They Paid the Price So We Don't Have To

In the United States of America:

We don't worry about catching a bullet while casting our ballot.

We don't fear being arrested for dancing in a You Tube video.

We don't scan the skies for incoming missiles during backyard barbecues.

We don't suffer the horror of having our school girls kidnapped en masse by masked terrorists.

These are just a few of the things going on in the world today that we Americans don't have to worry about happening to us because of the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives in the name of our freedom.

Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough, but it's the very least we can do.

Thank you to all of my comrades in arms, past and present, who died so that I can sleep peacefully in my bed.

Straight from Senator Looney's Bin

If you listen closely, every once in awhile a career politician will accidentally give their true position away.
such was the case recently with State Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, who has been the Democratic state senator from the 11th District for 22 years.

MarryE. O'Leary, of the New Haven Register, quotes Sen. Looney as saying, Republican strategy since the 1980s, is to "dismantle government, disable government and prevent government from being able to run effectively and then blame it for not being able to run effectively. Democrats recognize that while government may not be the answer all the time, effective government is an important answer a good deal of the time.

Translation: Democrats tend to believe that more government and more of your tax dollars is the answer to many of our  problems.

I respectfully but vociferously disagree. 

More regulations won't make more businesses move to Connecticut and hire people. If that were the case, our state unemployment rate would be near zero right now.

More government intervention doesn't mean better education for our children.
If that were the case, Connecticut's educational achivement gap wouldn't be the largest in the entire nation, which it is. And such large numbers of mostly black and brown young men wouldn't be going directly from high school to hard time in prison. 

More taxes dollars  on candy and so-called junk food, as proposed by Democrat Sen Richard Blumenthal,  won't make our fat children suddenly shed pounds by switching to carrot sticks during their hours in front of the Xbox.  But this sweet deal would most certainly  lead to another cavity in the taxpayer's pocketbook.

Some things, like Parenting, Personal Responsibility and visionary Free Enterprise which drives innovation and puts people to work are all NON-LEGISLATABLE.

Benjamin Franklin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote,

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have need of more masters."

Apparently Senator Looney and his peers believe that we the unwashed peasants are too stupid to look after ourselves and are in need of more master government to look after us, at our own expense. 

Why White America Ignores Urban Gun Violence

While we as a nation continue to try and wrap our collective head around the unspeakable tragedy that occurred in Newtown on December 14^th 2012, and as the issues of gun control, gun violence and mental health are now firmly planted on the front burner of our political stove, there are some people in the black community asking the question, what took you so long to recognize gun violence as a problem because black people have been dealing with this for years?  Dr Cornel West laments that there is “not a peep, not a mumbling word when black folk get shot.”

 Truth is…black children shoot each other with such regularity that it is no longer a big deal.

 The list of young black homicide victims and their murderers is so long that it just blurs into a large bloody tapestry on the back wall of American society that goes largely unnoticed because it is always right there.  

 The questions that I am more interested in are…Why do so many of our children have so little regard for the sanctity of human life that they can pull a trigger and end a life as easily as flicking off a light switch? And, what can we do to reverse this process? Because new gun laws alone aren’t going to do it. We have far too many young black men with no fathers, no values, no direction, and no hope.

The city of New Haven alone has seen fifty-one murders in the past twenty-one months but the level of outrage from the parents, politicians, and clergy that matter most is sadly lacking. Then of course there is the city of Chicago with 500 homicides in 2012 alone.

By the way, since 2001 the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan is about 2000. During the same time period more 5,000 people have been killed by gunfire in and around Chicago, the overwhelming majority of the victims were black.

 With numbers like these it is no wonder that there is little to no media coverage of violence in our urban centers.  In American culture things that happen every day and all day aren’t special.

It doesn’t mean that not every violent death is a tragedy because make no mistake every life that is cut short is a huge loss not only to the family but to society as a whole which is robbed of the promise that resides within every human life.

 I’m typing these words on the morning of January 1^st 2013 and already in Chicago 11 people have been shot since midnight, including 20 year old Octavius Dontrell Lamb, who will never see a full day of 2013.

In Philadelphia at around 12:30am a 17 year old boy was shot and killed. By 3:00am there were two more bodies littering the streets of the city of brotherly love.

In my native city of Cleveland, at  2:50am police found an unidentified black male shot to death on the front porch of an east side home.

The reason the mainstream media pays so little attention to these killings of mostly black and brown people has less to do  with racism than the simple fact there are just too many of them.

 If we believe that constant exposure to violence on television and in video games desensitizes children and adults to violence in real life, then why is it so hard to believe that constant exposure to gun violence in our minority communities would desensitize the rest of the nation to the true impact and depth of this very real national tragedy?

 Black people shoot each other with such regularity that it is no longer news, it is just normal.

And folks, white people can’t fix that, only black people can.

This is why I am choosing to focus my efforts on inspiring and motivating as many young minds as possible with the idea that their lives are valuable and filled with the promise of greatness and opportunity. Maybe some of those young minds will in turn begin to see value in the lives of their peers as well.

 

Wayne Winsley is a former U.S. Congressional Candidate, award winning speaker and author. He lives in Connecticut.

Alper: Republicans Need to Learn How to Streetfight

Photo by April Dawn Winsley

Wayne Winsley Exclusive Interview withWilton RTC Chairman, Al Alper, candidate for CTGOP Chairman.

Wilton RTC Chairman Al Alper says he gets it, he has a plan, and he can put Connecticut’s Republican Party on the winning track. That is why he is seeking the position of Chairman of the Connecticut Republican party.

“I have a detailed, comprehensive reorganization of the Republican Party and a re-branding of the Republican Party in Connecticut that I plan to institute on day one.”

A part of Mr. Alper’s plan calls for as sustained marketing effort designed to “change the conversation” when it comes to the Republican Party and its perception, especially when it comes to younger voters.

Alper likens today’s Republicans to the British redcoats of the revolutionary war and their tradition of fighting battles in only in open fields during the day and standing in neat columns. The redcoats were totally demoralized by the colonials who attacked from the trees and at all hours.

“Because we are generally respectful, responsible and civil individuals we tend not to fight back, or we fight back in a, for lack of a better term, civil way. We fight the Democrats much like the British fought us. The Democrats have been shooting at us from the tree line, in the dark and we have been the respectful party that lines up in a column and takes our shots. We need to take this fight to them.”

When it comes to a plan for increasing Republican support in the Connecticut’s larger cities, Al Alper says that for years the CT GOP strategy has been to blunt the vote instead of converting voters in the inner cities. A strategy that Alper says is “destined to keep Republicans relegated to second place for the foreseeable future.”

Republican principles and minority values intersect at dozens of points and when Republicans effectively emphasize those points of agreement, there is an increase in minority support. And that according to Mr. Alper is as it should be.

“We are the party that essentially gave life and voice to the minority communities.”

Mr. Alper claims to have a very detailed strategy for capitalizing on those areas of agreement and converting voters in the inner cities.

Part of Mr. Alper’s plan to unify the various and almost-warring factions within the CTGOP calls for the creation of an organizational structure where all sides have,

“A voice in the direction and effort of what we do.”

Alper also places a big emphasis on the need to attract younger members to the Republican Party.

“We need to start converting people to the republican brand pre voter registration.”

Finally, I asked Al Alper if he thinks he can garner enough support among the seventy-two members of the State Central Committee to gain the chairmanship.

“I am speaking to them and I’m hoping that their desire to win and the organizational and fund-raising strength that I bring and my ability to marshal the support of the various factions, as demonstrated both in Wilton and in a congressional campaign is sufficient to convince them. I’ve done all of the pieces of the puzzle that we need in a good chairman and I’m the only candidate in the race who can lay claim to that.”

We Need More Rich People

 
A report in the Norwich Bulletin says Connecticut’s average unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent last year from 8.3 percent in 2009, according to the New England Regional Office of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of the six New England states, Connecticut’s 2010 average trailed only Rhode Island, which showed a rate of 11.6 percent, the fourth highest jobless rate in the country.

Meanwhile, at a recent town hall meeting, the suggestion was made by a citizen to Governor Dannel P. Malloy that instead of seeking 2 billion dollars in concessions from employee unions, the state could take about half the net worth from a single Greenwich Hedge Fund manager and the deficit would be erased. When Governor Malloy pointed out that said manager would immediately move out of the state rather than surrender half of his net worth, the citizen replied, “I don’t care!”

I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before we see mobs wielding torches and pitchforks gathering at the gated driveways of the well-to-do and demanding that they “hand it over.”

AFL-CIO President John Olsen might be one of those at the forefront of the charge based on his recent comments about whom he thinks should be paying for the balancing of our budget.

"The top five percent, those making $412,000 and above, who received an extension of a tax cut, that was never paid for, that they were never really entitled to, that alone translated into $3.2 billion,"

There are young people in Connecticut right now with ideas and business plans that will result in very profitable ventures, ventures that will create jobs in the years to come and yes, handsome profits for the entrepreneurs themselves. If those young people look around and see that Connecticut eats it’s rich through confiscatory taxes, do you think they will launch their job-creating ventures here or will they go to states where the tax burdens are lower and the business climate more hospitable? I think they will leave and take their jobs with them.

Let me put it another way, If we chase out all the rich people only poor people will be left. Then what? We can all dress in our finest sack cloth and meet at the town square, eat gruel and sing hymns. But hey, we will all be equal at that point so I guess that’s something.

Shouldn’t the state be doing everything possible to encourage entrepreneurs to stay and launch their ideas here? And to entice more “rich” people to move here and bring their companies with them?

Connecticut needs jobs. Who creates jobs? People that want to make money create jobs. I know that’s not politically correct but it’s the truth.