My Favorite Martian

I chose this blog title because the GOP’s new character must be from another planet. Let me explain. There was a powerful line in the phenomenal novel “The Mis-educantion of the Negro”. Where the profound Dr. Carter G. Woodson said, “If you control what a man is thinking, you never have to worry about what he thinks”. It seems like every decade has produced some unconscious Negro steps forward into the national spotlight to demonstrate how insane they can sound in trying to attract the support or affinity of white folk by making the most outrageous and outlandish statement. We’ve had Steele, Connerly, Keys, and Thomas to name a few. After watching Republican field of candidates, Pizza Man, Herman Cain takes the cake and the conservatives love him.

Let me be clear, I am for anyone who is successful and trying to do positive things but this guy! This is the first time in a long while that I am assumed for him. He recently said that during the wretched segregation period he would go to the back of the bus rather than cause trouble. I was never more shocked in all my life. My issue with him is that he disrespects our president, yet calls himself and American. Frankly, he has no more chance of being the Republican nominee for president for the GOP than I do.

There is nothing that distinguishes him from the rest of the republican candidates other that their rage for Obama. Cain has had a couple of victories and that has caused him to lose his mind. This week, Herman Cain made the comments that “Racism in this country today doesn’t hold anybody back in a big way.” He acknowledges there are some racist elements in the society but suggests that the so-called level “playing field” is only screwed during weak economies. He can’t be that unconscious.

With that statement, he just earned my nomination for the most insane Negro on the planet. Only a fool would believe that the vestiges of racial discrimination are not only present in today’s society, but some of the disparities they created are worse than they were nearly 60 years ago. Just because a few more are doing better doesn’t it does not exist. That’s why the black bourgeois who escape the realities of black misery have never been able to speak for the masses. It this false intellectualism or insane and I chose insane.

National columnist Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D. wrote a great column where he sai: “Well to do blacks like former BET owner, Bob Johnson, and Godfather Pizza giant, Herman Cain, distort and misrepresent the racial complexities of American culture today. To dismiss the reality of racism, after knowing the sting of racism — just because you got a break—to win an election or carry favor with a white electorate, suggests you have no conscience about who you step on to get to where you want to get to. Cain is a Morehouse Graduate, who came up in the Civil Rights Era South, but somewhere along the way — someone stole the soul.”

Samad, also said in this article, “It has nothing to do with holding them back, and everything to do with leaving them behind. Blacks are expected to “pull themselves up” without a rope, and America won’t throw us one. Even though they throw themselves one every day. Economic stimuli and corporate bailouts, are ropes thrown to the wealthy to pull themselves up.

Twenty years ago, blacks were told, “pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps”…even if you didn’t have boots. Another Negro spewed the same line as Cain suggesting there was no such thing as racism. His name was Ward Connerly and he was the face of the anti-Affirmative Action movement in America. It led to the elimination of affirmative action in many states. We have witnessed, firsthand, what the absence of conscious can do. It can make you lose your mind, forget the truth and steal the integrity of a true movement.”

Twenty years ago this week, America sought to confirm the most unconscious black man in America history, Clarence Thomas, when a sister of conscious, Anita Hill, stood up and suggested that Thomas was not fit of mind to serve on the Supreme Court. We have not only found out that he wasn’t fit of mind but he is out of his mind and is absolutely soul-less when it comes the racial experience that positioned him to be where he is. Clarence Thomas is the “Who Stole The Soul” poster boy for where you can land if you’re willing to say and do anything, including put down your own people.

Malcolm X once said, “I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” That’s what people like Thomas, Connerly, Bob Johnson and Herman Cain do. They dismiss what America has done to the masses of black people, then criticize black people for not being able to stand up to the weight of centuries of racial oppression—just because they escaped it. Then they make excuses for why conditions remain the same.

They say things like what Cain said, “If you’re poor, don’t blame America. Blame yourself.” Really? Even if you believe that, saying it is a false assertion that exploits racial circumstances more than it helps because those who want to believe it, use it as an excuse to do nothing to change the racial disparities we all know are real in this country.

It’s unconscionable that black folks lose their minds like this, but obviously it happens when someone or something steals your cultural conscience, what we call, soul. Other people fake the conscience and steal the soul, just to remain relevant with black people when they need to be. There is a modern day Niggerati in our midst. We see it and allow it to move about us, but we need to be clear about the compromise it represents because its not about us—its about them and only them. One who steals the soul from his community is no better than the one who loses his soul, forsaking his community for another. Both have lost their conscious minds and will say or do anything to promote themselves.

Speaking of losing your mind, the Taste of Soul festival is in Los Angeles this weekend. The Taste of Soul was created by radio executive, Ron Turner, who was the National Sales for KKBT. “The Beat” was planning a street fair in the late 1990s before they sold the station to Cathy Hughes. The name of the concept…”Taste of Soul.” Turner met with several community folk, including myself, to start the street fair under the new management but Cathy Hughes sold her station before the fair could be implemented. Someone else has implemented it, but they didn’t create it. Didn’t even change the name. I hope my baby brother, Ron Turner, strolls down the boulevard this weekend to take in his creation. But it says something for someone who won’t acknowledge when they get their “ideas” from others and refuse to give credit to them.

Do I believe racism still exists: Yes! Is it as overt as the Citizens Counsels of old, hmmm, but it certainly is in evidence by omission, as blacks are disproportionately left out of social and economic mainstream. My Granddaddy use to tell me and I will share this with the man whose name should be removed from the minds of mankind. “You can be on top of the world today and tomorrow the world will be on top of you. So be careful what you wish for because you may have to come back to us and guess what we don’t want you.

And that’s my THOUGHT PROVOKING PERSPECTIVES…

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A Misguided Pizza Man

I have always believed that “I have never met a person that I have never met before” but now I can say that is a fallacy. This week the conservative GOP presidential candidate proved me wrong. I am talking about the Godfather of Pizza who said that African Americans are brainwashed by the Democratic Party because most vote for them. I have to suggest that maybe he has been brainwashed by the likes of the Tea Party and those like minded people; meaning the modern citizen council members. Personally, I thought Cain’s remarks were curious for a number of reasons, mainly because they insulted the intelligence of millions of black Democrats.

Of course, Cain is correct in that many voters are brainwashed in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. But what he left out is that brainwashed voters lie on both sides of the aisle, not just in the Democratic Party. When you consider that this man recites party lines are in almost complete lockstep with the Republican handbook of political discourse, should rightly be the first target of brainwashing allegations. Also, being the only Republican who discusses President Obama’s race on a regular basis, Cain is nothing more, in my opinion, than a dark-faced puppet of those who are afraid of a sensible reality. Are there any other Republican candidates who discuss race as much as Cain? I rest my case.

Obviously, he believes that his strong performance in a recent Florida straw poll has suddenly made him into a serious political player. He will see that his overconfidence will be short-lived, because anyone watching him in any serious way will easily see that a man as goofy, arrogant and simple-minded who could never be taken seriously enough to be president. In fact, Cain isn’t even good enough to be artificially propped up as a black Republican who could challenge President Obama.

Moreover, if you simply look at the people who promote and endorse him one will see he’s a nut and I am being kind. I won’t dignify my remarks with any praise given to him by Glen Beck and we know how ludicrous he is. So I will go to someone who is equally as far right Conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan who supports the Cain’s theory that African Americans have been 'brainwashed' into voting for Democrats. Buchanan said, “I admire Herman Cain for standing up and going against, if you will, the conventional wisdom, and being a tough African American businessman who succeeded in a tough world”. Hmmmm.

Wait, it gets worse, Buchanan added this racially charged sentiment to the mix. “I think what he's saying is they bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation and I think he's right… I think the African American community has embraced Great Society liberalism which has proved devastating for the African American family”. For Cain and others who believe that African Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded sounds like the thinking of the days of old, i.e., slave masters.

I don’t make these remarks about Cain because he is a conservative. Rather because as a black man who has lived long enough to know segregation and racism should know better and what these kinds of house Negro remarks make him look like a fool or maybe as a political joke. Colin Powell, a far more serious and measured Republican, would be the kind of candidate that Americans of all backgrounds could support. Herman Cain has made a living by saying the kinds of racist things that right wing folks like to hear and also by throwing angry rhetorical fireballs at President Obama in the name of Tea Party hatred. Racism is typically most effective when it has a black face, and I will say again Cain is merely a modern-day artifact of House Negro attacks during slavery.

Cain is a weak leader because he has not defined himself as a man of meaningful principle, nor as a human being who possesses political skills necessary to make him anything more being a Republican jester. His thoughts are rarely original, and I find his mannerisms while communicating to hardly garner the kind of respect that one would give to the President of the United States. George Bush might have been able to get elected while not being presidential material, but Cain will never get that chance. The Republican Party or those conservatives he praises will gladly throw him under the bus to advance their motives. They will surely spit him out if he ever decides to truly lead the party in a direction that has not been previously programmed into his skull.

It’s like his recent remarks where he said, if elected, he would “change the mood” of “Hail to the Chief” by adding a gospel vibe. “It’s traditional and that’s all well and good, but I happen to believe there comes a time when you need to change the mood of it just a little bit, not drastically,” Cain told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “It’s kind of like in marketing. Periodically, companies that have been successful at branding might modify their logos just a little bit to give it a fresher look. I think ‘Hail to the Chief’ needs a little bit fresher sound.”

Let me just say in closing what I have been trying to say. Herman Cain should be careful about using the term “brainwashed” toward anyone, for that’s exactly the term that comes to mind when I think about his short-lived run for president. His decision to run as a walking gimmick demeans himself, his party and all of those who support him. The recent Florida straw poll results have made this cocky man even cockier, but he’ll soon be yanked back down to earth; just you wait and see. He also needs to realize that a man can achieve his goals without insulting his own people. What comes to mind when I think of him is that he reminds me of my Uncle Thomas who we call Tom. And that is my Thought Provoking Perspectives.

Citizens Council's – déjà vu

I find it very difficult to see why many people can’t see what is painfully obvious to me. I suppose that’s why I have a passion for writing my Thought Provoking Perspectives. Let me take a moment to thank my many follows. I read this article written by Jack White, a frequent contributor to The Root, is a longtime observer of national politics that got me to thinking about a time most thought to be long gone. Then I looked at the striking similarities between the two pictures and said Hmmmm! You decide.

During the turbulent 1960s and '70s, segregationists like Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Boston anti-busing rabble-rouser Louise Day Hicks whipped up what was then known as "the White Backlash." It was nothing less than an all-out effort to use mob rule to roll back the gains of the civil rights movement and drive blacks back into second-class citizenship. It was a tactic that propelled Richard Nixon and, later, Ronald Reagan, to the presidency.

And now, 50 years later, we're going through what Yogi Berra might call déjà vu all over again. Or maybe it's a true-life version of Ground Hog Day. But whatever you call it, we've seen this horror movie before -- call it White Backlash Part Deux. The Tea Party is no prettier this time around than it was in its previous incarnations. If Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry ever makes it to the White House, the backlash will deserve much of the blame.

That's the gloomy conclusion I reached this week after reading a portrait of the Tea Party movement drawn by political scientists David E. Campbell and Robert D. Putnam, authors of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Campbell and Putnam confirm what many of us already knew and were deeply troubled about: Rather than being something new and spontaneous, the Tea Party is just the White Backlash gussied up in a tricornered hat, waving a flag reading, "Don't Tread on Me."

Despite the prominent presence of token African Americans like presidential candidate Herman Cain, Campbell and Putnam found, Tea Partiers are "overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do." Many of them are long-term hard-core GOP activists whose top priority is for their brand of evangelical Christianity to play a prominent role in politics.

They're the same old Bible-thumping, gun-toting, anti-government, racially resentful crowd who made Wallace a national political figure and helped Hicks turn Boston into a racial battlefield. It was their defection to the Republican Party back in the day that laid the basis for the nasty tone of our present-day racial politics, in which conservatism is equated with opposition to black equality. Their hostility to blacks predates Obama's ascent to the White House but was renewed and strengthened by it.

Don't take my word for it. Writes Joan Walsh at Salon, "These are the same people who've been fighting the Democratic Party since the days of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the beginning of the War on Poverty, almost 50 years ago. They associate those long overdue social reforms with giving folks, mainly black people, something they don't deserve. I sometimes think just calling them racist against our black president obscures the depths of their hatred for Democrats, period."

The Tea Party's leaders, of course, deny that racial bigotry has anything to do with their movement -- just as Perry denies that his loudmouthed campaign to restore state sovereignty has anything to do with the anti-black states' rights movement of the past. Indeed, black Tea Party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) had the nerve to compare himself favorably to legendary freedom fighter Harriet Tubman.

I grant that the Tea Party's grievances go beyond racism to legitimate differences of opinion about taxes and government spending. But that doesn't explain why Perry feels comfortable insinuating that Obama's lack of military service suggests that he does not love America the way the Texas governor does.

Our first black president couldn't be more different from Perry, who, in his book Fed Up, describes himself as "the kind of guy who goes jogging in the morning, packing a Ruger .380 with laser sights and loaded with hollow-point bullets, and shoots a coyote that is threatening his daughter's dog."

When I read that kind of self-congratulatory chest-thumping, when I hear Perry sneering that the chairman of the Federal Reserve should get "ugly" treatment for his potentially "treasonous" conduct of monetary policy, or that global climate change is a hoax cooked up by scheming scientists, the rhetoric is all too familiar.

It's the voice of George Wallace, inveighing against "pointy-headed intellectuals," and Nixon's hatchet man Spiro T. Agnew denouncing the "nattering nabobs of negativism."
This isn't how you have a reasoned debate over serious national problems. This is how you stir up a mob.

I could not have said it better and that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

Troy Davis † Executed - "Amazing Grace" *RiP*

I am often moved and saddened but never surprised when racism or injustice rears its ugly head. I have lived through the horrible period of segregation so I am keenly aware of unfairness and injustice, which still exists. Having said that it is time for us to take a serious look at the times in which we live. I view the criminal justice system as the new Jim Crow. I am saddened by the murder of one Troy Davis. So let his death remind us that there are thousand living in the belly of the beast and hundreds waiting to die in the same manner as Davis. This system of state sanctioned murder is akin to or nothing more than retroactive abortion at the hand of power.

“In justice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” And with sadness that is my THOUGHT PROVOKING PERSPECTIVE…

Please watch these powerful videos.

Troy Davis Execution 9/21/2011


Judge Mathis Weighs in on the Execution of Troy Davis

Justice Deferred – Troy Davis

I often chose topics that allow me to offer a view from a different perspective that is intended to produce a thought provoking reaction. With that said I do not wish to imply that when someone has done something wrong or committed a crime and found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt that the appropriate punishment or sanction should not be applied. Now, as the great Richard Pryor so amply stated “when justice is rendered to us in the courts. What we get it is ‘Just Us!’”

Everyone knows that fairness in the realm of justice is highly suspect at best when it comes to the African American community and black men in particular. This brings me to the Troy Davis case. Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday Sept. 21 more than two decades after someone pointed him out, following a 1989 shooting death of a police officer in Savannah, Ga.

The Davis Case has drawn global support from Amnesty International to the NAACP, and I will include myself. Even conservative figures, including former Rep. Bob Barr and ex-Justice Department official Larry Thompson, have urged Georgia officials to spare Davis’ life. The concern here is that since his conviction several witnesses have recanted there testimony. New witnesses have come forward to say another man was at the scene of the crime who is actually the killer. None the less, the courts have upheld the conviction repeatedly and a judge who was ordered to review Davis’ innocence claims said his arguments amount to “smoke and mirrors.”

To be fair, I don’t know if Davis is innocent or guilty but if witnesses have recanted and there’s reasonable doubt, the execution should be stayed and this Defendant should be granted a new trial. From what I have read there are too many questions and no hard evidence. It is not unheard of for the courts to reexamine cases where there are factual concerns but this usually happens when the Defendant has money – we know that. The prison population is full of minorities who can ill afford adequate legal representation.

Davis now 41 has been on death row for the last two decades for killing Savannah Police Officer. We also know of cases all over the country where people are wrongly convicted, serve years in prison and put to death. With the advent of DNA cases are reversed frequently and several states have halted executions altogether. Just this week the Supreme Court Halted Duane Buck's Execution because of errors made in this Texas case where an expert testified that a black man was more likely to commit further crimes because of this race claim.

Davis was 19 years old when he was arrested for killing officer Mark MacPhail in 1989. People are concerned about this case and protesting because no murder weapon was found and there was no DNA evidence. He was arrested due to questionable witness statements; 10 questionable witnesses in the case have signed affidavits withdrawing their statement saying that police forced them into accusing the 41 year old. This is reason enough for a new trial in this case in my opinion.

One of the jurors in the trial told Brenda Davis CNN in a 2009 interview that "If I knew then what I know now Troy Davis would not be on Death Row. The verdict would be 'not guilty.” Last night, there were more than 2000 coordinated rallies from downtown Atlanta to Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue on Friday showing support for Davis. Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., also joined the march. For years the case has been attracting much attention. Many notables like former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu have urged authorities to spare Davis' life.

Laura Moye, the Death Penalty Abolition campaign director for Amnesty International USA, said that rallies for Davis were first started in Hong Kong. Those rallies went on throughout the day in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. There were 10 events in France on behalf of Davis. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles received petitions with 663,000 names urging clemency on Thursday. The board is scheduled to meet on Monday to consider whether to stop Davis' execution by lethal injection.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Davis in August 2009 to judge what he said was new evidence showing his innocence. The U.S. Supreme Court then transferred the case to a U.S. District Court in Georgia for the trial. But a year later, the judge, William T. Moore Jr., discarded Davis' claims of innocence.

I am opposed to the death penalty because lady justice shows that the scales are unbalanced and she is blind. Moreover, I agree with Richard “what we get is JUST US. And that is my THOUGHT PROVOKING PERSPECTIVE…

SIGN THE PETITION

Wake Up!!!

Since the year of our Lord 1619, when people from Africa were first dragged onto American shores; African Americans have been chastised, criticized, punished, beaten, robbed, and murdered in the name of freedom and justice. All while the culprits have enjoyed wealth and prosperity as a result of our never ending allegiance and patriotism, often blindly. Even today when we have ascended to the White House there are those who castigate much vial abuse upon this uniquely qualified man of African heritage.

We are a unique people, a forgiving people, a steadfast people, and a brave people unlike any known to the world. It was our labor that built this country and is responsible for the great wealth America enjoys to this very today. When you look upon America’s enormous wealth and the power derived from its tremendous control of resources, think about the sacrifices our families made to make all of this possible. We have looked out for this country for hundreds of years and still doing today, which is simply amazing.

Upon our backs, laden with the stripes of punishment for what they believed was for discipline and in spite of our loyalty, diligence and tenacity - we loved America. Even when America refused to allow us to even walk in the shadows, we followed, believing that someday we would come to accepted and treated like men and women. Our strength in the face of adversity is vastly understated.

Our history is one of unbelievable struggle. We’ve been brave on the battlefield, despite being classified as three-fifths of a man. This was, and is, outstanding and frankly beyond the call of duty considering that we have lived through slavery and under an Apartheid like system. We have raised America’s children, attended to its sick, and prepared their meals while those forefathers were occupied with the trappings of the good life.

Even during the times when they found pleasure in our women and enjoyment in seeing our men lynched, maimed and burned - we continued to watch over America’s soul. We labored in the hot sun for 12 hours to assist in realizing the dream of wealth, good fortune, and made America a great world power. We were there when it all began, and you are still here today, protecting the system from those Black people who have the temerity to speak out against America’s past transgressions.

It was us who warned about Denmark-Vessey, told you about Gabriel Prosser's plans, called your attention to Nat Turner, Malcolm, and yes Martin too. It was us who sounded the alarm when old John Brown came calling on Harper's Ferry and there are still some sounding warnings today. Black Nationalism has died and as result our community brings 95 percent of what it earns to other businesses and keeps little for themselves in spite of the fact that other people controlled at least 90 percent of all the resources and wealth of this nation.

We purchase things like Timberlands, Hilfigers, Karans, Nikes, and all of the other brands that I assume make people feel as if the system is giving back something for their patronage. After all, in the past, the brands and scares placed upon us were worn quite painfully, but those of today are proudly worn because they give a false sense of self-esteem. Our community’s super-rich; athletes, entertainers, intellectuals, and business persons, both legal and illegal, exchange most of their money for cars, jewelry, homes, and clothing. The less fortunate among us spend all they have at neighborhood stores, enabling other cultures to benefit by opening more stores and taking our wealth; this is the result of our not doing business with each other.

In today's business environment, we do not support each other and just keep doing business with the larger community or in fact any other community. Some say we, as a people, were very successful doing this after slavery ended and even as recently as 1960, but you know what happens when you began to build your own communities and do business with one another – you’re pitted against one another and destroy ourselves.

We dance, sing, fight, get high, go to prison, back bite, envy, distrust, and hate one another. Oh, less not forget we pray a lot.

We resisted the messages of trouble-making Blacks like Washington, Delaney, Garvey, Bethune, Tubman, and Truth for fighting and dying on the battlefield for us all. Yet, most have forgotten the names and take no reverence in their sacrifice due to a lack of reciprocity and equity.

This includes our acquiescence to political agendas, abdicating our own economic self-sufficiency, and working so diligently for the economic well-being of other people. Even though the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were written and many died for the rights described therein, we did not even resist when they changed Black Rights to Civil Rights and allowed virtually every other group to take advantage of them for their progress. This goes beyond the imagination, irrespective of the many promises that have been made and broken. A lass, don’t worry, when you die you will find a place where there is a mansion waiting for you and streets paved with gold somewhere in the sky.

Moreover, we went beyond the pale when we allowed our children to be turned over to the American educational system. With what is being taught to them, it's likely they will continue in a mode similar to the one we have followed for the past 45 years. Remember, Mr. Lynch when he walked the banks of the James River in 1712. He prophetically said he would make African’s slave for 300 years; little did he realize the truth in his prediction. Just one more years and his promise will come to fruition.

But with two generations of children going through this education system, we can look forward to at least another 50 years of despair. We can change that come to understand that education is the single most important ingredient necessary to neutralize those forces that breed poverty and despair. When you continue to do what you’ve always done; you will get what you always got and that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective.

A Day that Will Live in Infamy

It has been ten years since the attacks upon America's homeland and a day that will live in infamy, which has become known as 9/11. I can remember that day as if it was yesterday. To be honest, I can only come up with two words to describe my feelings – “Shocking and Horrifying”. I would like to take this moment to send my heartfelt sympathy to all who have suffered, still suffer, and died.

A few days ago I watched a documentary that cause me to think about what those terror attacks by Al Qaeda were meant to do, and did to the soul of America. Then I began to wondered if Osama bin Laden realized what those attacks that morning would do to the nation. It brought about George Bush’s immediate response to the attacks that in many ways compromised America’s basic principles, undermined its economy, and weakened its security.

The attack on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks was understandable, but the subsequent invasion of Iraq was entirely unconnected to Al Qaeda, which has been proven as there has been no evidence that bin Laden ever entered the country. Although the last administration tried to establish such a link. In my opinion it was a war of choice that quickly became very expensive to the order of more than $60 billion, which was claimed at the beginning and a war of incompetence coupled with dishonest misrepresentation.

Some have calculated a conservative tally at more than $3-5 trillion, which I believe to be a low ball figure and another lie. When you consider that it’s been ten years and 50% of returning troops eligible to receive some level of disability payment and more than 600,000 treated so far in veterans’ medical facilities. Adding that some estimate that future disability payments and health-care costs will total $600-900 billion. This is not to forget the human cost of our brave soldiers who die or commit suicides that have topped topped 18 per day in recent years, not to mention family breakups that no one can calculate.

I cannot forgive Bush or anyone in his administration for taking America to war and I’m sure not many sane people can either for this war created on false pretenses and for misrepresenting the cost of the venture. If you really think about it there was no excuse for how those crooks chose to finance it. This was the first war in history paid for entirely on credit while deficits soared as a result of his 2001 tax cut. But they did it anyway and passed yet another round of tax “relief” for the wealthy.

Today as the Republicans who joined him are focused on unemployment and the deficit. The deficit they created as a result of the wars. Both of which are threats to America’s future and has worsened America’s reputation around the world. Let’s be clear, the increased defense spending and the tax cuts is a key reason why America went from a fiscal surplus of 2% of GDP under Clinton to its parlous deficit and debt position today. Direct government spending on those wars so far amounts to roughly $2 trillion – $17,000 for every US household – with bills yet to be received increasing this amount by more than 50%.

Let us also remember that then, as now, disruption in the Middle East led to higher oil prices, forcing Americans to spend money on oil imports that they otherwise could have spent buying goods produced in the US. But then the US Federal Reserve hid these weaknesses by engineering a housing bubble that led to a consumption boom. It will take years to overcome the excessive indebtedness and real-estate overhang that resulted.

Ironically, the wars have undermined America’s security, again in ways that bin Laden could not have imagined. An unpopular war would have made military recruitment difficult in any circumstances. But, as Bush tried to deceive America about the wars’ costs, he underfunded the troops, refusing even basic expenditures. Like, for example, armored and mine-resistant vehicles needed to protect American lives, or for adequate health care for returning veterans. A US court recently ruled that veterans’ rights have been violated. Maybe this is what is meant by “Support the Troops”.

Military overreach has predictably led to nervousness about using military power, and others’ knowledge of this threatens to weaken America’s security as well. But America’s real strength, more than its military and economic power, is its “soft power”. It is moral authority, which has be weakened as the US violated basic human rights like habeas corpus and the right not to be tortured, its longstanding commitment to international law was called into question.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US and its allies knew that long-term victory required winning hearts and minds. But just as in the last war America lost mistakes in the early years complicated that already difficult battle. The wars’ collateral damage has been massive and no hearts or minds have been won. There are some who say more than a million Iraqis have died, directly or indirectly, because of this war. According to some studies, at least 137,000 civilians have died violently in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last ten years; among Iraqis alone, there are 1.8 million refugees and 1.7 million internally displaced people.

Not all of the consequences were disastrous. The deficits to which America’s debt-funded wars contributed so mightily are now forcing the US to face the reality of budget constraints. America’s military spending still nearly equals that of the rest of the world combined, two decades after the end of the Cold War. So the idea of a broader Global War on Terrorism was created for only the rich to benefit from and frankly against enemies that don’t exist.

They tell us Al Qaeda is on the run - not conquered. bin Laden is dead and they say many of his cohorts. Are we safer? The argument is that there has not been another attack – very good – but there was no attack before 9/11. The question then that must be asked is; why are we still there? Bring the troops home! That is how you support the troops. The price paid has been enormous and mostly avoidable. The legacy will be with us forever. It is my opinion that if we bring the troops home they can protect us, which is their mission. The best thing all of us can do is say it loud – stop the wars!!!

And that is my THOUGHT PROVOKING PRESECTIVE.

A WAR FOR YOUR SOUL

YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO

A War For Your Soul-regular version from Erisai Films on Vimeo.

A War For Your Soul : Image Control from Erisai Films on Vimeo.

And that’s my THOUGHT PROVOKING PERSPECTIVE!!!

The Man Behind The Dream

Forty-eight years after the March on Washington became the crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is finally being remembered with a memorial on the National Mall. This is a major accomplishment for his legacy and a testament to his living spirit. I am very proud and honored to have live long enough to see the first man of color to receive such distinction and to have a president of color unveil the monument to this great man. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Dr. King now has reached his place of immortality and as marvelous as this is I wondered if anyone knows the man whose shoulders he stood. One person in particular would be the chief organizer of the March on Washington, who some have called the man behind the dream. I thought it would be fitting to give props to the man responsible for making the historic March on Washington a reality - . Bayard Rustin. He was one of the most important leaders of the civil rights movement from the advent of its modern period in the 1950s until well into the 1980s.

Although his name is seldom mentioned or received comparatively little press or media attention, while others' were usually much more readily associated with the movement. Mr. Rustin’s role was a behind-the-scenes role that, for all its importance, never garnered him the public acclaim he deserved. Rustin's homosexuality and early communist affiliation probably meant that the importance of his contribution to the civil rights and peace movements would never be acknowledged.

Rustin was a gifted and successful student in the schools of West Chester, both academically and on his high school track and football teams. It was during this period of his life that Bayard began to demonstrate his gift for singing with a beautiful tenor voice. He attended Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College. In 1937 he moved to New York City, where he was to live the rest of his life.

It was at this time that Rustin began to organize for the Young Communist League of City College. The communists' progressive stance on the issue of racial injustice appealed to him. He broke with the Young Communist League and soon found himself seeking out A. Philip Randolph head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and at that time the leading articulator of the rights of Afro-Americans.

He soon headed the youth wing of a march on Washington that Randolph envisioned. Randolph called off the demonstration when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8802, forbidding racial discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries. Randolph's calling off of the projected march caused a temporary breach between him and Bayard Rustin, and Rustin transferred his organizing efforts to the peace movement, first in the Fellowship of Reconciliation and later in the American Friends Service Committee, the Socialist Party, and the War Resisters League.

In 1944, Rustin was found guilty of violating the Selective Service Act and was sentenced to three years in a federal prison. In March 1944 Rustin was sent to the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky. He then set about to resist the pervasive segregation then the norm in prisons in the United States, although faced with vicious racism from some of the prison guards and white prisoners, Rustin faced frequent cruelty with courage and completely nonviolent resistance.

On release from prison, Rustin got involved again with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which staged a journey of reconciliation through four Southern and border states in 1947 to test the application of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that discrimination in seating in interstate transportation was illegal. Rustin's resistance to North Carolina's Jim Crow law against integration in transportation earned him twenty-eight days hard labor on a chain gang, where he met with the usual racist taunts and tortures on the part of his imprisoners.

Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin traveled first to India and then to Africa under the sponsorship of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, exploring the nonviolent dimensions of the Indian and Ghanaian independence movements. In 1953 Rustin was arrested for public indecency in Pasadena, California, while lecturing under the auspices of the American Association of University Women. It was the first time that Rustin's homosexuality had come into public attention, and at that time homosexual behavior in all states was a criminal offense.

In 1956 Rustin was approached by Lillian Smith, the celebrated Southern novelist who authored Strange Fruit, to provide Dr. Martin Luther King with some practical advice on how to apply Gandhian principles of nonviolence to the boycott of public transportation then taking shape in Montgomery, Alabama. Rustin spent time in Montgomery and Birmingham advising King, who had not yet completely embraced principles of nonviolence in his struggle. By 1957, Rustin was busy playing a large role in the birth of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in the Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington that took place on May 17, 1957 to urge President Eisenhower to enforce the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling that the nation's schools be desegregated.

Arguably the high point of Bayard Rustin's political career was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which took place on August 28, 1963, the place of Dr. Martin Luther King's stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. Rustin was by all accounts the March's chief architect. To devise a march of at least one-quarter of a million participants and to coordinate the various sometimes fractious civil rights organizations that played a part in it was a herculean feat of mobilization.

By 1965 Rustin had come to believe that the period for militant street action had come to an end; the legal foundation for segregation had been irrevocably shattered. Rustin's steadfast opposition to identity politics also came under criticism by exponents of the developing Black Power movement. His critical stance toward affirmative action programs and black studies departments in American universities was not a popular viewpoint among many of his fellow Afro-Americans, and as at various other times of his life Rustin found himself to a certain extent isolated.

Although Bayard Rustin lived in the shadow of more charismatic civil rights leaders, he can lay real claim to have been an indispensable unsung force behind the movement toward equality for America's black citizens, and more largely for the rights of humans around the globe, in the twentieth century. Throughout his life his personal philosophy, incorporating beliefs that were of central importance to him: that there is that of God in every person, that all are entitled to a decent life, and that a life of service to others is the way to happiness and true fulfillment.

So you see all of us stand upon the shoulders of someone be it great or not; So Sing – Sing Celebrate!!! The Dream will never die.
And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

ROBBER BARON’S OF TODAY

There was a time at the end of Reconstruction and at the turn of the 20th century when a few men controlled all the wealth of America. Sounds like today right.

These guys robbed everyone because slavery had ended but it didn’t mean greed was removed from their hearts. You see, in a capitalistic society greed is a necessary component of the system. What most fail to realize is that “the system is designed to protect the system”, which means there MUST be a permanent underclass for it to work.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Little attention is being paid to the unraveling of a public policy in the United States for more than a century, which emerged in stages between the 1890s and 1930s. During this period they called it an institutional framework to balance the needs of the American people with the vast inequalities of wealth and power fashioned by the triumph of industrial capitalism. What I am talking about is the efforts to design policy for the benefit of the wealthy.

Their scheme then was originated in the widespread apprehension that the rapidly growing power of the railroads robber barons, national corporations (the Rockefellers) and banks (like J.P. Morgan’s) was undermining fundamental American values that threatened democracy. What the MIGHTY did was strangling the MEEK or crucified mankind upon a cross of gold much like Wall Street is doing today. A hundred years ago a commented a programmatic and radical group took a stance for labor. They were the American Federation of Labor and their convention delegates who in 1894 advocated nationalizing all major industries and financial corporations. If you missed that “they were called Unions”.

I am one who would argue that, like a century ago many, this form of capitalism needs to be replaced with some form of “cooperative commonwealth”, meaning that large corporate enterprises should be broken up or strictly regulated to ensure fair competition, limit the concentration of power and prevent these interests from overwhelming the public good. Now, before you go all Tea Party on me this is simply a “progressive” view of the system today.

I am well aware that such views, in most instances, will be vehemently and sometimes violently opposed by the more conservative political forces. And you know who they are! Therefore, we need to remember that it was political pressure from anti-capitalists, anti-monopolists, populists, progressives, working-class activists and socialists led, over time, who accomplished a lot for the working class people. Moreover, the state, meaning a government for the people should service and promote private enterprise. Thereby, fostering growth and this illusive ideal called the American Dream.

In exchange, the federal government should adopt a series of far-reaching reforms to shield and empower citizens from these powerful entities safeguarding society’s democratic character. Such as real regulations for business and banking to protect consumers, limit the power of individual corporations and prevent anti-competitive practices.

It was my understanding that these principles were the underlying measures and the reasons for the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and the Glass-Steagall Act (1933) — which insured bank deposits and separated investment from commercial banking — was that government was responsible for protecting society against the shortcomings of a market economy. As we can clearly see the profit motive cannot always be counted on to serve the public’s welfare.

I believe the government should guarantee workers’ the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. The core premise of the 1914 Clayton Act and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was that individual workers lacked the power to protect their interests when dealing with large employers. For the most poorly paid, the federal government mandated a minimum wage and maximum hours.

With these guarantee’s every American citizen should be entitled to social insurance: Unemployment insurance (1935), Social Security (1935), and, later, Medicaid and Medicare (1965) were grounded in the recognition that citizens could not always be self-sufficient and that it was the role of government to aid those unable to fend for themselves. The unemployment-insurance program left unrestrained employers’ ability to lay off workers but recognized that those who were jobless through no fault of their own ought to receive public support.

These measures shaped the contours of U.S. political and economic life between 1940 and 2000: They amounted to a social contract that, however imperfect, it does preserve the dynamism of capitalism while guarding citizens against the power imbalances and uncertainties that a competitive economy produces. These gains in the area of humanity have been and are under attack by conservatives and the attacks have been escalating today. We need to take a stand because the rich and wealthy are not going to give you anything. All of these gains like Civil Rights were fought for and many died so we can have a reasonable work day or a vacation.

The conservatives decried regulation for business now, just as they did in 1880, as unwarranted interference in the workings of the market: Regulatory laws (including antitrust laws) are weakly enforced or vitiated through administrative rule-making; regulatory agencies are starved through budget cuts; Glass-Steagall was repealed, with consequences that are all too well known; and the financial institutions that spawned today’s economic crisis. This thinking creates the reckless behavior predicted by early-20th-century reformers and fight against further regulation tooth and nail.

Private-sector employers’ fierce attacks on unions since the 1970s contributed significantly to the sharp decline in the number of unionized workers, and many state governments are seeking to delegitimize and weaken public-sector unions. Meanwhile, the social safety net has frayed: Unemployment benefits are meager in many states and are not being extended to match the length of the downturn. When in fact the real value of the minimum wage is lower than it was in the 1970s.Today the Republicans are taking aim at Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and Obamacare.

To a person who knows history, the agenda of today’s conservative’s looks like a bizarre effort to return to the Gilded Age, an era with little regulation of business, no social insurance and no legal protections for workers. This draconian agenda calls for the destruction or weakening of institutions without acknowledging why they came into being.

In a democracy, of course, the ultimate check on such campaigns is the electoral system. Therefore, I say all we have is the vote – we must use it because the Titans of industry may wield far more power in the economic arena than average citizens, but if all votes count equally, the citizenry can protect themselves through the political arena. Just look at what Republicans across the nation are doing. They have sponsored ID requirements for voting that are far more likely to disenfranchise legitimate and unprivileged voters than they are to prevent fraud.

Last year, the Supreme Court, reversed a century of precedent, ruled that corporate funds can be used in support of political campaigns. Some Tea Partyers even want to do away with the direct election of senators, adopted in 1913. These ideas are rooted in the Gilded Age when Jim Crow was the law and society was unjust. It is time to stand up! Take a stand and fight for our rights! VOTE…

Parts of this blog were captured as a result of reading Alexander Keyssar the Stirling professor of history and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. And this is my THOUGHT PROVOKING PERSPECTIVE thanks to the professor.