Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Three Fifths Equation

I think President Obama is doing pretty well considering the original constitution only recognized him as a partial human being.  Mr. Bill O'Reilly had a bit to say about that on his show yesterday.  He was raving (I guess it's called opining when he does it) about how President Obama had attended Easter services at a church where the minister had savagely denigrated the constitution by stating that the original document was flawed.  Yes, apparently some people consider something as minor as counting blacks as three fifths of a person is a flaw.  It's no wonder, (he opined) that so many people believe Mr. Obama has a fundamental dislike of this country.  Why else would he attend the church of a known "racial activist?"

Mr. O'Reilly's staggering lack of sensitivity is often bewildering.  His guest was an elderly African American minister (I'm afraid I missed his name) who had lived through the ugly days of racial discrimination and had no doubt experienced the sting of being treated as sub-human.  Mr. O'Reilly argued that calling the constitution flawed for any reason is un-American.  He was also quite sure that the only motivation for saying such a thing was blatant racism.

How could anyone be that callous and so hopelessly screwed up about right and wrong?  To his credit, the guest refrained from punching O'Reilly in the face which is what he deserved.  He very calmly defended the preacher in question and assured Mr. O'Reilly that he was sure Mr. Obama loved his country.  Of course, O'Reilly was having none of that.  I wonder if Billy "Boy" would be singing the same tune if the founding fathers had allowed the enslavement of the Irish?  Counting Mr. O'Reilly as three fifths of a man might actually be exaggerating his worth.  As a slave, he would have been a lousy asset.  The market for loud-mouthed, opinionated slaves was never very good.

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