Posted on 12/28/2005 11:40:33 AM PST by presidio9
President Bush December 19 sent warm greetings to all who are celebrating Kwanzaa -- a seven-day observance emphasizing seven principles of African culture.
Kwanzaa, which will begin December 26, represents an African-American and pan-African holiday celebrating family, community and culture.
For additional information see Holidays and African Americans.
Following is the text of the statement:
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary December 19, 2005
December 2005
I send greetings to those observing Kwanzaa.
African Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa. The seven days of this celebration emphasize the seven principles of Nguzo Saba -- unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. These values contribute to a culture of citizenship and compassion, and Kwanzaa activities help pass on African values and traditions to future generations.
As families and friends gather for Kwanzaa, Americans remember the many contributions African Americans have made to our country's character and celebrate the diversity that makes our Nation strong. May your commitment to family, faith, and community thrive during this holiday season and throughout the coming year.
Laura and I send our best wishes for a happy Kwanzaa.
Unfortunately, your opinion doesn't make it so.
I suppose that he mentioned it because, in no particular order, a) it is a holiday that some Americans observe, and b) by mentioning it he deprives others of the opportunity to call him/Republicans racist. I would think conservatives would have a whole lot more to do than join DU in bashing the President.
Does anyone know: Did Ronald Reagan send out Kwanzaa greetings?
I just want to know why we don't get a day off for it? I'll celebrate any holiday when it gets me out of work!
Bush is an imbecile for attaching his name to this excrement that some political hack wrote for him and convinced him to agree with.
He'd tortured a woman and spent time in jail.
He needed a new scam that just wouldn't fail.
("So what if I stuck some chick's toe in a vice?
Nobody said revolution was nice!")
The Sixties were over. Now what would he do?
Why, he went back to school -- so that's "Dr." to you!
He once ordered shootouts at UCLA
Now he teaches Black Studies just miles away.
Then to top it all off, the good Doctor's new plan
Was to get rid of Christmas and piss off The Man.
Karenga invented a fake holiday.
He called the thing Kwanza. "Hey, what's that you say?
"You don't get what's 'black' about Maoist baloney?
You say that my festival's totally phony?
"Who cares if corn isn't an African crop?
Who cares if our harvest's a month or two off?
Who cares if Swahili's not our mother tongue?
A lie for The Cause never hurt anyone!
"Umoja! Ujima! Kujichagulia, too!
Collectivist crap never sounded so cool!
Those guilty white liberals -- easy to fool.
Your kids will now celebrate Kwanzaa in school!"
And we heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight:
"Happy Kwanzaa to all, except if you're white!"
No one is bashing..
We dis-agree...Kawanza is not a holiday it is something made up. The Holiday is Christmas and Hannukkah celebrated by all creeds and races.
Kawanza has no place except in someone's mind.
I copy your link to the graphic with your permission.
No Virginia, there is not a Kwanzaa Claus.
Seriously... I'm sure the 3 people that actually buy this kwanzaa line really appreciate the President's heartfelt wishes.
BTW... no kwanzaa greetings from Jesse, Al and Calypso Louie? Whazzup wit dat?
Those who celebrate the holiday will often explain that it’s not just for African-Americans. They’re not telling the whole story; in fact, it’s doubtful that everyone who celebrates Kwanzaa really knows its origins.
Most stories about Ronald McKinley Everett refer to him as Dr. Maulana Karenga, and rarely examine his past. But in recent years, much of the Everett/Karenga story has been told in a few print exposes, and in op-ed columns.
Forget the notion that Kwanzaa is a holiday for all people. Dr. Karenga states that he created it at the height of the black liberation movement as part of a “re-Africanization Process - “a going back to black.”
Dr. Karenga, still just “Ron Everett” at the time, was heavily involved in the black power movement. He started an organization called US - “United Slaves” – as a violent rival to the Black Panthers. Everett and his organization became dupes of the FBI which wanted to use radical groups such as the United Slaves to split and discredit the Left.
He dropped the “Everett” name and adopted the Swahili one, which means “master teacher,” shaved his head, and began wearing traditional African clothing. US members, similarly attired, and often encouraged by the FBI, clashed with the Panthers over which group would control the new Afro-American Studies Center at UCLA.
There were incidents involving beatings and shootings, including one in 1969 in which two US members shot and killed two Black Panthers.
Dr. Karenga had other run-ins with the law, including charges that he abused women. In 1971, he was convicted of assaulting female members of US and he served time in prison.
A Los Angeles Times snippet describes the torture of the women as involving a hot soldering iron placed in the mouth of one, while the other’s toe was mashed in a vise.
For his part, Dr. Karenga insists that he is the victim in all this; he was quoted in the Dallas News: “All the negative charges are in fact disinformation and frame-ups by the FBI and local and national police.”
Members of the multicultural community either believe his denials, or they don’t care. But they have to face the fact that they are accepting the teachings of a man whose organization –and who personally – committed heinous crimes against members of his own race.
So what happened to Dr. Maulana Karenga after he served his time in prison? Some nine years after Kwanzaa was invented, he decided to moderate his views and become a Marxist. In 1979, he was hired to run the Black Studies Department at Cal State Long Beach, in all likelihood, the first ex-con to do so.
His biography, appearing on a web site called “Profiles in Black,” says that he is also chair of “the President’s [Clinton] Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity” at Cal State Long Beach, and director of the “Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies.”
It also lists him as chairman of “Operation Us” (sound familiar?) which the site says means “black people” – so named to stress the communitarian focus of his philosophy, Kawaida, which is an on-going synthesis of the best of African thought and practice.
The extensive bio made it apparent that Dr. Karenga is enamored with all things African – though it never once mentions anything about United Slaves, or shootings, or the torture of women, or prison time.
The militant past of the creator is now ignored in favor of the co-called seven principles of Nguza Saba – principles such as unity, family and self-determination that could have come from Bill Bennett’s Book of Virtues – although Bennett would not likely approve of the collectivist tone of the principles.
Dr. Karenga does his part to promote the holiday and blur his personal history. In December, he goes on an annual “Kwanzaa circuit” of speeches and appearances. And he writes. Among his writings are many articles and ten books, mostly concerning Black Studies, and his commentaries on ancient Egyptian texts.
And, remember that little article in the World Book Encyclopedia that legitimized Dr. Karenga as a “black cultural leader?” You guessed it – he wrote the article himself.
Toward the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton issued a formal proclamation in support of Kwanzaa.
In all seriousness, how many people actually observe Kwanzaa in the US? I'd wager that more people voted for Dennis Kucinich for President, yet it gets the same treatment as Christmas and Hannukah.
Politicians will do anything for votes. Votes = power. Power is the objective. Nothing else matters to these people.
Kwanzaa, Black History Month, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Entertainment Television, Black Caucus, Black Coaches Association, ad nauseum.
Who da peeps talking color now? Huh, b*tches? Youz, dats who!
Keep it up, soon it be us....and you ain't gonna like it. yo, Dig dogs?
/ebonics style rant
Wow..W has become one of the most ill informed President's of all time. His inner circle should tell him about what crap this "holiday" really is.
"WTF is Kwanzaa?"
Kawanzaa ... A good indication that God is black - and she has a sense of humour.
I have no argument with you about the silliness of this trumped-up "holiday" or its so-called "roots." I just don't see any reason to belittle the President. While you may not be "bashing" the President, some certainly are. How about the reference on this thread to the President's "cerebral deficit"? I'd expect that at DU.
Ronald Reagan never issued Kwanzaa greetings, because before Bill Clinton was president the only people who had heard of Kwanzaa were the more leftist Black Panthers.
This announcement was issued by the State Dept. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that our own Secretary of State will not be celebrating Kwanzaa this year.
God that is funny
What one has to remember is that even though the holiday is bogus and created by a torturing criminal, some innocent Americans do celebrate it. And to those [uninformed] Americans, Bush wishes greetings.
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