Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
I admit that as I continually hear the term "white privilege" it stokes anger in me.
Was it white privilege that caused my Grandpa Dirschell to work 45-60 hours per week to provide for him and my Grandma, plus help out their eight children if needed, without government welfare?
Was it white privilege that caused my divorced maternal Grandma Ruthie to work in a "pants factory," a sweat shop, to support her and help her children if needed, without government welfare?
Were we looking at white privilege when my wife of 53 years and I watched our dads work at least 40 hours a week in factories and then come home and do numerous odd jobs to make a few more dollars? The thought that the government should force someone else to support their children never entered their minds.
Was it white privilege that allowed my wife and I to be the first in our families to earn college degrees, degrees paid for with the sweat of our blue collar parents and our brows, without government assistance? We both worked virtually the entire time we were in college.
Was it white privilege that allowed my wife and I to grow up in a nuclear (two parent home) home? In our post-Christian, welfare nation, where the government has become our god, or our husband or maybe our sugar daddy, we have seen much change.
Since the start of the War on Poverty the out-of-wedlock birthrate has increased from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent for whites, and from 25 percent to 70 percent for Blacks. From just 1970-92 the percentage of children living in two-parent families dropped from 85 to 71 for all races and from 58 to 36 for Black children. The percentage of children living with mothers who had never been married increased from one to eight for all races and from six to 31 for Black children. No doubt the numbers are much worse today.
Our families taught us that the United States was/is not a perfect nation, but it was/is the best one on this planet. It is a nation where we have the freedom to achieve, if we were willing to work and if we made good lifestyle decisions.