"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King (January 15, 1929- April 4, 1968)
Dr. King would have been 82 years old on January 15. His legacy is still a sober and fresh reminder of how love can overcome hate and sadly how hate if un-diffused or unextinguished can lead to irreparable harm. Hate has the potential of consuming and destroying even the good. But I still believe the love is the greatest power and able to cover a multitude of sins. Love however takes courage and isn't for the faint of heart. Love takes patience and isn't for those who seek the quickest or easiest solution.
Dr. King put it this way in his book Strength to Love (1963:
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power."
Interestingly if we were to lay today's current society against the backdrop on the days in which Dr. King penned this book, you would find almost eerie similarities in terms of the social ills and crisis Dr. King identified as threatening human progress. His preface to Strength to Love starts as follows: " In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race. Indeed, we live in a day of grave crisis."
Another one of my favorite books by Dr. King is his last published book: Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community. In this book that is rich with wisdom and instructions for how to build what Dr. King referred to as a beloved community and "great world house" he wrote one of my favorite passages from his voluminous body of masterfully written documents:
"We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually."
It is troubling when we see people turn up in large numbers to some church service, march, rally or service project on the day the nation pauses to celebrate Dr. King's life and on the following day go back to living life hating, feeling entitled to privilege or unconcerned about the least of those around us. IN other words, people who celebrate Dr. King on Monday but are quick to go about hating on Tuesday. Dr. King was much greater than the man who gave that powerful sermon not on the mount but on the nation's mall. The very essence of who he is and was can best be identified as love personified.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Election Day 2010 Prediction
It’s Election Day 2010 and the pundits have been buzzing predicting yet another “Republican takeover” similar to that in 1994 under the Newt Gingrich regime. I remember that year oh so well. I had just relocated to the Washington DC area and had the great fortune of landing a job as the campaign press secretary for Congressman Albert R. Wynn from Maryland’s 4th Congressional district. (I initially thought that I would go to DC and eventually work for North Carolina’s Congressman David Price (coincidentally the representative from NC’s 4th Congressional district) but he was a casualty of the Republicans. I earned my first battle scars as a campaign aide working for a US Congressman in a highly volatile political climate; the stakes were high and the Dems fought hard to hold on to their seats and to protect the party’s hero and “rock star” President Bill Clinton from becoming a lame duck.
When it was all said and done and the votes were all counted, 38.8% of the eligible American voters turned out. It was estimated that 108,000,000 eligible Americans failed to turn up at the polls and cast their vote. Lack of enthusiasm was again being blamed like it is today as the grim reaper after a bitter fight for guess what—health care reform. All in all, the Republicans garnered 19.0% of the eligible vote for Congress, exceeding the Democrats (16.6%) for the first time since 1946 (http://archive.fairvote.org/reports/1995/chp3/gans.html). And after the smoke cleared—34 incumbents, all Democrats lost their seats and the Republicans took control of Congress winning 52 seats in the House and 9 seats in the Senate. Needless to say the Democrats were sorely disappointed and shamed as the Republicans launched a massive far-reaching political war, “taking no prisoners.”
The speeches on the campaign trails and rhetoric during this election cycle were probably just as divisive and scary as they were in 1994 however I don’t recall them being nearly as sinister and hate-filled. I think that although President Obama’s level of intelligence and charismatic appeal is similar if not exceeds that of President Clinton, he has several forces working against him: (1) his race (Black man) although few people will openly admit it; (2) the miserable economy and the fact that we are in a recession that has flat lined as far as jobs recovery and growth goes; and (3) the matchless money machine of the right that is fueled by the spoils of Corporate warfare against the working class.
The pundits are predicting we are going to see a replay of 1994 even without a unified Republican Party and an clear republican agenda like the “Contract with America”—and despite the fact that the Republic party is splintered and broken into hostile factions –with the Tea Party on one side and ultra conservative old-guard Republican partiers on the other. They do however share in the enormous money coffers and have all seemed to rally behind one common battle cry—to politically disable and ultimately prevent the reelection in 2012 of President Obama. Case and point, current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sent out a rallying cry to the Republican Party admonishing them that their main goal is to “make sure that Barak Obama is a one-term president.”
The Democrats are not so much splintered as they are handicapped by out-dated political strategies and timid, if not spineless, leadership.
While it is 7:33 p.m. as I conclude this first posting on Election Day 2010 and most of the polls in the east have just closed, there is still much uncertainty. Nevertheless, the pundits on MSNBC and CNN are continuing to predict a Republican sweep. Part of their over confidence with their predictions may have served the Democrats well by forcing people to realize the high stakes of this election when they otherwise would have stayed at home.
I am going to take a gamble and predict that the Democrats will still hold on to the House and Senate although by a narrow margin. I am not as positive about the race between Elaine Marshall (Democratic candidate) and Richard Burr (incumbent Republican). My pessimism is largely due to the lack of support it appears that Elaine Marshall received by the NC Democratic Party. Furthermore I am ever so mindful of the fact that North Carolina didn't send the late former Senator Jessie Helms back to Washington over and over again on the votes of Republicans alone.
What is certain is that the nation as a whole is sickened by the lack of real political leadership by both parties and the abysmal lack of protection of everyday, hard working Americans. Both parties have failed to lead with courage, moral conviction and any sign of intelligent public policy making.
I predict that there will be some upsets but I am hopeful that the outcome will not be as dire or devastating as folk who are getting paid a lot more money that I make are prognosticating.
And the tallying of the votes has begun…let’s see if tomorrow we will have a Congress that is hell bent on taking our nation backwards or if we have a Congress that has a renewed commitment and stronger will to move us forward.
When it was all said and done and the votes were all counted, 38.8% of the eligible American voters turned out. It was estimated that 108,000,000 eligible Americans failed to turn up at the polls and cast their vote. Lack of enthusiasm was again being blamed like it is today as the grim reaper after a bitter fight for guess what—health care reform. All in all, the Republicans garnered 19.0% of the eligible vote for Congress, exceeding the Democrats (16.6%) for the first time since 1946 (http://archive.fairvote.org/reports/1995/chp3/gans.html). And after the smoke cleared—34 incumbents, all Democrats lost their seats and the Republicans took control of Congress winning 52 seats in the House and 9 seats in the Senate. Needless to say the Democrats were sorely disappointed and shamed as the Republicans launched a massive far-reaching political war, “taking no prisoners.”
The speeches on the campaign trails and rhetoric during this election cycle were probably just as divisive and scary as they were in 1994 however I don’t recall them being nearly as sinister and hate-filled. I think that although President Obama’s level of intelligence and charismatic appeal is similar if not exceeds that of President Clinton, he has several forces working against him: (1) his race (Black man) although few people will openly admit it; (2) the miserable economy and the fact that we are in a recession that has flat lined as far as jobs recovery and growth goes; and (3) the matchless money machine of the right that is fueled by the spoils of Corporate warfare against the working class.
The pundits are predicting we are going to see a replay of 1994 even without a unified Republican Party and an clear republican agenda like the “Contract with America”—and despite the fact that the Republic party is splintered and broken into hostile factions –with the Tea Party on one side and ultra conservative old-guard Republican partiers on the other. They do however share in the enormous money coffers and have all seemed to rally behind one common battle cry—to politically disable and ultimately prevent the reelection in 2012 of President Obama. Case and point, current Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sent out a rallying cry to the Republican Party admonishing them that their main goal is to “make sure that Barak Obama is a one-term president.”
The Democrats are not so much splintered as they are handicapped by out-dated political strategies and timid, if not spineless, leadership.
While it is 7:33 p.m. as I conclude this first posting on Election Day 2010 and most of the polls in the east have just closed, there is still much uncertainty. Nevertheless, the pundits on MSNBC and CNN are continuing to predict a Republican sweep. Part of their over confidence with their predictions may have served the Democrats well by forcing people to realize the high stakes of this election when they otherwise would have stayed at home.
I am going to take a gamble and predict that the Democrats will still hold on to the House and Senate although by a narrow margin. I am not as positive about the race between Elaine Marshall (Democratic candidate) and Richard Burr (incumbent Republican). My pessimism is largely due to the lack of support it appears that Elaine Marshall received by the NC Democratic Party. Furthermore I am ever so mindful of the fact that North Carolina didn't send the late former Senator Jessie Helms back to Washington over and over again on the votes of Republicans alone.
What is certain is that the nation as a whole is sickened by the lack of real political leadership by both parties and the abysmal lack of protection of everyday, hard working Americans. Both parties have failed to lead with courage, moral conviction and any sign of intelligent public policy making.
I predict that there will be some upsets but I am hopeful that the outcome will not be as dire or devastating as folk who are getting paid a lot more money that I make are prognosticating.
And the tallying of the votes has begun…let’s see if tomorrow we will have a Congress that is hell bent on taking our nation backwards or if we have a Congress that has a renewed commitment and stronger will to move us forward.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Once Again America Is Faced With The Fierce Urgency of Now: Why We MUST March on October 2
August 28th 2010 marked the 47th anniversary of the historic 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” It was during that momentous event that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in which he made a provocative appeal to America’s collective conscience to create a society in which people were judged on “the content of their character and not on the color of their skin.” Unfortunately, people often get caught up in the mesmerizing delivery of King’s “call to conscience” and fail to respond to his call to action. Many people often ignore the first part of Dr. King’s speech where he criticized America for defaulting on the promissory note “to which every American was heir…a promise that all men would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’” Dr. King admonished:
“America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”
Fast forward to 2010 and the promissory note Dr. King referenced still has not been honored and once again we are in a critical moment in history faced with the fierce urgency of now. Although some argue that the election of our country’s first Black president is evidence that we are now living in a post-racial society, a close examination of several major indicators of social and economic progress reveals otherwise. Some individuals are indeed living the American dream, however far too many Americans, especially Blacks and the poor of all race and ethnic groups, are living social nightmares struggling to survive.
According to 2009 US Census data, the poverty rate climbed from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, in 2008 to 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people in 2009. Among the working-age population (ages 18 to 65), poverty rose from 11.7 percent to 12.9 percent, which is at the highest since the 1960s, when the government launched a war on poverty that expanded the federal role in social welfare programs from education to health care. Poverty rose among all race and ethnic groups, but was particularly higher for blacks and Hispanics. The number of Hispanics in poverty increased from 23.2 percent to 25.3 percent; for blacks it increased from 24.7 percent to 25.8 percent. The number of whites in poverty rose from 8.6 percent to 9.4 percent and child poverty rose from 19 percent to 20.7 percent.
The unemployment rate for the last 12 months (August 2009 to August 2010) has been between 9.5 and 10% for the general US population, the unemployment rate for the same period for Blacks has been between 15.2% (August 2009) to 16.3% (August 2010). Although poverty rates among Blacks declined during the 1990s it is now on an upward turn. While 4.5 percent of white mortgage borrowers lost their homes to foreclosure between 2007 and 2009, Black and Latino borrowers had 7.9 and 7.7 percent foreclosure rates, respectively and high-income black borrowers were 80 percent more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure than their white counterparts, while Latino borrowers were 90 percent more likely (Center for Responsible Lending). Gentrification is eroding historically black neighborhoods and black owned land tracts and residential segregation--a primary mechanism for reproducing race and class-based social inequality is becoming more widespread. The American criminal justice system and prison industrial complex are ensnaring people of color especially Black males into legally sanctioned systems of oppression, social control and exclusion that are tantamount to the Jim Crow era as pointed out by Dr. Michelle Alexander.
The gains in upward social mobility that many people made before the Bush years (e.g. moving into the middle class) are being demolished by the effects of a worsening recession caused by years of outrageous and uncontrolled greed on Wall Street, senseless spending on wars that we should have never engaged, and a government gone wild—tending more the interests of the extremely wealthy and corporations than to meeting the needs of the workers, middle class and poor families and children in our country.
And, yet the voices of outrage over the direction that our country is heading that are the loudest are the ones representing the most outrageous and vitriolic minority including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, to mention a few.
It appears however that the masses are awakening a new civil rights movement. On October 2, 2010 the national NAACP, the AFL-CIO, National Council of La Raza, United for Peace and Justice and many other organizations from around the country will assemble in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC to show the real face of the American majority. Unlike the Tea Party movement’s factions e.g. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s followers, the “One Nation Working Together” movement on 10.2.10 will galvanize people from diverse race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds into a united front representing “one nation, indivisible” fighting for “liberty and justice for all.” On that day Americans will stand together and demand that Congress refocus its priorities to put unemployed Americans back to work, stimulate the economy in our local communities, ensure the protection and civil rights and liberties of ALL people, and invest in a sound high-quality education for ALL youth.
Like faith without works—words without action are dead—inconsequential or of no effect. Romanticizing Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech without fighting to turn its core principles in reality diminishes its worth. Dr. King’s warning is just as significant and relevant today as it was back in 1963. We are yet again faced with the “fierce urgency of now” and “this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism; now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
For more information on how you can sign up to participate the One Nation Working Together 10.2.10 visit the national website at www.onenationworkingtogether.org.
“America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”
Fast forward to 2010 and the promissory note Dr. King referenced still has not been honored and once again we are in a critical moment in history faced with the fierce urgency of now. Although some argue that the election of our country’s first Black president is evidence that we are now living in a post-racial society, a close examination of several major indicators of social and economic progress reveals otherwise. Some individuals are indeed living the American dream, however far too many Americans, especially Blacks and the poor of all race and ethnic groups, are living social nightmares struggling to survive.
According to 2009 US Census data, the poverty rate climbed from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, in 2008 to 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people in 2009. Among the working-age population (ages 18 to 65), poverty rose from 11.7 percent to 12.9 percent, which is at the highest since the 1960s, when the government launched a war on poverty that expanded the federal role in social welfare programs from education to health care. Poverty rose among all race and ethnic groups, but was particularly higher for blacks and Hispanics. The number of Hispanics in poverty increased from 23.2 percent to 25.3 percent; for blacks it increased from 24.7 percent to 25.8 percent. The number of whites in poverty rose from 8.6 percent to 9.4 percent and child poverty rose from 19 percent to 20.7 percent.
The unemployment rate for the last 12 months (August 2009 to August 2010) has been between 9.5 and 10% for the general US population, the unemployment rate for the same period for Blacks has been between 15.2% (August 2009) to 16.3% (August 2010). Although poverty rates among Blacks declined during the 1990s it is now on an upward turn. While 4.5 percent of white mortgage borrowers lost their homes to foreclosure between 2007 and 2009, Black and Latino borrowers had 7.9 and 7.7 percent foreclosure rates, respectively and high-income black borrowers were 80 percent more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure than their white counterparts, while Latino borrowers were 90 percent more likely (Center for Responsible Lending). Gentrification is eroding historically black neighborhoods and black owned land tracts and residential segregation--a primary mechanism for reproducing race and class-based social inequality is becoming more widespread. The American criminal justice system and prison industrial complex are ensnaring people of color especially Black males into legally sanctioned systems of oppression, social control and exclusion that are tantamount to the Jim Crow era as pointed out by Dr. Michelle Alexander.
The gains in upward social mobility that many people made before the Bush years (e.g. moving into the middle class) are being demolished by the effects of a worsening recession caused by years of outrageous and uncontrolled greed on Wall Street, senseless spending on wars that we should have never engaged, and a government gone wild—tending more the interests of the extremely wealthy and corporations than to meeting the needs of the workers, middle class and poor families and children in our country.
And, yet the voices of outrage over the direction that our country is heading that are the loudest are the ones representing the most outrageous and vitriolic minority including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, to mention a few.
It appears however that the masses are awakening a new civil rights movement. On October 2, 2010 the national NAACP, the AFL-CIO, National Council of La Raza, United for Peace and Justice and many other organizations from around the country will assemble in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC to show the real face of the American majority. Unlike the Tea Party movement’s factions e.g. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s followers, the “One Nation Working Together” movement on 10.2.10 will galvanize people from diverse race/ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds into a united front representing “one nation, indivisible” fighting for “liberty and justice for all.” On that day Americans will stand together and demand that Congress refocus its priorities to put unemployed Americans back to work, stimulate the economy in our local communities, ensure the protection and civil rights and liberties of ALL people, and invest in a sound high-quality education for ALL youth.
Like faith without works—words without action are dead—inconsequential or of no effect. Romanticizing Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech without fighting to turn its core principles in reality diminishes its worth. Dr. King’s warning is just as significant and relevant today as it was back in 1963. We are yet again faced with the “fierce urgency of now” and “this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism; now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
For more information on how you can sign up to participate the One Nation Working Together 10.2.10 visit the national website at www.onenationworkingtogether.org.
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