In my experience, minority students don’t have to face barriers

The Democrats will never stop

I wouldn’t doubt if Democrats in Congress will want to appoint a new special counsel to investigate why Attorney General William Barr did not find any evidence of collusion in the Mueller report. Should that new special counsel find no collusion, they will want to appoint another special counsel to investigate him, and on and on.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for all the time, effort and resources being used in this futile mission to “get” President Donald Trump. It is beyond my comprehension why Democrats still can’t get over the fact that Trump is their duly elected president.

What will it take for them to accept reality?

I’ve seen minority students excel

Although I agree with much of what Josh Hoxie wrote in his Tuesday commentary, “Fix nation’s racial wealth gap,” I believe his focus is on wealth redistribution, not on a long-term solution.

I have taught fourth grade in an elementary school that was primarily minority. The “wealth gap” Hoxie discusses is actually an education gap. In my experience, minority students who complete high school and go on to college experience no wealth gap. They get well-paying jobs. They have upward mobility, and they succeed.

We must allocate resources to upgrade our school system in all neighborhoods.

Hoxie also raises the idea of reparations to reconcile the “original sin of slavery.” On the paternal side, none of my family lived in this country when slavery was legal. On my maternal side, many of my relatives died in the Civil War to end slavery. Why should I be expected to pay reparations?

Don’t forget who lost the Civil War

Texas and the other Confederate states lost a war that freed American slaves and preserved our country as it was founded. Ever since, the Southern states have worked to continually revise the narrative and do everything possible to remind black men and women they are still not equal. Flags and statues are the most visible signs of this effort.

Unquestionably, Confederate soldiers committed many heroic acts, but they are not heroes to anyone but a subset of other white people. Almost all their monuments were not installed until decades after the Civil War, as part of that revisionist history. Their children and grandchildren were taught the Confederacy was a noble cause, and that generation has passed that legacy on.

Now the truth can be found only in historic documentation, if they care to find it.

I often wonder if those who kidnapped Africans for enslavement so many years ago gave any thought to the eventual outcome of their actions.

Don’t play out culture wars

Texas’ latest foray into national prominence (yes, President Donald Trump tweeted about this) ended last week in the usual manner. The lawsuit filed against the Texas secretary of state challenging his January advisory sent to county clerks (which claimed 90,000 voters were non-citizens) was settled out of court.

Also, as usual, Texans will be spending our tax dollars — in this case about a half-million of them — on the plaintiff’s legal fees. And again, as usual, this is because the state continues to fight culture wars using our taxes.

The settlement requires the state to completely rescind the advisory, promise not to try such a ham-handed voter disenfranchisement again and pay the legal fees of the coalition of civil liberties groups that filed the suit.

Surely, Texans will someday tire of sponsoring the state’s suppression of citizens’ rights and demand that the party in power focus on governance instead.