A Need for Happiness
By: Soukaina Tapenga Calixte
A life of slavery,
Wanting to be free
Laying down,
Being beaten
Or your sore knees
Thinking of the past,
All of the people,
Who fought to be free?
You’re thinking in your head,
Slavery got to be dead,
I got to fight,
Now, forever,
To get victory,
How could I get out!
What would the slave master say?
Would he send the guards?
Who will be searching my way?
Where would I go?
Who will I meet?
I got to stop doubting,
I need to believe,
Racism, hatred, al of those things,
I am thinking,
Where did that all begin,
Separate schools, separate fountains,
Why would people be so cruel?
Being teased,
For being,
Over weight, different color,
And for what they do
This is all wrong
I wish this could all be gone
So now let’s think of all
The people who tried to put
A stop to
Racism, hatred, rudeness,
Slavery, being mistreated,
Assassinated, and attacked
Abraham Lincoln,
George Washington,
Harriet Tubman,
Martin Luther King Jr.,
Oprah Winfrey,
Rosa Parks,
Ruby Bridges,
And last but definitely
Not least
Barack Obama
Who is our President.
After loosing the elections to Obama. John Mccain goes home with hope of having a wonderful Thanksgiving with his immediate family. Mccain flew into his hometown on his private jet but when he reached the airport, his usual guest didn’t greet him. There weren’t any balloons, the bands weren’t playing or crowds weren’t cheering. This was unusual, he didn’t even see Sarah Palin. He looked into the distance but all he could see was snow and his cold breath in the air. He looked at his secret service and even they looked shocked about what was happening. For 40 years his town greeted him every Thanksgiving, so WHAT HAPPENED.
He looked at his wife and gave her a smile then said, “Moneys been tight this year for everyone baby. Maybe the town couldn’t afford a celebration this year”
Mrs. Mccain looked at her husband with her devilish grind, “You’re probably right baby. Everyone can’t afford the things we have!”
Mccain grabbed his wife arm and helped her through the snow. He looked at his wife then said, “At least we still have our limo!”
Mccain’s limo was black and warm inside. The bar was filled with Champaign, just like years before. His secret service followed the limo in their black Yukon. Mccain could see despair in his wife’s eyes. He looked at her and said this while he rubbed her thigh, “Baby, I’m still your little P.O.W, right”
Mrs. Mccain’s wife batted her eyes then ran her finger thru Mccain’s hair and gave him a hug as he continued to rub her thigh, “You are my little soldier. Don’t worry!”
Mccain leaned back in his leather seats proud of what he just heard. But when he looked out his window it all disappeared, “What’s going on here?”, Mccain yelled.
Mrs. Mccain rushed to the window because she wanted to see. But what she saw she couldn’t believe, “Why do everyone in your town have Obama campaign signs in there yards!’
Mrs. Mccain looked at John and she immediately knew he was scarred. His eye lit up like a deer staring into your headlights, “I can’t believe it. My own people voted for Obama. What’s going on?”
Alarms kept ringing in John’s ears as he looked out the window and things slowly started to become clear. Most of the people he knew was in Obama’s below 250 thousand dollar tax bracket. While Mccain was trying to help the rich, he was forgetting about the poor. This is something that Republicans have done thousands of times before. As Mccain’s thoughts lingered as his wife started to scream.
Mrs. Mccain, “What the hell did you do? You lost to a black man. Now our lives are ruined. No one will ever remember you for being a prisoner of war. Now everyone will look at us and laugh. And our friends want come to our parties or to any of our functions because you were the first White Republican Man to loose to a Black Democrat.”
Mccain couldn’t believe what was ringing in his ears. He looked at his wife because he felt like he had to make things clear, “LooK!”, pointing, “This race wasn’t about color. I lost to a great man. A-----smart guy!”
Mrs. Mccain laughed, “You lost to a Smart Guy… You lost to a great man”, She paused, “You didn’t say that when you were running around calling him a terrorist. You didn’t say that when you made allegations that Obama was a socialist or he wasn’t fit to be President for the last 23 months”
John looked his wife dead in her eyes, “Now you listen here. I only said those things because your family was about to be taxed because of his policies, if your family loose money then I loose money. I didn’t marry you for only your body, Baby. I married you for power and your family seen me as an opportunity to increase their power.”
Mrs. Mccain was furious about what she just heard. Her eyes was red and her vision was blurried, “You little short dwarf. I know you are angry right now, so I’m going to act like I didn’t hear what you just said. But remember one thing! I made you and I’ll break you… Believe it..You had a chance to get power but you lost, I never lost and I can changed your world with a flick of the wrist”
Barack Obama often borrows from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he speaks of "the fierce urgency of now". In the following article the author looks at another of Dr. King's inspirational passages. Based on Dr. King's guidance, the author makes a case for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/10-3
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.John F. Kennedy 1917-1963, Thirty-fifth President of the USA
God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me. Unknown
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. quote
Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: 'I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.' - The Gilded Age - Mark Twain
I am a 69 year old white woman and a faithful supporter of Barack Obama (have been for almost a year). I am expecting to have the very best birthday of my life when I turn 70 on the 4th of November, 2008, the same day that Barack Obama is elected President of the United States of America!
November 4th 2008 will be a wonderful day for our country and the entire world; it will be a rebirth of hope for peace, hope for our environment, and hope for our children and grandchildren.
And November 4th 2008 will be a wonderful birthday for me because the election of Barack Obama will help me to feel that many of the efforts of my life were not in vain.
Change
Forty-seven years ago, President John F. Kennedy said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Well, that was 47 years ago! Times have changed. America’s economy has changed from stable to be unstable.
It is time the words of our late President reflect the change urgency of now. I have revised the quote to reflect the changing times we live. It now reads:
Ask not what you can do for your country.
Ask your country what can it do for you?
America has changed from stable to hope
We need Congress to change
We need the Senate to change
We need the house on Capital Hill to change
Americas’ leaders must acknowledge that our nation has changed and does not reflect the vision of the real change America deserves.
We must take action to change the wrong we live today, right.
This is not the change Roosevelt imagined!
This is not the change JFK imagined!
This is not the change Martin Luther King imagined!
This is not the change my grandfather, grandmother, mother, father, brother, sister, friend, and neighbor imagined!
This is not how I imagined change!
Martin Luther King, President Roosevelt, and Kennedy were great men all on the trails of great paths, and something went wrong, because they were all righteous men. I don’t think all of those people could have been wrong. And what you are thinking is right, they were not wrong!
What is wrong is the failed change of the Bush Presidency!
We are living the wrong change with the wrong leaders!
We are living for helping the rich change!
We are living for corrupt companies and unrighteous Ceo’s to live their change
We are living for change supporting a failed and squalling Presidency of a shameful George Bush, an administration that proud his change that destroyed the real change America deserves.
We are living a fail Bush Presidency that destroyed the changes and legacy of these great men! This was an awful pursuit, and embarrassment for America. What an awful change. What an ungrateful George Bush!
It is time for all that to change. It is time we lead Americans to live the change America deserves.
To start we will elect a righteous leader to lead our country in the right direction. It is time to elect a leader who believes in family values and principles. It is time to live the change you believe you want to live.
It is time to change America!
It is time to change.
Change!
America needs change more than ever!
And the leader that will help change America is Barack Obama!
He has proved his success as a United States Senator and he has called upon the wisdom of Joe Biden to help him address America’s problems. Together they will guide America and will help us achieve the real change Martin L. King envisioned.
They will help us achieve the real change President Roosevelt envisioned!
They will help us achieve the real change JFK envisioned!
But they cannot do it alone. Believe me, when I say your vote is needed to support the change we want, and the change we need to rebuild this country.
I am hearing people say: what about the smoker’s right? What about the non-smokers rights? What about the green party’s rights, what about the Republicans rights? What about the rights of democrats. We all have rights. That is not what it means to vote my fellow Americans.
Voting is not an instrument to justify personal habits and personal needs and addictions we inflict upon ourselves. Voting is for mature citizens of our great country. It is your mature, righteous vote that will determine the results of one nations effort to unite justice for all Americans. Just as the late, President Kennedy said: In your hands, my fellow citizen, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.
On November 4, 2008, All Americans will be summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty! Your vote is more than just an action to elect our next President of the United States. It is packaged like the seed of the great Sequoia plus more. The moment you cast your vote, the package will sprout, root and grow, to change the course of your history, and will forever, exist, counted.
The change we seek will require all neighbors to join Democratic Party to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. Like Kennedy, Obama personifies humility, and the righteousness of a great leader. He has demonstrated he will not negotiate out of fear, and will not fear to negotiate for the change we need.
Martin Luther King reminded America of the fierce urgency of now, so I remind you. Now is the time to make real promises of democracy! Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice! Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. Now is the time for change! It is your time, with your hands to vote for Barack Obama!
We should not allow racism to lead us to distrust of all people. The change we seek is self-evidence that all our presence here today gives proof we have come to realize that our destiny is their destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom
Now our dreams are their dreams!
Our hopes are their hopes!
This is the vision of the Martin Luther King I know!
This is Americas dream!
America is a great nation.
The change we seek will come true!
We will all sing the words of the great Martin Luther king!
Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire!
Let freedom ring from the land of Lincoln
Let freedom ring from Minnesota
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we all allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men, and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free to change!
I know this will be true for all Americans.
A few weeks ago, I was twigged between two stones. On my right a heavy stone sinking with a sadly call from the voice of my mother, asking me to persuade the white police office from harassing my sister, and the office claiming there was a warrant out for her arrest. The calls kept coming only this time with a shrieking voice of my mother just two hours before mid night, telling me a prejudice principle that was in charge of an elementary school which my niece attended called her home while the kids were sound a sleep.
She said the principle told her my niece of age eleven threatens to bring a gun to school to harm other students. My mother knew this could not be true because my mother does not own a gun and my niece has never seen a weapon that would deliver such a destruction. A third call, all with in one week after moving to Lino Lakes Minnesota. My mother’s voice filled with no hope tells me that my younger brother was pulled over by the police, they suspended his license.
Now it is very difficult for him to get to work. Public transportation does not operate hours convenient for him.
Later that week I found out, they were subjects of authorities loyal to racism, born of darkness, haters of right, relentless haters in their efforts to destroy a changing America.
On the other side swells a stone so great, breathing is complicated for me, because on this side presses against me calls from every direction of our nation, Americans calling upon me to fight for their Civil Liberties, Black, White, Latino, Italian, Russian, Polish, and so on and on, and on. The cries are endless. I feel mangled, broken, torn.
I felt it would be easier for me to die than to decide. I could only think about how many sons and daughter are challenged with similar decisions. I thought, God, why have you given me these burdens. What have I not done to please you? I thought; Lord, you can’t be serious to expect me to challenge this path of anger, prejudice, hateful taunts, and Civil Liberties of an entire nation.
The burdens were so heavy I fell asleep just thinking about it. When I woke up, I called the school and the words just flowed. Then I realized while I was asleep the lord made his words mine. He made the most difficult decision of my life courage! I realized what just happened. I was changed. Now I believe change is the will of God. And that was all the courage I needed. That is all the courage you need to vote righteously. Pray to your God and he will inspire you to make the right choice.
Meanwhile, find your way to www.obama.com. Explore the wealth of information to learn more than you need to know about your candidate Barack Obama and the hopeful new vice President Joe Biden. Learn about them as much as you can, just as I have done. You will learn just as I have learned, their voices are real and their actions are inspiring.
Their will is Gods’ will. They seek change for righteousness to rain upon all of Gods’ children. They have summoned God Almighty to share the wealth with all of Gods’ children and not just a few. Their prayers are righteous prayers.
Although I have never met Obama, he is my mentor, my inspiration, and my political advisor. Obama is real to me. He will be forever welcomed in my home. He is my friend; he is my brother’s keeper.
Thank you Barack for awakening my sleep. Thank you for motivating me to respond to Gods voice. For he has inspired me to help you, help America live the right change.
Sincerely,
Marcail Parker
Gocachi LLC
Yesterday I spoke of two commentators who are telling lies on our local TV station - Channel 69 in the Lehigh Valley. They are Dick Dean and Donald Barnhouse. Their commentary is as bad as McCain's paid ads.
They were at it again today. Today it was "Obama is going to raise the taxes. He's definitely going to raise the taxes. He said he was going to raise the taxes."
And today I was out canvassing Neighbor to Neighbor. The woman I spoke to said she changed parties to vote for Hillary. She was a Republican. But now she is voting for McCain. She repeated every lie in McCain's ads and the lies that Dick Dean and Donald Barnhouse are telling. She actually said that "and Obama doesn't have the experience because he has only worked 143 days in the Senate." And I said you must have been listening to Dick Dean and Donald Barnhouse. I heard them say that yesterday." She denied this and I said "you mean you counted the days he's worked in the Senate."
So I told her if she really wanted to know what Obama did in the Senate she could go on her computer to www.senate.gov and read about all the bills and laws he helped pass, etc. But she didn't want to hear that and repeated what Palin said in her speech at the RNC - that he hasn't authored one law, which I told her was untrue, etc.
She also said Obama was going to raise the Capital Gains Taxes and it wasn't just the wealthy that would be taxed. She said she got a small inheritance and the Capital Gains Tax would wipe her out. She seemed totally brainwashed by the McCain ads and everything the Republicans are putting out to get McCain elected and to sway the vote in his favor. She was wild-eyed, ranting and raving, and waving her arms around. Well why is McCain doing this to the American people? It is horrible. He is lying and his followers become brainwashed and repeat his lies. I hope we won't have four more years of lying in the White House. How could it be anything else if they are elected and they are running their campaign with lies.
Now I heard that McCain is at it again with another demeaning ad about how Obama is going to raise the taxes.
I found two good articles about Obama's tax plan and McCain's Lies:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Barack_Obama_Tax_Reform.htm
www.newsweek.com/id/159586
Barack Obama could just as easily have put out an ad about how McCain is going to raise the taxes.
This seems to be the ugliest Presidential campaign I've ever witnessed. I never saw a presidential hopeful before that was being overtly attacked like this. I don't think campaigns were run this dirty back in the good old days. I remember being about 9 or 10 years old when Adlai Stevenson was running against Dwight D. Eisenhower. My dad was all for Stevenson and kept talking about what a wonderful President he would be. But living out in the country in Pennsylvania, all most all my schoolmates were little Republicans. I was the lonely Democrat in the bunch. We had those mock elections in the classroom to teach us about voting. Well Adlai Stevenson didn't make it. And I was sad about it. I keep being afraid that this will be another Adlai Stevenson/Dwight D. Eisenhower election. Let's hope not. I will be more than sad if Barack Obama is not our next president, because it was awful losing John Kennedy and then Bobby Kennedy and then Martin Luther King Jr. when I was in my early twenties. I keep hoping the dream will be realized in Barack Obama - the dream we lost with these great men when they were gunned down and taken from us.
Back in August 1963, Washington, D.C. closed all of its liquor stores and prohibited the sale of alcohol in the belief that over 100,000 crazy Black folks were going to descend on the district, get drunk and create all kinds of mayhem. Police officers were equipped with riot gear. White women were warned that because so many Black men were coming to town, they needed to be cautious about possibly being raped. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was not seen as the love fest that we see it as now. It was viewed as a recipe for disaster and mayhem. Importantly, most major newspapers did not mention Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. At that time, that speech was not seen as particularly exceptional. Time has aged it and the nation well. I was approximately two years and eight months old; Barack Obama was exactly two years old. We are the first generation of Black Americans who would be one part witness, and one part recipient of the kind of opportunities that M. L envisioned for peoples of color. Time does bring about change.
As Barack gave his monumental address, I thought about Fannie Lou Hamer again. Hamer was a Black woman from Mississippi who organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that arrived with its own legally elected delegates at the Democratic Party’s 1964 convention. A few years earlier in 1962, Hamer was arrested after registering to vote, taken to a jail cell, and beaten so severely there that she suffered permanent kidney damage. So disfigured from her torture, for weeks she would not even allow members of her own family to see her out of the fear that one of them would become so angry they would retaliate against her captors and subsequently get themselves killed. She made the decision to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party after meeting young black college students (who made up a majority of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s membership) traveling throughout the South spent their summer vacations educating Black citizens about their voting rights.
Hamer recognized that many counties in Mississippi held a Black majority. She believed that even she, a sharecropper with a sixth grade education, could make a difference. Hamer’s testimony on August 22, 1964 before the Democratic Conventions’ Credentials Committees was so emotional that news networks made the decision to cut away from it. Fortunately, her voice and words are preserved for future generations in numerous biographies and sound archives. (Visit: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fannielouhamercredentialscommittee.htm to hear her statement in its entirety.) When Hamer spoke to the DNC’s Credentials Committee about why the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates should be seated, I was three years and eight months old; a few weeks earlier Barack Obama had celebrated his third birthday.
I have made references to how old we were for a reason. It has been during our lifetimes that these epic changes have occurred. In a span of less than fifty years Black Americans have gone from being beaten and killed for daring to register to vote to a moment when one Black man has become a nominee for President of the United States. As I listened to Barack’s speech this past Thursday August 28, 2008, he invoked a rather forgotten section of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech when he said that, “we cannot turn back.” I am glad that Barack chose that section to highlight.
What we have witnessed has been earned. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and countless others are not here in the flesh to see this moment. Yet they made the down payment on this moment. It was never their speeches and statements that mattered most, but rather their willingness to go to jail, risk being shot at, bombed, fired from their jobs, along with their efforts to politically organize their neighbors that made what we witnessed on August 28, 2008 possible. They literally gave their lives. It is my sincere hope that none of the folks younger than I will ever have to endure what those who have gone before them have endured. But it is also my sincere hope that none of those who are younger than myself ever forget that they too may be called to extreme moments of sacrifice, particularly in the next few months before November 4, 2008. May we all remember that “we cannot turn back,” and “we cannot walk alone.”
Copyright © 2008 by Leslye J Allen
I have been beset with calls and inquiries as to where and how I will be watching Senator Obama's acceptance speech tonight. Mainly because some know I did some work during the primary season and I guess figured I would have been in Denver by now.
Finances and a lack of available leave time have kept me here in NYC. As to how or where I will be watching, contrary to what many I guess are choosing to do, I am not going to a watch party although I am aware of there being several going on in the area.
No I am actually going to go home from aforementioned job, and call my mom, put her and my grandmother(her mom) on speakerphone, and watch/listen along with them.
My mom and grandmom live in South Carolina, for pretty much the same reasons I couldn't go to Denver, I can't get down to watch along with them in person. However the opportunity to include them in some way in what is going to be an incredible, moment in this country's history is too good to even think about passing up.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I won't have to miss out on what will be a very poignant moment as three generations sit and watch Senator Obama bring things full circle. You see my mother was actually present when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. My mother has always been whether out of necessity or choice - very progressive and active in the community. Not so much of late but I remember my mothers discourses on government and the way things being done and they stayed with me to this day. It is what motivated me to schlep down to SC for the primaries there and to volunteer what little time I could to the campaign and ultimately to set up a memorial fundraiser in my son's name.
So tonight we all will watch together - separated by distance but united in seeing a dream come to fruition.
A recent contributor claims that, unlike some of our nation’s finest leaders, Barack Obama does not back up his words with action, and instead represents a generic study in political opportunism.
Audaciously, the author enshrines some of our finest proponents of democracy; Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Martin Luther King Jr., ostensibly praising their efforts at reform, to sing praises for presidential hopeful John McCain, a conservative republican and general ally to most of the rank and file opportunists who have driven this country to ruin over the past two terms.
As Abe Lincoln would say, perhaps this argument, “is but a specious and fantastical arrangement of words by which a man can prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse.”
Barack Obama has run one of the most principled and forthright campaigns we have seen in national politics to date. Unlike McCain, he is willing to set high standards and meet them, time and time again. America should take pride in having a diligent, enlightened and hardworking candidate so close to achieving our highest office. I would urge voters to forfeit their biases and help see to it that this man carries these qualities to the White House and the helm of national leadership in November.
Edward D. Robbins
Hillary Clinton:
Remember this?
POSTED: 2:55 pm EDT May 27, 2008UPDATED: 3:57 pm EDT May 27, 2008
ATLANTA -- Shielded from the bright Atlanta sun by her mother's hand, Yolanda Renee King went home on Tuesday.
Yolanda is the daughter of Martin Luther King III and his wife Arndrea Waters King; the little girl is the first grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Yolanda was born on Sunday at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. The newborn was named in memory of her aunt, Yolanda Denise King, who passed away in May 2007.
"There are no words to express how much we appreciate all of the well wishes and prayers we have received," her parents said in a release. "We would like to thank everyone for their loving thoughts during this special time in our lives."
Mother and daughter were released from the hospital on Tuesday.
A beaming Martin Luther King III wheeled his wife outside to show off Yolanda to members of the media. Squinting in the bright sun and wrapped in a blanket, the little girl slept through her first meeting with reporters and photographers.
sLIDESHOW: http://www.wsbtv.com/slideshow/news/16404972/detail.html.
Yes her did sleep through her first interview, and they better not dare wake her up either! LOL!!!
I received this letter from Rev. Joseph Lowery and I thought that it was worth sharing
Dear Mrs. Miller;
I have walked this earth now for many a mile and many a year, and there are times when it seems like every step of the way. I've been told to wait. I walked from Selma to Montgomery and beyond with Martin Luther King, Jr--and even the sincerest of people often greeted our struggle for civil rights with a plea for patience.
"You're right, " they'd say, "but the timing isn't. Couldn't you wait just a bit?"
I walked in Dr. King's footsteps after his assassination, assuming the helm of the SCLC and marching for an end to the war in Vietnam. And politicians told us, "We know this war is a disaster, but the political climate isn't right for ending it. You'll have to wait." Today, I am proud to march alongside one of the most inspiring leaders our country has seen in a generation. His name is Barack Obama, and he holds out the promise of a new politics steeped in possibility. And once more, we're hearing that tired old refrain.
"Yes," the skeptics say of Barack, "he surely is an extraordinary leader. And yes, he most certainly was right to oppose the war in Iraq back when other politicians were backing it blindly. And, why, of course he's right about all those aching and unmet needs here at home. But he hasn't spent enough time in Washington, D.C. "Why doesn't he wait?"
Well, in most respects, I've grown more patient with age--but this time around, I hope you won't begrudge me an old man's sense of urgency amid fading time, when I tell you: I'm too old to wait.
I'm too old--and too many young lives are at risk--to wait for sanity to prevail and this disastrous war in Iraq to end. Only Barack Obama had the foresight and fortitude to oppose it from the very beginning. And only Barack has shown backbone sufficient to detail a specific plan to bring every last one of our troops home within a year.
I'm too old--and too many of our neighbors are hungry and ill--to wait for someone to deal with America's twin crises of proverty and health care. These are national shames in a nation of abundance and plenty, and Barack will tackle them with the urgency they demand. I'm too old to wait for bold leadership on global warming, on education and opportunity here at home, on genocide in Darfur and AIDS in Africa, on the many issues our politics seem too small to confront. I'm too old to wait for a politics enlivened by possibility, a politics broad and deep enough to accommodate both our needs and our dreams.
I'm too old, in short, to wait for Barrack Obama to be President of the United States.
Now, I hope you won't misunderstand. I may have walked many a mile and many a year, but these legs of mine are willing to walk many miles farther--as many as it takes to see our country's promise of hope made real. But I'm old enough to know that when people are suffering, patience is no virture. It's urgency that this moment demands.
For the choice we face is urgent. It is the hope and change Barack Obama offers--or what John McCain proposes; giving George W. Bush's failed policies, from Iraq to the economy, another four years. It is up to you and me to ensure Barrack has the resources both to talk with Americans about these choices and to respond to the attacks that, sadly, we know will continue.
If you're content to wait for change, this moment may not feel as urgent as it does for me. Buti I know you're not. I know you know that America can't afford to wait. Neither can this campaign. That's why I hope you'll join me in rushing a generous contribution--the most generous you can possibly afford--to Obama for American.
I wouldn't ask you to do this just for one man who's too old to wait. I'm asking you to stand with Barack for a country that's facing too many challenges--and too many opportunities--to wait for the bold and hopeful leadership Barack Obama offers. Please respond today
Sincerely;
Joseph Lowery
Senator Hillary Clinton is every bit as opposite to the idea of change that Mr. Barack Obama brings to washington politics. Mrs. Clinton represents everything that is old and wrong for America’s future, and consequently the world at large. John Edwards on the other hand seems to be calm and collected as is Mr. Obama and would - in my humble opinion - be a great asset to this campaign and a great Vice President. Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards look very presidential together. http://keepobama.com/color-blind-the-dream/
Bobby Kennedy delivers the terrible news of MLK's death.
Senator Obama was in Indianapolis today; the fortieth anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King. Another democratic candidate was campaigning in Indianapolis forty years ago today, and delivered this statement to a crowd that had gathered. His name was Robert F. Kennedy.
Rare, that two great leaders come to the forefront of a Nation at the same time - as was the case in MLK and RFK. Rarer still that a Nation would produce a candidate forty years later, that embodies the spirit and essence of both men.
The cynical would say this is not coincidental but merely a campaign ploy. Others like me, know, this candidate is the one that will fulfill the ideals, values, and freedom for all people, and move forward the work began by these great men.
To end a war, promote racial unity, and draw a nation together in hope during a troubled time; that we may each fulfill our destiny, that we may together fulfill the destiny of the United States and Human kind.
Call me a dreamer - well, I'm not the only one, and I hope some day they will join us.
YES THEY CAN
Today Dr. Cornel West posted on the huffington post a disagreement he has about Barack not going to Memphis today to lay a wreath at Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial service. You may read his post by clicking below my response. Here is my response to him:
I'm deeply disappointed that my dear brother Dr. Cornel West equates going to Memphis and laying a wreath for the great Martin Luther King, Jr with one's profound love and deep sacrifice for black people, America and humanity. Dr. West fails to call out MCCain, who went to Memphis, yet has consistently voted against what Martin Luther King Jr symbolized. Dr. West fails to call out for an examination of Hillary's claim that she threw her book bag across her room in College when she heard of King's death. Dr. West fails to realize that, as docpooh said in his comments here, "Barack is the embodiment of what Dr. King stood for. He doesn't have to prove anything to me or any other person who understands that his message IS Dr. King's message. And IMHO I think Dr. King would've thought that showing up at this one day anniversary event to profess one's dedication to equal rights means little in itself". Dr West fails to see Barack's "deep commitment to unarmed truth and unconditional love" displayed in his message to America and the world. Dr. West is showing us that he would equate patriotism with wearing an American flag lapel on one's chest. Dr. West is showing us that he equates commitment to America with honoring George Washington. Hence, I have a very deep disagreement with my dear brother, Dr. Cornel West -- in this case, commitment to truth is in tension with the quest for being published.
Dr. West's Post on Huffington Post.
On April 4th 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. paid the ultimate price for change. On this 40th aniversary let us take a pause to review how far we have come in the battle for equality, and quality life for all people. In Memphis sanatation workers still don't have decent benefits. In my community (St. Petersburg, FL) black on black violence has spiked out of control. All across America muslim children are bullied at school, and gays still don't have the basic human right to marry. Our economy is headed for a major recession, with home prices dropping, and gas headed for $4.00 a gallon by summer.
While Florida's state budget is in the toliet, our state law makers are more concerned about stricter abortation laws, creationism, and private school vouchers. Our Federal government lead by Bush is so focused on victory in Irag, they are spending over $100 a month per American household on the war. While our fine soldiers give there lives for this senseless war there families here at home struggle to put gas in there cars.
We are in the process of electing our first African-American president, but we still have a long road ahead of us, we all need to reaffirm our efforts to assure that America is the Promised Land that King dreamed of, with equality and a quality life for all people. Yes we can!
As an instructor of History at a local junior college and a doctoral student of History, my perspective is well, historical. What follows is my own reflection of Obama's significance as a part of an important legacy.
My cousin Candace, an author and screenwriter (visit her blog at: http://www.blackexpat4obama.com) who has dual citizenship, is a member of Americans Abroad for Obama in London. She sent me an email asking if Andrew Young had made any comments about Hillary Clinton’s excessive emphasis on late President Lyndon B. Johnson’s contribution to the passage of the sixties’ civil rights legislation. I sent her a reply, giving details about Andy’s apparent silence and some of the goings on in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia with regard to Barack Obama. She later informed me that she forwarded my email and that it had actually inspired a few folks. An edited version—leaving out our discussion about replacing furnaces—appears below in bold.
What I can tell you is that Hillary Rodham Clinton assumed that by painting LBJ as the single engineer of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts implied that Black folks need the right White president to get things done. I have not heard what Andy has said about this. I can tell you that the 'Old Guard' leadership does not speak for the vast majority of Black folks and White folks under and over 60. Andy, Charles Rangel, and John Lewis are expecting some favors from the Clinton camp should she win the nomination and the presidency; that is why they are supporting Hillary. Barack does not owe them anything. This fact has been brought up every day on nationally syndicated Black talk radio shows here in Atlanta.
FYI: Obama headquarters in ATL has a throng of little old black ladies, little old white ladies, little old white men, little old black men, 20-something black and white women and men, 30-somethings, 40-somethings, etc. And we have a wall with the tallies of college participation with Morehouse College students in the lead for the most donations and volunteers. The sister who cuts my hair has Obama signs all over her hair salon. And since I do not teach on Thursdays, I arrived today for a haircut just in time to have a lively conversation with City Councilman Jim Maddox's wife, along with the wives of several Black ministers who have said, "Enough is enough." Muriel, whose last name I have already forgotten, said plainly, "If for some reason, God-forbid, Barack does not make it, then I am going down with him." They and their husbands have pledged their support to Obama, as did Mayor Shirley Franklin. A legion of them are now headed to South Carolina.
Things are thick and shifting every damn minute in Atlanta. But Obama fever is on the rise. My last phone call to a potential voter turned out to be a Black man who said he was seventy-five-years-old. I asked if he minded telling me whom he planned to vote for in the Democratic Primary on February 5th. He said, "Come on now, you don't even need to ask! You know it's Obama. And please tell me what the hell is wrong with Andy and John Lewis?!!" I love it!
I had my moment this morning when it hit me that M. L., born in Atlanta, armed with a Ph.D., eloquent in speech, mighty with a pen, led a bus boycott in Montgomery at the ripe old age of 26. Activist E. D. Nixon chose him, precisely because he was young, inexperienced, and unattached to Montgomery's white power structure. Then I thought about Maynard, cherub-faced and 35-years-old, walking into City Hall as Mayor, when it had been argued that he was too young, too Black, and too inexperienced to lead the city of Atlanta. I cried in the car as it dawned on me how much I missed both of them. Then I thought about Barack Obama; then I thought about my favorite quote by M. L. where he said, "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."
YES WE CAN!! http://www.youtube.com/WeCan08
Copyright © 2008 by Leslye J. Allen
Clarence Jones wrote a piece that brings together recent commentary by Gloria Steinam and statements by Hillary and Bill Clinton:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-b-jones/clinton-vs-obama-lest-w_b_81667.html
A timely piece for Martin Luther King Jr. day arguing that Steinem ignores the reality of African American experience from the Middle Passage until today and the Clintons' comments demean the history of African American struggle for rights.
Jones surmises that "... the Clinton presidential campaign's apparent blind ambition for power runs the risk of destroying Clinton's reservoir of earned political integrity and affection among black people."
