Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent-Equal rights advocates do spend entirely too much time and money helping micro-minorities achieve full equality at the expense of larger minorities. One has to keep in mind that micro-minorities are usually in the country illegally or have gained full assistance through various charitable organizations as well as refugee assistance programs. They have been given top priority as well as a full range of benefits while other larger minorities stand by with little to nothing in comparison to those who have come into the country recently, and under less than lawful conditions.

There is reason to be alarmed at this micro-minority phenomenon as it has adversely impacted all Americans but particularly larger minorities, such as native-born African-Americans, Latino-American citizens and even Asian-American citizens.

The adverse effects on larger minorities are both economic and social in nature and include increased difficulties because of micro-minorities and the preferential treatment that these groups receive in contrast to everyday Americans struggling to survive.

With the added influx of micro-minorities into the country, the cultural and social balance is upset as micro-minorities are not interested in assimilating into American culture yet are more than willing to take what they can from America while they espouse their political and religious beliefs and the laws that govern those beliefs. As long as these groups are allowed to remain in America, they will continue to demand special accommodations concerning their native culture and religion. Larger minorities and others will continue to suffer for micro-minority freedoms and privileges.

The results of intrusion by micro-minorities include serious issues that impact all Americans. Greater competition for jobs, higher unemployment for every American, lower wages, reduced opportunities for small business entrepreneurs, lower quality education, strained health care systems, over emphasized political correct outcomes, competition for housing and home ownership as well as exposure to disease, violence, terrorist activities and political disruption through cultural, social and religious differences have all become serious all factors concerning the influx of micro-minorities.

With the amount of attention going to micro-minorities, conditions will only worsen and equal rights advocates will have to finally see their programs for what they are- unsustainable. Advocates must be made to understand that laws concerning micro-minorities will be enforced, and the business of refugee resettlement will have to come to a halt. America simply cannot defer the needs of larger minorities to placate the idealistic and monetary designs of micro-minority advocates and the programs they push.

Owatonna, MN Correspondent-The so-called Bathroom Bill (the North Carolina Legislature’s House Bill 2) has generated national attention and a sizeable controversy since it was passed. The bill requires all people to use the appropriate male or female public restrooms based solely on the sex listed on their birth certificates. This angered the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning) community, and for a good reason. The hidden agenda in that bill is to legislate morality by restricting the personal freedom of this minority.

But has the controversy been overblown? Any polarizing news item tends to get exaggerated because of twenty-four seven media coverage, and the Bathroom Bill was no exception. Discrimination of any sort is wrong. Everyone should be free to peacefully live the life they choose as long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of anyone else. But is the transgender community receiving too much attention in relation to their numbers?

According to the most widely cited study of the number of transgender people in the United States—compiled in 2011 by Gary J. Gates of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law—there are approximately 700,000 individuals who self-identify as transgendered. This amounts to 0.3% of the U.S. population. Other groups that experience discrimination include women, who make up more than half the population and people of color—about twenty-seven percent of the population. Nearly twenty percent of the population has some sort of disability, and about half of those disabilities are severe. Homosexuals and bisexuals make up about three and a half percent of the population.

It seems that addressing a micro-minority such as the transgender community by enacting restrictive legislation and dealing with the subsequent fallout is a huge misuse of time, money, and effort by groups on both sides of the issue. Considering our lack of progress on women’s rights, minority rights, and the rights of the disabled, doesn’t it make more sense to spend resources on resolving those problems before dealing with the needs of smaller groups of minorities? If the squeaky wheel isn’t vital to the operation of the machine, maybe the best use of that grease is to first ensure that the primary components of the machine are in good working order.

Sheffield Jamaica Correspondent-The truth is, those with the means to attaining the basic necessities of life are exercising ‘a right’, and those with differences, maybe religiously and culturally are often treated unfairly and discriminated. The rights, livelihood, and cultures of these minorities are important. I do believe that once precedence is made, they tend to stick. This applies in both cases. When equal rights advocates labor in their efforts to assist these micro-minorities in obtaining full equality, it benefits everyone, including larger minorities.

A typical case in point: Especially in court rulings and cases, many religious minorities were able to achieve the right to preach just as other major or accepted religious organizations. That has been established as precedence. The freedom or right to a religion has been established and used to win other cases.

I do believe this situation can be applied to larger minorities. Even though advocates focused their efforts on micro-minority groups, there tends to be a ripple effect. I honestly do not believe that they spend too much time and money helping these smaller groups. If anything, their efforts have helped in establishing equal rights and justice across the board. You have to start somewhere and once a change begins, everyone is shaken up to do something or make the world a better place. Larger minorities do benefit when micro-minorities achieve equality.

Gastonia, NC Correspondent-The epidemic of special snowflakes appealing for special treatment has been growing for years now, and under the Obama reign it reached its zenith. Now that President Trump is ensconced in the Oval Office, the cacophony of want has only grown louder, as those few individuals who haven’t yet had specific laws passed to protect their kink, lifestyle, hair color, choice of body piercings or conduct with farm animals are desperate to get on the legislative bandwagon.

While the legal underpinnings of equal rights are sound, their application has gone completely haywire. At some point, cooler heads must prevail and the micro-minorities must be told that they’re free to practice whatever sort of dirt worship or squirrel buggery they choose, but they’ll have to do so under the laws of the land as they currently stand. By continuing to fragment the system of checks and balances to cater to ever-smaller groups, we create a legal morass that clogs courts, hamstrings prosecutors and makes it all but impossible for real issues of discrimination and bias to be fairly heard.

Hopefully, once we have a full complement on the Supreme Court, some cases involving these aggrieved small groups will be heard, and the justices will do as they have in the past and offer sage counsel, sound legal judgment and the smackdown these whinging annoyances so richly deserve.