Monday, September 2, 2019

White Supremacy and the History Of Jazz in America: An Unruly but Successful Partnering of Strange Bedfellows

Responding to the article linked here:
https://truthout.org/articles/white-supremacy-tried-to-kill-jazz-the-music-triumphed/ Jazz has been my musical heart and soul from age 14 and onward.. It took me abut 16 years of trial and error hard core personalized study to master my craft after 8 years of semi-formal piano lessons in the home based on learning the rudiments not of jazz, but of playing the piano using classical techniques, Without the contribution of white aficionados, sponsors, and supporters of the music, it would never have gotten 0ff the ground. Therefore, I take issue with the character of this book (not yet read by me) but can agree with most of the ground floor contentions connecting it to the kind of America it grew up in. From the review: "Why was the international reception of jazz so markedly different from the way it was received domestically, particularly by white audiences in the U.S.?"
"Your query is harder to answer than it appears at first glance. My previous work has argued that contrary to consensus opinion, the formation of the U.S. in 1776 occurred not least because of a fervent desire to evade the logic of abolition that was growing in London (the 1619 Project just published by mostly Black journalists in the New York Times echoes this thesis). As such, slavery and its complement — hysterically hyperbolic “anti-Negro sentiment” — flourished in the republic and was hardly squashed by the Civil War. Dexter Gordon in Copenhagen; Art Farmer in Vienna; Randy Weston in Morocco; Yusef Lateef in Nigeria; Miles Davis in Paris; Ron Carter in Tokyo — all found more receptive audiences than what they encountered in their homeland, along with more respect for their artistry. The tangled history of the U.S. complicated the republic’s ability to emulate these global trends." My continuing commentary: There is much controversy as to when the "Birth of Jazz" occured in America, but there is no doubt that established white musicians performing the music in an official context were an indelible part of the history. The legendary Paul Whitman Concert of 1924 introducing George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" has been crowned as the Birth of Jazz in America because of the strong white support and attendance as well as media coverage. I can't share this article without acknowledging the legitimate artistic and theoretical contributions of white musicians as well as blacks. If anything, the races were brought together in the creation and establishment of the music as it continues today, to be a collaboration of Black, White, Oriental, and European musicians extending to musicians from all over the world. This article is more focused on the ofttimes unruly business of jazz handled, of course, mostly by white entrepreneurs above and below the table of human decency and normalcy. I reject the title used but understand its meaning. There is no need now to demonize the music by confusing it with the ongoing drama of white supremacy currently sweeping the media.

Monday, August 26, 2019

A Post Christian Culture Torments America


A Response to the Lament of  Post Christian Acculturation found in this article:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/august/what-missionaries-can-teach-us-in-post-christian-america.html?fbclid=IwAR17mG6rOI8jk0kdQ8DsFP-0KooUfa4k2OQkmLYtvdd607EE8ZS8jZEPhh4

Interesting article. I'd go back as far as Rome taking the lead in making Christian belief the focal faith of the world. If secularization had an official beginning, I'd place it somewhere in that 1-3rd century AD when the warring expressions of the faith were brought to a head by Constantine, in 313 AD, embracing Christianity with the Edict of Milan. Setting the tone with the Nicene Creed, he went on to confess Christianity on his deathbed in 337 AD, still trying to ensure the survival of the Roman Empire at a time when its fall was inevitable. The grand string of magnificent cathedrals that have grown up to enhance the world of architecture and splendor followed, setting in concrete, steel, and glass, the worldly permanence of an other-worldly religion.

The history is something all Christians and non-Christians should read. It seems that early secularization was followed by disagreements from the Anabaptists, to Martin Luther, all the way to the US colonies breaking away from King George and The Anglican Church of Great Britain. The onset of "freedom of religion" included the allowance of freedom FROM Religion, so I can't say when and if America was EVER a Christian Nation. During slavery? The Civil War? The nuclear bombing of Japan? When?

The arguments have persisted pretty much from day one back in the time of disputes between Peter and Paul (Galatians 1). Gabriel Vahanian, A college professor of mine, wrote The Death Of God: The Culture of our Post-Christian Era in 1961. (He was Religion Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University. I took a basic course in religion from him in 1967. He passed away at 85 in August of 2010.).

Vahanian's book set off a cascade of reactions from bad to good and still continues to rock the nation of professed Christianity to its core. That the "post-Christian culture" was upon us so extraordinarily that such a book might have been written and received by a college professor was more evidence that the faith was retreating than any believers could comprehend or accept.. I dare say this Post-Christian Culture, therefore, is nothing new in America or the world at large.

What's interesting is, the article reaching out to venues of repair and re-configuring without even asking if this culture is a good thing or a bad thing. That, in a nutshell, is the reason for it. Presuming that it's the onset of a global nightmare that America has rejected God, feeds the ongoing and failing effort to restrain the plummet as if that's what is supposed to be the response of what's left of Christianity in the Post-Christian Culture. 

Maybe we're just growing up. Maybe the post Christian culture has emerged because our human culture has learned so much about the world, the universe, the timing, science, etc. etc. that the ancient-ness of the Christian faith simply has no trough to feed on and could be the problem, not the solution. We are living in an extended disbelief of the Copernican-Galilean revolution of the early 1600's when the world was discovered to be round, not the center of the universe, but just a planet among others, orbiting a star in a universe of unfathomable numbers of such stars.

If I were to advance a "fix" for what even I am not sure a fix is what is needed, I would advise all Christians to re-examine THEMSELVES, discover just how sincere they are in their claim of faith, and continue to pray to a God they believe is the final arbiter of what will happen to a world that has rejected (Him) in so many ways. Find a personal, private channel with which to link to this oftentimes, "why hast thou forsaken me?" God, and enlarge faith to become the sole, valid indicator of truth in (His) existence. Adding works to justify and exemplify that faith should pretty much complete the contribution Christians need to make in a "Post-Christian Culture" whose ultimate judge will act at a time not chosen by those seeking to repair things on earth.


Thursday, June 13, 2019

A Dog Story

I live in an apartment complex of two-story units attached.  Front door access is to the courtyard outside leading to the cars and the streets, etc.  OK.  I come in last night from my rounds, park my car, go inside and start to warm up my homemade taco meat to make two tacos.  It's about 9:30pm.  I finish the tacos, clean up, and sit down in my high-back- arm-chair-that-tilts, grab the remote and turn on the TV.  As I begin watching and surfing the channels, I hear the most God-Awful screaming coming from outside.  It's a reasonably quiet living place with a rare bit a drama from time to time.  I figure it's probably some fighting going on and it's best I don't get into it.  Ya never know these days.

Well, the screaming gets louder as I turn down the TV volume.  It's hi-pitched but throaty on the bottom, characteristic of female screams when the scent of death and injury is in the air.  It's loud and urgent and sounds like four or more women screaming at once.  I carefully open my door to look out, mindful to watch for bullets (who watches for bullets?).  I see diagonally through the night, across the courtyard, a bunch of people and somebody is mercilessly beating someone or something on the ground hard like they were trying to kill whoever or whatever they were beating.  I thought it was a man beating a woman on the ground and the women around them were just too scared to interfere, but screaming like crazy.  Other unit doors were opening as residents started to view from a distance.

I felt I HAD to go and try to put a stop to this.  I cannot stand by and watch a woman be beat by a man with a club.  Or without a club. I just can't.  As I get closer hurrying over, I see that the beater is a woman that lives there, and the beat-tee is a medium sized dog bent over a small dog it has in its mouth at the neck, trying to KILL it.  The big dog is a husky Pit Bull and the woman beating on him (yes, it was a woman, not a man) was having no effect at all.  Two women were trying to get the pit's head off the little dog while screaming and yelling.  More were standing around just yelling like crazy while the little dog's head and neck was being shaken and torn.  The Pit was growling like a wild bear in heat.

Bobby H. to the rescue!?  What was I to do?  Just stand there and watch?  I decide to give  the Pit a good kick in the ribs.  I did so with all available strength and accuracy.  I kicked that dog harder that I have ever kicked anything or anybody, and I never kicked anybody in all my 71 years on the planet.  I instinctively knew I was going to have to try to get that Pit off the little dog with one kick, cause if it turned on me, I was going to need my other leg to start the #turnandhaulASS maneuver..  The Pit didn't even  react.  It just kept growling, salivating, snooting, and using its teeth to tear into the little dog's flesh while the screams got louder. I felt like I had hard-kicked a brick wall.

Meanwhile, the woman who was beating the Pit was now resting her head on the pole she was using pointed down on the ground. She was relieved SOMEONE had come in to take over. She was breathing like she was going to pass out, and crying her eyes out while still screaming.  How do you women manage that?  The noise was deafening now.  There were other guys around but keeping their distance.  I got it in my mind to do one more truly healthy, deadly kick but decided upon a different area. A softer target. The infamous "ballzone" that shows itself under the tail when the tail is curled up as it was in this Pit Bull's case.  The bull had large and healthy thighs so, being a man myself, I decided to give it a break and aim my kick toward the inner thigh, still hitting the ball-zone but not so directly.  Maybe it's a breeder, you know?

I take a full breath, circle around to the rear end of the Pit Bull, bring back my leg (the one with the new artificial hip joint) and let my foot fly with ALL my strength into the meat of the target.  BAP!  I kicked that dog so hard, I KNEW if it failed, I was in the wind for sure!  The pit instantly let go of the  little dog and turned to see who threw the ping pong ball at its leg.  Right.  That second kick didn't phase him much more than the first one did.  Either of those kicks on a human being would have caused serious damage depending on where it landed.  Either one of those kicks would have killed the average child.

The Pit turned and looked at me briefly, but now the little dog, having been set free, was hi-tailing it into  the open unit door where it lived, its owner chasing after it.  I guess that Pit Bull said, the hell with me and ran towards that apt door going after the little dog.  Now it's got two people on its back end and the owner of the little dog trying to grab the pit around the sides to keep it from getting into the open apartment.  I helped close the door after she entered and the bull got pushed and pulled outside.  Somebody showed up with a dog harness and someone was saying "it got out of it's harness".

The Pit was now standing and panting while the people were trying to put its harness back on.  It was cooperating, probably feeling a little sore in the right inner hind leg at the ballzone wondering if it was ever going to have sex again.  They got him into the harness and I turned to go back into the apt of the lady whose dog it was that had been attacked.  She had two such dogs in that one-room studio unit she shared with her husband who was at work at the time.  She stood crying, panting, and screaming, holding her hands out, pacing slowly around the room.  She had blood on both her hands and blood was on the floor.  The tiny dog was no where to be found.  I figured it was under the bed being quiet or dead. I asked if she was ok, but all I got back were sobs, muffled screams, pacing and untargeted staring.

At this point as the screams were beginning to dissipate, as the drama was winding down, as the peripheral screams were morphing into talking and speaking drama-review narratives, I took one last look at that Pit Bull who was still looking straight ahead, still standing, still cooperating with its owner (one of the women screamers), and decided my work was done here.  I made it back across the courtyard to the quiet of my own unit, shut the door, and crossed over to my raised-back, tilting leather armchair to resume watching TV and digesting my Tacos.

Addendum:

People, DON'T GET A PIT BULL.  There are other kinds of dogs.  FORGET the Pit Bull!  If you MUST own a Pit Bull that is temperamental enough that you have to harness it to walk it, be strong enough to keep it in its harness.  I know what happened.  That damn Pit Bull saw that little dog.  The little dog (unleashed), started that yip yip yip yip barking that little dogs do, and took off onto it, pulling the harness leash right out of the woman's hands.  By the time she recovered the leash, the harness had come off the Pit as it took the little dog's neck into its mouth to teach it to never bark at Pit bulls 5 times its size..  Strength is what is required to walk a Pit Bull with a harness.  The harness won't do it for you.  If you are not strong enough to handle a harnessed Pit Bull, don't walk a Pit Bull in a harness. DUH!!!!!!

The lady that owned the little dog eventually went to the hospital, got her hands taped up and took the little dog with her.  That's the last I heard.  I haven't inquired yet, but I'm sure she's a bit shocked, but ok.  The little dog is probably back under the bed cursing her dog god for having made it so small but thinking it was big like the wolves and bears she evolved from.

Thank you for letting me share.


Robert W Hamilton 6-13-2019

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

On the Politics of Fear and Futility

Fear mongering will not work. Fear is like pain. It goes away. You don't elect a president to calm the fear of the masses promulgated by fear itself. The country is safe. If San Bernardino was indeed the "worst terrorist act on American Soil since 9/11" (CNN), then we are safe. Every single GOP candidate in last night's debate of 12/15/2015, worked the fear angle. I wish I could count the number of times ISIS was mentioned. ISIS is our enemy? Really? Our enemy is fear itself and as the quote taught us it's all we have to fear.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest there won't be another 9/11-sized attack on this country for some time to come. These small jabs will hit us here and there. They will get swiftly resolved by law enforcement and the perps will either die or get locked up. Period. The anguish of death is about the same as it is for the constant deadly attacks on masses of people gathered in schools, malls, churches, theaters, or parties, carried out by singularities of no particular persusaion with no real organization behind them. If there is a solution to these sporadic deadly events taking out a few to a few dozen people at worst, then let's work to find one. Let's not incorporate a false mindset feeding xenophobia and ethnocentric motives.
Terrorism, as bad as it is in 9/11 dimensions is largely contained and rearing it's ugly head more in fear promotion than in actual implementation through hard facts that just don't match the magnitude of a real terror attack. Last night's GOP debate painted a nation in fear and trembling longing to be made safe against a rag-tag bunch of free radicals peddling their product mostly through the internet and yes, a few well-placed beheadings. They connect to the various incidents we face through cheering and empathy more than direct machinations. They are being taken down the right way. Systematically using remote resources of war' drones, Fighter jets, special forces and assets comprised of boots worn by citizens of the Arabic nations where ISIS lives.
We are a nation of strength, endurance and courage which has met the worst enemies in history and come out on top. We are a strong nation which has met fear and spit in its eye more than once. There is no reason to politize something that only exists because repetitious memes and speeches create the mirage which reveals fear as nothing les than deception poised to win votes in the absence of anything concrete enough to elect any single one of these desparate hopefuls..
If last night's debate shows us the best the GOP has to offer, then there is no choice but to vote DNC which will most likely be Hillary Clinton who has not pandered to the fleeting and misleading presence of fear made worse by statements made linking criminal attacks like San Bernardino to real assaults like 9/11. We may have to live with skirmishes and cowardly attacks of a deadly but small scale until the concerted world effort against ISIS gains momentum against the barbaric idea of Jihad and Caliphate-building based on the implementation of fear.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

TSA Nightmare?

Let's attentuate the potential of alarm here. Just what IS a "terrorist watch-list"? Are only terrorists on it? Maybe their family members who object to the terrorism? Maybe unwitting accomplices caught in the web? WHO is on this list and why?

Is the kid that found my unopened jar of peanut butter in my carry-on bag at FLL last year sneering at me for having it, a potential terrorist? He sure looked like it. Imagine. The nerve of me to bring on such a device obviously loaded with shrapnel and a timing device all obscured by sticky peanut biutter?

What about the guy that later wanded me down in the same airport a month later after setting off a "BAG ALERT!" because of a small pair of mustache scissors I forgot to pack in my suitcase instead, barking orders at me like I was a suspect, not a paying passenger trying to get home to my family in Phoenix? Of course, a complete emptying of my bag failed to discover any machetes or hypodermic needles filled with cyanide and I was released from the stares of the entire crew of TSA who were more angry they didn't discover a terrorist than if they would have.

Thousands of these "workers" with a task to perform; to keep the skies safe; to root out terrorists before they board, infiltrated by one or two who might look the other way in a planned terrorist attack scenario? NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Oh Well... we fly, most of us, because we have to. The stepped-up pace of our existence; the conditioned urgency to get where we're going on the same day even if it's 3/4 the way around the world, has mandated a higher tolerance of the probability involved. If one flight out of 100,000 takes on a bomb or a device, we would still fly. Same if it was 1,000,000 safe flights before one was "armed" with a terrorist weapon because somebody on the TSA staff had a third cousin who was fifth in line at a wedding of a terrorist's brother.

Because of my age and slight obesity (290lbs when I should be 225 lbs), I don't get the calls anymore to come work for the entertainment industry on ships or hotels. 29 years was a good run with no sicknesses costing a $10,000 airlift courtesy of the USCG (payable by my employer). No heart attacks, no striokes, and now, still healthy for my age, I fall victim to the numbers game. The probability of me becoming a liability after nearly 30 years of being an asset.

I would gladly play the numbers game against a terrorist act by flying in a plane to yet another destination somewhere in the world, checked by a young TSA staffer who would jump for joy at the discovery of a jar of mayonnaise I may have packed to make onion dip with the garlic sauce from the meal on the plane. Verbally assaulted by another TSA staffer-wander who thinks I am there to blow myself up rather than just pass through, find my seat and force my overweight frame into the tiny economy seat my work contract allows.

I would endure the stares, the suspicions, and the rude treatment of any TSA staffer who is going to spend his entire paycheck before he gets home to count his savings, taking it out on hundreds of thousands of travelers playing the same numbers game, if it meant I had a few more months of successive income playing in a hotel or on a ship as opposed to scrambling around, watching my gas, counting my pennies, minding my dollars, and putting that over-priced jar of jelly back on the shelf at Walmart.

Why not just issue a terrorist watch list with photos to every passenger when they enter the airport? Huh? Would that help? I'd go along with that too if I could only get about an inch more of butt-room to keep from contacting that beautiful young girl scrunched next to me ready to stab me if I bump her one more time. Thank God they took her eyelash scissors at the TSA check!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Hamilton Speaks: Barack Obama Presidential Campaign Blog: 2008

Hamilton Speaks
Thoughts for 2008. Hoping for Obama

By B from Phoenix, AZ - May 26th, 2008 at 3:10 pm EDT
"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," -Hillary Clinton
It’s easy to give Senator Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt regarding her confused reference to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Easy, but dangerously naïve. Easy because conscience demands resilience against the inevitability of human nature to err. Dangerously naïve because malice aforethought is hardly dismissable given the vitriolic energy of this primary campaign. The easy way out leads us to the remaining contests of the primary season and on to the serious work in advance of November. To forget is not yet to forgive, however, because this is May. The comments still reverberate with a lasting turbulence. In the event of the unmentionable, the Senator’s comments could conceivably form the basis of an FBI investigation.
This is a nation of mental diversity. The mix, in general is a good idea for the world, but it includes psychological profiles capable of acting out of suggestion, serving ends conceived in delusion. Even conclusions drawn in minds more sane and intellectually sound could act upon the motivational force nested within such irresponsible observations. More overt results could truly render her remarks far less benign than the excuses of fatigue and misspeak seek to characterize them. If such explanations are to be held as sufficient to clean up the mess, then we have to consider what kind of administration she would run given her vulnerability to the pressures of the job.
Giving Mrs. Clinton the benefit of the doubt could be the least deserving action called for by her statements. It was a dangerous and threatening pander to the worst of potential strategies designed to win the nomination for her. An official reprimand would serve only to raise the profile of the comments and impede their inevitable fade from the sound bytes of media intrusion into the public mentality. It could be best for the continued safety of Senator Obama to let the matter disappear. The Obama campaign wisely used the term, "unfortunate" and moved on. For now, this is the best course of action.
RWH 5-26-08
By B from Phoenix, AZ - May 25th, 2008 at 1:20 am EDT
"God says in Jeremiah 16 - 'Behold I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave unto their fathers' - that would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - 'Behold I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them' - that will be the Jews - 'from every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the Holocaust... you can't see that. So think about this - I will send fishers and I will send hunters." -Pastor John Hagee
This profound display of theological buffoonery approaches the outer limits of incredulity.  This is the Mecca of relativism as regards scriptural interpretation.  Jeremiah 16:16 has been related to the Egyptians of antiquity, the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Medes, and even the Apostles of Jesus.  The reference to the holocaust is just one more addition to the litany of scriptural assessments that have amassed to cloud the original meaning in a lasting and eternal doubt.  Whatever Jeremiah had in mind, we may never really know.  The best take would be to relate something in the immanent future or recent past within the time of this prophet.  That would favor the Egyptians or the Chaldeans.  Taking it to the Hitler regime is going beyond the irrational to pure conjectural stupidity. 
At the crux of this resounding idiocy lies the eternal bid to align a loving God with the existence of evil.  Trying to legitimize a fallacy yields repugnance.  What is even more repulsive about John Hagee's remarks is the mental captivity of the thousands if not millions of people who regularly listen and attend to this lunacy.  As if there is no further to go, we have the ambitions of a man seeking the presidency of the United States driving this high office into associations that border on insanity, explained and excused by the pragmatism of national politics. Stranger bedfellows have rarely surfaced. Despite the belated rejection of Hagee's endorsement, John McCain exposed a sickly and dangerous rift in the fabric of human intellect bogged down by the ignorance of the masses which demands capitulation to the irrational dialogue of religious intransigence.
To signal the absence of an end in sight to this madness, Hagee goes yet another furlong by bringing in an aging Jewish "authority" to stand with him and rubber stamp the catastrophically ridiculous mix of the holocaust with the prophecy of Jeremiah. I thought that church and state were to be separate entities within the framework of a government dedicated to freedom of speech and protection from religious incursion.  I still think that and shudder each time the ugly head of religious insolence rears itself in politics at the national level. 
John McCain is not  a religious fanatic seeking to trumpet his  zeal to a spiritually thirsty constituency.  He's at best a moderate looking to win a campaign.  He, like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and anyone else seeking the office of president must find a connection to the hundreds of millions of Americans who live by faith one way or another.  This violates Article 6 of the Constitution which shields office holders and seekers from any test of religion.  Article 6 continues to be overlooked in elections which constantly demand from the candidates, a high profile salute to the seemingly immortal reign of religious intolerance.
RWH 5-24-2008
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Mar 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm EDT
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
-US Constitution, Article 6
The current fabricated hysteria over the sermons of Pastor Jeremiah Wright raises some serious questions regarding the above quoted Article 6 from the U.S. Constitution.  I remember watching the Arizona Debates during the 2004 presidential campaign.  Questions were asked of George Bush and John Kerry regarding their faith, etc. etc.  Bush, an evangelistic, re-born Christian was aflame with his adoration of Christianity etc. etc.  Kerry, a Catholic not accustomed to defending or saluting his faith in open forum, was rather subdued about it and failed to match the spirit of George Bush.  I have always felt that John Kerry’s lack of passion about his religion contributed in part, to loss of goal to become president of the United States.  In the balance, we got the continued presidency of a man who went to war because he felt "America is led by the hand of God".  Four years later, we are in serious trouble over his "divinely conceived" plan to invade a sovereign nation without legal cause.  The current recession is part of the fallout.  George Bush tipped the scales in that very close finish because he pandered to the more generically appreciated, bible-belt, conservative style of Christianity.  His is a religion that mixes well with patriotism, mom, and a slice of old fashioned apple pie.
As a former Divinity School student, in the 70’s, I have a fair amount of knowledge about the history of black religion and its inseparable association with the politics of social justice.  Slaves were not allowed to worship with their white masters even though it was from them that the religion came.  At best, they were allowed to sit in the balconies  of the churches and keep their silence.  It wasn’t long before slaves began to worship their own unique form of Christianity, seasoned with the religions of their African homeland.  Soon, the black spiritual became a venue for secret messaging which aided and abetted the success of The Underground Railroad.  The black spiritual, born in the spirit of black Christianity, became most useful as a communication tool for enabling the escape of slaves to freedom in Canada.  From the moment it was taught to the slaves, Christianity became a beacon of hope and a tool of justification for throwing off the shackles of slavery and every social inconvenience that has come in the wake of it’s abolition in 1863.
This is not intended to be a lecture on black religion.  It is my intention here, to describe the nature of black religion as expansive.  It includes not only the worship of Christ and the hope of salvation, but in a very real sense, it accommodates just about all aspects of life in the experience of being Black in America.  The black church became far more fundamental to the lives of African Americans than just a place to go on Sundays and worship God.  The black church is the apex of the community.  Its association with freedom movements and resistance to the government of the United States came with the package.  In confronting the thinking of Barack Obama’s pastor, the more fundamental question even more primary than First Amendment consideration, is the interpretation of Article 6 of the US Constitution.
Article 6 came along because the founding fathers did not want the same restrictions placed upon Americans that they escaped from by fleeing the Anglican Church of England.  A test of religion implies a prerequisite based on the choice a candidate has made regarding the manner in which he practices his religion.  Article 6 is an open statement that could produce a great deal of intrigue at the level of the US Supreme Court as regards interpretation.  In the Arizona Debates of 2004, the questioner was clearly testing the measure of belief.  One could argue that since the moderator was not a government official, the tone of Article 6 did not apply.  One could also argue that if the answers given by the candidates were not satisfactory to the voting public, they would be denied the ultimate public service position; the presidency of the United States.  If by failing the test of religion, an aspiring candidate loses the election, then I personally believe Article 6 has been violated by the moderators.  I would leave it up to the Supreme Court to make a final decision.
In the case of Barack Obama, who has, for his own reasons, chosen to belong to the church pastored by Jeremiah Wright, the exposing of Wright’s thinking in such a way as to inhibit Mr. Obama from succeeding to the presidency, brings up the same question regarding a violation of Article 6.  I know it could be a stretch to see it this way, but for the last week we have been bombarded by Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, not as they apply necessarily to a judgement of Rev. Wright, but as they apply to the candidate that belongs to his church.  Questioning Barack Obama’s affiliation with the United Church of Christ as he runs for president is administering a test of his religion.  It is, in effect, saying "You, Mr.Obama, belong to the wrong kind of church with the wrong kind of pastor and therefore the public has the right to dismiss your candidacy on the grounds that you may, with your religion, be associating with Anti-American sentiment."
It seems that before we elect a person to the office of president, we want to know what his religious beliefs (or lack of such) are all about.  The voting constituency of the American population acts as the administrator in offering the job of the presidency to the candidates seeking that office.  If the US Constitution forbids a test of religion"as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States", then any undue scrutiny of a candidate’s association with his choice of religion, church, synagogue, temple, mosque, tent in the open woods or whatever, raises valid issues regarding the meaning of Article 6.
Now obviously, one might raise the example of devil worship, or witchcraft and so forth as a valid reason to question a candidate’s association with those "religions".  Chances are, a voodoo priest could get elected president if objections to the practice of Voodun were not allowed in debating forums.  
How many times did the Mormonism of Mitt Romney get thrust into the consideration of his becoming president? Maybe Article 6 needs to be amended. Maybe it wasn’t intended to allow Satanists or Frog Worshippers to inhabit the office of the presidency, or any other office of the US Government for that matter. Maybe a test case, or a class action suit needs to be brought before the Supreme court if it can be concluded that Barack Obama’s candidacy was offended by questions pertaining to his pastor’s sermons or the church he chose to join.
Obama’s recent speech on racism, Jeremiah Wright, and the ills of American society, attempted to link the rhetoric of preaching to the overall experience of being Black in America, reaching back into slavery.  Since there is a clear connection between black religion and social activism responding to accumulated consequences of the Black experience, it should come as no surprise that Jeremiah Wright chose the pulpit to exhort his opinions about American Policy at home and overseas.  His sermons were not anti-American.  They were "anti" the America that has ducked under the radar of the US Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence.  Wright’s sermons were a call to what America can and should be, in his opinion.  They were a calling of American policies onto the carpet and a suggestion that quite possibly, the actions of American governments over the years have violated moral justice and the thought of the Founding Fathers.
Barack Obama became associated with Wright’s United Church of Christ when he was organizing and advocating for the rights of dispossessed, disadvantaged Americans, most of whom happened to be black.  They lived in the worst areas of Chicago and were too poor to matter to that city’s government at the time. The United Church of Christ belonged, at that time, to a council of churches which funded support groups and active efforts to respond to issues of heat, asbestos contamination, single-parent familes, unwed mothers, incarceration issues, HIV-Aids administration and so on.  Barack Obama gave up a promising legal career to work for those people and it was the churches in that area that provided money and meeting places as well as other support facilities.  If Jeremiah Wright and his congregation hadn’t the heart and spirit to reach out and assist people whom the government ignored, perhaps the association would never have come to fruition.
It could be argued that the facilitation of Obama’s mission in the Chicago housing ghetto was a more fundamental reason for his joining that church.  It could be argued that despite the flaming rhetoric of his pastor, he was attracted to the willingness of Jeremiah Wright to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  Barack Obama found a comfort zone in the religion of the church he decided to join and enough political activism in the ideology of Reverend Wright to form a relationship with him, which suited Mr. Obama and his family.  Now he is being handed a test of his choice as he continues to defend his religion against those who seek one thing: The discrediting of his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.
The ongoing exposé of the ideas and sermons of Jeremiah Wright is a masquerade; a sleight-of-hand operation to deny the presidency to Barack Obama by manipulating the mind of the electorate. If the sermons of Jeremiah Wright were so caustic and abrasively damaging to the character of America, then why NOW are they being paraded in the media and on the opinion pages of publications all over the land?  This is not even a violation of Wright’s right to speak his mind. It is simply an effort to obstruct the path to the presidency of Barack Obama, using a test of religion.
Somewhere in the future of presidential campaigns, an agreement of protocol is going to have to come about which adheres to the thinking of Article 6. Hinting at his Muslim and Atheist background was a clear consensus of the idea that a person cannot be president unless his religion satisfies the public conscience. Linking him, through Jeremiah Wright, to Louis Farrakhan, a proud and prominent practitioner of Islam was designed to motivate the fears inherent in the current age of terrorism and anti-Semitism. If religion is to play a deciding part in the election of a US president, then Article 6 must come to the attention of the Supreme Court in terms of revision or official interpretation because it sure sounds to me like we have an infringement here.
The attempt to derail Barack Obama’s candidacy with the ongoing debate over the content of the sermons of Jeremiah Wright has hit its mark.  There has been a drop in the Nominating polls along with a rise in the general election polls favorable to Hillary Clinton.  If this association between Barack Obama’s faith choice and his chances for winning the presidency prove to be detrimental then bringing a challenge before the Supreme Court regarding Article 6 could be a reasonable consideration.
RWH
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Mar 10th, 2008 at 8:57 am EDT
The Clinton team is currently suggesting that they would consider a "Clinton-Obama" ticket.  This latest insult has gone the distance in repugnance, conceit and presumptiveness.  It is clearly designed to manipulate the remaining contests by using cheap psychology on the minds of voters having a tough time trying to decide between the two in the remaining contests.  The strategy says, "It's ok, vote for Hillary because she will bring Obama with her."  The old "two fer".  It is a double-edged sword because first of all, they aren't serious.  They know that a Barack Obama IN HIS RIGHT MIND will reject the offer.  That will leave them free to chose Joe Biden or somebody like that who will shore up the conservative wing and add a tone of experience to the ticket.  Why would they want Barack Obama after making it known to the world that they don't feel he's "experienced" enough to be president?  Why would they want him one heartbeat away from the job?  This is deception reaching a point lower in decency than anything the Clinton camp has thrown at the Obama campaign to date.
Prudence, wisdom, and clear thought mandates a Barack Obama rejection of any teaming up with the Clinton Brigade, even if she DOES miraculousy or through nefarious invention, manage to win this nomination.  The rank-and-file Democratic public has spoken loudly about who they want to be the nominee.  Barack Obama has solicited money and support from the public, not from his pocket or powerful special interest groups.  To counter the overwhelming success of this strategy, Hillary Clinton has had to reach into her own deep pockets and those of her backers to come up with the money to struggle back to a tenuous state of credibility.  To win the nomination and offer the VP slot to Barack Obama would be to negate the meaning of the Obama campaign.  It would be taking the money this "people's campaign" has donated from their own personal resources and using it for the opposition.  I can't think that Barack Obama or any of his high level staffers would not be able to see through this transparency.
This is a campaign to change the way government works in Washington.  This is a campaign to get the people who are outside of the system, a voice in the inner workings of the government.  This is not a campaign to win the White House for the Democratic Party by any means necessary.  This is a campaign to elect Barack Obama PRESIDENT, not vice president.  I would prefer for Barack Obama to sit out the general election and take his chances with a failed McCain presidency in 2012 or even 2016.  If Hillary Clinton can't win without Obama, then let her LOSE!  I have suggested before that the failure to support John Kerry-John Edwards with enough enthusiam to overcome the small gap that defeated them in 2004 can be blamed in large part on the Clintons whose influence in 2004 was probably ranking if not outright dominant.  The 2004 loss enabled the Clinton candidacy of 2008, and this was no accident.  This did not happen overnight.  The Kerry-Edwards loss was Hillary Clinton's gain.  BUT!!  Along came Barack Obama and his audacity to believe.
The Clintons miscalculated not only Barack Obama, but the public which has flocked to his side and filled his campaign coffers with personal donations amounting to record-breaking numbers.  This effort is not to fizzle out in a vice presidential win for Obama.  The eye is on the prize.  There is no reason to capitualte to the misdirection of the Cinton campaign by acknowledging any interest whatsoever in the vice presidency.  Considering her lackluster performance in the primaries, using all her money and power, I hardly think she can win a national campaign against John McCain.  Why enable her win with the resources Barack Obama has managed from ground zero? Why direct the casg flow of ordinary individuals towards a win for the powerful and wealthy? It would be unfair.  It is a double-edged trick which brilliant minds should be able to see through and reject out-of-hand, any alliance with this team, win or lose, in August.  In plain language it is a deceitful work of deception designed to grab votes from the undecided as the remaing contests stand to make-or-break either candidate.  Please, Barack.  Just say NO!!!
Robert Hamilton
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Jan 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pm EST
BET President Bob Johnson's recent speech endorsing Hillary Clinton speaks to many things about American society.  The best it reflects is our right to express how we feel, unhindered by any outside forces or laws.  In this regard, I applaud Bob Johnson.  As a stated friend of Barack Obama, I think it took courage to defy his call for support and turn instead, to Hillary Clinton.  No black man or woman should be expected to support Barack Obama just because of racial integrity.  It reveals in depth the freedom we have long aspired to in becoming who we want to be.  Bob Johnson is a successful black businessman and speaks both intelligently and down-to-earth.  It would be great to have his presence on Obama's side, but this is not heaven.  This is the United States.  This is not a perfect world.  This is America.

It is pure irony that when the torch of presidential leadership is about to be passed to an intelligent, articulate (there's that word), charismatic, young black leader, the question of his race rises to defeat him. This not in the minds of racist whites as one would expect, but in the free speech of discerning blacks like Bob Johnson.  Johnson’s refusal to allow race to influence his decision to back Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, is a testimony to the kind of individuality so long suppressed by the torment and ravage of slavery which produced a violent racism in this land, encompassing ALL blacks, good, bad, young, old, ugly, beautiful, intelligent and illiterate.  There was a time in our history when white leadership such as the Clinton legacy would not dream of seeking support from a prominent black individual.  My, how times have changed.

To listen to this endorsement of Clinton over Obama by Bob Johnson fills me with the sense of a great schizophrenic moment in the history of blacks in this country.  Even with his inspiring lecture about experience and leadership ability, you can perceive behind the amused eloquence of Johnson's speech, that his heart is wounded for having to bypass this moment of destiny and hold the hand of the white liberal establishment.  What less could you expect out of a successful black entrepreneur?  It is a wonder he is even voting Democrat.  You can sense this madness; this frustration in the sonorous silence of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. You can feel this strain of conflict in the weakened song of Clintonian support coming from the lips of a politically indebted Charles Rangel.

There is a fear of success in many people, for success demands far more energy than failure. Success reveals strength.  Success spells empowerment. There is no recipe for handling black success at the presidential level because such an accomplishment challenges the mantras of the Civil Rights Movement, if these guiding elements include a disadvantaged underclass of blacks needing help and assistance to get where they want to be.  It takes the beef out of the roll and challenges the movement to find a new reason to push forward.  It changes the song from we SHALL overcome to we HAVE overcome.  It shouts loudly to the world that America has at last come to terms with its racist past.  It signals an end to plantation politics.  It ushers in  the dawn of a new responsibility for all blacks to end their crying, stop their begging and stand up.
It smothers the fire of black activism and forces a new division between so-called "biological" blacks and what, TRUE blacks?

The irony of an Obama presidency is that it redefines the struggle at the expense of the struggle itself.  No more white man to be second-class to.  No more white power structure to be disenfranchised by.  Becoming is always a psychologically difficult time.  Becoming of age.  Becoming married.  Becoming sober. Becoming parents; Becoming who we can be, as opposed to hiding from that level of  potential in self-defeatist and divisive attitudes against our own, comes with a price.  Obama is the black man grown up, fully franchised, legitimized and ready to steer the world.  Some blacks just can't handle that idea. It has deep psychological and emotional overtones. It is a frightening thing to see your dreams realized sometimes.

Given all of this, the Johnson speech has increased my sense of Barack Obama's courage 100 fold.  He called it "audacity" and no better word could describe his intention to win the presidency of the United States.  That same audacity can be used to describe the opposition of eloquent and intelligent blacks like Bob Johnson who feel duty-bound to support the status quo.  Most of what he says about Hillary Clinton's experience is lost on me.  All talk about her experience is lost on me.  WHAT experience, I ask?  Her husband's?  She ran a full-fledged battle to win a health care program at the outset of Bill Clinton's administration.  She was well intentioned, but roundly defeated.  I can't think of any other significant contribution she made to her husband's administration.  She moved to New York State to take advantage of an opportunity to run for the Senate.  Since then, I can't determine how much better, or worse she has been at this job than Barack Obama has been at his.  Bob Johnson says there's no debate about her experience, but to date, I have not seen the list of accomplishments reflecting her so-called leadership abilities.

As I have said before in this space, politics makes strange bedfellows.  Given the absence of qualities, Mrs. Clinton is said to possess, and given the intelligence of Bob Johnson, I have to assume he has different reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton.  As a businessman, he is no stranger to the art of the deal.  Bill Clinton made a lot of friends in the black community as president and moved his office to Harlem when he left the White House.  Bill Clinton is calling in markers and black folks are weighing in out of loyalty and commitment more than out of pride and a sense of destiny.  This totals up to the sad bipolarism  that has influential blacks bowing out of the racial call and turning their backs on Barack Obama.  It must hurt, and I can only hope that as Mr Obama continues to convince white America to vote for him, that more blacks across the board will take another look at his accomplishments, his leadership abilities, his experience, and his drive.

I have said before and say it again now.  It is ok to vote the color when you have to add that to complete your decision regarding Barack Obama.  Nobody would ever vote solely on color.  I am not promoting that. What I am doing is including the color; acknowledging the race.  I knew it would come down to race anyway. All efforts to avoid the race card have failed while gender has been spliced into the Clinton Campaign effort from day one.   If it is fair to vote gender, it is fair to vote color.  The Clinton campaign is mining black support by confusing the black issue and maintaining the integrity of the shopworn Civil Rights Movement as the prime mover of black conscience in this contest.  Who is Hillary Clinton to define who we are?  Who is anybody to measure and assess the "blackness" of Barack Obama, using words like "experience" and "leadership ability" to disguise the obvious?

I travel the world.  Believe me.  The prospect of a Barack Obama presidency is changing the mentality of the global community in a profound way. An America led by a black man would change the world overnight.  Yes, it is about race.   It can never not be about race.  Since the racial card is in this for the distance, I am going to vote race after having determined that Barack Obama is the right man for the job.  I will not run from race as the determining factor while blacks like Bob Johnson devalue race as a valid component of eligibility.  I don't believe him when he says he hired people in BET because they were good and not because they were black.  I think he hired them because they were good AND because they were black.  After all, we are talking about a BLACK entertainment network. Go figure.

There is a long line of minorities, women of all races, and people of all ethnicity waiting to ascend to the office of president.  It will be a sad day to see a black president finally emerge after a long series of "firsts" for every other group in this country.  It won't have the same impact.  "Well we've had every other kind of president.  Let's try a black man now".  Back of the Bus.  Last on the line.  Bottom of the barrel.  This is not our destiny.  This would be our fate.  We can avoid our fate if we claim our destiny and claim it NOW.

Robert W. Hamilton
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Jan 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm EST
Black voters in S.C. and all over the country are being tricked by the white liberal, Clinton-based social strata to think Civil Rights; Slave roots; in terms of the black identity, in an effort to hurt Barack Obama. As Mike Dyson pointed out in he Obama Debate, the movement and the presidency are two separate things. I wish people would see the Obama campaign as the blossoming of the fruit of that struggle. Jesse Jackson paved the way. He ran a decent, credible campaign and organized what he called a "rainbow coalition", clearly avoiding any reference to "BLACK", but hinting with "rainbow" the same thing. Jesse made the idea of a Black President a potent reality. It would be a shame to miss the chance to cash in on his legacy.

Barack Obama wrote a book that clearly reveals his black roots and indeed they are deep. He may have erred in thinking more people would read the book. I am a witness. I questioned Barack Obama's roots until I read Dreams From My Father, given to me as a Christmas present (2006) by my daughter. It made me a believer as he described growing up black. I identified with just about every single experience he described. No doubt, Barack Obama is "one of us".

The strategy of the Clinton campaign is to gather us up as hens and sing "We Shall Overcome" and talk about "Plantation Politics" to a group of dislocated Black Louisianians in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. This constant pandering to our slave history and our oppressive state ignores the advances we have made as a result of the efforts of the great leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Just peruse the demographics today. Witness the economic gain; the Political offices held; the corporate picture; the neighborhoods we live in. Things have changed. We HAVE overcome and Barack Obama is proof. We have a ways to go, but so do a lot of groups and people.

Now as the bible said, there will always be the poor. I don't know why that is, but while the poor are here, the best any government can do is ease the burden and increase the opportunities to energe from poverty and attain means of self-support. Who understands this better than Barack Obama? Pointing out the negative aspects of the black experience in 2008 America forces the hand of anyone running for high office who happens to be black. It places undue pressure on Barack Obama to perform as a black man rather than as a man running for president. Endorsing Hillary Clinton because she is more "electable" is actually a confirmation of the past imagery with white leaders like Lyndon Johnson being the only source of true reform for Civil Rights. I say it is time to trust. Time to seize the destiny. Time to stop waiting for the crumbs off the table. Jesse Jackson still supports Barack Obama. His "strategic distance" is a poltical necessity if Obama is the win the white vote and that is the business of the game.

Now I admit that from the beginning, I have considered symbol along with substance. In substance, Obama is a reasonable enough choice to justify the symbol. I will only scrutinize him up to a point. After all, we have the Clarence Thomas affair to warn us against using color as the only qualification to vote for somebody. I have decided, after reading his book and getting to know him, that Barack Obama is as credible a black candidate as we have seen in years or will see for years to come. Now is the time.

RWH
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Jan 5th, 2008 at 7:36 am EST
 As a reply to all, let me say that I too, am happy with the Iowa results. The real work is ahead. I am looking forward to a good showing in New Hampshire, a state not unlikely to go Clinton.  As for the electability issue, well, that's just another code word signifying that the man is black, therefore he can't win.  Same thing with the "experience" word.  What experience does Hillary Clinton have to be president?  Because her husband was president?  That gives her the experience to be president?  Does that mean when she hits the wall, she'll call on Bill?  Is Bill Clinton trying to edge his way back into the White House as a shadow president?  As far as experience goes, both Clinton and Obama are short - term senators and that evens the playing field as far as I can see.  The experience offensive and the electability issue are just smokescreens to hide the real deal. Barack Obama is a Black man.  Let's just all get used to this.  
Now why is it that so many white folks seem to think Obama is electable and so many black folk think not?  This is a tragic shame that blacks still don't get the point.  They still want to ride in the back of the political bus and not sieze the destiny being offered here and now.  Why blacks, in mass, would support Hillary Clinton is not a mystery given the "strange bedfellows" nature of politics.  Charles Rangel is indebted to the Clintons and has made Civil Rights the issue here, not electing a black candidate. Him and others like him are singing the electability serenade to cover their primal instinct to deny the ability of a black man to run this nation. Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton,  simply don't seem to know WHAT to do.  They too, have grown fat on the food trough of Civil Rights and are afraid that if they don't back Clinton, she won't feel obligated to honor any commitments to a Civil Rights agenda; at least not with any sense of urgency. Those of us who have read Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama KNOW how committed he is to the rights and needs of the underclass, be they black, white, red, or yellow.  He has far more hands-on experience dealing with day-to-day issues facing the disadvantaged, the poor, and the elderly.  What track record does Mrs. Clinton have in this area?  
Barack Obama can't afford to involve a high-profile Civil Rights agenda with his mission to change the way government works in Washington. To win, he needs the white vote.  Is this not a no-brainer?  Civil Rights issues have characteristically been confrontational, Black vs. White, and the melody of the struggles lingers on.  Openly voicing his support of Civil Rights and pushing it to the forefront of his campaign is simply not politically expedient.  Jesse Jackson made good use of it in his campaign, because he didn't have to win.  All he had to do was bring respect to the idea of a black president and expose the existence of a "rainbow coalition"; people of all backgrounds committed to the social ideas implied by Civil Rights ideology. To this end, Jesse's campaign was a huge success.  He won in Spirit, and his legacy is now being realized in the more realistic and winnable campaign of Barack Obama.  
Barack Obama is a consummate politician and that's what it takes to win the game at the presidential level.  It takes knowing  the man and understanding his political concept to realize that Civil Rights is fully compatible with his platform.  He is the first truly credible black candidate to seek the office of President of the United States.  Who, ascending to this office, has been experienced? John F. Kennedy? Ronald Reagan?  Jimmy Carter?  George Bush?  Al Gore was electable and lost.  You can't allow these catchy sound-byte phrases to rule the outcome of an election as critical as this one.  And YES, it is critical to the history of Black people in the United States.  This is our moment.  This is our time.  This is our prize.  This is the the goal of our struggle; the pinnacle of our legacy.  To throw it away because of a persistent second-class mentality that still trusts the white establishment and rejects the rise of blacks in a crabs-in-the-barrel manner, is a tragic capitualtion to business as usual.  If nothing else, Barack Obama brings the credibility, validity, and exoneration we have so long deserved in our history here.  It may seem trite, but that alone is reason enough for every black man and woman in this country to get behind Barack Obama and help him gain the highest office on the planet.  
Robert W. Hamilton 1-5-2008
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Sep 23rd, 2007 at 11:27 am EDT
Jesse Jackson is to be forgiven for his ignorant outburst re. Barack Obama, citing him as “acting white”.  For Jesse, that was triple ignorant, because he is supposed to be intelligent.  I am not going to make a big issue on this since everybody is given to bad judgment from time to time and letting it go is about the only real way to deal with it.  Anybody with a modicum of intelligence should be able to see through the oversight on the part of the Rev. and just sadly dismiss it.  The man has a brilliant legacy and deserves a pass even from people like me who wish he would simply retire and write books or something.  We have a genuine shot at respect and relevance in the person of Barack Obama. We don’t need a shopworn Civil rights mouthpiece to sabotage the very sunrise the movement has fought and shed blood for over all these years.  We’re so busy singing, “We Shall Overcome”, the core of the leadership can’t even perveive the word “shall” becoming the word, “have”.

That having been  said, let’s give Rev Jesse the benefit of the doubt for a paragraph or two.  Maybe he perceives in his latent intelligence, a distancing on the part of all the candidates regarding the Jena Six.  If so, he is not suffering from cataracts.  Mychal Bell is no hero.  Once again, a la Rodney King, the exalted Civil Rights Movement is coming forth to protect the rights of a criminal.  Yes. Mr.  Bell is currently bent on making the wrong choices in terms of response to perceived  injustice.  He has  a criminal record and made an non-MLK King Jr. response to the noose-hanging, or whatever it was that moved him and his buddies to beat that boy down like they did.

The attempted murder charge would have been incurred in NY, my home state, and I can’t speak for any other state. I know if you beat a man in the head, strike a man in the head, or stomp and kick a man in the head, the truth is, that death CAN be a result.  What they did to Barker was not spiritually defensible, if calling on the legacy of Dr. King was to be the subsequent course of action once the courts got involved.  The correctional system in NY State is filled with folks who made a bad decision and used violence to right a wrong.  Attempted Murder is a charge designed to give the Prosecution the highest card in the deal to come.  In most cases the charge is whittled down to aggravated assault or something both sides can be happy with, so attempted murder is routine, especially in the case of a beat-down such as was administered to Mr. Barker.

To ask the politicians running for the highest office of the world to compromise their strategy by snuggling into bed with the act of criminality is blatantly unfair and unmindful of the necessary game these people must play if reaching that office is truly their goal.  When Jesse ran, he ran to make a point and he did well, but no one really expected him to waltz all the way to the presidency spouting rhetoric and idealism about human rights and rainbow equality.  Jesse opened a big door for Barack Obama, but Mr. Obama is serious about becoming THE PRESIDENT, so give him his right to set his profile with a dash of wisdom and plain old common sense.  This Jena 6 deal will run its course.  The calls to the Sharpton-Jesse duo should have gone out from the moment the nooses were hung. Decency and non-violence should have prevailed and the matter would have taken on a character worthy of the legacy of Dr. King.

The trial and sentencing of Mr. Bell is indeed unfortunate and I hope there can be a more just decision made, but courts are what they are.  When you beat a man into unconsciousness, you run the real chance of killing him.  Lord knows we withstood many beatings, killings, lynchings and much torture in years past.  Martin Luther King could have called for righteous wrath and beat-downs, but he didn’t.  He reached deep into the Bible and the example of Mahatma Ghandi to craft the wisdom of nonviolence.  He called the choice “nonviolence or non-existence” and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his depth of insight.  Mychal Bell damaged his own credibility with his decision to meet hatred with hatred and there is only so much a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired response can do for the lad.  I wish him well, and remain solid behind my support for Barack Obama.
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Aug 6th, 2007 at 12:33 am EDT
Barack Obama has spoken wisely in the matter of Nukes against terrorism. Nuclear weapons are virtually useless on the battlefield. In silos and on Nuclear Subs, they present a formidable threat, but intelligent strategists know that the use of a nuclear weapon is a lose-lose situation. For others to speak out against Obama for tipping his hand is a clear pandering to dishonesty and plays the enemy stupid. Our nuclear arsenal has made us a paper tiger, and terrorists the world over know that. This is why they can attack us with impunity. They know we cannot use our nukes. That opportuinty went out with Detente and the end of the Cold War.

I don't have to list the ramifications of a nuclear assault. The result is clear. They are simply too destructive and leave a lasting effect that can choke life out of much of the planet. Only a madman (or woman) would resort to using this weapon. It is not even tactical in retaliatory usage. The US is fast assembling an array of very powerful conventional bombs and tools of warfare. We have what we need to fight terrorism without going nuclear. For the other candidates to accuse Barack of tipping his hand unnecessarily is to beg the question. For any candidate to hint that they would NOT rule out the use of these weapons is to cater to insanity. There is a spirit of vengeance and violence in this country that feeds on the idea of a nuclear option in this war. To remain silent about the use of these weapons is to pander to the vote of those who like the idea of a nuclear exchange in the Middle East.

Obama, once again, is testing honesty in a venue where style outclasses substance. The War on Terror is being fought in urban areas in the midst of innocent civilians. The best strategy is to continue to learn how to fight this war within the boundaries created by the definition of terrorism. It is a long war and there is no need to hint at the use of nuclear weapons by refusing to rule them out. Obama has simply told the "enemy" that they can expect firepower and bombs wherever they may be found. The use of nuclear weapons would help their cause by making the US look like the ultimate bully. Not to mention the cleanup and reconstruction once the deadly radiation has dissipated. That could be decades if the exchange gets out of hand.

I'd like to invite anyone who has the time and the means, to go visit the Atomic Bomb Museum either in Nagasaki or Hiroshima, Japan. I visited the Nagasaki museum in 2001. Just to relive the horrors of an atomic bomb attack would remind one of the dead-end strategy represented by the use of nuclear weapons. We have an intelligent, honest candidate in Barack Obama who is willing to wield integrity in this campaign. Any candidate that refuses to rule out nuclear weapons in the war on terror is either a liar insane, or just out to get votes.
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Mar 8th, 2007 at 5:44 pm EST
It was the book Dreams from my Father that transformed my opinion of Barack Obama.  I, like many blacks, was holding out for a "valid" slave descendent Black to be "first" in the White house.  I Prejudged Obama.  What all of us experience is the conflict stage.  We all have to come to terms with who we are individually, and who we are as blacks.  That is a tough road to travel, and many of us simply suffer silently.  Obama had to endure his own share of identity shock through his bi-racial parentage, his absentee father, life in Hawaii as well as Indonesia, and going to school where both blacks AND whites took him to task about who he was.  He received all the same outward epithets and slants that any black person gets just for being black.  He was routinely called into account for his measure of "blackness" from both sides, and he ultimately took it upon himself to go find his father's people. 
 Once in Africa, the entire connection of being from Africa was brought to light as he traced through the cities and towns of the motherland discovering long lost relatives living and dead, putting the pieces together to reconstruct his ancestral past;  So many pieces long scattered by the passage of time and indifference.  With both parents deceased, it wasn't an easy task.  He has to be commended for making the effort and telling us about it with his gifted skill as a writer.  The political/economic reality of Africa under siege from Europe is the link back to the slave trade that brought us "legitimate" blacks to this country.  In that link, the Obama validation is won with an indelible stamp of approval.  He is as much a product of the rape and plunder of Africa as any of us are.  He is a real player in the struggle and his background qualifies him as a true child of America with a Blackness fully accountable and ready to deliver genuine concern for issues that face us. 
 The economic issues are obvious, but for every Black who has gone ahead of the pack and become affluent, there is still that gnawing identity crisis that hits home when you see all those stranded and helpless black folks beaten down by hurricane Katrina.  Obama is the metaphor for the millennium black who MUST make a pact with the America that enslaved him if he is to continue to rise and prosper. Many of us are getting "paid" today, and some paid in a big way.  Yet there is still that daily reminder that we are who we are, individual by individual, and this election season is making it painfull obvious that we can't agree in group omn who that is.  We can never agree, yet it will always be there for us to ponder, and that was the feeling I got from Barack Obama describing his encounter with the face in the mirror. 
 There is a mandated value in working things out within the system and refusing to be conquered by the inner hatred that stems from the slave days.  We have to overcome that obstacle, and Obama is fortunate to have a White mother because he can never hate white folks out of hand.  To hate what you are is madness.  His "blend" so to speak is his calling to bring Blacks into the mainstream of the American promise without alienating whites who may have identity issues of their own which we never consider.  That's the long story.  
 What impressed me most about the book is his ability to write with such clarity and feeling.  It was like reading the best of novels.  RWH 3-5-2007 
By B from Phoenix, AZ - Mar 1st, 2007 at 2:18 am EST
If the issue is simply the fact of a Black individual being president of the United States, that in itself is a valid reason to vote for Barack Obama.  Now true, this may be seem, among intelligent people Black AND White, as the last reason to vote for him, but I say this:  Blacks in America have a legitimate opportunity to say YES to our legacy.  YES we believe that we are capable of running this country and representing it before the world.  YES.  We have arrived.  YES the dream is now a waking reality.  YES We HAVE overcome.  No more "shall".  YES we ARE the man.  Obama's victory would be our victory long in coming. 
 This is not a barnstorming preacher seeking to politicize his self-righteousness.  This is not an isolated Black attention-seeker looking to make a point.  Barack Obama is a real candidate with enough experience to know that the people of this country are not getting heard on the national level. This is a man willing to work with the system, and prove once and for all that the our founding fathers set up a nation that was truly destined to serve the best ideals of humanity far into the future of this planet. He has a good platform, is young, and could wake up this country like no other politician since John F. Kennedy.  AND he is BLACK.  This is our chance as Blacks to say yes.  It IS a good thing to vote for Obama because he is Black.  Many people will be doing just that anyway, so let's be open.  Let's go ahead and encourage this.  Let's turn a presumed liability into an asset of hope. 
 Plenty of voters white and black will vote against him because of his race.  That is a sad truth.  Sadder still for the Blacks who will make that their decision to vote against him. There will be "crabs in the barrel" who will not want to see one of their own make it to the top. Booker T. Washington said it then, it is true today. This is no time to be trusting Hillary Clinton. We need her liberalism (maybe) but she's not our mommy.  We need to hold out a Secretary of State role for her or an ambassador-ship to some foreign nation, but we do not need to follow her maternal overtures into the White House only to end up waiting to be served while her money takes precedence over her agenda.  We have one of our OWN in the race.  Many Whites are on this bandwagon. 
 This is not a vote against white people.  It is a vote against racism, bigotry, government deadlock, misapplication of federal money, and moribund attitudes that maintain the racial status quo each and every time we elect a president in this country.  It is a vote for change.  Every Black person in America should send at least $100 to Obama's campaign. Every Black Person in America should get at least five White friends to do the same.  Every White person in America should follow suit by getting their Black friends send this man money.  More or less as circumstances allow.This is the time to close the deal.  Get behind this man because our heritage demands it. 
 The blood of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Medger Evers, the murdered civil rights workers down through history, and all other human beings who died in the struggle cries out for this level of justice.  It is not only timely for a Black President, but right.  A Black president will brighten the future of Black children coast to coast and around the world. Black kids need a wider spectrum of "Can Be" when planning their lives.   A Black president will say YES, we are more than entertainers, preachers and sports professionals. We are leaders of the free world.  We can make policy that affects the global future  We can be trusted with the decision to use nuclear force. We can lead the world and set in motion the eradication of that force. We can respond to the hunger, deprivation and misery in the world with humanitarian aid. We can bring all parties to the table and open a new era of dialogue among people of different religions and opinions. We can make policy that works in the United states to answer the domestic needs of our people Black, White, Red, yellow, whatever.  We can make the rainbow a colorful truth, not a distant mythical figure of speech. 
 We can show history our time is here.  The pot of gold is the presidency of the United States.  The worst thing a Black voter can do is vote with his head only.  This is a time to apply the heart and soul and stand by our man.Barack Obama himself would more than likely disagree with the above.  That is his nature.  That is his legacy.  That is his right.  Many well-thinking intelligent people will disagree with me and that is ironically a good thing because Barack Obama has the substance to overcome the racial issue that will make or break him in this election.  The sad fact is that the racial issue is a real issue.  If we could vote for Senator Obama without thinking about his race, wouldn't that be grand!?  Yet the media has already made this a confirmed impossibility.  We have no choice but to take a stand on his racial identity. 
We can't afford to be color-blind.  In the future, it will be our best course, but as long as color becomes our disadvantage, we must use color to win battles defined in part, by color.  Since color IS an issue in this campaign, thanks to the media, let's make the best of it.  Let his race work FOR him, not AGAINST him.
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