There doesn't appear to be a great distance between Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and racism.

I suppose I ought not be too critical of them for that. I can't imagine one ever wants to be a racist. At best, one can fight to recognize and resist racist impulses. One learns racism at a very young age. When I was growing up, my grandfather's best friend was a former Buffalo soldier, and there was a "negro" family in our threshing ring, so I wasn't prejudiced against African-Americans, but I was prejudiced against Mexicans - and to this day, if I have a nightmare of being cornered in a dark alley, I'll give you three guesses who is cornering me.

I use the term "negro" in a historical context. That was the preferred polite term at the time; it wasn't until the late 1960s that "black" went from being a highly offensive term to the preferred polite terminology. A threshing ring, by the way, is a group of farmers who jointly owned a large and expensive thresher that required a lot of manpower to use. The equipment would be towed to one family's farm, where everyone would pitch in to process the year's harvest, and then the equipment would be towed to the next farm in the ring, lather, rinse, repeat.

Little Mexico Was Dangerous

Little Mexico was a dangerous slum, full of former migrant workers. When it wasn't planting or harvest time, nobody was working. Discouragement and drinking among those impoverished people was a consequence, and violence was not uncommon. It wasn't just dangerous to be there after dark; it was dangerous at high noon.

Yet later on, I worked collecting premiums, mostly cash, on foot in an impoverished black urban neighborhood. I knew of people, grown men, combat veterans, who would drive around the city rather than take the risk of driving through that neighborhood and having to stop for a traffic light. I'd sometimes be walking around with $1200 to $1500 in cash by the end of the day - my pockets bulged, and I just stuffed more money in, thinking it imprudent to pull out that wad in public, just to fold it nicely.

I Felt Safe There

On the other hand, I never had the slightest bit of trouble. I was greeted by huge smiles no matter where I went. People happy to see an insurance salesman? That's strange. But the people I met were wonderful people, people who cared about their kids and about each other, and they'd show me pictures of kids with wonderful expressions. And when it came time for lunch, I'd stop at the soul food diner. The first time I was in there, there were a lots of wide eyes. This guy is going to eat soul food? But they apparently didn't realize that good food is good food, and besides, soul food is just farmer's food.

And perhaps I was safe there because I treated my customers as if they mattered. I know that their business mattered to me, and it didn't take long for them to matter.

Rand Isn't Entirely At Fault

But I feel like Rand is being given a bad rap over the Civil Rights bill. They did the same thing to Barry Goldwater in 1964. Both Barry and Rand supported all but one title of the bill, and both were ambivalent over that last title. Barry Goldwater pointed out that a retired widow might be renting out a room in her house in order to survive on her Social Security. Previously, she had rented that room out only to young white girls who didn't date, and but under the new law, that room would be equally available to a young black man who was built like a football player and swore like a sailor. That's asking a lot of her. And it really isn't just about race. She'd be equally afraid of sharing her home with a white guy who belonged to Hell's Angels.

Although I supported the Civil Rights law in the 1960s, I've since come to recognize that it had shortcomings. One of the unintended consequences of the law is that it takes money out of the hands of the guys wearing white hats, and puts it in the hands of bigoted racists. If you have a smaller labor pool to choose from, you have to pay more to get the labor you need. If you have a smaller pool of customers to appeal to, you will have lower sales. Racism is expensive - and the Civil Rights laws effectively prevented racist business owners from shooting themselves in the foot.

Rand Isn't Entirely Faultless

And Rand didn't express himself too well when he tried to make his second amendment example. If a privately owned business holding itself out to the public is treated the same as a governmental organization, then the right to bear arms should be equally applicable in that private business as on public byways. I don't allow individuals - including law officers - into my home if they are bearing arms. A man's home is his castle. He's allowed to make that restriction. So why isn't a man's business his castle as well?

No, it's not the best argument in the world. You can't take a tour of the White House if you are armed. You can't even file a lawsuit in a federal courthouse if you are armed with a camera, much less a gun. If you have a private business that's open to the public, it's not public, but it's not private either. It's reasonable to engage in conversation about where the line needs to be drawn between the owner's rights and the public's rights.

Civil Rights Still Need To Be Won

There are still a lot of businesses that aren't complying with the civil rights legislation. RR Donnelley, I'm told, is firing hispanic workers for a single day of absence for illness or other reason, but is much more tolerant of absence by non-hispanic whites. It's not like they don't know about the law; it's been around for nearly half a century.

But locally the city and county governments ignore the ADA, and that civil rights legislation is twenty years old. They tore out perfectly good sidewalks downtown, and replaced them with bricks that provide an uneven surface that makes it highly difficult for a gimp like me to get to the courthouse. You'll walk down a block of sidewalk, only to find that there's no ramp at the far end, meaning that you have to walk a block back, then walk in the street for another block to get back to that same intersection.

The Law Is An Ass

A small restaurant can't afford to waste much space on restroom facilities, because they have less room for tables. Chances are very good that you have unisex toilet facilities in your home, but state law demands separate restrooms for males and females. Wouldn't it make more sense for a small restaurant to have one nice restroom, large enough for someone using a wheelchair, rather than dividing that space into two small restrooms, uncomfortable for everyone? And which restroom is a father supposed to enter when his 2-year-old daughter needs help using the facilities, anyway?

The liberal press, people like Keith Olbermann and Ed Shultz, aren't being fair to Rand Paul, and that's a minor misfortune, but they aren't being fair to their viewers, and that's a major one.

Laws Always Have Unintended Consequences

Legislators rarely deal with perfect bills. By the time they're ready for a final vote, that bill to paint the caretaker's bike shed also contains an appropriation for a new battleship, and a prohibition on serving liver-and-onions in Italian restaurants on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Even before that, though, you realize that the idea of using latex house paint on a steel shed is pretty dimwitted. You should be using an automotive enamel. But given the choice, do you paint the shed with a paint that will do a lousy job, or do you leave it unpainted?

But let Chris Matthews corner you, and he will repeatedly demand that you make a choice between two bad options, with no explanation whatsoever, and if you try to get him to conduct a civil conversation, he says, "You're a beautiful woman, but even you can follow what I'm saying if you get off your lazy ass and pay attention, you ignorant slut."

Chelsea Handler should've decked him.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
- accessibility - Americans with Disabilities Act - Barry Goldwater - Chelsea Handler - civil rights - Ed Schultz - gimp - Hell's Angels - hispanics - Keith Olbermann - negro - racism - Rand Paul - Ron Paul - RR Donnelley - soul food - threshing ring - unintended consequences