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I was just wondering what the next thing the dimms were going to be throwing into the ring. Let me see, oh, the Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, oh I’m sorry they changed that didn’t they? It’s now obstruction of justice! This thing about global warming, oops sorry, they changed that to climate change didn’t they? They are so worried about DACA, those poor children who came to this country illegally with their illegal parents, yet they don’t mind killing a greater number of babies with $535,000,000 of taxpayers money. They complain about our vote in the U.N. where the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. They complain about the republicans jumping on the F.B.I. and the justice department for being corrupt, by the way, which they are. The current administration is getting threats from Eric Holder, the crooked ex-attorney general, Senator Warner from Virginia about firing the crooked Special Counsel Mueller. And the latest of their rants? White privilege.
I want to tell you folks a story about white privilege. I knew about a family back in the 50’s and 60’s when times were pretty tough for a man and his family. This one certain fellow had four children at the time. He drove a taxi in Lima, Ohio for 70 cents an hour plus tips. No welfare, it would have been called relief back then. He and his family made it. He worked the night shift and lived in a four family apartment building. He went to bed one morning and something told him to wake up. He had a large rat not 6 inches from his face! Two days later he moved his family to rural route Venedocia.
The place was a shack, but it was home. It hadn’t seen a coat of paint for decades. Water for everything was across the road some 50 yards away. He drove that old 2 door Plymouth to work at Jim Kelly Buick in Lima for $1.00 an hour. He moved again to rural route Spencerville was paying $18.00 a month rent. He and his wife had two more children totaling 6. He got laid off from washing cars and drew $28.00 A week unemployment.
He took in three different families, all relatives and housed them, fed them. He would take his two older boys with him and they would go, “scratching” which consisted of pouring through two different dumps looking for metals such as copper, aluminum, brass or iron. This was a bi-weekly journey. If he saw pop or beer bottles along the roads in the country, he would stop and pick them up along with his two sons. All for the family, he heard no complaints from his boys.
His children would ride the school bus to Jennings Elementary School, then on to Spencerville. They were constantly harassed, hair too long, hair to short, the old car in the driveway, anything and everything. They had an outhouse, carried in all the water, chopped all the wood for the pot belly stove, gleaned the cornfields after picking, worked picking apples for 20 cents a bushel, pruned the trees, pressed cider for 50 cents an hour. The man’s oldest son worked nights in Van Wert dispatching at the cab office for 33 cents an hour. The man moved his family to Van Wert in 1963 on a Saturday in early September, that next Monday he went to work at the Kennedy Kit where he worked until his death.
I didn’t write this to garner any pity. I know there are many who might read this probably experienced similar lives. This wasn’t the entire story, much more could have been said. I know one thing, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I was the oldest son, the man, my father, he was a hard worker and no son could be prouder of his father than me. White privilege? I never had white privilege, but I was privileged.
–Kenny Barnes
Paulding, Ohio
