By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 19 minutes ago
One of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters said Sunday he was insulted by the characterization by rival Barack Obama’s presidential campaign of her remarks about the civil rights movement.
Bob Johnson, the nation’s first black billionaire and founder of the BET cable television network, said Obama’s campaign had acted dishonestly and had distorted Clinton’s remarks about Martin Luther King Jr.
Johnson also seemed to hint at Obama’s acknowledged youthful drug use, an issue that led another Clinton campaign official to resign. Johnson later denied that was the case.
Clinton was quoted just before the New Hampshire primary as saying King’s dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some black leaders have criticized that remark as suggesting Johnson deserved more credit than the slain civil rights leader for the passage and enactment of major civil rights legislation.
While introducing Clinton at Columbia College on Sunday, Johnson criticized Obama’s camp.
“That kind of campaign behavior would not be reasonable with me for a guy who says ‘I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier,’” said Johnson, owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats. He commented after Clinton said in a televised interview Sunday that she hoped the campaign would not be about race.
Johnson also said Obama’s own record should give voters pause.
“To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved,” Johnson said.
Obama wrote about his teenage drug use — marijuana, alcohol and sometimes cocaine — in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father.”
Johnson later said his comments referred to Obama’s work as a community organizer in Chicago “and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect,” he said in a statement released by Clinton’s campaign.
Obama, campaigning in Las Vegas, declined to respond.
“I’m not going to spend all my time running down the other candidates, which seems to be what Senator Clinton has been obsessed with for the last month,” Obama said.
His strategist, however, didn’t spare Johnson or Clinton.
“I don’t see why this is so much different from what Billy Shaheen did in New Hampshire. Senator Clinton apologized for that. It’s bewildering why, since she was standing there, she had nothing to say about this,” David Axelrod said.
Last month, top Hillary Clinton adviser Bill Shaheen resigned from the campaign after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Obama because his past drug use could be used against him in the campaign.
Obama supporter “I.S.” Leevy Johnson, a former South Carolina state legislator, said it was “offensive” that Clinton stood by during Johnson’s “personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama.”
“For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should’ve immediately denounced these attacks on the spot,” Johnson said in a statement issued by Obama’s campaign.
Clinton was not yet on stage when Bob Johnson made his statements.
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Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ask corporate lobbyists which presidential contender is most feared by their clients and the answer is almost always the same — Democrat John Edwards.
The former North Carolina senator’s chosen profession alone raises the hackles of business people. Before entering politics, he made a fortune as a trial lawyer.
In litigious America, trial lawyers bring lawsuits against companies on behalf of aggrieved individuals and sometimes win multimillion-dollar settlements. Edwards won several.
But beyond his profession, Edwards’ tone and language on the campaign trail have increased business antipathy toward him. His stump speeches are peppered with attacks on “corporate greed” and warnings of “the destruction of the middle class.”
He accuses lobbyists of “corrupting the government” and says Americans lack universal health care because of “drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists.”
Despite not winning the two state nominating contests completed so far, with 48 to go, Edwards insists he is in the race to stay. An Edwards campaign spokesman said on Thursday that inside-the-Beltway operatives who fight to defend the powerful and the privileged should be afraid.
“The lobbyists and special interests who abuse the system in Washington have good reason to fear John Edwards.
“Once he is president, the interests of middle class families will never again take a back seat to corporate greed in Washington,” said campaign spokesman Eric Schultz.
Open attacks on the business elite are seldom heard from mainstream White House candidates in America, despite skyrocketing CEO pay, rising income inequality, and a torrent of scandals in corporate boardrooms and on Wall Street.
But this year Edwards is not alone. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, sometimes also rails against corporate power and influence, tapping a populist current that lies just below the surface of U.S. politics.
One business lobbyist, who asked not to be named, said Edwards “has gone to this angry populist, anti-business rhetoric that borders on class warfare … He focuses dislike of special interests, which is out there, on business.”
Another lobbyist said an Edwards presidency would be “a disaster” for his well-heeled industrialist clients.
After this week’s New Hampshire primaries, where he placed a distant third behind New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Edwards might not seem so scary. He ran second in the Iowa Democratic caucuses last week, trailing Obama and just ahead of Clinton.
Edwards suffered a blow on Thursday when Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry snubbed him and endorsed Obama. Edwards was Kerry’s vice-presidential running mate in Kerry’s failed Democratic bid for the White House in 2004.
BUSINESS’S FAVORITE UNCLEAR
Asked which candidate their clients most support, corporate lobbyists were unsure. Clinton has cautious backing within the corporate jet set, as do Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, they said.
These candidates represent stability to executives who have much to lose if November’s election brings about the sweeping change some candidates are promising.
Obama and Huckabee register largely as unknown quantities among business owners, both large and small, say lobbyists.
“My sense is that Obama would govern as a reasonably pragmatic Democrat … I think Hillary is approachable. She knows where a lot of her funding has come from, to be blunt,” said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Stanford Group Co., a market and policy analysis group.
But Edwards, Valliere said, is seen as “an anti-business populist” and “a trade protectionist who is quite unabashed about raising taxes.”
“I think his regulatory policies, as well as his tax policies, would be viewed as a threat to business,” he said.
“The next scariest for business would be Huckabee because of his rhetoric and because he’s an unknown.”
(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; editing by John Wallace)
By ORLANDO PATTERSON
Published: September 30, 2007
Cambridge, Mass.
THE miscarriage of justice at Jena, La. — where five black high school students arrested for beating a white student were charged with attempted murder — and the resulting protest march tempts us to the view, expressed by several of the marchers, that not much has changed in traditional American racial relations. However, a remarkable series of high-profile incidents occurring elsewhere in the nation at about the same time, as well as the underlying reason for the demonstrations themselves, make it clear that the Jena case is hardly a throwback to the 1960s, but instead speaks to issues that are very much of our times.
What exactly attracted thousands of demonstrators to the small Louisiana town? While for some it was a simple case of righting a grievous local injustice, and for others an opportunity to relive the civil rights era, for most the real motive was a long overdue cry of outrage at the use of the prison system as a means of controlling young black men.
America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.
The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts. These numbers and rates are incomparably greater than anything achieved at the height of the Jim Crow era. What’s odd is how long it has taken the African-American community to address in a forceful and thoughtful way this racially biased and utterly counterproductive situation.
How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?
Part of the answer is a law enforcement system that unfairly focuses on drug offenses and other crimes more likely to be committed by blacks, combined with draconian mandatory sentencing and an absurdly counterproductive retreat from rehabilitation as an integral method of dealing with offenders. An unrealistic fear of crime that is fed in part by politicians and the press, a tendency to emphasize punitive measures and old-fashioned racism are all at play here.
But there is another equally important cause: the simple fact that young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes, especially violent crimes, which cannot be attributed to judicial bias, racism or economic hardships. The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven times that of whites.
Why is this? Several incidents serendipitously occurring at around the same time as the march on Jena hint loudly at a possible answer.
•
In New York City, the tabloids published sensational details of the bias suit brought by a black former executive for the Knicks, Anucha Browne Sanders, who claims that she was frequently called a “bitch” and a “ho” by the Knicks coach and president, Isiah Thomas. In a video deposition, Thomas said that while it is always wrong for a white man to verbally abuse a black woman in such terms, it was “not as much … I’m sorry to say” for a black man to do so.
•
Across the nation, religious African-Americans were shocked that the evangelical minister Juanita Bynum, an enormously popular source of inspiration for churchgoing black women, said she was brutally beaten in a parking lot by her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks.
•
O. J. Simpson, the malevolent central player in an iconic moment in the nation’s recent black-white (as well as male-female) relations, reappeared on the scene, charged with attempted burglary, kidnapping and felonious assault in Las Vegas, in what he claimed was merely an attempt to recover stolen memorabilia.
These events all point to something that has been swept under the rug for too long in black America: the crisis in relations between men and women of all classes and, as a result, the catastrophic state of black family life, especially among the poor. Isiah Thomas’s outrageous double standard shocked many blacks in New York only because he had the nerve to say out loud what is a fact of life for too many black women who must daily confront indignity and abuse in hip-hop misogyny and everyday conversation.
What is done with words is merely the verbal end of a continuum of abuse that too often ends with beatings and spousal homicide. Black relationships and families fail at high rates because women increasingly refuse to put up with this abuse. The resulting absence of fathers — some 70 percent of black babies are born to single mothers — is undoubtedly a major cause of youth delinquency.
The circumstances that far too many African-Americans face — the lack of paternal support and discipline; the requirement that single mothers work regardless of the effect on their children’s care; the hypocritical refusal of conservative politicians to put their money where their mouths are on family values; the recourse by male youths to gangs as parental substitutes; the ghetto-fabulous culture of the streets; the lack of skills among black men for the jobs and pay they want; the hypersegregation of blacks into impoverished inner-city neighborhoods — all interact perversely with the prison system that simply makes hardened criminals of nonviolent drug offenders and spits out angry men who are unemployable, unreformable and unmarriageable, closing the vicious circle.
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other leaders of the Jena demonstration who view events there, and the racial horror of our prisons, as solely the result of white racism are living not just in the past but in a state of denial. Even after removing racial bias in our judicial and prison system — as we should and must do — disproportionate numbers of young black men will continue to be incarcerated.
Until we view this social calamity in its entirety — by also acknowledging the central role of unstable relations among the sexes and within poor families, by placing a far higher priority on moral and social reform within troubled black communities, and by greatly expanding social services for infants and children — it will persist.
Orlando Patterson is a professor of sociology at Harvard and the author of “The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in America’s ‘Racial’ Crisis.”
“I love being Black. I love being called Black. I love being an American. I love being a Black American, but as a Black man in this country I think it’s a shame That every few years we get a change of name.
Since those first ships arrived here from Africa that came across the sea There were already Black men in this country who were free. And as for those that came over here on those terrible boats, They were called niggah and slave And told what to do and how to behave.
And then master started trippin’ and doing his midnight tippin’, Down to the slave shacks where he forced he and Great-Great Grandma to be together, And if Great-Great Grandpa protested, he got tarred and feathered.
And at the same time, the Black men in the country who were free, Were mating with the tribes like the Apache and the Cherokee. And as a result of all that, we’re a parade of every shade. And as in this late day and age, you can be sure, They ain’t too many of us in this country whose bloodline is pure.
But, according to a geological, geographical, genealogy study published in Time Magazine, The Black African people were the first on the scene, So for what it’s worth, the Black African people were the first on earth And through migration, our characteristics started to change, and rearrange, To adapt to whatever climate we migrated to. And that’s how I became me, and you became you.
So, if we gonna go back, let’s go all the way back, And if Adam was Black and Eve was Black, Then that kind of makes it a natural fact that everybody in America is an African American.
Everybody in Europe is an African European; everybody in the Orient is an African Asian And so on and so on, That is, if the origin of man is what we’re gonna go on. And if one drop of Black blood makes you Black like they say, Then everybody’s Black anyway.
So quit trying to change my identity. I’m already who I was meant to be. I’m a Black American, born and raised. And brother James Brown wrote a wonderful phrase, “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud! Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud!”
Cause I’m proud to be Black and I ain’t never lived in Africa, And ‘cause my Great-Great Granddaddy on my Daddy’s side did, don’t mean I want to go back. Now I have nothing against Africa, It’s where some of the most beautiful places and people in the world are found. But I’ve been blessed to go a lot of places in this world, And if you ask me where I choose to live, I pick America, hands down.
Now, by and by, we were called Negroes, and after while, that name has vanished. Anyway, Negro is just how you say “black” in Spanish. Then, we were called colored, but shit, everybody’s one color or another, And I think it’s a shame that we hold that against each other.
And it seems like we reverted back to a time when being called Black was an insult, Even if it was another Black man who said it, a fight would result, Cause we’ve been so brainwashed that Black was wrong, So that even the yellow niggahs and black niggahs couldn’t get along.
But then, came the 1960s when we struggled and died to be called equal and Black, And we walked with pride with our heads held high and our shoulders pushed back, And Black was beautiful.
But, I guess that wasn’t good enough, Cause now here they come with some other stuff. Who comes up with this shit anyway? Was it one, or a group of niggahs sitting around one day?
Feelin’ a little insecure again about being called Black And decided that African American sounded a little more exotic. Well, I think you were being a little more neurotic.
It’s that same mentality that got “Amos and Andy” put off the air, Cause’ they were embarrassed about the way the character’s spoke. And as a result of that action, a lot of wonderful Black actors ended up broke. When we were just laughin’ and have fun about ourselves. So I say, “fuck you if you can’t take a joke.”
You didn’t see the “Beverly Hillbilly’s” being protested by white folks.
And if you think, that cause you think that being called African American set all Black people’s mind at ease…..
Since we affectionately call each other “niggah”,
I affectionately say to you, “niggah Please”.
How come I didn’t get the chance to vote on who I’d like to be? Who gave you the right to make that decision for me? I ain’t under your rule or in your dominion, And I am entitled to my own opinion.
Now there are some African Americans here, But they recently moved here from places like Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Zaire. But, now the brother who’s family has lived in the country for generations, Occupying space in all the locations: New York, Miami, L.A., Detroit, Chicago- Even if he’s wearing a dashiki and sporting an afro.
And, if you go to Africa in search of your race, You’ll find out quick you’re not an African American, You’re just a Black American in Africa takin’ up space.
Why you keep trying to attach yourself to a continent, Where if you got the chance and you went, Most people there would even claim you as one of them; as a pure bread daughter or son of them. Your heritage is right here now, no matter what you call yourself or what you say, And a lot of people died to make it that way. And if you think America is a leader on inequality and suffering and grievin’ How come there so many people comin’ and so few leavin’?
Rather than all this ‘find fault with America’ fuck you promotin’, If you want to change something, use your privilege, get to the polls! Commence to votin’!
God knows we’ve earned the right to be called American Americans and be free at last. And rather than you movin’ forward progress, you dwelling in the past. We’ve struggled too long; we’ve come too far. Instead of focusing on who we were, let’s be proud of who we are.
We are the only people whose name is always a trend. When is this shit gonna end? Look at all the different colors of our skin- Black is not our color. It’s our core. It’s what we been livin’ and fightin’ and dyin’ for.
But if you choose to be called African American and that’s your preference Then I ‘ll give you that reference.
But I know on this issue I don’t stand alone on my own and if I do, then let me be me And I’d appreciate it if when you see me, you’d say, “there goes a man who says it loud I’m Black. I’m Black. I’m a Black American, and I’m proud
Cause I love being an American. And I love being Black. I love being called Black.
Listening to the speeches, one immediately hears something different. That difference inspires hope. That hope is that things can be better than they are and that change is on the horizon. That hope also awakens a certain vigor. The listener feels compelled toward action, to take part in a transformation which begins with the act of standing up and taking responsibility for the change that must come now.
I had been guilty of riding the fence when it came to forming an opinion about the senator who would be president. I had heard the hoopla and caught snippets of the conversations about him, but I had yet to investigate for myself what this man was about and what, if anything, his political career meant to me.
Generally distrusting of politicians, I have seen that Capitol Hill has a way of transforming men into unholy creatures initiated into a seedy game that has its own language, culture and religion. One might argue that these derelicts of humanity have brought the underbelly of society with them into seats reserved for men of integrity and honor. Others might argue that the uncommon man is overwhelmed by the political morass which has become our government, impotent to tackle the herculean tasks set before him.
The muck and mire of Congress has a way of catching good intentions and drawing them to the bottom of a stagnant bog where doing the right thing is debated until there is neither the will nor interest to actually do anything. This is one of the lenses through which I observe a man like Obama.
Those politicians who are successful at capturing the media’s attention garner more of my criticism naturally. I don’t know if that speaks more to my perception of the politicians or the media. In an age where governors can steal presidencies, share complicity in an act of terror against their own country, profit off of it, go to war under false pretenses, hold the constitution hostage under a so-called Patriot act, stack the Supreme court and the lower courts with party-lined cronies, reap profits from oil and pharmaceuticals while passing exploitation legislation and enacting policies to guarantee those profits, and politicizing the media so that it spouts party-line propaganda designed to keep the masses confused, distracted and misinformed - I think I am justifiably suspicious. That’s another story, though.
Barack and Blacks
Like Martin, Malcolm and others, Barack poses a potential threat not only against the establishment, but its collaborators who have managed to remain hidden from the public eye. In heralding a new day, Barack threatens the Jackson’s and Sharpton’s who insist that it is their job to keep the peace - when in fact they have done little or nothing for the Black community at large. They are, no doubt, members of the infamous Boule, a membership of the black elite, literally defined as Advisors to the King. Barack threatens to expose these co-conspirators who operate within the legacy of W.E.B. DuBoise as he did everything in his power to undermine the efforts of Marcus Garvey. Exposed, the classism within the Black community would be on public display, an easy mark for journalists and politicians, threatening to uproot a different establishment - the subversion of Black potential. No more handouts but now calling people to earn their way. Beware those who shout Hossana! Hossana! Once they find out what Barack is up to, they will surely cry out for his crucifixion.
Already the community is divided. Some trust him and some don’t. Everybody has their “legitimate” reasons for feeling the way they do. The fact of the matter is that barack’s success will depend on who he surrounds himself with. What worries me is that, especially in todays age, their is always a weakest link.
Always a Judas in the bunch
I can’t help but think about the assassination of Malcolm X and the evidence that has yet to be fully investigated to conclusion, bringing to like the entire context of his demise, when I think of Obama. Why?
There is always someone in the group willing to sell out for a few pieces of silver, whose motivations are self centered and limited in scope rather than community focused and taking the long view. The dangerous one’s, the Judases - always seem to find their way inside (or perhaps the powers and principalities are ust that effective at turning otherwise well intentioned souls into betrayers of themselves and their community). Whatever the case, it is a real concern that, should Obama successfully attain the position he aims for, he is a young mark, without the coat of armor necessary to shield him from the arrows of his enemies.
Begs the question as to whether Obama is a man of God. To some, this is a serious question with serious implications, not only for the man but for the future of the community at large as well.
If I may digress a bit. In a society which still defines by race and among communities still defining themselves by race, what then is the man or woman who sees him or herself as a human being first. In other words, when the time for change presents itself, who is ready to embrace the next step in our social, spiritual and economin evolution. The old guard will undoubtedly make its bid to convince the masses that tehy are still needed - that tried and true ways must endure rather than evolve. I think they are only afraid of losing the false sense of status and power that they see themselves as having accumulated and earned at the expense of those who have invested their trust and power in, in order to make a change for the better. But what better has come?
Barack on Iraq
It is unfortunate that the same rationale that condemned anybody questioning what happened regarding 9/11, also taints the freedom of speech and freedom of investigation of anyone speaking out against the war in Iraq. A war which was declared over years ago continues to cost lives. One side will argue that in order to win this thing we need to stay the course. I thought wars were only declared over once there was victory or defeat. What is raging now in Iraq has come to be named as a sectarian civil war among Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites. If this is the case then the American presence within this environment is questionable. One has to question what the unstated agenda is. What is worth the lives of those who should not be invested in the skirmishes within the region? Who are we supporting and why? Who are we against and why? Simple answers belie more serious consequences. We need to ask those questions, but more importantly, we need the real answers. Wasted lives, as Barack was condemned for saying, had nothing to do with denigrating American soldiers but rather criticizing the reasons behind putting their lives at risk. Are these soldiers fighting for American interests, private interests, or global interests. If it is about the stabilization of the region, isn’t that an international concern fit for a UN force, rather than an American involvement?
Holding this man up in prayer, realizing the hurdles he must overcome, bespeaks the hope that many invest in a man of capability. But what are his true motivations and intentions? These are the questions that should serve to unite rather than divide. Yet as varied as the trivial concerns are of the masses, so too are the prejudices against any symbol of change. Everyone wants the best man on THEIR side. But what if THEIR side isn’t the RIGHT side. Is the question a matter of self interest, or truth? How many would be willing to sacrifice their position after having invested so much time and effort in building, maintaining and promoting it if they suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of right? How many would damn the truth and pursue their own ways regardless?
Who shall lead them, for they will not lead themselves or let themselves be led. In the old testament the people of Israel asked for a king when they had God Almighty. They begged and pleaded, bitched and moaned for a king because “everybody else had one.” In trying to keep up with the Joneses, they betrayed their protector, their provider and their sustainer. They chose imperfection over perfection.
Shall Obama be the next Messiah, or one of many who choose to stand in their own integrity, free of the sanctions of the world they live in and challenging the minds of his contemporaries with a vision of integrity, honor and truth.
Operation COINTELPRO by Hoover was supposed to cut off such roots before they could sprout. The now defunct program has certainly evolved into more diabolical if less obvious policies. Perhaps figuring that a few leaders with an impotent following would be less troublesome than a few leaders with an inspired following is a better scenario, the black community at large has seemingly become more illiterate, less conscious, and drugged with a plethora of vices and addictions.
Who will lead THIS people to the promised land. A better question would be - who wants to go to the so-called promised land. Too many have already sold out for the crumbs that they have - a bunch of cheap jewelry set in cheap dreams. What can you give such a people? Nothing at all.
I’ve heard people debate whether or not it is realistic that a freshman senator with little or no experience on Capitol Hill can have a real shot at the presidency. To forecast success based on opinions of practicality seems a task best left to professional debaters. What matters more is the vision and leadership the candidate brings to the fore. Too often in history have great teams been thwarted by reluctant egos and recalcitrant powers. A maverick comes along who doesn’t buy into the defeatus attitudes of what can’t be done and sees only his vision of what is possible. His enthusiasm, commitment and charisma win over the team and together they achieve victory which was within their reach all along, but denied for the pessimism and traditions of an establishment rotting in old ideas.
I have heard some say that the Democrats are simply the reverse side of the same coin and that nothing will really change as far as politics goes, and that this time around it is up to the Democrats to bring the disenchanted back into the fold, to reignite hope and belief in the political system as it exists. They are preying on people’s frustration, but are simply playing the game of good cop, bad cop to achieve the same ends.
Do the candidates seek power or a better world, influence or justice, political clout or the best interests of humanity. We need a coach to guide us through the ills of society, show us the light at the end of the tunnel, and make us believe it is within our reach. Is Obama this person? Even if he falls short of being a messiah, he still stands head and shoulders above practically every other candidate in the running. He is, no matter how anyone’s agenda influences opinion, a beacon everyone looks up to and not down at.
In case you have forgotten, here is the keynote address given at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I have also added the transcript reprinted in its entirety provided by the New York Times :
“Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dick Durbin. You make us all proud.
On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, Land of Lincoln, let me express my deepest gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention.
Tonight is a particular honor for me because - let’s face it - my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.
While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through FHA, and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.
And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.
My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or “blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.
They are both passed away now. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride.
I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
That is the true genius of America - a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted at least, most of the time.
This year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations.
And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents - I say to you tonight: we have more work to do. More work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. More to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on. More to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college.
Now don’t get me wrong. The people I meet - in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks - they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead - and they want to.
Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon.
Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach our kids to learn - they know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those things.
People don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.
They know we can do better. And they want that choice.
In this election, we offer that choice. Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer. And that man is John Kerry. John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they’ve defined his life. From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United States Senate, he has devoted himself to this country. Again and again, we’ve seen him make tough choices when easier ones were available.
His values - and his record - affirm what is best in us. John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded; so instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he offers them to companies creating jobs here at home.
John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves.
John Kerry believes in energy independence, so we aren’t held hostage to the profits of oil companies, or the sabotage of foreign oil fields.
John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us.
And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world war must be an option sometimes, but it should never be the first option.
You know, a while back, I met a young man named Shamus [Seamus?] in a VFW Hall in East Moline, Illinois. He was a good-looking kid, six-two, six-three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines, and was heading to Iraq the following week. And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might hope for in a child. But then I asked myself: Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?
I thought of the 900 men and women - sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns. I thought of the families I’ve met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but who still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists.
When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.
Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued - and they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this.
And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure.
John Kerry believes in America. And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper. For alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga. A belief that we’re all connected as one people.
If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there’s the United States of America.
The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?
John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.
I’m not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs. The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores. The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. The hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.
Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.
I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.
America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do - if we do what we must do, then I have no doubts that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as president, and John Edwards will be sworn in as vice president, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.
Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you.“
When I first heard this speech, I could imagine what it must have felt like to hear the “I Have a Dream” speech by King. I felt excited, restless and giddy. I wanted to jump up, shout and cry! I was moved to believe in something about this country I live in - finally. I felt like the dawn of a new America - one I could be proud of - was upon us. I felt the way I felt when Harold Washington was elected Mayor of Chicago. I felt like I felt when the Bears won the Super Bowl.
Barack Obama, a name I had heard of before in tones of respect and enthusiasm when he was in the Illinois Senate, was now indelibly etched into my mind. He represented in that moment a hope for the future that had sorely been missed in my lifetime. The pessimistic side of me wondered if this were a fluke, a flash in the pan, or a feel good moment that wouldn’t endure or manifest as anything significant. Today, following his announcement to run for the office of President of the United States of America, I am still nurturing that hope.
If you need proof that there is no fool like an old fool, particularly when it comes to race relations, look no further than Virginia House of Delegates Member from Hanover County, Frank D. Hargrove. Hargrove, who is 79 and a WWII veteran, managed to side-swipe both Blacks and Jews suggesting in an interview in the Charlottesville Daily Progress that rather than having Virginia officially apologize for slavery, Blacks should simply “get over” it. Going beyond what is a sort of retrograde mantra by Southern whites of a certain age, Hargrove’s rationale for a general racial forgiveness in America was to ponder hypothetically, “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?”
As ill-timed and ill-tuned as Hargrove’s words were; published the day following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the man actually did make several useful associations even if not quite the ones he intended. The most salient of these, as both Blacks and Jews could tell you, is that “getting over” slavery, like transcending several millennia of blood libel, doesn’t happen overnight. Nor does it happen in the space of the century-and-a-half since the official abolition of Negro slavery in America following the passage of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. For both Blacks and Jews, emancipation has been an epochal process.
Each year, around Easter, Jews around the world celebrate Passover, the holiday that commemorates the freeing of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt sometime around 1600 B.C. Thirty-five hundred years later, the miraculous escape of the Jews from Pharonic bondage is still celebrated as one of the most important moments in Judaism’s nearly six-millennium history. The story of the flight from Egypt makes up Exodus, the second of the five “Books of Moses,” what Christians refer to as “The Old Testament.” The proximity of Passover to Easter, of course, has to do with the fact that Christ’s Last Supper was in actuality a Passover Seder.
As of today, American Blacks have only been free for one twenty-fifth of the time since the Jewish Exodus, a mere blink of the historical eye. That period shrinks considerably considering the true condition of the former slaves in the American South following what is weirdly still referred to as “Reconstruction.” If anything, the condition of the freed slaves in the former Confederacy and in the U.S. in general “deconstructed” hideously through the second half of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th. In antebellum America, slaves may have been chattel, but at least they were highly valuable chattel. Just prior to the Civil War, the nearly four million slaves in America were widely judged to have an accrued value of four billion dollars, or $1,000 each. This was a prodigious sum in those days and after the Civil War, that value figuratively and literally, vanished.
Following the surrender of Robert E. Lee and his Army of Virginia in April 1865, a low-grade insurgency raged for years in the South, the purpose being the suppression of freed slaves and the elimination of the radical Republican “carpetbaggers” who were trying to aid Constitutionally enfranchised Blacks in their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. By the 1880s, the nation South and North was far more interested in healing the wounds of secession than in redressing the mistreatment of former slaves. There was little happiness and less justice for America’s Blacks as the night of racism descended under the reign of Jim Crow and the Klu Klux Klan in the waning years of the 19th Century.
Instead of the slaver’s whip, it became the lyncher’s noose that came to symbolize oppression for generations of American Blacks. We thus must ask ourselves, when exactly did the bondage of America’s former slaves end if clearly not in 1865?
Could it be in the ‘teens and twenties, when passionate pioneers like W.E.B. du Bois and Marcus Garvey gave voice to a nascent civil rights movement? Was it in 1948, when President Harry Truman finally desegregated the American armed forces by Presidential edict? Could it have been in 1955 with the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, or 1961 when the Freedom Riders challenged white supremacy on the highways of the South? Was it rather in August 1963 with Martin Luther King made his “I Have a Dream” speech, or in 1964 or 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson repectively signed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts.
Arguably, the answer is that bondage never went away, and that it exists to this day in America. That argument becomes even more powerful if we take into account the relegation of a huge number of Black Americans into the nation’s inner cities and poorest suburbs, where lack of economic opportunity and second-class education creates its own kind of 21st Century bondage.
Thus, the answer to Delegate Hargrove’s plea for Blacks to “get over” slavery must be “no,” America’s Blacks cannot simply transcend the history of racism, any more than Jews could simply throw off the mantle of bondage as soon as they passed border control from Egypt into the Sinai. The truth is that slavery is an institution of such pernicious effect that can take centuries, if not millennia for the wounds to heal.
The Prophet Moses, who led the Jews out of Egypt, for one, understood that it could not simply be a straight-line march from slavery into the Promised Land. He instead led the Jews on a forty-year wilderness trek so that that the older generation would pass on, giving way to a younger one more comfortable with the trappings and demands of freedom. Moses himself, the final survivor of his generation, died within sight of the Promised Land, forbidden by God to enter it himself.
That act three thousand five hundred years ago, lends heart-breaking poignancy to the “I have seen the promised land” speech of the American Black Moses, Martin Luther King, in Memphis the night before his assassination. That speech, and King’s understanding of the difficult, and as yet incomplete journey, stands as an irrefutable retort to America’s Frank Hargrove’s, who inability to understand why we cannot simply “get over” slavery simply and powerfully answers its own question.
Richard Rapaport is a San Francisco Bay Area freelance writer. He can be reached at rjrap@aol.com.
When I listen to the news coverage of the violent conflict between Hezbollah (The Party of God) and Israel (God rules), it can sound like a rock concert gone bad at Daddy’s house while he’s out of town. A bunch of kids wanting to prove to the world and to each other that they have what it takes to run things. Clearly they are mistaken. The broken bodies of babies scattered among the debris of bombed out neighborhoods is testament to that.
If we compare what’s going on between Hezbollah and Israel as a school yard brawl between two kids, neverminding the issues between them, it would seem that the solution is simple; simply let them talk out their differences and, with mediation, reach a peaceful agreement.
The problem is that somebody armed both sides with the tools of military. While there are those who wish to see the fighting cease, there are others - agent provocateurs - who don’t. These agents have something to gain from the conflict. They have an interest in either who wins the fight or both sides knocking each other out.
From the school yard to the principal’s office it becomes clear that somebody instigated the conflict. The resolution, however, requires the participation of both parties. A class in crisis intervention and conflict resolution might help. Somebody would have to break up the fight first, right? Here’s the catch:
What if the adult on the scene has partisan interests? What if the adult has a favorite, restraining one combatant while the other is still taking shots? What if the adult on the scene is as bad as the kids fighting – injecting his/her interests into the fray and betting on the outcome of the battle?
Sadly, this scenario sounds familiar. It reminds me of the acting role of the US in the current crisis in the so-called Middle East. I would bet a dollar that the US is in fact an integral part of the conflict – starting the fires and fanning the flames – in order to meet policy objectives targeting that region of the globe.
As a matter of fact religion has little or nothing to do with the conflict. Prior to and immediately following Saddam’s ousting, there were neighborhoods in Iraq where Sunni and Shiite Muslims coexisted peacefully. While there is a history of conflict between the two sects, the bottom line has never been about religion but power. War is always an exercise of political power. The military whether that of a superpower or that of a rebel insurgency is oftentimes the acting arm of extremists. Those fitting that definition include any who would impose their will on others in order to serve self interests.
Becoming an adult is hard. I mean, who do you answer to if you don’t believe in a higher authority and you believe you are IT? The problem as I see it is that those who simply want to live their lives in peace are usually at the mercy of those who have no peace and fill that void with ambition. How do you deal with a man who feels like he has something to prove?
Let me not point the finger. I must remember that when you point the finger at someone else, there are four pointed right back at you. And quiet as it is kept the US is ripe for criticism and reprisal. It is said that to whom much is given, much is expected. We have effectively squandered our blessings propagating our self interests around the globe. The population has been led to the gates of hell by a leadership wrought with vice. It is more than a disappointment that the US has failed to live up to its potential. It is a travesty.
Where at one time the US had the respect of the international community, we now sit on the throne of the world like a syphilis-ridden Al Capone, still commanding fear while our deteriorating health tempts the aspirations of lesser demons. To be sure, the US is not God.
