I am so Smart

I’ve been blogging here for about 5 years, and it occurs to me that I have never shared why I think my thoughts merit posting.  Frankly, it is because I am so smart and I make wonderful decisions.  You should know about these decisions and why they indicate my brilliance.

I chose to be born to Anglo parents.  This was a hard choice as most of the people in the world are not White.  Only 18% of the world’s population are White so you can see why choosing a minority race was such a tough decision.  In hindsight, however, it was brilliant.  I have had every opportunity, I have never experienced discrimination by race, and I am not viewed as suspicious based on my skin color or dress.  This may be my most brilliant decision, which is good, because it is not reversible.

I chose to be born in the United States.  Again, a brilliant decision.  Americans represent 4% of the planet’s population and control roughly 30% of the planet’s resources.  Yep, this is the place to be.  Had I been born somewhere else and wanted to advance myself and my family by tapping into the incredible wealth of the USA then I would have to be an immigrant.  That is not a good thing these days, although every White person here was at one time an immigrant.  Birth in the US is a real entitlement desired by so many.  Once I chose to be born here I did not have to go through the arduous process of migrating here or having to pass the citizenship test which I hear is a real challenge.  I can be an American and remain totally ignorant of our history and founding principles.

I chose parents who speak English.  Whoa, any other choice could have been disastrous.  Learning English is difficult, but because I chose so wisely I do not even remember the process.  It just seems that I always spoke English.  That choice really helped me in school as the teachers only spoke English.  Worse, many are persecuted because they do not speak English so I avoided that experience as well.

I chose parents who are Christians.  Oh boy, there is no telling what mischief I would have gotten into had I chosen Muslim parents, or Hindu, or Buddhist or atheist, or whatever.  But because so many of the other Whites in this country believe our country was created as a Christian nation, once again I made a brilliant decision.  (Those folks who think the country was founded as a Christian nation could not pass the citizenship test and they are wrong, but I am not going to tell them for fear they may start discriminating against me!)

I chose parents who were financially stable.  I never suffered from hunger, I never suffered from lack of clothes, and I never suffered from a lack of shelter.  And, we always had health insurance coverage!  I was not forced into early childhood labor nor were my parents ever engaged in illegal activities to secure funding.  I might have been OK had I not chosen financially stable parents, but life sure was easier not having to worry about food, shelter and clothing.  Once again, a brilliant choice.

And perhaps my best decision was to choose parents who were emotionally and psychologically stable.  There was no addiction in my house.  There were not fits of rage, no child abuse, no drunken parents, and no parents who were high on drugs.  I had emotionally stable parents who loved me and cared for me, punished me when I deserved it, but never abused me.  I see others who did not choose so wisely who spend the rest of their lives trying to outgrow their childhood.  Thank God I was smart enough to avoid all that.

I will confess to making a strategic error in all these choices, however.  I chose a family that promoted thinking rather than simple adoption of opinion.  That was a mistake.  As a result I have become intolerant of those who made the same wise decisions I made but have chosen to punish the victims of poor choice, that is, people who chose to be born elsewhere, or to parents of color, who were poor, non-English speaking, poorly educated with few marketable skills, dependent on others for food, shelter and clothing, and in need of health care.  So, yes, those folks made very poor decisions.  But, I remain convinced that those of us who chose so wisely have an obligation to help the folks who chose so poorly.  It seems to me to be the least we can do.  The very last thing we should do is seek to punish the victims of such poor decisions.

That is why I think I am so smart and why I think you should read my blog as I articulate ways in which I believe we can advance the quality of life and promote the pursuit of happiness for everyone in our country.  That is a much more noble cause than seeking ways to secure my own wealth at the expense of others who we blame for their poor choices.