6 days and counting

MAKE HISTORY, JUST DO IT
click here


I didn't catch the infomerical but I've heard good things about it. Like one white analyst said after watching the piece, "This family has done everything you’ve asked them to do.What more do you want before you’ll vote for a Black guy?
What more do you want?" (Chris Matthews)

7 days and counting

Elsewhere in the U.S. there is tragedy and pain. Reading about Oscar-winning star Jennifer Hudson's family in Chicago reminds us that human suffering is rampant. In the New York papers just yesterday, I read of countless murders---mostly committed by family members.

Pray for peace and sanity in our communities---those that are so close to home.

In some ways, there is not much more to say as Obama and McCain fight it out in these last days. In an earlier blog I wrote that McCain would try everything possible. Well, there are still 9 days. Keep your eyes on the news.

10 days and counting........

VOTE AND GET THERE EARLY.......

11 days and counting........

HOW TO SAFEGUARD YOUR VOTE
You don't have to live in Florida to be concerned. Take the steps to make sure that you're able to vote. Clicking the link above can help safeguard your precious vote. I checked to see if I was truly registered. I am. That gave me relief. The link also advises us to go early---you never know when the roadblock will go up. Plan ahead.

14 and counting.......

Click for MORE GOOD STUFF ON THE CAMPAIGN

15 and counting

THE SCIENCE OF JOE THE PLUMBER......

After noticing that Joe the Plumber is still around, it is apparent that he was invented for a purpose. Remember Willie Horton? What about Bakke and the affirmative case in 1978? The angry white man? Well, there you go. McCain has evoked the image of a white man who comes off as a loser, someone who has been treated unfairly--for no reason at all. That will surely get votes from many who share that sentiment. And it's a little over two weeks away. Imagine what else McCain has up his sleeve. Just this morning I saw that they're calling Obama a Socialist. They'll also bring Rev. Wright back into picture while continuing to mix Joe the Plumber into the disgruntled, resentful folks who attend their rallies.

16 and counting.......

A TRIBUTE TO AUNT MELBA BUNN

I was in North Carolina over the weekend for the funeral of my Aunt who has been there since my family migrated to New York. She decided to stay even though my mother's other six siblings ventured up I-95 to settle in Poughkeepsie. Amidst the sadness, the weekend was filled with the joy of family coming together to celebrate her life. Going back to Whitakers, NC always uncovers memories of my first five years there--the simplicity of farm life, the open fields, and the slow paced life. On the way to bury my Aunt at Red Hill Cemetery we passed the farm where we lived. It's now overgrown with vegetation but the dirt road from Route 33 toward the farm is still there. Along Route 33 I managed to snap a photo of a cotton field--- a graphic image of what shaped my mother and my Aunt's life during the 1940s and 50s. They worked the land alongside my grandparents who were sharecroppers. Work replaced schooling as a necessity for surviving. By the time we moved north during the cold winter of 1965, the sharecropping system had drained almost everything from the family. What we had left was our faith and dignity--more than enough to continue the journey.

There are thousands and thousands of families like mine who never saw justice in the South. I will vote this year as a tribute to my Aunt and many others who could not vote. It is a short walk to the voting booth, but another marker in the long, checkered journey of American democracy.

19 days and counting.........

VOTE, JUST VOTE.






.....I may not have access to a computer for 3 days, but will try.

20 and counting.......

from THE FIRE NEXT TIME:

James Baldwin had a way of getting to the core, straight to the heart when it came to race in this great country. As I think about Obama's campaign, I am reminded of a classic paragraph from the The Fire Next Time, written in 1963:

For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. Many of them, indeed, know better, but, as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know. To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. In this case, the danger, in the minds of most white Americans, is the loss of their identity. Try to imagine how you would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shining and all the stars aflame. You would be frightened because it is out of the order of nature. Any upheaval in the universe is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one's sense of one's own reality. Well, the black man has functioned in the white man's world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar: and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations. You, don't be afraid. I said that it was intended that you should perish in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go behind the white man's definitions, by never being allowed to spell your proper name. You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention; and by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality. But these men are your brothers your lost, younger brothers. And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it. For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become. It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and, in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity. You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer. One of them said, "The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off.

21 and counting.....

Jesse Jackson Speech, Tendley Baptist, Philadelphia, PA January 16, 1984


Has Our Time Come?

I found this video posted at Mark Lomont Hill. Remembering that time, I found inspiration and similarities to Obama in Jesse Jackson's message. As a candidate in 1984 Jackson had galvanized a coalition of Americans---much like Obamaa. It was also during a conservative period known as Reagan. Two years earlier I'd graduated from college and had a young family. Jackson gave me and many others hope. The night he spoke at the Democratic Convention was almost messianic, like a vision into better days. Many look at Obama and don't remember Jackson's inspiring run in 1984. It's worth remembering.


Memorable excerpts:

There is the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity. Leadership must heed the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity, for they are the key to achieving our mission. Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

Throughout this campaign, I've tried to offer leadership to the Democratic Party and the nation. If, in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then this campaign has not been in vain.

For friends who loved and cared for me, and for a God who spared me, and for a family who understood, I am eternally grateful.

*************

If, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone's fears, that was not my truest self. If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart. My head -- so limited in its finitude; my heart, which is boundless in its love for the human family. I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient: God is not finished with me yet.

This campaign has taught me much; that leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

For leaders, the pain is often intense. But you must smile through your tears and keep moving with the faith that there is a brighter side somewhere.

I went to see Hubert Humphrey three days before he died. He had just called Richard Nixon from his dying bed, and many people wondered why. And I asked him. He said, "Jesse, from this vantage point, the sun is setting in my life, all of the speeches, the political conventions, the crowds, and the great fights are behind me now. At a time like this you are forced to deal with your irreducible essence, forced to grapple with that which is really important to you. And what I've concluded about life," Hubert Humphrey said, "When all is said and done, we must forgive each other, and redeem each other, and move on.

Full text and audio of speech

22 and counting........

YOU MIGHT KNOW HATE WHEN YOU SEE IT.....

If there are people I'd trust to tell me what hate looks like, Congressman John Lewis (Georgia) would be one of them. Here's what he had to say about the climate surrounding the McCain-Palin rallies:

What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

John Lewis' head was beaten into a bloody pulp on the Edmund Petus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in the winter of 1965. It was known as Bloody Sunday. Dr. King and marchers had come to affirm their right to vote. For that, Lewis received a severe beating and state troopers atop horses trampled on women and men. The images of the day are horrific.

I'd trust that John Lewis knows hate when he sees it.

According to CNN, however, McCain took issue with Lewis' condemnation of the present climate. "I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hard-working Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track," said McCain

Again, if you've felt hate close hand, you might know it when you see it.

23 and counting

For Those Who Really Believe

Last night I had a dream. It was familiar. For those who want to be a true supporter of Dr. King's often quoted words, here you go. And for the conservatives (and liberals) who conveniently use King's words in arguments against affirmative action and whatever else, see if you can get it right this time. Think Obama.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.


Click here for the full I Have A Dream speech.

24 and counting........

CAN THIS BE THE MOMENT

Saturday is normally a slow day for news. I thought about Barack Obama's run for President this morning. Growing up, I always heard the question, "Will there ever be Black President?" I learned of Shirley Chisholm many years after she ran in 197?. When Jesse Jackson ran in 1984, it was big news---fueled by chants of "Run Jesse, Run." I've said before that Obama stands on their shoulders---no question. He comes with a background that begs the question---if not him, then who? Just think, he has a white mother, was raised by white grandparents, super education, modern family, charismatic, handsome, and no provable scandal. If Obama loses this election, the color line in America will widen. People of goodwill don't want this happen, but it will. You can't set criteria for full citizenship, democracy, and pluralism only to cancel them when the ugly demon of racism crawls out of the gutters and high places. America, this is the moment if we truly want it.

Trivia: If you want to get technical about a first black President, there are reports that at least five previous presidents had black lineage. Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Harding and Coolidge. So, would Obama really be the first?

25 and counting.......

That's all for now----just counting the days.

The McCain-Palin Mob

I wonder if there are enough good white people to counter this. If not, our nation is in trouble.

A wise piece of advice from a blogger on Jack & Jill Politics:

Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Fight the Terrorist Smears

THERE’S A CONCERTED effort by the McCain campaign, with a huge assist from Chris Matthews on MSNBC and a scurrilous email smear effort, to paint Barack Obama as a sleeper-cell terrorist. I know speaking logic to fools is often a bridge to nowhere, but sometimes, we can get through to the other side. To anyone who receives these emails or who is challenged by someone person-to-person, please respond with something along these lines:

Do any of you really they think so little of our country’s intelligence agencies that they would be so inept as to allow a terrorist to run for any national office, much less the presidency, and secure the nomination of one of its major political parties? Especially after 9/11?

Imagine the laughing stock we would be in the world if our nation’s defense department was so ineffective.

What would our allies think about us?

If the Clintons, who have some of the best opposition research teams in the world, one of them was our president, after all, couldn’t get anything on Barack Obama, there’s nothing to get.

Barack Obama is not the enemy. Nor are other Americans with Semitic/Arabic names and brown skin. The kind of rhetoric going around can put the safety of people on the ground in jeopardy.

Times are tough. Folks are desperate. People are looking for scapegoats. They’ll do just about anything: rob a store, kill their own family in a murder-suicide, attack anyone who looks “exotic”, gas innocent children in a mosque, walk into a Unitarian church and open fire…

Vote for Obama or don’t vote for Obama, but to demonize him with all this terrorist innuendo in a post 9/11 climate is dangerous and wrong and it needs to stop.

Barack Obama is the father of two beautiful girls. They need him to be safe. We need to keep our citizenry safe.

Please do the right thing and don’t forward any emails and speak out against this dangerous smear campaign whenever you are confronted with it.

Posted by Craig Hickman at 11:56 PM

26 and counting...........

Some pro-Obama, but really good analyses of the Presidential race can be found on Huffingtonpost.com.

27 and counting.........

Black Agenda Report

In previous entries, I have offered a critical perspective of Obama---and most certainly of those like McCain. At the risk of taking away from Obama at this critical moment, I draw your attention the Black Agenda Report, an online journal that offers insight into politics affecting black America. It's not very positive toward Obama. In the long run, however, the journal raises important questions about leadership and policies affecting all of America.

28 and counting.....

OBAMA CALLED A TERRORIST AT MCCAIN RALLY

Things have turned dirt ugly. It's really trashy what Palin and McCain are doing---appealing to worst instincts in white people. I've seen bad---Willie Horton, Clinton invoking Sistah Souljah, Reagan launching his campaign in the deep South, and so on--but the racism and fear invoked by these two is horrible. I posted in earlier blogs that race would be a sustaining factor in this campaign. And there are those say that Obama's candidacy and possible victory is a sign that America has changed. Not so with these two and their followers. Calling someone a terrorist and invoking shouts of "treason" is as unpatriotic as one can be.

29 and counting.......

The heat is on. Palin and McCain launched a brutal attack on Barak Obama's patriotism. We all knew this was coming--it's been the plan all along. Rightfully, Obama has linked McCain with the Keating 5 and asks why isn't he talking about the failing economy. The coming weeks will see the lowest of the low from the Palin-McCain duo. What's interesting is that Obama was a mere eight years ago when Bill Ayers, his alleged terrorist pal, was a radical with the Weathermen. You can find more on the "mavericks" racially tinged and thinly disguised attack.

30 and counting

I could write about O.J. Simpson, but not much can be said.

On a more positive note, I remember Desiderata and how it kept me grounded in my youth. I discovered it in a card shop and posted it where I could read it daily. Latin for "desired things," Desiderata is attributed to Max Ehrmann---a poet and lawyer. Desiderata became popular in the early 1970s and by the time I was seventeen, it had been printed on artsy post cards or textured paper and sold in gift shops. I bought mine from a place called House of Cards on Main Street. Time took its toll on my copy and it soon disappeared.


DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

31 days and counting

I saw this photo while browsing images of the civil rights era. It's a different kind of photo of King, perhaps revealing a moment of deep anguish. We've seen the dynamic and charasmatic King, the prophetic freedom fighter who gave all to the struggle. This image resembles the photo of him the night before he was assassinated. He'd come to Memphis to defend the labor rights of sanitation workers and knew that his days were numbered. "Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead," he said from the pulpit, while his eyes blinked back tears. "But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain."

This is not a photo of that moment, but it speaks to the strain of a man burdened with weight of the ultimate struggle.

32 and counting

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM (1924-2005)

About her........

33 and counting

They have spoken. The Vice-Presidential debate is history. The most I can say for Palin is that she didn't make a fool of herself----though she did act foolish at times. Reviews are saying that conservatives are sighing in relief. They should. Palin didn't say much of significance and did a good job of not tripping over herself.

Biden, as was expected, held his own ground and articulated Obama's positions clearly. He kept a focus on facts and corrected Palin's insistance on McCain being a maverick. He also made sure to link McCain to the Bush administration.

Leading up to the debate, analysts projected that both would go into the debate aiming to do no harm. Mission accomplished.

34 and counting.......

Been searching for something uplifting to share---and along comes Anthony Hamilton. The last weeks can have the effect of dampening one's spirits, lest you forget from where all grace and power derives. Anthony Hamilton sings it well in EVERYBODY:

We have seen some things in our lives
We've had some long and sorrowed roads
That's how I know it's alright to cry

Go on and ease the heavy load
Pray hard, walk tall, do right
Find love, hold on for life

Lord I know that You are there
I feel a burning in my bones
Free us from the lion's den
And take us home

Everybody needs love in their life
Everybody needs a little sun to shine
Go'n let love come inside your life
Shine down on me, on me

The Shepard and His smiling, faithful, alright
Find love hold on for life

Lord rain down on me
And let your joy ease my pain
Take me from this lion's den
And make me smile again