Thomas Hardy,
Chico, CA
I grew up in an extremely poor family. My father was a WW11 vet that lost most of his knee in the war. He was tough though and had his own tree service where he, himself climbed. We had 7 kids and 6 of us boys slept in one bed, shared baths, and helped to hunt and fish to put food on the table. We went to Catholic school thanks to my father doing jobs for the church so we could attend because he would never accept charity. We took our sack lunches and ate outside while the students that paid for their lunches got to eat inside. Catholics, even before all the sexual assaults by the priesthood- were never looked up kindly and were often treated poorly. It helped that my mother was a God-fearing Catholic that kept us all on the right moral track. I quit the last year of school and was drafted into Vietnam. I learned because of my darker skin, (I’m Irish and Portuguese and very tan from working all those years outdoors), I was looked upon as a minority. Racism was very bad “out of the country” between the blacks and whites but, you never hear about that.
I came home to the family tree business and worked extra jobs. I worked an extra job as a custodian for a University that continues to teach that being a white male is privileged and racist. That the Catholic church was no different than the KKK at a Diversity meeting that was required. That somehow, I don’t understand what it is like to be poor, looked upon because of the color of your skin or religious affiliation!
Often, it is the privileged people in the media, colleges, sports and the celebrities telling the rest of us, what we should think. How we should feel. Causing more hate. Dividing us. Instead of working to better our problems. Real racism should be stopped. It goes against our morals. Our Constitution. The love of our fellow Americans!
So, don’t tell me as a white male I’m “privileged”. This rhetoric just makes me listen less. As Americans, we need to come together and heal and fix our country before we have another Civil War.
