Posted on 01/18/2005 6:05:14 AM PST by randita
Posted on Tue, Jan. 18, 2005
Bond slams Bush, celebrates King
By Terry Bitman Inquirer Staff Writer
One of the legendary lions of the civil-rights movement roared onto the Rowan University campus yesterday and pounced on the record of the Bush administration.
NAACP chairman Julian Bond, speaking to about 400 people at the Glassboro school's 19th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast, accused the administration of appealing to the "dark underside of American society" and tampering with the basic freedoms granted by the Constitution.
He said that while the administration was busy "writing a new constitution for Iraq, it is trying to rewrite the Constitution of the United States."
Bond, 65, has been on the civil-rights stage for more than 40 years, helping to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 and emerging nationally at the 1968 Democratic National Convention as cochairman of a group that unseated Georgia's segregated delegation.
A politician, author, lecturer and television host, Bond has been chairman of the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil-rights group, since 1998.
To abundant applause and knowing nods, Bond excoriated the administration, in particular outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft, for what he called reverting to a 1960s "J. Edgar Hoover approach" of spying on and lying about those who advocate progressive change in society.
"There is indeed a right-wing conspiracy," Bond contended, "and it controls the White House, Congress, government, and most of the media."
He said a double standard allowed the White House to consider affirmative action preferential treatment, but not the admission of someone to Yale University because his father went there. Both President Bush and his father attended Yale.
Bond further argued that the Bush administration had used Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Secretary-designate Condoleezza Rice as "shields" to protect it from allegations of racism.
Recounting the modern history of the civil-rights movement, Bond noted that it had been nearly 50 years since Rosa Parks "sat down to stand up" on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. It was during the ensuing bus boycott that King first came to the forefront.
"At that early stage, he understood the significance," Bond said.
King did not make the civil-rights movement, he said. "The movement made Martin."
It has been 40 years, Bond noted, since President Lyndon B. Johnson and King worked together to help pass landmark civil-rights legislation.
Bond recalled a story attributed to Johnson when he signed the Civil Rights Act. The president reportedly told an aide that, as a result of the bill, the South was being delivered to the Republican Party for a lifetime.
"So it wasn't Karl Rove who won the recent election for George Bush; it was Johnson," Bond said.
Bond also spoke his mind about the Democratic Party. "While one party has been whistling 'Dixie,' " Bond said, "the other has been whistling in the dark."
Bond also attacked Bush over the war in Iraq, saying the President had misled Americans about the reasons for it from the start.
"Bill Clinton lied about sex. George Bush lied about the war," Bond said. "When Clinton lied, no one died."
Bond said King's work to bring peace and equality to all Americans was far from over.
"We have to continue on," he urged. "We have to continue to fight the callous and the smug."
Contact staff writer Terry Bitman at 856-779-3919 or tbitman@phillynews.com.
© 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.philly.com
I love this statement. Who's calling whom a racist?
Martin Luther King would vomit at the enslavement of African Americans on the democrat party plantation, with duplicitous evil slave masters like Bond and the rest of the prostitute foremen with their whips.
SDASTFU
I wonder if Bond is aware that blacks can be racists too, even against their own race?
Anyone have links to those articles about how Mfume quit his NAACP leadership position because he thought Bond was taking the organization off of a partisan cliff?
Couldn't have said it better myself!*~*
Arrogance, thy name is Bond.
The NAACP is one of the most racist organizations in the country. If you've got their endorsement, you're doing something wrong.
The press always refers to the oldest dirtbags on the left as "lions." They do this with Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd all the time. They all use the same script.
These people are so unbelieveably full of crap I don't know where to start.
"Everything that guy says is bulls--t!!!"
"appealing to the dark underside"
The President is trying to protect America against terrorism, something the Democrats are unwilling or unable to do. I haven't seen Bush launch something like the anti-German campaign that occurred under Democrat Wilson, or the internment of Japanese-Americans that occurred under Democrat Roosevelt. But BSers like Julian Bond can still run their mouths about how Bush is appealing to the "dark underside".
What?
This cannot be!
Can the Dimocrat filibuster of judicial appointments be far behind?
In my humble opinion, Julian Bond is a black racist and Democratic stool pigeon.
I love the way the press talks about liberal Democrats.
What exactly did Julian Bond ever accomplish to earn the title "legendary lion?"
"I don't know where to start."
Start be revoking their tax-exempt status.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.