Should We Affirm This Action?

I am Lance Pisowicz and this is, “What’s Wrong With Washington!” Thanks for joining me again today. We’ve got a lot to cover today, so I won’t waste that much time but there are a few things I’d like to mention before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/lancejponline), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com and www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). We normally cover three smaller topics but today I’ve decided we need to devote a little more time to a couple of larger issues in our nation.

To begin with we will take a look at something that is causing quite the uproar in the Supreme Court once again. As many of you are aware, I am a sophomore in high school who is now beginning to look at what my options are for the future. Academically I am solid, near the top of my class. In fact, I actually take more junior classes than I do sophomore classes. What I will most likely do for my undergraduate major is get a degree in business (probably Business Administration). I am not yet sure if I will go out of state, stay in state, or go to school locally and live at home. Whatever the case is, I will be applying to several schools for admission within the next couple of years.

The more I learn about the college application process, the more I learn just how skewed it is. As a white male, I am at the bottom of the barrel. Even with a tiny part of Iroquois in me (I have a 13th great-grandfather who was a Mohawk chief) that evidentially is not enough to receive any favoritism. This is known as Affirmative Action and it has impacted millions of young people in our nation for better and for worse.

Affirmative Action itself was created in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy used the term in a speech. The goal was to increase minority representation in colleges and universities, as well as compensate for previous discrimination against certain groups. In 2003 the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action by a vote of 5 to 4. I suppose discrimination is still surviving and thriving in our nation.

The discrimination is no longer being felt by the minority groups who had suffered through hardships since our nation’s founding. Now a form of reverse-discrimination is threatening the wellbeing of another group. The Supreme Court is now in the process of reviewing another case that they hope to rule on by June of 2013, but the question remains for the moment: Is Affirmative Action constitutional? Second of all, is it ethical?

My viewpoint is this: It is wrong to discriminate against or favor an individual or group on the basis of race or gender. Those are the two key instances in which Affirmative Action is wronging so many Americans. At the end of the day, it should not matter if every student at a college is African American, White, Asian American, or Latino. If they are the best all-around students, then race and gender should be irrevelant.

Two wrongs do not make a right. I umpire baseball, and when I make a poor call I realize I cannot make another call in favor of the team I accidentally wronged. If I did that, I would be disrupting the balance of the game in an unpredictable way. In the same way, you cannot make amends past mistakes by discriminating against other individuals who personally had nothing to do with the past situation. The best thing you can do is apologize, be reconciled, and move on.

I for one do not want to be judged on the fact that I am white or that I am a male. If I were not admitted to a school for that reason, I would be infuriated. If I were admitted because of that reason, I would be mortified. Do minorities honestly need a handicap to keep up with more common ethnicities? I think these people are just as capable as the majority when they are competing for admissions to colleges even when race is not taken into account. If discrimination were to become suspected at a specific university, the government then should step in, investigate, and work for a solution to the problem. But if we continue to practice an unfair method for college admissions to begin with, we have achieved nothing. If we truly are a nation that does not discriminate based on race or gender, then Affirmative Action must be brought to an end. That is the bottom-line.

Now we move on to issue of the Secret Service Scandal. As many of you are aware, the largest scandal in the history of the Secret Service was uncovered. Although the accused members of the Secret Service have not been convicted yet, they are believed to have breached American intelligence security by their “involvement” with prostitutes in Columbia. There are believed to have been at least twelve agents that were involved with the prostitutes. In fact, there are claims by the prostitutes that the men even told them what their purpose in Columbia was. They were preparing for the President’s upcoming trip there in the city of Cartagena.

Now I am a huge proponent of innocence until guilt is proven, but the fact that there are even allegations of such a thing is disgusting. If the men are innocent, to what has our society come to so liberally issue these serious allegations. If the men are guilty, they have embarrassed our nation on a global scale, and potentially revealed a loophole in our national security.

The fact that this scandal joins several others in the past few weeks and months, creates a serious question: Exactly what is going on with the Obama Administration behind closed doors?

In none of these scandals was the president directly responsible, however what happens on a President’s “watch” is a reflection on his term(s) in office. It also makes me wonder what is happening in the even higher positions in our government. Could there possibly be something going on even within the president’s cabinet?

Here’s a good “rule of thumb” offered by a former president that applies to all Americans, particularly those in leadership roles to live by:

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find…” - Ronald Reagan

When one considers what scandals have done to previous Presidents’ legacies, it is easy to see why Obama is so ready to push the issue aside and offer a disclaimer. In many cases, these scandals can doom a presidency. So Mr. President, let me offer this suggestion to you: either choose your friends wisely or we will choose someone else who will.

Thank you for joining me on “What’s Wrong With Washington” today. I will see you on Sunday with “Lance’s Weekly Walk.” Also, be sure to tell us what you think by leaving us a message at: http://lponline.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3k7/.

Be sure to tell us what your thoughts are on Affirmative Action by voting at: http://poll.fm/3nyq4. You can access this poll and many other features through Lance Pisowicz Online, www.wix.com/lancejp/online.

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again and have a great weekend!