tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51651277506069896142024-03-12T23:12:47.237-05:00Power From TruthHonest musings on issues of the day -- focusing on race, ethnicity, class and the need for social and economic equality.Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-17138841635787442952008-01-28T22:54:00.000-05:002008-01-30T20:51:45.024-05:00GOOSEBUMPS ARE YOURS FOR THE TAKING ... (Post #12)<em></em><strong>I have goosebumps.<br /></strong><br /><em>How can I not?</em> Less than a year ago <a href="http://powerfromtruth.blogspot.com/2007/02/obama-vs-giuliani-americas-struggle.html" target="_blank">I wrote</a> that I did <u>not</u> need goosebumps to support a real leader who will take this nation to a new place. Watching Barack Obama's speech announcing his Presidential candidacy, I was intrigued and proud but not particularly "moved." I hoped for goosebumps and wasn't getting them. I wanted to believe again in the possibility of an inspirational President of these United States. (Maybe I needed confirmation that the racial pain accompanying my own attempt to enter Congress in 2006 could be cleansed for me through the success of another multi-racial political figure.) For me, Obama had some appeal, but so did John Edwards and so did Senator Hillary Clinton.<br /><br /><strong>So much has changed since then.</strong> Now, less than one year later, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0x_TpDris">we clearly have a leader</a> ... and the goosebumps are plentiful and free!<br /><br /><strong>The Obama victory in South Carolina was incredible ... and a solid repudiation of the two Clintons.</strong> Fifty five percent of the vote for Obama in a three-way race? <em>Almost a veto-proof majority!</em> Obama received a vote total more than twice that of Clinton and more than three times that of Edwards -- in a southern state. <em>Amazing!</em> Obama received nearly 25% of the white vote against two white candidates -- one a native son of South Carolina. <em>Outstanding!</em> Obama was supported by more voters in this primary election than voted for all candidates combined in South Carolina's 2004 Democratic primary. <em>Majestic!</em> Clinton's narrow victories over Obama in New Hampshire and Nevada were exciting, netting Obama as many convention delegates as Clinton. On the other hand, <strong>Obama's victories in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMighVyjVFM">Iowa</a> and South Carolina have been solid and diverse statements of support.</strong><br /><strong><br />Yes, as Senator Obama so forcefully and eloquently stated in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVAPH_EcmQ">his victory speech</a> Saturday night, this election has come down to one conflict: <em>past versus future. </em></strong> And Senator Clinton, as capable as she is and potentially wonderful to some, clearly represents the past. It's time indeed for change we can believe in, and Barack Obama is the true leader in this regard. We can take our time, bloody our Democratic knuckles, kick each other in the groin, and end up limping to the General Election in November. Or we can embrace the opportunity to ride a wave like none before and truly change the world.<br /><br />In <a href="http://powerfromtruth.blogspot.com/2007/02/obama-vs-giuliani-americas-struggle.html" target="_blank">my original blog on this subject</a>, I highlighted the evil known as "groupthink." The Giuliani administration here in New York served as a colorful example thereof. (Fortunately, it now looks like we won't have to worry about the anti-American tendencies of Rudy in the White House.) <strong>One other example of "groupthink" in that piece, however, was the vote to authorize the Iraq War.</strong> In that instance, Democrats were beaten down as much by their own cowardice and calculations as by Republican pressure. America was not well served by President Bush or by the Democrats who played cautious politics rather than exercise real leadership. Unfortunately, Senator Clinton was one of those Senators -- as was then-Senator John Edwards.<br /><strong><br />The latest example of groupthink that comes to mind was the myth of "inevitability" accompanying Senator Clinton's candidacy for President of the United States.</strong> The media is one of many culprits, of course. It's how they survive. But leadership can -- and must -- break through the wall. Senator Obama did not have to run; it would have been easier to wait. But it made no sense to wait. Barack Obama is a leader. He hears the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With every speech he makes it clear "why we can't wait." He understands that polls are snapshots and that the subject of the picture can change. <strong>Obama understands the times we live in, the America we yearn for ... and the need to break through the wall of what is "realistic."</strong> <em>And now how thin that wall has proven to be!</em><br /><br />Yes, I do not agree with the Obama campaign on every issue -- including his health care plan. Yes, Obama is not perfect or squeaky clean. Yes, I hate to see the Clinton and Obama campaigns rolling around in the mud ... it does neither of them any good nor does it help Democrats overall. (One friend of mine said, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs">"Hillary found her voice ... and it was Bill!"</a> <em>Ouch! )</em> But I can get past this -- <u>we</u> can get past this -- because there is a different feeling out there -- a good and powerful feeling -- and Barack Obama, the person and the movement, has created it.<br /><br />Some progressive leaders like my father, retired <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WK2_ka-KDI">Congressman Major Owens</a>, had endorsed Senator Obama before the historic Iowa victory. Their support was based upon hope and prayers. <strong>In the aftermath of South Carolina, the result of hard work and faith, even more support is pouring in for this special Presidential candidate.</strong><br /><br />The former Caroline Kennedy and her Senator uncle are the first of many to come aboard before February 5. Yesterday, Caroline wrote the following: "Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible. We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. <strong>It isn't that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough.</strong> We need a change in the leadership of this country - just as we did in 1960."<br /><br />Today, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqpLpxE72k">Senator Ted Kennedy summarized the attributes of a future President</a>: "He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to 'the better angels of our nature'." And, in politics, we really need that sometimes.<br /><br />If I may borrow some words from today's <em>New York Times,</em> a few years ago Senator Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel, compared her late husband's quest for social justice to Senator Obama's. "He has the passion in his heart. He's not selling you. It's just him."<br /><em><br />The Kennedys get it.</em> So does respected Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Governors and Senators from red states, and many others. Yes, Obama is unique.<br /><br />And now writer extraordinaire Toni Morrison, who dubbed Bill Clinton "America's first Black president," has endorsed Senator Obama's candidacy. "In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which, coupled with brilliance, equals wisdom."<br /><strong><br />The reality of what Barack Obama represents for this nation is seeping into the consciousness of the Democratic Party and others as well ... and the people will be speaking loud and clear on Tuesday, February 5. </strong><br /><strong><br />So don't <em>fear</em> the tidal wave of change in America; <em>ride it.</em></strong> Let us sweep away the eroding but stubborn barriers of racial, ethnic and gender divisions as well as the visionless yet powerful inside players. This is how we remove Bush and Cheney and all residuals thereof.<br /><br />Let us harness the hopeful energy of our younger generations -- and our own faith in generations to come. This is how we check corporate power, tackle global warming and our global economic challenges.<br /><br />Let us rebuild America's true and unfulfilled status as the strong, respectful and compassionate role model for other nations. This is how we pursue peace.<br /><br />And let us acknowledge conflicting perspectives on issues yet stand solid on the common ground. This is how we get real results in Washington that benefit all of the people.<br /><strong><br />Let us vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday, February 5.</strong> Every vote in every state will be critical in determining the final count of convention delegates.<br /><strong><br />I am on the ballot in Brooklyn's 11th Congressional District as a delegate for Obama in Super-Duper Tuesday's Democratic Primary election.</strong> I am actually an "alternate" candidate; I only get to go to Denver if an elected delegate cannot attend. That's OK; it's still an honor to lend myself to the cause and hundreds of others feel the same way. <strong>If you're in the 11th District, vote first for Obama and then please vote for me and my Obama slate colleagues.</strong><br /><br />Wherever you are in this nation, if you have not already registered with <a href="http://barackobama.com/" target="_blank">BarackObama.com</a>, then do so today. If you live here in Brooklyn, volunteer today! Call either 718-604-9720 or 718-778-7978. Elsewhere in New York City, call 212-732-2008.<br /><br />To download helpful Obama visual "stuff", <a href="http://wnymathguy.com/delegateCommittee/ArtworkDownloads.html" target="_blank">click here</a>.<br /><strong><em><br />Yes, we can! Si, se puede!<br /><br />Yes, we will! Si, lo haremos!</em></strong><br /><br />Thank you!Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-41014628244453599722007-12-13T19:51:00.000-05:002008-01-28T23:09:55.067-05:00CHRISTMAS IN SOUTH CAROLINA (Post #11)<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Greetings all!</span><br /><br />A good friend of mine, Donnel Baird, wrote what you are about to read. (The names have been changed to "protect the innocent.") It's powerful and important stuff and a brutal reminder of America's greatest challenge: to be the nation we should be. And, trust me, Brooklyn and South Carolina have plenty in common ...<br /><p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b>--------------------------------------<br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b>Memo from the South Carolina Ground War </b></p><br /><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I work for Barack Obama's Presidential campaign in South Carolina. As a way of conveying to you what we're trying to accomplish here, I want to tell you about four men that I have recently met. </span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The first man, Mr. Taylor, is a politician and hospital executive who wears crisp suits, cuff links, and who drives a BMW -- a man with verve. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"I didn't have the most education", he told me. "But now 75 people report to me. Black and white, they report to me. And I have been elected for 13 years. I stood up for myself. I don't back down."</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"I don't understand what's wrong with the folk 'round here. Here comes a man, Barack -- he wants to help you stand up for yourself. What's it gonna' take for <i>you</i> to help <i>you?</i> Here's a man who wants to help you HELP YOU! When you gonna' stand up?" Fury flashed his face and eased into a slow head shake. "You'll see. They <i>got</i> to stand up."</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Mr. Taylor told me to call him if I needed anything else and I'll be taking him up on that soon. </span></p><div style="font-family:times new roman;"><p><span style="font-size:100%;">Sean is young -- about 23. He wears cornrows, large white tee shirts and baggy jeans. He has expensive sun glasses and gold "grills" or "fronts" on his teeth -- Southern hip-hop. He comes from a town with no jobs, nothing to do, no place positive for young people to hang out ... and he has strong opinions. "Barack can't win. But I appreciate the effort y'all are making." </span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></p></div><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I pretended not to hear him. I said: "Our effort is what is gonna' make this happen. If people decide to come out and volunteer and work to make this happen, it <i>will </i>happen. We will <i>make</i> it happen."</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> He wasn't buying. He shook his head, grinning slightly, the light glinting off his fronts. I pressed on.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> "<i>You</i> could be mayor of your town," I said. "I bet you could do it with a thousand votes. I bet between you and 20 of your boys y'all know seven to eight hundred people. You all could take two months, register everybody, get some suits, write down the names and phone numbers of your supporters, and remind them to vote on election day. You could be mayor, and then <i>you</i> could fix <i>your</i> town." He frowned. "Not in my town," he said. "They ain't going to let that happen." </span></p><div style="font-family:times new roman;"><p><span style="font-size:100%;">"Who is 'they'," I asked? </span></p></div><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Sean glowered at me through his glasses. "The Klan. You ain' know the Klan still marches in my town? They pro'lly come over and burn my mom house down. You ain' know that?" He looked off in disgust. I told him we would be in touch. He asked his mom if she was ready to leave. She looked at me sympathetically, then they walked to their car and drove off.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I sat in one of the comfortable chairs in the third man's spacious office.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> He was old and rich and stocky. He had one gold tooth and his gray hair pulled back into a duck bill. Ex-Military.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Leaning over the desk, Robinson peered at me. "I <i>might</i> be supporting Obama, but ya'll won't win this state. Tell you why. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">See, you got some white folks around here, in particular, one family -- the Chandlers. Mill money. They built these towns ... they built them for the people to work in the mills they own.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> And they control everything. Mill jobs left, but that family still has control. If they say vote one way, <i>that's</i> the way everybody votes." I was not deterred and explained how and why we were going to win the Democratic primary in South Carolina.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Robinson continued. "Niggas 'round here is scared. They afraid that if they vote the wrong way, their boss is gonna' find out or they customers is going to find out. The man at the bank calls them. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Here's how that work. The man at the bank gonna' say something like, 'Mr. Johnson, we go way back. I know your mama, 'cus she helped raise my cousin. These northern niggas down here talking politics ... <i>we</i> don't need that. Now, how's that mortgage payment going? And what about that loan for Junior's college?" </span></p></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Now this black man jus' terrified that this white man is going to pull the loan at the bank. He's looking out for his family by not voting. <i>That's</i> what you're up against."</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Now listen. I can't come out for you publicly -- I work for the state and we get too much federal money for me to do stuff publicly. But you call me and keep me in the loop." So I call Robinson and I keep him in the loop. He will require some more persuasion, but once he's on board, he will bring along many of his followers to help volunteer for our campaign.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I met an energetic young reverend. Rev. Calvin is handsome and well-dressed with a quick and engaging sense of humor. The purple, double breasted suit with 6 buttons down the front was sharp. His clean-shaven head was sleek. "We got to wake these people up," he told me. He'd grown up in the county but left for Florida as a young man, back when he thought he 'knew everything'. He lived hard, fell far, and the Lord picked him back up.<br /></span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"One of the problems we got around here is 'the CEO roundtable' -- all the heads of the companies meet and strategize. Few years back, they decided to install a double shift -- fired half the staff at all their plants and had the rest work two shifts back-to-back. That way they pay less money in health insurance benefits. Now, you work a double-shift, then half the week you at work. When you're done, you too tired to parent. So the kids are raising themselves. I want to start talking about this but no one wants to address it. We got to address it. No one fought back when they put in this double shift. Nobody didn't say nothing". He shook his head in frustration.<br /></span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">But the Reverend was still curious. "What kind of door-to-door voter contact operation would I be running?" I told him. "Some guys came by," he recalled. "Asked me to train 40 young people to go door-to-door for a survey on issues that people cared about. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">These were Republicans asking me, mind you, and they paid our kids to go around a year and half before the election with these palm pilots to collect data on the issues. And I helped them because they were paying, and they were organized, while the Democratic Party here in this county just wants to hand out fried chicken every election ... and that's why they lose and lose."</span></p><div style="font-family:times new roman;"><p><span style="font-size:100%;">"But I'll tell you," he continued, "after I ran that canvass, I got a call from the bank. They asked me if I need a loan to build a new sanctuary for my church. See how that works?"<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;">I said that I understood and I told him how we work. Rev. Calvin doesn't call me back -- but I haven't given up on him. </span></p></div><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The fourth man is a Vietnam veteran -- twenty five years in the service, which he signed up for right after high school. Burton is graying and retired and he's got warmth, humor and humility. He represents his church congregation at the AME lay person's conference. I asked him if the lay congregation was composed of church radicals whose sole purpose was to terrorize AME preachers and make sure they stayed in line. He laughed ... and didn't say no. He is very concerned about how the war in Iraq is damaging the mental health of our soldiers. Too many of his fighting buddies from Vietnam have yet to recover. </span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">As we headed to our cars after one meeting, Burton told me of his attempt to organize a labor union at a plant where he worked.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Soon as management heard," he said, "they started calling everybody, threatening them. ' We gonna fire you. We gonna come to your house.' And people were scared. They stopped taking my calls, started hiding from me at work, started dropping out."</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Why weren't you afraid?" I asked. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">He stopped walking. "They called and threatened me, said they were coming to my house. Looking for my family." His voice got quiet. "But I knew them and I knew that they might come, but they might not. And I'm ex-military. If they came, I knew I'd try to be ready for them." He asked if I had directions to my next meeting, smiled, wished me a good night, and walked to his car.</span></p><div style="font-family:times new roman;"><p><span style="font-size:100%;">My team's job is to find people like Burton all across South Carolina and bring them together for meetings where we can plan to get ourselves together, get Barack Obama elected, change South Carolina, and change our country.</span></p></div><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">There is great leadership potential in my region. Every day we search for new leaders and talk with the ones we have recruited about how to find more. My team has found several dozen serious people; the majority of them are African American women. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">When they come together, we call them Obama Teams. <i>They will change this state.</i></span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To expand our efforts, we need pre-paid cell phones and wireless pre-paid cards. We need them now, as soon as we can get our hands on them. These cell phones will allow us to take our campaign outside of our regional Headquarters, directly to the counties where our leaders live, so that they can make the phone calls necessary to create more Obama teams.</span></p><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We consider ourselves to be on the front lines out here.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></p><div style="font-family: times new roman;"></div><p style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><i>We will make it happen.</i></span><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Donnel Baird</span></p></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Regional Field Director, South Carolina</span></div><br /><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >P.S. -- </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >We need ten Verizon pre-paid cell phones which cost $40 each. We need forty Verizon 500-minute wireless pre-paid cards. They cost between 10 and 20 dollars each. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >We need them now, as soon as we can get our hands on them. </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />If you'd like to help and are considering making an in-kind contribution of phones or cards to our region here in South Carolina, please contact me at</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > <a href="mailto:dbaird@barackobama.com" target="_blank">dbaird@barackobama.com</a> -- or write a check directly to Verizon and mail it to my office:<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Obama Campaign Headquarters<br />407B Main Street<br />Greenwood, SC 29646</span></div><div style="text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Attn: DB Field </span></div><div style="text-align: center;font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><a href="https://donate.barackobama.com/page/-/documents/Contribution%20Form%20Revised.pdf">Click here</a> to download the form you should send along with your check in order to comply with the Federal campaign finance laws. The maximum amount of funds an individual can contribute for a Presidential candidate to use prior to the nomination is $2,300 -- either direct or in-kind or both together. </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >Please remember that your contributions are not tax deductible.</span><br /><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thank you and have a<br />safe and happy holiday season!</span></span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >----------------------------------------</span></span><br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /></span></span><br /></blockquote>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-79473202727575679052007-02-10T11:02:00.000-05:002007-02-12T17:06:38.758-05:00OBAMA VS. GIULIANI: AMERICA'S REAL STRUGGLE (Post #10)I am watching Senator Barack Obama's announcement of his Presidential candidacy on C-Span. He is so smart, so sensible, so easy to listen to ... and so impressive! My kids are bored -- they've had a bit too much politics in their lives lately -- but I want them to see history unfolding.<br /><br /><em>Yes, today is definitely historic for America and I am happy to witness it.</em><br /><br />But, as a Black American, I wanted <em>goosebumps </em>... and I didn't get them. (I didn't get them in 2004 when Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention, either.) Maybe it was the use of U2 as the introductory music. I have nothing against U2; I like their music and I have incredible admiration for Bono (whom I have had the honor of meeting in person). But a U2 song, while intense, does not often "lift you up" with a transcendant and memorable melody. In 1992, Bill Clinton used Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" and we couldn't stop singing it. No one should think that today's generations don't appreciate a strong melody with an inspirational message. (Ever hear of gospel?)<br /><br /><em>Oh!</em> Now I hear "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" -- maybe that should have been the lead song! Is it too Black? (Too tired? Maybe. Next we'll hear "We Are Family" ...) Yes, Obama does not wish to be seen as the Black candidate for President, but as the Presidential candidate who happens to be Black. We all know why that is; race is the ultimate third rail of politics today -- and don't let anyone tell you different. In the end, however, what is good for Black America is good for all of America (I have no problem echoing Tavis Smiley on this point.) And no matter how a campaign spins it, Obama is the first Black candidate in the 2008 Presidential sweepstakes.<br /><br /><em>Uh, oh!</em> Now "Shout" is playing in the background. Fun song, but permanently associated with rowdy white frat boys from "Animal House." Bad choice, particularly in the aftermath of the Duke debacle. Someone needs to remind political consultants to use common sense sometimes.<br /><br /><em>Back to the goosebumps ...</em> There has been alot of media questioning Obama's support in the African American communities. Some Black observers say Obama is popular with whites because he is "safe." They can now point as well to the fact that launching a campaign with Lincolnesque overtones from Springfield sends a mixed message to African American voters. Some Black observers have specifically stated that the Senator's life does not "share" the American Black experience and that Obama is not a "genuine" American of African descent. I guess they didn't feel goosebumps, either.<br /><br /><em>But they are fools!</em> How can they pretend that this man -- a former urban community organizer turned civil rights lawyer and Constitutional law professor who is now the only Black sitting in the Senate of the United States of America -- wakes up in the morning, looks himself in the mirror, kisses his Black wife and daughters and does not understand what it means to be Black in America today or yesterday? Obama's been in this country almost all his life. Do people chronologically younger than the time he has been in America also not know what it means to be Black in America? Of course not. I know plenty of African Americans -- products of two African American parents from the South -- who are far more sheltered from the full scope of Black America's realities than Barack Obama. Some of them even hold elected office.<br /><br />In all honesty, I don't question Colin Powell's understanding of what it is to be Black, nor do I question the mindset of Condoleeza Rice. I question -- nay, attack -- their policy choices and their political friends, but they are indeed Black. Life is a normal curve. The Rice portion of the curve is balanced by the Malcolm X portion of the curve. But we're all sharing that unique experience. (Yes, I am biased on this question. For those who do not know, I am the son of a Black father and a white mother -- and I am a Black American with mixed racial heritage. America does not see me any other way.) And no matter what background Barack Obama claims as his own, for most white Americans voting for Obama as a Presidential candidate will not be a "safe" act. It is far safer for Black Americans to "default" to Obama, than it will be for whites to overcome their own fears -- submerged or articulated.<br /><br />Whether you like Obama's politics or not -- and I have taken no position on the Presidential contest -- you <em>cannot</em> say that Obama is not Black enough and you <em>cannot </em>say that he is any less qualified to be President of these United States than any other candidate past or present for that office. Check out his record, scrutinize his positions, challenge his vision to ensure that he is the candidate who will treat Black people -- and all people -- in this nation with respect and decency. If he falls short, then find a better alternative. But don't commit moral and political suicide by questioning his identity as a Black American. And, simply put, Barack Obama cannot give ammunition to his Black critics. It is easy to get lost in the headiness of a campaign; he's been there before. But this Presidential campaign cannot afford to lose its way and forget its base of political bases.<br /><br />Recordings of Martin Luther King's speeches make me cry. Good preachers of all hues can give me goosebumps. Even some preachers-turned-politicians have given me goosebumps. Maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age and applying a more stringent goosebump standard to Obama and I'm finding that he doesn't do it for me. But there are certainly a lot of white people who get the goosebumps when listening to him. Let's see if goosebumps turn into real votes.<br /><br /><em>But I know this: I don't need goosebumps to support a candidate. (In addition to supporting Rev. Jesse Jackson for President -- twice -- I supported Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, Al Gore and John Kerry. 'Nuff said!)</em> And, looking forward, I don't need goosebumps to acknowlege the need for a calm and wordly leader in the White House as we confront the crises around this planet and at home.<br /><br />I don't need goosebumps to see that the "groupthink" of our political system -- on all sides -- is the enemy of democracy and certainly of progressive values. You have probably studied groupthink like I have. The power and pressure of a situation, combined with individual insecurities or cowardice, can generate flawed decisions by leaders due to limited honest or creative input -- input that goes against the consensus or the opinion of the leader.<br /><br />If there is one thing I am sure of, it's that Obama will not allow groupthink to dominate his Presidential administration. Obama's books and speeches reflect a thoughtful and caring person. He has a thorough grasp of Constitutional issues, of national and international historic matters, and he is known as a compulsive "listener." These are qualities needed at the top of the next Presidential administration.<br /><br />This is not to say that Clinton or Edwards or others will be more susceptible to the illness of groupthink. Edwards' bloggers will ensure a free flow of ideas -- or chaos. However, the Clinton campaign style does raise questions. According to observers, the Clinton operation is tight, closed and insistent upon "loyalty." Under pressure, the Clinton campaign will undoubtedly be extemely skilled. <em>But fighting groupthink is not defined by following polls and raising gobs of money to make television ads that influence polls.</em> Fighting groupthink requires thinking and acting independent of polls -- and being more dependent upon common sense and human decency.<br /><br />And that is why, when an unacceptable case was made for giving President Bush authority to invade Iraq, the groupthink of the U.S. Senate -- a powerful and potentially dangerous thing -- needed to be countered. And it was not. Fighting groupthink requires leadership. And at that moment in time, both Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards failed the leadership test. <em>So these particular candidates may have learned from the past in preparing for the future, but they start with a "groupthink deficit."</em> And when Obama says that Washington needs to be changed, he's attacking the Beltway "groupthink" culture and the lack of leadership that goes with it.<br /><br />But, in the impending Presidential contest, the ultimate expression of groupthink's dangers is posed by the personality of Rudolph Giuliani and others like him.<br /><br />In addition to my personal observations of Giuliani's arrogance and outrageous disregard for civil and human rights (as a New York resident), I was struck by an incident shared in the February 4th <em>New York Times</em> review of "Giuliani," (John Wiley & Sons), a book on the former Mayor. The authors, Deborah and Gerald Strober, talked with Lillian Barrios-Paoli, who was a Commissioner under Giuliani as well as former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat.<br /><br />The reviewer, Sam Roberts, presents this excerpt. According to Ms. Barrios-Paoli, if Ed Koch said to his advisors that he wanted to kill all 12-year-olds, "I can think of 10 people who would say 'Please! Get a life! What, are you crazy? No way!' And there'd be a big argument and at the end of the day, somebody's judgement would prevail. If Rudy [Giuliani] would say 'Let's kill 12-year-olds,' there'd be a deep silence in the room, and then somebody would say, 'That's brilliant!' And then somebody else would say 'Have you thought of 13-year-olds, too?'"<br /><br />How revealing that Ms. Barrios-Paoli chooses such a horrific example, however fictional? What a statement about the people Giuliani chooses to keep around him as an administrator! (Did somone say Bernard Kerik?) The only more graphic examples of groupthink might be the German high command during World War II, Lyndon Johnson's cabinet discussions during the Vietnam War, or Bush's minions during the Iraq debacle.<br /><br />Fighting groupthink on our collective journey forward does not require goosebumps. So I am not looking for goosebumps, but knowledge of and faith in the American Constitution. I am not looking for goosebumps, but good judgement. I am not looking for goosebumps, but credibility across the lines of class and race in pursuing a more progressive agenda for our nation. I am not looking for goosebumps, but confidence rooted in enduring humanity and a hatred of injustice -- not a flash of brilliance in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy.<br /><br />When it comes to the Presidency, I am no longer looking for Jesse Jackson -- though I thank him for wanting to be President and for continuing his quest for economic rights and opportunities. I am not looking for Al Sharpton -- though I thank him for campaigning for President and for remaining a warrior both for justice and against complacency. And I am not looking for Al Gore -- though we all owe him an incredible debt of gratitude for breaking new ground in American politics and skyrocketing our collective consciousness on global warming, the single most important issue facing every individual and every government on Earth at this time.<br /><br />I am looking for the person who can incorporate all the wisdom, blend it with a sense of urgency, and focus our action. I am looking for the strategist who does not interpret "a good defense is a good offense" as a military challenge but as a challenge to do good at home and abroad. I am looking for the one who is genuine and fresh yet who has all the tools and credentials and time to become a great world leader.<br /><br />If that's Barack Obama, so be it. If it's someone else, let them make their stand now.<br /><br /><em>We don't have much time.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>---------------------------------------------------</em><br />---------------------------------------------------<br /><em></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>If you have not already read it, here is Senator Barack Obama's announcement speech in Springfield, Illinois:</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Let me begin by saying thanks to all you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today.<br /><br />We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling, but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.<br /><br />That's the journey we're on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state. I moved to Illinois over two decades ago. I was a young man then, just a year out of college; I knew no one in Chicago, was without money or family connections. But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for $13,000 a year. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea — that I might play a small part in building a better America.<br /><br />My work took me to some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings. I saw that the problems people faced weren't simply local in nature — that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in schools could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to violence, there's a hole in his heart no government could ever fill.<br /><br />It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had, and where I learned the true meaning of my Christian faith.<br /><br />After three years of this work, I went to law school, because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need. I became a civil rights lawyer, and taught </span><a class="iAs" style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 100%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: darkgreen; BORDER-BOTTOM: darkgreen 0.07em solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.r8ny.com/#" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">constitutional law</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">, and after a time, I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate. It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this capital city as a state Senator.<br /><br />It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge — farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. I made lasting friendships here — friends that I see in the audience today.<br /><br />It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable — that it's possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we're willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.<br /><br />That's why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken. That's why we were able to give health insurance to children in need. That's why we made the tax system more fair and just for working families, and that's why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed.<br /><br />It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people — where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.<br /><br />And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the </span><a class="iAs" style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 100%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: darkgreen; BORDER-BOTTOM: darkgreen 0.07em solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.r8ny.com/#" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">United States</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">.<br /><br />I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.<br /><br />The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed. And we should take heart, because we've changed this country before. In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees. In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free. In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty. We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west, we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King's call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.<br /><br />Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call. For that is our unyielding faith — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.<br /><br />That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people — as Americans.<br /><br />All of us know what those challenges are today — a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We've heard them. We've talked about them for years.<br /><br />What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics - the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems.<br /><br />For the last six years we've been told that our mounting debts don't matter, we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion, we've been told that climate change is a hoax, and that tough talk and an ill-conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight. And when all else fails, when Katrina happens, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.<br /><br />And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It's time to turn the page.<br />We've made some progress already. I was proud to help lead the fight in Congress that led to the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.<br /><br />But Washington has a long way to go. And it won't be easy. That's why we'll have to set priorities. We'll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes we need, more money and programs alone will not get us where we need to go. Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility — for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children, for adapting to a more competitive economy, for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation.<br /><br />Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in </span><a class="iAs" style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 100%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: darkgreen; BORDER-BOTTOM: darkgreen 0.07em solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://www.r8ny.com/#" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">scientific research</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.<br /><br />And as our economy changes, let's be the generation that ensures our nation's workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let's protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let's make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement. And let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle-class again.<br /><br />Let's be the generation that ends poverty in America. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills, and afford child care so their kids have a safe place to go when they work. Let's do this.<br /><br />Let's be the generation that finally tackles our health care crisis. We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment to the chronically ill, and using technology to cut the bureaucracy. Let's be the generation that says right here, right now, that we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president's first term.<br /><br />Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars. We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases. We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation, and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world. Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.<br /><br />Most of all, let's be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day and confront the terrorists with everything we've got. Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore — we can work together to keep our country safe. I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law that will secure and destroy some of the world's deadliest, unguarded weapons. We can work together to track terrorists down with a stronger military, we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities. But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions around the globe.<br /><br />But all of this cannot come to pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraq. Most of you know I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been. America, it's time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war. That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace.<br /><br />Finally, there is one other thing that is not too late to get right about this war - and that is the homecoming of the men and women — our veterans — who have sacrificed the most. Let us honor their valor by providing the care they need and rebuilding the military they love. Let us be the generation that begins this work.<br /><br />I know there are those who don't believe we can do all these things. I understand the skepticism. After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises, and I expect this year will be no different. All of us running for president will travel around the country offering ten-point plans and making grand speeches; all of us will trumpet those qualities we believe make us uniquely qualified to lead the country. But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.<br /><br />That is why this campaign can't only be about me. It must be about us — it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice — to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not. This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.<br /><br />By ourselves, this change will not happen. Divided, we are bound to fail.<br /><br />But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible. He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope. As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, he was heard to say: "Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through."<br /><br />That is our purpose here today. That's why I'm in this race. Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.<br /><br />I want to win that next battle — for justice and opportunity. I want to win that next battle — for better schools, and better jobs, and health care for all. I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.<br /><br />And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations, then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you.<br /><br />Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."</span>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-30501561181232402782007-01-16T00:46:00.000-05:002007-01-22T12:24:05.373-05:00LONG LIVE THE KING (Post #9)Another MLK holday – nearly 40 years since Dr. King’s assassination and 21 since the holiday honoring his life became official. <em>Why is this day different from all other holidays?<br /></em><br />You have heard and seen so much about Dr. King. There is little I can add to the understanding of his life, so I will not attempt to do so. I will, however, attempt to add to your understanding of the impact of Dr. King’s life on me and people like me.<br /><br />In 1967, I was eight years-old and attending Public School 208, a majority-white elementary school in the East Flatbush area. Today the surrounding area’s population is entirely Caribbean in population; then it was entirely white. My middle brother and I were “bussed in.” The Thanksgiving holiday was approaching when my 3rd Grade teacher, Miss Cohen, gave us a composition assignment: “What I Have To Be Thankful For.”<br /><br />On this particular November day somebody rubbed me the wrong way. My composition ended up entitled “What I Do Not Have To Be Thankful For.” In it, I wrote that the United States was wrong to be involved in the Vietnam War and that we should not be bossing around other nations. My parents were active in community and political issues so I was aware of the Vietnam War. Only a few weeks earlier I had participated in the Moratorium Day protests with my parents. And somewhere I must have heard or read King’s words from the previous spring. It was one of our assignments to read the newspaper every day for what was known as “Current Events.”<br /><br />Well, it may take a whole village to raise a child, but sometimes it takes a child to enlighten the village. (A humorous case in point from our folk lore – “The Emperor’s New Clothes.") My teacher freaked. She called in the principal, Dr. Harry Ordan, to deal with me. I was already a behavior problem, so my desk was front and center in the classroom. Dr. Ordan came in the very next day and proceeded to seat himself on my desk and explain why the United States had to be “the policeman of the world.” Maybe he had been reading Dr. King’s speeches, I don’t know. Dr. Ordan never mentioned my name, but he did refer to some words “written by one of your classmates” and he was looking dead at me through most of his little talk. As much of a class clown as I was, I was still embarrassed by the attention -- but I did not regret what I wrote.<br /><br />When my mother heard what happened, she came into school and tore into Ordan like a lioness fillets a wildebeest. I only wish I had actually been in the room when it all went down. The principal did apologize to both her and me for any embarrassment or inconvenience. And he never apologized for his political views.<br /><br />What I took from the episode was this. <strong>There is so much power accompanying ideas and words – power that no one can control. And when those ideas and words highlight the need for peace and justice in the world, they are threatening to many people. </strong><br /><br />It was also nice to have additional confirmation of what I already knew: my mother would always have my back.<br /><br />Flash forward 39 years -- the lifetime of Dr. King. I was a candidate for Congress in Central Brooklyn sitting in an interview with three representatives from one of Brooklyn’s local newspapers. My opponents were also present and answering questions. To paraphrase slightly, I was asked if I would support the use of nuclear weapons if an enemy nation first used nuclear weapons against us or one of our allies.<br /><br />As my opportunity to respond approached, my parent’s voices and actions were in my mind. But it was Dr. King’s speech at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 that was ringing in my ears. This was a speech in which King laid out the moral imperative for peace and an end to U.S. prosecution of the Vietnam War. King articulated a history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam’s affairs as well as the bankruptcy of moral leadership within the United States itself. It was masterful and, as we listen to it today, chilling. Every issue he mentioned remains an issue today. Every dilemma confronting our nation then continues to confront us now.<br /><br /><em>To nuke or not to nuke, that was the question. </em>My answer was an unequivocal “no” – I would not support the use of nuclear weapons. The publication responded a few weeks later with a dismissal of my perspective on the use of force in defense of our national security as naïve and unrealistic for a potential Congressman. Another candidate whose answer was less clear and less threatening received the endorsement. Who knows? Maybe he felt exactly as I did, but just "couldn't" say it.<br /><br />Like 1967, 2006 reminded me of the power and fear accompanying the primacy of peace. <em>Will we let fear rule us? </em>In this day and time, the use of nuclear weapons by the United States of America -- an act of such horrific violence -- would be morally unacceptable, environmentally disastrous and strategically counterproductive. <em>Why should I even have to say this? Because we choose to live in fear? And why do we live in fear? </em>Because we are totally disconnected from Dr. King’s vision … and our leaders have no intention of reconnecting us anytime soon. <strong>For Dr. King, as for Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth and so many others, the way to peace and enlightenment was through love. Love is the way.</strong><br /><br />Martin King loved us – all of us. Why are we <em>afraid </em>of love? Why are we afraid <em>to</em> love? <em>Love is patient; love is blind; love does not keep score. </em>Don’t we hear those phrases from Corinthians at so many wedding ceremonies or in our houses of worship? Where is the behavior governed by these sentiments? Where is the public policy guided by these values?<br /><br />A few months after my 3rd Grade Thanksgiving composition was due – exactly one year after his dissection of the Vietnam War and his call to oppose it -- Dr. King was assassinated in the city of my father’s birth – Memphis. He was buried on April 9th – my ninth birthday. The five days leading up to that day had been some of the most emotional and confused days I had ever experienced. My birthday was the saddest and longest day of my life and, with the exception of 9/11, remains so to this day.<br /><br />What has changed since King’s death? King regularly denounced the evil triumvirate of racism, economic exploitation and militarism. All three evils have only evolved during the past four decades. And nowhere is this more evident than in our prosecution of war in Iraq. With Iraq, racism at the lunch counter is replaced with ethnocentric prejudice fueling local conflicts, our own willingness to engage in nation-experimentation “somewhere else,” and the hatred, fear and prejudice displayed to those who have chosen to immigrate to America.<br /><br />With Iraq, economic exploitation is now defined by the battle over oil production as well as the profile of our military – some of America’s hardest working and some of its poorest residents – as well as its most courageous. The militarism is evident in the Bush administration’s obsession with displaying America’s might – and weaknesses – to the world, and the desire to provide mega-profits to multinational corporate interests.<br /><br />Substitute “Iraq” for “Vietnam,” and consider these prophetic words from King’s Riverside Church speech:<br /><br />"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."<br /><br />A good friend told me that what made Dr. King unique was his “grace” – that he was given a gift that was used well every day. I also believe that each of us has the potential to be a King, if we can be as courageous in keeping love first in our life. Therefore, there is also no question that King should be emulated. None of us should pay the price that he, like Gandhi and Jesus, had to pay. Yet, again, we cannot be ruled by fear or our resulting cowardice will silence us.<br /><br />Our children must understand and sense the moral correctness of love and peace. And we must show them by example the importance of courageous action – even when inconvenient. Courageous actions do not have to be marches or sit-ins -- every effort to assist someone struggling for dignity and equality is worthy -- but they may come in the more dramatic form.<br /><br /><strong>Today, we must work to end our involvement in Iraq – not simply because we are selfish but because we do not believe that the violence embedded within the proposed solutions can ever work. Come to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27 to march against the war and, on Monday, January 29, to lobby members of Congress.</strong> Go to the <a href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org/">UFP&J site </a>for details.<br /><br /><em>Why is this holiday different from other days?</em> Because the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the day that has no meaning without action to help somebody. Because January 15th is to be lived every day for our children's sake. Because the King holiday is the annual call to join the change brigade. Thanks, Mom, thanks, Dad, thank you, Martin, for instilling love as a core value in my life.<br /><br />So I close by including below the complete text of King’s 1967 speech. Thanks go to the Black Radical Congress for providing a copy of the text on their website.<br /><br /><p><strong>______________________________________</strong></p><p><strong>Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence<br />By Rev. Martin Luther King<br />4 April 1967</strong><br /><br /><em>Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City </em><br /><br />I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.<br /><br />The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.<br /><br />Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.<br /><br />Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. </p><p>Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.<br /><br />I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.<br /><br />Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides. </p><p>Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.<br /><br /><strong>THE IMPORTANCE OF VIETNAM </strong><br /><br />Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.<br /><br />Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.<br /><br />My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.<br /><br />For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear.<br /><br />In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:<br /><br /><em>O, yes,<br />I say it plain,<br />America never was America to me,<br />And yet I swear this oath--<br />America will be!</em><br /><br />Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.<br /><br />As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?<br /><br />Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of “sonship” and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.<br /><br />This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.<br /><br /><strong>STRANGE LIBERATORS</strong><br /><br />And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.<br /><br />They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its re-conquest of her former colony.<br /><br />Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.<br /><br />For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to re-colonize Vietnam.<br /><br />Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at re-colonization. </p><p>After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.<br /><br />The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.<br /><br />They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.<br /><br />What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?</p><p>We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?<br /><br />Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.<br /><br />Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.<br /><br />How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?<br /><br />Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.<br /><br />So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.<br /><br />When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.<br /><br />Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.<br /><br />At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.<br /><br /><strong>THIS MADNESS MUST CEASE</strong><br /><br />Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.<br /><br />This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:<br /><br />"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."<br /><br />If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.<br /><br />The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.<br /><br />In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:<br /><br />1. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.<br /><br />2. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.<br /><br />3. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.<br /><br />4. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.<br /><br />5. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.<br /><br />Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.<br /><br /><strong>PROTESTING THE WAR</strong><br /><br />Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.<br /><br />As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.<br /><br />There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.<br /><br />In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."<br /><br />Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.<br /><br />I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.<br /><br />A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.<br /><br />America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. </p><p>This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism.<br /><br />War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.<br /><br /><strong>THE PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT</strong><br /><br />These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. </p><p>Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."<br /><br />A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.<br /><br />This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:<br /><br />Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.<br /><br />Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."<br /><br />We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.<br /><br />We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.<br /><br />Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.<br /><br />As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:<br /><br /><em>Once to every man and nation<br />Comes the moment to decide,<br />In the strife of truth and falsehood,<br />For the good or evil side;<br />Some great cause, God's new Messiah,<br />Offering each the bloom or blight,<br />And the choice goes by forever<br />Twixt that darkness and that light.<br />Though the cause of evil prosper,<br />Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;<br />Though her portion be the scaffold,<br />And upon the throne be wrong:<br />Yet that scaffold sways the future,<br />And behind the dim unknown,<br />Standeth God within the shadow<br />Keeping watch above his own. </em><br /><br />______________________________________<br /><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Messages on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and cross-posted, as long as proper attribution is given to the author and originating publication (including the email address and any copyright notices), and the wording is not altered in any way, other than for formatting.<br /><br />As a courtesy, when you cross-post or forward, we'd appreciate it if you mention that you received the info via the BRC-NEWS list. Thank you. </strong></p><p><strong><em>BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - International News/Alerts/Announcements<br /></em></p></strong><majordomo@igc.org>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-87031270035599824962007-01-07T09:49:00.000-05:002007-01-07T10:45:17.916-05:00THE 50-DAY VIGIL: A MESSAGE FROM KEVIN POWELL (Post #8)<strong><em>My friends,<br /><br />Please read this posting very carefully. Kevin Powell has said it all -- and very well. We must all participate in whatever way we can! (Read my Post #5 ...)<br /><br />Chris</em></strong><br /><br /><br />Good day, everyone!<br /><br />This is Kevin Powell, Brooklyn, New York based writer and community activist. I was just out at the 50-day Sean Bell Vigil in Jamaica, Queens, New York, last night, across from the 103rd precinct. In spite of the rain, the Bell family, friends, and folks looking for basic justice were there. It was incredibly moving, and it made me think of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, as well as those four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. In both instances, it was just a few dedicated individuals and their very simple acts of civil disobedience which brought attention to very serious human and civil rights violations. <em>They made sacrifices to their own comfort and their own safety, and changes did happen, as manifested in the Civil Rights Movement.</em><br /><br />Well, here we are again, as the struggle for real justice and real freedom in America never really ended, in spite of what some of us have been led to believe. It has been over a month since Sean Bell was murdered, and his two friends, Trent Benefield and Joe Guzman, were badly wounded in a barrage of 50 shots from undercover New York Police Department officers. There is still no indictment, and there is a growing concern, in communities around New York City and throughout America, that these police officers will get off completely, if a trial even occurs.<br /><br /><em>Let me make it very clear that the Bell family, from my conversations with them last night, understand that there are good police officers.</em> Let me also make it clear that they do not want the rhetoric of violence or revenge or disrespect for the NYPD in general around their vigil. Nor are they interested in having individuals or organizations trying to use the tragedy of Sean Bell's death for outside agendas. They simply want justice for what happened to Sean Bell. And they certainly could use the help and support from concerned human beings such as yourself.<br /><br />Here is how you can support the 50-day Sean Bell Vigil in Queens:<br /><br />1) It is a 50-day, 24-hour, 7 day-a-week vigil, begun on Monday, January 1st, and concluding on Monday, February 19th. I think it obvious that the 50 days symbolize the 50 bullets fired at Sean Bell and his friends.<br /><br />The vigil is taking place directly across from the 103rd precinct, on 168th Street, right off Jamaica Avenue and 91st Avenue, in the Jamaica, Queens section of New York City. You can use MAPQUEST or GOOGLE to get directions either via public transportation or by driving.<br /><br />There is a need for people of all backgrounds and all persuasions to participate in the vigil in shifts, day and night, weekday and weekend. Even if you can only participate for an hour or two each week, please come out. The weather has been unseasonably warm, but we are in the dead of winter, and it is going to be mad cold out there. <br /><br /><strong><em>Please let's not let Mrs. Bell, Sean Bell's mother, who called for this vigil, and the Bell family, do this alone.</em></strong><br /><br />PLEASE CALL 1-866-695-2992 if you would like to participate in the vigil, or offer support.<br /><br />I am hoping that CHURCHES and CHURCH LEADERS and OTHER RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL LEADERS will encourage their believers to support this important effort. This vigil is not about showboating, it is not about media attention, it is about justice. The Bell family, from what I could see and hear, are regular working class New Yorkers who have a deep faith in God, who believe in the power of the church.<br /><br />INDEED, as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King at this time of year, I think it would be remarkably hypocritical for any church, any mosque or masjid, any synagogue, or any religious or spiritual leader to, on the one hand, talk about Dr. King, honor Dr. King, yet say and do nothing in support of this very peaceful and very simple vigil for Sean Bell. Dr. King was a man of action, not just talk, and those of us in leadership positions, who have sizable followings, need to be as well. For police brutality toward Black and Latino communities is one of the great issues of our time. In fact, if we were to read Dr. King's I HAVE A DREAM speech in its entirety, we would note that Dr. King uses the term police brutality TWICE in that famous address. The more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same.<br /><br />I am hoping that ELECTED OFFICIALS will themselves participate in this vigil, electeds from Queens, and electeds from all across the metro New York City area. The people you represent need to see that you care. They need to see you on the frontlines with the Bell family.<br /><br />I am hoping that CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS, SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS, LABOR UNIONS, FRATERNITIES and SORORITIES, ACTIVISTS, and ORGANIZERS will support this effort, mobilize their bases to come out, and spread the word, near and far, to their networks.<br /><br />I am hoping that COLLEGE STUDENTS will participate, and encourage their peers to support this important effort. Any time real change has happened in America, or on this planet, young people have been at the forefront. Well, you all are needed now more than ever.<br /><br />I am hoping that HIPHOP HEADS everywhere, the famous and the unknown, will support this important effort. Time and again the hiphop generation, the hiphop community, has been knocked and mocked for not caring about social issues. Well, here is our opportunity to make a difference in an historic way.<br /><br />I am hoping that PROFESSIONALS and PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS will support this important effort. Your skill sets and access to resources are sorely needed to sustain this vigil.<br /><br />I am hoping that MEN, especially BLACK AND LATINO MEN, will support this effort. I duly noted the number of women present last night. Women, as usual, are holding it down, but we need men to step to the plate as well. As I said to young Black and Latino men driving by last night, Sean Bell is YOU. Sean Bell could have been YOU. Men are especially needed for the late night to morning shifts, around 11pm-6am.<br /><br />2) If you cannot physically participate in the 50-day vigil, here are items needed to support the Sean Bell Vigil through to its completion<br /><br />- The donation of at least two Portable Toilets for the duration of the vigil<br />- Food, lots of food<br />- Drinks (bottled water, juices)<br />- Paper towels<br />- Toilet paper<br />- Comfortable folding chairs for the elders who are participating<br />- Portable, battery operated heaters<br />- Portable, battery operated outdoor lights<br />- Batteries for heaters and outdoor lights<br />- Tents or tarp covering in case of bad weather<br />- Blankets<br />- Thousands of copies of the one page flier promoting the vigil<br />- Individuals willing to pass out the vigil flier around New York City<br /><br />And we need New Yorkers to write letters to your City Council person, your State Assembly person, your State Senator, your District Leader, your Community Board President, and your Congressperson, inquiring what each of them is doing to fight for procedure and behavior reform within the New York Police Department, via the legislative process.<br /><br />Thank you very kindly for taking the time to read this email, and please, again, share it with others.<br /><br />Respectfully,<br /><br /><em><strong>Kevin Powell</strong></em><br /><br />------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><strong>P.S. -<br /><br />I tried to put together some transportation information from the internet. I hope it is helpful, but I'm sure there are many folks who have better info out there.<br /><br /><em>Chris</strong></em><br /><br />For those driving, the Van Wyck Expressway's Jamaica Avenue exit is close by. The location is not far from York College.<br /><br /><br />Closest Subway Stop to: 103RD PRECINCT - Queens <br />------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Get off at the F Train stop -- 169TH ST STATION <br />Walk 0.37 miles South to destination map<br /><br /><br />Closest Bus Routes to: 103RD PRECINCT - Queens <br />------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />168TH ST & JAMAICA AV <br />Q110 Bus Q110 JAMAICA <br />Q41 Bus Q41 JAMAICA BUS TERM <br />Q6 Bus Q6 JAMAICA <br />Q8 Bus Q8 JAMAICA <br />Q9 Bus Q9 JAMAICA <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & 168TH ST <br />Q110 Bus Q110 JAMAICA AVE : 212TH <br />Q110 Bus Q110 QUEENS VILLAGE <br />Q9A Bus Q9A JAMAICA <br /><br />168 ST & JAMAICA AV <br />Q17 Bus Q17 - FLUSHING MAIN ST STA <br />Q17 Bus Q17 - LTD FLUSHING MAIN ST STA <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & 168 ST <br />Q30 Bus Q30 - LITTLE NECK L NECK PKY <br />Q30 Bus Q30 - SPRINGFIELD BL H HARDING EXY <br />Q31 Bus Q31 - BAYSIDE 27 AV F LEWIS BL <br />Q54 Bus Q54 - JAMAICA 170 ST <br />Q56 Bus Q56 - JAMAICA 170 ST <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & 168 PL <br />Q54 Bus Q54 - FRSH PND RD <br />Q54 Bus Q54 - WILLAMSBURG BRIDGE PLZ <br />Q56 Bus Q56 - BWAY JCT VN SNDRN AV <br /><br />MERRICK BL & 90 AV <br />Q17 Bus Q17 - JAMAICA ARCHER AV <br />Q17 Bus Q17 - LTD JAMAICA ARCHER AV <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & MERRICK BL <br />Q30 Bus Q30 - JAMAICA ARCHER AV MERRICK BL <br />Q30 Bus Q30 - JAMAICA LIRR STA SUTPHIN BL <br />Q31 Bus Q31 - JAMAICA LIRR STA SUTPHIN BL <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & 165TH ST <br />Q24 Bus Q24 - BUSHWICK VN BUREN ST <br />Q24 Bus Q24 - BWAY JCT VN SNDRN AV via ATLANTIC via BWAY <br /><br />JAMAICA AV & 165 ST <br />Q24 Bus Q24 - BSHWK VAN BUREN ST via ATLNTC via BWAY <br />Q24 Bus Q24 - BWAY JCT VN SNDRN AV via ATLANTIC <br /><br />MERRICK BLVD & 89TH AVE <br />X32 Bus X32 - BRONX GOULDEN AV <br /><br />HILLSIDE AV & 168 ST <br />Q43 Bus Q43 - FLORAL PARK 268 ST via HILLSIDE <br />Q43 Bus Q43 - LTD FLORAL PARK 268 ST via HILLSIDE <br />Q43 Bus Q43 - SPRINGFIELD BL <br /><br />ARCHER AV & MERRICK BL <br />Q20 Bus Q20A - JAMAICA MERRICK BL via 20 AV via MAIN S <br />Q20 Bus Q20B - JAMAICA MERRICK BL via 14 AV via MAIN ST <br />Q44 Bus Q44 - JAMAICA MERRICK BL via MAIN ST <br />Q44 Bus Q44 - LTD JAMAICA MERRICK BL via MAIN ST <br />Q5 Bus Q5 - 233 ST VIA MERRICK <br />Q5 Bus Q5 - GREEN ACRES via MERRICK <br />Q5 Bus Q5 - ROSEDALE LIRR STA via MERRICK <br />Q9A Bus Q9A SOUTH JAMAICA <br /><br />MERRICK BL & ARCHER AV <br />Q20 Bus Q20A - COLLEGE PT via MAIN ST via 20 AV <br />Q20 Bus Q20A - FLUSHING MAIN ST STA <br />Q20 Bus Q20B - COLLEGE PT via MAIN ST via 14 AV <br />Q44 Bus Q44 - BRONX ZOO W FARMS SQ via MAIN ST <br />Q44 Bus Q44 - FLUSHING MAIN ST STA <br />Q44 Bus Q44 - LTD BRONX ZOO W FARMS SQ via MAIN ST <br /><br />JAMAICA AVE & 164TH ST <br />Q41 Bus Q41 HOWARD BEACH <br />Q6 Bus Q6 JFK NORTH CARGO <br />Q8 Bus Q8 EAST NEW YORK <br />Q9 Bus Q9 SOUTH JAMAICA <br /><br />HILLSIDE AV & 168 PL <br />Q1 Bus Q01 - BELLROSE 243 ST <br />Q1 Bus Q01 - QUEENS VILL JAMAICA AV <br />Q36 Bus Q36 - FLORAL PK 257 ST via JAMAICAChris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-64409401117047638872007-01-01T22:57:00.000-05:002007-01-10T10:36:14.231-05:00OBAMA SHOULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT (Post #7)<em><strong>A few closing thoughts on 2006 ...<br /><br /></strong></em>- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Thank you</span> to all who gave or offered assistance to my Congressional campaign. I will never forget your support.<br /><br />- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">We all owe James Brown our gratitude</span> for his contributions to popular culture -- and for defining a truly Black sound in the rock 'n' roll era. Brown was a tortured hero in many ways, but a hero nonetheless.<br /><br />- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Farewell to former President Gerald Ford</span> -- a reasonable man who believed in public service and humility. I had my issues with his political choices, including his attacks against Harlem's Congressional Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., in the 1960s. But perspectives on some things evolve with time and my opinion of President Ford's most significant act has changed. After the demise of apartheid in South Africa -- and in the aftermath of that nation's amazing handling of "truth and reconciliation" -- I have a new appreciation of and respect for Ford's decision to pardon Richard Nixon and allow history to deliver a sentence of condemnation no court of law could improve upon.<br /><br />- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">And then there is Saddam Hussein. </span>Bluntly put, he probably got better than he deserved. His nation did not deserve him, nor did Iraq deserve us. In the aftermath of Hussein's execution, I can't help but remember, however, God's admonishment of the Israelites for their celebration after the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. According to the Passover Haggadah we have used, the Lord acknowledges the Eqyptians as divine handiwork as much as the Israelites were. The Israelites may have been rescued and liberated, but the Lord did not approve of their celebrating the high cost of the victory. As we muddle through international affairs, Americans need to consider that Old Testament concept.<br /><br />- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">I salute the lost lives of 3,000 servicemen and women in Iraq as well as those who have died in Afghanistan. </span>I respect them, appreciate them and mourn their loss. Courage and commitment to things greater than ourselves is always praiseworthy. The violence in Iraq will not end soon. I just hope our nation does not continue to make things worse. <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">We need to get out now!</span><br /><br />- <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">I salute the life of a young woman I never knew </span>-- Liz Warke Brem. Liz was a fellow graduate of the Bronx High School of Science (more than a decade later), a graduate of Barnard and Yale Law School, and one of the only Hispanic partners at California's largest law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. I received an email that this rising star, devoted mother and community servant recently died while rock climbing. She and her cousin were doing something they loved to do. One slipped, the other attempted to assist; both fell and died. Liz, only 35 years old, accomplished much in her life and was loved by many. Like those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, this was a tragedy for all.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">We don't know what tomorrow may bring, so let's try to enjoy our lives and celebrate the good things while we can!</span><br /><br /><strong><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">May 2007 Be Heavenly For Everyone !!!<br /><br /></span></strong>My hopes for the new year are simple: peace on earth and good will towards all. Nothing more. Yeah, built into those two concepts are all of the world's problems and all its history. No one ever accused me of being pessimistic.<br /><br />So here is one New Year's wish.<br /><br /><strong><em>I hope Barack Obama runs for President.<br /><br /></em></strong>Yes, I am going on the record with this one -- despite being a New Yorker, a politico, a media wannabe and a very wary admirer of Senator Hillary Clinton's. I have a few strong criticisms of our junior Senator -- particularly regarding her handling of the Iraq disaster -- but I am unlikely to withhold my vote to make her my President <em>if</em> she becomes the Democratic nominee. She has earned serious consideration in her own right.<br /><br />Whether or not or not she <em>should</em> be the nominee, however, is determined by a process greatly improved by higher-quality opposition during the primary election season -- and before. And who better to challenge the queen of "common ground" pleas than the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who has himself declared that "no one is exempt from the call to find common ground." Obama provides quality opposition and should be subjected to the same testing as Clinton. After all, the flawed Democratic winner will have to beat some tough -- if flawed -- Republicans, so the practice rounds should start now.<br /><br />Obama has nothing to lose by running -- not even his Senate seat. He <em>could</em> win the nomination for President or Vice President, <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">or even win the Presidency </span>-- fortune can favor the bold. Senator Obama is as smart and charismatic as JFK, he's from a state that is not in the northeast, he's tall, and he has his own crosses to bear, so to speak. JFK had religion; his Catholicism was a burning issue for some. Obama has race -- and he knows that race is an issue with both whites and Blacks. And he also has his name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- something various bigoted Americans have chosen to focus on.<br /><br />The Democratic Party's most loyal supporters are African Americans; everyone knows this. It is about time that not one but <em>two</em> candidates with great appeal to these voters -- Obama and Clinton -- seek the highest office in the land. Vice President Al Gore's 2000 candidacy for President was <em>not</em> weakened by the challenge of former Senator Bill Bradley's campaign. Neither Gore nor Bradley, however, had the appeal to Black voters by the end of their respective efforts that both Obama and Clinton already have before theirs even start. The other Democratic candidates, including former Senator John Edwards, have a long way to go.<br /><br /><div>Obama's campaign would be special to so many Americans. As Minnesota Congressman-elect Keith Ellison has broken new ground for "Islamic Americans" seeking higher office, even if unsuccessful, Barack Obama will be the pioneer for future African American, Latino and other immigrant candidates for our nation's top offices -- and particularly for moderate progressives. Obama is the natural next level from the Jackson-Sharpton Presidential campaign efforts. (And for those of us of multiple racial heritages, he is already a shining star.)<br /><br /></div>There will be no Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket. We all know that. It's too "liberal" a combination for most of America at this point in time. But Mark Warner, Evan Bayh and others understand that they could end up as valuable VP choices to either of the Big 2 -- or even to <em>neither </em>of the Big 2 (Democratic Senators have been less successful than Democratic Governors at winning the Presidency -- as Bill Richardson and Tom Vilsack would like us to remember). The election is just under two years away, and history tells us that early stardom does <em>not</em> guarantee the nomination to anyone. Money certainly helps, however, and each of the Big 2 have it and can raise it. So let's test how they spend it.<br /><br />The huge challenge for the two Senators is to be more than simply civil to each other -- they have to be really nice to each other. Each cannot afford to alienate the primary constituencies of the other. Each should simply make the best case for their leadership. Vision and experience matter in this race, so let Americans really get that sense of who each candidate is. There will be many conflicted Democrats who should make their decisions based upon every possible issue except for negative campaigning. (For in the end, an effective negative war between the Big 2 will certainly prevent the winner from getting the biggest prize of them all.)<br /><br />Personally speaking, I can't wait for a one-on-one debate between Clinton and Obama. That will be a treat for political junkies and the general public alike. A Clinton-Obama-Edwards debate will be equally compelling.<br /><br />Neither Clinton nor Obama will prove perfect, however. Each has baggage (significant or otherwise). More importantly, the current corporate culture in Washington is an issue for Obama and Clinton alike. Clinton has been roundly criticized for her past affiliations with Wal-Mart and the contributions she has accepted from health care's corporate interests. And the campaign finance and political allegiance issue is a problem for <em>every</em> Washington inside player who seeks higher office.<br /><br />In the November 2006 issue of <em>Harper's Magazine,</em> Washington editor Ken Silverstein raised red flags regarding Obama's political maneuverings -- particularly with regard to the perceived influence of big money on his voting behavior ("Barack Obama Inc.: The birth of a Washington machine.") There is great irony here, given the strong relationship between Obama and <em>Citizen Action</em> with its clean elections campaign, for example.<br /><br />"Gone are the days when, as in the 1970s, the U.S. Senate could comfortably house such men as Fred Harris ... who called for the breakup of theoil, steel, and auto industries; as Wisconsin's William Proxmire ... a crusader against big banks who neither spent nor raised campaign money; as South Dakota's George McGoern, who favored huge cuts in defense spending and guaranteed income for all Americans ... Today, money has all but wrung such dissent from the Senate."<br /><br />Silverstein quotes a long-time political Democratic strategist, Carl Wagner. "Today, [senators] are creatures of the people who pay for their multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns. Representative democracy has been largely been taken off the table. It's reminiscent of the 1880s and 1890s, when senators were chosen by state legislatures who were owned by the railroads and the banks."<br /><br /><em>After disgust over Iraq, disgust with Washington is bubbling and ready to burst.<br /><br /></em><em></em>In the "Politics" chapter of his best-selling book, <em>The Audacity of Hope,</em> Senator Obama dwells on the insidious manner in which the need for money in politics has possibly altered his behavior -- if not his positions. Obama then offers a response of sorts with the following (Page 128): "From what I've observed, there are countless politicians who have crossed these hurdles and kept their integrity intact, men and women who raise campaign contributions without being corrupted, garner support without being held captive by special interests, and manage the media without losing their sense of self."<br /><br />This dilemma is not unique to Obama, as noted, but such matters can easily tarnish one who is viewed as potentially different -- a role model for the new approach to politics.<br /><br />We know that Senator John McCain and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani have plenty of baggage as well. And so the 2008 November election will be a bloodbath. All the more reason why the Democratic nominee should be the psychologically and spiritually equipped survivor of worthy opposition.<br /><br /><em><strong>So, Barack (we like to use first names, you know), what do you do now?</strong></em> Some advice from the peanut gallery:<br /><br />1. Don't miss your Senate votes while you are campaigning -- at least not during 2007. Take every opportunity you can to speak on the floor in a <em>less scripted</em> manner. Highlight for the unconvinced the blend of passion and oratorical elegance that has brought you thus far on your way -- and add a strong dash of spontaneity. Force yourself to stay fresh on the issues and keep people talking 'bout you -- for free.<br /><br />2. Be "the progressive" and consolidate "the left" and it's grass roots voter appeal. Your position on Iraq has yet to crystallize or resonate with anyone -- let alone the Democratic progressives (after all, you supported Lieberman over Lamont!) You cannot simply <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">compete</span> for Clinton's voters, you need to win <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">all</span> of the Clinton doubters and, more importantly, the disaffected progressives who may look to former VP candidate and "new populist" John Edwards or to perennial working class progressive champion Dennis Kucinich. It was leftist icon Alexander Cockburn who blasted you in <em>The Nation (4/24/2006)</em> for endorsing the re-election bid of Senator Joe Lieberman (CT), declaring: "What a slimy fellow Obama is, as befits a man symbolizing everything that will continue to be wrong with the Democratic Party for the next twenty years." Why be outflanked on the left? You are a progressive; it is in your blood. Don't run away from it. Bridge the unnecessary gap between leftist whites and the heart of the African American community. You can do it like no one else.<br /><br />You also do not need Rev. Sharpton to replicate his 2004 candidacy and muddle African American focus. Don't give Sharpton any opening on key issues such as Iraq, the legacy of Condoleeza Rice, police brutality, support for public education, and the Democratic Party's commitment to urban youth. In addition, African American critics of your voting history have rated you (along with many Congressional Black Caucus colleagues) as far less progressive than might be considered appropriate by the Black community -- or others. In <em>The Audacity of Hope, </em>you yourself identify the challenge of being either too angry or not angry enough when dealing with racial issues and with American whites who have "exhausted" their reservoir of guilt. When these tough conversations take place, are you an American citizen who happens to be black? Or will you blend your attractiveness to white voters with your potential status as political royalty within the Black community?<br /><br />3. Make sure your Senate Committee work provides you with as much foreign policy and intelligence exposure as possible -- and immediately bring onto your brain trust the best experts in these areas that you can. The Presidential media will test you on every question -- as will academics. The need to be prepared is an understatement.<br /><br />4. Personally call every African American leader you can -- everywhere -- and ask for their support <em>now.</em> Define "leader" broadly. Start with New York, North Carolina and Louisiana, then do every primary state. Start the volunteer organizing now; you've been there before, so you know what to do. If you don't have at least 40% of those you reach on board with you by July 1, you will have a problem.<br /><br />5. We all know a stump speech is an essential part of every campaign. Please abandon certain stories and humor lines, however, that have been overused to date either through speeches or in your writings. You can't be the fresh, new and inspirational candidate if we know by heart all the lines about your name, your King "arc of justice" references, etc. You've got to be different in many, many ways.<br /><br />6. You have already mastered almost everything else ... times ten thousand.<br /><br />7. Remember that Clinton & Edwards et al are doing the same things. But you are the celebrity of the moment.<br /><br />---------------------------<br /><br />Well, there's my first salvo on the 2008 Presidential election.<br /><br />I wish you, dear readers, all the best in the new year. I wish all the new elected officials the strength and integrity they need to move America forward. Good luck to New York's new Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.<br /><br /><em><strong>Happy New Year!</strong></em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-18391753518033780842006-12-21T10:01:00.000-05:002006-12-23T01:55:46.460-05:00PREDICTIONS, PREDICTIONS (Post #6)<strong>December 23, 2006<br /></strong><br />As we entered 2006, there were a number of issues on my mind -- as I'm sure there were for everyone -- and I was attempting to get a sense of what the future would bring. So there were some predictions running around my head. Some of these were publicly proclaimed, others were private. Here's a limited review.<br /><br />First, and most personally, I predicted I would win the Democratic Primary in Brooklyn's 11th Congressional District. I was wrong. I predicted that David Yassky would <em>not</em> win that election. I was correct. (Maybe one day I'll share my thoughts on this contest in detail; at the moment, however, there's still a burning sensation ...) I do wish Yvette Clarke the best as she starts her Congressional career.<br /><br />I predicted that the Congressional Black Caucus in the 110th Congress would have no more members than it had in the 109th Congress. I was correct. Brooklyn's 11th District did remain a CBC district. In Tennessee, however, a "progressive" white candidate split the vote amongst many Black candidates in the House district formerly represented by African American Harold Ford, Jr. Fortunately, in Minnesota of all places, an African American candidate was victorious in the battle for a seat formerly represented by a Republican. And, to make life even more interesting, Keith Ellison, the winner, is the first member of Congress (either house) to practice Islam. Needless to say, Ellison has received alot of attention recently -- particularly from bigots.<br /><br />On the Senate side of the CBC, there was hope that Illinois Senator Barack Obama would be joined by as many as two new African American colleagues. Kweisi Mfume (Democrat) and Michael Steele (Republican), both African Americans, each lost to Rep. Ben Cardin in Maryland. It was notable that Steele was thoroughly rejected by Black voters in that state during the General Election. And, again in Tennessee, Harold Ford, Jr., easily won his Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate, but lost a squeaker of a general election. To Ford's credit, his moderate to conservative policy approach and personal charisma enabled him to overcome some of the racism involved with a statewide electoral contest in a Southern state. (Progressives in the House of Representatives were happy to see Ford depart from Washington, however.)<br /><br />So there are still 43 members of the CBC -- only one of whom is a U.S. Senator. I focus on this because the 42 CBC House members make up less than 10% of the 435 Representatives ... and African Americans constitute more than 10% of the U.S. population. And, of course, African Americans only represent 1% of the U.S. Senate membership. This inequity and disempowerment can only be countered through sensible and serious campaign finance reform for federal elections -- and less racism in our media and our daily lives.<br /><br />I predicted that the situation in Iraq would worsen dramatically. Unfortunately, I was right. As we experience this holiday season and approach a new year, the loss of life on all sides saddens and depresses me. Deserving of our prayers and praise are our brave and dedicated Americans putting their lives on the line in both Iraq and Afghanistan -- as well as throughout the rest of the world. And the catastrophe currently experienced by Iraqis also deserves our attention and creativity as we pursue peaceful options.<br /><br />I predicted that Iraq would undermine the Republican Party's ability to act politically. Fortunately, I was correct. I predicted that that Democrats would retake control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Fortunately, voters were very cooperative in fulfilling this one -- however slim the Senate majority for Democrats may be. (I had no idea that stem cell research would become as much of a political flashpoint as it did during this election cycle. But I'm glad it did because the Missouri Senate race may have turned on it.)<br /><br />I predicted that the demographic changes within Iran would have more of an effect on Iranian political posturing than anything the U.S. can do and that the U.S. would have to deal with Iran in a more direct manner. This has been proven true despite the fact that the Iranian President is a demagogic, anti-Semitic whacko. The U.S. and Europe cannot stop Iran from generating "peaceful" nuclear capabilities. An extreme hardline, however, means that the U.S. and Europe can actually <em>increase</em> the likelihood that Iran will expand to military capabilities.<br /><br />I made no predictions regarding North Korea, though I was not surprised by the report of a nuclear test, and I did not know what to expect in the Darfur region. I had no special insights regarding police brutality; I always expect a problem with the NYPD and they never fail to meet my expectations. Most of you read my thoughts on the Sean Bell case in my last post so I won't rehash it all here.<br /><br />In September, 2005, I predicted that New Orleans would never again by the center of the Louisiana Democratic Party as African Americans were displaced and unlikely to return in large numbers. Nothing happened in 2006 to convince me otherwise, unfortunately. I expected William Jefferson to retain his seat in Congress, unless he was indicted. He wasn't and he retained his seat. I expected Mayor Ray Nagin to win re-election in New Orleans -- though I am still unsure of how I really feel about him. Speaking of Mayors ...<br /><br />I predicted that the less rosy truth regarding the Bloomberg educational experimentation would start to reveal itself -- and it has. Outrageously low high school graduation rates across the board -- and particularly for African American children -- are highlighting weaknesses in the grand plan. It is incumbent upon the activist community to ensure that Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer fights to ensure equitable distribution of education funds AND, since education is an area governed by state law, that there is aggressive oversight of the Bloomberg administration and Chancellor Klein.<br /><br />Most unfortunate was my prediction that the disastrous Alantic Yards project here in Brooklyn would receive required government sign-offs. I won't predict the outcome of the legal cases that are pending in this matter, but I am confident that the plaintiffs will make a first-rate effort. Below are lyrics roasting New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, sung to "Silver Bells" and provided by brilliant and committed activists. Mr. Silver had the power to slow down approval for Atlantic Yards this past week and chose not to exercise it. Silver had allegedly expressed concern regarding the impact of this project on New York State's finances. It is rumoured that his concerns were addressed. Too bad the public still has no clue regarding the real finances or financing of this project. In New York State, this is what democracy looks like ...<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000000;">Skeptic Sheldon, spoiler Sheldon / feigned concern for awhile.<br />We all thought that he'd cover our assets</span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:85%;">.<br />Bucks are passing ... traffic's massing ... / backed up mile after mile.<br />And from every blog pundit you'll hear...<br /><br />Silver bails! Silver bails! It's rip-off time in the city!<br />Ching-ka-ching! Feel it sting! Revenue floating away.<br /><br />Pretty pages ... reams of pages / sent by KPMG<br />filled with data -- but no information.<br />No numbers crunched ... just a big bunch / of stuff Bruce gets for free.<br />And above this boondoggle you will hear...<br /><br />Silver bails! Silver bails! It's rip-off time in the city!<br />Ching-ka-ching! Feel it sting! Oversight is so passe!<br />Revenue floating away.<br />Oversight is so passe!<br />Revenue floating ... a-way.</span><br /></span><br /><em><strong>On behalf of my entire family, I hope that those of you who celebrate Hannukah enjoyed a good one, and that those of you who celebrate Christmas or Kwanzaa have a wonderful and safe holiday as well!</strong></em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-4123075595634362582006-12-17T00:14:00.000-05:002006-12-21T14:47:36.975-05:00WHERE WERE THEY? (Post #5)<strong>December 18, 2006<br /></strong><br />Like you, I was supposed to be shopping. (I'm a man; you don't really think I finished my holiday shopping, do you?) So shopping could not help but creep into my brain as I moved up 5th Avenue in Manhattan this past Saturday towards 59th Street.<br /><br />I could not also help but notice that 99.99% of the people to be found on 5th Avenue were white. Yes, there were plenty of tourists, but 5th Avenue -- home of so many high-priced stores -- was seemingly patronized by and only catering to white people. New York is definitely a segregated city in so many ways.<br /><br />Which brings me to my point. <strong><em>Where were the white people at the "Shopping for Justice" march this past Saturday?</em></strong> The march was dedicated to the memory of police shooting victim Sean Bell and the desire to ensure that there is justice in the case and better work by the New York City Police Department going forward. Where were the white people? Where was the great progressive coalition?<br /><br />Maybe the white people were at the back of the line engaging in a symbolic act? I don't think so. I watched a very long line of folks march into Herald Square -- many times more than the 10,000 people expected to participate. To be fair, there <em>were</em> white people marching -- particularly elected officials, union members and people who genuinely care about the issues of police brutality and related injustices. And I'm not picking on the folks organizing for upcoming anti-war demonstrations elsewhere -- though they should have made time, too. In the end, however, there were no large contingents of whites -- not even as many as were arrested protesting the murder of Amadou Diallou in 1999. There was something missing from the rainbow. In fact, the percentage of people participating in this march who were African American paralleled the percentage of people shopping along 5th Avenue who happened to be white. Not good.<br /><br />Back in 1999, I remember feeling such disbelief, disgust and anger as I crowded into One Police Plaza with hundreds of other people counting the 41 shots fired at Amadou Diallou. <em>How could such an outrage take place?</em> During the protest and subsequent post-arrest detention at Harlem's 28th Precinct, there was a solidarity amongst Black, brown and white faces. Yet here we were again a few years later -- now counting off 50 shots that killed a man and critically wounded two others -- all young, unarmed and Black! (The Bell family and Rev. Sharpton had requested that marchers proceed silently without signs, but those wishes were honored on an inconsistent basis.)<br /><br />And yet this shooting was not motivating our white brothers and sisters in the same way it was motivating us. Do they believe that Mayor Bloomberg is doing a great job on this issue? Do they believe that he can solve this problem without pressure? Do they think that activism is not needed if Giuliani is not Gracie Mansion's occupant?<br /><br /><em>Many white people, led by a media in denial, want to treat racially sensitive issues as if the sensitivity itself is an illness or even evidence of irresponsible behavior.</em> This is evident in the responses of New York City's -- and America's -- powerful classes to the challenges presented by gun violence, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the American AIDS epidemic, the affordable housing crisis, the lack of quality health care and education for all, the manner in which law enforcement handles its work, the recruitment of young people by representatives of our armed forces, and the people who receive financial and editorial support for political offices. (So, is someone willing to start by questioning why guns are the reaction of first resort for officers and detectives?) To take on injustices, however, you have to conquer many fears. And you have to embrace that which true justice requires in America today.<br /><br />In the 2005 book, <em>Inequality and American Democracy,</em> there is a chapter entitled "Inequality and Public Policy." The academic writers state that "Economic and racial segregation exacerbate eachother in predominantly black neighborhoods, perpetuating numerous and intertwined forms of disadvantage ... Neighborhood effects also appear to harm individuals' life opportunities..." The authors specify a long list of disadvantages and harmful effects, but since they don't identify the psychological effects of economic and racial segregation on police officers -- and other folks involved with service delivery -- let's just say it right here. You have to respect a community before you police it, and it is hard to learn respect when you're taught to fear a community. This applies to everyone -- the police and those who support and rely on the police as well.<br /><br />Read my lips. <em>If you want people to believe that you care, then show you care!</em> There is a perception within the Black community that, overall, white people don't care about them -- they can afford not to. If this perception is going to change, then the reality of white people <em>not</em> taking actions to address the oppressive realities faced by Black people must also change. The group with the power must act -- in the legislative halls, in the Board rooms and in the streets. Blacks and others are not the groups with power at this time. White people must take on public policy challenges from the Iraq War resource drainage to media consolidation that excludes Black voices -- to police officers so embedded within the oppression of communites that the officers of the law have lost their own humanity.<br /><br />I'm a pretty reasonable Negro most of the time. Rev. Sharpton and City Councilmember Charles Barron would not consider me in their rhetoric league. There are many like me. We are "reasonable" because we don't talk as loud as the young man who exploded with profanity ("F--k the PO-lice!") during the march. He claimed to be in the club when his friend Sean Bell was murdered that morning and he had had enough. We are "reasonable" because we are willing to invest energy in policy development and we have some faith in the slow, incremental progress of our social and political systems.<br /><br />Don't get too comfortable, however. I saw a major Wall Street player quietly marching -- a Black Wall Street player. He had had enough. And there were many others. There is a deep river of anger wrapped in frustration amongst the "reasonable" people. This Sean Bell killing has hit a very tender nerve -- as it should for everyone. One woman with a video camera recalled her participation in the Diallou protests. She then expressed her concern that if there is a "next time," New York City will be rocked by serious social explosion. She could not see how the situation would not result in violence. Let's not get there.<br /><em></em><br />Mayor Bloomberg has announced many grand plans for the future of New York City. We have yet to see, however, the master plan for reducing the grand inequality that truly characterizes this grand City. In fact, what we <em>have</em> seen are steps that will exacerbate the inequities. Where is the white outrage? Where is the white understanding of the long-term sacrifices needed to make positive changes?<br /><br />As long as we see poor neighborhoods -- neighborhoods populated primarily by Blacks and Latinos -- as "inferior" and "dangerous" rather than as communities, the police shootings will continue. This is another ugly intersection of race and class. As long as we are consumed by the need to reduce our own taxation and not the need to increase everyone's well-being, the police shootings will continue. And the anger wrapped in frustration and garnished with civility will grow.Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-88908845529309869392006-12-16T21:07:00.000-05:002006-12-20T23:19:23.105-05:00INTRODUCTION TO MY BLOG (Post #1)<strong>November 26, 2006</strong><br /><br />Welcome, friend, to "Power From Truth" -- my personal and political blog. This is my opportunity to experiment with free thought and free speech. I am not an experienced blogger, so forgive me if I breach protocol from time to time. And what I present here will often be controversial. What moves me to speak is the need for honesty in our discussion of issues -- particularly issues of race and class and their joint impact upon the American political environment.<br /><br /><strong>We cannot grow as a nation -- we cannot truly protect ourselves as Americans -- unless we do the hard work and make the sacrifices needed to build a more democratic and more egalitarian society. That is why I participate in the political process; that is why I have embarked on this journey.</strong><br /><br />Regretfully, while I encourage you to share your thoughts with me, I am less likely to respond in kind. At this point in my life my time is limited. As some of you may know, I was an "aggressive progressive" candidate for membership in the U.S. House of Representatives from Central Brooklyn during 2005 and 2006. Though unsuccessful, the campaign was a wonderful experience ... and one that drained my family and me of many resources -- particularly time together as a family. I have no regrets about becoming a candidate, but I also have a great debt that I owe my wife and kids.<br /><br />So this blog becomes a new platform for me and I hope to use it well. Some of my writings will also appear in local print publications, but most of what's here will only be seen here.<br /><br />It is my hope that a project dear to my heart will soon visit your television screen. Since 1996, I have been involved with the Black Education Network, Inc., in an effort to generate and distribute quality, positive programming for communities of African descent -- as well as general audiences. The new public affairs show, <strong>"Inside The Congressional Black Caucus"</strong> (ICBC) first aired on the <em><strong>Black Family Channel</strong></em> and the <em><strong>CoLoursTV Network</strong></em> at the end of 2005. ICBC focuses on the work and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. This is of particular importance now that Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives and a number of CBC members are poised to yield power -- including several Committee chairmanships.<br /><br />And, of course, if U.S. Senator Barack Obama decides to seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, the CBC will have earned an even higher profile.<br /><br />After a hiatus brought on by my campaign, the program is scheduled to return this coming February on the same two networks and possibly additional ones. ICBC will also be distributed via additional platforms. Business arrangements are still being finalized, so the next two months will be critical to the program's ultimate success. The ICBC website is not yet available for viewing. I will keep you posted as things develop.<br /><br /><em>I look forward to our new relationship.</em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-54346592590010419532006-12-15T00:25:00.000-05:002008-12-09T03:57:24.760-05:00HAIL TO THE QUEEN (Post #4)<strong>December 11, 2006<br /></strong><br />The Congressional Black Caucus has unanimously elected 10-year incumbent <strong>Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick</strong> from Michigan as its new Chair for the 110th Congress. Kilpatrick, 61, is the fifth woman to lead the CBC in its 37-year existence. She succeeds Congressman Mel Watt of North Carolina as leader of this active group of 42 U.S. Representatives plus one U.S. Senator.<br /><br />Rep. Kilpatrick, a lifelong Michigan resident, represents the 13th Congressional District in that state,<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5JDS8rQtj_U/RYTtthvxIuI/AAAAAAAAAAk/hIIsb4syFhQ/s1600-h/Kilpatrick_Carolyn.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5009390051951452898" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="261" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5JDS8rQtj_U/RYTtthvxIuI/AAAAAAAAAAk/hIIsb4syFhQ/s320/Kilpatrick_Carolyn.bmp" width="209" border="0" /></a> which includes Detroit and parts of the surrounding suburbs. Kilpatrick was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, unseating an incumbent Black female Democrat -- Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins. Kilpatrick is currently a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.<br /><br />Within the CBC, Rep. Kilpatrick has been a rising star. Congresswoman Kilpatrick was the first African-American Member of Congress appointed to the United States Air Force Academy Board, which oversees the programs of the U.S. Air Force Academy. She was selected to serve as the first Chairwoman of the CBC's Political Action Committee. Most recently, Kilpatrick was 2nd Vice-Chairperson of the <a title="Congressional Black Caucus" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.house.gov/htbin/leave_site?ln_url=http://www.congressionalblackcaucus.net/&ln_desc=Congressional+Black+Caucus" target="_blank">CBC</a> during the 109th Congress, and she served as Co-Chair of the CBC Foundation's 36th Annual Legislative Conference.<br /><br />Rep. Kilpatrick could not ask for a better time to become Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. With Democrats holding a majority in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years, African Americans could be heading as many as four Committees and 20 subcommittees. Even the <em>New York Times</em> is paying more attention to the CBC's ascent to new political heights.<br /><br />On the other hand, at a time when disparities between communities of African descent and white communities are evident in almost every aspect of American life, Chairwoman Kilpatrick will be under pressure to increase the CBC's ability to pressure the new Democratic leadership of both Houses of Congress -- and to deliver for communities across the nation. And the CBC's work during these two years will be performed with the 2008 Presidential election as a key factor in decisionmaking by all Democrats. If U.S. Senator Barack Obama (IL) becomes a Presidential candidate, the CBC will be under even more scrutiny.<br /><br />The CBC has consistently submitted its alternate budget reflecting different priorities from the House as a whole. Long-time incumbents such as Rep. John Conyers (MI), Rep. Ed Towns (NY), and Rep. Donna Christiansen (Delegate - Virgin Islands) have held high-profile hearings an gatherings on key issues in the Black communities, including health care disparities and police brutality. As the Sean Bell police shooting in New York City sadly illustrates, such energetic leadership is as needed today as it ever has been.<br /><br />In addition, critical matters such as Hurricane Katrina's aftermath and voting rights are ongoing concerns that require and will receive maximum vigilance on the part of the Caucus. Victories may be hard to come by and they will certainly be hard fought. Rep. Kilpatrick pledges to be up to the tasks at hand. After her election as Chair, the Congresswoman is quoted by the <em>Associated Press</em> as saying "watch out for us" -- "We will take this Caucus to another level."<br /><br />Regarding her personal political history, Kilpatrick's past voting record reflects a party line approach overall. This includes her 2005 vote against H.R. 3045 -- the Free Trade Agreement involving Latin American nations and the Dominican Republic. One deviation from the Democratic Party line was her December 6th vote on H.R. 1082. Kilpatrick refused to condemn a town in France that is naming a street after Bro. Mumia Abu-Jamal, the controversial activist and writer convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Jamal has maintained his innocence, and his case has generated national and international attention.<br /><br />Kilpatrick received a B+ rating from one advocacy group for her votes on the Darfur crisis, placing her in the top 146 of the 535 total Congressional members (including Senators); this grade happens to be below that of her Michigan colleague, John Conyers, who received a grade of A. Critics of the CBC maintain, however, that the <em>female</em> CBC members have, as a group, been a <em>more</em> progressive force in the Congress than the male members.<br /><br />Relatively low-key on the national level, Rep. Kilpatrick is also known as the mother of controversial Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Mayor Kilpatrick struggled during his first term as Mayor but made a "miracle" comeback to win re-election in 2005. Personally speaking, when I saw the Mayor's inspirational speech at the funeral of Mother Rosa Parks, I<em> knew</em> he would win the election -- which was only days away. He might agree that it was indeed the speech of his life.<br /><br /><em>All hail Queen Carolyn Kilpatrick!</em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-3744876606032453272006-12-15T00:18:00.000-05:002008-12-09T03:57:24.936-05:00LET THE JUSTICE GAMES BEGIN (Post #3)<strong>December 4, 2006</strong><br /><br />Since all politics is local, let us start with the fact that Sean Bell's shooting by New York's Finest is a vicious reminder of the fragility of life and the twists of American justice. When victimized by the combined forces of economic oppression, racial discrimination, and fear of criminal behavior, Black people are asked time and time again to give the criminal justice system another chance.<br /><br />Yet "second chances" are not often offered to Black people -- particularly Black elected or appointed leaders -- unless we actually control the decision making process. Examples to consider include the late Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Rep. William Jefferson from New Orleans, and former Judge Alcee Hastings, a Congressman from Florida.<br /><br />Powell was repeatedly re-elected by his Black constituents even after several small scandals had led the House of Representatives to strip Powell of his seniority during the 1960s and expel him from its ranks. (It should be noted that both acts by the House were later found by the U.S. Supreme Court to have been illegal on Constitutional grounds.)<br /><br />Congressman Jefferson currently faces indictment in a messy bribery case. Investigators found $90,000 in his freezer prior to Hurricane Katrina, and Jefferson's Capitol Hill offices were raided by federal authorities -- an unfortunate first in American history. Yet Jefferson is on his way to re-election.<br /><br />The Alcee Hastings case, however, is equally interesting and very sad. Hastings was a federal judge in Florida. Corruption and perjury charges led to Hastings' impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives and removal from office by the U.S. Senate in 1989. Then, in court, Hastings was acquitted of the charges by a jury after an alleged co-conspirator (himself later pardoned by President Clinton) refused to testify against him. In 1992, Hastings was elected to the House of Representatives, where he has served without scandal and has risen to leadership posts within the House Democratic Caucus.<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5JDS8rQtj_U/RYI23RJ7RYI/AAAAAAAAAAY/WLek_jFOjnk/s1600-h/Hastings_Alcee.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5008626058715153794" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 107px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 157px" height="156" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5JDS8rQtj_U/RYI23RJ7RYI/AAAAAAAAAAY/WLek_jFOjnk/s320/Hastings_Alcee.jpg" width="112" border="0" /></a><br />One of Hastings ' committee assignments is the Intelligence Committee. As a House member with significant seniority on the Committee, Hastings had the potential to become Chair of this important committee should the Democrats regain control of the House -- which happened on November 7th. The new House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, had long indicated that the most senior Democrat, fellow Californian Jane Harmon, would not be her choice to lead the Intelligence Committee due in part to Harmon's support of the Iraq War.<br /><br />As the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi needs and wants the Congressional Black Caucus to work well with her. Several high-profile CBC members, such as Representatives John Conyers (MI - Judiciary), Charles Rangel (NY – Ways and Means), and Bennie Thompson (MS – Homeland Security) are in line to lead either Committees or Subcommittees. The CBC's potential power and influence is significant.<br /><br />Speaker-elect Pelosi tripped up on her politics, however. She supported Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha against the perceived rightful occupant of the Majority Leader position, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Murtha, a war hawk who saw the light on Iraq and made headlines pushing the Bush Administration into a corner, also has a tainted ethical history. Hoyer is a popular Democratic Caucus leader who happens to have had long-standing tension with Pelosi.<br /><br />By unsuccessfully supporting Murtha for Majority Leader, Pelosi appeared to have exhausted whatever latitude she had in making appointments based more on her personal preferences than the realpolitik of the Democratic Caucus. Murtha was soundly defeated and the media started chewing on Pelosi's leadership style and potential.<br /><br />The real loser, of course, was the Black man. In this case, Rep. Alcee Hastings was perceived as the heir apparent to lead the Intelligence Committee. In the aftermath of Pelosi's Murtha miscue, the media harped on Hastings' impeachment as evidence of corruption and disqualification. Note that no one has claimed any improprieties or problems with Hastings' service in the House or on the Intelligence Committee itself. Hastings' impeachment might have been awkward for Pelosi but it need not have been fatal to his selection as Committee chair if Pelosi really wanted to make it happen.<br /><br />Frankly, however, Speaker-elect Pelosi may never have intended to select Hastings but wanted to look good to the CBC by implying she would. Pelosi always knew that the Hastings judicial impeachment would be a handy excuse -- and a key one in the aftermath of her Murtha debacle -- for pursuing a more important long-term objective.<br /><br />The resulting selection of Texas Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, a Hispanic and former Border Patrol guard, to lead the Intelligence Committee highlighted the political strategy that the Democratic leadership will pursue not just between now and 2008 but going forwards. Democrats need Hispanic support to be as strong as possible. Republicans handed Democrats an opportunity to hold and strengthen their appeal to Hispanic voters, but the Democratic leadership knows that, in the end, issues like immigration will bite them as much as they have Republicans. And Democrats want political cover.<br /><br />Accordingly, every opportunity to bolster Hispanic political strength will be grabbed by the Democratic Party leadership. More than likely, Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (Illinois), a former Bill Clinton operative and architect of Democratic House gains in this past election, had a strong hand in ensuring that Pelosi followed this script.<br /><br />One of the reasons why New York's 11th Congressional District Democratic Primary battle to succeed Major Owens earned many headlines was the disparity between the fundraising capacity of Black candidates and incumbents and the capacity of whites. Simply put, it is huge -- remember that the white candidate raised as much money as the three Black candidates combined. Rahm Emmanuel and Company want to bolster DCCC coffers and keep or increase the Party's power. That is why incredible pressure is placed upon incumbent House Members to cough up tens of thousands of dollars in "dues" to the House Democratic Caucus as well as contributions to the DCCC. And this is one reason why CBC members can be treated as expendable.<br /><br />For various reasons that would take too long to discuss here, Hispanic members as a group have done a better job of bringing in the dollars and there is even greater potential as demographic changes morph majority Black districts into mixed minority or majority Hispanic districts. (House seats like those held by Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California are already unlikely to remain represented by an African American after the next census.) The Democratic Party leadership, therefore, is not overly concerned about being "nice" to the CBC; they really want more money from members and expand support in America's Hispanic communities.<br /><br />So here is the irony. Black Americans are the most loyal Democratic voters; far more loyal than whites. (An excellent case in point is Maryland's U.S. Senate race, where an African-American <em>Republican</em> candidate nearly won in a Democratic state. Yet, in this race, Black voters actually rejected the Black candidate by an 80% to 20% margin.) And, white power brokers want to raise money to convince Blacks to vote Democratic -- which is necessary since both Democrats and Republicans have not done enough, for example, to assist the Black victims of Katrina. Yet, as leaders within the Halls of Congress and elsewhere, Blacks are more expendable because they themselves do not bring in enough big dollars to keep the institution known as the Democratic Party either competitive or in power.<br /><br />In short, America has moved to the right -- not simply on principles, but also with regard to the methodology of taking and holding power. "Corporate" power -- the dominance of money -- was pushed to the fore by the Republicans but the Democrats are not backing away one bit. Though demographic-driven tensions are inevitable, conflicts between Blacks and Hispanics should <em>not</em> sap each group's energy and political capital with each other while the corporate white powerstructure goes relatively unchallenged. America cannot be the nation it can and should be without a truly representative and inclusive political system.<br /><br />Whoever is weak politically suffers at the policy table. Yet, across the board, what is good for African Americans is good for all Americans. So what choice do Black House members have? African Americans with seniority must now be at the table – even those with imperfect backgrounds, like Alcee Hastings. If the CBC does not fight to maximize its power now, then historic and irreplaceable opportunities will be lost.<br /><br /><em>Let the justice games begin.</em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5165127750606989614.post-82771851696545476782006-12-15T00:07:00.000-05:002006-12-20T23:21:16.953-05:00FEAR OF FEAR (Post #2)<strong>November 27, 2006<br /></strong><br />The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt was so correct when he proclaimed that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." How graphically this concept has been illustrated this past weekend as police officers and citizens in Queens each reacted in fear of each other -- and in ignorance of reality -- with a most tragic outcome. A groom-to-be is dead for no good reason.<br /><br />Another Black man died at the hands of the police. Yet while the pundits and community leaders sort out fact and fiction, one truth stands clear: we live in fear. Americans are terrorized by the fear of crime -- particularly violent crime -- and by the fear of unchecked authority -- particularly if you are a new American, legal or otherwise. Yes, we live in fear of failure and of the incredible economic uncertainty before us and before our children.<br /><br />Polls show that South Koreans are less concerned with the nuclear testing of North Korea than they are with their economic struggles. One article quoted a South Korean as saying that, despite figures showing national economic growth, life for the average South Korean is getting more and more difficult. Where have we heard this before?<br /><br />The gun violence that grabs headlines and steals innocent and brave lives in the Bronx or in Brownsville is much like the violence that undermines society in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. And, like Baghdad, the solution is not simply to get guns off the streets or out of the hands of thugs.<br /><br />We have experienced a national election during which the American people declared their concern with the direction our nation and the world are headed. The details may be fuzzy, but Americans understand that their jobs are being lost to other nations, yet those nations are not, in turn, really deriving benefits from exported exploitation opportunities.<br /><br />The details may be unclear, but Americans understand that international competition for natural resources breeds inequality and resentments. Global warming represents the extreme arena for this competition. How will we live the way we have -- or the way we wish to -- if climate changes lead millions to starve from droughts or lead entire economies to disintegrate as shorelines disappear.<br /><br />Americans want to be secure at home. They understand, however, that borders alone don't work. And neither do oppressive and unwieldy attacks on new Americans. Enough alienated and TV-stuffed white children buy into romantic notions of rebellion and glory right here at home for us all to quiver in fear.<br /><br />And Americans do not want to deal with the intersection of poverty and race. Hurricane Katrina highlighted the same ugly realities that gun violence do on an ongoing basis. Poverty injects fear ... and race provides a rationale to store that fear away. Black and brown people suffer disproportionately from the ills of American society -- both at home and abroad -- making the issue of "equality" -- not "democracy" -- the central issue for the 21st Century.<br /><br />Our "new" Congress has much work to do. Talk will not be enough; there must be concrete action that puts people first. There must be courage exhibited by every new member of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as the more senior members. The new Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, needs to show courage -- not simply political gamesmanship -- to the American people. There cannot be justice without courage. And there will be no courage without a commitment to social and economic justice.<br /><br /><em>In the coming weeks, this column will hopefully be profiling courage.</em>Chris Owenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203939802471188482noreply@blogger.com0