Fellow Americans, my name is Charles Harris. I am a 57-year-old Black male, and a longtime reader of the Patriot Post, among others, who now desires to comment on the state of America based upon many years of living under the radar. It is my long-considered opinion that the founders of this nation set this country up for a people who were willing to practice self-control, restraint and propriety in their endeavors. This is a long-gone practice.

The reason that America worked so well for our forebears is that they practiced all of the above-mentioned virtues. My generation (late baby boomers) learned that, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!” I am currently living in a state that is totally schizophrenic toward those who it doesn’t trust; and that is inclusive of those who practice the above-mentioned virtues.

People complain about criminals, so they pass laws designed to criminalize as many people as possible. Then, they complain about the COSTS of dealing with them. America — you cannot have it both ways. I do not think that the Founders ever intended for there to be a “suspect class” of people who are forever identified as “criminals,” whom the American people would have to support with their tax dollars. The racial problems we currently suffer were mostly caused by our unwillingness to accept, and treat, minorities as fully vested citizens in the first place.

We suffer the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” because we NEVER did the right things; followed the Founders’ intentions, in the first place. Man will always take advantage of a situation that works to his benefit, and these days, there’s more money in doing wrong than there is in doing right. Of course, our news media does us all a great disservice in that they “accentuate the negative,” causing and maintaining fear amongst us.

And as long as we FEAR, we will never be able to progress or return to the greatness that was once an American trait. I am 57 years old. I have one college degree in Social Work, but actually qualify for two more. I have worked with children and families for 43 of my years. I have practiced law on all three levels, worked as a columnist, a cop, a penitentiary guard, a substitute schoolteacher, and was once a certified paramedic. I also hold a CCDW from the commonwealth of Kentucky, and have carried and owned weapons for 40 of my 57 years. My resume is five single spaced pages long. I am currently unemployed. Why?

Because anyone in Modern America, especially a Black man who displays intelligence and who practices the three cardinal virtues I alluded to earlier, is perceived as a threat to the established order. This is what we have set up for ourselves, and our nation. It is not just the “gangstas, thugs, and criminals” who threaten America — wild dogs are not going to destroy a civilization. Rather, it is also those who display a willingness to not be corrupted by a system that is about the money, and not the client population that is supposed to be served. Until and unless we get away from our fear and worship of money, nothing will ever work properly for us as a nation. There is no reason that someone as educated as I have been, who has had the opportunities that I have had and who can do the things that I can do, should be unemployed. Save one, of course — and that one can be found by looking in our mirrors.

President Obama, Donald Trump and others of our elected politicians are direct reflections of ourselves. We complain mightily about them, but We, the People, created the conditions under which they flourish and demean us all. Our fears allowed, and continue to allow, the conditions of dissatisfaction that plague us all. Somewhere along the line, we forgot the cardinal rule of childrearing; said rule applying to governance as well — if you GIVE your children things without limit, they will have no respect for those things, or you, and eventually those things become valueless to them.

Until and unless America returns to the values of its forebears — self-control, propriety and restraint — we are doomed to inevitable collapse. Our founders knew this; see their writings. They knew well what would happen when people discovered that they could demand without limit.