Really?

Let’s think about that in real figures for a minute. If America was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would be 140,000 jobs lost each week. There have absolutely been horrible announcements about new sets of layoffs each week. But if this country was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would mean that we’re losing 7.3 million jobs each year. Ahem…losing seven million, three hundred thousand jobs each year.

This is clearly not the case. Think about it in terms of real jobs: Wal-Mart employs about 2.1 million people; McDonald’s employs some 400 thousand; Home Depot employs about 330 thousand; Bank of America has around 172 thousand employees; and Macy’s has about 182 thousand people currently employed. Combined, you’re still looking at approximately 3,180,000 workers – less than half of what the woman on the show this morning was fear mongering about.

If you believe what this fear monger believes with respect to America losing jobs, then you might believe that more than double of the equivalent amount of total jobs provided by Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Home Depot, Bank of America, and Macy’s will be gone in a twelve month time period.

The economy is in a rough period right now and it might last for a few more weeks, months, or even years. But when people go around trying to sell fear like this it does nothing to help get the nation’s psyche back where it needs to be.

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Let me rephrase that last comment. America’s citizens have, by-and-large, moved BEYOND living in a society where the color of one’s skin decides whether or not they can advance in society. Finally – FINALLY – we might be in a post-racial society where a man or woman is judged by the content of their character and not their race. For my liberal-minded friends out there – this is what Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream was all about! And for my conservative-minded friends out there – imagine a world where affirmative action is taken off of the bargaining table due to its inherent racism and anti-lower-to-middle-class white leanings.

I distinctly remember bringing this issue up about 4 years ago in Graduate School and using Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as my examples. Here are guys who made their entire careers off of the black vs. white conflict – real (Abner Louima) or imagined (the Duke case). Let’s hope to God that these two men are put out of business because America is now in a post-racial society.

With Republicans voting for Obama, whites voting for Obama, a woman earning 47% of the national vote for Vice-President, a black man winning the Presidency…it appears that it is finally time for us to move away from the race and gender-based issues of the 1900’s and get involved in some of the major issues of OUR time. The environment, sustainable living, quality education, American-style capitalism in a global market, advancing math and science in America, etc, etc. These are the types of changes that America has wanted not just for 8 years, but for decades.

We don’t want to rehash the same, tired arguments about the color of our skin any more. Enough is enough. In fact, a large number of the 2008 electorate (myself included) have existed on this planet for almost three decades while not ever caring about the race of our friends and colleagues. It’s nice to see that America has finally caught up!

Now how long until the old-fashioned news media concocts some story about how America is as racist as ever?!?