To Anti-Affirmation Actioners

When my friends and I are trying to figure out what to do on a Friday night, we have a rule that a person is not allowed to shoot down an idea without having one of their own. So for all you cookie-peddling, anti-affirmative actioners out there, here's the question:\nWhat's your solution?\nWhile I was unable to attend last week's affirmative action bake sale, all accounts suggest that the three numbskulls on the Committee for Freedom knew about as much about affirmative action as did the chocolate chip cookies they were selling. Initially, I was prepared to write this off and focus on the real issue: the pros and cons of affirmative action. But what does it say about White America when three boneheads have a desire to hold a demonstration to protest a controversial subject such as affirmative action despite the fact that the three of them don't seem to have clue one about the subject they are protesting?\nWhite people who find affirmative action unfair do so because they feel like they are being stripped of something that they deserve, something that is rightfully theirs. "I've got better grades than that black guy, but he got into the school that I wanted to go to ahead of me because he's black and I'm white. That's not fair."\nYeah, so? \nPeople who get a job or get into school with help from affirmative action are not moochers or unqualified parasites feeding off the system. These are hardworking people who just want the same opportunities as everyone else. Affirmative action gives these people a boost in an attempt to level the playing field. Do they not deserve a chance to succeed in the same way that white men do?\nI would imagine that a good number of whites who oppose affirmative action would not oppose a hypothetical arrangement in which Americans who have been discriminated against for many years be given a "leg up" in order to help them achieve their goals. The reason they oppose affirmative action is usually not because it is attempting to help the less privileged, but rather because it is "hurting" them.\nYou can't have it both ways. If you are truly interested in helping people who need a little help, then you have to be willing to sacrifice something of your own. Have you ever tried to give a homeless person a dollar out of your pocket without losing that dollar? Of course not. That would be absurd. To give a dollar, you must be willing to lose that dollar in an effort to better the whole. If ending institutionalized racism were as easy as passing a bill or a law that granted every minority a great education, a great job and lots of money, white people wouldn't have a problem with it. But the reality is, in order to truly help people, you must be willing to make a sacrifice.\nMany people who oppose affirmative action, including the Committee for Freedom, say that it is wrong to make decisions based on race. But that would suggest that this country has not been making decisions based on race for years. To suggest a solution while ignoring the past is as ignorant as it is irresponsible.\nSure, affirmative action is not the final answer. It will not end racism, sexism, classism or any other injustices in America today. But it is an honest attempt to right a situation that desperately needs righting. It asks us to be flexible in order to help large groups of people who have been discriminated against for years.\nSo all you anti-affirmative actioners, what is your solution?