Newt Gingrich is a fool; and this goes way back to the late 90′s when he was dead anti-Bill Clinton. And now, after he lost the first 2 GOP presidential primaries, I wrote right after that, that he needs to just drop out of his bid for the GOP Presidential Candidate.
He just doesn’t have the “it” factor – no charisma, no charm, not good looking enough, doesn’t have a good smile, his family is in chaos; basically, he’s not attractive enough to be President of the United States, and these are some of the core fundamental basics for any potential candidate of the US President to have.
Even George W. Bush, who everyone knows he’s a complete moron won the 2000 Presidential Election, simply because he’s got the “it” factor. The American people are mesmerized by those fundamental qualities, then the ability to rule as President comes second.
And after all of this time, now he thinks of quitting the race? What else can he possibly do, since Romney already got the GOP-go?
It’s a known fact by nearly everyone that the Youths in Africa are the most vulnerable in terms of employment, skills development, and access to socio-economic programs; and each ruling party anywhere in Africa should embrace at all costs to making sure that the Youths are well cared for. Because if you look at the age median of the political spectrum today in Africa; the majority of the voters are the youths, and I am referring to those who were born after 1990. They don’t know anything first-hand about apartheid or colonization, except what they read in history books and hear mythical stories as told by their parents and friends in the streets.
The youths today don’t care about what happened during the apartheid era or colonization; they only care about their cellphones, laptops, cars, tablet devices, connecting to the Web; in short, they only care about money; and I mean “hard cash” and nothing else. Hence any ruling party that doesn’t cater to providing the youths in their country with the much needed resources to put hard cash in their pockets, then that ruling party is doomed and is risking losing the next or next-to-next general election.
As for the ANC, it needs to realize that Julius Malema, regardless of his hard rhetoric and militant tenor, he’s more influential and more powerful than the ANC itself (consider the Hip-Hop group, Public Enermy, in the 80′s and early 90′s, do you know what happened during that time to the US cities of Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, etc. with their militant song; “Fight the Power”?), meaning that if he gets expelled from the ANC, that he’s more than able and capable of creating his own political party and be able to raise enough funds to easily win the next South African Presidential election.
Now, before you say “no” he can’t do that, then look at South African youths; the majority of them are blacks and are unemployed or underemployed and if Malema can put together a powerful and experienced Advisory Committee to court and guide him, so that he can tone down his militant rhetoric and embrace a more softer but still hard-toned down tenor that directly addresses the issues that the South African Youths are facing daily, then this will coin him and guarantee him to win the next South African Presidential Election.
Now, instead for the ANC to expel him, it should consider offering him and putting him in a “Strategic Position” within the ANC Party that will cater to pulling and attracting the angry South African Youths to the ANC Party, and then try to address their issues collectively. However, if they expel him from the ANC Party, because he has criticized President Jacob Zuma, then they are risking losing the next Presidential Election, because the Youths will likely follow him to whatever party he goes.
And in general, African Presidents need to get used to being ridiculed and criticized; this is democracy. Constituencies must have the rights to air their views on the President’s job performances. Criticism and being ridiculed don’t mean disrespectful, it simply implying an unsatisfactorily sentiments due to the President’s job precipitation.
The world has changed; everything in it has changed; politics and business as usual have changed; it’s not the same old principled theories any more. And every leader anywhere should embrace this change; which is the new age of interacted, and a more connected global economy. Political economy no longer has roots; it’s meaningless. Economic transformation is the next wave for Africa’s industrialization as fueled by the passion for Africans to live like other humans elsewhere in the world.
Socialism, Communism, Fascism, etc are dead, even the Soviet Union (USSR) doesn’t exist any more, capitalism has seen its transformation change and chanllenge since The 2008 Great Recession. Now it’s the market-driven-economy which rules and controls this wind of a new change; a world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, iPhone, and more. These platforms have completely revolutionized how things work and are done today; both in politics, business, entertainment, science, and everything else.
The global information in which we live now is on everyone’s fingertips. We are now more connected, more smarter, more informed, more vocal, and more open. The print news media are no longer relevant. Their relevancy only for confirmation of the reported news.
This new global change needs and must be understood and accepted by African leaders who still practice and focus on the old politics, the politics of old dogs fighting for old bones.
This new change needs to ring clear and loud within every ruling party especially in Africa; that the Youths at all costs “must come first”. Because any country that overlooks or underestimates its youths is directly or indirectly doomed to have political fallout and economic demise. And the ANC must consider reinstating Malema right away and find a common goal to best work and reason with him, if they want to win the next Presidential Election.
If ANC expels Julius Malema today, expect a huge political backlash against the ANC Party.
(I wrote this unbiased opinion as an Analyst, not a politician. I hate politics. And, no I am not a supporter of Julius Malema, I think he’s a joke, but I respect him as a human being).
PERHAPS I will never get to fully understand this; small developing economies, mostly in Africa, generally have gazillions of political parties, while large developed economies, generally in the West, have on an average two political party systems. WHY?
Oh, I forgot, no one wants to be ruled by the other; and if you want to get rich fast in Africa, then what’s the best option other than starting your own political party, and then win a few seats in the parliament so you too can enjoy generous luxurious perks generally granted to the MPs?
On an average; such as in the US, if you are not already rich, meaning, if you have not already have made it on your own, chances are that no one will vote for you. You have to be already successful in your personal career and endeavor before you are entrusted to be elected in a general election in order to hold a public office, but only based on your own merit.
Whereas in developing economies, a dead poor someone can simply come from a rural area someone; perhaps with some good government or political connections on the top, then eventually is enclosed within a political party which will likely guarantee his or her election for a public office, and then that’s where he/she will be chopping up the dough.
Because, in most of the developing economies, individual people don’t run for public offices based on their own merit, they join political parties and then they are perhaps appointed to be included in the election. And since only the political party runs, and not the individual person, then whoever is in that party’s election, he or she’s guaranteed to win if the party wins.
Unlike in large two-party political systems, where you, as an individual candidate has to sweat it out, campaigning on your own, until you win the primaries before the party on which you belong can recognize you as their sole candidate in that specific election.
Only your individual merit, not your political party, will get you elected in an office.
BBC World News is reporting that US President Barack Obama has said he does not rule out arming the rebels seeking to overthrow Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Now the US is fighting 3 wars; Libya, Irag, and Afghanistan. While North Korea and Iran are trying to find out how they can fit between these wars. In the end, the US is fighting 5 wars, and the US annual spending will skyrocket to more trillions.
The problem now is that the US and allies are at the point of no return. They cannot undo what they have started in Libya. They have to finish it, but it could take two more years of fighting, unless they send in some commandos and just take out Gaddafi as quickly as possible.
But, when it becomes to that part, where the US is fighting North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, this will stretch out the US military resources, and in the end, the US is going to unleash its most powerful and deadliest secret weapons; the unmanned warplanes and robot soldiers, including well-trained and bio-engineered African bees. It could get nasty.
The following remarks are from a Macroeconomist’s point of view, not as a politician, because I am not a politician and I am certainly not interested in politics as a career.
Main Purpose
When we got together in mid 2009 to create and develop our Economic Ecosystem, our intention was never and it’s still not to compete with any government, but to work together as a public private partnership.
So that together, the public, the government, and our company, which is a for-profit company, we can all work together to formulate and develop a systematic solution that can work to help boost stagnant and slow performing economies in developing countries.
For the sole reason; help improve the economies by exponentially boost the aggregate GDP, reduce income inequality, combat poverty, improve healthcare systems, and raise the GDP per capita in order to over-all improve the living standard of the citizens.
Since January 2010, when we announced our development of Groot Town Center ecosystem in Grootfontein, this has been always our goal and vision.
Meetings with Government Officials
In the late part of 2010, my group and I met and spent nearly 3 hours with Hon. Tom Alweendo, General-Director of National Planning Commission of Namibia (NPC) in his office in Windhoek, going over and analyzing the entire Namibia’s economic performance by using our PowerPoint file as seen on our corporate web site at www.grootgroup.com.
We outlined and discussed all of the economic key issues, of what must be done, to help rapidly create sustainable employment opportunities in order to reduce the current unemployment rate of about 54% to about 4% within 3 years and realize Vision 2030 within 5 years instead of 20 years. We explained our concept to the NPC officials on how we plan to achieve this and what we are doing to realize it. All for the sole reason that we want to work together with the government and the general public in order to help our government, our people, our communities, and our country, Namibia.
In the 2011/12 Budget, it reads the following at some paragraphs;
“Starting this financial year, the Government will implement a Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (or TIPEEG). This program is aimed specifically at addressing economic growth and the high unemployment rate through support to strategic growth sectors. The TIPEEG will focus on four key sectors, namely, agriculture, transport, tourism and housing and sanitation.
The total budget for the programme over the MTEF is provided under each of the sectors and it amounts to N$ 9.1 billion. Inclusive of Public Works, the allocation for job creation amounts to N$14.7 billion. It is envisaged that the implementation of TIPEEG will result in the preservation and creation of about 104,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.”
My Analytical Review
It’s good to notice that the Government has allocated the capital to address these key industries, namely; agriculture, transport, tourism and housing, and sanitation. Furthermore, the Budget states the need to embrace entrepreneurship development, etc.
These industries and resources are the exact same ones that we detail explained to the NPC officials and all government key officials that we have met with since August 2010 when I arrived in Namibia. They are also in line with Namibia’s National Development Plans (NDPs) as well as with the 2009 SWAPO Manifesto.
My point here is this; I am glad to see that the issue of creating job opportunities to reduce the current high rate of unemployment in Namibia is now in the public forums; that everyone is now nearly discussing about how to combat poverty; all-in-all, improve the living standard of all the Namibian people.
In Namibia, the population is about 2.1 million (2009 estimate), and the workforce is about 716,000 (2009 estimate), but only about 329,000 of those are currently employed, while the difference or about 386,000 are not currently working, and this does not include those who have stopped looking for work. About 80,000 or 24.3% are currently employed by the Government. The rest are employed in private and not-for-profit sectors.
In the 2011/12 Budget, it says that the creation of employment in Namibia will amount to about 104,000 of direct and indirect new jobs. That’s out of about 386,000 that are currently unemployed. That means, about 35.8% or 254,000 of Namibians will still be unemployed. Out of spending nearly N$14 billion in new job creation for the Budget 2011/12, that only translates to about 18.2% reduction in the current unemployment rate of 54%, and leaves the unemployment rate at about 36%.
Regarding entrepreneurship development, I applaud the Government for thinking to implement this, as this is what we have also told NPC that entrepreneurs are the engines for a rapid economic growth. And as part of our Groot Town Center ecosystem development, this is one of the key features that we are implementing. We have already started doing so, with my “Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership Meetup Series” that I have been holding in around Windhoek and so far in 2011, I have done 5 of these Meetup Series, which resulted in a creation and establishment of a new company with an innovative product by the community of Hakahana, Windhoek.
Bottom Line
Even though there will likely be an 18.2% reduction in the current unemployment rate, the Namibian economy is still experiencing stagflation. The unemployment rate will still be very high, and the Consumer Price Index, the price of consumer goods, will still keep rising. The current salary, wages and fringe benefits for the majority of the Namibians will still remain the same, high school dropouts will keep climbing which will continue to increase the unemployment lines, and those who are graduating from colleges, will still find themselves working on some jobs with meager wages that they never studied for as their major in college.
New Jobs
The number of new jobs that the government will create as the result of the implementation of the allocated Budget may not be sustainable, since most of the jobs will likely be based on contract per project; hire today, lay off employees when the project is finished. And the laid off employees will go back to the unemployment line. Perhaps not much difference for the new job opportunities.
Final Analysis
As a Government, not in the business of creating innovation and forming entrepreneurs, but tasked to enabling an environment conducive to encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship development, which then may result in businesses establishment; as seen in our .pdf file as posted on our web site; the Groot Town Center ecosystem, is the only and ultimate solution to enabling Namibia realizes full employment, more than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs, within 3 years. And the Government of Namibia and the people of Namibia just need to fully support and embrace to work with us and together develop Groot Town Center as planned.
If not, perhaps 20 years from now, Namibia’s GDP, per Vision 2030, will still be at about US$25 billion instead of about US$430 billion, the GDP per capita will likely not change much due to an expected slight increase in population growth, and the unemployment rate will still be cumbersome; the inflationary price will keep rising; basically life as we know it in Namibia now, will still be almost the same in 20 years.
Let’s all just embrace the development of our ecosystem, Groot Town Center, it’s the only solution for Namibia’s current, in the short and long term, socioeconomic pressing issues.
We, at Groot Property Group (Pty) Ltd, are ready to work with all the Namibian ministries, government agencies, parastatals, private businesses, non-for-profit agencies, and the general public in order to successfully develop and implement the best possible; Groot Town Center ecosystem, which will benefit both the rural and urban centers. Let’s work together to make Namibia even more beautiful.
This post is a response to a forum discussion, posted on Affluence.org, read it here, but login may be required.
Some people, like you, are just plain fools. They just don’t know when they have something that’s actually good or better, even if you hit them in the face with it. They voted for Bush, instead of Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004, and look at what we got, 8 years of practically nothing, but unnecessary Iraq war, which has helped sky-rocketing a mountain of our deficit, followed by this Great Recession.
Yes, I said it and I am saying it again, some people are plain fools, and stupid.
And now we have a president who is actually trying to do something about the mess that Dumbya has put us in, and then you have the nerve to call Obama “a lying pig dictator”. You’re all fools! At least he’s trying to do something about it.
If your wallet and bank accounts are left intact from this recession, that doesn’t mean everyone else is unaffected. There are people out there who are actually going through a lot, who have lost their jobs, homes, cars, and have mountains of debts, mostly because of what Dumbya did to the country in the last 8 years, which is nothing.
Yes, you’re all fools for thinking that “Obama is a lying pig”, when he’s actually doing everything he possibly can to help turn around our economy and put more people back to work.
If you got guts, read my previous blog post explaining this very same topic on here.
Open your eyes, fools, get out of your comfort zone and think about other people who are going through hell, primarily because of the last 8 years of nothing!
To reinvent the much damaged American image around the world would require a new and fresh face with strong ideas of unity and world peace. Yes, Obama is the fresh face, but US Secretary of State is the front image, the face that precedes the US presidency in foreign affairs.
US Secretary of State is the face of the United States government among foreign leaders around the world, who is responsible for handling foreign affair and managing the core issues of the US State Department. It’s highest-ranking cabinet level position, in terms of in line of succession to the presidency and order of precedence.
Thus, I had been thinking that Obama would select someone with a more favorable public relations front, and I had been thinking that Oprah is the perfect fit for the US Secretary of State job. She’s the most loved, admired, and respected around the world, mostly by almost everyone, not as a politician, but as a journalist, entertainer, and philanthropist. She’s agile, tough, and smart.
However this week, Obama met with Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson to discuss the possible job appointment for the US Secretary of State.
I had thought about Hillary Clinton for the job, she’s tough, resilient, and well respected around the world, as a politician and first lady, and she would make an excellent Secretary of State. But I was thinking more on Obama’s theme of change in Washington, and Hillary Clinton is one of Washington insiders. Bill Richardson will also make a great Secretary of State; he too has foreign experience, him being a former US ambassador to the UN, also a Washington outsider, and is also respected by foreign leaders around the world.
I had also considered Obama appointing General Collin Powell as Defense Secretary, but that won’t make a good racial fit, having Winfrey and Powell, both in the top cabinet level position. Obama has to equalize the racial borderline and bipartisanship, even though when a person’s experience should precede racial status or political party affiliation, racial and bipartisanship equalization should precedents all else, anywhere. Therefore, for Obama to consider McCain as Defense Secretary would make a perfect appointment and shorten confirmation by the Congress and Senate.
For the economy, I urge Obama to replace Treasury Secretary, Paulson, on the day of his inauguration, same as for Fed Chairman Bernanke. Even though this post of Federal Reserve Chairmanship may be a lifetime appointment, Bernanke and Paulson need to go in order to quickly stabilize the market. Just look at Paulson’s misappropriation of the bailout money.
All $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout money have already been misgiven to banking institutions and now they are changing their initial market rescue plan to pump the rest of the bail out money to credit card and student loan companies, instead of spending this money in what is really economically needed and mostly relevant, cleaning up the housing market.
Warren Buffett would make a good Treasury Secretary; the only thing I am worried about him is his age. If appointed, how long can he serve as Treasury Secretary? But then the economy only needs about 18 months to turn around and he can definitely serve those months and may be a few more years. Except that, there’s a talk that former Treasury Secretary, Summers, is also one of the people in the short list, being considered for the Treasury Secretary Job. But Buffett may get the job since he’s proved as one of the world’s best money managers, and not to say that he’s more closer to Obama as one of his presidential economics advisers.
My question is – why would a billionaire, like Oprah and or Warren, give up his day, money making, job to serve as Treasury Secretary or US State Secretary?
The March 14-18 national Gallup survey of 1,209 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters gave Clinton, a New York senator, a 49 percent to 42 percent edge over Obama, an Illinois senator. The Clinton’s new lead over Obama might be the results of the recent revelation and stain caused by Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Some American voters suggest that Obama should have completely disowned and disassociated himself with Rev’ Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ. But Obama clearly answered and defined his position in his recent race speech, “A More Perfect Union”.
My suggestion is that Obama in order to continually redefine his position and reclaim his lead and eventually win in the general election as President of the United States, he needs a new creative and strong PR, to produce a new TV and radio ad and run it in all the TV and radio networks so that his message can again penetrate and engrave in the minds of the voters and that may help him recapture and regain his voters and supporters and bolster his candidacy.
The media in recent weeks have been consistently focused on this issue of race and religion and that has helped trigger some of Obama supporters to question his patriotism.
There’s no doubt that Obama is the best candidate for the presidency of the United States. In politics so as in life, there are and will always be those who are willing and ready to do anything at any cost to jeopardize even at the cost of causing pain and infliction to someone or someone’s family in order to achieve their objection of causing and trigger confusion and disbelief in the minds of the supporters.
Thus, the Obama campaign needs to reengineer and reinforce what Obama has eloquently stated in his speech through new TV and radio ads across all the networks around the country.
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk – to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination – where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Today, Barack Obama walked up to the podium in Philadelphia, PA, and he looked the American people in their eyes, straight on, unashamed, and undeterred, and gave the speech of his life, the best unifying and hope-giving speech I’ve heard in my lifetime. He rebuffed the critics on the Rev. Wright’s speech, and he confronted racism, gender, hatred, and unsavory religion rhetoric in America.
The speech was direct, the message was powerful, and his honesty is lucid. I especially like how he directly responded to the critics in regard to Rev. Wright when he said; “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my own white grandmother.” Brilliant!
This time it is clear, Obama is the perfect choice for the next President of the United States. So all you great Philadelphians, when you go to the polls on April 22nd, don’t make the same mistake the Ohioans made on March 4th, this time all you confused democrats, republicans, and undecided independents, make sure to vote Obama and let’s wrap this thing up, quick. Barack is the clear unifier of our country.
This is a true history in the making. So, make it count!
