Is Cliven Bundy a racist? I wonder.

When Mr. Bundy made the comments about colored people being better off when they were slaves, I think that a lot of people misunderstood just what exactly he was trying to get at.

Long ago, being colored or Asian, (for that matter) meant that you were restricted by a society that was prejudiced and which limited your ability to live and function as a free person. The end result was a form of slavery where a life 'picking cotton' was often all the life you had. That much of what Bundy said was merely a statement of historical fact. But then, he stumbled when he tried to compare the lives of colored people (actually many minorities) when he said that they were 'better off' in those days then they frequently are under government sponsored programs that are tools of enslavement in their own right. He pointed to living conditions in which a large percentage of families are 'broken' with gang membership the only form of 'parenting' that now occurs. And yes, it's true! Their 'government sponsored lifestyle' has resulted in some startling and troubling facts! For instance, even though colored people make up just 30% of the general population, they account for 60% of those imprisoned and 1 in 3 can expect to visit prison sometime within their lifetimes! I think Bundy contends that figures like those are a direct result of a broken family structure and a growing dependence on Federal handouts just for them to survive! And, in that light, slavery was at least a somewhat 'safer' existence. Sadly, as of today, it's not just the minorities that are becoming more and more 'enslaved' by the New Nanny State - we're fast approaching a statistic showing half the US population on some form of entitlement program...

So, is Mr. Bundy an extremist? You betcha. But, I also remember a couple of quotes from President Regan when he said, "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." And, another time when he correctly forecast that, “Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem.”