The PR Blog

As the war on white privilege seems to be going from insane to dangerously insane, I cannot help but cast my mind back to my white privilege as a child growing up in the 1950's and 60's in rural New Zealand. We were not a poor white family: my Dad had a job and we had a comfortable and clean home. 

Our household probably didn't receive much more income than our neighbours but there was a fundamental difference between me and the neighbours kids - my parents didn't smoke, drink or gamble. I knew kids who had their Dad bring home his paypacket, head off to the pub for the " 6 o'clock swill " ( Kiwi term for the fact that pubs closed at 6 pm ) over to the betting shop and into the tobacconist for some roll your own tobacco or cigarettes. And then return home and the kids would go hungry unless my mother fed them. 

My Dad didn't do that. He came home with pay packet intact and played with us in the backyard or read us a story. 

My white privilege was the fact that I was born in to a warm family relationship and that has served me well throughout my life.

The Fourteenth Amendment – on June 13, 1868, the American Constitution was amended to grant Citizenship and Equal Rights – both Civil and Legal – to the African Americans and freed slaves following the end of the American Civil War. It was adopted on July 9^th of the same year.

In my opinion it is one of the most important parts of the American Constitution and one that could come to play a major role in the coming months.

Here’s why:

When our minds send us to a desert and there is no way out.

I have a friend who told me about an acqaintence whose wife suffers from dementia. It is true that he also suffers from dementia. Not that he has it but he suffers from it. Make no mistake – when a loved one has dementia, EVERYONE AROUND THEM SUFFERS FROM DEMENTIA.

That alert and bright mind that you admired; that bright spark of brilliance that you applaud and celebrate – all gone.

While the mind of the dementia sufferer wanders in a desert that has no way out, the loved ones also live in that desert and have no way out, unless they abandon their loved one in the desert of being lost.

Theodore Roosevelt – one of the latest statues to be vilified. A man who refused to shoot a bear cub and whose act of kindness gave birth to one of the favourite companions of children all over the world : the Teddy Bear. A man who led the cause of Conservation of Natural resources; a man who was a Conservationist and helped create the Forest Service ; a man who mediated between the workers and the employers to create a “ Square Deal “ ; a man who oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal; a man who lost Government as a Republican to Woodrow Wilson , a democrat who was staunchly opposed to the reform and promotion of Social Welfare.

In fact, Roosevelt was a man who never toed the Party line and never stopped fighting for Social Justice. A fiercely loyal patriot, his goal seemed to be one of Nationhood and Equality for all.

Back in 1904, HG Wells wrote a short story about a man who stumbled into a forgotten kingdom where everyone was blind. He thought that would give him incredible power because he possessed something that they did not. The ability to see.

He soon learned that his gift of sight was seen by the villagers as an affliction of the brain that must be caused by two things on his head that he called eyes. They pitied him and, instead of being a gift, the eyes were perceived as a curse, an illness and a disturbance of his brain.

It did not take long before the man realised that, when surrounded by the blindness of ignorance, knowledge itself was an enemy to be ousted and eradicated.

How many of us today feel as though we have stumbled into a land of the blind and our ability to see is regarded as an evil affliction to be stamped and cut out?

from Pepperpete. Thank you. 

The slave mentality is still very much among us. A class of people have emerged who believe that they only have to put in minimal work effort while expecting the ‘master’ (government) to take care of them. As more and more people become addicted to entitlements, they become more apathetic and less likely to work for what they need. 

The mentality of the Slave is actually enslaving them and they are embracing their slavery through ideology.