Aurora (Matutina): "The Pinkish-Golden Glow that precedes immediately the raising of the Sun"
"Charity is commendable, everyone should be charitable. But Justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don't go hungry, unschooled or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth, justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table" ~Bill Moyers
Like any other opportunistic coward RightWingNut, after the Debt Ceiling Brouhaha ended, he comes out of hiding from "The MittNess Protection Program" (Politico coined it), one has to wonder what this very sick puppy takes credit for.
And that's about all the words this double-faced job killing 'entrepreneur' /business man deserves; other that exposing his every misdeed from the smallest to the most egregious.
Furthermore, by shamelessly being 'a legend in his own mind' and promoting himself as such, thus creating a narrative full of Myths; henceforth, at El Rinconcitode Aurora he shall be known and referred to, as "The Mitthological Romney"
Mini-mob members being treated as deeply important newsmakers is reminiscent of August 2004.
Here we go again.
During August's summer daze, right-wing mini-mobs (egged on by corporate interests) have run wild at town hall meetings, propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an effort to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet the mini-mob members have been treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.
Sound familiar? Recall August 2004, when the right-wing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (egged on by corporate interests) stole a month's worth of campaign headlines by propagating all kinds of smears and misinformation in an attempt to derail an important Democratic campaign. Yet they were treated as deeply important newsmakers by the press during a slow summer news month.
Honestly, the only thing missing this time around is a crackpot, best-selling book. In 2004, the Swifties used the release of Unfit for Command to launch their media-based smear campaign. This summer, it could have been something like ObamaScare: How Liberal Health Care Will Destroy America. (The Swifties' right-wing publisher must be kicking itself over the missed marketing opportunity.)
But what has been perfectly consistent is the way the press has, again, fallen for a right-wing smear campaign and dressed it up as news. Just as with the Swifties, the press has turned over its summer coverage to a band of agitators spreading misinformation. Five summers ago, the Swift Boat Vets helped hijack the election. They lied about documents, they lied about eyewitness, and they lied about their partisan affiliations and connections. For several crucial weeks during the campaign, journalists turned away from the pile-up of Swift Boat falsehoods and contradictions, rarely daring to call the Swift Boat attack out for what it really was -- a hoax. Too spooked by the GOP Noise Machine and its charge of liberal media bias, the press propped up the Vets as serious men and showered them with attention.
This year, the press has handed over untold hours of free airtime to mini-mob members whose sole purpose seems to be to spread as much fear as possible. (The ones who show up toting guns and Nazi posters make that point rather emphatically.)
Fringe players on the right are making wild accusations that cannot be backed up by fact. The mainstream media response? We must cover the phenomenon daily, even hourly!
So, day after August day, these vacuous health care "debates" are aired on cable television, just as news consumers suffered through night after night of vacuous Swift Boat "debates" five summers ago. In both cases, the press for the most part handed in its referee's whistle and focused its attention on simply reporting the fact-free claims and then getting the Democratic response. (i.e. he said/she said.) It turns out journalists are petrified of calling out right-wing activists as liars, and the other side knows it.
What's amazing is that even a conservative Republican congressman has conceded that the mini-mobs (this summer's news superstars) appear to be completely detached from reality. "You cannot build a movement on something that is not credible,'' Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina told the Los Angeles Times after being confronted by belligerent, fact-free protesters who were convinced that as part of health care reform, children would soon be forced to receive swine flu vaccinations. "At town meetings, the hostility went straight through to hysteria,'' said Inglis.
He later updated his post with video of the exchange from ABC's Good Venezia also added video from Good Morning America to his post.
After a Free Republic member posted a Reuters photo described as "U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) tak[ing] their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy," Matt Drudge promoted the same photo. Subsequently, ABC News' Jake Tapper, Fox News, and the New York Post followed their lead, highlighting the photo online and on screen, in some cases with provocative, needling, or scolding commentary. But a review of the video, which the media promoting the photo either did not watch or did not allow to give pause, makes clear that Obama was attempting to navigate high steps, while reaching back to help someone behind him do so as well. As Fox News host Greta Van Susteren said after airing video of the event, "Yes, a still picture can lie. And this one does."
As Media Matters for america has documented, media figures previously attacked Obama based on an interpretation of a photograph that was similarly disproved by video evidence.
The Reuters photo posted on Free Republic by TornadoAlley3 at 2:45 p.m. ET:*
At 3:14 p.m. ET, the Drudge Report posted the photo with the headline, "Mr. President!" Drudge later revised the headline to "Second Stimulus Package!" The Drudge Report subsequently included a link to Tapper's blog post under the headline, "ABCNEWS: NO HE DIDN'T ..."
Media figures making dubious claims about the photo following its posting on Free Republic and the Drudge Report include:
The Fox Nation picked up the photo with the headline, "Another Stimulus?" which was later revised to "Busted?"
At 5:20 p.m. ET, Tapper posted the photo with the headline, "When In Rome...?" Around 4 a.m. ET on July 10, Tapper posted on Twitter, "that foto of POTUS seeming to be sneaking a leer is misleading, im told -- video shows the moment was completely innocent." He also updated his blog post, including video of the incident:
On first glance, the snapshot appears to show President Obama caught in a moment of less than lofty analysis. But upon looking at the video, the moment might seem to appear quite innocent -- one of those times when a picture can be misleading. The president was on a higher step and was stepping down -- so he looked down to assure his footing as the woman was walking up the stairs.
Although: not everyone agrees. Judge for yourself.
He later updated his post with video of the exchange from ABC's Good Morning America.
On the July 9 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity stated, "[S]o there I am. I'm on the radio today, and I click on to the Drudge Report. And I say, 'Oh, Barack Obama in his Bill Clinton moment,' " before showing the photograph on air. After Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers stated, "They're looking at something else, like out of -- it's the camera angle. ... [I]t's not in the picture," Hannity replied, "He's looking at her backside, can we just say it?"
In a July 10 New York Post article published online at 3:28 a.m. ET and linked to by Drudge by 6:10 a.m. ET, Todd Venezia posted the photo and wrote:
Baby got Barack!
The leader of the free world and his French counterpart were caught sneaking a peek at a the pink-satin-draped booty of a 17-year-old junior G-8 delegate just moments before the summit's official group photo was snapped in Italy yesterday.
Obama wasn't the only head of state getting Yankee Doodle randy.
Venezia also added video from Good Morning America to his post.
The following day, Fox & Friends aired the photo with the caption, "Tail to the chief." Co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson, along with guest co-host Andrew Napolitano, asserted that the photo was evidence that Obama "sneak[ed] a "peek" at "a beauty's backside." Carlson stated of the photo, "That's just a natural reaction, is it not, guys?' Napolitano responded, "It surely is. That's why there's so many pictures of it."
Fox & Friends subsequently aired another photograph from the G-8 summit with the caption, "Yes, nice can":
As video of that incident makes clear, the claim that Obama is "check[ing] out the ladies" from this photo is also baseless.
Other Mayday and we march again in cities throughout the Country, in San Francisco, once more, we will be starting from my favorite Park, the beautiful Dolores Park on the corner of 18th & Dolores.
For many of us, this park has spiritual significance, for centuries this is where the bones of native ancestors were laid to rest and, in our time, this is where we have ceremonies in observance of Native Americans Traditions.
Appropriately this is where we, their descendants in the struggle gather in our quest for fairness and justice.
Dolores Park -- officially Mission Dolores Park -- is named after Mission Dolores, established by Spanish missionaries in 1776. Native Americans of the Ohlone tribe inhabited the area for several centuries before Spanish missionaries arrived. The Ohlone shared the land with Spanish ranchers and shopkeepers until the 1849 Gold Rush, when new settlers, gamblers, and tavern keepers flooded San Francisco.
San Francisco, a city of Immigrants, a city of Workers, the city of Saint Francis of Assisi, once more honors it's tradition as the accepting place we have come to know and love.
A city of workers where we have written a history of struggle, sacrifice and advances for the betterment of all, is writing another chapter in solidarity, honoring our worker tenet that "An Injury to One, Is An Injury to All", this year Union and Non-Union workers will be marching shoulder to shoulder making the statement that "Native or Foreign Born, We Are The Same Working Class" ("Nativa o Extranjera, La Misma Clase Obrera")
The AFL-CIO and Change to Win, the nation's top two labor federations announced a framework for comprehensive immigration reform, setting aside differences with the hope of pushing legislation through this year.
Bravo for Organized Labor for finally doing the right thing, yes indeed, a worker, is a worker, is a worker, period.
Immigrant Rights Groups and Unions in the Bay Area have announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) . Workers Without Borders, United In Struggle is a coalition of organizations representing of the different communities advocating for the rights of immigrant and workers, and currently is organizing the May 1st March in San Francisco.
“We want to show that we support the initiative for the liberty of all the workers in this country to decide to collectively organize in unions to improve their standard of life.”
An historical alliance during a Mayday March in a city where Labor and Immigrants have made our mark and have established San Francisco as a city of Workers and Immigrants and where the Honorable Board of Supervisors in a Resolution, Proclaimed May 1st 2008 to be "International Workers Day, affirming San Francisco as a Sanctuary City and urging the Congress of the United States to repeal the REAL ID Act of 2005"
It's been a whole year since Uncle Jay has SUNG an entire episode, and here's the reminder why! It's the year-end review of the news, and maybe it'll seem a little better with music.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages and accepting donations.
The Library will include:
The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.
The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.
The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.
The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.
The National Debt Room, which is huge and has no ceiling.
The Tax Cut Room, with entry only to the wealthy.
The Economy Room, which is in the toilet.
The Iraq War Room. (After you complete your first visit, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth visit.)
The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.
The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.
The U.S. Supreme Court Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.
The Decider Room, complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.
Note:
The library will feature an electron microscope to help you locate and view the President's accomplishments.
The library will also include many famous Quotes by George W. Bush:
"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."
"No senior citizen should ever have to choose between prescription drugs and medicine."
"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy--but that could change."
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
"The future will be better tomorrow."
"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." (during an education photo-op)
"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not havin it."
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may
not occur."
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
Much has been said and more times the question "Why isn't Obama's lead in the polls larger?" Will be asked.
It is fascinating how the focus is reversed by the MSM's apparent genuine concern about this question, are they kidding? Amazing how so many can ask this question with a straight face, as if this is really a valid argument.
Let's consider this for just a few minutes.
McCain has been touted as a war hero who has always supported the troops and veterans, he has solid foreign affairs and security credentials they say, he has an alleged long track record of accomplishments as a Senator, he is a Maverick, we are told, he has a history of bi-partisanship, he is a 'true gentleman', we have been bombarded for years by the MSM's lavish praise on him while at the same time minimizing his negatives, which are many, explaining and many a time excusing his horrendous gaffes which point to his inadequacy to hold the highest office in the land where people have known him for years.
With so much support from the public opinion makers in this country, why isn't the MSM asking the obvious question of why he is not ahead in the polls? While it may seem that I answered my own question already, IMHO the question remains, while prompting a new question, why isn't he ahead in the polls? Gives me a second question, why isn't the MSM asking this question instead of pondering why Obama doesn't have a larger lead?
Why should he? Long held political wisdom in this country would clearly point out that Obama is in reality the most unlikely candidate to be in the lead, but he is, he shouldn't be the Democratic Nominee, but he is, we are told that race plays a part, yet, in spite of this long held view, he is leading, why? On a daily basis we keep hearing question about whether or not Obama is fit to be Commander in Chief, if he has what it takes to govern this country, he has been the target of fallacious claims, echoed by the MSM talking heads to the point that there is still people out there who believe he is a Muslim, any little thing that is put out there, baseless or frivolous as it may be, it is parroted ad infinitum et ad nauseam by the same MSM talking heads, he has been at the end of a very nasty 'swiftboating' hence nasty and spurious for months now, yet he is still leading on the polls.
So, why is the MSM talking heads still asking the question: Why doesn't he has a larger lead in the polls?
The answer becomes obvious if we focus on how the conversation directs the attention on the results from how you phrase the question, by questioning Obama's, the focus automatically takes the talking heads to examine in detail Obama's shortcomings, previously defined by these same talking heads, whereas if the question was reversed, the focus would be on why this highly unlikely scenario, it is actually taking place.
In other words, we'd be discussing the real issues which would easily explain why Obama continues to lead on the polls and McCain isn't.
Cute isn't?
For those who may say: But some of the talking heads have asked the question I'm asking of why isn't McCain ahead in the polls, yes, it is true, the very few more honest talking heads have already made the points I'm attempting to make, but this brings me to the 'crux of the matter' as to why am I asking a question already asked.
It has to do with emphasis and repetition, the latter being the heaviest factor on why the focus continues on Obama's shortcomings and not McCain's, IT IS THEIR AGENDA.
Heaven forbid that more 'low information' people would have a chance to ponder on why McCain, with all of his alleged positives, is not ahead, I can see their eyebrows in deep furrow ask themselves (Picture a dumb troll, uh?), yeaaah, why?
He is not a moderate, he doesn't support the troops nor the veterans, his foreign affairs knowledge is deplorable, his understanding of economic policies is pitiful, his record on helping the people is dismal, his lauded 'straight talk' turned out to be totally false, he changes positions faster and more often than he changes socks, he put to rest for good his maverick legend for what it was, a myth, and I can keep going on. and on in pointing very obvious contradictions and lies, and I will as I hope you all will do as the campaign continues.
My friend Juanita, in our last night's conversation, repeated for me one of her favorite sayings while we were discussing the points I just made above, she said: "Aurora, all things fall down by their own weight" I went kind of like, yeah... but... Hmmm.... I went to remind her of flagrant misrepresentations, scare tactics, falsehoods, double speak, swiftboating, etc. in previous campaigns, how about McGovern's? Carter's? Gore's? Kerry's? And yes, McCain's in 2000? Just when we think the people will be capable of independent thinking and really look at how public opinions is, and has been manipulated, a lot of us say amongst ourselves, this time will be different... Will it this time?
Will the people of the United States of America will finally put to rest the long held belief mistakenly credited to P. T. Barnum but that it actually was first articulated by H. L. Mencken: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" Or this other quote also mistakenly attributed to P. T. Barnum: "There is a sucker born every minute"
And will the American people also reaffirm this misattributed famous quote? "You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time"
The good news and the answer as to why Obama is still ahead in the polls and not McCain is that many people are not being fooled by their attempts to re-direct the focus, their tactics are not working because many people know who the real McCain is.
I'm always suspicious of groups who specialize in exposing, or attacking, or whatever one issue or one candidate, but do the claims of "Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain" Are valid? For the sake of listening to all sides, it is worth your time to check out what they are saying, to sift through their points and to research further.
As we say, for a sample and just to expose a bold face lie of McCain and his campaign, a button suffices: On the oh! So untrue claim that he supports the troops and the veterans, does this looks moderate to you?
If you want to explore a little more on what this prevaricator's positions really are, you can go to "Project Vote Smart"and select an issue of your interest and find out how he voted, also you can check what "Veterans for Common Sense" Have to say on this subject.
Current Office: U.S. Senate Current District: Senior Seat Office Seeking: President First Elected: 11/04/1986 Last Elected: 11/02/2004 Next Election: 2010 Party: Republican
How to Interpret these Evaluations Disclaimer: Descriptions of organizations are derived from the mission statement or description produced by each organization. Project Vote Smart does not evaluate or edit these descriptions.
1989-1990On the votes that the Vietnam Veterans of America considered to be the most important in 1989-1990 , Senator McCain voted their preferred position 50 percent of the time.
But only if we bury the political hatchet, in the right place of course! (Metaphorically speaking) In The Regressive.
It is time to embrace our progressive values and aspirations and yes, it can be done, if we work hard because, ultimately, as Barack Obama keeps reminding us, it is up to us, WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR - Soooo, lets not keep ourselves waiting, let's show up and be counted, in other words, as all of us wonderful members of these groups have been doing all along, but harder, if that's possible.
Heartfelt thanks to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, she was up in full speed for the moment, this is our time, a time to heal, a time to struggle, a time to fight for ours and our children's future.
She is right, as is Senator Obama, the stakes are too high to diddle in our differences or nitpick in our missteps or poor choice of language.
Yes we can! Si se puede!
Aurora
Hillary Rodham Clinton full speech - 29:09 minutes
2:30 minutes video clip of endorsement
Post speech MSNBC's hosts comments
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi
A Poem for South African Women June Jordan In Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who, August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against the "dompass" in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978
It seems like eons ago we made the decision to support the Presidential Candidacy of Barack Obama, it was the moment when we allowed ourselves the luxury to dream again, to set aside our well founded cynicism and consider that perhaps... that maybe it is possible to elect a President in the USA notwithstanding race or the myriad of other superficial and artificial classifications assigned to human beings, along has come a person with the words we yearned to hear for so long and that, paradoxically, we have heard for so long, repeated over and over by other candidates.
But this time is different, it is not about the candidate, it is about us and yet... it is about the candidate too, it is about all of us, it is up to us, we are the ones we have been waiting for and we will not keep us waiting for the road yet to travel in this historic human journey we were asked to join in, and for which we signed up for the duration.
At the start it seemed such an 'impossible dream' and while the undertaking is not completely materialized, we are more convinced that it is possible, because it can be done and we are doing it.
It has been frustrating at times, heartbreaking at others, arduous at every step of the way, but above all, it has been not only uplifting, but exhilarating to work with so many wonderful people in bringing about a shared dream, a vision of what can be.
Yes, it is a dream, but as I wrote back in February:
Maybe it is dreaming awake, who can really know what's ahead, but Barack Obama is talking to me, to us, he is saying that change is possible, but that it will only come about IF WE MAKE IT HAPPEN, it goes parallel to my belief that IT IS UP TO US, which goes right along with what a group of activists (Sisters/Brothers), of which I'm part, are saying: "WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR"
It has been a grueling and bruising Democratic Primary Campaing, but the worst is yet to come, because the powers that be will not release their hold to power and their claim to privilege, they will fight us every inch of the way and at times it will get ugly and our candidate has already gone on record tonight, that our campaign or this party will not engage in divisive or demeaning politics, I will follow his lead in spite of the righteous indignation sure to surface at the dirty political tactics that the Republicans are accustomed to and are famous for, if I forget my pledge and fall in the 'politics as usual' again, I ask you of my sisters and brothers to remind me by calling me on it.
It is a time to unite, to work in unision for a goal common to all our communities, we have a society to heal, a country to rebuild and a world to save, we need to put aside our differences and find our similarities.
It is change that I can believe in because it can be done, Yes we can! Si se puede!
Aurora Grajeda SFCA 06.03.08
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi
A Poem for South African Women June Jordan In Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who, August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against the "dompass" in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008/ 10:17:53 ET Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild."
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."
"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
END
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi
In Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who, August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against the "dompass" in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978
Whenever you talk to H. R. Clinton's supporters, they say she has been for the country, for the people, she has done soooo much, my question on the latter is: Much of what?
Really, I'd like to ask, and I have urged her supporters to mention, not list mind you, just mention, what legislation with progressive outcomes has she sponsored, supported or voted for? Just mention a few, It should not be too difficult to find a couple of them in her 35 five years of experience, this is not too much to ask, is it?
Dear reader, yes, you who is reading this words right now, can you think of any? If you do, please let me know (Be specific please)
On the other hand, can you think of any legislation she sponsored, supported or voted on, that did have adverse consequences to the majority of the people in this country and to perhaps millions around the world? I'm sure you already have thought of at least three, easy to remember, most of them have euphemistic or, as some have said, orwellian titles.
I'll make it easy on everyone to pick the positive from the negative from a few items I will list, was her vote on the Prescription bill? Bankruptcy? Oh yeah, she didn't get to vote on this one, Bill was having surgery at the time and she was with him, lucky for her, because she was for it, was it NAFTA or the other pro corporations legislation? Welfare reform? Immigration legislation of 1996? Please do tell me what was so good about it - was it the immigration reform of 2007? FYI, it was nicknamed the "Sensenbrenner Junior" and it was just as bad as it's parent, what about her vote for the war on Iraq and the subsequent support for Pres. Bush's desires, when she voted with the Republicans over and over? What about her votes on Supreme Court nominations? We all know how that turned out without counting the other numerous Federal Judges nominations - when looking at her "Experience"(?), was there any pro corporation legislation she didn't like and vote for?
While you think of any, let me just keep on going, since she is a Super Patriot, I'm sure she fought like hell to help returning wounded veterans, did she? Was she outraged at how returning veterans were mistreated or not treated at all? Was she besides herself when National Guardsmen didn't have the job they left to serve their country, a job which was supposed to be waiting for them by law upon their return? Did she anguish when she learned that many of them lost also their homes because a) they couldn't pay their mortgage with the military salary or, b) because they lost their job for doing their duty?
Oh! I know, The Patriot Act, no? Anti Flag Burning Amendment?
Now I know I got it! She renamed parks and Court Houses with the names of Illustrious People, well, it was bound to happen, with a little time, I did find positive legislation she voted for.
Oh what a heck! Let me get to the point I've been aiming at:
Since she is running on her record, why is it that the Obama staff is not doing more research on her record? Yes, I know, the 'pro transparency' delegate is anything but, and her records are sealed in her husband's library, but there is still enough background information on her 'experience' in the public domain to prepare Obama and his campaign spokespersons to challenge her to be more specific, as she pressures Sen. Obama to be. Be prepared, if she mentions any, it has to be followed up like in 'welfare reform' by asking her:
"Are you talking about the welfare reform that increased the number of children and women below the poverty rate?" Immigration Reform - "The one who placed untold more burdens and penalized children more than the one before your legislation was enacted?" Labor Issues - "Like in the NAFTA agreements?"
And so on... Am I explaining myself?
When it comes to Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Experience", there is nothing there... There.
Taking a page from past Clinton's Campaigns:
IT'S HER EXPERIENCE, STUPID!
Aurora
03.07.08
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
In Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who, August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against the "dompass" in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978
It's been a whole year since Uncle Jay has SUNG an entire episode, and here's the reminder why! It's the year-end review of the news, and maybe it'll seem a little better with music.
