, standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, listening to my teacher’s and elders, and using rock, paper , scissors to make a decision. I never talked back to any adult because if they didn’t get after me, my parents would have. My father used his belt on me seldom, I can count the number on two hands, and all but two of the times, I admit, I deserved it. One incident I count as two, that was the time I put on about 10 pairs of underwear, because I had already received that infamous, “wait until your dad comes home” speech. When dad realized after the first whomp, that my posterior was more than a little larger than it should have been, he pulled down my drawers and continued a few licks on my bare bottom. I learned not to try to fool my father – he was smarter than I was. I think I was about seven when I came to that ultimate truth.

I didn’t know about prejudice. White was just a color crayon used to try and make the clouds stick out. And there were other crayons - black, red, brown, green, purple, orange and purple. I brought home friends from school, and although I lived in a predominately white, Anglo Saxon area, you wouldn’t have known it as my friends were decedents of Japanese, Filipino, African and yes…even German, Irish, Czech and Polish ancestors. I didn’t think I was better or worse than anyone else. I just was. We may not have had much, but I never thought of us a poor. Even though Christmas was the source of clothing for presents and one or two toys, I was grateful. And, life was good.

But then I aged, grew up and joined the military. The last thing Grandpa told me before I left was to ‘watch out for the little black boys’. It was the first time I ever heard a derogatory comment from any of my family…That is why I will never forget it. I learned prejudice. I was indoctrinated into it in the military. I was told over and over that we were all equal and no one was better than anyone else, this left me confused, I never thought I WAS better than anyone else, more talented in some areas, less so in others, but the drill sergeants kept on about racial this and racial that. I was being taught by their forced doctrine, that there must be some difference or why else were they continuing this discourse? If this wasn’t so, why were they trying to convince and persuade me of what I thought was obvious. They had been around the block, I was young and naive, I watched their actions, ignoring their words. In less than two months, my thought process was changing. I began to notice things that before I had simply accepted as individual quarks as racial. I was learning to stereotype people, and I was uncomfortable for it, but couldn’t put my finger on why I was uncomfortable. It wasn’t until years later when I realized what the government was doing to me, that I finally overcame the stereotype. Luckily, this occurred why I was still in the military and I saw trying to make race and sex a non-issue was doing the opposite, making it an issue. To this day though, I love jokes though about our differences, my favorite being about blond women, because I am one. It's just that now it has become un-PC to pick on anyone but White Men....Sorry this person doesn't buy that racial proliferation.

I see that the government continues to try and segregate us into categories. Look at the US Census…you can be Japanese, Chinese, Black/African American (a term my white acquaintance from South Africa uses to describe herself), Latino, Hispanic, Native American (my heroes as a child) or WHITE. Hmm, my thought is why can’t I be a German American, or a European American then? Hell, why can’t I just be a United States American? I mean, my parents were born here as was I. I can trace several of my family trees back to the late 1890’s or early 1900’s in America. Why is it necessary to put me into a pigeon hole? Why is it that my friend from Africa who now has her US citizenship is not allowed to answer that she is an African American? Why is it OK to allow an American whose skin is black to be an African American, but whose relatives have been in the US longer than mine? There are all types of excuses, but for me the truth is, until we as a nation quit placing people into categories based upon their race, religion, sex or age, we will have no equality. We are a nation melted and melded into Americans. Until we see ourselves as Americans, until our government officials end their tirades of prejudice, we will have no equality.