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Wake up America the Great Divide has Broken this Country!
What Divides America
There are many areas which has created a divide amongst the super wealthy and the average everyday American. The simplest way to describe this divide is between the "haves and have not's". After WW II The United States worked hard to build up the middle class in order to avoid another great depression. They gave our Veterans returning from war small modest homes to raise their families. Most recently the "haves" worked hard to get average Americans out of their homes through shady banking and financing changes.
Lets not be silly and act as if race does not play into this divide, because the poorest citizens tend to minorities including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women from all races and ethnicities. Unfortunately the majority of white America wants to argue racism is over, and there is no need to further protect the rights of our poorest citizens or women.
In reality for nearly four hundred years African Americans were slaves subject to the whim and mercy of their masters. Even though President Lincoln abolished slavery in 1865, Jim Crowe quickly took its place. At this moment the Republican Party made a complete switch in policies and beliefs to alienate themselves from the minorities their party had worked so hard to free. It was not until 1964 and the Civil Rights Act was signed were African Americans truly labeled as equals to their white counterparts. By the late 1970's the war on drugs was created to replace Jim Crowe as a way to control the African American population.
During the 1980's the Republican Party started its attack against the poorest citizens completely destroying the economy, making it possible for the richest people, organizations, and businesses to get as much as they could from the poorest people by relocating factory jobs out of the country, arresting people for non violent drug crimes, and keeping work wages low while the corporate employees continued to watch their wages rise exponentially. At this time the divide was not only between minorities, but poor white people also.
Ignorance backing up biases and discrimination since Jesus!
Recent History
Over the past thirty years the goals of the Presidents from the early 20th century were thrown out of the window, and geed took its place. This is obvious because instead of thinking with reason, the most powerful people are thinking with their wallets. Now the problem has come to the boiling point because too many Americans are unable to survive with one income, and in most cases two incomes is not enough while the majority of the population only receives the minimum wage for their state. The idea of a minimum wage was originally set to give employers a bottom of the line for part time employees, and younger employees. It was never meant to be a livable wage, nor was it supposed to apply for every position in the retail world.
Not only have people been stuck in a rut because the majority of minimum wages have not increased in over thirty years, but with these low wages home ownership is down too. The divorce rate is up since people no longer have to work things out, just get a divorce and move on. These new trends explain why no one is fighting for the rights of the poor anymore, because people are only concerned about themselves, not even thinking about the well- being of their community or individual families. The war on drugs added to this problem by creating mandatory prison sentences which has continued to cripple the families and communities in the urban areas because these people have very few opportunities, and those opportunities dwindle on a daily basis. When people do not have hope they do things they would not normally do. As an example drug and weapon dealers fill a gap in the market. If these people were white and wealthy they would be considered entrepreneurs.
Lets be real America has always worked to keep African Americans from acquiring any power as if they are biding their time until they can be slaves once again. In reality they have been so busy focusing on hurting the African American communities, hindering the opportunities in urban areas which not only hurts African Americans and other minorities, but has also hurt the poor white people in those neighborhoods too. African Americans have been a great distraction to white America that they forgot to pay attention to the other minority groups like Asians and Hispanics. Maybe once they are the majority real change can occur, and create freedom and equality for all.
America once again taking advantage of the little guys!
The Other Types of Divide
The divide of access to technology does not seem as obvious in the United States as it does in the rest of the world. People who reside in rural areas of third world countries do not have access to technology, the Internet, and information. The technology which is abundant here in the United States is only available to a small fraction of the citizens of the rest of the world. The small amount of access to technology is usually found in schools and libraries. On one hand the students are happy to utilize the technology, but at the same time it creates a glimpse into the life of others, and depicts how much less they have in comparison of the grand scale of the entire world. In the United States our students have the luxury to bring their own technology to school, while other schools provide the technology for class use. My own daughter was in the "classroom of the future" for fourth grade. Each student was issued a lap top to use at school, which was a part of their curriculum. I was excited for her, but I was disappointed to find out the students were no longer required to learn script, just be able to sign their first and last name.
Technology is a blessing, and gives so many different people access to so much information. At the same time blessing is curse because of the access of information children have. The other divide is between the wealthy and poorer students in American classrooms. In third world countries computer stations have been built to give access to the Internet and all it has to offer to students who do not have a computer in their homes. In the United States people without computers in their home have to rely on availability of computers at their local libraries. Students do have the ability to utilize the computers in their schools, but that is limited by the amount of time the school is open at the end of the day, and is never accessible on the weekends. A few years ago The City of Philadelphia gave students Laptops to have at their homes. This sounded like a generous and smart plan, until the parents realized the school was remotely accessing the web cams and microphones. I am not sure if that was the original plan, or if someone seen an opportunity and took it. Check out the article