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Category: Undeniably Right Undeniably Right
Published: 03 March 2017 03 March 2017

Donald Trump was elected and the Democrats lost so many seats at the national, state, and local levels because American citizens are tired of the direction our political elite on both sides of the aisle have been taking us. Now let me say that this direction has been driven by the Democrats at the national level with help of the liberals in the media and academia. The Republicans at the national level have gone along with what the Democrats want because so often the Democrats were the ones in charge. The Republicans have abrogated their duty to stand up for their principles and work against programs that they believed would hurt America in the long run. That said primarily because we have let the liberals run our education system at all levels we have become a nation that does not represent the principles upon which we were founded.

Over the weekend I was listening to a program on ESPN radio entitled The Morning Roast. It is a relatively new program on Sunday mornings and I'm not entirely sure who the hosts of the program are as I have not listened very often. But as I was driving to the tennis court on Sunday morning I was listening to their discussion about James Winston's speech to a group of middle school kids. Winston is the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is no stranger to controversy resulting from his actions, especially while in college. He has really matured after getting into the NFL but during his speech to the middle school kids he said some things that had the liberals up in arms.

Most of the controversy centers around Winston's comments about how kids should act, including saying something to the effect that women should be essentially demure. A lot of women and liberals took that to mean that they should be seen and not heard or that they should be in the background, at home baking cookies and having kids. I have heard part of the comments and I did not take it that way but of course the liberals will jump all over anything they can to create outrage.
But the hosts of this particular show took it in a different direction. The gist of Winston speech to these kids is that you can be anything you want to be in America if you get an education and work hard. Isn't that the message that we as a country have tried to spread throughout our history? Don't we have so many examples of people achieving success after coming to this country? We have so many examples of children who have exceeded the success that their parents had because they work hard and/or because they got an education. Does that mean that everyone is successful? Of course not. But in America you have the opportunity to try. But apparently this offended the hosts and the guest on The Morning Roast.

The people on this morning show said that it's not true; you cannot be whatever you want to be in America. The guest is a former NFL football player. He said that during his career he gave a similar presentation to a group of middle school kids. One boy came up to him and this gentleman asked the young man what he wanted to be when he grew up. The young boy said, "I want to play in the NFL." This gentleman said that it was clear to him there was no way this young boy was ever going to play any sport professionally much less football. He said the boy was undersized, appeared to be uncoordinated and did not exhibit any of the physical characteristics that you would see in a professional athlete. The hosts agreed that it was unkind to tell this young boy to work and try and achieve his dream. They opined that it would be better to tell him not to work hard at being a professional athlete but to find something else.

In fact to tell anyone in this country that they can be anything they want is mean and can cause permanent emotional damage. First of all not everyone can achieve the goal that they have set for themselves and secondly they inferred that we are a bigoted country who will keep certain minority groups from achieving success in their chosen areas of endeavor. So instead of telling children that they can be whatever they want to be, instead of telling them about the importance of education as a strong foundation for achieving their goals, these three people said that it would be more important and more constructive to tell these children to be nice people. Especially when it comes to how they treat women. In fact the female host said that the message should be to elevate women, put them first and if you're competing with women why not consider letting them achieve their goal first. Subjugate your life goals and put her goals first. The male cohost and guest agreed with her to a large extent.

What is wrong with telling people that they can achieve anything if they work hard and get an education? We also teach them at the same time how to deal with failure or how to adapt when things aren't going the way they want them to. How many times have we seen the story of a successful athlete who was not quite so successful as a youngster. Remember Michael Jordan was cut from his junior high basketball team. According to these hosts Michael Jordan should have been discouraged from continuing to pursue his dream of playing basketball in college and the NBA. He should have been told to do something else. Maybe George Washington Carver should have been told that he could not pursue a career in science because of the color of his skin and the atmosphere in the South at the time.

Can you imagine what our world would be like if all of the people who overcame significant obstacles to achieve their dreams were not there as examples for the rest of us? Can you imagine what this world would have been like without all of the successes that Carver and others had? How many people in each of your lives do you know that have overcome obstacles to achieve some level of success? Think about the first person in your families to attend college or to buy their first house. We have to dream big; we have to work hard to try and achieve what we want to achieve no matter how difficult it may seem at the time. We do not move forward as individuals or a society without this attitude.