Saturday, September 13, 2014

Equality of opportunity not outcome

My commitment to equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes from the files of Colonel Allen. B. West

Read Ahead About the Pimps of Poverty
Sunday morning I awoke in Greenwich, Connecticut to a beautiful sunrise. I went for a nice run through Brice Park enjoying the woods and pondering what it must have been like living here during the Revolutionary War.

After my run, I enjoyed breakfast sitting next to a magnificent yacht docked in the harbor. I was invited to Greenwich to present the SPC Gordon Raymond James “Pay it Forward” Award to some very good friends, who have been stalwart in their support to our veterans: Leora and Steve Levy at the Greenwich Polo Club.

In a short 53 years, life has taken me from very humble beginnings, born and raised in an inner city neighborhood in Atlanta, to having breakfast at the Greenwich Harbor. That ladies and gentlemen is the essence of American exceptionalism — which we must fight to ensure remains part of our DNA, the American genetic code for future generations.

And how does this happen? It happens because in this great Constitutional Republic we believe — at least some of us believe — in an equality of opportunity that promotes our ability to succeed regardless of our beginnings.

However, there are those who do not share that same belief, because their concept is rooted in an equality of outcomes whereby government and manipulative progressive socialists determine how far you can go — what you can achieve.
They believe they are the selectors of the winners and losers. It is that belief — equality of outcomes — that falsely motivates people to believe that all they can achieve in America is a minimum wage job, and that it is a career pursuit.
Therefore, in the appalling goal to limit and constrain the outcomes, these people, under the guise of misconceived benevolence, advocate for higher minimum wages — $15 to $22 an hour – in effect, relegating an entire demographic into continued poverty — not greater opportunity.

Countless Americans will come to believe — and it becomes a generational phenomenon — that government will give to them, as they feel entitled, therefore stymieing their own personal ambition, will, desire, and determination to one day sit and have breakfast at Greenwich Harbor.

Today, I am in Long Island to support a fellow veteran and congressional candidate, New York State Senator and U.S. Army Reserve Major Lee Zeldin. And as usual, the progressive socialist Left is attacking Lee for having me come and support him.

Why? Why would these leftists have an issue with a 53-year-old retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives with two masters degrees married for 25 years to a successful financial broker who has an MBA — from Long Island University — and a PhD? Oh yeah, I’m black and my wife Angela is a naturalized American citizen of Jamaican heritage whose father is a retired Army Master Sergeant, and we have two daughters — seniors in college and high school.

Why is that so very threatening to the progressive socialist Left? Because my wife and I represent equality of opportunity — and not servitude and surrender to the liberal progressive welfare nanny-state. Furthermore, we are vocal as black conservatives – and that scares the hell out of those who seek economic enslavement of minorities, not economic empowerment.

They embrace the pimps of poverty who will continue to degrade the American dream for more Angelas and Allens. And that is why the vile vicious attacks ensue as I prepare to join Lee Zeldin, Larry Kaifesh, Dan Bongino, Mia Love, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton and others in helping them to further the American dream, American exceptionalism. The belief in the equality of opportunity.

Consider this Congressman Tim Bishop (D-NY) who attacked a veteran like Lee Zeldin with an ad putting Lee’s face on the cowardly lion character of the Wizard of Oz. And his attacks on me — a fellow veteran and paratrooper seeking to assist and support another.

It’s all because of a fear of men and women who have made an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It’s not good for business for progressive socialist politicians whose relationships and closeness to teachers unions and charlatans such as Al Sharpton outweigh a commitment to serve the American people — their constituents.

This is why I am undeterred in my quest to restore this Republic and ensure for future generations their dreams and hopes are secured — the dream of policies promoting growth, opportunity, and promise.

Simply put, I am committed to an endeavor, an effort to secure our nation from its enemies — foreign and domestic — that would keep more young minorities from ever being able to awake and see a sunrise over Greenwich Harbor.

I am dedicated to American exceptionalism — the firm belief in equality of opportunity for Americans, not the subservience of equality of outcomes.