I sit an ponder things that maybe I shouldn’t. I may be off base and maybe it is only in my head. This is not intended to provoke anything but thought.

I have heard people say that racism no longer exist within this wonderful country that I volunteered to support and defend our way of life when I joined the service but the more I look it breaks my heart. I have heard with my own ears that a certain group of Americans should let go of our past and live for what you have today.

Slavery, the murder of slaves for apparently not working hard or fast enough, lynchings, and through the battles for equal rights which I personally feel is continuing are just a few things that I need to vent about. So, has racism departed from our society?

In a country that I personally have went to pay for gas and found that as I get to the front of the line to pay pre-pay for my gas for the clerk tend to every person that came in after me before me. Then waiting for over 30 minutes for my food at restaurant after everyone else received theirs, and yes it came out cold. Stopping in a town in Texas during a military convoy to be told at the National Guard Armory that we needed to make sure we were moving before it got dark because they don’t take kindly to my kind in that town. You would think that this was back in the 60s, but this was in the 90s.

Now let us fast forward to 2012. As a country we have a President of African American descent and there are certain people that refuse to refer to him by his title. He is often referred to as Obama rather than President Obama. Then we see it every day in cities across the country that young men and women of african american descent are kidnapped, beaten and even killed and society turns a blind eye. In today’s headlines is the Trayvon Martin situation which makes me think that maybe there are certain people in our society that still believe that we are still not equal. We can send a man to prison for dogfighting but when an African American male is gunned down on the street it is not even worth the time to investigate. The claim that it was self defense would have gotten us locked up and guilty until proven innocent. Maybe by moving forward we have offended some and they feel the need to bind together and fight back.

Oath of Enlistment for the Armed Services

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Nowhere in there does it say only if I like you. I did not like former President Bush but he was still President Bush.