Slavery in America

 

SLAVERY IN AMERICA

On 1 January 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the United States, right?  Wrong.  The United States has never given up slavery and neither have the several states.  It simply has moved from private ownership to government ownership - - socialism at work as some would say not knowing anything about socialism.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

Article I, Section 23 of the Constitution of the State of Iowa provides as follows:

"There shall be no slavery in this State; nor shall there be involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime."

There you have it folks, slavery and involuntary servitude still exists here in the land of the free.  If you have been convicted of a crime, that is.  So what do we do, we make more crimes every year.  Our legislatures are busy thinking up new ways to make more its citizens less free; it is an ongoing process - - more crimes, more involuntary servitude. 

A major difference between slavery before 1 January 1863 and slavery currently is that prior to 1 January 1863, slavery had mostly an economic function.  Today it is mostly political - - a tried and true method of controlling the public.  If you are convicted of a crime, you are subject to fines, imprisonment, probation, parole, sex offender registry, public identification, a loss of government entitlements, and probably others.  In other words, you are controlled by the government rather than by a plantation owner - - you have to obey.

Of course, one of the elements of the current involuntary servitude (we will call it that rather than slavery in that it doesn't sound quite as bad) is economic.  There is always the requirement that one be employed.  We must keep the economy moving at all costs and fast food places need workers all the time; they simply can't seem to keep employees very long and people on probation or parole required to seek employment are perfect candidates.

In conclusion, it really means a lot if and when people actually think about  the world they live in.  Most do not.  We Americans have been trained to believe that we are free - the most free of anybody on the planet - at some point we really ought to consider this statement rather than just accept what we are being told.  We have approximately 25% of the incarcerated people in the world.  Of the entire world mind you, not just China or Russia or Brazil or Iran or India but of the whole world entire.  We have several million on probation and parole; we have several million more who have no drivers licenses because they owe the government money or committed some infraction. 

So all I'm saying is, that before we start spouting off about how free we are, we give it some thought. 

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo