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Opinion

Affirmative action should lead change of agenda 

Lashic Patterson
Opinion Columinst

With a victory for the Democrats, the legislators’ agendas should switch from a contest frame of thinking to a solutions state of action. 

Legislators in Michigan gathered enough voter support on a proposition to eliminate the practices of affirmative action.

Research performed by Judge Greg Mathis and Frances Kendall, a white female author and activist, shows that white women have benefited the most from affirmative action. 

We need to modify affirmative action and help level the playing field between white heterosexual Christian men and everyone else. 

We should demand the new government change the state of poverty, inadequate education, criminal justice system and the gaps between minorities and the majority in all areas. These steps will help improve the quality of life for all. 

But no one should be naive and hold their breaths for government reforms. Society needs to step in to make a difference. Americans need to be politically active. Doing research on who is in office on all government levels, writing letters, protesting and voting are key steps to bringing about change. 

Those who have escaped poverty should put their money, time and energy back into impoverished communities whether it is by mentoring, fixing up the schools or volunteering to erase waste and crime in communities. 

The disenfranchised need to place past conflicts aside and act on what true wealth is. Wealth is education, ownership, stocks, bonds and saving. Wealth is not cars, clothes and jewelry, which have no long-term value.

When a person complains about the government, the individual must first ask what did he or she do to make a difference.
 

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