Recent actions a microcosm of what's wrong with America

I hate additional taxes. I hate having to pay for someone else's wrong choices. I'm a conservative. And being a conservative, I believe that my successes should not be the paradigm or provide the support for those who did not serve their country like I did, went to respiratory school like I did, study for my undergraduate degree like I did. This includes the copious studying needed for my master's degree, or the sacrifice I made, and volunteered for when I went to airborne school and Desert Storm.

In a nutshell, I sacrificed and I feel if I can sacrifice, so can everyone else.

If I had to study, and intern, and volunteer to put my family in a position where they are comfortable, then so can everyone else. And I should not be penalized by taxes because of my success — however you define that.

But I cannot go and express my sentiment about taxation at these tea bag meetings, or my pro-life views, without the fear of being attacked — not because of my views, but because of my skin tone.

Shameful. It’s painfully obvious that taxes, health care, socialism, or immigration, is not the issue at these tea party meetings. Bigotry is.

Demonstrators hurl the N-word and spit at black members of Congress as if they were the only ones who voted for the health care bill. Yes, the true colors are being shown. This isn’t about rights, or taxes, or even health care. These issues are nothing more than the conduit to transport the bigotry that has been bubbling under the surface.

Now it has bubbled to the surface and can no longer be hidden.

The main issue for the protesters and similar extreme right-wing groups devolves into nothing more than a black man is the president. That’s it.

Here is the surprising part. I didn’t know that there were so many racists left. I didn’t know that, as a result of these recent transgressions against black members of Congress, that the conservative movement has now somehow crystallized into the white power movement. Witness what just happened on Capitol Hill.

How can they justify or rationalize, or explain away, spitting at members of Congress and calling them the N-word? How do they justify Congressman Joe Wilson’s decision to yell, “You lie!” in the middle of President Barack Obama’s address to Congress. I know, some will try, saying that it is passion, and they are upset and that’s what people do. Spare me.

Why are there are no black faces, or brown faces, or yellow faces, or gays at these rallies and meetings?

Here’s the impetus behind all of this. It is anger at having a black authority figure, pure and simple.

I have experienced and witnessed it, but not to this extreme. They try to package it as something else, but what it is, is fear and the upsetting of the applecart — how they have historically perceived authority and power.

Minorities are supposed to be subservient to this demographic and they will do everything they can to ensure that this remains the case.

And it’s not just on Capitol Hill. Look in Olympia. Look at the biggest employers in Thurston County, and tell me how many minorities, black, brown or yellow, are in the C-suite.

It wouldn’t be that much of an issue, until you consider that in this area, the Puget Sound, is considered one of the most highly educated and diverse areas in the country, and you can’t find one executive, operations or finance official of African American or Hispanic background in the executive suite.

We deserve better from ourselves.

Lucius Daye, a service-connected disabled veteran, is working on his MBA degree from Syracuse University. A member of The Olympian’s Diversity Panel, he can be reached at lucasdaye@comcast.net.