Opportunity in America
By Robert T. Smith
web posted July 2, 2012
Fox has retained Bob Beckel as a part of their fair and balanced approach to opinion on the television show The Five, and he is also occasionally a guest on Sean Hannity's radio show. Watching and listening recently to these shows, the co-hosts/host seemed unable to appropriately respond to Mr. Beckel's force of character and overbearing Democrat-liberal beliefs.
On The Five, Mr. Beckel's show stopper was to insist on a response as to whether an African-American minority born in the inner city has the same opportunity as another white-American born in a more affluent area; his assertion of course being emphatically no. Mr. Beckel's assertion seemed to stump the panel co-hosts; their ability to respond apparently cowed so as not to appear indifferent to the human condition in so many parts of our country.
The first issue to note is that only to a Democrat are there different types of Americans. Clearly racism is alive and well in the Democrat party.
It has apparently become impolite to notice that almost exclusively the dysfunctional inner city areas of America have been long-term controlled by the Democrat party. If one wants to clearly understand the problems faced by these inner-city areas, treat yourself to watching a Detroit City Council meeting on C-Span, listen to the incoherent ramblings of Representative Nancy Pelosi or the divisive emanations from Senator Harry Reid, or sit in wonderment watching a congressional hearing wherein Representative Hank Johnson agonizes over whether the island of Guam will capsize should we deploy too many military personnel and equipment there.
Institutionally, the American form of government, founding documents and laws are to apply to every citizen. Our form of government and laws are not inherently prejudiced. The exception to this is the types of laws favored by people like Mr. Beckel; the laws that require all Americans not to be treated the same. In the Democrat-liberal America of Mr. Beckel, lady justice is stripped of her blindfold so as to subjectively apply the laws based on skin color, gender, sexual proclivity, or other Democrat-assigned class category.
The inner city youth's opportunities are a product of the parents, community, church or other social organization(s), and ultimately, with age, the individual's own responsibility. Equal opportunity is available to every person here in America. Unequal outcome occurs when a parent neglects to provide a nurturing home and promote the child's education. Unequal outcome occurs when the community becomes degenerate and promotes lawlessness, addiction, or other dysfunctional surroundings. Unequal outcome occurs when the local church or social organization does not promote virtuous values and responsible activity. Unequal outcome occurs when the individual engages in criminal activity, becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol, drops out of school, or has children themselves out of wedlock.
Unequal outcome is not a product of the American system; it is a product of individual parents, communities, and the individual themselves. Mr. Beckel and his ilk are willing to manage everyone's lives in order to try to correct their perceived unfairness. There is simply insufficient money, liberty infringing law, or other means of making life "fair;" there has and will always be disparate outcomes based on the human condition. Not everyone can invent like Bill Gates, play basketball like Michael Jordan, sing like P. Diddy, rise from poverty to be a Justice Clarence Thomas, or even network through life from a single parent home to become a President Obama. There is a nobility to be found in behaving virtuously and living responsibly. The mechanic, secretary, or maintenance man can all live the American dream.
The Bob Beckel - Sean Hannity show stopper consisted of a requirement that another guest retract the perceived inference that liberals do not also love America. The argument devolved to the notion of American exceptionalism; our founding documents reflecting this American uniqueness. To Mr. Beckel, the declaration of independence and constitution are flawed because, the example used, these documents did not resolve the issue of slavery.
Unfortunately for Mr. Beckel, America is not a place, it is a set of ideas. These ideas are based in the founding documents; all men created equal, endowed by a creator with certain unalienable rights. There cannot be a reasonable argument against these principles.
It is naïve to imagine that abolishing slavery was possible contemporaneous with laying the building blocks for the formation of a new country. The bar was set high at all men are created equal, but resolving the issue required a civil war. Failure to simultaneously abolish slavery is portrayed by the leftists as a non-severable fatal flaw of the Constitution.
Observed through the prism of today, slavery as practiced historically here in America is unimaginable; however, it was an unfortunate accepted reality of that time in history. Slavery is now no more acceptable than sending children into the mines for 12 hour work shifts, hanging as punishment for stealing a horse, scalping ones enemies, bleeding with leeches, or other less dainty incivilities of history. The Holy Bible itself did not resolve the inhumanity of slavery, similarly as the Constitution; yet the Holy Bible seems an acceptable document to some who dismiss the ideals of the Constitution today.
The pundits and pundettes of Fox need to step up their game, rather than acquiesce to the blustering of the Democrat-leftist Mr. Beckel. America remains the last, best hope for mankind. There is opportunity and preferred outcome for all who are inclined to apply themselves, here in America. 
Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country.