Sunday, April 27, 2008
Why Don't the Media Print the Truth About Rev. Wright?
WHY DONT THE PRESS PRINT THIS!!
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.
In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital , as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery.
For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/ sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America 's biggest cities.
This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
For What its Worth . . .
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.
In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital , as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery.
For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation. What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/ sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America 's biggest cities.
This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
For What its Worth . . .
Friday, April 4, 2008
A Dilemma: King's Dream vs. the American Dream
In 1892, Mary Elizabeth Lease a leader in the Populist Party said: "Money rules . . . The parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us!" In 1968, Dr. Martin King, Jr. emphasized that because American political leaders continue to mislead Black America the civil rights movement had " to confront America's domestic crisis, to make everyone "face the fact America is a racist country. . ." (David Garrow, Bearing the Cross, p.609). Mary Lease shouted across the Mid-West, "raise less corn, raise more hell," and King traversed the South shouting that America had given Blacks a bounced check, and that Black people were the conscience of the nation. In socio-political terms both Lease and King were saying the same thing, which is: "The politics of them that rule don't care about the plight of poor farmers, poor blacks or poor Whites. Mary Lease hoped that the People's Party would be the answer, and Martin King hoped that the Poor People's Campaign would be the answer. But the truth is: Money still rules in America, and the political leaders still mislead us, and the parties still lie to us.
Today, White America still owes an "open apology" to Black America. The efforts of Whites who marched, suffered beatings and death to stand with their Black brothers cannot atone for the nation's consistent denial that the racial degradation of an entire ethnic people who worked without compensation to build the fortunes of Southern and Northern Whites.
The forgiveness sought by John Mccain at the National Civil Rights Museum was given to him in the spirit of King who often said that Blacks were the soul of the nation and America's conscience. But McCain's feeble apology of admitting he was wrong to vote "no" on the King's memorial holiday bill, fell flat in the light of the 3 weeks of continual disparaging of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. An "open" apology for slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and segregation will be the only way of purging the guilt and hatred that still exists.
But what Mary Lease and Martin King both alluded to in their campaigns for justice was that America's political system favors the rich, and the American Dream depends on individualism and opportunity. Yet, what these two different types of leaders understood was that the poor could never take advantage of America's Dream unless some rich benefactor in Washington financed that dream. They articulated America's dilemma-stand on "equality for all" while limiting opportunities to a few that could afford it. In short, march and demonstrate, but raise more hell.
Six years before he was murdered in cold blood, King gave an address to the National Press Club, which served as the basis for a final sermon entitled "Unfulfilled Dreams." In that address, King said: "We feel that we are the conscience of America--we are its troubled soul--we will continue to insist that right be done because both God's will and the heritage of our nation speak through our echoing demands. We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream--a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity . . . a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character . . ."
(James Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p.105)
One of King's sermons entitled "Shattered Dreams" illustrated the frustrations of Black people similar to that of the Apostle Paul as illustrated in Romans 15:28. Anyone who ever faced the "agony of blasted hopes" and longed for freedom but remained oppressed and degraded, could understand Paul's frustration of wanting to preach in Spain only to be disappointed (See Richard Lischer's Preacher King p, 105).
In 1968, King preached his last sermon entitled, "Unfulfilled Dreams," which mirrored the ideas of his "Shattered Dreams." Lischer rightly concerns with the Memphians who attended that last service that King's sermon was not about an individual disappointment or the Negro people's but about "King's own failure to build a kingdom of racial harmony in America" (Lischer, p. 107) King's dream had crumpled; it had meant the hard flinty rock wall of White prejudice, and because his Christian committment gave him no choice of violence, he lamented in no uncertain terms his shattered dreams.
King had come full circle, and the prejudice and injustice of White America had succeeded in creating a non-violent Martin who was drawing closer to the thinking of Malcolm. The half-hearted apology of John McCain, and the rhetoric of "Compassionate Conservatism" of George Bush and Rush Limbaugh, could not and cannot purge the guilt from the conscience of America. And this is what the Whites who support Barack Obama is seeing and experiencing. The catharsis of the mind and spirit and the uplifting of the conscience of Whites who support a Black to become a Presidential nominee is drawing closer to King's Black-White theme.
This movement led by Obama is the ultimate conclusion of a dream that was shattered 40 years ago. And just in case you, the reader, have missed the biblical typology, let me remind you that Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery and in the desert for 40 years; but it took a Joshua, a second Moses to lead them into the promise land. But don't stop there, for there is one who is the New Moses, who will lead God's children into the Heavenly Canaan . . . and that is what King saw from the Mountaintop.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
Today, White America still owes an "open apology" to Black America. The efforts of Whites who marched, suffered beatings and death to stand with their Black brothers cannot atone for the nation's consistent denial that the racial degradation of an entire ethnic people who worked without compensation to build the fortunes of Southern and Northern Whites.
The forgiveness sought by John Mccain at the National Civil Rights Museum was given to him in the spirit of King who often said that Blacks were the soul of the nation and America's conscience. But McCain's feeble apology of admitting he was wrong to vote "no" on the King's memorial holiday bill, fell flat in the light of the 3 weeks of continual disparaging of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. An "open" apology for slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and segregation will be the only way of purging the guilt and hatred that still exists.
But what Mary Lease and Martin King both alluded to in their campaigns for justice was that America's political system favors the rich, and the American Dream depends on individualism and opportunity. Yet, what these two different types of leaders understood was that the poor could never take advantage of America's Dream unless some rich benefactor in Washington financed that dream. They articulated America's dilemma-stand on "equality for all" while limiting opportunities to a few that could afford it. In short, march and demonstrate, but raise more hell.
Six years before he was murdered in cold blood, King gave an address to the National Press Club, which served as the basis for a final sermon entitled "Unfulfilled Dreams." In that address, King said: "We feel that we are the conscience of America--we are its troubled soul--we will continue to insist that right be done because both God's will and the heritage of our nation speak through our echoing demands. We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream--a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity . . . a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character . . ."
(James Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p.105)
One of King's sermons entitled "Shattered Dreams" illustrated the frustrations of Black people similar to that of the Apostle Paul as illustrated in Romans 15:28. Anyone who ever faced the "agony of blasted hopes" and longed for freedom but remained oppressed and degraded, could understand Paul's frustration of wanting to preach in Spain only to be disappointed (See Richard Lischer's Preacher King p, 105).
In 1968, King preached his last sermon entitled, "Unfulfilled Dreams," which mirrored the ideas of his "Shattered Dreams." Lischer rightly concerns with the Memphians who attended that last service that King's sermon was not about an individual disappointment or the Negro people's but about "King's own failure to build a kingdom of racial harmony in America" (Lischer, p. 107) King's dream had crumpled; it had meant the hard flinty rock wall of White prejudice, and because his Christian committment gave him no choice of violence, he lamented in no uncertain terms his shattered dreams.
King had come full circle, and the prejudice and injustice of White America had succeeded in creating a non-violent Martin who was drawing closer to the thinking of Malcolm. The half-hearted apology of John McCain, and the rhetoric of "Compassionate Conservatism" of George Bush and Rush Limbaugh, could not and cannot purge the guilt from the conscience of America. And this is what the Whites who support Barack Obama is seeing and experiencing. The catharsis of the mind and spirit and the uplifting of the conscience of Whites who support a Black to become a Presidential nominee is drawing closer to King's Black-White theme.
This movement led by Obama is the ultimate conclusion of a dream that was shattered 40 years ago. And just in case you, the reader, have missed the biblical typology, let me remind you that Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery and in the desert for 40 years; but it took a Joshua, a second Moses to lead them into the promise land. But don't stop there, for there is one who is the New Moses, who will lead God's children into the Heavenly Canaan . . . and that is what King saw from the Mountaintop.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
Thursday, April 3, 2008
McCain-Rice vs Obama-Clinton
Imagine this scenario!
The Republican's Convention is so dry because the world already knows who the nominee is that a few well-heeled Conservatives, the hidden leaders of the GOP, let it be known that unless they get some straight answers and committments to keep the pressure on in the Middle East, they will turn the Republican Presidential Campaign on its sides. In that cloudy maize of raucus backslapping, the announcer calls for silence so that John McCain, the last son of the Bush Clan, the one that Kitty Kelly forgot to write about in The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, could make an announcement. John McCain, with the soporific whisper now overcharged to become a thundering squawk, said: "Fellow Republicans, after much consultation and cogitation, I am pleased to announce that this GOP July Surprise is being viewed by more than 100 millions. After much "cog . . . cogin . . .tation," my running mate chosen to help me carry forward our agreed agenda will be that . . . that young, eloquent, vivacious, no nonsense Condi Rice . . .?!" (A soft and scattered applause . . . the camera switches quickly to commercial followed by a former band view and excited recap by the announcer).
My Patriots . . . Democrats . . . all of us who stand in the tradition of the Anti-Federalists, fighting tooth and nail for a Bill of Rights for the people. Stand your ground! Forget Rush Limbaugh, he's a has-been. The millions of new young Democrats that Barack has brought into the Party will blow Rush's tired, aging, and soon to fade away listeners out of the water. The Tsunami wave of new voters will literally so sweep through Congress that many Republicans are even now, at this writing, trying to find ways to withstand the sweeper's broom. They are gone people. Obama's wave is prophesied to sweep them away.
Besides, Obama-Clinton could defeat McCain-Rice very simply. Obama towers over McCain in age, eloquence, and economic understanding. He blows McCain away with a better understanding of 'when and where' to use our military. But what is more important, Obama has a social conscience, McCain does not. McCain is also beholden to the Big Corporations and the Big Oil Companies of which his adopted family own shares and wells.
On the other hand, Clinton is a far better speaker than Rice. Rice may be academic, but Clinton seems to handle herself better when placed in a diplomatic setting. Rice stumbles . . . overly cautious as those searching for words for American consumption rather than speaking to the people in her presence. Clinton speaks off-the-cuff, even though she has a tendency to embellish
the truth, and then plead forgetfulness. Pound for pound, Clinton's ambition for diplomacy makes Rice's pale away in shadows. And then, by now everyone knows the truth. Truth is that we are in a recession, no matter how the leader of the Fed try to double-speak.
What is the result of all this? The GOP July Surprise will become the soggy wet and bad tasting dessert, which plainly demonstrates poor cooking and little solid ingredients.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
http://blackissachar.blogspot.com
The Republican's Convention is so dry because the world already knows who the nominee is that a few well-heeled Conservatives, the hidden leaders of the GOP, let it be known that unless they get some straight answers and committments to keep the pressure on in the Middle East, they will turn the Republican Presidential Campaign on its sides. In that cloudy maize of raucus backslapping, the announcer calls for silence so that John McCain, the last son of the Bush Clan, the one that Kitty Kelly forgot to write about in The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, could make an announcement. John McCain, with the soporific whisper now overcharged to become a thundering squawk, said: "Fellow Republicans, after much consultation and cogitation, I am pleased to announce that this GOP July Surprise is being viewed by more than 100 millions. After much "cog . . . cogin . . .tation," my running mate chosen to help me carry forward our agreed agenda will be that . . . that young, eloquent, vivacious, no nonsense Condi Rice . . .?!" (A soft and scattered applause . . . the camera switches quickly to commercial followed by a former band view and excited recap by the announcer).
My Patriots . . . Democrats . . . all of us who stand in the tradition of the Anti-Federalists, fighting tooth and nail for a Bill of Rights for the people. Stand your ground! Forget Rush Limbaugh, he's a has-been. The millions of new young Democrats that Barack has brought into the Party will blow Rush's tired, aging, and soon to fade away listeners out of the water. The Tsunami wave of new voters will literally so sweep through Congress that many Republicans are even now, at this writing, trying to find ways to withstand the sweeper's broom. They are gone people. Obama's wave is prophesied to sweep them away.
Besides, Obama-Clinton could defeat McCain-Rice very simply. Obama towers over McCain in age, eloquence, and economic understanding. He blows McCain away with a better understanding of 'when and where' to use our military. But what is more important, Obama has a social conscience, McCain does not. McCain is also beholden to the Big Corporations and the Big Oil Companies of which his adopted family own shares and wells.
On the other hand, Clinton is a far better speaker than Rice. Rice may be academic, but Clinton seems to handle herself better when placed in a diplomatic setting. Rice stumbles . . . overly cautious as those searching for words for American consumption rather than speaking to the people in her presence. Clinton speaks off-the-cuff, even though she has a tendency to embellish
the truth, and then plead forgetfulness. Pound for pound, Clinton's ambition for diplomacy makes Rice's pale away in shadows. And then, by now everyone knows the truth. Truth is that we are in a recession, no matter how the leader of the Fed try to double-speak.
What is the result of all this? The GOP July Surprise will become the soggy wet and bad tasting dessert, which plainly demonstrates poor cooking and little solid ingredients.
For What it's Worth . . .
BlackProfessor
http://blackissachar.blogspot.com
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