Lu Powell wrote:
Back on Uncle Sam's plantation
Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist - 2/9/2009 8:00:00 AM
Six years ago I wrote a book called Uncle Sam's Plantation. I wrote the
book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state
and my own transformation out of it. I said in that book that indeed
there are two Americas -- a poor America on socialism and a wealthy
America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS),
Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8
Housing, and Food Stamps. A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned
government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s, that
were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.
A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the
government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched
mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do
to stay on the plantation?"
Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism
created monstrous moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems
that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives
over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner
cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.
Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood
what freedom meant and how great this country is. I had the privilege
of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican Congress
and signed 50 percent. I thought we were on the road to moving
socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with
wealth-producing American capitalism.
But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.. Instead of
poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on
capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poorAmerica on
socialism.
Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said,
"Thank you, Suh." Now, instead of thinking about what creative things
need to be done to serve customers . . . they are thinking about what
they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.
There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first
black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham
Lincoln. Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young
president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives
seem happy to move onto the plantation.
In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is
clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more
than short term economic stimulus. "This plan is more than a
prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America 's
long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy,
healthcare, and education." Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to
think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that
massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented
transparency and accountability." Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy
Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels
Corporation, and the Department of Education. Or how about the
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 -- The War on Poverty -- which
President Johnson said "...does not merely expand old programs or
improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It
strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty."
Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black
families are not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and
out-of-wedlock births.
It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to
move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility
and freedom.. Does anyone really need to think about what the choice
should be?


A lot of folks are thinking, "I'd better get my sorry ass on over to the
plantation before there is no more room and the food runs out."
I wish O'Bama would move his experiment to an island somewhere and leave
America alone.