I Want to be the Minority

What happened to this country? It seems that controversy tends to follow me where ever I go. I am talking about the Chief Illiniwek and the confederate flag. I do not blame all minorities for these travesties, in fact I have grown to realize it is only a selected few that do not want America to be the land of the free. At TF South, Home of the Rebels, Jesse Jackson took the confederate flag away forever. It was a part of the town?s history, but since some were offended the board took it away. By taking away the flag, race related hostilities and fights tended to sprawl up all over the school?s campus. This was most evident in the spring, when summer vacation was a month away and students do not have anything to lose. Now TF South is 25% black and has less race related encounters compared to ten years ago in 1993 when the school board took away the flag; only 5% of the student body was black.

This is sort of old news and with many southern states taking away the confederate flag, fighting for it is a lost cause. At my Alma Mata, the University of Illinois at U-C?many students want the board to take away the Chief. They believe that the Chief is a racist symbol offending the American Indians as well as other minorities for some reason. This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The Chief symbolizes great pride and does not degrade American Indians unlike that of the Cleveland Indians mascot. If Illinois takes away the Chief they sure as hell better take away the Notre Dame?s ?Fighting Irish? mascot as well as everything else that might offend anyone.

I am a young Jewish man living on the far south-side and even though most people won?t assume I am Jewish just by looking at me, there are a few people I know that will swear up and down I am going to hell based on my beliefs, but they are idiots anyways. Overall I have never really felt like an outsider and in fact Jewish people became white in the 1960?s in a hospitable take over of the Census Bureau. The only advice I have for the minorities is to learn from the Jews and from certain Asian groups. Jews for the most part are scattered everywhere. There are a couple towns where there are a bunch of Jews but in order to get ahead you have to integrate rather than separate. Blacks in the ghetto will always be there because if you rely on the system and your black community to help you up you are going to be there forever. If south-side suburbs didn?t go from all white to all black in a matter of 5 years, like in South Holland, things would be very different for blacks as a people. Moving away from the situation tends to be the new solution for the nonvoting American population. Let me tell you people engaging in ?White flight?, you can?t run forever so stop trying. Just remember ?if you let the system beat you long enough? it will eventually get tired,? said by a great comedian of our time, Drew Carey.

Stay informed at savethechief.org

Know your rights

Don?t ever touch an officer

Don?t resist arrest even if you are innocent

Don?t say anything without a lawyer

Don?t talk babble or lie

Don?t give officers permission to search you or your property

Don?t submit to a field sobriety test if you have been drinking and driving

Don?t run

Don?t argue, be polite, but firm.

Remember? possession is nine-tenths of the law