Last week, Houston’s most successful LGBTQIA+ publication OutSmart was among the first to show how equal opportunity principles can be outsmarted in Harris County with the creation of a special commission favoring one group over others.
“(On Tuesday,) Commissioner Lesley Briones of Precinct 4 introduced a measure to create Harris County’s first LGBTQIA+ Commission,” says OutSmart, and a memorandum from Precinct 4 adds that the Office of County Administration (of Harris County, essentially Houston and surrounding areas), the County Attorney’s Office, et cetera will “work with Precinct 4 to write bylaws and a membership structure for the LGBTQIA+ Commission” — to be staffed by professionals who volunteer on the commission in an “economic, social, health, and safety” capacity.
OutSmart makes it clear that the LGBTQIA+ movement takes itself seriously and that Precinct 4 is fully cooperating as well. “We are looking for community leaders to serve on this commission. We need people with hustle and high standards,” the Precinct 4 Commissioner is quoted as saying.
If these valuable individuals with high standards and a rigorous work ethic were to work for all Americans in Harris County, everything would be less than controversial. The vocabulary of volunteerism throws up smoke and mirrors: these are individuals who will be appointed to the Commission to do work that is bound by time and space. An hour they spend in securing benefits for LGBTQIA+ persons is an hour not spent on securing benefits for all Americans.
The divisiveness of gender-based commissions, or racial commissions, or commissions based on religion does not count as good governance. Where is a Jobs Commission, something the American people need? Harris County needs a Jobs Commission that creates an updated market environment for county residents regardless of race and gender. 500,000 new jobs in the next three years would have been a better goal, albeit a more challenging one, because it requires real government work and government discussions with a complex private sector. But real change requires real work. Does Precinct 4 know that?
The Bible Is Against Favoritism
Despite the New Testament account of what Jesus of Nazareth told the Gentile woman (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:26-29), it was about exorcism and its spiritual benefits. For reasons known only to the Christ, he wanted to reserve these supernatural benefits for Israelites. It says nothing about material benefits that God the Father will give to all who labor on the earth.
Gentiles are evidently cared for by a God Who feeds birds and clothes fields (Matthew 6:32). Consider the birds, consider the lilies (Matthew 6, Luke 12) … Food, water, clothing and by extension, shelter… For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. Acts 14:11-17 tells of God’s material blessings, that “He left not himself without witness (so that the nations will know there is a God), in that He did good and gave (to Gentiles) rains and fruitful seasons, filling (the) hearts (of Gentiles) with food and gladness.”
“He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. The labour of the righteous tendeth to life; the fruit of the wicked to sin.” (Proverbs 10:4-5, 10:16)
The Bible does not say “reserve jobs only for Jews.” That would be disastrous anyway because a near-hundred percent of Americans are Gentiles. And the Bible certainly doesn’t say “reserve jobs only for blacks,” “reserve jobs only for whites,” and so on. All Gentiles need the same thing: to make life work. It is time for Harris County Commissioners to hire specialized services of economists and financiers. Last month, Precinct 4 confessed to having recommended Dr. Cody Pyke for the public healthcare system Harris Health. Pyke is a lawyer who is suddenly a medical doctor but without experience.
It is likely Harris County Commissioners will appoint community leaders to their newest Commission who possess little to no experience in economic, social, and occupational health and safety affairs.
No Need for War to Feed the Hungry
Commentators on Elon Musk’s Twitter have begun to lament that either God or an (un)civil war would save America. But if Christians were to trust in the sword, living by it would mean dying by it (Matthew 26:51-52, Luke 22:49-51). It is doubtful if there is any sane daughter or mother who would want their father or husband going off to war against fellow Americans. Death in war isn’t glorious. It’s foolish. Therefore, we must only rely on God, and ask for Him to stave off war.
“My face is red with weeping; dark shadows ring my eyes; yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.” (Job 16:16-17) The eleventh Psalm, verse 5 declares, “Jehovah trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.”
To save America, local governments such as the Harris County Commissioners ought to relearn something so simple, it’s mind-blowing: that the basic tenet of government is to obey God and serve people of all races and genders (see Declaration of Independence, Stat. Vol. 1; Proclamation 5227, Reagan, August 16, 1984).
5227 states, “women (are) equal partners with men,” and “we reaffirm our national commitment to the goal of equal opportunity for each individual to pursue and to achieve her or his goals.”
Harris County government officials should not shy away from creating a Jobs Commission, with supporting commissions that flank it for the advancement of opportunities based on all conceivable skill sets, competencies, and levels of educational accomplishment. Harris County officials must create a market environment conducive for any kind of American — the lowly educated, the highly educated, and everyone else in between. Then it won’t matter if you’re cisgender, transgender, or nonbinary, or genderless. As long as you’re humanoid and possess American citizenship, you matter to the economy.
Banish the idea of material exclusion, and you can include all Americans. Create proper commissions staffed by the most talented economic redevelopment experts. This is even if the result is a range of cheesy names such as a Basic Provisions Commission, Multiracial Prosperity Commission, and Winter Energy Commission. People of all races must benefit in today’s Texas and the Texas of tomorrow. We cannot afford to pander to one race or another at various times according to the blinkered electoral ambitions of politicians on the left and the right.
Both Democrats and Republicans have brandished their labels in political theater since 2008 — fifteen years of dramatic brinksmanship but with nothing tangible to show for it. Americans are getting poorer, because the U.S. dollar does not buy much in America itself. Living in America means giving up all your income on daily and monthly expenses, with nothing left over to save. With exceptions such as the pound sterling and Euro, the dollar is worth more than any foreign currency. But at home, why aren’t Americans shopping at upscale stores and eating in the fanciest restaurants on a daily basis? Why are prices so out of control, and tipping near-compulsory at many a table?
Why are waitresses and waiters underpaid by management? Why do organizations find the need to underpay workers? Why are paychecks unable to pay for a full life in America, when these slips of paper are denominated in U.S. currency? Why is life so unfulfilled in the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave?
Manufacturing jobs have failed to create widespread wealth and a large middle class, because when products are created by expensive manufacturing, the products are naturally quite expensive and do not compete well in domestic and international markets. The only way is to expand. Create three to five times the number of manufacturing jobs, generate economies of scale, and bring product prices down. Made-in-America products would be affordable again to all at home and in foreign markets everywhere.
A Discriminatory Commission Disadvantages Other Groups
What is the use of government if government does not care for people? Property ownership taxation is extremely high in Texas, and Harris County leads the pack with some of the highest taxes foisted upon bewildered owners who have to work themselves to their dying day, or risk losing their homes. These taxes must be reinvested in increasing the wellbeing of people, and include them all, regardless of gender, race, or religion. Otherwise, these collected taxes end up siphoned at the end of an 18- or 36-month cycle and put into the pockets of cunning politicians.
An LGBTQIA+ Commission compartmentalizes benefits for a select sector or a singled-out group of people. This is discriminatory. We call on Harris County Commissioners to vote and scrap all discriminatory commissions such as the LGBTQIA+ Commission and redirect all funds and resources to a Jobs Commission, so as to properly alleviate the dire financial situations of many American families in Harris County.
Note on U.S. Statutes: Unfortunately, due to the gradual and disorganized development of United States law, courts usually disregard large sections of statutory law, and throw out the Declaration of Independence and Proclamation 5227. What Americans have always held as sacred and important, the courts have instead stalwartly refused to enshrine as enforceable law. Why then are statutes called statutes? Why are laws called laws when they’re not laws? The LGBTQ+ movement takes advantage of loopholes in the American legal system because they understand which laws are laws, and which laws are in fact not law.
