When I first read about Craig Melvin's interview with our beloved Governor on WIS-TV-10, I was filled with all kinds of things I was going to say. What an article I was going to wright! How righteous I was going to get about all this to-do about nothing. But there was one phrase which kept running through my mind.

          It changed everything. It was something that our President has been saying for, lo, these 15 or 16 years - even before he was President. He said it a little differently, but the speech writers have cleaned it up since.

          He called what Governor Sanford said, in his interview, "The soft bigotry of lowered expectations."

          Bingo!

          Even our Governor, whom we ALL know, says what he thinks, has been infected with it. Do we all believe that black people can't do anything, without some kind of special hand-up or hand-out? Jesse Jackson has said as much. Every time some well-meaning African American leader talks about how "His People" can't do this or that because they don't have this or that, they are saying as much.

          When did we as Americans, cease to be able to do the hard thing? When did we lose the ability to take up the tough job or the impossible dream? When did we stop being able to fly a kite and invent a science?

          I know one South Carolinian who thinks it stopped when we quit fixing our own cars.

          I don't know that this is the only reason, or even if it is a reason. But it certainly is a symptom of what has happened to the Americans' ability to dream and make their dreams come true.

          We have lowered the expectations for the dreams of not just African Americans, but also for the dreams of anybody of color or anybody with anything that makes them a minority.

          Yes, yes, we are a culture of victimization. But again, that's really only a symptom. People don't want to fix their own things anymore. Why in the hell would they want to fix something more difficult - such as their view on life?

          You know the answer. You know it.

          As God is my witness, from now on, I will never again say that anybody is worthy of being a South Carolinian until I have seen proof of their willingness to give up their victimhood and walk the tough road and do the hard thing.

          Do what James Clyburn has done. Do what Jim West has done. Do what Max Heller has done. Do what the people who tore down Friday's alley have done. Do what Jim Edwards and Carroll Campbell and David Wilkins have done.

          And as my beloved Father, who is still alive by the way, says,"Quit your bellyaching," and let's expect nothing but the best from our kids and our friends and our schools and our politicians and our bosses and our pastors and our workers. Period.

          No more excuses, no more "gimmes." Pitty just lost a friend. You want out? Get out. You want in? Walk the tough road and do the hard thing.

          No wonder Craig Melvin was incredulous when the Governor said it. He thought the Governor was going to emulate the President. And he should have. But he didn't.

          The Governor is not a bad man. But he has that soft bigotry of lowered expectations. And so do we all, until we vehemently and forthrightly eschew the thought that the other guy can't do it.