GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--June 26, 2003-- Sandra Day O'Conner, who wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 decision to uphold giving minorities "special consideration" in the admission process to Michigan University's law school, said that racial discrimination in admissions will be illegal in 25 years.

     Seventy-three-year old O'Conner, the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court,  wrote the majority opinion, allowing racial consideration to be applied in the admission process.
     But, in another ruling regarding undergraduate admission policy, the court ruled against allowing universities to give "points on race."   Michigan was automatically allowing 20 out of 100 admission points to applicants who were minorities--Hispanics, blacks and Native Americans.
     Critics of affirmative action include black Justice Clarence Thomas.   His dissenting opinion against the use of affirmative action included an opening statement by Frederick Douglass from 140 years ago, telling abolitionists to leave the negroes alone, and let them stand on their own two feet.   To not give them any preference over any other person, except the equal right to succeed.

      Ironically, it was a white woman in favor of affirmative action and a black man against it.

      However, Justice Thomas may be foreshadowing the future when whites are the minority, and will be deprived of representation in America's education opportunity as the minorities have been.
      Looking ahead, white Americans are moving down the population scale while minority groups are rising up.
      The Bureau of Census reports that in 1970 the percent of minorities--Hispanics, blacks, Asians and Native Americans--represented 16 percent of the U.S. population.   In less than one generation, 30 years, the 1998 data reveals that number jumped to 27 percent.
       Projections by the Census Bureau not that by 2050, half the population will be minorities.
       Regions in the nation may exceed those numbers at a faster rate.   Currently, the West has a minority population of 36 percent, the South represents 30 percent minority population, the Northeast, 23 and the Midwest, 15 percent.

     The Population Resource Center, a public policy demographic group, tracks the shift in population throughout America.  One of the startling endorsements of the impending "minoritization" of the white population, termed Non-Hispanic whites, is the low fertility rate of whites.
        Fertility rates measure the growth of a certain group by the number of children they bear.  Highest were Hispanic women, with 2.9 children, 2.2 children for blacks, and 1.8 for whites.
        Like a savings account, if you spend more than you put in, one day you'll be bankrupt.
        And, that's the issue.
        America is moving at lightening speed to become a nation where the former white majority is on a collision course to become the minority.
        But will the future majority remember the Supreme Court's decisions of affirmative action in 2003 when it's the year 3000?
        There seems to be a dilemma in the foundation of affirmative action decisions.   Much of the force behind affirmative action is in opposition to what Fredrick Douglass spoke about fourteen decades ago.   Decisions to favor minorities are rooted in reparation--i.e., a payback for the ill treatment of blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans by the Manifest Destiny of white America when it built the nation.   Slavery, the ravaging of Native American Indian and Hispanic land, and the national "guilt and shame" for ill treatment of minorities play a big role in current laws.
        As a Sentinel of Vigilance, I am for the equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of race, color or creed.   But, at the same time, at what point does affirmative action cross the line into reverse discrimination?   At what point is the "debt" for injustice paid, if ever at all?

       These questions were summed up in Fredrick Douglass' comments.  He spoke about the African American "standing on his own two feet," and that the more interference imposed in an attempt to "right wrongs" would spoil his chances of becoming an independent person, rising about the challenges.
        Giving people advantages because of race is an antithesis to "rugged individualism."  It creates another unnecessary blanket of comfort spread over a group that has learned to "expect" preferential treatment as compensation for past ills.  It softens the challenges and obstacles of life and provides an entitlement that, in the long run, may foster and perpetuate resentments and bigotry rather than assuage them.
        And that is the prime question regarding the un-Manifest Destiny of the whites.
        In the future, will the minority white population be given any special treatment as its group depreciates?   Will the Supreme Court take the attitude of Justice Thomas, and deny the rights of the whites any special consideration when they find themselves trying to gain seats in the educational system of the future?   Or, in the future, will it rise above the prejudice and bigotry that over time may accrue and backlash against the white population by denying them the same "affirmative action" that is being offered minorities today?
        Those who promote a "blending" of America, based on interracial marriages, where whites would are absorbed into the general population, face a dim outlook.  The current interracial marriage rate, as reported by the Population Center, is only 2 percent.  It is far too small to count on a nation of "singular ethnicity."
        Terrorism takes many forms.  One of its most cruel configurations is bigotry and prejudice against one group because of its race, color or creed.   When we measure another by their outsides rather than their insides, when we decide the "good" or "bad" of a person by visual methods rather than through their actions as human beings, we become Beasts of Prejudicial Terror.

       Vigilance cannot be achieved by giving gifts to another.   Vigilance is about Courage, Conviction and Right Actions that benefit future generations.   Vigilance means we face the obstacles of life with expecting others to pave the road for us.
         A gift is a device of Terrorism.   Terrorism's elements: Fear, Intimidation and Complacency have the worst of their venom in the latter, Complacency.   Complacency is defined as expecting someone else to do what is right for you.
         Americans, or citizens of any nation, who wait for their governments to enact laws, or to impose security devices to protect them from Terrorism threats have stripped themselves of their parental duty to their children, and their community's children, to insure the future safety of their Children's Children's Children.
         The ultimate duty of protecting ourselves rests with each of us, as Sentinels of Vigilance, Parents of Vigilance, Grandparents of Vigilance, Loved Ones of Vigilance.  
          Decades ago, Fredrick Douglass shouted out the importance of Vigilance.  He made the following statement that Justice Thomas used to write the dissenting opinion on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold affirmative action.

         Following this tack, when the white majority today soon morphs into the minority, just two generations from now based on current projections, there will be no affirmative action for the white minority.   Whites will be expected to "stand on their own legs."
         America's power as a Sentinel of Vigilance is not about blacks or whites expecting special treatment for themselves.

        It is about blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, white and Asians all standing on their own  feet not for each other, but for the future of their Children's Children's Children.
        Only when we look beyond our differences do we find our similarities.   The tool that gives us the power to see past our bigotry and prejudice, our resentments and angers towards one another, is and always has been the children.
        Children are the symbol of our collective innocence.  They are the seed of the future, the magic of purity and unity.
        If we all focus on how we can treat each other as Collective Parents of Vigilance, dedicated to the future of our children, our colors will melt.    If we stop feeding the Beast of Terror the fuel of Complacency--stop playing the race card--when whites become the minority in this nation, they will not need affirmative action.

       They will need to recall the call of Frederick Douglass, one of the great Sentinels of Vigilance.
        You can write your own Supreme Court decision on the issue today.   You can take the Pledge of Vigilance, and protect your children's rights.
        Don't worry, you won't be the first.   If you read Frederick Douglass' words closely, he signed it long ago.

June 25--Manifest Destiny of Custer's Last Stand & Iraq

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