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CH E C K T H I S O U T TWO VIEWS OF THE HEALTH CARE PLAN -
Helen Burleson Dear Conductors
These are very interesting assessments of the problems OUR PRESIDENT is having with the health care reform. The first is from one of our Beloved White Conductors, Bob, and the second is from a Black university professor, Dr. Karenga. Both arrive at the same conclusion though expressed in different ways. Please read both carefully and share them, especially with the naive who either do not know, or pretend not to know what all the furor is about. We have got to contact our representatives to give them intelligent and informed reasons why they must fight for the public option so that ALL AMERICANS can enjoy the benefits of quality health and wellness care. The article from Dr. Karenga was sent to me by our Beloved Conductor, Gloria. Helen
From Bob: When Bush was in the White house NO one made claims that he was Hitler. Yet he lied about Iraq and we went to war. He took a country that was in the black and spent so much money on Iraq that we were hopelessly in the red before he left office. The economy also went into the toilet because of Iraq and other reason we all know. Obama comes in says he wants to reform health care and all everyone does is complain. It doesn't matter what he does people complain.Yet he campaigned on Health care reform and won 87 % of the votes. The Republican fight with the Democrats or the democrats fight with the republican. It doesn't matter NOTHING is getting done.
People the whole world is watching us make asses out of our selves and laughing at us..... Let's Knock off the crap and give the man the same respect we would if he were a white man. How can we treat him so poorly ? We didn't treat Bush this way and Bush lied about war.
For all of you complaining about Health care, if you have it,,, its run by politics now. When you get older it will be run by the government. It's called Medicare.
This is why it must be about his race, if not then what ?
From Dr. Karenga: BLAMING WHITE ANXIETY ON OBAMA: PROXY PROTESTS AND RACIAL RAGE Los Angeles Sentinel, 08-20-09, p. A7 DR. MAULANA KARENGA
No one who is honest, serious or sane, can truthfully deny that President Obama has done all he can do, without irreparable damage to his dignity and sense of self, to put Whites at ease about him, his patriotism, his plans and his dedication to a post-racial, post-partisan and truly just America. Not since Dr. Martin Luther King’s initiative to reassure and involve Whites in creating a just and good society, and to offer possibilities and opportunities for redemption of even the most unrepentant racists, have we witnessed such an effort, even given the obvious differences. During the campaign and after his election, Obama has practiced a judicious racial self-concealment and an office-based distancing from his community at given times to make Whites feel more a part of his project for the country. Moreover, he put aside the expansive multicultural model of government promised, at least for now, and surrounded himself with an abundance and variety of Whites. And he has bowed out and backtracked when they have questioned the text, tone, and appropriateness of his statements, especially where they could be racially misread as an expression of Black anger or “a Black thing” Whites might not understand or appreciate.
And yet there are some Whites who for clear or closeted racial “reasons” will not give him rest, relief or credit and who, as one of their favorite talk-show hosts and heroes has said, are dedicated to discrediting him and making him fail. Thus, in spite of a litany of denials and labored alternative explanations about the intense and aggressive rage and racial rant against his health care proposal, they bear serious signs of proxy protests against him, reflecting the racial antipathy some Whites feel concerning him, and the racial anxiety they have about themselves, current conditions and the future.
There is no need to deny the complex source of their anxiety and rage, i.e., the state of the economy, disinformation, misinformation, self-cultivated unawareness, fear of an uncertain future, real disagreement, “democracy at work”, prior similar patterns of other major policy proposals, and manipulation by Republicans, insurance and pharmaceutical companies and an assortment of right-wing groups. But the essential character of this confrontation and conversation is its rootedness in racial anxiety and antipathy.
Thus, the racial slurs on their signs, their hateful words, and their aggressive behavior are directed not so much against Obama’s health care proposal, but against him. There is a continuing racial rage which began during the campaign and rises out of a sense of loss of power and position to one and others less worthy, a reversal of the social, even natural, order in racialized thinking.
Therefore, it is not simply a town hall rage, but one which is rooted in a larger societal anger and anxiety. It is in the media and the political culture itself—residual, recurrent and continuing racism.
It is in the general criticism of him as “a joker with a chip on his shoulder, creating chaos and crisis, wearing a mask to fool White people”. Others burn Obama in effigy at the rallies, wear guns openly and suggest “the trees of liberty must be watered” with someone’s (?) blood. In this miasmic mix emerge so-called “birthers”, fixated on proving, against all evidence, that Obama is “foreign-born” and thus ineligible and unworthy of being President. Then, too, there are those who ask, as if it had real merit or sensible meaning, “can we still call the White House White with a Black man, indeed a Black family in residence in it?” I’m not sure what more Obama can do to deal with White anxiety and antipathy. In addition to the things mentioned above, he has assured them of their greatness, generosity and capacity for kindness and offered beer for racial bonding at the White House. And he has committed himself and asked us not to remind them of past racial injustice or call current racial injustice by its real name. Furthermore, Obama has spared them the public lectures on personal and communal responsibility he has given us. Indeed, he refuses to engage racial discourse, except on ceremonious occasions to note how far we, as a country, have moved from it. But race still matters and has developed a life of its own, as a social and psychological virus resistant to reason or any remedy, except the struggle for and achievement of deep-rooted social change. The left and liberals have not been as assertive as needed in this debate. This is partially due to a sense that Obama has not fulfilled and even gone back on some of his campaign promises. But as Paul Robeson said, “the battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear”. Thus, even if we can’t, for good reasons, support Obama in some areas, there are still other areas in which he takes and maintains a progressive stand and there progressives should stand with him in defense and struggle for what is just, good and right in this country and the world.
Such a site of rightful support and struggle is the issue of universal health care. President Obama’s health care proposal carries within it stipulations to alter ways that the insurance companies do business negative to human life and well-being. It would, among other things, bar them from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions; dropping a patient if s/he gets ill; reducing coverage at critical times; increasing without limit out-of-pocket expenses; and placing a cap on the amount of coverage one can have in a year or a lifetime. And it would also cover preventive care, routine check-ups, screening and tests to insure ongoing health and well-being. Moreover, Obama’s “public option”, i.e., government-provided insurance, must remain a part of his proposal. He must not cave in to corporate and right-wing campaigns to discredit it and convince the majority of American Whites, even poor and needy ones, this proposal is bad for them. But it’s White racialized thinking that makes them susceptible to this discrediting. For many, who already have and benefit from Medicare and Medicaid, government sponsored programs, feel compelled to go against their own interests, if it means sharing with the less worthy, the poor and/or people of color.
Again, we must realize the health care struggle is linked to a larger one, the struggle against racial or class dominance of any group, against racialized conceptions and approaches to human life. And it is a struggle to insure the health and well-being of all, and to open up the horizons of history and human possibility in new, elevated and ever-expansive ways. Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach, Chair of The Organization Us, Creator of Kwanzaa, and author of Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle: African American, Pan-African and Global Issues
www.MaulanaKarenga.org www.Us-Organization.org www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org
This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. Text of H.R. 1964: National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act of 2009
JOE MADISON TO HOST A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION MARKING PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S 100TH DAY EXCLUSIVELY ON XM RADIO
XM host Joe Madison examines President Obama’s performance and takes a look at the challenges ahead of his presidency
Guests include Rep. James Clyburn, Howard Dean, Rep. Barney Frank, Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., Dick Gregory, Rep. Charles Rangel and Helen Thomas
NEW YORK – April 27, 2009 – SIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) today announced it will broadcast “The Power Breakfast,” a special edition of The Joe Madison Show, featuring analysis of President Barack Obama’s first 100-days in office. “The Power Breakfast,” hosted by Joe Madison, will be broadcast on The Power, XM channel 169, on Thursday, April 30 starting at 6 am ET.
For “The Power Breakfast” edition of The Joe Madison Show, Madison has invited congressional leaders, political pundits, celebrity guests and activists to evaluate President Obama’s policies on issues including the economy, homeland security, education, foreign affairs and the state of race relations since his historic election. 20 XM listeners will hear live panel discussions with leading members from the House of Representatives, including Rep. James Clyburn, Majority Whip for the 110th Congress; Rep. John Conyers; Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the Financial Services Committee; Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee; and Rep. Donald Payne, past Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
XM listeners will also hear celebrity activists, including David Banner, Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., Dick Gregory and Ahmir Khalib Thompson (aka, Questlove from The Roots), as well as former DNC Chairman Howard Dean; Janet Langhart Cohen, author, producer and wife of former Secretary of Defense William Cohen; Jonathan Rodgers, President of TV-One; Bill Lucy, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME Union; and veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas. The Joe Madison Show, hosted by Joe “The Black Eagle” Madison, features Madison talking about politics and social activism, challenging the status quo and advocating for people of color ensuring20that they are not undervalued, underestimated, or marginalized. The Joe Madison Show is broadcast exclusively on The Power, XM channel 169, weekday mornings starting at 6 am ET.
XM Radio host Joe Madison is a human and civil rights activist, abolitionist against slavery in Sudan and genocide in Darfur, television commentator, columnist and lecturer. Talkers Magazine recently ranked Joe #12 of the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America. Joe Madison has combined his role as a civil rights activist and media personality to impact public policy in the nation and around the world.
Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" But When My Father
Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero
When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.
Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.
Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.
Consider a few passages from my father's immensely influential America-bashing book A Christian Manifesto. It sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books. Nevertheless it sold more than a million copies.
Here's Dad writing in his chapter on civil disobedience:
If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the US government]... then at a certain point force is justifiable.
And this: In the United States the materialistic, humanistic world view is being taught exclusively in most state schools... There is an obvious parallel between this and the situation in Russia [the USSR]. And we really must not be blind to the fact that indeed in the public schools in the United States all religious influence is as forcibly forbidden as in the Soviet Union....
Then this:
There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate... A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion... It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God's law it abrogates it's authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation...
Was any conservative political leader associated with Dad running for cover? Far from it. Dad was a frequent guest of the Kemps, had lunch with the Fords, stayed in the White House as their guest, he met with Reagan, helped Dr. C. Everett Koop become Surgeon General. (I went on the 700 Club several times to generate support for Koop).
Dad became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator. When Dad died in 1984 everyone from Reagan to Kemp to Billy Graham lamented his passing publicly as the loss of a great American. Not one Republican leader was ever asked to denounce my dad or distanced himself from Dad's statements.
Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America white conservative Americans and top political leaders, called our words "godly" and "prophetic" and a "call to repentance."
We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.
My dad's books denouncing America and comparing the USA to Hitler are still best sellers in the "respectable" evangelical community and he's still hailed as a prophet by many Republican leaders. When Mike Huckabee was recently asked by Katie Couric to name one book he'd take with him to a desert island, besides the Bible, he named Dad's Whatever Happened to the Human Race? a book where Dad also compared America to Hitler's Germany.
The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to "bear arms" as "insurance" to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as "fallen away from God" at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.
Today we have a marriage of convenience between the right wing fundamentalists who hate Obama, and the "progressive" Clintons who are playing the race card through their own smear machine. As Jane Smiley writes in the Huffington Post "[The Clinton's] are, indeed, now part of the 'vast right wing conspiracy.' (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/im-already-against-the-n_b_90628.html )
Both the far right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clintons are using the "scandal" of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency. Funny thing is, the racist Clinton/Far Right smear machine proves that Obama's minister had a valid point. There is plenty to yell about these days.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back
What Conspiracy? Talk Radio's Roar, From Right & Left
Bill Press is a smart and thoughtful liberal who has had a long and successful career in the TV and radio punditry biz. Yet there he was in Sunday's Post bemoaning the loss of "Obama 1260," the left-leaning Washington talk radio station that morphed into an all-financial advice outlet this week.
The way Press tells it, the loss of that format on WWRC, which had so few listeners it sometimes didn't register at all in the Arbitron ratings, amounts to an unfair allocation of the public airwaves, even a conspiracy to silence voices from the left.
Press is so exercised about this--his syndicated show was, after all, the morning drivetime programming on the station--that he's even calling for the return of the Fairness Doctrine, the long-discarded regulatory scheme by which the federal government prevented radio and TV stations from airing much in the way of controversial political programming.
Despite the passionate desire of some Democrats to see the likes of Rush Limbaugh silenced through regulatory trickery, the fact is that no one is going to restore a set of rules that made no sense when they were erased in 1987 and would be downright absurd in the digital age. More on that in a moment, but first, just a couple of facts:
Much as Press may lament the loss of his Washington outlet, it's simply not even close to true that, as he puts it, with the demise of Obama 1260, "our nation's capital, where Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, and where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to one, will have no progressive voices on the air."
Yes, the #8-rated station in the market, WMAL (630 AM), airs non-stop conservative talk hosts of the Limbaugh/Sean Hannity/Mark Levin ilk. And another right-wing talk station, WTNT (570 AM), the corporate sister of Obama 1260, will remain on the air despite scoring ratings every bit as anemic as the liberal talkers received. Michael Baisden has been a reliable supporter of Barack Obama. (Courtesy of Michael Baisden)
But Press conveniently left out a plethora of liberal talkers heard every day in this market, from the market's #1 station, WHUR (96.3 FM), which features the Michael Baisden Show, which was a nonstop Obama campaign machine throughout the fall, to the #3 station in the market, Majic 102.3, where the morning host is Tom Joyner, a reliably liberal voice whose lovesong to Obama is currently featured on the station's home page. The liberal lineup includes another all-talk station, WOL (1450 AM), where hosts such as Joe Madison and Al Sharpton dish out just as partisan and powerful a menu of provocative talk as do the yakkers of the right.
Why didn't Press include any of these shows or stations in his rant against the purported domination of the airwaves by conservative voices? Might it be because all of the above hosts are black and their shows air on stations that are black-run and oriented toward a black audience? Blacks are the most devoted radio listeners in this or any other U.S. market. Why are they ignored in the liberal argument that radio is an all-right-wing zone?
But liberal voices on the radio in Washington are not limited to what the industry calls "urban" radio. Pacifica's WPFW (89.3 FM) offers the daily "Democracy Now!" news and commentary program, hosted by Amy Goodman, one of the country's leading left-wing voices, as well as at least five other hours a day of news and talk from a left, and often radical left, perspective. Then there's public radio: Although National Public Radio in recent years has made a concerted and generally successful effort to include more conservative voices in its commentaries and other programming, the fact remains that its audience skews liberal, and that colors many of the call-in and other talk shows on public radio.
As I've argued in a piece on Slate.com, there is yet another oasis of liberal, or at least left libertarian, expression on the radio, and that is the shock jocks and morning zoo shows that are generally not thought of as political programming, but which nonetheless consist of hours and hours of rants on behalf of civil liberties, sexual freedom, and the rights of the little guy against the nation's big corporations and institutions.
So, do Press and like-minded listeners really want a return to the Fairness Doctrine, or are they just jealous that Limbaugh and a couple of other conservative talkers continue to draw strong ratings even as most of the old media lose audience to newfangled communications streams?
Perhaps Press is merely frustrated by the low ratings numbers he and his colleagues draw. Nobody wants to go back to the days when the FCC mandated how and when "opposing voices" might get their moment on the air ("Yes, sir, we'd be glad to put that on the air; would you prefer 4 a.m. on Sunday, or 3 a.m. on Monday?") And nobody wants to return to the bland tripe that aired on most talk stations before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine opened the airwaves to all voices.
But in the end, the main reason there will be no new Fairness Doctrine is that time and technology have left the old concept of talk radio in the dust. On the Internet, a cacophony of voices ring out, most of them reaching hardly anyone, and nearly all of them being heard only by like-minded people. The real information problem our society faces has nothing to do with one perspective being drowned out by another; rather, our deepening media problem is that we are cleaving into two societies, each with its own, separate version of the truth, each startlingly segregated from the other.
The glory of the new media era is that anyone and everyone can sing out their message. The flip side of that democratic blossoming of voices is that without the scarcity of outlets that once forced us all to share the same information, we can and do drift off into separate realities. Drowning in an ocean of digitalia, we see and hear each other less than ever before.
2009 Inaugural Ball
Guests began arriving early. There are no place cards and no name tags. Everyone knows everyone else here. Now, there's a grand foursome - Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz sharing laughs with Martin and Coretta Scott King. Looks like Hosea Williams refused the limo again, keeping it real. And my goodness; is that Rosa Parks out there on the dance floor with A. Phillip Randolph? Seated at a nearby table, Frederick Douglass has a captive audience in W.E.B. DuBois and Fannie Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers has just joined them.
Marian Anderson was asked to sing tonight, but she only agreed to do it if accompanied by Marvin Gaye, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Look, there's Harriet Tubman. No one knows how she arrived, but there she is. And my guess is that, when the time comes, no one will see her leave. There's Jackie Robinson swiftly making his way through the hall as the crowd parts like the Red Sea to the unmistakable sound of applause. "Run, Jackie, run!"Along the way he is embraced by Jessie Owens.
Three beautiful young women arrive with their escorts - Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney. Ms. Viola Liuzzo flew in from Michigan, exclaiming, "I could not miss this." Richard Pryor promised to be on his best behavior. "But I can't make any guarantees for Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley," he chuckled. Joe Louis just faked a quick jab to the chin of Jack Johnson, who smiled broadly while slipping it. We saw Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole greet Luther Van Dross. James Brown and Josh Gibson stopped at Walter Payton's table to say hello.
I spotted Congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem having a lively political discussion with Eldredge Cleaver. Pearl Harbor WWII hero Dorey Miller shared a few thoughts with Crispus Attucks, a hero of the Revolutionary War. And there is Madam C.J. Walker talking with Marcus Garvey about exporting goods to Africa. General Benjamin O. Davis flew into Washington safely with an escort from the 99th Fighter Squadron - better known as The Tuskegee Airman. At the table on the left are three formidable women - Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, and Barbara Jordan - gathered for a little girl-talk... about world politics. As usual, all the science nerds seem to have gathered off in a corner, talking shop.
There's Granville T. Woods and Lewis Latimer needling each other about whose inventions are better. Someone jokingly asked Benjamin Banneker if he had needed directions to Washington. And George Washington Carver was overheard asking, "What, no peanuts?"
Dualing bands? Anytime Duke Ellington and Count Basie get together, you knowthe place will be jumping. Tonight is special, of course, so we have Miles, Dizzy, and Satchmo sitting in on trumpet, with Coltrane, Cannonball, and Bird on sax. Everyone's attention is directed to the dance floor where Bill "Bojangles" Robinson is tap dancing. Right beside him is Sammy Davis Jr., doing his Bojangles routine. And behind his back, Gregory Hines is imitating them both. Applause and laughter abound! The Hollywood contingent has just arrived from the Coast. Led by filmmaker Oscar Micheau, Paul Robeson, Cana a Lee, and Hattie McDaniel, they find their way to their tables. DorothyDandridge, looking exquisite in gold lamé, is seen signaling to her husband, Harold Nicholas, who is standing on the floor with brother Fayard watching Gregory Hines dance. "Hold me back," quips Harold, "before I show that youngster how it's done." Much laughter!
Then a sudden hush comes over the room. The guests of honor have arrived. The President and Mrs. Obama looked out across the enormous ballroom at all the historic faces. Very many smiles, precious few dry eyes. Someone shouted out, "You did it! You did it!" And President Obama replied, "No sir, you did it; you all - each and every one of you - did it. Your guidance and encouragement; your hard work and perseverance. .." Obama paused, perhaps holding back a tear. "I look at your faces - your beautiful faces - and I am reminded that The White House was built by faces that looked just like yours.
On October 3, 1792, the cornerstone of the White House was laid, and the foundations and main residence of The White House were built mostly by both enslaved and free African Americans and paid Europeans. In fact, most of the other construction work was performed by immigrants, many of whom had not yet become citizens. Much of the brick and plaster work was performed by Irish and Italian immigrants.
The sandstone walls were built by Scottish immigrants. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that The White House is, ultimately, The People's House, with each President serving as its steward. Since 1792 The People have trimmed its hedges, mowed its lawn, stood guard at the gate, cooked meals in the kitchen, and scrubbed its toilet bowls. But 216 years later, The People are taking it back! "Today, Michelle and I usher in a new era. But while we and our family look toward the future with so much hope, we know that we must also acknowledge fully this milestone in our journey. We want to thank each and every one of you for all you have done to make this day possible. I stand here before you, humbled and in awe of your accomplishments and sacrifice, and I will dedicate my Presidency, in your honor, to the principles of peace, liberty and freedom.
If it ever appears that I'm forgetting that, I know Ican count on you to remind me." Then he pointed to me near the stage..."Kenyada, isn't it time for you to wake up for work? Isn't it time for all of us to wake up and get to work?" Suddenly I awake and sit up in bed with a knowing smile. My wife stirs and sleepily asks if I'm OK. "I've never been better," I replied, "Never better. It's gonna be a good day."
A 78 year-old Black Woman's response to Michelle Obama's statement
As a 78 year old American of African descent, I feel compelled to respond to all this "much ado about nothing" when it comes to the statement that Michelle Obama made about the fact that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American. The country needs to hear this from the Black perspective. Long before I was born, my grandfather Joseph Burleson, owned a considerable amount of land in oil rich Texas . Because during that era, Blacks could not vote, nor could they contest anything in the courts of the United States , my grandfather's land was STOLEN by his White neighbor. My grandfather, who was literate and better educated than my grandmother, drove to town. Seeing my grandfather leave, the covetous neighbor asked my grandmother to show him the deed to the property. He snatched it. She could no t insist that he give it back, nor could she have reported this THEFT to the sheriff because of the fact that Blacks had no rights in the 1800's. The prevailing law at that time was he who held the deed owned the land. Do you think that is something that I am PROUD OF? Right now I should be living off the oil and gas royalties. In 1934 when my dad drove us to Texas to meet his family, when he stopped to purchase gasoline, his daughters and wife were not allowed to use the washroom. As a man it was easier for him to relieve himself in the bushes, but not for the females. We were, however, reduced to having to go in the bushes, also. Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT? In 1938 when my oldest sister went to enroll in Hyde Park High School, she was told by the counselor that she did not want to take college preparatory courses, she wanted to study domestic science. Do you think I'm PROUD OF THAT? When in 1943 my parents attempted to buy the 2 flat at 5338 South Kenwood, where we had lived since 1933, in Hyde Park, Chicago , IL we were told that we could not buy it because there was a restrictive covenant that said that the property was never to be sold to "Negroes." Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT? In 1950 when I graduated from college, I was unable to get a job because I was considered "overqualified." the code word for they would not hire me because of my race. All of the want ads called for Japanese Americans or Neisis (the word given to Japanese Americans at that time). Do you think that was something that I should have been PROUD OF? My cousin's barbershop was bombed in Mississippi in the 50's because he was encouraging Black people to register to vote. His wife who had earned a Masters Degree from Northwestern University lost her position as the principal of the local school because of the voter registration activities. Is that something I should be PROUD OF? As Senator Obama has previously stated, we have entered the silly season. Barack Obama is a very rare individual, the likes of whom the world seldom sees. Like most geniuses, they are often misunderstood. They are objects of envy and jealousy. They are suspect because they soar above the average man who does not have the intellectual ability to understand the greatness of special people. They are also targets to be pulled down to the level of the mediocre who cannot stand to see an individual with deep convictions and high standards. A true Christian loves his fellow man unconditionally. A true Christian wants the best and tries to bring out the best in his fellow man. A true Christian wants to unite and bring the world together in peace and harmony. This is what Senator Obama stands for; but, unfortunately, he has had to get off point to answer these false charges, innuendoes, and just plain lies. We are in the presence of an angel unaware in Senator Barack Obama, and this country needs him, more than he needs us. He is the only person at this time in history who can restore respect for America with the worlds' people. Because of his family background, the influence of his beloved mother who instilled great values in him, the influence of his absent father who vicariously inspired a son to go to Harvard. Like, Michelle Obama, after living in this country all of my 78 years, loving my country and not understanding why my country has not loved me, I now for the first time in my adult life feel PROUD OF MY COUNTRY because I sense a maturing, a recognition of talent and character, and not color, and a field of candidates aspiring to lead this nation coming from very diverse backgrounds of gender, religious beliefs, national origin, ethnicity, age and experiences. This to me is the HOPE that America is coming into her own and will begin to CHANGE and will embrace the philosophy upon which this country was founded, where all men are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now I truly believe, YES WE CAN! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why America Can't Get Beyond Race By Trish , Pensito Review Posted on March 20, 2008, Printed on March 21, 2008 http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.pensitoreview.com/80311/ Obama's speech on race made me think back to what I was doing five years ago. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a visiting professor at the University of North Florida, and offered a class to non-students which I was lucky enough to attend. It was the eve of war, and all his comments were filtered through that certainty. We had some slight hope that Bush would back down, that the U.N. might somehow stop him, but we knew what was most likely coming. But that's another subject. The class was on Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which helped South Africa end apartheid without massive spilling of white blood, an alternative most South African whites never thought possible. The Truth and Reconciliation process involved first confronting what took place, allowing victims to speak their truth and requiring oppressors to hear it, arriving at punishments that acknowledge no one is beyond God's ability to redeem, and reparations that restore dignity and compensate for loss on the part of those who were mistreated. American blacks and whites, who filled the room, listened to this description and avoided eye contact with people in the next seat. They wondered why race is just under the surface of everything in this country, and how this continues to be the case when slavery and reconstruction are so long past. Someone finally found the nerve to ask Tutu why things are different here. "In South Africa, we knew they intended to clobber us, and you had to deal with that and find ways to defend yourself and to survive. Here, there seemed to be a kind of conspiracy. And I have come to the conclusion that it seems to me that you are not going to be able to have normal relationships until you come to terms with the legacy of slavery and what happened to Native Americans. There seems to be a pain that is sitting in the pit of the tummy of almost all African Americans and Native Americans," Tutu said. No, we haven't come to terms with it. Like Obama said in his speech, white people today, who never personally owned another person, can't understand why they should be held responsible for what was done in the past. And black people can't understand why we don't get their anger. Obama's speech, even with all the attention it got, is underestimated because what people really wanted to hear was whether he denounced his pastor enough. They regarded everything else as just a backdrop for his anticipated but not delivered "apology." Instead, he gave us nothing less than the whole shooting match, folks. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through -- a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We need this guy. This country is stuck, and it's going to stay that way until we do what Tutu and Obama urge. As long as we continue to say racism doesn't exist, or that it only exists in the South, or only in that person or this one but never in us, we will remain mired in blame and anger. Let's get beyond it. Let's do the hard work. Let's put Obama in the White House and see where it leads. I'm betting it's somewhere much better than where we are now. AlterNet is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed by its writers are their own. Trish is a regular blogger for the Pensito Review. © 2008 Pensito Review All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.pensitoreview.com/80311/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Enjoy your hot chocolate in 2008!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: BET Honors Spark Protest January 12, 2008 - (Washington, DC) Just as BET was honoring the best and brightest in education, business, and entertianment, protestors paraded outside of the Warner Theatre. Braving windy, but bearable temperatures, hundreds of protestors walked up and down 14th Street in single film formation carrying signs that said "BET does not depict me", and "I am not a thug". http://dculs.com/bethonors.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM The fight for freedom was for civil rights, for peaceful days and quiet nights. Men stood strong against mainstream strife, knowing full well it could cost them their life. All that was wanted was a chance to be, alive in a land that was truly free. Thank you Lord for their steadfast stand, now change has occurred across our great land. From the fight for freedom what did we gain, the right to act as though we are insane? We glorify things with a negative side, live our lives open with nothing to hide. It’s now “keeping it real” and “I need to get paid,” be true to the game or you will get played. No respect for our women we treat them like dirt, our hatred for them can be found on a shirt We now quote from rappers with the craziest name, like Ghostface and Soulja Boy and 50 and Game. It’s just a big hustle that no one can win, words filled with hatred living in sin. I guess what I really am trying to say, is a new fight for freedom is needed today. We must fight against lyrics of songs that are sung, that poison the minds of our future, our young. We must up-lift our women and fill them with pride, let them know they are special let them feel good inside. We must teach our young men that we’ll never be free, til they live out the quest of Dr. King’s legacy. Terrell C. Flucas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A FREEDOM FIGHTER’S PRAYER Legs that are weary from marching all day, clothes that are wet from the fireman’s spray. A headache so bad it reacts to all sound, a smile on a face as I’m thrown to the ground. Spit on and cursed at they yell with a wail, a night in a cell there will be no bail. This is my struggle somehow I’ll get through, I believe in this cause it’s the right thing to do. Lord all that I ask at the end of this fight, is that those in the future never lose sight. Of the price that was paid not so long ago, Lord let the remember Lord let them all know. I withstood the abuse I stood strong against strife, I fought on to my death so they could have a free life. Terrell C. Flucas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Voting Should Not Require a Photo ID Monday , December 24, 2007 By Martin Frost Once upon a time, in the dark ages of American politics, white Southerners conspired to prevent blacks from voting by passing a series of restrictive voter registration laws that included such things as poll taxes and literacy tests. These practices were outlawed by Congress with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lineal descendents of the people who tried to restrict black suffrage are back. Their new tactic is to require a picture ID to be shown by anyone seeking to vote. An Indiana law imposing such a requirement has been challenged, and its fate will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case set for argument early next year. Challenging the adoption of this and other voter photo ID laws is the single biggest civil rights issue facing the country today. Let's take a close look at the Indiana law passed on a straight party line vote by the state's Republican legislature and signed into law by its Republican governor. The Indiana law requires that a prospective voter show a current photo ID that has been issued by the United States or by the State of Indiana. It must have an expiration date, and the name on the document must conform "to the name in the individual's voter registration record." This sounds reasonable on its face. Not so. This law in fact discriminates against people who do not drive and do not otherwise need a state-issued photo ID. Who are we talking about? Elderly, disabled, poor and minority voters, to be specific. Most of these coincidentally are Democrats. According to the brief submitted to the Supreme Court by the individuals challenging the constitutionality of this Indiana law, the statute clearly is aimed straight at these groups. The brief notes that "About 12% of voting-age Americans lack a driver's license. And about 11% of voting-age United States citizens -- more than 21 million individuals -- lack any form of current government-issued photo ID. That 11% figure grows to 15% for voting-age citizens earning less than $35,000 per year, 18% for citizens at least 65 years old, and 25% for African-American voting-age citizens." This is what is called in the law a "disparate effect." What's the other side of the argument? An amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on behalf of a group of Indiana and Southern state election officials notes, "Political power is, unfortunately, a proven inducement to corruption. As James Madison noted in Federalist 51, men are not angels and sound government must be structured in light of that unfortunate, but realistic, understanding." Madison, of course, helped draft our Constitution, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for census purposes. The government-sanctioned racial discrimination of our founding fathers took a civil war and almost 200 years to reverse. The peculiar nature of all this is that no one can cite examples of in-person voter fraud, which is what a photo ID theoretically is designed to prevent. The only examples of voter fraud ever cited involve absentee ballots where no photo ID would be necessary. Trying to impose a photo ID requirement as a condition to vote is a step backward. It is an effort that will suppress the vote of minorities and the elderly. It has been vigorously opposed by all the civil rights organizations in the country and by fair-minded people of both parties. We should be doing everything possible to make it easier for eligible persons to vote in this country, rather than making it more difficult. The United States has one of the lowest percentages of voter participation rates in the world. Every time we erect barriers to casting votes, we erode our image as a great bastion of democracy. There is no question that anyone involved in voter fraud should be prosecuted. But you don't eliminate voter fraud by making it harder for honest people to cast their votes. There are plenty of other ways to ensure that the person who shows up to vote is the person on the registration rolls and not someone else. Establishing a system that discriminates against low income, elderly and minority voters is not a reasonable response to this particular problem. Many middle class and wealthy white people can't understand why someone would not have a current photo ID. These are the same people who didn't understand why poor blacks and the elderly weren't able to get out of New Orleans before Katrina hit. It was because many of these unfortunate victims of the storm didn't have a car and, of course, also didn't need a driver's license with a photo ID. This is not the bad old days when the government tacitly or explicitly excluded blacks and others from the polls. Let's hope the Supreme Court doesn't take a big step back in time. Martin Frost served in Congress from 1979 to 2005, representing a diverse district in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. He served two terms as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the third-ranking leadership position for House Democrats, and two terms as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Frost serves as a regular contributor to FOX News Channel and is a partner at the law firm of Polsinelli, Shalton, Flanigan and Suelthaus. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from the Georgetown Law Center. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stone Two friends were walking through the desert During some point of the journey, they had an argument; And one friend slapped the other one in the face The one who got slapped was hurt, but Without saying anything, wrote in the sand Today my best friend slapped me in the face They kept on walking until they found an oasis Where they decided to take a bath The one who got slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning But the friend saved him After he recovered from the near drowning, He wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life" The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, You write on a stone. Why?" The friend replied "When someone hurts us We should write it down in sand, where The winds of forgiveness can erase it away But, when someone does something good for us, We must engrave it in stone Where no wind can ever erase it." Learn to write your hurts in sand And to carve your benefits in stone They say it takes a minute to find a special person, An hour to appreciate them, A day to love them, But then an entire life to forget them Take the time to LIVE! Do not value the things you have in Life, But value who you have in your Life! Friend For Life, James Short -- God, give us faith to trust your good intent for your world and courage to act to make those intentions a reality. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
