tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25306467929268943592024-03-14T00:21:32.414-07:00The Ladner ReportUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger704125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-16953012304908746622011-09-05T17:46:00.000-07:002011-09-05T18:39:46.787-07:00President Obama, "Speak To Us"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodUfGldMiZn0uuHS2Cnqcm_uS3NAzLsctdYGL6ND_i6RoaR1ypVVgStHQ0L_B_eVn74eyGTsP6XR8h3XCILqrA2vijHhcQJif3ifk0tNV_rstasVTfDfED0l11nS-gS5bMhDRCH7J1LFh/s1600/obama01_16773717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiodUfGldMiZn0uuHS2Cnqcm_uS3NAzLsctdYGL6ND_i6RoaR1ypVVgStHQ0L_B_eVn74eyGTsP6XR8h3XCILqrA2vijHhcQJif3ifk0tNV_rstasVTfDfED0l11nS-gS5bMhDRCH7J1LFh/s320/obama01_16773717.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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When President Obama delivers his jobs speech on Thursday, will he continue to ignore his base?<br />
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<div class="post-body entry-content" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-style: dotted; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: dotted; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 29px; padding-right: 14px; padding-top: 10px;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">I was talking to a friend recently...a 76 year old black man who grew up in South Carolina and has lived in Washington, DC for many years. He is, by my appraisal, an average educated senior citizen; not an intellectual by any means but very informed. He lives in the inner city by choice, and he talks to a lot of people ranging from his neighbors on the corner to upper middle class friends in suburbia.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">As we talked about our mutual displeasure with the way President Obama is responding to a lot of problems, my friend said three words that gave me pause. He said, "Speak to me". I asked him what did he mean. He said he and most of the black people he knows just want the President to acknowledge their existence. He reiterated, "Just speak to us." He said he didn't want or expect the President to make major speeches on the plight of the black community but a simple acknowledgement that we exist, and yes, that we African Americans supported him in record numbers. We gave our hearts and souls to his election and we thought he was one of our own.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">My friend talked about an experience a friend of his had. His friend belongs to a black church in the economically depressed area of Southeast Washington. President Obama visited his friend's church, much to the parishioners surprise (it is always kept secret for security reasons). When the President entered the side door of the church everyone was excited to see him. The President took his seat on a front pew and looked straight ahead. When the service was over, he exited without so much as turning around to smile, bow his head in acknowledgement of their thunderous applause, or wave at the audience. Sadly, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 18px;">President Obama didn't even look at his strongest supporters. In other words, he didn't "speak" to them and they felt ignored, pained, and disrespected.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">I don't know why President Obama ignores his base -- African Americans, Hispanics, trade unionists, liberals, leftists et al. while wooing independent voters he has to win over to be re-elected. He can acknowledge his base even as he courts independent voters. It appears to me that President Obama is trying to be the most centrist president in history. Could this explain why he keeps trying to mediate with hostile Republicans who would rather see him disappear from the the universe than bargain with him, even when it goes against their self-interests. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">They have never mistreated another President or debased the Office of the President as they are now doing. My friend and I agreed that it is painful to watch this proud black man bow down to his arch enemies, and to come out on the losing end of the stick every time he sits down to negotiate with them. Why does he keep capitulating, and why does he keep going back for more punishment? Perhaps we will never know.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">If President Obama continues to ignore his base I don't believe he will be able to rally these once enthusiastic voters -- a must for him to be re-elected. My friend and I will vote for him but I doubt seriously that I will go door to door, make hundreds of phone calls, or "give until it hurts" as I, along with millions of others did before. My Washington friend said it is hard enough to get some black people out to vote because they don't feel that politicians are going to help them. In candidate Obama's campaign blacks had tremendous pride that a black man was running a very viable campaign. They gave of themselves because, as my friend said, "we wanted this 'brother' to win". Finally, we had a candidate of our own race, one who understood our problems and who promised to do something for <i>us</i>. The big question is, will the President recognize in time that he has to reconnect with us? Will he <i>speak to us</i>?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">The President appears to be isolated from the average voter. He needs advisers who know what the people on the ground feel and think. Sure, he knows that jobs is the critical issue that will decide his re-election. He has economic advisers who can compute the numbers but does he have staff who can get him to talk about it from his heart? In other words, does he feel the pain of the suffering?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">He needs to get rid of all the "yes" men and women surrounding him. He needs staff who can convince him that his bus tours need to include inner cities as well as the majority white small towns. He doesn't need to run from us. "We are his people and there is no need for him to act like he doesn't know us," said my friend. Whatever happened to the Obama who connected with the poor and the middle class voters...the man who stopped old men and women on the street and the children in their schools whose needs were great? They want to see the man who said he would fight for them, not the man who has disappeared behind the doors of the Oval Office. They want the passion and self confidence of a bid whist player, not the cool confidence of a chess master. They want to see passion and strength.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">Finally, the President is not demonstrating the strength and fortitude of our historic black leaders. Wheres is that toughness and fortitude of people like Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell, William Dawson, Lewis Stokes, James Clyburn, Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? Where are the leadership skills of effective leaders like Frederick Douglas, Rosa Park, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ida B. Wells and Dorothy Height? These leaders didn't back down in a fight unless absolutely necessary and then they did it with a toughness that we admired. They knew how to negotiate without giving up the store.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">My Washington friend said he feels a combination of pain and anger when he sees President Obama being "dissed" by the likes of Congressman Eric Cantor and the dunce Sarah Palin. "Every right wing white person in public life is rolling President Obama," he said. "We want him to stand up with strong broad shoulders, a bit of anger in his voice and a face that says, 'you'd better fear me because I'm going to kick you into a corner'".</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">Why can't President Obama call a White House summit of influential as well as ordinary supporters to request their support in fighting back? Why can't he flip the script with the journalists who have also joined the herd in beating up on him? Instead of finding a thousand ways that the President is ineffective, the President can change the focus to one which discusses a re-invigorated President who, with his supporters, are pushing back and changing the nature of the debate in substance and kind. The base is waiting for the President to say, "I need your help".</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">There is a vacuum in leadership and the President's supporters aren't sure what to do. One thing about power is when you're down even the weakest person will step on you. By now the President Obama has been pummeled so often and so badly that what we see is a man who looks like he is separated from his own spirit. My friend said, "It's hard to fight for someone who looks like he isn't fighting for himself."</span></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-25443734516263059842011-09-02T18:02:00.000-07:002011-09-04T07:06:23.506-07:00Speak To Me<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwpnv45sFess66rN33z-5ovKl5Seo3p_Qz4LxF8RA6M5VB5lrpAd4nyN8D5w32swwoBOuQCTJ88A1YRUE1hZyyd570Qv_6UYNKJYcAIHGCL4zka5gkTgImUefNzNuF7Ja0Gjby7rotNdk/s1600/450x316-alg_obama_serious.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEwpnv45sFess66rN33z-5ovKl5Seo3p_Qz4LxF8RA6M5VB5lrpAd4nyN8D5w32swwoBOuQCTJ88A1YRUE1hZyyd570Qv_6UYNKJYcAIHGCL4zka5gkTgImUefNzNuF7Ja0Gjby7rotNdk/s400/450x316-alg_obama_serious.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648505393494407314" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">I was talking to a friend recently...a 76 year old black man who grew up in South Carolina and has lived in Washington, DC for many years. He is, by my appraisal, an average educated senior citizen; not an intellectual by any means but very informed. He lives in the inner city by choice, and he talks to a lot of people ranging from his neighbors on the corner to upper middle class friends in suburbia. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">As we talked about our mutual displeasure with the way President Obama is responding to a lot of problems, my friend said three words that gave me pause. He said, "Speak to me". I asked him what did he mean. He said he and most of the black people he knows just want the President to acknowledge their existence. He reiterated, "Just speak to us." He said he didn't want or expect the President to make major speeches on the plight of the black community but a simple acknowledgement that we exist, and yes, that we African Americans supported him in record numbers. We gave our hearts and souls to his election and we thought he was one of our own. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;"> My friend talked about an experience a friend of his had. His friend belongs to a black church in the economically depressed area of Southeast Washington. President Obama visited his friend's church, much to the parishioners surprise (it is always kept secret for security reasons). When the President entered the side door of the church everyone was excited to see him. The President took his seat on a front pew and looked straight ahead. When the service was over, he exited without so much as turning around to smile, bow his head in acknowledgement of their thunderous applause, or wave at the audience.</span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">He didn't look at them. In other words, he didn't "speak" to them. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">I don't know why President Obama ignores his base -- African Americans, Hispanics, trade unionists, liberals, leftists et al. while wooing independent voters he has to win over to be re-elected. He can acknowledge his base even as he courts independent voters. It appears to me that President Obama is trying to be the most centrist president in history. Could this explain why he keeps trying to mediate with hostile Republicans who would rather see him disappear from the the universe than bargain with him, even when it goes against their self-interests. They have never mistreated another President or debased the Office of the President as they are now doing. My friend and I agreed that it is painful to see this proud black man bow down to his arch enemies, and to come out on the losing end of the stick every time he sits down to negotiate with them. Why does he keep capitulating, and why does he keep going back for more punishment? Perhaps we will never know.</span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">If President Obama continues to ignore his base I don't believe he will be able to rally these once enthusiastic voters -- a must for him to be re-elected. My friend and I will vote for him but I doubt seriously that I will go door to door, make hundreds of phone calls, or "give until it hurts" as I did before. My Washington friend said it is hard enough to get some black people out to vote because they don't feel that politicians are going to help them. In candidate Obama's campaign blacks had tremendous pride that a black man was running a very viable campaign. They gave of themselves because, as my friend said, "we wanted this 'brother' to win". Finally, we had a candidate of our own race, one who understood our problems and who promised to do something for <i>us</i>. The big question is, will the President recognize in time that he has to reconnect with us? Will he <i>speak to us</i>? </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">The President appears to be isolated from the average voter. He needs advisers who know what the people on the ground feel and think. Sure, he knows that jobs is the critical issue that will decide his re-election. He has economic advisers who can compute the numbers but does he have staff who can get him to talk about it from his heart? In other words, does he feel the pain of the suffering? </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">He needs to get rid of all the "yes" men and women surrounding him. He needs staff who can convince him that his bus tours need to include inner cities as well as the majority white small towns. He doesn't need to run from us. "We are his people and there is no need for him to act like he doesn't know us," said my friend. Whatever happened to the Obama who connected with the poor and the middle class voters...the man who stopped old men and women on the street and the children in their schools whose needs were great? They want to see the man who said he would fight for them, not the man who has disappeared behind the doors of the Oval Office. They want the passion and self confidence of a bid whist player, not the cool confidence of a chess master. They want to see passion and strength.</span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">Finally, the President is not demonstrating the strength and fortitude of our historic black leaders. Wheres is that toughness and fortitude of people like Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall, Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell, William Dawson, Lewis Stokes, James Clyburn, Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? Where are the leadership skills of effective leaders like Frederick Douglas, Rosa Park, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ida B. Wells and Dorothy Height? These leaders didn't back down in a fight unless absolutely necessary and then they did it with a toughness that we admired. They knew how to negotiate without giving up the store. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">My Washington friend said he feels a combination of pain and anger when he sees President Obama being "dissed" by the likes of Congressman Eric Cantor and the dunce Sarah Palin. "Every right wing white person in public life is rolling President Obama," he said. "We want him to stand up with strong broad shoulders, a bit of anger in his voice and a face that says, 'you'd better fear me because I'm going to kick you into a corner'".</span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;"> Why can't President Obama call a White House summit of influential as well as ordinary supporters to request their support in fighting back? Why can't he flip the script with the journalists who have also joined the herd in beating up on him? Instead of finding a thousand ways that the President is ineffective, the President can change the focus to one which discusses a re-invigorated President who, with his supporters, are pushing back and changing the nature of the debate in substance and kind. The base is waiting for the President to say, "I need your help". </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">As things stand, there is a vacuum in leadership and people don't know what to do. One thing about power is when you're down even the weakest person will step on you. By now the President Obama has been pummeled so often and so badly that what we see is a man who looks like he is separated from his own spirit. My friend said, "It's hard to fight for someone who looks like he isn't fighting for himself." </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';font-size:100%;">Speak to us, Mr. President. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-75405155896539591952011-08-10T19:12:00.000-07:002011-08-10T20:24:07.171-07:00No thanks Kathryn Stockett, I don't want to be "The Help"<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J1buHMcH62w/TkNLShOPUHI/AAAAAAAACZg/j8kLzVhCOx4/s1600/the%2Bhelp.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J1buHMcH62w/TkNLShOPUHI/AAAAAAAACZg/j8kLzVhCOx4/s400/the%2Bhelp.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639433939925815410" /></a>
<br />I was a maid in high school. I cleaned white peoples houses on Saturdays and after school. I cleaned, washed and ironed clothes and waxed the kitchen floor for $3.00 and twenty cents, the latter being for bus fare. I came from a family of nine children so this was the only way I could make spending money. There were no fast food places like McDonald's during the fifties for had they existed I would have had a part-time job at one of them to get spending money. <div>
<br /></div><div>There is nothing glorious about cleaning up after dirty people and nothing like being exploited by people who don't give a damn about you. I have written about this in my memoir that I am almost finished writing. Maids are invisible and their lives are invisible to their white employers. When I was fourteen, I quit a job when the white girl who was my age DEMANDED that I wash her blood stained underwear from her menstrual period. When her mother came home from work she told her that I refused to do so and her Mother lit into me saying I thought I was too good to wash these clothes. Before I left that day I made sure that the pancakes Jo Lee demanded that I make for her included dirty dishwater instead of water or milk, and I fried them with the ring of grease around their nasty kitchen sink instead of lard. Jo Lee praised me for making what she described as the best pancakes she'd ever eaten. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>As I stood there and watched her eat, I felt vindicated because I had gotten her back in the only way I felt I could. Had I verbally lashed out at her in a tit for tat her mother could have had me arrested for being uppity or she could have done so on some trumped up charges. It was not inconceivable that her mother could have had some mean men torch our home. I never took pride in what I did but as I held back my salty tears that Saturday morning I couldn't think of any other way to fight back for being called a Nigger and being told that I "had" to wash her soiled underwear. "Who do you think you are?" she had demanded. "You think you too good to wash my clothes? You're just a Nigger!" she shouted. My regret that day was that I couldn't tell her that I had fed her dirty dishwater and grease from the sink.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>
<br /></div><div> A year later when Jo Lee and I were fifteen years old , I heard from my neighbor who sent me to work at Jo Lee's home that she had gotten married because she was pregnant. She and her high school drop-out husband were living in a shotgun house in the white people's poor section of town. Can you imagine Jo Lee writing a book about me, my feelings, dreams, thoughts, aspirations and goals? Can you imagine Jo Lee being able to step out of her role of racial superiority long enough to give voice to me and my family? Could Jo Lee ever be interested in where and how I lived, went to school, who my friends were, what we did for recreation, what I studied in school, etc.? Absolutely not. The culture did not allow for a bi-lateral relationship in which this could have occurred. Therefore, how can Kathryn Stockett get inside the head of her characters and truly understand them except from her unilateral and imaginary perspective? She said as much when she said she didn't know anything about her family's maid outside the work environment when she was growing up, and she didn't question it. </div><div>
<br /></div><div> It was a rare white employer who had enough humane interest to know the backgrounds and interests of their maids and other black employees. My grandmother was a case in point. For as long as I can remember she worked for a white family. They owned a furniture store. The woman stayed at home and the man operated the furniture store. My grandmother cooked, cleaned, and raised their son and daughter. I was so humiliated as a child when my grandmother went to the daughter's wedding and was seated alone in the balcony. She bought a new dress, hat, purse, shoes and gloves for this occasion and was as proud as a biological mother because she had been the mother to these two children--Joann and Johnny. I remember telling her that I was going to college so I wouldn't have to be a maid. I loved my grandmother very much and I respected her. She was a kind, decent, caring and giving woman to all of us kids and to everyone else. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>But my grandmother was stuck in the role of maid because that was the only kind of work she could get. She made $3.00 a day plus bus fare. I was astounded to learn that from this small salary she saved enough money for my cousin that she raised to attend nursing school at Dillard in New Orleans. My grandmother was very disappointed and sad when my cousin chose marriage over college. You see, my grandmother wanted my cousin to achieve what she hadn't been able to accomplish. She wanted to have the vicarious satisfaction of achievement and she wanted my cousin to have a better life than her own. I always regretted that she was denied this because of my cousin's personal choice. So many of our forebears sacrificed so that we could be nurses and teachers instead of maids. Which brings me back to Jo Lee and her racist mother, who called me a Nigger when she got home from work because Jo Lee told her I refused to wash her underwear. She threatened to fire me but that was unnecessary because I had no intention of going back to that job. Although their words stung but didn't break me. I knew I was not a Nigger and I knew that they were one step up from being poor white trash even though the mother was a secretary for a lawyer. She was also his paramour. If anything, their actions caused me to have a stronger resolve to go to college so that I would not have to be a maid.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>As I read Kathryn Stockett's book, I was reminded that I knew a lot about Jo Lee and her divorced mother and they knew nothing about me because their white skin privilege made them view me as invisible, a non entity, and if they had to consider me at all, they saw me as inferior, as a nobody. All the maids I knew were familiar with the intimate details of the families for whom they worked. This has been the case since slavery when black women worked in the houses of white people....cooked, cleaned their houses, wet nursed their babies...then their employers turned around and called them dirty and lazy. How can you entrust someone with cooking your food and raising your children and then, like a schizophrenic, make a 180 degree turn and look on them as inferior, alien, and not worthy of knowing anything about them, or humanizing them? This is the history of black people in America... it is the history of black domestic workers. It is why my father told my mother that she would never work for white people. He saw how his mother's employers tried to dehumanize her by commission and omission. </div><div>
<br /></div><div> What is needed is a book by a maid or a group of maids on the white people they work for. Now that's a book that would probably be a lot more accurate and insightful, and the dialect would be correct too. Every time I read one of Kathryn Stockett's "I'm on" instead of Imma, or I'm gonna" I got irritated. I hated it when she spelled "Eula Mae" as "Yule Mae". I got downright angry when she described the husbands of at least three maids as no count men who had gone off and left their families. At the same time, the white men in Stockett's world aren't absent or "no count" because they have professional jobs, leisure time, and they have enough money to build separate toilets for their maids. God forbid that a black maid who cooks their food would ever be allowed to use the same toilet the white people use. I guess this explains the fixation segregationists had with toilets.... for in so many public places there were four. One each for black women, black men, white women, and white men. It's no wonder they didn't have money for libraries and good schools. It was all spent making sure that no black person would ever sit on the same toilet a white behind had graced. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>I have thought about my conflict with Jo Lee over the years. I have never taken pride in watching her eat pancakes made with dirty dishwater. It was not my finest young hour but racism had a way of dehumanizing everyone. In the absence of racism she and I could have been equals and friends. But discrimination allowed me to be exploited and her to behave in the worst way. I was too young to be a maid and she was too young to be giving me orders. Kathryn Stockett didn't deal with the dirty and raw outcome of discrimination. The people who populate her book and movie are viewed through rose colored glasses where everyone gets along.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Stockett's book has sold millions of copies and made her a very wealthy woman. The movie will make her even more wealthy and will bring her greater status. However, Hollywood would never have given this opportunity to a black author who wrote about black maids in white households especially in the turbulent South during the struggle for civil rights. Moreover, there is no reason to rejoice in the good old times black servants and white employers. The national marketing frenzy for The Help movie has gone wild. It even includes a full day of marketing products on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). The New Orleans chef Emeril has a new line of cooking pots and pans in honor of The Help. Think of how silly this is: to celebrate maid-ing and maid-hood when women made $3.00 a day toiling over pots and pans on hot stoves. No thanks Miz Stockett. I refuse to go back there.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-70572243425415642782011-04-27T18:54:00.000-07:002011-04-27T20:31:52.228-07:00Donald Trump: Leader of the 21st Century Lynch Mob<div style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: transparent; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; color: black; "><i>Donald Trump's racist attacks on President Barack Obama shows that he is the leader of a twenty-first century lynching party.</i></div><div style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: transparent; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; color: black; ">Donald Trump's racist attacks against President Obama remind me of the racist lynch mobs of my Mississippi youth. Even though his attacks are baseless, millions of Americans will respond to his not so subtle racist phrasing because they are willing to believe that no black man is innocent when accused of a wrongdoing. </div><div style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; background-color: transparent; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; color: black; "><div><div>Donald Trump is the leader of a twenty-first century lynching party and his mode of attack is vicious words. How could the President of these United States, the leader of the "free world", and the most powerful man in the world have to respond to the most crack pot attacks on his character? I believe it is because he is black. Plain and simple. </div><div><br /></div><div> Trump doesn't need a hood and robe or a hangman's noose because his words are reaffirming the already-racist views of the "birthers" and others who have never accepted the black President Barack Obama as their president. First, Trump questioned Obama's citizenship. Shown yet another copy of his birth certificate today, Trump, the buffoon, not only took credit for its release but like any good racist, he shifted his attention to questioning how the President got into Columbia University when some of his wealthy friends children and he could not (Trump probably went to the Wharton School on affirmative action). Trump cannot fathom that President <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-11" title="Click here to replace with: Baa, Bam, Badman, Bagman, Barman, Batman, Bema" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">O</a>bama has the gray matter to become head of the Harvard Law Review, the signal honor of being the best student in a Law School. </div><div><br /></div><div>The reason Trump is effective is because he and his ilk believe that an accused black man is guilty and no amount of due process will change it. He is no different than thousands of other black men who only need to be accused to be viewed as guilty. No amount of logical and factual evidence will change the minds of some of the so -called birthers because in their view, President <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-16" title="Click here to replace with: Baa, Bam, Badman, Bagman, Barman, Batman, Bema" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">O</a>bama is guilty first and foremost of being black and male. It doesn't really matter to them whether he was born in Nairobi or Hawaii, or if he headed the Harvard Law Review. Although the President produced a second and more extended birth certificate today, the critics are moving with the shifting sand: Trump is now questioning how President Obama was accepted at Columbia and Harvard Universities. </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>Republicans tend to believe that no Democratic president is worthy of the presidency. Consider the attacks on the character of President Bill Clinton and the manufactured scandals such as Whitewater and Vince Foster's death. I don't know anyone who understood what Whitewater was about. Consider how Newt Gingrich led the vicious attack against President Clinton in the Monica <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-18" title="Click here to replace with: Lewis, Leis, Lawns, Lesions, Rewinds, Edwin, Erwin" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">L</a>ewinsky case. It was later revealed that at the same time he attacked Clinton, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-19" title="Click here to replace with: Ginger, Ingrid, Gingering, Ingrain, Aging, Gingers, Gingery" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">G</a>ingrich was also having an affair with a Capitol Hill staffer in the Department of Agriculture who was about Lewinsky's age. At least Clinton didn't allow Lewinsky to sleep in his marital bed and eat from his wife's china like Newt Gingrich did. Republicans are capable of a level of personal viciousness toward others when they are guilty of even worse transgressions. By the way, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-23" title="Click here to replace with: Cellist, Alistair, Calisaya, Scaliest, Calais, Carlotta, Challis" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">C</a>alista the home-wrecker is now Calista Gingrich. At least President Clinton didn't try to make Monica Lewinsky our First Lady, as presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doing with Calista.</div><div><br /></div><div>President <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-29" title="Click here to replace with: Baa, Bam, Badman, Bagman, Barman, Batman, Bema" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">O</a>bama doesn't deserve the vicious attacks. I hope we who care about truth, integrity and honesty will speak out against the racist Donald Trump and all his minions who refuse to accept the President as the legitimate leader of this country. To turn the country over to the racists, birther, ignoramuses would be to surrender decency as an important personal and collective value. The media must also stop reporting all the craziness of these people. Donald Trump, Sarah <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2530646792926894359#" id="sp-31" title="Click here to replace with: Pal in, Paling, Plain, Pain, Palling, Pauline, Palings" class="spell" style="padding-bottom: 2px; background-image: url(http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/33635/aol/en-us/images/bg_spellingErr.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; ">P</a>alin and Michelle Bachman do not deserve to be treated as intelligent and legitimate potential candidates. We should all say enough is enough.<br /><div style="clear: both; "><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br 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/><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-47165689432357468762010-11-06T08:22:00.001-07:002010-11-06T08:23:12.232-07:00Tone-Deaf in DCNew York Times<br />November 5, 2010<br />By Bob Herbert<div>Op Ed Columnist<br /><br />Excerpted<br /><br />"What this election tells me is that real leadership will have to come from elsewhere, from outside of Washington, perhaps from elected officials in statehouses or municipal buildings that are closer to the people, from foundations and grass-roots organizations, from the labor movement and houses of worship and community centers.<br /><br />The civil rights pioneers did not wait for presidential or Congressional leadership, nor did the leaders of the women’s movement. They plunged ahead with their crucial work against the longest odds and in the face of seemingly implacable hostility. Leaders of the labor movement braved guns, bombs, imprisonment and heaven knows what else to bring fair wages and dignity to working people.<br /><br />America’s can-do spirit can be revived, and with it a brighter vision of a fairer, more inclusive, and more humane society. But not if we wait on Washington to do it. The loudest message from Tuesday’s election is that the people themselves need to do much more."</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-60727279636431350292010-11-06T08:11:00.000-07:002010-11-06T08:12:37.515-07:00America - He's your President for Goodness Sake!By William Thomas<br />Friday, October 1st, 2010<br /><br /><br /><br />There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.<br /><br />Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.<br /><br />Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.<br /><br />Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.<br /><br />Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea.<br /><br />Remember: “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”<br /><br />At some point, the treatment of President Obama went from offensive to ugly and then to downright dangerous.<br /><br />The health-care debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America. President Obama’s face appeared on protest signs white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler complete with mustache and swastika.<br /><br />Odd, that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America.<br /><br />Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing, putting the president’s life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the health-care rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past.<br /><br />And still the “birthers” are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States, although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States, but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobody’s sure.<br /><br />Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by President Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duff’s. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honour to meet the man or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”<br /><br />Lady, that was the President of the United States you were addressing, not one of the Jonas Brothers! He’s your president for goodness sakes, not the guy driving the Zamboni at “Monster Trucks On Ice.” Maybe next it’ll be, “Take Your President To A Topless Bar Day.”<br /><br />In President Barack Obama, Americans have a charismatic leader with a good and honest heart. Unlike his predecessor, he’s a very intelligent leader. And unlike that president’s predecessor, he’s a highly moral man.<br /><br />In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat.<br /><br />What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it, Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after he’s out of office.<br /><br />America, you know not what you have.<br /><br />The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better.<br /><br />President Obama may fail but it will not be a Richard Nixon default fraught with larceny and lies. President Obama, given a fair chance, will surely succeed but his triumph will never come with a Bill Clinton caveat – “if only he’d got control of that zipper.”<br /><br />Please. Give the man a fair, fighting chance. This incivility toward the leader who won over Americans and gave hope to billions of people around the world that their lives could be enhanced by his example, just naturally has to stop.<br /><br />Believe me, when Americans drive by the White House and see a sign on the lawn that reads: “No shirt. No shoes. No service,” they’ll realize this new national rudeness has gone way, way too far.<br /><br /> <br /><br />OCTOBER 2010 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER & LOWER MAINLANDUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-62531718420229229492010-11-05T16:33:00.000-07:002010-11-05T16:34:13.757-07:00The ego factor: Can Obama change?Politico.com<br />By: John F. Harris and Glenn Thrush<br />November 5, 2010 <br /><br />In the anthology of Barack Obama quotations, one of the classics came just hours before the event that made him the hottest property in American politics. <br /><br />As Obama walked toward the arena at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, where he gave an electrifying keynote address, a Chicago Tribune reporter noted that he seemed to be making a good impression. <br /><br />“I’m LeBron, baby,” Obama told author David Mendell. “I can play on this level. I got some game.” <br /><br />Those words came at the start of the supernova phase of Obama’s career. But on Wednesday came another quote, not quite so crisp, destined to become an early marker of the crash-to-earth phase. <br /><br />“This is something that I think every president needs to go through because … sometimes we lose track of the ways that we connected with folks that got us here in the first place,” Obama said toward the end of his post-election news conference, after reporters' repeated questions pressing him to go beyond his clinical descriptions of the disastrous election results and explain whether he felt responsibility or remorse. “Now, I’m not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like they, like I did last night. I’m sure there are easier ways to learn these lessons. But I do think this is a growth process and an evolution.” <br /><br />Is he capable of growth? And how painful the evolution? <br /><br />Many Obama observers regard these as central questions about his presidency as he tries to recover from an election debacle that many warned of for a year and that even some sympathizers regarded as a natural comeuppance for an exceptionally confident man who slipped into overconfidence. <br /><br />The results also served as a reminder that Obama is not immune from a timeless truth: Every president’s defects are in part a magnification of his virtues. <br /><br />Self-regard can blur into self-delusion. According to many Obama supporters and skeptics alike, it is still to be seen whether Obama shares with his most successful predecessors a capacity for self-critique and self-correction. <br /><br />A year ago, after Democrats got trounced in off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia — in large measure because of the same flight of independents that helped the GOP triumph in the midterm elections — White House aides loudly and publicly stated that there were no lessons in the results that were relevant to Obama. And for most of the year that followed, they acted on that premise.<br /><br />This misplaced confidence, by some lights, did not merely lead to political miscalculations. It strained the emotional connection with voters on which the most successful presidents depend. Restoring that connection, and regaining the sympathy to be extended a second chance, require a show of modesty. <br /><br />“Humility is a great quality, and it’s one that people will respect,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who teaches at Rice University. “Ronald Reagan could be seen as a polarizing presence, but he also knew how to play humble when it was necessary. Where is President Obama’s self-deprecating humor? Kennedy and Reagan could both be very self-deprecating. People liked that.” <br /><br />"The worst thing that happened to Obama is he’s lost a lot of his aura. Even his friends think he’s thin-skinned and a bit highfalutin," he said. <br /><br />It’s the sort of complaint that comes to the fore in background conversations with lawmakers, lobbyists and veterans of previous administrations who interact with Obama’s West Wing staffers: that they’ve created a cult of personality around Obama, having followed their boss on his rapid and improbable ascent to the presidency. Many of these devotees do, indeed, feel that he is the political equivalent of NBA phenom LeBron James. The view is based on a belief that Obama’s outsize political skills and uncommon personal poise make him different than conventional politicians and immune to conventional political laws of gravity. <br /><br />One Obama insider said it is a view that starts at the top. Having triumphed over an early perception by political insiders and many journalists that he could not defeat front-runner Hillary Clinton, Obama, this person said, frequently invokes the 2008 experience and what he believes was its lesson — always stay the course, don’t be distracted by ephemeral controversies or smart-set importuning for a change of direction. <br /><br />Some believe this is an admirable instinct carried to a dangerous degree. <br /><br />"Obama would sort of say, 'Look, I'm smart. I know what I'm doing. You'll just have to trust me,'” said Democratic strategist and commentator James Carville. “It was kind of beneath him to explain the reasons behind his actions to people — how TARP really worked, how the stimulus was helping. ... You had a lot of signs — New Jersey, Virginia, Scott Brown — but they thought what they were doing was going to turn out all right.” <br /><br />Obama’s predicament of 2010 suggests another refrain of the modern presidency: Its occupants arrive in office shaped pre-eminently by experience, with character formed well before leaders reach the White House. <br /><br />A time traveler who went to Arkansas in 1977 would find plenty of people in Little Rock who would not be the least bit surprised that their newly elected attorney general would become president someday. And these same people would not be surprised to learn of the particular nature of the scandal that hobbled Bill Clinton’s presidency some 20 years later.<br /><br />Obama, however, burst onto the national scene with such speed and force in 2008 that he may have seemed sui generis, a man untouched by the normal cycles of success and setback. <br /><br />Instead, what’s clear in 2010 is that Obama is like all presidents a product of his past. Some believe his style is too cerebral. Was this a surprise from a former law professor? Some said he allowed himself to be defined too much by legislative victories and defeats, rather than sketching a higher vision of where he wanted to lead the country. Did people not recall that his most extensive government experience was as a state legislator? <br /><br />Likewise, the contemporary argument about Obama’s personal style has long antecedents. People have for decades regarded him as having special leadership traits. And some people have observed, for just as long, that Obama sometimes regarded himself as too special. <br /><br />In author David Remnick’s Obama biography, “The Bridge,” he quotes White House adviser and longtime friend Valerie Jarrett: “I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. ... He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability — the extraordinary, uncanny ability — to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them, and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually. ... So, what I sensed in him was not just a restless spirit but somebody with such extraordinary talents that had to be really taxed in order for him to be happy. ... He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.” <br /><br />Remnick also regularly cites how even Michelle Obama would sometimes bridle under “his ego and his self-involvement.” <br /><br />A 2008 New Yorker article quoted Patrick Gaspard, now the White House political director, describing what Obama told him during the job interview: “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” <br /><br />It was health care where the self-confidence of the Obama team had the most profound impact. The team produced landmark legislation, even after many pundits assumed last winter that the Democratic reform package was dead, but it just happened to be deeply unpopular with many independent voters who went to the polls Tuesday. A recent poll by POLITICO and George Washington University found 62 percent of independent voters had an unfavorable view of health care.<br /><br />Rep. Marion Berry, who retired from the House earlier this year, described a White House meeting between Obama and conservative Democrats, who warned the president that the measure was unpopular in their districts and asked him why he thought he could do better with health care reform than Bill Clinton had done. “Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me,” Berry quoted Obama as saying. <br /><br />One Democratic operative active in the health care debate said Obama never wavered — but also seemed not to care — when lawmakers expressed their concern to him about the political hazards of the measure. “The do-the-right-thing is, in itself, arrogant,” this Democrat said. “He thinks of it as noble, as rising above. But the underlying assumption is that you are an unprincipled jerk. And all the people around him have drunk that Kool-Aid.” <br /><br />Veterans of Illinois politics say Obama’s Washington tenure reflects themes — great talent, harnessed to great ego — that are familiar to them. <br /><br />During his first six years as a state senator, Republicans controlled the Senate and the governorship. So at the time, to get a bill out of committee, he needed Republican support. <br /><br />“I think he came into Springfield with an arrogance,” said Dan Shomon, who was assigned by Democratic leaders to help Obama as an aide when he arrived. “He wanted to fix the process too quickly. … He didn’t have ‘time’ to make nice with everybody. … I guess the word confidence and professorial-like is better than arrogance, occasionally a lecturing sort of nature — which I think he’s toned [down]. Over time, he learned to get rid of that where he was, sort of, lecturing.” <br /><br />Others who knew Obama back then think he came in modest and became less so as he accumulated more power. Mike Lawrence, a veteran GOP staffer at the Illinois State Capitol, sees a different Obama than the young state senator who shared the workload with him on a reform panel in the 1990s. <br /><br />“He was a guy who could take criticism gracefully. Once, I blew up at him, and he chuckled and said, ‘Gee, Mike, you’re really intense,’” said Lawrence, who first got to know Obama as press secretary to then-Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar in the 1990s. “The difference I see now from a distance is a guy who’s defensive and seems to always be in campaign mode.” <br /><br />Shomon was campaign manager in Obama’s 2000 House challenge against Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). He sees parallels between Obama’s predicament now and the loss 10 years ago, which he says was a major setback for a politician who had seen so much break his way. Despite the loss to a powerful incumbent of his own party, in a race no serious observers ever expected him to win, Obama kept quickly climbing rungs on the ladder to the presidency.<br /><br />“I think he will learn his way out of it, and that’s what he did in 2000,” Shomon said. “He’s very competitive at golf, basketball and politics. He does not like to lose. That sort of knockout quality — the Michael Jordan in him — he’s not going to give up.” <br /><br />One prominent Democratic strategist expressed hope that Obama will conclude that genuine confidence would lead to a willingness to accept the need for a new governing approach, especially in an era when his party no longer controls all of Congress. “The question is, does Obama have the suppleness of mind, the flexibility, the self-confidence to question basic premises?” the Democrat asked. “And does he have the intuition to know when to take half a loaf and when to stand firm? They don’t teach that at Harvard Law, you know.” <br /><br />One veteran Obama observer was not impressed with the early signs at the Wednesday news conference, believing that the president seemed impassive compared with the magnitude of the setback. <br /><br />“Where’s the guy who out-hustled Hillary Clinton?” asked former Des Moines Register reporter David Yepsen, now director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. “I don’t think he realizes the mess he’s in, that he’s staring into his political grave. I was watching that press conference the other day, and I’m thinking, ‘Does he really get it?’ Where are the heads that should be rolling? Where’s the acknowledgment things have gone really wrong? I know he wants to project confidence, but come on.” <br /><br />White House aides declined to comment for this article. <br /><br />It may be, however, that Obama is feeling his rebuke more keenly than is apparent to outsiders. In his book “The Audacity of Hope,” he described his feelings of embarrassment and rejection after the 2000 loss. <br /><br />“No matter how convincingly you attribute the loss to bad timing or bad luck or lack of money — it’s impossible not to feel at some level as if you have been personally repudiated by the entire community, that you don’t quite have what it takes, and that everywhere you go, the word ‘loser’ is flashing through people’s minds,” Obama wrote. “They’re the sorts of feelings that most people haven’t experienced since high school, when the girl you’d been pining over dismissed you with a joke in front of her friends, or you missed a pair of free throws with the big game on the line — the kinds of feelings that most adults wisely organize their lives to avoid.” <br /><br />James Hohmann and Ben Smith contributed to this report. <br /><br /> <br />© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLCUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-47729014390351224082010-10-29T06:59:00.000-07:002010-10-29T07:43:23.914-07:00Do We Want SANITY Or Do We Allow INSANITY to Reign?Jon Stewart of the Daily Show decided to have a march to restore sanity after Glenn Beck, the flame throwing talking head at Fox News hosted a march to restore dignity or whatever it was he said it was for. As a comedian Stewart, perhaps without even understanding its broader appeal, was all for trying to stop the screaming and shouting of the crazies out there including folks like Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle, and Christine O'Donnell, who is running for the US Senate from Delaware who said "I am not a witch" in a commercial that made her look like one.<br /><br />As an intellectual, sanity is much desired. So are decorum and literacy. It seems that the illiterates, semi-literates, and those who split their infinitives are more popular and command more attention than those who have records of achievement. Sarah Palin attended five colleges before she got a degree in something akin to basket weaving (just joking), and doesn't have a good track record for achieving much of anything unless you consider being mayor of Wasilla, Alaska that has a handful of stop signs. Just as she quit one college and transferred to another, she also quit the governor's office for no obvious reason except that she got tired of the job. Short attention span? Desire to cash in on illiteracy?<br /><br />The babe in Delaware who wore the black suit propped against a black velvet looking background and who, in the television commercial, proclaimed she is not a witch hasn't achieved as much as Palin. Consorting with witches, announcing that research was being conducted to put human brains in mice, not knowing what's in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and using campaign funds to pay her rent are the beliefs and practices of Christine O'Donnell.<br /><br />Can you believe that these women are in the same Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, George Bush, Sr., Nelson Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe and scores of other men and a few women who command respect for their achievements prior to winning their Senate races? George Bush, Sr. was a Congressman, Ambassador to China, businessman, and a graduate of Yale University (don't hold it against Yale that they also awarded a degree to George W. Bush, the son). In other words, achievement is a decided negative for those who support the likes of Palin and her ilk.<div><br /></div><div>It was only a few years ago that these same people would have castigated those black inner city kids who were opposed to making good grades in school. In fact, much was made of the "down with achievement" attitudes of those kids who bullied good students and who felt that making good grades was a matter of trying to be white. If we applied this same logic to Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell, folks wouldn't be hailing them as leaders or voting for them to become the Vice President and a Senator. So why and how is it that poor kids can be banished as bad people and these white women are deemed national leaders for the same behavior? That's for you to figure out. Jon Stewart has a humorous take on it but in doing so exposes the underbelly of the society to us. He shows us that <b><i>SANITY</i></b> is needed now more than ever. It is up to us to demand a restoration to common sense, and to speak out against <b><i>INsansity</i></b> by voting for those whose real achievements and views are worthy of respecting.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-84377816647876103662010-10-29T06:57:00.000-07:002010-10-29T06:58:43.408-07:00Restore sanity? Too late for the Tea PartyWashington Post<br />By Eugene Robinson<br />Thursday, October 28, 2010<br /><br />With their "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" this weekend, political satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are late to the party. This weird campaign has been Comedy Central all along.<br /><br />The main source of hilarity has been the Tea Party movement and its candidates, quite a few of whom give every indication of being several sandwiches short of a picnic. Whether they win or lose - and yes, there remains the possibility that some might actually be elected - they leave us with mondo-bizarro moments that may require years of psychoanalysis for our collective political psyche to purge.<br /><br />Chief among them is an all-time classic of weirdness, right up there with those campy 1950s sci-fi/horror flicks like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers." You've probably guessed that I refer to Christine O'Donnell's incomparable "I'm Not a Witch" television ad.<br /><br />Much has been written about the "witch" ad, but I'm not sure anyone has done a proper deconstruction. If you regard it as a short film of the kind that might be entered at Sundance or Cannes, it may be a work of genius. The jarring contrast between what is said and what is seen can only be deliberate: O'Donnell delivers one message - not-a-witch - while the image presented on screen powerfully signals the opposite. She sits alone, against a black background that suggests infinite darkness; her makeup and lighting have been contrived to lend her face a ghostly pallor. Clearly, the viewer is being manipulated to think, "If you're not from some Other Realm, lady, you could have fooled me."<br /><br />And then, after denying witchcraft, the zinger: "I'm you." With that, she switches places with the viewer. I'm pretty sure this is homage to some old "Twilight Zone" episode, but I haven't quite figured out which one.<br /><br />I could go on about O'Donnell's string of brilliant comic performances - during her debate with Senate opponent Chris Coons, for example, the way she convincingly insisted that she had no idea the First Amendment called for the separation of church and state. But the Tea Party is an ensemble sitcom, like "Seinfeld." One mustn't forget the rest of the cast.<br /><br />Like Sharron Angle, who has a decent chance of defeating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle's approach to comedy is blunt and to the point - or, rather, beside the point, since so much of what she says is divorced from objective reality.<br /><br />She claimed that Dearborn, Mich., and Frankford, Tex., are instituting Islamic sharia law, and she demanded to know "how that happened in the United States." Well, it didn't happen. There's nothing but good old-fashioned American law in Dearborn, which Angle seems to have singled out because of its large Arab American population. And Frankford no longer exists, having been annexed by Dallas in 1975.<br /><br />Appearing before a group of Hispanic students to explain her harsh stance on immigration, Angle offered, "I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me." I'd classify Angle's humor as surrealist, and I'm guessing that she must be a disciple of Ionesco.<br /><br />Then there's the Angry Man comedic style of Carl Paladino, candidate for governor of New York. When a persistent reporter tried to ask him a question, Paladino threatened the man, "I'll take you out!" He has gone out of his way to insult gay people, residents of Manhattan, illegal immigrants and many others, but he seems to hold a special grudge against present and former holders of the office he seeks. He called Gov. David Paterson "pathetic" and a "wimp," and called former Gov. George Pataki a "degenerate idiot."<br /><br />Paladino's policy proposals are angry, too, in an over-the-top way. He suggests that the unemployed who live on welfare could be housed in underused state prisons. "Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we'll teach people how to earn their check. We'll teach them personal hygiene . . .the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes."<br /><br />I'm thinking Don Rickles on a bad night.<br /><br />And who can forget Rand Paul, with his Monty Pythonesque "Aqua Buddha" escapade? And Joe Miller's in-your-face solution to border security: "If East Germany could do it, we could do it."<br /><br />Good luck trying to top all of that, Stewart and Colbert. You should have come sooner. The joke's already on us.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-59299206184663000722010-10-27T07:35:00.000-07:002010-10-27T07:42:14.268-07:00Clarence and Ginny Thomas: A couple that keeps on giving
<br />Kathleen Parker, columnist at the Washington Post just wrote the column below on Clarence and Ginny (Wednesday, October 27, 2010; A23). One would think that Mrs. Thomas would let sleeping dogs lie (pardon the pun) but no such luck. I wonder what ails her. Why are the demons of her husband still bothering her, especially at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning which is the time she placed the call to Anita Hill? We will never know but it seems fair to say that Ginny Thomas is still wrestling with what most Americans put behind them nineteen years ago.
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<br /><strong>For Clarence Thomas, an ordeal is renewed by Kathleen Parker</strong>
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<br />In 1991, the world divided itself into two camps: those who believed Anita Hill and those who didn't. I fell somewhere in the middle: She may have told the truth, but so what?
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<br />On bended knee, give thanks if you are too young to remember. A brief summary: Hill testified that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her by verbally sharing his enjoyment of porn films and his sexual proficiency.
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<br />Yes, yawn if you must. This was scandalous, of course, because . . . well, I'm still not certain. You see, to be scandalized, one must be deeply sensitive to the mention of anything sexual. Indeed, in this case, one needed to be scandalized for an indefinite period of time.
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<br />Hill's testimony came several years after she worked for Thomas at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where the alleged harassment took place. In other words, she didn't protest at the time of these conversations, which were boorish, assuming they happened as she described. Or were they merely lame attempts at humor?
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<br />The context has never been clear. In any case, other options available to Hill included telling Thomas to get over himself. Or, at the very least, assuming deep offense, complaining to a higher authority. She did neither, apparently.
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<br />In fact, nothing was mentioned until Thomas was nominated to the highest court. Would an African American nominee of the liberal persuasion have been subjected to the same kind of interrogation? Only as precedent to riot.
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<br />Clarence Thomas's "offense" had nothing to do with whether he did or did not say something off-color to a subordinate. Rather, his offense was being a conservative black man who had the audacity, among other things, to suggest that affirmative action ultimately might do harm to those it was intended to help.
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<br />Now we are revisiting the Thomas hearings, sadly owing to the poor judgment of his wife, Ginni. As all surely know, she recently called Anita Hill and left a voice mail suggesting that Hill apologize for what she did. This jaw-droppingly odd lapse has prompted an unwelcome and sordid review of the past and a deluge of theories to explain Ginni Thomas's action.
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<br />For one, the same day of the phone call, a story ran on the front page of the New York Times about Ginni Thomas's new nonprofit group, Liberty Central, which aims to organize the Tea Party movement. She was trying to monetize the moment.
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<br />Let's put a pause on nonsense and concede that the Thomas affair remains a painful memory and maybe, just maybe, the justice's wife needs resolution.
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<br />Meanwhile, a new player has emerged in the drama: Lillian McEwen, a former Thomas girlfriend from way back, has decided that now is the time to set the record straight. Coincidentally, McEwen is shopping her memoir.
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<br />On Monday night, McEwen sat down with Larry King on CNN (where I work) to share her own sexual past with Thomas and her belief that Hill told the truth. She told The Washington Post (where I am a columnist) that Thomas was "obsessed with porn."
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<br />McEwen said she didn't mind the porn, she was just bored by it. She also told King that Thomas, who quit drinking while they were together, became ambitious and obsessed with physical fitness.
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<br />Thomas's history of drinking is no secret to anyone who bothered to read his memoir, "My Grandfather's Son." He is brutally honest about his transformation from an angry boy abandoned by his alcoholic father, his upbringing by his grandfather and the nuns at his little Catholic school, and his battle with his own demons and lonely rages to become a thoughtful man deeply respected by fellow members of the court. As Supreme Court analyst Jan Greenburg wrote in "Supreme Conflict," Thomas is the quiet force on the bench who brings others to change their minds.
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<br />Only the heartless would not be moved by Thomas's description of lying at home in a fetal curl, suffering the public humiliation of his hearing, and recognizing that the only route to survival was humility.
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<br />"It had long since become clear to me that this battle was at bottom spiritual, not political," he wrote, "and so my attention shifted from politics to the inward reality of my spiritual life."
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<br />The proud Thomas said during those hearings that he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Let's hope he has enough spiritual reserve to survive this second lynching -- and a big enough heart to forgive poor Ginni.
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<br />kathleenparker@washpost.com
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-21977278460018187402010-10-27T07:24:00.000-07:002010-10-27T07:30:29.164-07:00SARAH PALIN: IGNORANCE AND PROMISCUITYBy Dr. Helen L. Burleson<br /><br /><br /><em>Occasionally I receive an email from a friend who forwards the essays of Dr. Helen Burleson. As I understand it, Dr. Burlelson is in her eighties but her age seems to sharpen her pen and her insights. Below is the latest of her missives. ...Joyce Ladner<br /></em><br /><br />Statistically, America is now number 23 in the world in educational achievement.<br />Look to America’s fascination with Sarah Palin and how she has catapulted ignorance into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Americans on her level can’t get enough of her. The more she mocks intelligence and intellectualism, the more she increases her financial value. Not able to articulate a complete sentence, among her followers this is the new norm. As she sputters, sparks incoherent phrases of derision and mockery, the more they love her. She has become a household name, and has risen to the level of the people who are well known by just one name, like Cher, Oprah, Aretha, Bono, Heidi, Marilyn, Einstein, Ike, Mike, Teddy (both the first and the second – Theodore Roosevelt (also known as the rough rider) and Edward Moore Kennedy.<br /><br />Palin has produced two books written by others and she has traveled the country greeted with admiration as she grows richer and richer. They call it folksy. They call it relating to her base. The more inarticulate she is, they more they love her.<br /><br />Though she preaches abstinence, she is now the grandmother of a grandchild born out of wedlock, whose teen-aged mother is now capitalizing on promiscuity. On the speakers circuit, Bristol Palin can command in excess of ten thousand dollars telling teens that she made a mistake, and abstinence is the best policy. In other words, the old fashioned, don’t do as I do, do as I say you should do.<br /><br />This mother and daughter duo are charming the dollars out of the pockets of the lesser educated people who identify with their common touch. Together as a package or solo, they are gold, pure and simple.<br /><br />At a time when America is far behind much of the industrialized world, and learning and knowledge are the keys to responding to the technology era, the Palins are taking America back to the Stone Age. Remember the Stone Age when cave men were first learning how to use language, they spoke in sputters and single words and used body language to communicate.<br /><br />We are in a knowledge-based race to develop and train a generation to get ahead in the age of technology and innovation. Perhaps we are on the wrong path. The Palins seem to have found the keys to the kingdom – ignorance and promiscuity. America seems to have an insatiable appetite for both.<br /><br />Today, the quitter governor of Alaska, whose only aim seems to be to spread ignorance and hatred for the Obamas, took a swipe at Our First Lady, Michelle Obama. Adjudged the most powerful woman in the world, Michelle Obama, a Princeton University graduate, an attorney and a Harvard law school graduate is a beautiful, well poised, articulate and gracious lady. Palin, by contrast took 6 years and 5 colleges before she could earn a Bachelor’s degree in communications, is now the reigning queen of the trailer park crowd. Palin, also by contrast could easily qualify as the most ignorant woman in the world, yet she lashed out jealously at First Lady Michelle Obama.<br /><br />Palin’s status in life is solidified and personified as the new low in the dumbing down of America. Bristol Palin, a chip off the old block is doing what her mother should be doing. Sarah should be on the speaker’s circuit saying that American women should not do as she did, but should stay in school, get a good education and add to the body of knowledge as the scholarly First Lady Michelle Obama does. Bristol’s message of don’t do what I did is hollow. Her practice abstinence message would be more effective if she had practiced what she now preaches.<br /><br />The new cottage industry should not be ignorance and promiscuity because that only causes us to fall further behind in the race to the top for America to regain her position as the most admired and most imitated country in the industrialized world. The new cottage industry should be what President Obama proposes in his initiative to elevate the American standard of excellence with his “Race to the Top.”<br /><br />"WE CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO VOTE!! VOTE EARLY, OR BE SURE TO VOTE NOV. 2, 2010."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-11323199744215837832010-10-08T12:41:00.000-07:002010-10-08T12:46:17.668-07:00EDUCATION: COMMUNITY OR CHAOSBy Elinor Bowles<br /><br /><br />The failure of public education in the United States to effectively address the needs of students, or the nation, has been spotlighted by the movie, "Waiting for Superman." Whatever one thinks of its point of view, the movie has made the failure of public education part of the national conversation--a much needed development. Despite the reality, known since the mid-1980s, that the nation's schools are grossly inadequate, there has been a deafening silence about their dismal failure, particularly in relation to the needs of students of African-American descent.<br /><br />The murder rate goes up, the graduation rate goes down and our youth increasingly end up in the wrong institution . Regrettably, African-American adults and community leaders have been seemingly preoccupied with other problems. It seems to take all the energy most parents can mobilize to take care of the needs of their own children. Scattered group efforts at educational improvement have led to extremely few sustained attempts at change, with varying degrees of success. Education is, after all, a complicated and time-consuming affair.<br /><br />The discussion generated by the movie has been promoted and highlighted by Oprah Winfrey, MSNBC-TV, numerous news and special TV programs, and an excellent article in the September 30, 2010, issue of The Root, the online news magazine aimed at the black community. Written by R. L'Heureux Lewis, an assistant professor of sociology and black studies at the City College of New York, the article, titled "Waiting for School Reform," provides an overview of the difficulties confronting efforts at educational improvement, including the enormous financial costs and the lack of comprehensive research. However, as noted in a comment by a reader, E. Cederwell, it only superficially touches on "the single most important element explaining the great disparities in any school's ability to achieve educational success: the world outside the classroom, and in particular, the culture each young person is surrounded by." Cederwell states that "the perceived value of learning and education . . . is hugely important. . . . Communities need to be ready to take a . . . searching examination, and, where indicated, be willing to commit to adopt certain values. This may be hardest of all."<br /><br />Query: What is the general culture and attitude within the African-American community toward the education of its youth, particularly those who are poor and often in great need of love and guidance as well as material things? In using the word "community," we are not talking about a geographical space, but a cultural configuration of persons who have a shared history, values, and life circumstances. This focus elicits a multitude of complications, given the current lack of cohesion in the African-American "community," which many believe is becoming irreparably splintered along economic lines.<br /><br />The discussion generated by "Waiting for Superman" has focused on the funding of education and the roles of politicians, administrators, principals, parents, and especially teachers and unions. However, it has failed to seriously address the difficult, dominant, and ubiquitous role of the African-American community -- its values, its place in the larger society, and its history. What can African-American individuals, community organizations, professional organizations, labor unions, athletes, entertainers, churches, women's groups, men's groups, and other components of civil society do to send the message to our young people that education is important, that it is cool, that it is vital to the good life, that it is a requirement for an interesting and safe environment, that it can be exciting, and that it makes you a better, more desirable individual, mate and parent? How can we create an environment that convinces our young people that education has more rewards than merely hanging out and, for most people, more concrete rewards than athletics and music and selling drugs?<br /><br />How can we make education a dominant, outstanding value in the African-American community, like it was in the early 20th century, and like it currently is in several other communities in the United States? Those of us who were born in the early or mid-20th century remember the dictum that "you've got to be twice as good." And we all know the important role of the family in forming character and promoting educational values. But as African Americans we also know that many of our families today have been so damaged by a variety of forces that they do not have the will or the resources to be what we are saying they must be in terms of an educational support system for their children. And while we must do everything possible to help them overcome their liabilities, if their children are to be rescued we must also do everything within our power as a community to compensate for what parents lack.<br /><br />Despite the seeming lack of involvement of the black community in the education of its youth, many individuals and groups actually are addressing this question. Individuals and organizations are providing scholarships, from the Ron Brown Scholar Program, which contributes close to $800,000 in scholarships annually, to people who contribute a couple of scholarships of $500 a semester to youth in their church. People are becoming mentors and big sisters and big brothers. They act as tutors for specific subjects. Professionals and business people visit schools and lecture about the work they do and how students can prepare themselves for various careers. Others invite students to visit or work in their offices during summer vacation. Churches provide space and material for after-school programs. Contributions of books to enrich libraries, particularly with material on specific ethnic groups, are given to schools. I'm sure readers can add to this list. It's not that nothing is being done, it is instead that we need much, much more and we need to do it more loudly and, in some instances, in a more organized way. We need to find more ways to publicly recognize and reward those children who work hard to achieve. We need everybody to know how important education is.<br /><br />Perhaps we need a national organization to do for education what the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) did for voting in the 1960s. Maybe we can call it something like "Community Campaign for Educational Excellence" (CCEE). Perhaps we need to clearly explain what is meant when we say that "education is today what civil rights was in the 1960s." We need to make it clear that we are talking about a similar urgency and significance and deterrent to equality, not about tactics like marches or content like legislation. The civil rights movement of the 1960s eliminated the state and local laws that restricted the movement and behavior of blacks. The educational movement of the 21st century must create educational institutions that serve the needs of all of the country’s children.<br /><br />There are multiple ways the African-American community can change its culture in order to create an environment where education is recognized and honored. These ways are limited only by the imagination. There are, however, three basic requirements: First, we must care about all African-American children and have a burning need to save them from the lives of violence and crime and unemployment and meaninglessness that so many of them are living or facing. Second, we must truly believe that all children can be educated. And third, we must be willing to reach out and touch -- to contribute our time, our energy, and our material resources, however limited they may be, to the salvation of our youth. African-American youth, given today's dominant economic and social condition and trends, are in grave danger. What do we intend to do?<br /><br /><br />Elinor Bowles is a retired editor and activist. She can be reached at ebowles603@aol.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-52137291433683579582010-09-22T20:05:00.001-07:002010-09-22T21:08:28.842-07:00President Obama and African Americans<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJU3CFdovn5ALHS3NceeSszzS9viS_x848-7OZxkp6rd22Bu_pKkjYo7mGkNkOIl8n5lf97KJOFsPZjZdphuAluEeCQdm5IUPjV4XL7ob9tXA1bHvcbZwXJF6Hu6bwHAWAc4uHSH_q69Xk/s1600/Obama_Black_Caucus_sff_mi_embedded_prod_affiliate_8.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 323px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519955609057045026" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJU3CFdovn5ALHS3NceeSszzS9viS_x848-7OZxkp6rd22Bu_pKkjYo7mGkNkOIl8n5lf97KJOFsPZjZdphuAluEeCQdm5IUPjV4XL7ob9tXA1bHvcbZwXJF6Hu6bwHAWAc4uHSH_q69Xk/s400/Obama_Black_Caucus_sff_mi_embedded_prod_affiliate_8.jpg" /></a> President Obama speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual dinner<br /><br /><br /><div>President Obama reminds me of the distracted boyfriend or girlfriend who, upon being told, "You never tell me you love me" asks, "Why do I <em>have </em>to? You<em> know</em> I love you."<br /><br />A friend said he reminds her of a husband who doesn't buy his wife a birthday or anniversary present because, as he says, "Those <em>material</em> things don't matter. I don't have to buy you things to prove my love for you."<br /><br />Many African Americans feel like neglected partners who simply want to be shown by the President that they really matter, that he really cares about them. They want to hear him say he appreciates what they did for him, and he feels their pain, what with their disproportionately high unemployment rate.<br /><br />President Obama doesn't say much about African Americans as a group one way or another. He appears to be afraid that his detractors will hold it against him. The problem is, his detractors don't like him, have never liked him, and will continue to find ways to destabilize, and some of them say, destroy that which he has spent so much time trying to accomplish for everyone, including them. One would think he would have gotten the message by now but no such luck. He did make a direct appeal for support at the annual Congressional Black Caucus dinner last weekend.<br /><br />In an unfortunate way, President Obama knows that most African Americans are going to vote for him no matter how poorly they feel he is treating them. But that is not a decent way to treat one's most loyal and supportive constituency. <em><strong>No one wants to be taken for granted.</strong></em><br /><br />The President's strategy is what's called the <em>institutional</em> approach instead of the more targeted <em>residual</em> perspective. The idea is that good policies will have universal applicability, and will help everyone including blacks, other minorities, and the poor. Hence, greater access to health care will benefit blacks without calling them out by name. This might sound like good public policy go but this indirect approach doesn't work with real live human beings who poured their blood, sweat and tears, not to mention their money, into the President's election campaign. They simply want him to acknowledge their existence.<br /><br />They want to hear him say they matter in an important way.<br /><br />They want him to realize that without them he would never have been elected.<br /><br />They are tired of him treating them like Ralph Ellison's <em>Invisible Man</em>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-60838902081877826102010-09-17T17:34:00.000-07:002010-09-17T18:59:04.093-07:00Ron Walters Death Signals the End of an Era<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh0UnSCSr_dPWxos_-4uTw1V0rLtvd4PGdVSCKI93oCfOL7g0jKjm9KDiSYyYMk8S4h0tiKBUA1260brjYimV1DueIXmjiBt0tENqRfWBbUqCb_PF8kbXijTRiYUxDXGZhCxMh35lt0pd/s1600/WALTERS-obit-articleLarge.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518060983713012482" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyh0UnSCSr_dPWxos_-4uTw1V0rLtvd4PGdVSCKI93oCfOL7g0jKjm9KDiSYyYMk8S4h0tiKBUA1260brjYimV1DueIXmjiBt0tENqRfWBbUqCb_PF8kbXijTRiYUxDXGZhCxMh35lt0pd/s400/WALTERS-obit-articleLarge.jpg" /></a>Doug Mills photo, New York Times photo<br /><br /><br />Ron Walters' death signals the end of an era for black scholars who were influenced by the social movements of the sixties.<br /><br /><br />Ron Walters, a nationally renowned political scientist died a week ago of cancer in the Washington, DC area where he and his wife Patricia “Pat” had lived for forty years. Ron was not your garden variety scholar. His giftedness came from his ability to join theory and practice in a seamless pattern and applied these to both historical and contemporary issues of race and politics.<br /><br />I met Ron and Pat Walters in 1971 when I joined the sociology faculty at Howard University. I mention Pat Walters because she and Ron were a remarkable couple. Pat was indispensable to Ron's work for among other things, she typed and edited his manuscripts, and on one occasion I recall her telling me, "Ron and I have to get to work on this book on pan Africanism."<br /><br />Ron had arrived at Howard a year before I got there. Andrew Billingsley, who was Vice President/Provost at Howard had received a grant from the Ford Foundation to strengthen the social sciences. So, Billingsley set about bringing the best and the brightest young scholars to the university.<br /><br />There was no better place for a young scholar to work because we had strong support, a thriving marketplace of new ideas born out of the nascent African American Studies movement, and a generation of bright students eager to learn. Ron was at the apex of this intellectual movement that we defined as the black perspective. Ralph Gomes, Robert Staples, Don Coleman, Harriett and John McAdoo, Jeff Donaldson, Tritobia Benjamin, Frank Smith, Skunder Boghassion and many others were part of this movement.<br /><br />Ron had been an activist for some time before he arrived at Howard. As president of the Wichita, Kansas NAACP Youth Council he and his cousin staged the first lunch counter sit-in in the United States almost two years before the sit in's in Greensboro, North Carolina. After weeks of protests the owner of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehPVT9kKcHE">Dockum Drug Store </a>desegregated his lunch counter. <br /><br />We young scholars at Howard were heavily influenced by the civil rights and black power movements and our work including our research, teaching, and advocacy, gave serious consideration to these. Ron Walters contributed a chapter to my book, The Death of White Sociology (1974) titled "Toward a Definition of Black Social Science”, which was a rather ambitious undertaking and title. But we were bold and aggressive in crafting alternatives to the status quo scholarship we had been taught. We not only resented the negative depiction of black life and culture in mainstream scholarship but we also felt that frequently blacks were either underrepresented or absent entirely.<br /><br />Over four decades Ron reached the pinnacle of an illustrious career and excelled as a scholar, political strategist, commentator, writer of a weekly column, author of six books, numerous articles, and mentor to several generations of devoted students. Ron developed the framework for establishing the Congressional Black Caucus, and was staff advisor to Congressman Charles Diggs, the first chairman of the CBC. He was deputy campaign manager and debate adviser for Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign. He was always available to speak, advise, and volunteer to help others whether they were young school children or national policymakers. It was this modesty and humility that set this giant apart from ordinary scholars.<br /><br />Ron wrote thirteen books that covered a vast terrain: from pan Africanism to black presidential politics written sixteen years before President Obama was elected. In this book, he outlined the steps a candidate would have to take to be elected. His most recently published book, White Nationalism, Black Interests: Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community (2003) described the resurgence of political conservatism by whites in America.<br /><br />Ron was always prepared, thorough, open to alternative points of view, and an advocate for those who could not advocate for themselves. His proposals for structural changes to ameliorate the problems facing the poor and his concern with identifying ways to politically empower blacks were consistent themes throughout half a century of work.<br /><br />The last time I saw Ron was a year ago when we both were on a panel at the University of Maryland’s celebration of forty years of its African American Studies Program. We discussed the emergence of these programs and the climate surrounding them. Ron did not disappoint.<br />He never did.<br /><br />His death signals the end of an era when a generation of brash black scholars who had been in the civil rights movement worked to change the course of American scholarship. It is up to his students, colleagues and supporters to carry on his legacy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-54718491022842233352010-08-26T17:27:00.000-07:002010-08-26T17:35:31.927-07:00This is who `we' really is, GlennMiami Herald<br />Posted on Wed, Aug. 25, 2010<br /><br />By LEONARD PITTS JR.<br /><br />A few words about who ``we'' is.<br /><br />``This is a moment,'' said Glenn Beck three months ago on his radio program, ``...that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. It has been so distorted and so turned upside down. . . . We are on the right side of history. We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that movement, because we were the people that did it in the first place!''<br /><br />Beck was promoting his Restoring Honor rally, to be held Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial, 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King famously spoke there. You'll notice he didn't define the ``we'' he had in mind, but it seems reasonable to suppose Beck was speaking of people like himself: affluent middle-aged conservatives possessed of the ability to see socialism and communism in places where it somehow escapes the notice of others.<br /><br />If you agree that assumption is reasonable, then you must also agree Beck's contention that his ``we'' were the architects of the civil rights movement is worse than nonsensical, worse than mendacious, worse than shameless. It is obscene. It is theft of legacy. It is robbery of martyr's graves.<br /><br />We're in an odd moment. Having opposed the freedom movement of the 20th century, some social conservatives seek, now that that movement stands vindicated and venerated, to arrogate unto themselves its language and heroes, to remake it in their image.<br /><br />Thus, you get claims that ``racism'' is now what Shirley Sherrod said in a speech to the NAACP. And people calling Sarah Palin the new face of feminism. And conservatives touting the likelihood that King voted Republican -- as if the party in 1957 bore any resemblance to the party now.<br /><br />But even by those standards, Glenn Beck's effrontery is monumental. Even by those standards, he goes too far. Beck was part of the ``we'' who founded the civil rights movement!? No. Here's who ``we'' is.<br /><br />``We'' is Emmett Till, tied to a cotton gin fan in the murky waters of the Tallahatchie River. ``We'' is Rosa Parks telling the bus driver no. ``We'' is Diane Nash on a sleepless night waiting for missing Freedom Riders to check in. ``We'' is Charles Sherrod, husband of Shirley, gingerly testing desegregation compliance in an Albany, Ga., bus station.<br /><br /> ``We'' is a sharecropper making his X on a form held by a white college student from the North. ``We'' is celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando and Pernell Roberts of Bonanza, lending their names, their wealth and their labor to the cause of freedom.<br /><br />``We'' is Medgar Evers, Michael Schwerner, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, Cynthia Wesley, Andrew Goodman, Denise McNair, James Chaney, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, shot, beaten and blown to death for that cause.<br /><br />``We'' is Lyndon Johnson, building a legislative coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats to defeat intransigent Southern Democratic conservatives and enshrine that cause into law.<br />And ``we'' is Martin Luther King, giving voice and moral clarity to the cause -- and paying for it with his life.<br /><br />The we to which Glenn Beck belongs is the we that said no, the we that cried ``socialism!'' ``communism!'' ``tyranny!'' whenever black people and their allies cried freedom.<br /><br />The fatuous and dishonorable attempt to posit conservatives as the prime engine of civil rights depends for success on the ignorance of the American people. Sadly, as anyone who has ever watched a Jay Walking segment on The Tonight Show can attest, the American people have ignorance in plenitude.<br /><br />This, then, is to serve notice as Beck and his tea party faithful gather in Lincoln's shadow to claim the mantle of King: Some of us are not ignorant. Some of us remember. Some of us know very well who ``we'' is.<br /><br />And, who ``we'' is not.<br /><br />© 2010 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miamiheraldRead more: <a style="COLOR: #003399" href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/25/v-print/1790858/this-is-who-we-really-is-glenn.html#ixzz0xlH1AjVO"> </a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-90386809727549478642010-08-25T16:11:00.001-07:002010-08-25T18:12:40.778-07:00Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Martin Luther King, and the March on Washington<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4UfLKXjIQabsXQ4QuTx_qD7apMJNLuUe-Esi5Ry6Woh1qIvqOhQzIuK1xuGnt2TKwV63SwMIlU04d8rCySRDDHKmX5ZUUKTJ-UqchInEJ9fMfx4mxass4VBNp8tGN1889TKV0d7GkZZJ/s1600/Sarah+Palin+Glenn+Beck+spliced+photo+titled+nightmare+best+of+all+final.jpg"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-3EqcBaYjFkxJiVbiFUZTlSIujTby0s0EDtucyAw7h1DzQaBguWnr2BU37OA6Bd-bHBMj3WRH6-5y-4Qg-nDiE199mvVEz2HtpGC93hf7XLVweNw9gxbkZZAbG_9Mbs0Wvhlv8L1cpzY/s1600/Sarah+Palin+Glenn+Beck+spliced+photo+titled+nightmare+best+of+all+final.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 356px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509519862868649890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-3EqcBaYjFkxJiVbiFUZTlSIujTby0s0EDtucyAw7h1DzQaBguWnr2BU37OA6Bd-bHBMj3WRH6-5y-4Qg-nDiE199mvVEz2HtpGC93hf7XLVweNw9gxbkZZAbG_9Mbs0Wvhlv8L1cpzY/s400/Sarah+Palin+Glenn+Beck+spliced+photo+titled+nightmare+best+of+all+final.jpg" /></a><br />Glenn Beck is sponsoring an "in your face" March on Washington<br /><br />Dear readers,<br /><br />I have taken a six months hiatus from The Ladner Report but am going to give it another try. Other priorities took over but I keep getting this nagging feeling that I should write my thoughts instead of continuing to swear at the television set.<br /><br />Today an MSNBC commentator said, "The fact that this clown (Glenn Beck) and Sarah Palin are going to stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial is the most repulsive thing I can think of." If you haven't heard, Glenn Beck, ( who said President Obama hates white people) is sponsoring a right wingnut rally on the same steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the forty-seventh anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Yes, Beck, his side-kick Sarah Palin and other right wingnuts will stand on the hallowed ground where Dr. Martin Luther King (SCLC), Roy Wilkins (NAACP), John Lewis (SNCC), Whitney Young (National Urban League), Dorothy Height (National Council of Negro Women), and of course, the venerable convener, A. Phillip Randolph stood.<br /><br />Beck, who is trying to get 100,000 people to come to his March on Washington, said, his march will "reclaim the civil rights movement" because "Martin Luther King's dream" has "been distorted" and "massively perverted" by progressives. Beck also suggested that he and his followers are the "inheritors and the protectors of the civil rights movement." In Beck's words, they will "take that movement, because we were the people that did it in the first place."<br /><br />He goes on to say, “This has everything to do with, ‘Who are we?’ There is profound change happening in America, and there is a window of opportunity that comes in the lifespan of every republic, every civilization — a window of opportunity to reach for that brass ring or to miss it. We’re not the people that we’ve allowed ourselves to become.”<br /><br />When it was pointed out that his march is taking place on the same date and at the same place as the historic March on Washington, he feigned ignorance and said it was providential. If he didn't know this was the anniversary of the March, then he is too ignorant for words. However, I feel he deliberately scheduled his march because he wants to redefine the meaning it holds for people who love equality and freedom, and he wants to desecrate King's words on that fateful day.<br /><br />Sarah Palin, who has endorsed every wingnut running for office who asks her, recently joined forces with right wing radio commentator "Dr." Laura (whose doctorate is in physiology) and urged her to reload instead of giving up her "advice" show. "Dr." Laura was probably pushed out because she badgered a black caller who complained that her white husband's friends deliberately made racially offensive comments in her presence. To show how racially insensitive she is, "Dr." Laura repeated the word nigger eleven times as she tried to convince the caller that she was too sensitive.<br /><br />Now Palin wants her to reload so she can say nigger as often as she wishes? "Dr." Laura, who has the empathy of a piece of steel said she was going to step down to reclaim her first amendment rights. Are you following this convoluted logic? She wants to be able to say nigger with impunity.<br /><br />I was at the March on Washington. In fact, I worked on the March staff in the summer of 1963 under the very able direction of Bayard Rustin. We worked out of a Harlem brownstone, and I saw the comings and goings of some of the great people in the civil rights world. I was a student at Tougaloo College in my native Mississippi, and a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I had already spent a few weeks working under Charles Sherrod's direction with the SNCC project in Albany, Georgia. He is the husband of Shirley Sherrod of USDA fame.<br /><br />My job on the March staff was to raise money to bring as many black people from the South as possible. Each time I went out to speak to an audience in the metropolitan New York area I brought back enough money to rent another bus. I wanted people like Fannie Lou Hamer to come to Washington to petition the government. They were enduring so much racial violence and other forms of discrimination that we wanted them to join forces with people of all races around the country and abroad so they could be re-energized for the struggle ahead.<br /><br />I don't remember Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech as being the highlight of that day. Perhaps I was more concerned about now-Congressman John Lewis being able to give his speech without censorship as he was being urged to do. The Washington area Archbishop refused to speak unless John delete a passage from his speech. He objected to John saying that unless there was federal intervention in the South, we would have no choice but to march through the deep South the way General Sherman did during the Civil War, scorching the earth around us. In the end, John modified his speech by adding "nonviolently" to that statement.<br /><br />What I also remember from those forty-seven years ago is the huge crowd of some 250,000 people of all races and backgrounds. I also remember seeing Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Josephine Baker who came from Paris, James Baldwin, Charlton Heston, Bobby Dylan, Joan Baez, Dorothy Height, Mahalia Jackson and so many more civil rights supporters. Remember, this was before there was popular support for the movement. This was the first time there was such a concerted effort to organize massive support and it was the "March on Washington for <em>Jobs and Freedom</em>".<br /><br />Back to Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and "Dr." Laura, who have absolutely nothing in common with those of us who petitioned our government to protect civil rights activists, enact federal legislation, and provide jobs for black people across the nation. The leaders met with President Lyndon B. Johnson after the March with specific requests.<br /><br />What does Sarah Palin have in common with John Lewis, Dorothy Height, Martin Luther King, Jr., SNCC workers, southern Black folks and their northern supporters? We were there to ask President Kennedy to send more FBI and Justice Department officials to protect civil rights workers and local blacks who were being lynched, shot, beaten, and whose homes were being shot into and burned to the ground because they wanted to exercise their right to vote. What do Glenn Beck and his minions want from the government? Surely, it is not racial equality because surveys indicate that the typical Tea Party member is a well-off educated white male.<br /><br />Will Beck and Palin invoke the words of Dr. King? Will they attempt to claim his speech as their own mantra and screw it up with their right wing racist views? Will Beck and Palin speak about their own dreams?<br /><br />I sure hope not.<br /><blockquote></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-59438259451654922282010-03-23T17:29:00.000-07:002010-03-23T19:51:30.920-07:00Historic Health Care Reform Bill Passes Despite The Tea Party<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNABG8wsBRHszRWduPPTx2eDI5zl1Den1JyDkIzP9WTlCV4vv53SuGKiODIRBuCFnsdkS2v_F1WO3eoUM8xHcinxatk9H1CVSAaMPvNeUusxuKiKUmD3kg9tHXsVYyINP6iGQyV4KOSL2x/s1600-h/obamasignshcr.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNABG8wsBRHszRWduPPTx2eDI5zl1Den1JyDkIzP9WTlCV4vv53SuGKiODIRBuCFnsdkS2v_F1WO3eoUM8xHcinxatk9H1CVSAaMPvNeUusxuKiKUmD3kg9tHXsVYyINP6iGQyV4KOSL2x/s400/obamasignshcr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452027499013015538" /></a><br /> <br />"We are not a nation that scales back our aspirations. That is not who we are". <br /><br />President Barack Obama<br /> <br /><br />I once had a colleague who wrote a book titled The Ordeal of Civility. I recalled the title, though not the substance, of this book recently when I thought of the increasingly uncivil discourse in American social and political life. As President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many others worked hard to avoid scaling back aspirations on health care reform, protestors in front of the U. S. Capitol were showing how nasty they could be. Nothing looked worse than the Republican Congress men and women including the right wing Michelle Bachman haranguing the crowd. As the crowd below called one black Congressmen "nigger," spat on another, called the openly gay Congressman Barney Frank "fag" and a Hispanic Congressman "wetback," these Congressmen and Congresswomen regaled the crowd as though they were standing on the balcony of a rich Mississippi cotton plantation baron. Their minions were all too happy to do participate in the call and response. "Get the niggers, fags and wetbacks" is so consistent with the white racist culture of my youth in Mississippi where the prominent people egged on the Ku Klux Klan to carry out their dirty work.<br /><br />Yet, President Lyndon Johnson was called all kinds of names when he got the passage of Medicare. He lost much of the Southern Democratic constituency with the passage of social legislation including the voting rights, public accommodations. It was all about race back then and it's all about race now. Class plays a role too, but the most virulent protesters cannot fathom being led by an African American president. They will continue to fight President Obama even when the legislation will benefit them, like the protester in one of the town halls last summer who, after having a heart attack at the rally, did not have health insurance for his own treatment. People like him will be helped even if it is against their own beliefs. <br /><br />Each time these despicable events occur, the predictable responses from the Republican leadership and a lot of mainstream pundits are that it was an isolated incident. Isolated my foot! It is a set of patterned responses based on the values and beliefs of racist Neanderthals who do not accept racial equality as a matter of law, religion or culture. I have not seen this much racism in the Congress since Mississippi Senators Eastland and Stennis took to the House floor to filibuster civil rights bills. <br /><br />That is why the passage of the health care bill is so important. It was critical to denounce the Tea Party people whose behavior in town halls last summer were unbelievably racist. Some of these folks don't even have health insurance, however their racism against President Barack Obama was more important to them. And, if I hear the word Socialism one more time I am going to scream. My conservative friend who wouldn't know socialism if it hit him in the face, and who cannot spell the word keeps harping on the President being a socialist. Calling President Obama a socialist is like calling him an alien person; one who does not share their beliefs; one who is, in a word, black. These same people receive the fruits of the government's "socialism" in the form of Medicare and Social Security. In fact, the elderly here in Florida carried signs that referred to Obama being a socialist on one side and "Leave my Medicare alone" on the other. How schizophrenic can they get? <br /><br />I hope that those who need health care will be able to get it, and I hope those who keep voting against their own interests soon realize that they are merely "pawns in their game," to use Bobby Dylan's lyrics about how Southerners were used as pawns by the elite. As for the rest of us, we will long remember that we witnessed a time when we as a nation did not scale back our aspirations.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-52963229468737802172009-11-09T17:24:00.000-08:002009-11-09T17:31:10.964-08:00What has President Obama accomplished?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv-_cb4KW-okIElH9Kj9276PFQSx-1NquJqIFkceN7QplOU140WdZP84HhfCiMhfNcLjBfd1ZEFS232ikW7Jdk7VP2lrA7ZjDAOcSrDQYj6i3Vh_9Svj5nmnS1Q7dIszqH99WJy0LkA9iA/s1600-h/obama.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv-_cb4KW-okIElH9Kj9276PFQSx-1NquJqIFkceN7QplOU140WdZP84HhfCiMhfNcLjBfd1ZEFS232ikW7Jdk7VP2lrA7ZjDAOcSrDQYj6i3Vh_9Svj5nmnS1Q7dIszqH99WJy0LkA9iA/s400/obama.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402281353054683634" /></a><br />http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/89446-nope-he-hasnt-done-anything.htmlA Grade for Obama by Robert Watson<br /><br /><br />I am repeatedly asked to grade the Obama presidency thus far. In place of a grade, here is a list of Obama's accomplishments as of August 2009.<br /><br />Robert Watson, Ph.D.<br /><br />Coordinator of American Studies<br /><br />Lynn University<br /><br /><br /><br />1. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending<br /><br />2. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices<br /><br />3. Instituted enforcements for equal pay for women<br /><br />4. Beginning the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq<br /><br />5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover A.F.B.<br /><br />6. Ended media "blackout" on war casualties; reporting full information<br /><br />7. Ended media "blackout" on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover A.F.B.; the media is now permitted to do so pending adherence to respectful rules and approval of fallen soldier's family<br /><br />8. The White House and federal government are respecting the Freedom of Information Act<br /><br />9. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible<br /><br />10. Limits on lobbyists' access to the White House<br /><br />11. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration<br /><br />12. Ended the previous "stop-loss" policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date<br /><br />13. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren't even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan<br /><br />14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research<br /><br />15. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research<br /><br />16. New federal funding for science and research labs<br /><br />17. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards<br /><br />18. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants...) after years of neglect<br /><br />19. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools<br /><br />20. New funds for school construction<br /><br />21. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is being phased out<br /><br />22. US Auto industry rescue plan<br /><br />23. Housing rescue plan<br /><br />24. $789 billion economic stimulus plan<br /><br />25. The public can meet with federal housing insurers to refinance (the new plan can be completed in one day) a mortgage if they are having trouble paying<br /><br />26. US financial and banking rescue plan<br /><br />27. The "secret detention" facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are being closed<br /><br />28. Ended the previous policy; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards<br /><br />29. Better body armor is now being provided to our troops<br /><br />30. The missile defense program is being cut by $1.4 billion in 2010<br /><br />31. Restarted the nuclear non-proliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols<br /><br />32. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic<br /><br />33. Reengaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions<br /><br />34. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office<br /><br />35. Successful release of US captain held by Somali pirates; authorized the SEALS to do their job<br /><br />36. US Navy increasing patrols off Somali coast<br /><br />37. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles<br /><br />38. "Cash for clunkers" program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulates auto sales<br /><br />39. Announced plans to purchase fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government<br /><br />40. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children<br /><br />41. Signed national service legislation; expanded national youth service program<br /><br />42. Instituted a new policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban families to return "home" to visit loved ones<br /><br />43. Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions<br /><br />44. Expanding vaccination programs<br /><br />45. Immediate and efficient response to the floods in North Dakota and other natural disasters<br /><br />46. Closed offshore tax safe havens<br /><br />47. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals<br /><br />48. Ended the previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back<br /><br />49. Ended the previous practice of protecting credit card companies; in place of it are new consumer protections from credit card industry's predatory practices<br /><br />50. Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources<br /><br />51. Lower drug costs for seniors<br /><br />52. Ended the previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs; the federal government is now realizing hundreds of millions in savings<br /><br />53. Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel<br /><br />54. Improved housing for military personnel<br /><br />55. Initiating a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses<br /><br />56. Improved conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital and other military hospitals<br /><br />57. Increasing student loans<br /><br />58. Increasing opportunities in AmeriCorps program<br /><br />59. Sent envoys to Middle East and other parts of the world that had been neglected for years; reengaging in multilateral and bilateral talks and diplomacy<br /><br />60. Established a new cyber security office<br /><br />61. Beginning the process of reforming and restructuring the military 20 years after the Cold War to a more modern fighting force... this includes new procurement policies, increasing size of military, new technology and cyber units and operations, etc.<br /><br />62. Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts<br /><br />63. Ordered a review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness<br /><br />64. Established a National Performance Officer charged with saving the federal government money and making federal operations more efficient<br /><br />65. Students struggling to make college loan payments can have their loans refinanced<br /><br />66. Improving benefits for veterans<br /><br />67. Many more press conferences and town halls and much more media access than previous administration<br /><br />68. Instituted a new focus on mortgage fraud<br /><br />69. The FDA is now regulating tobacco<br /><br />70. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules<br /><br />71. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports<br /><br />72. Authorized discussions with North Korea and private mission by Pres. Bill Clinton to secure the release of two Americans held in prisons<br /><br />73. Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Web to secure the release of an American held captive<br /><br />74. Making more loans available to small businesses<br /><br />75. Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare<br /><br />76. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court<br /><br />77. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans<br /><br />78. Limited salaries of senior White House aides; cut to $100,000<br /><br />79. Renewed loan guarantees for Israel<br /><br />80. Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan<br /><br />81. Deployed additional troops to Afghanistan<br /><br />82. New Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing and prioritizes aid, development of infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices by Afghans<br /><br />83. Announced the long-term development of a national energy grid with renewable sources and cleaner, efficient energy production<br />84. Returned money authorized for refurbishment of White House offices and private living quarters<br /><br />85. Paid for redecorations of White House living quarters out of his own pocket<br /><br />86. Held first Seder in White House<br /><br />87. Attempting to reform the nation's healthcare system which is the most expensive in the world yet leaves almost 50 million without health insurance and millions more underinsured<br /><br />88. Has put the ball in play for comprehensive immigration reform<br /><br />89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform<br /><br />90. Has announced his intention to push for education reform<br /><br /><br /><br />Oh, and he built a swing set for the girls outside the Oval Office!<br /><br />Ok, go ahead Righties, rip into all of that and say its nothing<br />__________________<br />Its one thing to be an idiot, its a whole different thing to open your mouth and prove it to the rest of the worldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-90849191666667291072009-08-27T13:48:00.000-07:002009-08-27T19:06:41.993-07:00Senator Edward Kennedy: Civil Rights Advocate for All Citizens<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3IycwU-oXnQ/SpcesK_5gQI/AAAAAAAACLo/5pSchmUXbhU/s1600-h/local12a.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 386px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374798424505417986" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3IycwU-oXnQ/SpcesK_5gQI/AAAAAAAACLo/5pSchmUXbhU/s400/local12a.jpg" /></a> Senator Kennedy<br />and his sons at a Roxbury school in 1980.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgAZxM3V5aHUKAcl0drzsi_CUOL4omdoam2n0zmFs6MpulwpVW6if0TMo4SElhFb0b9VdOeAoYxFCvD5m_O5whZ7YiT_bjUs1Axm5BGobBXKKBUIEfptHYGmOBPsJ-T5Laqo6KkLLMHlJ/s1600-h/obama-kennedy-laughing2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 327px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374798322733181410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgAZxM3V5aHUKAcl0drzsi_CUOL4omdoam2n0zmFs6MpulwpVW6if0TMo4SElhFb0b9VdOeAoYxFCvD5m_O5whZ7YiT_bjUs1Axm5BGobBXKKBUIEfptHYGmOBPsJ-T5Laqo6KkLLMHlJ/s400/obama-kennedy-laughing2.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkV4AfBdyytvU7bPgc2i9StKkItVwV0SVNgMGs6xqVZR8hK-9tp3-WnLLQrzZxLqEEW7wpnfdBCLyV5mx2dWSvNlO3UgstdVgasYMzX-J848a-cRtPHnCaNCtSwkLgCu2xYkp1nUY2XYi5/s1600-h/kobama1232556788.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 321px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374798202164115554" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkV4AfBdyytvU7bPgc2i9StKkItVwV0SVNgMGs6xqVZR8hK-9tp3-WnLLQrzZxLqEEW7wpnfdBCLyV5mx2dWSvNlO3UgstdVgasYMzX-J848a-cRtPHnCaNCtSwkLgCu2xYkp1nUY2XYi5/s400/kobama1232556788.jpg" /></a><br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlAhtoj-lEi8EqyBSC2Fkm8bHEukADsPXZphgM2mpNdBqwbifeeBoYVjt_WvLzQeNmC-xx4rtL47EQ13I2A5lnNq-H4hHY0otUH37RYI1THp8k4HPOjygc_VjGUNo6j2W_283cTJ-3Haz/s1600-h/kennedy+civil+rights.gif"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 178px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374798058787119298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlAhtoj-lEi8EqyBSC2Fkm8bHEukADsPXZphgM2mpNdBqwbifeeBoYVjt_WvLzQeNmC-xx4rtL47EQ13I2A5lnNq-H4hHY0otUH37RYI1THp8k4HPOjygc_VjGUNo6j2W_283cTJ-3Haz/s400/kennedy+civil+rights.gif" /></a><br /><br />I am a child of the civil rights movement of the sixties. Therefore, I cried when I heard Senator Edward Kennedy had died because he was one of the most dedicated allies we had.<br /><br />In its remembrance of Senator Kennedy, the Boston Globe wrote:<br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><em>"Nearly four months after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Senator Kennedy gave his maiden speech on the topic of civil rights, urging support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations. Barely two years into his term, he authored an amendment to eliminate the Poll Tax, which had been used to block some from voting. The amendment was defeated, but months later, the Supreme Court declared the tax unconstitutional.<br /><br />Kennedy was a chief sponsor of voting rights legislation, and in 1980, worked to establish a national holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In keeping with his family legacy, he continued to pursue key civil rights legislation throughout his career ."<br /><br /></em>I cried for Senator Kennedy, but I also cried for myself, my son, my nieces and nephews, my siblings, and for everyone who understand the breadth and depth of changes he brought about.<br />The civil rights community does not have a replacement for him.<br /><br />Senator Kennedy's rare qualities of optimism, empathy, and hard work were what set him apart from others. I think this is what enabled him to never get more than one step away from the suffering of humankind. He turned his personal pain into a commitment to help those who, because of their powerlessness, could not advocate as effectively for themselves and whom other politicians shunned: minorities, the disabled, immigrants and women. Senator Kennedy was that powerful ally who understood our needs and felt, like the perennial optimist, that there was always sunshine ahead if only he fought a little harder.<br /><br />My tears were also shed for the <em>finality</em> of a period in American history that we are unlikely to see again. Senator Kennedy's era, and our own, was defined by a deep concern for empowering people to vote for the first time, to run for political office, to use public accommodations without regard for race, Headstart and Job Corp for the kids and Medicare for the elderly, ramps for the handicapped, special education, unemployment insurance, expanded Social Security benefits, child health care, student loans, and much much more.<br /><br />Senator Kennedy believed that health care is a fundamental right for all citizens and not just for those who can afford it. My era and his was also bracketed by the sit-in's, marches, pickets, and yes, the murders of civil rights workers and ordinary citizens alike. While his brother, President John F. Kennedy, advocated for civil rights because of political expediency, Teddy believed in the equal value of all women, men and children.<br /><br />His optimism, empathy and dedication made him a marathon runner, and not a sprinter. That is why his passion to fight for the little people continued until his death. Undeterred by those hostile forces who say they "want their country back," he realized that the society he helped to shape for almost half a century is more just for those very immigrants, blacks, Hispanics, and others who make up the society they now want back. The tidal wave of reforms he led has made it better for everyone, including the "haters" who want to return to some imaginary idyllic time --translated before we elected a black president.<br /><br />I wish the sixties could have existed forever, but Teddy showed us that the struggle for human dignity is a marathon that cuts across decades and generations. It is not for the weary or the faint of heart. He left us with a road map on how to continue his work. It is up to us to follow it by making health care reform with a public option a reality for starters.<br />.<br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-32745829471531994032009-08-26T16:42:00.000-07:002009-08-26T16:58:07.603-07:00A Generational Narrative by a Black Woman on the Life and Legacy of Senator Edward Kennedy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPgaf-GK4LfnSl14jfpofBd8kDIXU28yxCSToULp5AQB7gblOAISg7igsBRT4EnjWoGYw-R4ufp6GxuyUA5FfEm7r1MAdhBhcGGjl02HkaaTwrQAa3TAdTb6ThWaFVtxsI3LQMeDFz4A8/s1600-h/Ruby_Sales.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374424005559077090" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPgaf-GK4LfnSl14jfpofBd8kDIXU28yxCSToULp5AQB7gblOAISg7igsBRT4EnjWoGYw-R4ufp6GxuyUA5FfEm7r1MAdhBhcGGjl02HkaaTwrQAa3TAdTb6ThWaFVtxsI3LQMeDFz4A8/s400/Ruby_Sales.jpg" /></a><br />By Ruby Nell Sales<br />Founder and Co-Director of the Spirit House Project<br />Columbus, Georgia.<br /><br /><br />This morning I awakened to the sound of news reporters telling the world that Ted Kennedy died just as the night turned into morning. As I heard Senator Edward Kennedy’s voice booming from the television the words “For those whose cares have been our concern… The Hope Still Lives, The Dream Shall Never Die…” when he lost his bid for president in 1980 - my eyes filled with tears that carried with them the hopes and dreams of a generation and community of people of all colors who imagined a new day in America and worked hard to achieve it. As I thought about this man who lived a life committed to “making a better world,” it touched the grief and celebration that run throughout the lives of my generation who rode and still rides a long train towards justice. In many ways, his life reflects the hills and valleys of our lives... our “victories and our defeats.”<br /><br />This morning in a very special way, I remembered my young brothers and sisters in the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee and local communities throughout the South who worked unrelentingly to advance democracy during the heat and violence of White supremacy without thinking of money or benefits. We lived and worked from freedom houses that lacked hot water, inside bathrooms and sturdy foundations to protect us from the violence and terror of White night riders. Most of us were young. We were idealistic. We were Black, White and Brown. We were determined. Despite generations of America’s broken promises of democracy, we still passionately believed in the dreams of our mothers and fathers: that America was large enough for everyone regardless of race, sex, class, color or creed.<br /><div><br />Believing this, we put our youth on the line to make real their dream. We were wounded at the core of our young selves under the weight of White lies, White racism and White violence. America's bad faith, violence and oppression fractured us into tiny unclaimed bits which lay on the road from Mississippi to Alabama to Washington to New York to Los Angeles. Yet, like Ted Kennedy, many of us did not die or lose our will to struggle. We kept on believing, working, and struggling despite hearts that were broken by White men who killed our relatives and murdered our friends. I admit that sometimes we did not always carry our grief well or wisely. However unlike the Trumpet blowers of White Supremacy and injustice, we harmed ourselves more often than we did others. Unlike them, love rather than hate stirred our passions and ignited our imaginations. Even as we watched right wing communities vigorously and intentionally roll back the gains of the Southern Freedom /Civil Rights Movement, like Senator Edward Kennedy, we “kept the faith” and found it over and over again despite the hopeless despair that the right wing communities spread throughout America like a dirty blanket. Because their language and ideals lacked hope, moral authority and meaning, they stole our freedom language. They called death squads in Nicaragua freedom fighters. Even in the midst of this grand theft, we knew like Senator Edward Kennedy that they might steal our language and images, but they could not kill this dream that still burns in us.<br /><br />My reaction to Senator Edward Kennedy’s life and death this morning caused me to reflect on my own life. It moved me to ask what is it about a White upper class senator’s life that touches me as a Southern Black woman who grew up during segregation and economic exploitation and who came into radical adulthood at Tuskegee Institute now Tuskegee University and the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee on the bloody fields of Lowndes County, Alabama where my white young seminarian friend Jonathan Daniels saved my life as he stepped in from of a bullet aimed at me by a White Klansman. </div><div><br />I am moved by how Senator Kennedy as other freedom workers refused to be broken or incapacitated by slander or even by personal struggles. In the face of much pounding and demonization by members of right wing communities, Senator Edward Kennedy carried the banner for ordinary people who faced the fires of injustice in America. He stood up for immigrants, people of color, workers, lesbians and gays, women, and youth. He stood up in the raging storm of neo-conservatives and right wingers who distorted the people’s struggle for justice and used it to inflame passionate resentment and rage in many Whites and their allies of color. He stood firm as a liberal as members of right wing communities decried liberalism as a big sore that contaminated the federal government and oozed pus throughout America that ruined, destroyed and betrayed the lives of ordinary White people by giving handouts to undeserving colored peoples. He stood firm as the right wing community demonized him and used his name and image to stir up hatred in people while feeding on this hate and resentment to move forward their own careers and their rigid ideological positions. The great irony is that Ted Kennedy fought more vigorously for the rights and welfare of ordinary White people than these right wing preachers, politicians, news pundits and their allies ever did.<br /><br />As I survey the American landscape that is raging with racism, economic injustice, and cries of some White Americans that they want their country back, I hear the voice of our dear brother, uncle, father, Senator Kennedy’s peer and long distance runner for justice, Vincent Harding reminding us that: “There in Ohio and in here in D.C. it can be our statement, our announcement that we refuse to be overcome by the difficulties of the current moment. It is our way of declaring that, we've come too far to turn back from this peace-making path. Surrounded as we are by a host of ancestors who have gone before us -- including our ancestor Jesus -- we will continue to sing. We will continue to build. We will continue to believe. We will continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We will continue to love. We will continue to run. We will continue to hope, continue to dream. For we believe with Langston (Hughes) that we were not meant to be broken–winged birds. As a matter of fact, when we are at our best, we believe that we were meant to rise up on wings like eagles.” </div><div><br />This morning as I placed Senator Kennedy’s life and legacy within a history and context, I salute this powerful and compassionate eagle who flew above the constraints of class to connect with ordinary people, who flew above the constraints of heterosexuality to connect with lesbians and gays, who flew above the constraints of Whiteness to connect with peoples of color and who flew above the constraints of his own individual challenges to strive to become more fully human. We salute you, Senator Edward Kennedy, not because you were perfect and not because we always agreed with you, but because you tried to treat others right on this journey even in the face of great personal hardship and travail. We salute you Senator Kennedy, because you stood with us when standing with us was a liability. </div><div></div><br /><div>Fly on Senator Kennedy as you join that mighty cloud of witnesses/ancestors whose lives lift us and remind us that we are not alone -- that we are passengers on a long train moving towards justice. For those of us who remain as remnants of Movements for Justice in the 20th century, let the words, uttered at the 2008 Democratic Convention, by our brother, Senator and long distance worker for justice, Senator Edward Kennedy, resonate and hold us through this unsteady leg of our journey. He said: “I have come here tonight to stand with you - to change America and to restore its future - to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States... Together we have known success and seen setbacks - victory and defeat - but we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world.”<br />-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-58673366551475694852009-08-26T10:34:00.000-07:002009-08-26T10:55:36.823-07:00The Dream Shall Never Die<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ5JMNR8a5ln_vkk2xUr9MUjWlmbXHsDz__SSKMKtjW2mUfphd40vI2hYxr-64orZKe_AxRtDkdsUIvzytPjOUnSN50SgDEw_DwTVuxW7_GHSYzfxb6NZzyDwWcfvO2JkjwtdbRnufwMgE/s1600-h/kennedy+brothers.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374332271920392562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ5JMNR8a5ln_vkk2xUr9MUjWlmbXHsDz__SSKMKtjW2mUfphd40vI2hYxr-64orZKe_AxRtDkdsUIvzytPjOUnSN50SgDEw_DwTVuxW7_GHSYzfxb6NZzyDwWcfvO2JkjwtdbRnufwMgE/s400/kennedy+brothers.jpg" /></a> President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and and Senator Edward Kennedy<br /><br /><br /><em>This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege."<br /><br />For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years. — Ted Kennedy</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-4064191666743496222009-08-15T19:49:00.000-07:002009-08-15T19:56:47.063-07:00Clyburn: Town Hall Protests Like Horrid Anti-Civil Rights DemonstrationsThe third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives on Thursday compared the disruptive protesters at recent health care town halls to people who unleashed dogs and spat on civil rights demonstrators during the 1960s.<br /><br />By Sam Stein<br />Huffington Post<br />August 13, 2009<br /><br /><br />In an interview with the Huffington Post, Rep. James Clyburn, (D-S.C.), said that there was "absolutely" an analogy to be drawn between the horrid experience that he went through as a civil rights leader and the boisterous conservatives who have disrupted health care forums.<br /><br />"I have seen this kind of hate before. I have seen this discussion before," he said. "I have seen snarling dogs going after people who were trying to peacefully assemble. I have seen the eyes of people who were being spat upon."<br /><br />"This is all about activity trying to deny the establishment of a civil right. And I do believe that health care for all is -- a civil right," the House Majority Whip argued. "And I think that is why you see this kind of activity. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/clyburn-town-hall-protest_n_259118.html">This is an attempt on the part of some to deny the establishment of a civil right.</a> (click to read rest of article).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-40542704214644128482009-08-14T19:20:00.000-07:002009-08-14T19:47:54.168-07:00When Are WE Going to Get Over It?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRGaBPAgqazd-WU_jDaVTSlwgGHVebB7JTuj_vI4HNlizLVBJ2by7O5fpFrB9dnPoS7Edfosfg3khOGtjWiu_u7QIut2BLhu2TGeHnqSyjPh3uE5rWTnpmj3Icc4hWKo7-3ClxUJoU7d3/s1600-h/president%2520obama.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 307px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRGaBPAgqazd-WU_jDaVTSlwgGHVebB7JTuj_vI4HNlizLVBJ2by7O5fpFrB9dnPoS7Edfosfg3khOGtjWiu_u7QIut2BLhu2TGeHnqSyjPh3uE5rWTnpmj3Icc4hWKo7-3ClxUJoU7d3/s400/president%2520obama.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370016416683474850" /></a><br /><em>The post below was sent to me by a friend. The author, Andrew M. Manis, is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph. This courageous author's comments merit national distribution. Therefore, I hope all of my readers will forward it to others. The burden of responsibility for the race problem usually falls disproportionately on blacks. The author takes a different point of view.</em><br /><br />By Andrew Manis<br /><br />For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it?<br /><br />Now I want to ask:<br /><br />"When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?<br /><br />Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<br /><br />Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."<br /><br />Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.<br /><br />We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent.<br /><br />Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes.<br /><br />Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.<br /><br />But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president.<br /><br />But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."<br /><br />Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?"<br /><br />How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?<br /><br />How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?<br /><br />How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?<br /><br />How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?<br /><br />How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?<br /><br />How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?<br /><br />I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?<br /><br />How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?<br /><br />How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red, brown, yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?<br /><br />Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem.<br /><br />But here's my three-point plan:<br /><br />First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.<br /><br />Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.<br /><br />Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice,<br />"We HAVE overcome."<br /><br />It takes a Village to protect our President!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-38010953275715156272009-07-27T11:14:00.001-07:002009-07-27T12:17:58.604-07:00The Henry Louis Gates Affair<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNtV-SF2el6fZi8vPJQ5RwPPs64z-iWBRa01LXxRviisrpctwldQhHwfcUuYuGRenZhBX-PcdL8oM8jGfNjkIZjZD5KWPpCpW_3sXzD7iNRMxG32N3YXya6kqRYLJXw-u8SMlpRNwpz-W/s1600-h/gates_mug.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363202753584595410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNtV-SF2el6fZi8vPJQ5RwPPs64z-iWBRa01LXxRviisrpctwldQhHwfcUuYuGRenZhBX-PcdL8oM8jGfNjkIZjZD5KWPpCpW_3sXzD7iNRMxG32N3YXya6kqRYLJXw-u8SMlpRNwpz-W/s400/gates_mug.jpg" /></a> Mug shots of Henry Louis Gates after arrest for disorderly conduct. wbz photo<br /><br /><br /><em>I am reminded of James Baldwin's book, Nobody Knows My Name, when I think of the thousands of black and brown men who have been the victims of racial profile. </em><br /><br /><br />I haven't logged on for more than a month because I got tired of writing on the same old same issues. However, the Henry Louis Gates arrest by the Cambridge police officer deserves a comment.<br /><br />It is unfortunate that any man, be he white black, brown or yellow, is arrested while trying to enter his own home peacefully. Police officers should exercise restraint when faced with a potentially volatile situation. When Gates showed Officer Crowley his identification, the matter should have ended. However, it gets murky from then on with a disagreement between Officer Crowley's written report and Gates's description of what occurred. If, as the office said, Gates told him <a href="http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police%20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF">"Your mama's outside"</a> (see police report) when he asked him to step outside, the cop should have bitten his lip and left. They are trained to ignore such things. Maybe, on this hot day the officer didn't take kindly to Gates playing the dozens with him. Who knows? We are not mind readers.<br /><br />I am reminded of James Baldwin's book, Nobody Knows My Name, when I think of the thousands of black and brown men who have been the victims of racial profile. Unlike Skip Gates, these men have no outstanding credentials or media friends to report their arrests on the front page of the New York Times. There is something inherently wrong when the arrest of a nameless Joe Blow ends up only on the police blotter.<br /><br />I would hope that Skip uses his arrest as an honest way to bring attention to the problem for the thousands of black and brown men whose names are not known by the national media. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the affair ends with the White House beer drinking party hosted by President Obama for Gates and Crowley. President Obama was in hot water for referring to the Cambridge police department as "dumb" without having all the facts. Looking for a way out of the mess that I don't think he should have been involved in from the start, he called Officer Crowley, who suggested he invite him and Gates for a beer at the White House.<br /><br />Anytime the President speaks on a volatile issue, it takes him off message. The passage of a health care reform bill is more critical to the nation than the arrest of Skip Gates, as President Obama soon learned. Now, I hope the right wingnuts will leave the whole affair alone and the rest of us can get back to health care.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2530646792926894359.post-79797011882276679572009-07-27T11:08:00.000-07:002009-07-27T11:13:18.551-07:00How Henry Louis Gates Got Ordained as the Nation's "Leading Black Intellectual"Counterpunch<br />July 27, 2009<br /><br /><br />By ISHMAEL REED <br /><br />Now that Henry Louis Gates’ Jr. has gotten a tiny taste of what “the underclass” undergo each day, do you think that he will go easier on them? Lighten up on the tough love lectures? Even during his encounter with the police, he was given some slack. If a black man in an inner city neighborhood had hesitated to identify himself, or given the police some lip, the police would have called SWAT. When Oscar Grant, an apprentice butcher, talked back to a BART policeman in Oakland, he was shot!<br /><br />Given the position that Gates has pronounced since the late eighties, if I had been the arresting officer and post-race spokesperson Gates accused me of racism, I would have given him a sample of his own medicine. I would have replied that “race is a social construct”--the line that he and his friends have been pushing over the last couple of decades.<br /><br />After this experience, will Gates stop attributing the problems of those inner city dwellers to the behavior of “thirty five-year-old grandmothers living in the projects?” (Gates says that when he became a tough lover he was following the example of his mentor Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka as though his and Soyinka’s situations were the same. As a result of Soyinka’s criticisms of a Nigerian dictator, he was jailed and his life constantly threatened.) <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/reed07272009.html">Click here to read rest of article.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0