Mohammed Nasaruddin Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Obama is exactly what America needs. YES WE CAN! i love you brother
Danny Murphy Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
You have brought unity to a world divided by politics. You have revived hope to those who have given up. You have proven that in a world ruled by racism, under our masks, we all looks alike. You have shined the light on the bottomless tunnel and saved me. You have pulled me out and made me realize that there are no second chances in life, but that’s why your’e special. You gave this world a second chance to finally come together and unite as one people, not just as one nation, but as one entire human race. You have brought a hope that toghether we can save this beautiful world created by God’s purity. My brother, you are the band-aid on a healing world and soon enough it wont be ‘yes we CAN’, but it will be ‘yes we did’
Rick Jordan Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
This is reality without false hood, real life, real people, we are all family, the human family, thank you for your unselfish feelings and expressions!
adriana Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 12:02 am
As a Canadian, I saw the speech and I was so touched. Let this be healing for America both blacks and whites. This is truly a path on the road to “change”
Wake up Americans. Don’t let this opportunity pass. Wake up!! You should be proud of this moment …what history.
tina Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Well done Obama, well done.
Roger Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am
This is the time to come together as a people. We are all in this together, we must work and strive to have the same things in life
Cat Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Thank you Barack Obama! Thank you for your sincerity and for being brave enough to tell us the truth, even though it may be difficult for us to face. Thank you for using the truth as a tool to bring us all together rather than divide us further. I am so proud to be an Obama supporter. Before this speech I was so hopeful … now that hope is overwhelming.
If anyone can bring this country together, you can!
sj6medica Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I am almost speechless with emotion. I cried yesterday and I’m almost there again. It brings tears to my eyes to read not just his speech, but peoples responses to his speech. It is good to know that we can come together not only in the face of tragedy, but in joy of humanity, irregardless of color or nationality.
LV Duckworth Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 11:45 am
This man, Barack Obama with this speech has once again proved:
This is more than a movement of hope.
This is a movement of understanding, an understanding that a better America, the America of our dreams, can only be achieved through the application of ethical and moral conduct, through the acceptance of our diversity and a willingness to use that diversity for the improvement of us all.
EL Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
very much needed. right on time. i am so impressed with how sen. obama was not afriad to deal with issues that no other candidate has even attempted to touch. he has already provedn himself to me- but this is further testimony of his readiness for leadership. way to set an example of how political discourse can happen…WELL DONE!! OBAMA 08!
marilyn says Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
this speech was right on target. i am so proud to be apart of this new movement of change. obama is like a breathe of fresh air .he has my vote and support. thank-you thank-you.
Dave Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Wow!!!! Are you real people or Obama campaign workers trying to give me the warm and fuzzies? And if you are real people maybe you need to put down the x-tast, pot, crtstal meth, and any prescription drugs you have taken or stolen, move out of your parents basement and get off the government cheese. Get out there, get a job, pay taxes for ten years or more and then get back to me on this starry eyed bs your gobbling up with both hands.
Ken Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 1:19 am
It is obvious that Obama’s speech and movement is affecting all Americans. Some are affected in a positive way and some in apparently a very negative way. The negatively effected ones nay say out of fear because they believe they have never suffered; been a victim of prejudice; or discrimination and don’t want their situation to change. What they don’t realize is that they are on the same plantation where government cheese is issued. They are used as pawns to feed discrimination, prejudice, and suffering. Their reward is to remain on the positive side of the economic bubble. Slaves used to call them house servants. “I could have freed more if I could have just convinced them they were slaves”. Once their usefulness can no longer be quantified by the current economic structure, their job goes overseas; home forecloses; schools lose programs, they will realize that they are not the “haves” but rather the “have gots”. As the infrastructure below them erodes, the doors that used to say Whites Only now say Green Only. Our struggle is universal to all Americans now and Obama has at least been honest enough to put it out there for all of us to see.
Dhij Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Dave are you a prejudiced dummy or what? Many of Obama’s supporters, including myself, do have jobs and pay taxes. We live, we learn, and we love. We don’t make assumptions on someone’s life based on who they support and then try to demean a person or diminish their accomplishments. I don’t even think there is such a thing as government cheese anymore. So you put down the drugs you abuse and let go of the hatred and prejudice in your heart.
Dave Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
sorry there haji, I was at work earning your check at 2:30. Prejudiced yes, but I am an equal opportunity offender. I hate stupid people like you. I don’t care what color you are. Most of you are in violation of the law. Darwin’s law that is. You espouse “free choice”. Of course you narrowly relegate it to abortion. When we try to get “free choice” for education, retirement, medical, taxes, the second amendment, and many more which you liberals vehemently deny us. You use your activist judges to go against the will of the majority. And you are in the same camp with the spineless city government of berkley. You don’t like my words, yet I am the one on the wall protecting your first amendment rights. We in the military despise you. You sleep comfortably under the blanket of freedom we provide you, wake up in the morning and stab us in the back with your anti-war protests and your anti-war candidate. Your “lack of unity” with us is what had drug this war on. Your protesting against this war has run up the casualties. Your crying about waterboarding is why I have dead friends. You embolden them to hold out just a little longer, to kill one more Marine or soldier. They chant “Yes We Can!!!!” because you say we can’t. You give them the “Audacity of Hope”, because with all your talk of unity and change you give them the courage to pull the trigger one more day. You give them comfort and aid. Liberals are the most devise intolorant lot I have ever had the displeasure to deal with. This Christmas while you celebrate with your friends and family know that I will be on my way to relieve my brothers in arms who are in harms way. Sleep well I will be there for you and your ilk.
Tom Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Hey Dave,
Good thing you are relieving these supposed brothers in arms.
Because you are one very angry man that needs an outlet.
Matt Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Obama’s speech was good, but people like Dave, who claim a mental superiority in regards to others, and provide no support for the ideas they propose I just cannot understand. Good for you for being in the military and makuing something with your life, but supposting an unpopular, illegal war is not the smart thing to do for America. It is with a reason that America’s standing in the world has fallen to all time lows.
It is the insane spending on the war and foreign policy that buries the economy under huge deficit….
Obama transmits a message of hope, of change in the way politics are carried out in Washington, and after the current administration all change is welcomed.
Lockett Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 1:09 am
Never mind the war in Iraq, never mind Iran’s increasing hostility toward the USA, never mind government corruption - the real issue is race!
Race my butt. It would beat Obama in a race anyway. Has anybody actually noticed the fact that Obama hasn’t actually said ANYTHING about ANY of his positions, except that he stands for “change” and “hope”? Heck, I stand for change and hope. Do I have the political prowess needed to run a country? NO - otherwise, I’d run for the presidency. Seriously, Obama has the weakest platform that I’ve ever seen in an election. He doesn’t say WHAT he’s going to change, he doesn’t say HOW he’s going to change it, and he doesn’t even say WHY it even needs to be changed in the first place!
None of these commenters even approach sanity. On one end, there are the people like Danny Murphy who think that Obama’s a god on earth, and, on the other end, there are people like Dave who think that anybody who supports Obama is a retard and should be shot. Then, there’s the apocalyptic prophet Matt, who says that Bush is practically Satan for outing Saddam Hussein(I agree that the war in Iraq has been dragged out past its expiration date, but one less dictator is one better country), and that he has also managed to drive the American economy into the ground(never mind that it’s loads better than it was under Clinton). If he wants a REAL inept president, he should check out Carter.
Why am I the only one who recognizes that Obama is nothing more than political hyperbole with a lot of style and zero substance? Why am I the only one who even tries to be objective, who even bothers to honestly question Obama’s ideas and character, who is actually skeptical without being stupid?
Dave Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 3:59 am
get it right lockett, I do despise these morons for their rank and file stupidity over a broad platform of hope, which as you point out has absolutely no substinance whatsoever, I will protect them, their freedom of speech(no matter how absurd), their freedom to insult me, and their families so can sleep at night. I don’t want to shoot them but I do despise them. Most liberals in general believe the world should be a garden of Eden, yet denounce religion ( mainly Christianity) yet run wild eyed into the streets to bow at the alter of some vague idea of hope and change. Everytime I hear the mantra three things come to mind: Jonestown, Waco, and heaven’s gate. Hope is a great thing, but as with anything, should be taken in moderation. The more you lap it up the worse the hangover will be when you find out that obama isn’t the be all and end all savior of the world.
You cry about illegal war this illegal war that. Do you have the mental capacity to understand that you are just repeating the liberal anti-war sentiment. Unity is also a convenient slogan. You people couldn’t agree with a conservative on the color of shit if you were neck deep in it. Had the liberals put all their animosity for President Bush into taking truly unified stand in Iraq we would most likely be alot further along. Instead you want to subvert and play the game of gotcha at every opportunity. Now you roll out unity and change for 08. Where were you five years ago?
Tom this is my outlet. Matt you are as dumb as a post. And I apologize to posts everywhere. You claim I don’t support any of my ideas( I did ) and yet end you argument with “obama transmits a message of hope and change”. Where the f**k is the support for that? Because he said so?
For those of you concerned about war costs. Cost of one aircraft carrier per day to maintain operation southern watch: one million per day for 10 years. Oh and for those of you that think this war has lasted too long: we still have troops in Bosnia from when bill sent them in the mid 90’s.
For those of you on the cusp of conversion:
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem. Ronald Reagan-1985
Freedom isn’t free, but don’t worry the Marines will pay most of you share. Ned Dolan
Marines die. That’s what we’re here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever. That means you live forever. GnySgt R Lee Ermy as GnySgt Hartman. Full Metal Jacket-1987
DetroitRedd Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 11:39 am
I thought the speech was excellent. I t hink it was unfair that you have to give a speech on remarks that were not your own but rather someone whom you have grown to trust and admire. What happened to Freedom of Speech? I don’t think you nor Pastor Wright would have been scrutinized if you weren’t black. I’m waiting to see what other dirty tricks are going be pulled.
God Bless You Obama! Keep your head up!
Lockett Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
To Dave:
“get it right lockett, I do despise these morons for their rank and file stupidity over a broad platform of hope, which as you point out has absolutely no substinance whatsoever, I will protect them, their freedom of speech(no matter how absurd), their freedom to insult me, and their families so can sleep at night. I don’t want to shoot them but I do despise them. Most liberals in general believe the world should be a garden of Eden, yet denounce religion ( mainly Christianity) yet run wild eyed into the streets to bow at the alter of some vague idea of hope and change. Everytime I hear the mantra three things come to mind: Jonestown, Waco, and heaven’s gate. Hope is a great thing, but as with anything, should be taken in moderation. The more you lap it up the worse the hangover will be when you find out that obama isn’t the be all and end all savior of the world.
You cry about illegal war this illegal war that. Do you have the mental capacity to understand that you are just repeating the liberal anti-war sentiment. Unity is also a convenient slogan. You people couldn’t agree with a conservative on the color of shit if you were neck deep in it. Had the liberals put all their animosity for President Bush into taking truly unified stand in Iraq we would most likely be alot further along. Instead you want to subvert and play the game of gotcha at every opportunity. Now you roll out unity and change for 08. Where were you five years ago?
Tom this is my outlet. Matt you are as dumb as a post. And I apologize to posts everywhere. You claim I don’t support any of my ideas( I did ) and yet end you argument with “obama transmits a message of hope and change”. Where the f**k is the support for that? Because he said so?
For those of you concerned about war costs. Cost of one aircraft carrier per day to maintain operation southern watch: one million per day for 10 years. Oh and for those of you that think this war has lasted too long: we still have troops in Bosnia from when bill sent them in the mid 90’s.
For those of you on the cusp of conversion:
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem. Ronald Reagan-1985
Freedom isn’t free, but don’t worry the Marines will pay most of you share. Ned Dolan
Marines die. That’s what we’re here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever. That means you live forever. GnySgt R Lee Ermy as GnySgt Hartman. Full Metal Jacket-1987″
See, that’s my problem with your comments. You regard people who don’t agree with you as subhuman, as being “dumber than posts”. You despise them, regarding them as the scum of the earth. I, on the other hand, feel pity for people so easily swayed by the charisma of one man - it’s like Hitler’s popularity in the 30s(no, I am not compariing Obama to Hitler - I am comparing their similar charisma and popularity). The truth is that they are liberals - I don’t understand that ideology, anyway, but that has no bearing on the subject - and, given the choice between the charismatic Obama or the creepy Clinton, would rather pick the former. McCain may not be entirely conservative, but he isn’t anywhere near as liberal as the Democrats. Also, I know a Marine, and he’d be ashamed of your use of that venerated military division as basis for imaginary superiority over imaginary retards.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of your opinions. It’s your presentation of them and your idea that liberals are inherently inferior that riles me. I could call it “political bigotry”.
To DetroitRedd:
“I thought the speech was excellent. I t hink it was unfair that you have to give a speech on remarks that were not your own but rather someone whom you have grown to trust and admire. What happened to Freedom of Speech? I don’t think you nor Pastor Wright would have been scrutinized if you weren’t black. I’m waiting to see what other dirty tricks are going be pulled.
God Bless You Obama! Keep your head up!”
Actually, they would be scrutinized even more if they were white. If anything, they’re being DEFENDED by the mainstream liberal media(yes, I used those words in conjunction - to distinguish it from the less-prominent conservative media).
Also, freedom of speech is law(well, unless you’re sued by the ACLU, he-he), but bigotry is bigotry. Do YOU agree with Wright’s statements? Do YOU think that they’re worth defending?
Dewey Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Dear Dave
While I respect your service to our wonderful country and the freedoms to which you help ensure; please be original in your comments and not ‘borrow’ a quote from Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men” and pretend to pass it off as your own.
Alero Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Dave appears to be yet another victim of the senseless war; might it be that you have become disillusioned dave? Anger is okay, but its how you express it that matters.
Ken Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
This line of discussion is a wonderful example of being red, white, and blue on the outside but truly being black and white on the inside. The military has been notorious for scraping the bottom tenth of our fine country and turning them into solders. Why the bottom tenth? They are the easiest to “shape” into “fine solders”. It is easy to judge people struggling everyday when you live inside a protected system. There is a saying about Marines they are the first to go and the last to know. Making judgments about a group of people based on fed information and propaganda is what strangles his country now. If you really want to know about government cheese recipients, go to census.gov and get real answers. Formulate real solutions. When you are allowed to be a house servant under the red, white, and blue; you are fighting for freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy. Many solders are on welfare because they came home to NOTHING. They get up to nothing. The economy and bassackwards government left them nothing. Be angry about that. Spread prejudice about that. One thing we know about history is the house servant never had the courage to tell the master what’s wrong. Not even when it comes to other house servants……Be a real solder for the truth and don’t let distraction impede the defense of true liberty. Through all of this back and forth school yard discussion has anyone noticed that eggs are still 4 dollars a dozen. Propaganda tastes good depending on the point of view meat and eggs taste better from everyone’s point of view. This must change. YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE!
Lockett Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
To Ken:
“This line of discussion is a wonderful example of being red, white, and blue on the outside but truly being black and white on the inside. The military has been notorious for scraping the bottom tenth of our fine country and turning them into solders. Why the bottom tenth? They are the easiest to “shape” into “fine solders”. It is easy to judge people struggling everyday when you live inside a protected system. There is a saying about Marines they are the first to go and the last to know. Making judgments about a group of people based on fed information and propaganda is what strangles his country now. If you really want to know about government cheese recipients, go to census.gov and get real answers. Formulate real solutions. When you are allowed to be a house servant under the red, white, and blue; you are fighting for freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy. Many solders are on welfare because they came home to NOTHING. They get up to nothing. The economy and bassackwards government left them nothing. Be angry about that. Spread prejudice about that. One thing we know about history is the house servant never had the courage to tell the master what’s wrong. Not even when it comes to other house servants……Be a real solder for the truth and don’t let distraction impede the defense of true liberty. Through all of this back and forth school yard discussion has anyone noticed that eggs are still 4 dollars a dozen. Propaganda tastes good depending on the point of view meat and eggs taste better from everyone’s point of view. This must change. YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE!”
I couldn’t make head or tail of your argument. Sorry. Anyway, what kind of a word is “bassackwards”? Is it a ward used to deliver bass sacks? Or am I missing something? Also, that bilingual chant at the end is just weird.
anonymous Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Just like Obama said the distractions continue.
Dave Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Lockett,
Ken is on the kool-aid. He hates what I am and what I do. Some people philosophically don’t see a need for US service members because they believe that everything can be solved all diplomatic like. The spectrum runs from mild disagreement to extreme hate. Many cases stem from evny, due to the fact that people are just unable to make it in the military. Many have real honest disagreements and some disagree because they can’t cut it. Unfortunately, most liberals that have something to say, don’t disagree with us they hate us. They project their political hatred onto us. I honestly think that if they could get away with it, they would be waiting for us to return from overseas, not with open arms but with chants of “baby killer” and spit. Now we are called the uneducated dregs of society that are too stupid to think for ourselves. We are somehow brainwashed by propoganda. Just so you know ken, I did six years active, did two tours, and got out in 1995. I got out because bill clinton gutted the military and sank moral to all time lows. In 2007 I signed back up with the reserves and would have done it sooner if my personal life had allowed it and will be getting deployed again. My 8 year commitment has long been over. This is a personal choice, “freedom of choice” if you will. I busted my ass working from 95 to the present and own my own mildly successful business. I watched my paycheck get ripped apart to pay for entitlements I don’t think I should be responsible for. So ken…. I have lived on both sides….. There probably are veterans on welfare. I would put forth that most of them, whether they realize it or not, have choosen that life for themselves. I have never believed that my veteran status should give me a lifetime of being cared for by the government. The military was a stepping stone that taught me that hard work and determination led to fruitful results. Fortunately, I learned that growing up and the military just re-enforced that notion. Anybody, including veterans, that believe because of what they have done previously in life earns them a free ride for the rest of their lives are doomed to failure, misery, and attempting to blame others for their shortcomings.
You have the nerve to call me a house servant without looking at your own ideals. The civil rights act passed only because tof he republicans in congress at the time. Altough we have had some republican presidents over the years, both houses of gvernment were dominated by democrats for the last 40 years, with a brief republican control during the some of clinton and Bush years. Why do you feel so hopeless when the democrats have had so much power for so long? We should already be in the land of your utopia. The democrats have done nothing in the last 40 years except pit the rich against the poor and the black against the white, the haves against the have nots. The field masters jackson and sharpton have told the black community they cannot improve their lot without voting democrat and have reaped financial benefits while keeping almost an entire race on the “democrat vote plantation”. The party that gave the south and the nation the jim crowe laws transformed into the democrat party when those laws were deemed unconstitutional and found new ways to use the black community to their advantage. Instead of giving them just enough food and shelter to work the fields, the black community is being given just enough food, shelter, and hope to pull the lever for the next democrat. The old are being pitted against the young by being told that we wish to reduce or strip them of social security so that they vote democrat. In fact every group is being told they will lose something should they not vote democrat. Harry Belafonte once called Colin Powell and Condeleza Rice house servants. This is the standrd tactic of democrats; call a black person an uncle tom or house servant. They are portrayed as somehow giving into “whitey” and turning their backs on their black heritage, instead of seeing someone who has suceeded in life working toward a goal and acheving it. I found out long after Belefonte’s accusations, on the History Channel, that he long ago sang and danced for “Whitey” in Vegas and at the end of his performance was not even allowed to stay in the hotel. He was relegated to having to sleep across the tracks. Seems kind of odd that he would participate in segregation to advance his career and then lash out at people who have truly succeeded in their careers by calling them “uncle toms”. In contrast the black community has marginalized Bill Cosby who has told the black community that the government is not their be all and end all and that personal responsibility and moral strength are the hallmarks of success. The black community cannot lash out and call an icon like Bill Cosby an “uncle tom” or “field master” so they ignore him.
It is just a fundemental difference between you and me ken. I believe that the capacity for change and a better quality life is within the individual while you only believe change can be brought about from one individual that will somehow transform the masses with a speech. My hope lies within while yours rests on the election of a man to office. Now tell me again how I am a house servant easily molded by propoganda.
Lockett, see I can be nice and rational. Stupidity, however, drives me to rants that may sometimes be off point. Here is another one I posted a few days ago in another forum on this site. Let’s see if these “true believers” have any real debate or argument in them or will they just revert to “yes we can” .
Dave Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Where do I start with you sheeple,
First you are idiots. My god there should be a test before you crazy liberals are allowed to vote. It should be based on Civics, Free Enterprise, and American History at least.
First for those of you kool-aid drinkers, Ronald Reagan was the greatest American president in the 20th century. For those of you too young to remember he and George Bush handed Jimmy “what did he do?” Carter and ass whipping that failed in comparison to the rout of 1984, when he took 49 of 50 states, crushing the unstoppable hope for change that was Mondale/Ferraro. While in contrast, the perception of this greatly loved, and “first black president”, Bill Clinton won neither election with 50 percent of the vote. Now with W. in office we have to hear about how he “stole” 2 elections. Look at the numbers folks and you will see he took at least 50 percent in both elections. Quit trying to revise history.
Back to President Reagan, the man took action. Blow up a jet over Scotland and you better find a hole and stay low. In contrast you can attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993, blow up two embassies, and run a rubber boat laden with explosives into the USS Cole killing US service members and get away with it for years because it was consisered a crime paramount to armed robbery and not terrorism. Instead of taking care of business with these people the Clinton administration decided the problem was with America and that we needed to change our policy and accomodate the world so that they would love us more.
I am no fan of many things the republican party and Bush administration does, however, it is for far different reasons than the majority of the contributors here. I can agree with Obama on the need to kick the lobbyists out of Washington D.C and all 50 state capitals. That’s where the agreement stops. I disagree with the Bush administration and republicans t(hat were) in congress on numerous things: Prescription drug plan, pork barrel spending, the immigration (or lack there of) policy, and many other things(Democrats in Republican Clothing). President Ronald Reagan, as much as possible, made Americans responsible for their own actions, and many didn’t want that, they wanted handouts and when they didn’t get them blamed the government.
I am no fan of abortion. When I say that I am talking about the “no my life’s not in danger, the baby is perfectly heathy, and even though it’s my fault for making the adult decision of having unprotected sex, I really don’t care for the adult responsibilities like raising a child at this time in my life, so could you please suck it out?” crowd. The 40 million or so abortions that have been performed to date in this country speaks to the selfishness of Americans. They want the pleasure without paying the price. The worst part is that this mentality is pervasive in every aspect of liberal life. It’s always someone elses fault and there should be a mechanism to bail people out for making poor decisions whether it be buying a house or car they can’t afford to begin with, getting an abortion, trying to justify commiting a crime because of their upbringing, and the list goes on.
Back to abortion though. While I find it repulsive that the mojority of abortions are done to escape responsibility under the much better slogan “freedom of choice”, what did these people really have to teach those kids? If they believe in abortion on demand and somehow didn’t get an abortion Al Gore would most likely be president. These kids would have been taught that they are victims of the system and that only government can take care of them from the cradle to the grave. Democrats and liberals are basically commiting genocide on themselves. On the other side of the spectrum you have the “Pro-Life” people that will blow someone or something up to stop an abortion clinic in the name of “insert choice here” and yet have probably rescued more animals from the pound than adopted “unwanted children”. So basically if you fall into either catagory you people are out of touch with reality as far as I am concerned.
What has 40 million plus abortions cost the US? I would have to say 40 million or so wage earners. Why does America need so much foreign labor? 40 million dead fetuses. Why are wages going down and prices going up? Illegal Foreigen labor that will do it cheaper and uses tax payer services yet don’t pay any tax other than sales tax on what they need and sending the rest to their country of origin.
Obama WILL NOT bring jobs back to America people. I am not a big blame America first kind of person, but in this instance I have to and I am not free from blame in this either. Everytime one of us goes shopping we tell big and small business what we want with our pocketbook. If you go to the store to buy the cheapest item you can no matter where it is made, business WILL respond by giving you more of it. Every time YOU purchase a foreign made product over something MADE IN AMERICA, YOU ship that job overseas. Billions upon billion of US dollars go to CHINA and other countries every year. The Chinese have dropped their bicycles and purchased cars in record numbers and have thus had to make huge improvements to their infrastructure. What is the conseqence to pouring all this money into China? “Yes you in the back.” That’s right record high oil and gas products. To quote your great savior “It’s the economy stupid.” If you send your money to China hand over fist giving a billion people the money they need to buy cars the demand on oil goes up thus, anybody? Exactly, raises the price of gas. Yet somehow millions of Americans think that big oil is gouging us on the price of gasoline. Wise up you dumbs**ts it’s your own fault. The moral of the story is this; YOU as a consumer have far more power to “bring back jobs” to America. When you shop buy American whenever possible, if you don’t really need it don’t buy it. Every dollar you spend on a product MADE IN AMERICA is a vote for American labor and will have more effect than ANY politician telling you they will somehow solve the import and American labor problem.
Someone posted somewhere on this site that the American government is a disgrace because of it’s history. Well you need to go somewhere else a**hole. Yes America did have slavery. The dirty little secret is that tribes in Africa sold the “POW’S” of rival tribes to the Dutch traders for basically pennies not the Hollywood version of whites going of into the jungle and somehow “capturing” an entire tribe with a net. Black on Black crime over turf greatly contributed to the number of slaves available. Of course in revisionist history that part must be left out because….., well it kinda puts some of the blame on the Africans that “Just couldn’t all get along.” Many people pounding the pulpit on slavery are the same people sustaining modern day slavery. What? Yes you. See the paragraph above. Do you really think that the products you buy from third world countries aren’t in part made in “sweatshops” around the world? Do you really think slavery in America would have endured as long as it did if people used their wallets to back up their words? Well guess what slavery is still alive and well in the world and you may be contributing to it without even knowing it. Some people are forced to work in sweatshops and others do it of their own accord to take the thousand or so dollars they may make a year and support their families. Making wise informed decisions when YOU spend YOUR money puts the responsibility of American jobs and modern day slavery where it lies: WITH YOU
In a nutshell, I despise liberals telling me that they will solve all the problems and injustices in the world with the stroke of a pen. Success in America does not lie with a dominate party in the White House or Congress. It lies within all of us. It relies on us making the hard decisions to sacrifice what we want now in order to achieve what we want later. Government shold be able to go on an eleven month vacation and nobody should notice because we as individuals are handling our own responsibilities, raising our children to be responsible, and taking control of our own destiny, instead of voting for a living and relying on someone else for our own happieness in life. That is what Ronald Reagan stood for and that is why he was the greatest President of the 20th century and god willing America will get back to that mindset one day.
Dave Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
oh and ken,
If you want to cry about how the price of food is going up you need look no further than certain sects of your own party. I am by no means a degreed economist, but I do have the basic understanding of supply and demand. Follow me on this if you can. Al gore and his followers have convinced many that global warming is a man made phenomenon. Thus people believe that we can “grow” our own fuel and it is called ethanol. The dirty little secret about this bio fuel is that the resources, energy, and labor it takes to produce one gallon of ethanol is more than it takes to refine one gallon of gasoline from oil. If it say takes 2 gallons of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol then aside from slighty lower emissions from gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, where is the net gain? Now take into account how much corn is required to produce one gallon of ethanol. With the narrow view that bio fuels will save the world the supply of corn is no longer available. The lower or lack of a supply of something the higher the price. Chicken and beef farmers feed their animals what? Yes corn. So guess what. Their cost of doing business goes up. They in turn will pass the cost on to the end consumer. The same goes for any product you buy off the shelf that contains corn starch, corn syrup, etc. The cost goes up. Now if you believe these bio fuels will save the world then you shouldn’t be complaining about the costs. If you believe there is a net loss by the use of theses fuels, then you are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Higher gas prices ( see above post) also drive up the end costs of goods. Remember plastic, PVC, etc are all made from petroleum by products. If you believe that a one degree rise in the earth’s temperature spells doom for life as we know it then how do you not see billions of dollars going to third world countries impacting supply and demand on our own economy. Oh and by the way by enabling all of these third world countries to come on line as modern countries with no restrictions on pollution, if global warming is really man made, then the American consumer is the enabler to the citizens of third world countries. Again, if you don’t believe you can put a price on the environment, don’t cry to me about the higher costs of goods to the end user. I see two ways to change it. One buy American where there are some measure of environmental regulations. Two- continue to do whatever it is you do and then demand the government control the price of goods. Now you are looking at socialism or communism. I prefer the republic and free enterprise method. Unfortunately, many people don’t see the broader implications of what appears to be a good idea. The idea of a cleaner world is great. Maybe you should realize that you as consumers have more ability to change the world than any president, senator, or congressman ever can. Just look at how spending habits have done more to ship jobs overseas, increased the polluntants of third word countries, and triggered a trickle down effect of higher consumer prices across the board.
Connie R. Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I have felt exactly the way this wonderful being expressed his views in this speech for years. There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored. You can deny it all day; but until you sort out in your mind what actually happened 450 years ago - you will not come to terms with the racial divide. Barack Obama is the real deal. Regardless of his ethnicity, America can not and will not get another person of this caliber for 50 years. I believe in my soul this man is an Apostle. To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes. He is honest and his integrity level is something Americans have never experienced in a politician. We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place.
Dave Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
wow connie,
Your post is just scary on so many levels. An apostle? Others would worry that a man that can swoon millions with talk alone is the anti-christ. The man has told us about change, yet has not given us a hint as to how he will achieve this change. It is too late to disavow his pastor. What speaks volume is that he attended this church for 20 years. The comments and college thesis of his wife, the refusal to recite the pledge of allegiance or the simple act of placing his hand over his heart during it’s recital now become contextual to the argument that this man talks the talk but is not walking the walk. It is one thing to disagree with the policy of your opponent, but to not perform the simple gestures that would signal unity as an American first, speaks volumes. Your ability to rationalize 20 years of a man that attended what stongly appears to be a black separatist church without question also speaks volumes. This revelation if obama’s past has only given white supremacists the fuel they need to bolster their points of view and recruit more members. Obama’s 20 years in that environment and instead of throwing the pastor under the bus offered up his white grandmother as the sacrificial lamb instead speaks volumes. Obama has through his own actions and inactions, set this up to what it will ultimately be: an election that will decided more along racial lines than policy. There will be more revalations about this that will serve only to hurt obama’s chances. Mark my words that obama’s own family will come out swinging against him for what he did to his grandmother. How you plan to reconcile that and still support the man remains to be seen. This obama debacle could go one of two ways: it could open up the racial dialogue that some people desperately need. By that I mean the internal audit that most people need to come to grips with what makes them tick. The other outcome is even more pronounced polarization of racial lines. Unfortunately, the usual suspects are lining up on their respective sides making the latter the most likely outcome. Then you have connie who will not question this revalation and plow forward with blind devotion to the new testament book of the apostle obama. Very scary indeed.
Lockett Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I see, Dave, that you’re dead set on ranting. That’s fine with me - I agree with your opinions, if not your delivery of them. For example, we both agree that Connie’s post does have a ring of dread to it. “There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored.” Who’s willing to bet that she’s black?
Connie, you are dead WRONG. Really, do you think that I, as a white, have a subconsious belief that blacks are inferior and that I have the right to dominion over them? Is this because I’ve been “favored”? It’s funny that I have several black friends - according to you, that should be impossible, since I’m white. Shouldn’t I hate them because of the racial divide that was embedded in my white genes millenia ago? I’m sorry, but you’re just as bad as Wright. You are, in essence, saying that whites are inherently racist and intolerant toward blacks - when, in reality, that statement shows racism toward whites! Where do you get the idea that whites are inherently racist? I’m certainly not!
By the way, all of my black friends are voting for McCain. They don’t see any substance in Obama either.
Jannis Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I have listened to the furor over the comments of Senator Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It has not deterred me form being one of his supporters and casting my vote for him as the next president of the United States.
Senator Obama’s speech should have put an end to the controversy and moved all to examine and re-examine their roles in the issues of race in America to begin a dialogue of healing. It matters to everyone and to me in particular because of my story of racism as I experienced it as a child.
Growing Up “Alabama”
Chapter Seven
Growing up “Alabama,” not to mention growing up black and female, meant that I had to face the racism that permeated, no, that was indeed the lifeblood coursing through the veins of the rivers and clay hills that was my home. Daddy and momma did a good job of shielding us from the people and events that shaped the south in the sixties, but sometimes I wonder if I was just naïve, immature, and stuck in escape by reading every book I could get my hands on, taking a mental journey to worlds imaginary and real, that I would ordinarily never be able to conceive if I did not read and see the facts of them in my books. There were, however, events that could not be avoided, that remain indelible in my mind, scarred on my heart and that still leave a bitter and sour taste on my tongue.
When I was young, I really can’t remember how old I was, but I must have been between the ages of four and eight, my father was the pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Lowndes County, Alabama. On the weekends that Daddy was to preach there, the entire family would tightly sandwich ourselves into the car and make the trip from Tuscaloosa. In my child’s mind, the country roads were beautiful unknown lands, blanketed in kudzu and with densely wooded forest where all kinds of mysteries were waiting to be discovered.
We would usually make a stop at “Cousin Chen’s” (whose real name was Evelina Davidson) house during the trip. She and her daughter, Victoria, were close to the family and would visit us in Tuscaloosa from time to time. I remember Cousin Chen as a brown skinned, gray haired lady, a little stout, and who always had a dip of snuff under her lip. That dip of snuff was always trouble for my siblings and me when she would visit us in Tuscaloosa. Having that dip of sour smelling snuff tucked in her lip meant that one of us would have to get a tin can, fill it with dirt, and bring it to her for a makeshift spittoon. Of course, that foul smelling dip of snuff meant that we would be sent to empty the tin can when Chen had filled it with the nauseating brown spittle. In spite of her nasty habit, we loved her and I guess that perhaps she fulfilled the role of a grandmother with my father’s mother being dead and my mother’s mother living so far away in Savannah.
After church services one Sunday in Lowndes County, we went to Chen’s house for dinner. There were other adults there from the church community, but of course, being a child, I, as well as my brothers and sisters, was not allowed to sit in the living room to either listen or participate in the grown folks’ conversations. Children were seen and not heard in those days, but it surely didn’t stop me from listening.
The grown folks, in low and solemn tone, were talking about a lynching. I couldn’t hear who it was, but from the bits and snatches of the hushed conversation, I heard that a man in the community had been taken by the Klu Klux Klan, strung up on a tree, and killed. What was his crime? In the 1960s, being black in the wrong place in Lowndes County, Alabama was all that was needed.
I had known all about the Klan, how they dressed in their white robes with the pointed hoods that covered their faces; how they hated black people and would kill them for almost anything. This was Alabama in the sixties, and no matter how well my parents tried to protect and shield us, there were things that we just couldn’t avoid knowing and understanding; things that we had to know to survive. It was this knowing and listening to the grown folks talk that evening, that made the drive back to Tuscaloosa one of the most frightening nights of my young life.
Nights in rural Alabama can be wondrously beautiful and all too often horrendously frightening at the same time, especially when you are you young. The night of the drive back to Tuscaloosa from Lowndes County, was one of those nights that was full of moonlight streaming through pines and forest growth streaking across my eyes in blurring ghostly images, while the car raced along the highway. Because our family was so large, to ease the strain and give me a chance to breath, sometimes I would lie in the space between the backseat and the rear window. This was one of my favorite things to do, as I would be able to gaze at the bright stars twinkling in the Alabama sky or go to sleep without someone’s elbow, knee, or butt poking, twisting or squirming all over me.
On this night, I lay there in that space, my eyes not gazing at the stars or my mind wondering about them. Instead, I was vigilantly watching the deep shadows of the woods that were pierced here and there with shards of moonlight, waiting, seeing, horses with their white robed riders holding blazing torches, tear through the underbrush to the highway where they would stop our car and lynch my family too. Every light of a car approaching us was a car loaded with the Klan, ready to stop us in the road. It was my just imagination from the overheard grown folks talk that evening, but it was my reality from growing up black in Alabama too.
Racism and the events of the civil Rights Movement are almost synonymous with Alabama. Tuscaloosa was the city where Governor George Wallace, in 1963, stood in the door of the University of Alabama to prevent the first black students from entering that bastion of what was white higher education. Although I lived in the same city, the cocoon of protections that my father and mother wove around my siblings and me prevented us from any first-hand knowledge of the incident, leaving us, along with the rest of America, as spectators of the event on the Huntley Brinkley Report broadcast.
As much as they protected us, the events and effects of the Civil Rights Movement inevitably touched us. In the shadows of Richard Nixon becoming the 37th President of the United states; the scandalous car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts involving Senator Ted Kennedy, killing for him any chance at the White House; the largest music festival of the counterculture being held in Woodstock, New York; and Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon with his fellow astronauts, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins orbiting above, 1969 in Tuscaloosa saw the court ordered desegregation of the Tuscaloosa County Schools imposed, when I was to go to seventh grade. Our home on the corner of 37th Avenue and Seventh Street was zoned so that I had to leave the all-black Westlawn Junior High School and attend the all-white Tuscaloosa Junior High School. The prospect of attending a majority white school did not really matter that much to me. My parents had raised my siblings and me to believe that we were as smart, as good, and as capable as anyone else, that we could and would excel if given the chance. And as such, the prospect of attending this new school was not intimidating.
While I could attend classes with white children at Tuscaloosa Junior High School, the greater community was still struggling with the issues of equal access for African Americans. While I could become friendly with white classmates, there was still a distinct difference when I left those hallowed halls of junior high school education and entered the businesses of Tuscaloosa.
During my seventh grade school year at Tuscaloosa Junior High School, my mother had to visit a dentist—a white dentist, and I would go with her for the appointment on this occasion. I distinctly remember other visits to Dr. Jackson’s office and having to enter through a side door. By this time, however, Blacks were no longer being forced to enter establishments through a back door and my mother and I entered through the front door of the dentist’s office. Low and behold, there sitting in the empty waiting room was one of my white classmates from school. He recognized me and we exchanged greetings, with him beckoning me to come where he was sitting. Of course, with talking being the paramount activity for junior high students, I could not pass up the chance to chat with this friend while my mother was signing in and talking with the receptionist.
Thoroughly engaged in conversation, learning that his mother was also seeing the dentist and rehashing the happenings at our school, I barely heard my mother call my name,
“Jannis! Jannis, come on, let’s sit down.”
“I’m going to sit right here Momma,” I replied and went right on talking with my friend.
“Jannis, come on!” Momma said with a more insistent tone.
“But I’m talking with my friend. Can’t we just sit here?’ was my naïve answer.
“Jannis, come on right now!” Momma said softly though loaded with steel, through gritting teeth and a tightly set jaw.
One look at my mother’s face told me that I had better get up right now and there was no chance of me changing her mind. Because I was pissed with all of the temper of adolescent rage about not being able to talk with my classmate, I looked my mother more closely in her eyes and it was then that I saw not the anger that I expected from me being a disobedient child, but pain. Momma grabbed my hand firmly and ushered be through a swinging half door next to the receptionist’s desk. We proceeded down a small hall to another glass door on the right and entered. There I saw crowded into the available chairs black folk. There were hardly two chairs available for my mother and me, but we found seats. It had at last dawned on me why my mother had been so insistent that I get up, leave my conversation with my white friend—the only individual sitting in the first waiting room—and go with her.
We both sat in stony silence while the others waiting on the dentist buzzed in conversation. I imagine my mother feeling the shame, too painful to explain, from having to make me sit in the “colored” waiting room. My angry thoughts were,
“This is crazy! All those empty seats in the front! What difference does it make?”
The same white dentist who put his white hands into the white mouth of my friend’s mother would put the same white hands into my black mother’s mouth. Yet, we could not sit in the same waiting room. This event is scorched upon my mind and I cannot forget my mother’s face in the dentist’s office. It is part of who I am. It is the part of me that meant being touched by racism. It is a part of me growing up Alabama.
Growing up black in Alabama also meant that our family was poor, but I, nor my brothers and sisters knew it. We had food to eat every day and clothes-sometime made by my mother and sisters or hand-me-downs—to wear. My father pastured at least eight churches to take care of us. He was not always paid in cash for preaching the gospel. There would be the weekends when he would come home with bushel baskets of peas, beans, corn, other vegetables, and the occasional live chickens in a crate. These were the hand-grown goods of the poor black folks in rural Alabama and all that they had to support their minister. And, because of their labor and my father’s ministry, we ate well and did not know that we were poor.
Lockett Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
P.S.
Sorry, I was so focused on Connie’s statement of inherent white racism that I forgot about the rest of her driveling post. Erm, here it is:
“I have felt exactly the way this wonderful being expressed his views in this speech for years. There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored. You can deny it all day; but until you sort out in your mind what actually happened 450 years ago - you will not come to terms with the racial divide. Barack Obama is the real deal. Regardless of his ethnicity, America can not and will not get another person of this caliber for 50 years. I believe in my soul this man is an Apostle. To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes. He is honest and his integrity level is something Americans have never experienced in a politician. We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place.”
To your statement that “I believe in my soul that this man is an Apostle” - do you even know what an Apostle is? Here’s the definition, in case you’re wondering:
“n. A missionary of the early Christian Church.”
Yep, Obama fits that description perfectly, don’t you think?
Regarding your statement that “To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes”, you’re entirely right. It speaks volumes about his agreement with Wright’s twisted theology.
You say that “We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place”. Heads up(pun possibly intended) - a possible threat of Bill getting blowjobs is the least of our worries if Hillary’s elected. And, do you really think that Iraq isn’t a better place after Saddam’s ousting? Would you prefer to have his intentional torture and murder of his own civilians continue? Do you really think that a military presence shouldn’t be maintained to protect Iraq’s infant democratic government? You honestly think that the mere presence of Barack Obama in the Oval Office is enough to bring “change” - it will invariably be change for the worse unless Obama stops making charismatic speeches and starts actually thinking up a plan for this “change”. Obama has given me no reason to believe that he is competent - but you apparently don’t need reasons.
Lockett Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
It seems that, while I was writing my comment, Jannis submitted hers. I have only one thing to say to her:
Show me one dental hospital in Alabama that still has segregated waiting rooms, and I’ll believe that your comment is relevant.
Pam Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
WOW! Amazing what anger is out there regarding our physical and cultural differences. Thank God I live in Hawai`i that is one of the most diverse places in the United States and it does you so much good to experience life here that is filled with the Aloha Spirit. I have lived here for 20 years and my son was born here 14 years ago. He does not understand racial divides or cultural ones for that matter. Even though he is white with blonde hair, he mixes it up with all “colors” and cultures. Obama spent many of his formative student years here on O`ahu and reflects much of what that Aloha Spirit means. Much of who he is reflects all of us in some form. Here is a link to learn about it: http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/alohaspiritlaw.html . If we all practiced these principles, our world would be a much more peaceful and loving place.
Blessings of Aloha to all of you!
A Haole Lady in Hawai`i.
Ken Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I am glad that Dave had a chance to take his blood pressure pills and calm down. Part of Obama’s message is that everyone must take responsibility for their environment/community. I have served 14 years in the military. I have been a state employee for 10 yrs. I have just re-enlisted in the Army Guard. I serve my country…period. I serve my community.
Can someone explain this to me? In the past when a tank was built the steel came from an American steel plant. Everyone was taxed for $50, let’s say, for the war machine, and actually 30 goes to the war machine. $20 was re-circulated into the economy. Thus the war machine stimulated the economy. We all understood what our contribution was for and gladly participated. Now, some of the steel still does come from American steel plants but the nuts, bolts, and electronic components come from Korea lets say. Our middle class is cut out of the circle of revenue re-circulation. That means from the $20 return from the war machine only $5 dollars actually gets re-circulated into the economy. So essentially, the $20 circle of the re-circulated revenue now becomes a $5 spiral.
I am sure you can find similar examples in our education system and subprime mortgage market. We all understand how we got to this point. We all understand the current situation. The hope is that voters and the elected officials together can fix this. We can blame each other all day or we can just fix what is wrong.
Obama just speaks to what is really going on in the lives of ordinary people. I just know that I don’t want anymore of what America has had to endure. I don’t get the feeling that Billary or McBush have America’s best interest at heart. So, that is why I am giving Obama my vote.
Jannis Says:
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
To Lockett:
It seems that you didn’t understand my post. The story that I posted is one from my childhood. The incidents are real. I experienced them. They still haunt me as an African American woman in 2008, thereby making my comments very relevant and a part of the necessary dialogue that must take place to begin healing this nation and transcending the racial divide.
Although I do not condone the angry words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is 16 years older than I am, I understand them. I know first-hand the source of his emotional, but very ill stated diatribe on the state of America. My husband, whose black mother was hit in the face by a white man, and who bore the scares of it until her death, is another testament to the roots of the need to bring this discourse form the shadows and the fleeting memory of America—a country that does not want to face the truth in the mirror when its sees it reflection through the eyes of African Americans.
I am a fifty-one year old public school teacher, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Rather than preaching from the pulpit about racial equality and saving souls, I have chosen to teach in a classroom, to help young people realize that they can be the primary catalyst in creating an America of the future where race is truly not an issue.
Does this make it relevant for you?
Jeff Says:
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Without reading all of the comments here, I just wanted to throw my two cents in.
1) If Obama wasn’t a candidate for President, this speech would still be a landmark statement within historical context. The effectiveness of it, and the truthfulness of it cannot be denied or disputed. Nothing that he says within this speech detracts from the fact that people of all ethnic backgrounds are at odds, and that we, as a country must try to overcome our differences to make progress with real issues that affect us all. If you don’t like him, fine, don’t, you’re not forced to. However, if your ignorance causes you to attack his statements, then you’re just not living in the same reality as the rest of us. If you don’t like this speech, then what would your interpretation be of our cultural differences? How would you propose to solve them?
2) In terms of our military, I have great respect for any soldier that fights to defend our nation. Now, this is an important statement, “defend our nation”, is not a green light to invade a country that poses no threat to us. I will support any military strike that targets terrorism. I believe that the only way to be safe is to be aggressive with extremists. I also believe that we have a moral obligation to use diplomacy, and our military if needed, to stop genocide in any nation.
Having said that, Iraq posed no real threat to us, it contained no nuclear or chemical threat, and there were no weapons of mass destruction. It did not harbor terrorists until we invaded, and Saddam, while a cruel dictator, did not use genocide to suppress the population. We invaded so Bush/Cheney could profit through oil and military contracts. The price of Oil is at an all time high, and Haliburton is making enormous profits that cannot be quantified. The administration used our soldiers as nothing more than mercenaries. I am ashamed that you had to spend 5 years in a country with no purpose, and your lives wasted for money.
I believe that a strong military is paramount, and terrorists should be hunted down and disposed of by any means necessary. I do not believe that we should use waterboarding to extract information because it clearly and definitively goes against the Geneva convention. Additionally, it creates more resentment against our country as opposed to extinguishing that same hatred. Our own tactics produce more terrorists.
3) If global warming is in fact a fallacy, then what would be the real damage if we converted our energy to solar, wind, hydrogen, and bio-fuel? The emergence of these new industries will bolster the economy and create millions of jobs. It will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make the environment cleaner. These are all good things. The only negative would be that some corporations go out of business, or be forced to shift their focus to creating these new energy sources. They have the resources in terms of profit to do it, so they could easily start to invest and stay as powerful as they already are.
I agree that ethanol is not an answer to our energy problem, but if we start the transition, it might be a good way to get the ball rolling. The best thing that can happen is that we do in fact see a more stable and cleaner environment, and the polar ice caps stop melting. The worst thing that happens is that we use solar panels and hydrogen instead of gasoline, and exxon/mobil go out of business. I’m willing to make that trade any day.
In terms of economics, if there is a limited supply of a resource, it becomes more valuable and more expensive. If oil is mostly found in the Middle East, and we need to invade or bribe countries to get it, then wouldn’t it make sense to change to an energy policy that is independent and will be available at all times? The cost to install renewable energy may be high at first, but the long term cost will be far less than oil ever was.
4) The difference between Obama, Clinton, and McCain are not extreme. There will be differences in strategy to deal with our problems, but they all know what the problems are. All we need to do is choose the candidate that we believe will take the right path to solving them. I do not believe that McCain’s idea of cutting taxes and relying only on Wall Street is the right economic approach. It creates too many gaps for those people in the middle class to make ends meet. If you only earn $20k - $50k a year, a tax cut isn’t going to make an impact on your life. It was the same with Reagan & his trickle-down economics, which in fact was disastrous for many middle class households.
I don’t believe that welfare was a good idea as well. Parents should not be rewarded for not working, and bearing more children because it gives them more money to remain irresponsible.
I do believe however that FDR’s New Plan was the most common sense approach to a terrible economic era. Use the government to create jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure. Create new industry through government incentives like Obama wants to do with companies that remain in the US.
The housing crisis is not going to resolve itself, and Clinton’s plan for a 90 day moratorium is only pushing a deadline. Freezing interest rates creates inflation and weakens our dollar. This is not the right plan to initiate, it does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse.
If McCain believes that government should be small, and only propose a tax break, then how does he propose to solve this crisis? Without some agency in place to deal with it, it will never get fixed. The only solution is to create an incentive for banks to refinance all the sub-prime mortgage loans into conventional fixed rates. It may create a huge burden, but the alternatives are worse for everyone, especially when every house in America is depreciating at a staggering rate, and foreclosures rates are at record levels and show no signs of slowing down.
All the candidates would be fine as Commander in Chief, I don’t think that after the past 7+ years it could get much worse than Bush. However, I don’t think Hillary is the best strategist. She fails at every level to accomplish her goals without controversy and resentment. McCain may be too aggressive when it comes to Iran, and will likely never find an exit strategy out of Iraq. I think that he will pass the buck, and decide not to withdraw any amount of troops during his presidency. If he is adamant that the surge is working, then he needs to set realistic goals for withdrawal. We can’t wait until Iraq is functional and self reliant because it never will be. We should give them a political plan with hard deadlines, and if they fail to implement it, then we withdraw.
I believe that Obama will take into consideration all opinions on the matter when he is in office. Whether they be conservative or liberal, he will make a choice that appeases both parties to the best of his abilities. I think that is real leadership, and that is what our country desperately needs.
iamdam Says:
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 am
WOW. Barack keep on, keeping on, Brother. You are what I’ve been waiting for all of my 42 years of life. God bless you and your dream, for you are the embodiment of what Dr. King told us about many years ago. YES, WE CAN!!!!!!
Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, 2009 - 2016.
Jannis Says:
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
To Jeff:
WELL SAID!! Thanks for your insight on the issues that matter to us all. YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lockett Says:
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
To Jannis:
“It seems that you didn’t understand my post. The story that I posted is one from my childhood. The incidents are real. I experienced them. They still haunt me as an African American woman in 2008, thereby making my comments very relevant and a part of the necessary dialogue that must take place to begin healing this nation and transcending the racial divide.
Although I do not condone the angry words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is 16 years older than I am, I understand them. I know first-hand the source of his emotional, but very ill stated diatribe on the state of America. My husband, whose black mother was hit in the face by a white man, and who bore the scares of it until her death, is another testament to the roots of the need to bring this discourse form the shadows and the fleeting memory of America—a country that does not want to face the truth in the mirror when its sees it reflection through the eyes of African Americans.
I am a fifty-one year old public school teacher, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Rather than preaching from the pulpit about racial equality and saving souls, I have chosen to teach in a classroom, to help young people realize that they can be the primary catalyst in creating an America of the future where race is truly not an issue.
Does this make it relevant for you?”
Yes, it does. I apologize for my lack of understanding. However, I still don’t see how blacks are still discriminated against. Racial discrimination should STAY in America’s collective “fleeting memory”.
To Jeff:
[post too long to quote]
Yeah! Another sane person!
However, while I agree with about 75% of the things that you said, your well-written post still hasn’t given me any reason to vote for Obama. You basically said that he’d make it up as he went along - look at where that got Bush. I agree that Clinton would probably screw up everything that she did, but I don’t see anything wrong with McCain delegating some of his military command to a few generals - “passing the buck”, in your words. He’d do well to implement your idea for a safe military exit(”withdrawal” implies retreat, “exit” implies victory - or, at least, a ceasefire) from Iraq - not that it’s likely that he’s read your post, though.
To tell you the truth, given the choice between Obama, Clinton, and you, I’d pick you in a second. Your “two cents” is more like two dollars!
lila Says:
March 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
dealing with complex issue is not easy… obama did an excellent job tackling these issues head on while providing furthur direction for our nation. away with politics as usual and congrats to obama and all of us supporters for the positive nature of our work and beliefs!
Jannis Says:
March 25th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
To Lockett:
“However, I still don’t see how blacks are still discriminated against. Racial discrimination should STAY in America’s collective “fleeting memory.””
Have you ever been stopped by the police for DWB-Driving While Black? My 24 year-old son has.
Have you ever been stopped by the police for driving a new truck with the dealer’s tag on it without breaking any laws? My husband has–the police thought he had stolen it.
Have you ever been followed around a store by a sales associate, where you were the only black person shopping and all of the white customers were shopping without being followed? I have.
If you have children, were they ever told or heard that the reason some people are black is because they are dirty? My oldest son was told this by one of his white peers.
Have you ever been called a black b**ch by a total stranger walking down a street for no reason? I have.
Have you ever been passed over for a promotion because the all white department didn’t want a black person in the position? My husband has.
Have you ever been working in a retail store in uniform, walked by a white customer who then moved their purse away when you passed them by? My son has.
Have you ever been told that you look too good to be a black person—that you had to be Hispanic or mixed with something? My son has
Do you get the picture?
I could list even more, but I think the point is clear. The fact that racial discrimination stayed in “America’s collective fleeting memory” is the reason that there are the Rev. Jeremiah Wrights in this country. More importantly, this fleeting memory is the reason that honest, open, dialogues between all ethnic groups must take place.
Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are still a nation suffering from a racial divide. Until we can look at where we have been, until we confront our faults and failures, until we accept our failure in recognizing that we are the HUMAN RACE, until that time, will we, as a UNITED nation, be able to determine where we are going, and truly become the global super power that we ought to be.
Sen. Barack Obama is the only candidate who will lead this nation to its proper destiny.
Tara in SB Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Racism is alive and well, of that there is no doubt. Stuffing it away in the “American fleeting memory” has only left it to fester and continue on it’s negative path. Here we’ve been given a chance to change that course… to lance the boil and medicate through discussion and, yes, even the simplistic admission of it’s existence. Of course the skies will not part and Angels will not sing (at least not right away!) but it removes the insanity of continuing on our current path.
Speaking of current paths:
I just don’t understand how well-educated human beings can begin to believe that putting John McCain in the White House will elevate this country from our current disaster. His plan of staying in Iraq for however long it takes (without any definition of what success is) 100 years; continuing tax cuts to the wealthy; attacking Iran and anyone else who happens to fit into a cute little song-ditty; cutting spending on infra-structure (the current president just cut spending to First Responders by $1 billion for the Second year in a row ~ don’t you feel safer?). Our infrastructure is in dire straights; from Homeland Security (how about that border control) to Education to Transportation; States are cutting budgets even further all the while we spend billions of dollars per WEEK in Iraq, give tax breaks to the oil companies and the uber-wealthy.
Iraq was an ill-conceived war that continues to suck us dry emotionally, spiritually and FINACIALLY. A vote for McCain is a vote to continue depleting America of our greatest resources - our brave men and women.
Obama has laid out his plans…. you just need to listen and do a little research; ie, go to his website.
I guess I can understand how inspiration and motivation becomes a negative when you’re afraid of change and that change is coming in the form of Masses. Millions of people donating an avg $109 to become the largest funded campaign in the race. With all the passion to facilitate change. Obama has never said he’d do it alone - he’s counting on human beings of all walks to join together for the better of our country.
Let the masses remain ‘naive’ and let the small donations of the world reign victorious.
Yes We Can!
Peace On People
Allisun Says:
March 29th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Hey Dave…
What would JESUS DO?
did you know he was/is/forever will be a pacifist?
Would you kill your brother?
Thank God Says:
March 29th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Thank God for some body running for office who know what we need. Obama seem real to me. He know both sides (black/white). We all have faults. There is no person is this world that can run for office, can please everyone and don’t have something in their closet that they are afraid will come out. There was only one man that walked this earth without sin. Look what was done to him?? Stop hating. Remember 911, I like that change - I saw a difference in people. Very sad that so many people had to die before we could treat each better. Who raised their kids up to hate?
I pray, yes I pray that things will get better in my life time. I am 50 and things aren’t much better than when I was 5. Every-One have to play a part in this Change. Every one must treat each other with Respect. We are all related, cause we all came from Adam and Eve. Lets stop this Maddness! Blacks treat each other the same way whites treat us, when we think we are better than them. Respect people, Respect! What Would Jesus Do?
Thank you
I agree, Thank You!
Thank you
Obama is exactly what America needs. YES WE CAN! i love you brother
You have brought unity to a world divided by politics. You have revived hope to those who have given up. You have proven that in a world ruled by racism, under our masks, we all looks alike. You have shined the light on the bottomless tunnel and saved me. You have pulled me out and made me realize that there are no second chances in life, but that’s why your’e special. You gave this world a second chance to finally come together and unite as one people, not just as one nation, but as one entire human race. You have brought a hope that toghether we can save this beautiful world created by God’s purity. My brother, you are the band-aid on a healing world and soon enough it wont be ‘yes we CAN’, but it will be ‘yes we did’
This is reality without false hood, real life, real people, we are all family, the human family, thank you for your unselfish feelings and expressions!
As a Canadian, I saw the speech and I was so touched. Let this be healing for America both blacks and whites. This is truly a path on the road to “change”
Wake up Americans. Don’t let this opportunity pass. Wake up!! You should be proud of this moment …what history.
Well done Obama, well done.
This is the time to come together as a people. We are all in this together, we must work and strive to have the same things in life
Thank you Barack Obama! Thank you for your sincerity and for being brave enough to tell us the truth, even though it may be difficult for us to face. Thank you for using the truth as a tool to bring us all together rather than divide us further. I am so proud to be an Obama supporter. Before this speech I was so hopeful … now that hope is overwhelming.
If anyone can bring this country together, you can!
I am almost speechless with emotion. I cried yesterday and I’m almost there again. It brings tears to my eyes to read not just his speech, but peoples responses to his speech. It is good to know that we can come together not only in the face of tragedy, but in joy of humanity, irregardless of color or nationality.
This man, Barack Obama with this speech has once again proved:
This is more than a movement of hope.
This is a movement of understanding, an understanding that a better America, the America of our dreams, can only be achieved through the application of ethical and moral conduct, through the acceptance of our diversity and a willingness to use that diversity for the improvement of us all.
very much needed. right on time. i am so impressed with how sen. obama was not afriad to deal with issues that no other candidate has even attempted to touch. he has already provedn himself to me- but this is further testimony of his readiness for leadership. way to set an example of how political discourse can happen…WELL DONE!! OBAMA 08!
this speech was right on target. i am so proud to be apart of this new movement of change. obama is like a breathe of fresh air .he has my vote and support. thank-you thank-you.
Wow!!!! Are you real people or Obama campaign workers trying to give me the warm and fuzzies? And if you are real people maybe you need to put down the x-tast, pot, crtstal meth, and any prescription drugs you have taken or stolen, move out of your parents basement and get off the government cheese. Get out there, get a job, pay taxes for ten years or more and then get back to me on this starry eyed bs your gobbling up with both hands.
It is obvious that Obama’s speech and movement is affecting all Americans. Some are affected in a positive way and some in apparently a very negative way. The negatively effected ones nay say out of fear because they believe they have never suffered; been a victim of prejudice; or discrimination and don’t want their situation to change. What they don’t realize is that they are on the same plantation where government cheese is issued. They are used as pawns to feed discrimination, prejudice, and suffering. Their reward is to remain on the positive side of the economic bubble. Slaves used to call them house servants. “I could have freed more if I could have just convinced them they were slaves”. Once their usefulness can no longer be quantified by the current economic structure, their job goes overseas; home forecloses; schools lose programs, they will realize that they are not the “haves” but rather the “have gots”. As the infrastructure below them erodes, the doors that used to say Whites Only now say Green Only. Our struggle is universal to all Americans now and Obama has at least been honest enough to put it out there for all of us to see.
Dave are you a prejudiced dummy or what? Many of Obama’s supporters, including myself, do have jobs and pay taxes. We live, we learn, and we love. We don’t make assumptions on someone’s life based on who they support and then try to demean a person or diminish their accomplishments. I don’t even think there is such a thing as government cheese anymore. So you put down the drugs you abuse and let go of the hatred and prejudice in your heart.
sorry there haji, I was at work earning your check at 2:30. Prejudiced yes, but I am an equal opportunity offender. I hate stupid people like you. I don’t care what color you are. Most of you are in violation of the law. Darwin’s law that is. You espouse “free choice”. Of course you narrowly relegate it to abortion. When we try to get “free choice” for education, retirement, medical, taxes, the second amendment, and many more which you liberals vehemently deny us. You use your activist judges to go against the will of the majority. And you are in the same camp with the spineless city government of berkley. You don’t like my words, yet I am the one on the wall protecting your first amendment rights. We in the military despise you. You sleep comfortably under the blanket of freedom we provide you, wake up in the morning and stab us in the back with your anti-war protests and your anti-war candidate. Your “lack of unity” with us is what had drug this war on. Your protesting against this war has run up the casualties. Your crying about waterboarding is why I have dead friends. You embolden them to hold out just a little longer, to kill one more Marine or soldier. They chant “Yes We Can!!!!” because you say we can’t. You give them the “Audacity of Hope”, because with all your talk of unity and change you give them the courage to pull the trigger one more day. You give them comfort and aid. Liberals are the most devise intolorant lot I have ever had the displeasure to deal with. This Christmas while you celebrate with your friends and family know that I will be on my way to relieve my brothers in arms who are in harms way. Sleep well I will be there for you and your ilk.
Hey Dave,
Good thing you are relieving these supposed brothers in arms.
Because you are one very angry man that needs an outlet.
Obama’s speech was good, but people like Dave, who claim a mental superiority in regards to others, and provide no support for the ideas they propose I just cannot understand. Good for you for being in the military and makuing something with your life, but supposting an unpopular, illegal war is not the smart thing to do for America. It is with a reason that America’s standing in the world has fallen to all time lows.
It is the insane spending on the war and foreign policy that buries the economy under huge deficit….
Obama transmits a message of hope, of change in the way politics are carried out in Washington, and after the current administration all change is welcomed.
Never mind the war in Iraq, never mind Iran’s increasing hostility toward the USA, never mind government corruption - the real issue is race!
Race my butt. It would beat Obama in a race anyway. Has anybody actually noticed the fact that Obama hasn’t actually said ANYTHING about ANY of his positions, except that he stands for “change” and “hope”? Heck, I stand for change and hope. Do I have the political prowess needed to run a country? NO - otherwise, I’d run for the presidency. Seriously, Obama has the weakest platform that I’ve ever seen in an election. He doesn’t say WHAT he’s going to change, he doesn’t say HOW he’s going to change it, and he doesn’t even say WHY it even needs to be changed in the first place!
None of these commenters even approach sanity. On one end, there are the people like Danny Murphy who think that Obama’s a god on earth, and, on the other end, there are people like Dave who think that anybody who supports Obama is a retard and should be shot. Then, there’s the apocalyptic prophet Matt, who says that Bush is practically Satan for outing Saddam Hussein(I agree that the war in Iraq has been dragged out past its expiration date, but one less dictator is one better country), and that he has also managed to drive the American economy into the ground(never mind that it’s loads better than it was under Clinton). If he wants a REAL inept president, he should check out Carter.
Why am I the only one who recognizes that Obama is nothing more than political hyperbole with a lot of style and zero substance? Why am I the only one who even tries to be objective, who even bothers to honestly question Obama’s ideas and character, who is actually skeptical without being stupid?
get it right lockett, I do despise these morons for their rank and file stupidity over a broad platform of hope, which as you point out has absolutely no substinance whatsoever, I will protect them, their freedom of speech(no matter how absurd), their freedom to insult me, and their families so can sleep at night. I don’t want to shoot them but I do despise them. Most liberals in general believe the world should be a garden of Eden, yet denounce religion ( mainly Christianity) yet run wild eyed into the streets to bow at the alter of some vague idea of hope and change. Everytime I hear the mantra three things come to mind: Jonestown, Waco, and heaven’s gate. Hope is a great thing, but as with anything, should be taken in moderation. The more you lap it up the worse the hangover will be when you find out that obama isn’t the be all and end all savior of the world.
You cry about illegal war this illegal war that. Do you have the mental capacity to understand that you are just repeating the liberal anti-war sentiment. Unity is also a convenient slogan. You people couldn’t agree with a conservative on the color of shit if you were neck deep in it. Had the liberals put all their animosity for President Bush into taking truly unified stand in Iraq we would most likely be alot further along. Instead you want to subvert and play the game of gotcha at every opportunity. Now you roll out unity and change for 08. Where were you five years ago?
Tom this is my outlet. Matt you are as dumb as a post. And I apologize to posts everywhere. You claim I don’t support any of my ideas( I did ) and yet end you argument with “obama transmits a message of hope and change”. Where the f**k is the support for that? Because he said so?
For those of you concerned about war costs. Cost of one aircraft carrier per day to maintain operation southern watch: one million per day for 10 years. Oh and for those of you that think this war has lasted too long: we still have troops in Bosnia from when bill sent them in the mid 90’s.
For those of you on the cusp of conversion:
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem. Ronald Reagan-1985
Freedom isn’t free, but don’t worry the Marines will pay most of you share. Ned Dolan
Marines die. That’s what we’re here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever. That means you live forever. GnySgt R Lee Ermy as GnySgt Hartman. Full Metal Jacket-1987
I thought the speech was excellent. I t hink it was unfair that you have to give a speech on remarks that were not your own but rather someone whom you have grown to trust and admire. What happened to Freedom of Speech? I don’t think you nor Pastor Wright would have been scrutinized if you weren’t black. I’m waiting to see what other dirty tricks are going be pulled.
God Bless You Obama! Keep your head up!
To Dave:
“get it right lockett, I do despise these morons for their rank and file stupidity over a broad platform of hope, which as you point out has absolutely no substinance whatsoever, I will protect them, their freedom of speech(no matter how absurd), their freedom to insult me, and their families so can sleep at night. I don’t want to shoot them but I do despise them. Most liberals in general believe the world should be a garden of Eden, yet denounce religion ( mainly Christianity) yet run wild eyed into the streets to bow at the alter of some vague idea of hope and change. Everytime I hear the mantra three things come to mind: Jonestown, Waco, and heaven’s gate. Hope is a great thing, but as with anything, should be taken in moderation. The more you lap it up the worse the hangover will be when you find out that obama isn’t the be all and end all savior of the world.
You cry about illegal war this illegal war that. Do you have the mental capacity to understand that you are just repeating the liberal anti-war sentiment. Unity is also a convenient slogan. You people couldn’t agree with a conservative on the color of shit if you were neck deep in it. Had the liberals put all their animosity for President Bush into taking truly unified stand in Iraq we would most likely be alot further along. Instead you want to subvert and play the game of gotcha at every opportunity. Now you roll out unity and change for 08. Where were you five years ago?
Tom this is my outlet. Matt you are as dumb as a post. And I apologize to posts everywhere. You claim I don’t support any of my ideas( I did ) and yet end you argument with “obama transmits a message of hope and change”. Where the f**k is the support for that? Because he said so?
For those of you concerned about war costs. Cost of one aircraft carrier per day to maintain operation southern watch: one million per day for 10 years. Oh and for those of you that think this war has lasted too long: we still have troops in Bosnia from when bill sent them in the mid 90’s.
For those of you on the cusp of conversion:
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem. Ronald Reagan-1985
Freedom isn’t free, but don’t worry the Marines will pay most of you share. Ned Dolan
Marines die. That’s what we’re here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever. That means you live forever. GnySgt R Lee Ermy as GnySgt Hartman. Full Metal Jacket-1987″
See, that’s my problem with your comments. You regard people who don’t agree with you as subhuman, as being “dumber than posts”. You despise them, regarding them as the scum of the earth. I, on the other hand, feel pity for people so easily swayed by the charisma of one man - it’s like Hitler’s popularity in the 30s(no, I am not compariing Obama to Hitler - I am comparing their similar charisma and popularity). The truth is that they are liberals - I don’t understand that ideology, anyway, but that has no bearing on the subject - and, given the choice between the charismatic Obama or the creepy Clinton, would rather pick the former. McCain may not be entirely conservative, but he isn’t anywhere near as liberal as the Democrats. Also, I know a Marine, and he’d be ashamed of your use of that venerated military division as basis for imaginary superiority over imaginary retards.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of your opinions. It’s your presentation of them and your idea that liberals are inherently inferior that riles me. I could call it “political bigotry”.
To DetroitRedd:
“I thought the speech was excellent. I t hink it was unfair that you have to give a speech on remarks that were not your own but rather someone whom you have grown to trust and admire. What happened to Freedom of Speech? I don’t think you nor Pastor Wright would have been scrutinized if you weren’t black. I’m waiting to see what other dirty tricks are going be pulled.
God Bless You Obama! Keep your head up!”
Actually, they would be scrutinized even more if they were white. If anything, they’re being DEFENDED by the mainstream liberal media(yes, I used those words in conjunction - to distinguish it from the less-prominent conservative media).
Also, freedom of speech is law(well, unless you’re sued by the ACLU, he-he), but bigotry is bigotry. Do YOU agree with Wright’s statements? Do YOU think that they’re worth defending?
Dear Dave
While I respect your service to our wonderful country and the freedoms to which you help ensure; please be original in your comments and not ‘borrow’ a quote from Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men” and pretend to pass it off as your own.
Dave appears to be yet another victim of the senseless war; might it be that you have become disillusioned dave? Anger is okay, but its how you express it that matters.
This line of discussion is a wonderful example of being red, white, and blue on the outside but truly being black and white on the inside. The military has been notorious for scraping the bottom tenth of our fine country and turning them into solders. Why the bottom tenth? They are the easiest to “shape” into “fine solders”. It is easy to judge people struggling everyday when you live inside a protected system. There is a saying about Marines they are the first to go and the last to know. Making judgments about a group of people based on fed information and propaganda is what strangles his country now. If you really want to know about government cheese recipients, go to census.gov and get real answers. Formulate real solutions. When you are allowed to be a house servant under the red, white, and blue; you are fighting for freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy. Many solders are on welfare because they came home to NOTHING. They get up to nothing. The economy and bassackwards government left them nothing. Be angry about that. Spread prejudice about that. One thing we know about history is the house servant never had the courage to tell the master what’s wrong. Not even when it comes to other house servants……Be a real solder for the truth and don’t let distraction impede the defense of true liberty. Through all of this back and forth school yard discussion has anyone noticed that eggs are still 4 dollars a dozen. Propaganda tastes good depending on the point of view meat and eggs taste better from everyone’s point of view. This must change. YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE!
To Ken:
“This line of discussion is a wonderful example of being red, white, and blue on the outside but truly being black and white on the inside. The military has been notorious for scraping the bottom tenth of our fine country and turning them into solders. Why the bottom tenth? They are the easiest to “shape” into “fine solders”. It is easy to judge people struggling everyday when you live inside a protected system. There is a saying about Marines they are the first to go and the last to know. Making judgments about a group of people based on fed information and propaganda is what strangles his country now. If you really want to know about government cheese recipients, go to census.gov and get real answers. Formulate real solutions. When you are allowed to be a house servant under the red, white, and blue; you are fighting for freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy. Many solders are on welfare because they came home to NOTHING. They get up to nothing. The economy and bassackwards government left them nothing. Be angry about that. Spread prejudice about that. One thing we know about history is the house servant never had the courage to tell the master what’s wrong. Not even when it comes to other house servants……Be a real solder for the truth and don’t let distraction impede the defense of true liberty. Through all of this back and forth school yard discussion has anyone noticed that eggs are still 4 dollars a dozen. Propaganda tastes good depending on the point of view meat and eggs taste better from everyone’s point of view. This must change. YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE!”
I couldn’t make head or tail of your argument. Sorry. Anyway, what kind of a word is “bassackwards”? Is it a ward used to deliver bass sacks? Or am I missing something? Also, that bilingual chant at the end is just weird.
Just like Obama said the distractions continue.
Lockett,
Ken is on the kool-aid. He hates what I am and what I do. Some people philosophically don’t see a need for US service members because they believe that everything can be solved all diplomatic like. The spectrum runs from mild disagreement to extreme hate. Many cases stem from evny, due to the fact that people are just unable to make it in the military. Many have real honest disagreements and some disagree because they can’t cut it. Unfortunately, most liberals that have something to say, don’t disagree with us they hate us. They project their political hatred onto us. I honestly think that if they could get away with it, they would be waiting for us to return from overseas, not with open arms but with chants of “baby killer” and spit. Now we are called the uneducated dregs of society that are too stupid to think for ourselves. We are somehow brainwashed by propoganda. Just so you know ken, I did six years active, did two tours, and got out in 1995. I got out because bill clinton gutted the military and sank moral to all time lows. In 2007 I signed back up with the reserves and would have done it sooner if my personal life had allowed it and will be getting deployed again. My 8 year commitment has long been over. This is a personal choice, “freedom of choice” if you will. I busted my ass working from 95 to the present and own my own mildly successful business. I watched my paycheck get ripped apart to pay for entitlements I don’t think I should be responsible for. So ken…. I have lived on both sides….. There probably are veterans on welfare. I would put forth that most of them, whether they realize it or not, have choosen that life for themselves. I have never believed that my veteran status should give me a lifetime of being cared for by the government. The military was a stepping stone that taught me that hard work and determination led to fruitful results. Fortunately, I learned that growing up and the military just re-enforced that notion. Anybody, including veterans, that believe because of what they have done previously in life earns them a free ride for the rest of their lives are doomed to failure, misery, and attempting to blame others for their shortcomings.
You have the nerve to call me a house servant without looking at your own ideals. The civil rights act passed only because tof he republicans in congress at the time. Altough we have had some republican presidents over the years, both houses of gvernment were dominated by democrats for the last 40 years, with a brief republican control during the some of clinton and Bush years. Why do you feel so hopeless when the democrats have had so much power for so long? We should already be in the land of your utopia. The democrats have done nothing in the last 40 years except pit the rich against the poor and the black against the white, the haves against the have nots. The field masters jackson and sharpton have told the black community they cannot improve their lot without voting democrat and have reaped financial benefits while keeping almost an entire race on the “democrat vote plantation”. The party that gave the south and the nation the jim crowe laws transformed into the democrat party when those laws were deemed unconstitutional and found new ways to use the black community to their advantage. Instead of giving them just enough food and shelter to work the fields, the black community is being given just enough food, shelter, and hope to pull the lever for the next democrat. The old are being pitted against the young by being told that we wish to reduce or strip them of social security so that they vote democrat. In fact every group is being told they will lose something should they not vote democrat. Harry Belafonte once called Colin Powell and Condeleza Rice house servants. This is the standrd tactic of democrats; call a black person an uncle tom or house servant. They are portrayed as somehow giving into “whitey” and turning their backs on their black heritage, instead of seeing someone who has suceeded in life working toward a goal and acheving it. I found out long after Belefonte’s accusations, on the History Channel, that he long ago sang and danced for “Whitey” in Vegas and at the end of his performance was not even allowed to stay in the hotel. He was relegated to having to sleep across the tracks. Seems kind of odd that he would participate in segregation to advance his career and then lash out at people who have truly succeeded in their careers by calling them “uncle toms”. In contrast the black community has marginalized Bill Cosby who has told the black community that the government is not their be all and end all and that personal responsibility and moral strength are the hallmarks of success. The black community cannot lash out and call an icon like Bill Cosby an “uncle tom” or “field master” so they ignore him.
It is just a fundemental difference between you and me ken. I believe that the capacity for change and a better quality life is within the individual while you only believe change can be brought about from one individual that will somehow transform the masses with a speech. My hope lies within while yours rests on the election of a man to office. Now tell me again how I am a house servant easily molded by propoganda.
Lockett, see I can be nice and rational. Stupidity, however, drives me to rants that may sometimes be off point. Here is another one I posted a few days ago in another forum on this site. Let’s see if these “true believers” have any real debate or argument in them or will they just revert to “yes we can” .
Dave Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Where do I start with you sheeple,
First you are idiots. My god there should be a test before you crazy liberals are allowed to vote. It should be based on Civics, Free Enterprise, and American History at least.
First for those of you kool-aid drinkers, Ronald Reagan was the greatest American president in the 20th century. For those of you too young to remember he and George Bush handed Jimmy “what did he do?” Carter and ass whipping that failed in comparison to the rout of 1984, when he took 49 of 50 states, crushing the unstoppable hope for change that was Mondale/Ferraro. While in contrast, the perception of this greatly loved, and “first black president”, Bill Clinton won neither election with 50 percent of the vote. Now with W. in office we have to hear about how he “stole” 2 elections. Look at the numbers folks and you will see he took at least 50 percent in both elections. Quit trying to revise history.
Back to President Reagan, the man took action. Blow up a jet over Scotland and you better find a hole and stay low. In contrast you can attempt to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993, blow up two embassies, and run a rubber boat laden with explosives into the USS Cole killing US service members and get away with it for years because it was consisered a crime paramount to armed robbery and not terrorism. Instead of taking care of business with these people the Clinton administration decided the problem was with America and that we needed to change our policy and accomodate the world so that they would love us more.
I am no fan of many things the republican party and Bush administration does, however, it is for far different reasons than the majority of the contributors here. I can agree with Obama on the need to kick the lobbyists out of Washington D.C and all 50 state capitals. That’s where the agreement stops. I disagree with the Bush administration and republicans t(hat were) in congress on numerous things: Prescription drug plan, pork barrel spending, the immigration (or lack there of) policy, and many other things(Democrats in Republican Clothing). President Ronald Reagan, as much as possible, made Americans responsible for their own actions, and many didn’t want that, they wanted handouts and when they didn’t get them blamed the government.
I am no fan of abortion. When I say that I am talking about the “no my life’s not in danger, the baby is perfectly heathy, and even though it’s my fault for making the adult decision of having unprotected sex, I really don’t care for the adult responsibilities like raising a child at this time in my life, so could you please suck it out?” crowd. The 40 million or so abortions that have been performed to date in this country speaks to the selfishness of Americans. They want the pleasure without paying the price. The worst part is that this mentality is pervasive in every aspect of liberal life. It’s always someone elses fault and there should be a mechanism to bail people out for making poor decisions whether it be buying a house or car they can’t afford to begin with, getting an abortion, trying to justify commiting a crime because of their upbringing, and the list goes on.
Back to abortion though. While I find it repulsive that the mojority of abortions are done to escape responsibility under the much better slogan “freedom of choice”, what did these people really have to teach those kids? If they believe in abortion on demand and somehow didn’t get an abortion Al Gore would most likely be president. These kids would have been taught that they are victims of the system and that only government can take care of them from the cradle to the grave. Democrats and liberals are basically commiting genocide on themselves. On the other side of the spectrum you have the “Pro-Life” people that will blow someone or something up to stop an abortion clinic in the name of “insert choice here” and yet have probably rescued more animals from the pound than adopted “unwanted children”. So basically if you fall into either catagory you people are out of touch with reality as far as I am concerned.
What has 40 million plus abortions cost the US? I would have to say 40 million or so wage earners. Why does America need so much foreign labor? 40 million dead fetuses. Why are wages going down and prices going up? Illegal Foreigen labor that will do it cheaper and uses tax payer services yet don’t pay any tax other than sales tax on what they need and sending the rest to their country of origin.
Obama WILL NOT bring jobs back to America people. I am not a big blame America first kind of person, but in this instance I have to and I am not free from blame in this either. Everytime one of us goes shopping we tell big and small business what we want with our pocketbook. If you go to the store to buy the cheapest item you can no matter where it is made, business WILL respond by giving you more of it. Every time YOU purchase a foreign made product over something MADE IN AMERICA, YOU ship that job overseas. Billions upon billion of US dollars go to CHINA and other countries every year. The Chinese have dropped their bicycles and purchased cars in record numbers and have thus had to make huge improvements to their infrastructure. What is the conseqence to pouring all this money into China? “Yes you in the back.” That’s right record high oil and gas products. To quote your great savior “It’s the economy stupid.” If you send your money to China hand over fist giving a billion people the money they need to buy cars the demand on oil goes up thus, anybody? Exactly, raises the price of gas. Yet somehow millions of Americans think that big oil is gouging us on the price of gasoline. Wise up you dumbs**ts it’s your own fault. The moral of the story is this; YOU as a consumer have far more power to “bring back jobs” to America. When you shop buy American whenever possible, if you don’t really need it don’t buy it. Every dollar you spend on a product MADE IN AMERICA is a vote for American labor and will have more effect than ANY politician telling you they will somehow solve the import and American labor problem.
Someone posted somewhere on this site that the American government is a disgrace because of it’s history. Well you need to go somewhere else a**hole. Yes America did have slavery. The dirty little secret is that tribes in Africa sold the “POW’S” of rival tribes to the Dutch traders for basically pennies not the Hollywood version of whites going of into the jungle and somehow “capturing” an entire tribe with a net. Black on Black crime over turf greatly contributed to the number of slaves available. Of course in revisionist history that part must be left out because….., well it kinda puts some of the blame on the Africans that “Just couldn’t all get along.” Many people pounding the pulpit on slavery are the same people sustaining modern day slavery. What? Yes you. See the paragraph above. Do you really think that the products you buy from third world countries aren’t in part made in “sweatshops” around the world? Do you really think slavery in America would have endured as long as it did if people used their wallets to back up their words? Well guess what slavery is still alive and well in the world and you may be contributing to it without even knowing it. Some people are forced to work in sweatshops and others do it of their own accord to take the thousand or so dollars they may make a year and support their families. Making wise informed decisions when YOU spend YOUR money puts the responsibility of American jobs and modern day slavery where it lies: WITH YOU
In a nutshell, I despise liberals telling me that they will solve all the problems and injustices in the world with the stroke of a pen. Success in America does not lie with a dominate party in the White House or Congress. It lies within all of us. It relies on us making the hard decisions to sacrifice what we want now in order to achieve what we want later. Government shold be able to go on an eleven month vacation and nobody should notice because we as individuals are handling our own responsibilities, raising our children to be responsible, and taking control of our own destiny, instead of voting for a living and relying on someone else for our own happieness in life. That is what Ronald Reagan stood for and that is why he was the greatest President of the 20th century and god willing America will get back to that mindset one day.
oh and ken,
If you want to cry about how the price of food is going up you need look no further than certain sects of your own party. I am by no means a degreed economist, but I do have the basic understanding of supply and demand. Follow me on this if you can. Al gore and his followers have convinced many that global warming is a man made phenomenon. Thus people believe that we can “grow” our own fuel and it is called ethanol. The dirty little secret about this bio fuel is that the resources, energy, and labor it takes to produce one gallon of ethanol is more than it takes to refine one gallon of gasoline from oil. If it say takes 2 gallons of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol then aside from slighty lower emissions from gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, where is the net gain? Now take into account how much corn is required to produce one gallon of ethanol. With the narrow view that bio fuels will save the world the supply of corn is no longer available. The lower or lack of a supply of something the higher the price. Chicken and beef farmers feed their animals what? Yes corn. So guess what. Their cost of doing business goes up. They in turn will pass the cost on to the end consumer. The same goes for any product you buy off the shelf that contains corn starch, corn syrup, etc. The cost goes up. Now if you believe these bio fuels will save the world then you shouldn’t be complaining about the costs. If you believe there is a net loss by the use of theses fuels, then you are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Higher gas prices ( see above post) also drive up the end costs of goods. Remember plastic, PVC, etc are all made from petroleum by products. If you believe that a one degree rise in the earth’s temperature spells doom for life as we know it then how do you not see billions of dollars going to third world countries impacting supply and demand on our own economy. Oh and by the way by enabling all of these third world countries to come on line as modern countries with no restrictions on pollution, if global warming is really man made, then the American consumer is the enabler to the citizens of third world countries. Again, if you don’t believe you can put a price on the environment, don’t cry to me about the higher costs of goods to the end user. I see two ways to change it. One buy American where there are some measure of environmental regulations. Two- continue to do whatever it is you do and then demand the government control the price of goods. Now you are looking at socialism or communism. I prefer the republic and free enterprise method. Unfortunately, many people don’t see the broader implications of what appears to be a good idea. The idea of a cleaner world is great. Maybe you should realize that you as consumers have more ability to change the world than any president, senator, or congressman ever can. Just look at how spending habits have done more to ship jobs overseas, increased the polluntants of third word countries, and triggered a trickle down effect of higher consumer prices across the board.
I have felt exactly the way this wonderful being expressed his views in this speech for years. There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored. You can deny it all day; but until you sort out in your mind what actually happened 450 years ago - you will not come to terms with the racial divide. Barack Obama is the real deal. Regardless of his ethnicity, America can not and will not get another person of this caliber for 50 years. I believe in my soul this man is an Apostle. To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes. He is honest and his integrity level is something Americans have never experienced in a politician. We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place.
wow connie,
Your post is just scary on so many levels. An apostle? Others would worry that a man that can swoon millions with talk alone is the anti-christ. The man has told us about change, yet has not given us a hint as to how he will achieve this change. It is too late to disavow his pastor. What speaks volume is that he attended this church for 20 years. The comments and college thesis of his wife, the refusal to recite the pledge of allegiance or the simple act of placing his hand over his heart during it’s recital now become contextual to the argument that this man talks the talk but is not walking the walk. It is one thing to disagree with the policy of your opponent, but to not perform the simple gestures that would signal unity as an American first, speaks volumes. Your ability to rationalize 20 years of a man that attended what stongly appears to be a black separatist church without question also speaks volumes. This revelation if obama’s past has only given white supremacists the fuel they need to bolster their points of view and recruit more members. Obama’s 20 years in that environment and instead of throwing the pastor under the bus offered up his white grandmother as the sacrificial lamb instead speaks volumes. Obama has through his own actions and inactions, set this up to what it will ultimately be: an election that will decided more along racial lines than policy. There will be more revalations about this that will serve only to hurt obama’s chances. Mark my words that obama’s own family will come out swinging against him for what he did to his grandmother. How you plan to reconcile that and still support the man remains to be seen. This obama debacle could go one of two ways: it could open up the racial dialogue that some people desperately need. By that I mean the internal audit that most people need to come to grips with what makes them tick. The other outcome is even more pronounced polarization of racial lines. Unfortunately, the usual suspects are lining up on their respective sides making the latter the most likely outcome. Then you have connie who will not question this revalation and plow forward with blind devotion to the new testament book of the apostle obama. Very scary indeed.
I see, Dave, that you’re dead set on ranting. That’s fine with me - I agree with your opinions, if not your delivery of them. For example, we both agree that Connie’s post does have a ring of dread to it. “There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored.” Who’s willing to bet that she’s black?
Connie, you are dead WRONG. Really, do you think that I, as a white, have a subconsious belief that blacks are inferior and that I have the right to dominion over them? Is this because I’ve been “favored”? It’s funny that I have several black friends - according to you, that should be impossible, since I’m white. Shouldn’t I hate them because of the racial divide that was embedded in my white genes millenia ago? I’m sorry, but you’re just as bad as Wright. You are, in essence, saying that whites are inherently racist and intolerant toward blacks - when, in reality, that statement shows racism toward whites! Where do you get the idea that whites are inherently racist? I’m certainly not!
By the way, all of my black friends are voting for McCain. They don’t see any substance in Obama either.
I have listened to the furor over the comments of Senator Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It has not deterred me form being one of his supporters and casting my vote for him as the next president of the United States.
Senator Obama’s speech should have put an end to the controversy and moved all to examine and re-examine their roles in the issues of race in America to begin a dialogue of healing. It matters to everyone and to me in particular because of my story of racism as I experienced it as a child.
Growing Up “Alabama”
Chapter Seven
Growing up “Alabama,” not to mention growing up black and female, meant that I had to face the racism that permeated, no, that was indeed the lifeblood coursing through the veins of the rivers and clay hills that was my home. Daddy and momma did a good job of shielding us from the people and events that shaped the south in the sixties, but sometimes I wonder if I was just naïve, immature, and stuck in escape by reading every book I could get my hands on, taking a mental journey to worlds imaginary and real, that I would ordinarily never be able to conceive if I did not read and see the facts of them in my books. There were, however, events that could not be avoided, that remain indelible in my mind, scarred on my heart and that still leave a bitter and sour taste on my tongue.
When I was young, I really can’t remember how old I was, but I must have been between the ages of four and eight, my father was the pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Lowndes County, Alabama. On the weekends that Daddy was to preach there, the entire family would tightly sandwich ourselves into the car and make the trip from Tuscaloosa. In my child’s mind, the country roads were beautiful unknown lands, blanketed in kudzu and with densely wooded forest where all kinds of mysteries were waiting to be discovered.
We would usually make a stop at “Cousin Chen’s” (whose real name was Evelina Davidson) house during the trip. She and her daughter, Victoria, were close to the family and would visit us in Tuscaloosa from time to time. I remember Cousin Chen as a brown skinned, gray haired lady, a little stout, and who always had a dip of snuff under her lip. That dip of snuff was always trouble for my siblings and me when she would visit us in Tuscaloosa. Having that dip of sour smelling snuff tucked in her lip meant that one of us would have to get a tin can, fill it with dirt, and bring it to her for a makeshift spittoon. Of course, that foul smelling dip of snuff meant that we would be sent to empty the tin can when Chen had filled it with the nauseating brown spittle. In spite of her nasty habit, we loved her and I guess that perhaps she fulfilled the role of a grandmother with my father’s mother being dead and my mother’s mother living so far away in Savannah.
After church services one Sunday in Lowndes County, we went to Chen’s house for dinner. There were other adults there from the church community, but of course, being a child, I, as well as my brothers and sisters, was not allowed to sit in the living room to either listen or participate in the grown folks’ conversations. Children were seen and not heard in those days, but it surely didn’t stop me from listening.
The grown folks, in low and solemn tone, were talking about a lynching. I couldn’t hear who it was, but from the bits and snatches of the hushed conversation, I heard that a man in the community had been taken by the Klu Klux Klan, strung up on a tree, and killed. What was his crime? In the 1960s, being black in the wrong place in Lowndes County, Alabama was all that was needed.
I had known all about the Klan, how they dressed in their white robes with the pointed hoods that covered their faces; how they hated black people and would kill them for almost anything. This was Alabama in the sixties, and no matter how well my parents tried to protect and shield us, there were things that we just couldn’t avoid knowing and understanding; things that we had to know to survive. It was this knowing and listening to the grown folks talk that evening, that made the drive back to Tuscaloosa one of the most frightening nights of my young life.
Nights in rural Alabama can be wondrously beautiful and all too often horrendously frightening at the same time, especially when you are you young. The night of the drive back to Tuscaloosa from Lowndes County, was one of those nights that was full of moonlight streaming through pines and forest growth streaking across my eyes in blurring ghostly images, while the car raced along the highway. Because our family was so large, to ease the strain and give me a chance to breath, sometimes I would lie in the space between the backseat and the rear window. This was one of my favorite things to do, as I would be able to gaze at the bright stars twinkling in the Alabama sky or go to sleep without someone’s elbow, knee, or butt poking, twisting or squirming all over me.
On this night, I lay there in that space, my eyes not gazing at the stars or my mind wondering about them. Instead, I was vigilantly watching the deep shadows of the woods that were pierced here and there with shards of moonlight, waiting, seeing, horses with their white robed riders holding blazing torches, tear through the underbrush to the highway where they would stop our car and lynch my family too. Every light of a car approaching us was a car loaded with the Klan, ready to stop us in the road. It was my just imagination from the overheard grown folks talk that evening, but it was my reality from growing up black in Alabama too.
Racism and the events of the civil Rights Movement are almost synonymous with Alabama. Tuscaloosa was the city where Governor George Wallace, in 1963, stood in the door of the University of Alabama to prevent the first black students from entering that bastion of what was white higher education. Although I lived in the same city, the cocoon of protections that my father and mother wove around my siblings and me prevented us from any first-hand knowledge of the incident, leaving us, along with the rest of America, as spectators of the event on the Huntley Brinkley Report broadcast.
As much as they protected us, the events and effects of the Civil Rights Movement inevitably touched us. In the shadows of Richard Nixon becoming the 37th President of the United states; the scandalous car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts involving Senator Ted Kennedy, killing for him any chance at the White House; the largest music festival of the counterculture being held in Woodstock, New York; and Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon with his fellow astronauts, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins orbiting above, 1969 in Tuscaloosa saw the court ordered desegregation of the Tuscaloosa County Schools imposed, when I was to go to seventh grade. Our home on the corner of 37th Avenue and Seventh Street was zoned so that I had to leave the all-black Westlawn Junior High School and attend the all-white Tuscaloosa Junior High School. The prospect of attending a majority white school did not really matter that much to me. My parents had raised my siblings and me to believe that we were as smart, as good, and as capable as anyone else, that we could and would excel if given the chance. And as such, the prospect of attending this new school was not intimidating.
While I could attend classes with white children at Tuscaloosa Junior High School, the greater community was still struggling with the issues of equal access for African Americans. While I could become friendly with white classmates, there was still a distinct difference when I left those hallowed halls of junior high school education and entered the businesses of Tuscaloosa.
During my seventh grade school year at Tuscaloosa Junior High School, my mother had to visit a dentist—a white dentist, and I would go with her for the appointment on this occasion. I distinctly remember other visits to Dr. Jackson’s office and having to enter through a side door. By this time, however, Blacks were no longer being forced to enter establishments through a back door and my mother and I entered through the front door of the dentist’s office. Low and behold, there sitting in the empty waiting room was one of my white classmates from school. He recognized me and we exchanged greetings, with him beckoning me to come where he was sitting. Of course, with talking being the paramount activity for junior high students, I could not pass up the chance to chat with this friend while my mother was signing in and talking with the receptionist.
Thoroughly engaged in conversation, learning that his mother was also seeing the dentist and rehashing the happenings at our school, I barely heard my mother call my name,
“Jannis! Jannis, come on, let’s sit down.”
“I’m going to sit right here Momma,” I replied and went right on talking with my friend.
“Jannis, come on!” Momma said with a more insistent tone.
“But I’m talking with my friend. Can’t we just sit here?’ was my naïve answer.
“Jannis, come on right now!” Momma said softly though loaded with steel, through gritting teeth and a tightly set jaw.
One look at my mother’s face told me that I had better get up right now and there was no chance of me changing her mind. Because I was pissed with all of the temper of adolescent rage about not being able to talk with my classmate, I looked my mother more closely in her eyes and it was then that I saw not the anger that I expected from me being a disobedient child, but pain. Momma grabbed my hand firmly and ushered be through a swinging half door next to the receptionist’s desk. We proceeded down a small hall to another glass door on the right and entered. There I saw crowded into the available chairs black folk. There were hardly two chairs available for my mother and me, but we found seats. It had at last dawned on me why my mother had been so insistent that I get up, leave my conversation with my white friend—the only individual sitting in the first waiting room—and go with her.
We both sat in stony silence while the others waiting on the dentist buzzed in conversation. I imagine my mother feeling the shame, too painful to explain, from having to make me sit in the “colored” waiting room. My angry thoughts were,
“This is crazy! All those empty seats in the front! What difference does it make?”
The same white dentist who put his white hands into the white mouth of my friend’s mother would put the same white hands into my black mother’s mouth. Yet, we could not sit in the same waiting room. This event is scorched upon my mind and I cannot forget my mother’s face in the dentist’s office. It is part of who I am. It is the part of me that meant being touched by racism. It is a part of me growing up Alabama.
Growing up black in Alabama also meant that our family was poor, but I, nor my brothers and sisters knew it. We had food to eat every day and clothes-sometime made by my mother and sisters or hand-me-downs—to wear. My father pastured at least eight churches to take care of us. He was not always paid in cash for preaching the gospel. There would be the weekends when he would come home with bushel baskets of peas, beans, corn, other vegetables, and the occasional live chickens in a crate. These were the hand-grown goods of the poor black folks in rural Alabama and all that they had to support their minister. And, because of their labor and my father’s ministry, we ate well and did not know that we were poor.
P.S.
Sorry, I was so focused on Connie’s statement of inherent white racism that I forgot about the rest of her driveling post. Erm, here it is:
“I have felt exactly the way this wonderful being expressed his views in this speech for years. There is a racial divide that is embedded in all of us. It so unfortunate that slavery made this ugly truth a reality. We are 450 years post slavery and the remnants of slave masters still exist in the minds of those that have been favored. You can deny it all day; but until you sort out in your mind what actually happened 450 years ago - you will not come to terms with the racial divide. Barack Obama is the real deal. Regardless of his ethnicity, America can not and will not get another person of this caliber for 50 years. I believe in my soul this man is an Apostle. To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes. He is honest and his integrity level is something Americans have never experienced in a politician. We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place.”
To your statement that “I believe in my soul that this man is an Apostle” - do you even know what an Apostle is? Here’s the definition, in case you’re wondering:
“n. A missionary of the early Christian Church.”
Yep, Obama fits that description perfectly, don’t you think?
Regarding your statement that “To stand before millions of Americans and not disown his Pastor speaks volumes”, you’re entirely right. It speaks volumes about his agreement with Wright’s twisted theology.
You say that “We can put Hillary in the white house and have to worry if Bill is flirting with the staff; we can put John McCain in office and worry about another 10,000 young men and women dying for a war that should not have been. Or we can put a man, that is black and white; rich and poor; and honest in everything he say and watch the world become a better place”. Heads up(pun possibly intended) - a possible threat of Bill getting blowjobs is the least of our worries if Hillary’s elected. And, do you really think that Iraq isn’t a better place after Saddam’s ousting? Would you prefer to have his intentional torture and murder of his own civilians continue? Do you really think that a military presence shouldn’t be maintained to protect Iraq’s infant democratic government? You honestly think that the mere presence of Barack Obama in the Oval Office is enough to bring “change” - it will invariably be change for the worse unless Obama stops making charismatic speeches and starts actually thinking up a plan for this “change”. Obama has given me no reason to believe that he is competent - but you apparently don’t need reasons.
It seems that, while I was writing my comment, Jannis submitted hers. I have only one thing to say to her:
Show me one dental hospital in Alabama that still has segregated waiting rooms, and I’ll believe that your comment is relevant.
WOW! Amazing what anger is out there regarding our physical and cultural differences. Thank God I live in Hawai`i that is one of the most diverse places in the United States and it does you so much good to experience life here that is filled with the Aloha Spirit. I have lived here for 20 years and my son was born here 14 years ago. He does not understand racial divides or cultural ones for that matter. Even though he is white with blonde hair, he mixes it up with all “colors” and cultures. Obama spent many of his formative student years here on O`ahu and reflects much of what that Aloha Spirit means. Much of who he is reflects all of us in some form. Here is a link to learn about it: http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/alohaspiritlaw.html . If we all practiced these principles, our world would be a much more peaceful and loving place.
Blessings of Aloha to all of you!
A Haole Lady in Hawai`i.
I am glad that Dave had a chance to take his blood pressure pills and calm down. Part of Obama’s message is that everyone must take responsibility for their environment/community. I have served 14 years in the military. I have been a state employee for 10 yrs. I have just re-enlisted in the Army Guard. I serve my country…period. I serve my community.
Can someone explain this to me? In the past when a tank was built the steel came from an American steel plant. Everyone was taxed for $50, let’s say, for the war machine, and actually 30 goes to the war machine. $20 was re-circulated into the economy. Thus the war machine stimulated the economy. We all understood what our contribution was for and gladly participated. Now, some of the steel still does come from American steel plants but the nuts, bolts, and electronic components come from Korea lets say. Our middle class is cut out of the circle of revenue re-circulation. That means from the $20 return from the war machine only $5 dollars actually gets re-circulated into the economy. So essentially, the $20 circle of the re-circulated revenue now becomes a $5 spiral.
I am sure you can find similar examples in our education system and subprime mortgage market. We all understand how we got to this point. We all understand the current situation. The hope is that voters and the elected officials together can fix this. We can blame each other all day or we can just fix what is wrong.
Obama just speaks to what is really going on in the lives of ordinary people. I just know that I don’t want anymore of what America has had to endure. I don’t get the feeling that Billary or McBush have America’s best interest at heart. So, that is why I am giving Obama my vote.
To Lockett:
It seems that you didn’t understand my post. The story that I posted is one from my childhood. The incidents are real. I experienced them. They still haunt me as an African American woman in 2008, thereby making my comments very relevant and a part of the necessary dialogue that must take place to begin healing this nation and transcending the racial divide.
Although I do not condone the angry words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is 16 years older than I am, I understand them. I know first-hand the source of his emotional, but very ill stated diatribe on the state of America. My husband, whose black mother was hit in the face by a white man, and who bore the scares of it until her death, is another testament to the roots of the need to bring this discourse form the shadows and the fleeting memory of America—a country that does not want to face the truth in the mirror when its sees it reflection through the eyes of African Americans.
I am a fifty-one year old public school teacher, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Rather than preaching from the pulpit about racial equality and saving souls, I have chosen to teach in a classroom, to help young people realize that they can be the primary catalyst in creating an America of the future where race is truly not an issue.
Does this make it relevant for you?
Without reading all of the comments here, I just wanted to throw my two cents in.
1) If Obama wasn’t a candidate for President, this speech would still be a landmark statement within historical context. The effectiveness of it, and the truthfulness of it cannot be denied or disputed. Nothing that he says within this speech detracts from the fact that people of all ethnic backgrounds are at odds, and that we, as a country must try to overcome our differences to make progress with real issues that affect us all. If you don’t like him, fine, don’t, you’re not forced to. However, if your ignorance causes you to attack his statements, then you’re just not living in the same reality as the rest of us. If you don’t like this speech, then what would your interpretation be of our cultural differences? How would you propose to solve them?
2) In terms of our military, I have great respect for any soldier that fights to defend our nation. Now, this is an important statement, “defend our nation”, is not a green light to invade a country that poses no threat to us. I will support any military strike that targets terrorism. I believe that the only way to be safe is to be aggressive with extremists. I also believe that we have a moral obligation to use diplomacy, and our military if needed, to stop genocide in any nation.
Having said that, Iraq posed no real threat to us, it contained no nuclear or chemical threat, and there were no weapons of mass destruction. It did not harbor terrorists until we invaded, and Saddam, while a cruel dictator, did not use genocide to suppress the population. We invaded so Bush/Cheney could profit through oil and military contracts. The price of Oil is at an all time high, and Haliburton is making enormous profits that cannot be quantified. The administration used our soldiers as nothing more than mercenaries. I am ashamed that you had to spend 5 years in a country with no purpose, and your lives wasted for money.
I believe that a strong military is paramount, and terrorists should be hunted down and disposed of by any means necessary. I do not believe that we should use waterboarding to extract information because it clearly and definitively goes against the Geneva convention. Additionally, it creates more resentment against our country as opposed to extinguishing that same hatred. Our own tactics produce more terrorists.
3) If global warming is in fact a fallacy, then what would be the real damage if we converted our energy to solar, wind, hydrogen, and bio-fuel? The emergence of these new industries will bolster the economy and create millions of jobs. It will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make the environment cleaner. These are all good things. The only negative would be that some corporations go out of business, or be forced to shift their focus to creating these new energy sources. They have the resources in terms of profit to do it, so they could easily start to invest and stay as powerful as they already are.
I agree that ethanol is not an answer to our energy problem, but if we start the transition, it might be a good way to get the ball rolling. The best thing that can happen is that we do in fact see a more stable and cleaner environment, and the polar ice caps stop melting. The worst thing that happens is that we use solar panels and hydrogen instead of gasoline, and exxon/mobil go out of business. I’m willing to make that trade any day.
In terms of economics, if there is a limited supply of a resource, it becomes more valuable and more expensive. If oil is mostly found in the Middle East, and we need to invade or bribe countries to get it, then wouldn’t it make sense to change to an energy policy that is independent and will be available at all times? The cost to install renewable energy may be high at first, but the long term cost will be far less than oil ever was.
4) The difference between Obama, Clinton, and McCain are not extreme. There will be differences in strategy to deal with our problems, but they all know what the problems are. All we need to do is choose the candidate that we believe will take the right path to solving them. I do not believe that McCain’s idea of cutting taxes and relying only on Wall Street is the right economic approach. It creates too many gaps for those people in the middle class to make ends meet. If you only earn $20k - $50k a year, a tax cut isn’t going to make an impact on your life. It was the same with Reagan & his trickle-down economics, which in fact was disastrous for many middle class households.
I don’t believe that welfare was a good idea as well. Parents should not be rewarded for not working, and bearing more children because it gives them more money to remain irresponsible.
I do believe however that FDR’s New Plan was the most common sense approach to a terrible economic era. Use the government to create jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure. Create new industry through government incentives like Obama wants to do with companies that remain in the US.
The housing crisis is not going to resolve itself, and Clinton’s plan for a 90 day moratorium is only pushing a deadline. Freezing interest rates creates inflation and weakens our dollar. This is not the right plan to initiate, it does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse.
If McCain believes that government should be small, and only propose a tax break, then how does he propose to solve this crisis? Without some agency in place to deal with it, it will never get fixed. The only solution is to create an incentive for banks to refinance all the sub-prime mortgage loans into conventional fixed rates. It may create a huge burden, but the alternatives are worse for everyone, especially when every house in America is depreciating at a staggering rate, and foreclosures rates are at record levels and show no signs of slowing down.
All the candidates would be fine as Commander in Chief, I don’t think that after the past 7+ years it could get much worse than Bush. However, I don’t think Hillary is the best strategist. She fails at every level to accomplish her goals without controversy and resentment. McCain may be too aggressive when it comes to Iran, and will likely never find an exit strategy out of Iraq. I think that he will pass the buck, and decide not to withdraw any amount of troops during his presidency. If he is adamant that the surge is working, then he needs to set realistic goals for withdrawal. We can’t wait until Iraq is functional and self reliant because it never will be. We should give them a political plan with hard deadlines, and if they fail to implement it, then we withdraw.
I believe that Obama will take into consideration all opinions on the matter when he is in office. Whether they be conservative or liberal, he will make a choice that appeases both parties to the best of his abilities. I think that is real leadership, and that is what our country desperately needs.
WOW. Barack keep on, keeping on, Brother. You are what I’ve been waiting for all of my 42 years of life. God bless you and your dream, for you are the embodiment of what Dr. King told us about many years ago. YES, WE CAN!!!!!!
Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, 2009 - 2016.
To Jeff:
WELL SAID!! Thanks for your insight on the issues that matter to us all. YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To Jannis:
“It seems that you didn’t understand my post. The story that I posted is one from my childhood. The incidents are real. I experienced them. They still haunt me as an African American woman in 2008, thereby making my comments very relevant and a part of the necessary dialogue that must take place to begin healing this nation and transcending the racial divide.
Although I do not condone the angry words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is 16 years older than I am, I understand them. I know first-hand the source of his emotional, but very ill stated diatribe on the state of America. My husband, whose black mother was hit in the face by a white man, and who bore the scares of it until her death, is another testament to the roots of the need to bring this discourse form the shadows and the fleeting memory of America—a country that does not want to face the truth in the mirror when its sees it reflection through the eyes of African Americans.
I am a fifty-one year old public school teacher, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Rather than preaching from the pulpit about racial equality and saving souls, I have chosen to teach in a classroom, to help young people realize that they can be the primary catalyst in creating an America of the future where race is truly not an issue.
Does this make it relevant for you?”
Yes, it does. I apologize for my lack of understanding. However, I still don’t see how blacks are still discriminated against. Racial discrimination should STAY in America’s collective “fleeting memory”.
To Jeff:
[post too long to quote]
Yeah! Another sane person!
However, while I agree with about 75% of the things that you said, your well-written post still hasn’t given me any reason to vote for Obama. You basically said that he’d make it up as he went along - look at where that got Bush. I agree that Clinton would probably screw up everything that she did, but I don’t see anything wrong with McCain delegating some of his military command to a few generals - “passing the buck”, in your words. He’d do well to implement your idea for a safe military exit(”withdrawal” implies retreat, “exit” implies victory - or, at least, a ceasefire) from Iraq - not that it’s likely that he’s read your post, though.
To tell you the truth, given the choice between Obama, Clinton, and you, I’d pick you in a second. Your “two cents” is more like two dollars!
dealing with complex issue is not easy… obama did an excellent job tackling these issues head on while providing furthur direction for our nation. away with politics as usual and congrats to obama and all of us supporters for the positive nature of our work and beliefs!
To Lockett:
“However, I still don’t see how blacks are still discriminated against. Racial discrimination should STAY in America’s collective “fleeting memory.””
Have you ever been stopped by the police for DWB-Driving While Black? My 24 year-old son has.
Have you ever been stopped by the police for driving a new truck with the dealer’s tag on it without breaking any laws? My husband has–the police thought he had stolen it.
Have you ever been followed around a store by a sales associate, where you were the only black person shopping and all of the white customers were shopping without being followed? I have.
If you have children, were they ever told or heard that the reason some people are black is because they are dirty? My oldest son was told this by one of his white peers.
Have you ever been called a black b**ch by a total stranger walking down a street for no reason? I have.
Have you ever been passed over for a promotion because the all white department didn’t want a black person in the position? My husband has.
Have you ever been working in a retail store in uniform, walked by a white customer who then moved their purse away when you passed them by? My son has.
Have you ever been told that you look too good to be a black person—that you had to be Hispanic or mixed with something? My son has
Do you get the picture?
I could list even more, but I think the point is clear. The fact that racial discrimination stayed in “America’s collective fleeting memory” is the reason that there are the Rev. Jeremiah Wrights in this country. More importantly, this fleeting memory is the reason that honest, open, dialogues between all ethnic groups must take place.
Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We are still a nation suffering from a racial divide. Until we can look at where we have been, until we confront our faults and failures, until we accept our failure in recognizing that we are the HUMAN RACE, until that time, will we, as a UNITED nation, be able to determine where we are going, and truly become the global super power that we ought to be.
Sen. Barack Obama is the only candidate who will lead this nation to its proper destiny.
Racism is alive and well, of that there is no doubt. Stuffing it away in the “American fleeting memory” has only left it to fester and continue on it’s negative path. Here we’ve been given a chance to change that course… to lance the boil and medicate through discussion and, yes, even the simplistic admission of it’s existence. Of course the skies will not part and Angels will not sing (at least not right away!) but it removes the insanity of continuing on our current path.
Speaking of current paths:
I just don’t understand how well-educated human beings can begin to believe that putting John McCain in the White House will elevate this country from our current disaster. His plan of staying in Iraq for however long it takes (without any definition of what success is) 100 years; continuing tax cuts to the wealthy; attacking Iran and anyone else who happens to fit into a cute little song-ditty; cutting spending on infra-structure (the current president just cut spending to First Responders by $1 billion for the Second year in a row ~ don’t you feel safer?). Our infrastructure is in dire straights; from Homeland Security (how about that border control) to Education to Transportation; States are cutting budgets even further all the while we spend billions of dollars per WEEK in Iraq, give tax breaks to the oil companies and the uber-wealthy.
Iraq was an ill-conceived war that continues to suck us dry emotionally, spiritually and FINACIALLY. A vote for McCain is a vote to continue depleting America of our greatest resources - our brave men and women.
Obama has laid out his plans…. you just need to listen and do a little research; ie, go to his website.
I guess I can understand how inspiration and motivation becomes a negative when you’re afraid of change and that change is coming in the form of Masses. Millions of people donating an avg $109 to become the largest funded campaign in the race. With all the passion to facilitate change. Obama has never said he’d do it alone - he’s counting on human beings of all walks to join together for the better of our country.
Let the masses remain ‘naive’ and let the small donations of the world reign victorious.
Yes We Can!
Peace On People
Hey Dave…
What would JESUS DO?
did you know he was/is/forever will be a pacifist?
Would you kill your brother?
Thank God for some body running for office who know what we need. Obama seem real to me. He know both sides (black/white). We all have faults. There is no person is this world that can run for office, can please everyone and don’t have something in their closet that they are afraid will come out. There was only one man that walked this earth without sin. Look what was done to him?? Stop hating. Remember 911, I like that change - I saw a difference in people. Very sad that so many people had to die before we could treat each better. Who raised their kids up to hate?
I pray, yes I pray that things will get better in my life time. I am 50 and things aren’t much better than when I was 5. Every-One have to play a part in this Change. Every one must treat each other with Respect. We are all related, cause we all came from Adam and Eve. Lets stop this Maddness! Blacks treat each other the same way whites treat us, when we think we are better than them. Respect people, Respect! What Would Jesus Do?