I recently read South Carolina Senator, Tim Scott’s autobiography “America, a Redemption Story”
Choosing Hope, Creating Unity”. He recently announced he will run for President as a Republican in the
next election. He is black. He grew up in a poor, one-parent family headed by his mother. He
encountered prejudice while growing up, but persevered, got a college degree and founded his own
successful insurance agency before becoming one of the South Carolina senators. He is articulate and
very personable as a senator. He is also, obviously, a very good human being.
His theme to unify and revive America is hope, opportunity and redemption. Our country has always
excelled in hope and opportunity for its people. Our early settlers in the 1600, 1700 and 1800s left
Europe where they were persecuted for political and religious reasons and had no hope or opportunity
to better themselves. They made the perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to claim freedom and
free land in America. For those 3 centuries, America had abundant free land for those who would build
homes on it, clear it and cultivate it. They were welcomed, worked hard and thrived. At that time, land
ownership was the chief wealth asset for most people. By the end of the 1900s, the free land was all
claimed; however, the Industrial Revolution had created a thriving industrial economy in America and
job opportunities were abundant for those who were willing to leave high risk farming and take skilled
industrial jobs with reliable income.
After World War II our American political leaders changed our priorities from helping our workers
achieve high skill manufacturing jobs. Instead, they opened our borders tariff free for manufactured
goods produced in low wage countries around the world. We lost tens of millions of high paid
manufacturing jobs and our middle class shrank by 10 percent from 60 percent to barely 50 percent.
Those 10% fell from middle class to poor.
I agree, we need to create opportunity and hope for all citizens who are willing to work hard to take
advantage of those opportunities and achieve a bettor life for themselves and their families.
Tim Scott never says what he means by “redemption”. If he means all living whites, today, owe cash
repatriation to all descendants of slaves, I disagree! Throughout human recorded history, humans have
treated other humans unjustly. I cringe at the injustice to the American native tribes, the church
conducted witch trials of old widows based on the accusations of superstitious and ignorant neighbors
and the church inquisitions in Europe in the middle ages. Also, the unsafe, terrible working conditions in
American industrial plants and mines in the 1800s.
If he means that we should all acknowledge the injustices of the past and resolve never to repeat those.
I agree! It is time to put that behind us, unify and move on for a better future for all Americans. The
federal government cannot create new high-skill, high-wage jobs for our workers; however, it can adopt
policies that encourage and help our competitive free market business to do so, and they will. It can also
provide free high skill job training for all those willing to work hard for a better life. If that is what he
means, I agree and will vote for him. ~Ralph Coker