Posted on 06/02/2008 1:54:37 PM PDT by ventanax5
I haven’t heard one fellow yet say, “I went to medical school all because my gang members encouraged me to do so while we were breaking into the gas station.”
While some people don’t want to hear what I’m saying, others have said: Why don’t blacks listen to Bill Cosby and not Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. But I say, don’t pit me against Jesse and Al because they speak the truth. The things that Jesse has come out for and he’s been against, these are things I’m talking about, too. Yes, there is such a thing as institutionalize racism.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com ...
But an Obama presidency is a disaster.
They want us to vote Obama because of his skin color. He is not qualified. Now what could be more racist?
I'd vote Collin Powell in a heart beat though, he's a good man.
Cosby should go back to TV and leave history alone.
Hik-a- burrrrrrrrrr!
Pray to G_D to keep Obama out of office.
Huh?
But I say, don’t pit me against Jesse and Al because they speak the truth. The things that Jesse has come out for and he’s been against, these are things I’m talking about, too. Yes, there is such a thing as institutionalize racism.
But if people are marching against racism and bigotry and police brutality, then it makes no sense that we aren’t marching and rallying against our own young men who are shooting and killing one another and often innocent people in the process. It makes no sense that we don’t have the same anger about people who aren’t parenting or have totally abdicated their responsibilities for whatever reasons.
He brings it back around to the responsibility that the black community has for itself. Something Jackson and Sharpton have never done.
But if people are marching against racism and bigotry and police brutality, then it makes no sense that we aren’t marching and rallying against our own young men who are shooting and killing one another and often innocent people in the process. It makes no sense that we don’t have the same anger about people who aren’t parenting or have totally abdicated their responsibilities for whatever reasons.
Bill Cosby might make a very interesting VP for McCain. Things sure would be exciting!
Pretty poor snippage there. Misleading as to the tone of the whole essay
Go ahead and read the whole article
“But I say, don’t pit me against Jesse and Al because they speak the truth”
I think you all need to go back and read that whole article if you haven’t. That’s a very strange line to pull out of that entire text. If you read that whole thing, that line is frankly a throw-away line meant to keep off the detractors. If there’s going to come a change in the black community, it’s going to come from men like Cosby, and they’re going to have to deal with the Jesse Jackson’s in the world.
Go back and look at the message. That is exactly what has to happen in the black community, and it’s not happening. I myself have delivered kids from 14-year old mothers. No dad or family anywhere to be seen, either.
If blacks have to throw in that line for Jesse Jackson to get things changed and to gather any attention in the black community, so be it. I’ll take that anyday over what’s going on now.
What are the top 3 or 4 positions that Powell holds that attracted you to his camp?
Quote: “Yes, there is such a thing as institutionalize [sic] racism.
Yeah Bill, it’s called Afirmative Action.
The basic attachment of civilization does not exist any more. Males are not attached to their offspring. It is flagrant and extreme in the black "society" but the courts and the politicians are steadily bringing it to the rest of us. The structure is already there. It was built with Birth Control and Abortion and No-Fault Divorce. It is being expanded and adorned with Gay Marriage and pervasive feminism. When society defines children as a burden, a hindrance to woman's fulfillment and it is forbidden for men to have any say in their existence, then society is descending to the very basest of imagined pre-civilizational savagery when women(in the feminist construction) had not yet convinced men that that baby was an extension of Himself and was His.
America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth is a foundation founded by Colin Powell in 1997 to help children and youth from all socioeconomic sectors in the United States.
In late April 1997 Presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford and First Lady Nancy Reagan, representing President Ronald Reagan, met at the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future in Philadelphia. Also present were 30 governors, 100 mayors, 145 community delegations, dozens of prominent business leaders and several thousand citizens. At this conference the Presidents asked the nation to make youth a top priority and to support the Five Promises. Powell was chairman of the conference and subsequently became the Chairman of the organization. He held that position until his appointment as Secretary of State but still actively supports the foundation.
The foundation works with hundreds of companies, non-profit organizations, faith based organizations, educational institutions, as well as government agencies to achieve its goals. A complete list of partners can be found here.
Five promises
1. Ongoing relationships with caring adults – parents, mentors, tutors or coaches
A caring adult serves as a guide, a mentor and a role model for young people. This sense of connection—within and outside the family—is a powerful factor that encourages good social skills, responsible values and a positive identity. Adult role models include parents, teachers, coaches, extended family members and tutors. All across the nation, America’s Promise partners are connecting caring adults to young people.
2. Safe places with structured activities during non-school hours
A safe place with constructive activities gives youth an alternative to street corners, gangs and other harmful environments. A safe place nurtures young people’s skills and interests, enriches their academic performance and gives them opportunities to contribute to their communities. America’s Promise partners are responding by creating safe havens for young people.
3. Healthy start and future
Children need a healthy start before they begin schooling – prenatal care and early immunizations are vital in a child’s first years of life. Children and adolescents also need accessible and affordable healthcare, including good nutrition; eye, ear and dental checkups; and regular exercise. America’s Promise partners provide accessible and affordable health services for all young people throughout development.
4. Marketable skills through effective education
Marketable skills enable young people to prepare for employment in the 21st century. Young people must master basic academic and analytical skills, learn workplace etiquette and know how to use new technology, such as computers and the Internet. America’s Promise partners help youth develop these essential career skills.
5. Opportunities to give back through community service
Community service not only benefits society, it also enriches the lives of people who provide it. Young volunteers have higher self-esteem, perform better in school, build leadership skills and learn how to solve community problems. Unfortunately, many youth are rarely asked to participate in community service – even though most volunteer when asked. America’s Promise partners are providing numerous opportunities for youth to help their communities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Promise
I have no doubt that he is a good man, but being a good man does not necessarily qualify him to lead the country and the economy. That’s all I’m sayin’.
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I didn't come to that conclusion from reading the article. The opposite, in fact.
It should go without saying that "the Black community" has to solve its own problems, but that overlooks a very important development; there really are two (at least) black communities, one a growing and prospering middle class and one a stagnating, devolving, hopefully shrinking underclass. This is a troubling development because it means the good role models separate themselves from those who need them most.
As a result, the hard antisocial core of the underclass may well be in large measure beyond redemption.
I know that sounds cold-- but after 40 odd years and five trillion (with a T) dollars spent on them, the poverty rate unmoved and indices of social decomposition worsening, it begins to emerge that the society at large may just have to outlive these nonfunctioning wasted generations.
And this is where we can see the true evil of the malignant Jeremiah Wright and his ilk. For all his so-called social services, and his alleged message of responsibility to the cheering and jeering masses, he then climbs into the pulpit and undermines whatever little good he may have done--enabling those at the bottom to wallow defiantly and indignantly in their squalor while exonerating everyone for their fecklessness by blaming their self-inflicted ills on Whitey.
YAWN. How old is this?
Bill’s no saint, but he’s got it right. You can help people, but only if they’re willing to help themselves. I know some of you automatically don’t like him for whatever reason, but, I heard the voice of a father in there. The theme I keep hearing in that article is “they’re killing the kids”, and he’s right.
“I know that sounds cold— but after 40 odd years and five trillion (with a T) dollars spent on them, the poverty rate unmoved and indices of social decomposition worsening, it begins to emerge that the society at large may just have to outlive these nonfunctioning wasted generations.”
Oh, you’re talking to a guy who sees it every day. I work in an inner-city hospital. I see what goes on. As for outliving the non-functioning generations, I just have to tell you that I’m seeing 20-year olds with 6 kids. Needless to say, that 20-year old has never worked a day in her life and probably never will. No fatherS in the picture, either. What, you thought this was from the same dad?
I don’t know how you outlive that. The problem is literally growing exponentially.
Yes, there’s a growing middle-class. But I see that anti-social underclass, and while the 20-year old with 6-kids is the exception, the 20-year old with 3-kids isn’t—at all. We shall see...
Maybe I just need to get out of this city.
And this is where we can see the true evil of the malignant Jeremiah Wright and his ilk. For all his so-called social services, and his alleged message of responsibility to the cheering and jeering masses, he then climbs into the pulpit and undermines whatever little good he may have done--enabling those at the bottom to wallow defiantly and indignantly in their squalor while exonerating everyone for their fecklessness by blaming their self-inflicted ills on Whitey.
Lyndon Johnson and his "Great Society" (and when a socialist says, "society" he always means "government") saved the race hustling industry. In his classic book, Losing Ground, Charles Murray documents what happened when Welfare became a "right." Under the Eisenhower policy which gets labeled "benign neglect," negroes (as they then were politely called) made substantial progress. That progress leveled off and in some ways went backward because of the "Great Society." 'Course the Democrats obscure the facts, and attribute progress before the Johnson Administration to the Johnson Administration, but them is the conditions that prevail.Wince, but don't be surprised, when you see Cosby standing up for Sharpton; Sharpton made his bones in support of the Twanna Brawley "rape" hoax - and Bill Cosby was offering a reward for anyone who could substantiate Brawley's hoax. The problem blacks face is that they can either rage against white racism or they can assume a saintly mantle and turn the other cheek - but the middle position which Cosby is trying to occupy is a nullity. You can no more teach black responsibility and white scapegoating at the same time than you can simultaneously teach sexual abstinence and condom usage. In either case the second message cancels out the first message - and you are left with the idea that "everything is Whitey's fault so nothing I do matters" in the one case, and "the only way to avoid unwanted pregnancy is to use a condom" in the other.
And both of those messages are damaging to society and prevent its healing. And the people who buy those messages are the members of society who are most certain to be harmed by them. Personal responsibility and sexual abstinence work, scapegoating and condoms don't. Life isn't fair - but there it is.
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