Posted on 01/15/2008 10:12:16 AM PST by Chi-townChief
When I think back on the Rev. Martin Luther King on his birthday, I know he would have been both pleased and troubled by our current state.
He would surely have been pleased at a picture of the Democratic debate in New Hampshire -- an African American, a woman, a white male populist and a Hispanic competing for the Democratic nomination to be president. When King had his dream, he knew a day like this might come.
He surely would have been troubled by the state of our country. Poverty is up; hunger spreading. Millions of children go without adequate health care. Affordable housing is lacking, and now in the subprime mortgage crisis, millions face losing their homes. Wages are more unequal than ever; parents are working harder and longer and not keeping up. For much of America, the recession has been going on long before the economists woke up to it.
King had a dream, but he was not a dreamer. He kept challenging this country. He understood that equal protection under the law was a necessary but not sufficient step toward a good society. He spent his last birthday organizing a poor people's campaign, meeting with whites from Appalachia, Latinos, leaders from many different religions. He wanted to build a march -- across lines of race, religion and region -- that would call on this wealthy nation to deal with entrenched poverty. He was looking for justice, not for alms. The right to a job and a living wage, the right to organize and bargain collectively, the right to health care and affordable housing: These issues were the next stage in his struggle.
That's why the current press focus on the sniping between the campaigns is a dangerous distraction. Candidates are tired; the campaign is close. Advisors argue for going negative; surrogates take cheap shots. Little things get magnified out of proportion, and start rubbing the raw wounds of race and gender.
When Obama said that Hillary was "likeable enough,'' it was not a gender insult; it was a gentle compliment. These two were friends; they have campaigned together. To turn it into anything else is simply silly. When Hillary said Lyndon Johnson was necessary to get the Voting Rights Act passed, of course she's right. It took years of demonstrations, litigation and legislation to challenge segregation. King appreciated what Johnson helped achieve, even as he continued to challenge him. Hillary's statement is not a racial insult. When surrogates start demeaning Obama's experience as an organizer or insinuating garbage about his past, that degrades all of us, not just him.
The problem with this stuff is that it can easily get out of hand, embittering supporters on both sides. We're having a vital competition inside the team about who should be the first-string quarterback. And it's great that the competition is stiff and the competitors all highly skilled. But the battle for position shouldn't be so bitter that it divides the team and makes it impossible for the winner to bring us together to meet the real competition.
Show us your stuff; let the voters make the choice. Who can best bring about the change we need? Who has the best plan to make this economy work for working people? Who will stand up for the poor and stand up to the powerful? Who will best lead us out of this misbegotten war, so we can begin to rebuild America?
Let's appeal to people's hopes, not their fears, and give them someone to vote for, not against.
mailto:jjackson@rainbowpush.org
Is Jesse still spitting in white peoples’ food?
Dr. King would not be pleased to see what Jesse has become.
MLK never pandered to anyone...he preached, persuaded, convinced but never pandered.
Up to a point, but there is a point where Americans can no longer hold their noses to keep out the stink
Obama hates America.His actions and background make this evident. Why is this story being covered up by the MSM? Its true. Its in the British news because of Britain's close ties with Kenya.
Obama and his paternal 1st cousin Odinga, wanted to bring the whole of Kenya under Sharia law. Obama campaigned for Odinga in August of 2006,just before he filed with the US Federal Elections Commission for his presidential candidacy.
The idea was simply to have the Luo tribe, mostly Muslims, to take over Kenya from the iniheritors of colonial power, the Kikuyu, and bring the country under Sharia law, kick out the Western investors in the nation that had made it one of the most stable nations in Africa, and supplant those Western investors with wealthy Arab oil money.It all failed.Then Odinga yelled election fraud, and put his Luo Islamofascists into the streets of Nairobi to "protest" by murdering, raping and maiming Kikuyu people, including the recent burning alive of a church full of Christians.
If Obama and Odinga had succeeded, the next step in the plan would be for president Obama to help Odinga consolidate his power over Kenya by international recognition and trade. That will NOT happen. Obama wanted to expand Islamofascism, and annex Kenya to Somalia and the Sudan in an Islamofascist axis.
This puts both Obama and Odinga right up there in a pantheon with Idi Amin.Obama hates America, and the basis for America's wealth. His actions show this.
Ask yourself why black America generally has been ambivalent about Obama's candidacy. They know the nature of this creature. Whitey is simply catching up, but will whitey do so in time?
How Obama and 1st paternal cousin Odinga Tried to Bring Kenya Under Sharia Law and Failed, The Dose
More details are available there, if you care to take a few minutes to discover truth.Just look at the memorandum of agreement Odinga made with the Muslim Council, and go through the timeline under "Obama File"
History has a way of repeating itself when we all,"just get along," without raising true issues because of political correctness:
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