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How One Man Lost His Freedom in the New Multicultural America
By John W. Whitehead
In our politically correct culture, there’s a lot about Kenneth Webber, a self-proclaimed American redneck, that some might take issue with. However, it’s the 3-by-5 foot Confederate Redneck flag adorning his Dodge truck that has gotten the 28-year-old school bus driver in trouble-and all because a school official who happened to see it was afraid that it “might” offend someone.
A man who prefers the back woods to the big city, Webber is a walking billboard for the things he believes in: God, family, freedom, country and the redneck way of life. He doesn’t even have to say a word about his views. His tattoos, which cover most of his arms, say it all. For example, on his right arm, Webber proudly displays the American flag and the words “100% American.” A mirror image tattoo dominates his left arm, but with the Confederate flag and the words “pure redneck.”
Put all the messages together, and they add up to what the 28-year-old Oregon resident describes as “a backyard redneck. I work for what I have. I support my family. It’s just who I am. It’s a way of life.” Unfortunately, that way of life was severely jarred after Webber was fired on March 8, 2011, for refusing to remove the Confederate Redneck flag from his truck.
Webber has worked for First Student Bus Transportation Services since June 2007. Every school day, Webber dutifully drives his truck to work and parks it in the employee lot, which is leased from the school district. He then reports to work and picks up the school bus for his K-12 route.
Over the course of a day’s run, Webber transports between 70-80 kids between home and school. Despite the fact that he is adorned with tattoos, some of which clearly proclaim him to be a redneck and one in particular that depicts the Confederate flag, Webber, who is in constant contact with students, has never been asked to cover up for fear that he might be considered a racist. In fact, Webber openly says he is not a racist. Hence, the reaction to Webber’s Confederate flag on his truck is completely illogical.
After all, a bright red Confederate flag with the word “Redneck” screaming across it in capital letters is not exactly inconspicuous. Yet in the year and a half since it’s been on his truck, no one voiced any concerns or complaints to Webber about the flag.
That all changed after the school superintendent paid a visit to First Student and noticed Webber’s truck in the parking lot. Voicing the concern that some members of the community might be offended by the flag adorning the parked truck, the superintendent requested that Webber remove the flag. He justified the request by pointing to the fact that the school district is “about 37 percent minority students,” and “we have a policy…about displaying symbols on school property that were racist, or had a potential to be seen as racist.”
On March 2, 2011, Webber was called into his supervisor’s office and ordered to remove the flag from his pickup or be suspended from his job. Insisting on his constitutional right to free expression on his personal vehicle, Webber refused the demand, was suspended and was sent home for the day. The following day, Webber reported to work and was again ordered to remove the flag or be suspended, this time for three days. Again, Webber refused and was suspended. On March 8, Webber was fired after he again refused to back down and remove the flag from his pickup.
Yet as Webber points out, other employees have symbols on their cars that some might consider offensive depending on one’s political or religious views. “Those never concerned me because I respect their right to have an opinion,” said Webber. “It’s their right to do so.”
Ironically, Webber seems to have a better grasp of First Amendment principles than any of his superiors or the school superintendent himself. He’s certainly more enlightened than many of those on both the left and the right of the political spectrum who, spouting the need for “civil discourse,” have largely neutered the First Amendment. Yet James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was very clear about the fact that he wrote the First Amendment to protect the minority against the majority. What Madison meant by minority is “offensive speech.”
Unfortunately, we don’t honor that principle as much as we should today. In fact, we seem to be witnessing an elitist philosophy at play, one shared by both the extreme left and the extreme right, which aims to stifle all expression that doesn’t fit within their parameters of what they consider to be “acceptable” speech. There are all kinds of labels put on such speech-it’s been called politically incorrect speech, hate speech, offensive speech, and so on- but really, the message being conveyed is that you don’t have a right to express yourself if certain people don’t like or agree with what you are saying.
This monolithic mindset is at odds with everything America is supposed to stand for. We should want differing opinions in our public schools and in our public life. We should be encouraging people to debate issues and air their views. Instead, by suppressing free speech, we are contributing to a growing underclass of Americans-many of whom have been labeled racists, rednecks and religious bigots-who are being told that they can’t take part in American public life unless they “fit in.”
Yet this is where we go wrong. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is “a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment…that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.” Thus, it is not a question of whether the Confederate flag represents racism but whether banning it leads to even greater problems, namely, the loss of freedom.

ICE Failed to Deport Criminal Aliens
Middle American News April 2011

Nearly a thousand convicted criminal aliens were released into the general population of the U.S. instead of being deported, thanks to the incompetence of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
According to a report from the Office of Inspector General inside the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, 890 criminal aliens eligible for deportation were released from both federal and state custody after serving their sentences because ICE failed to correctly identify them. Some were illegal aliens, others were legal immigrants whose crimes made them eligible for deportation.
The agency blamed “lax documentation” and understaffing.
The report found that about 2% of aliens in state and federal custody and eligible for removal went undetected by ICE. Many of them had committed very serious crimes, including sexual assault.
The report examined only convicts being released in California, Texas, New York and Florida, states with very high immigrant criminal inmate populations.
California had the highest number of released alien convicts, about 4% of the total number of convicts eligible for deportation.
One of the men released by ICE was an illegal alien from Mexico in federal custody who had been convicted of lewd conduct with a child and had been previously deported in 2006.
Another released convict was a Mexican illegal who had completed a 17 month state prison sentence for possession of narcotics. He had previous convictions for battery on a public official and burglary. He is now free inside the U.S.
The report expressed concern about potential future ICE failures, noting that staffing vacancies in ICE field offices are as high as 25%.

Aliens Hired While Citizens Lose Jobs
Middle American News April 2011

Immigrants in the U.S. are gaining jobs while native-born Americans are losing them, according to a study from the immigration-friendly Pew Hispanic Center. The study confirms an earlier report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.
Pew reported that in the year from June 2009 to June 2010, alien workers obtained 656,000 jobs while Americans lost 1.2 million jobs.
Middle American News reported in February on the earlier labor market study that showed employers hired more than 1 million immigrants, many of whom were in the U.S. illegally, while U.S. employment nationally declined by 6.26 million in the period studied by the Center.
“Employers have chosen to use new immigrants over native-born workers and have continued to displace large numbers of blue collar workers and young adults without college degrees,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. He said many employers prefer illegal immigrants because “employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll taxes.”
The Pew study found that the unemployment rate for immigrant workers fell 0.6 percent while the unemployment rate for Americans rose 0.5 percent from 2009 to 2010.
Pew said the employment rate for immigrants, who are estimated to comprise 15.7 percent of the U.S. labor market, rose from 61.7 percent to 62.3 percent.
“These gains occurred at a time when native-born workers sustained ongoing losses,” the report said.
Economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month that since the recession, there are now 5.4 million fewer jobs available. She said that current federal immigration policy is “unresponsive” to current economic trends.
“For example, in 2010, the unemployment rate in construction was over 20 percent, but the Department of Labor nevertheless certified thousands of H-2B visas for the construction workers. This defies logic,” she said. H-2B refers to the federal “guest worker” program for immigrants in non-agricultural industries.

*These articles were found in Middle America News.