Obama goes along to get along in politics

SouthTown Star ^ | March 22, 2008 | Dan Proft

[CrosscutSaw]

Obama's speech was thoughtful, history-rich, deftly composed and, in parts, refreshingly candid about racial divides in America and the sources of those divides.

However, he spoke as if he was an innocent bystander to the history he recounted.

Obama discussed our nation's failings as though he was powerless to act previously or presently.

Obama lamented, "Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students."

That is true.

Although I would offer another notion that may help explain those achievement gaps. What about the cowardly politicians in the pockets of the teachers unions who pay lip service to education while they let generations of low-income kids be forced into schools that they know will fail them?

That is what Obama did as a state senator representing Chicago's South Side. And that helps explain why, when he left his state senate seat, there were more than 12,000 kids in failing schools in his district (according to the No Child Left Behind standards).

Obama had seven years in the Illinois General Assembly to do something about perhaps the worst urban public school system in America. He did nothing except propagate the status quo. It is Obama who has countenanced the pernicious philosophy of "separate but equal" for the children of low-income families during his time in public life.

Obama called for white and black middle-class Americans to focus on the "real culprits of the middle-class squeeze," decrying a Washington that is "dominated by lobbyists and special interests."

Yet as Illinois annually contends for the title of most politically corrupt state in America, what was Obama's record here?

[Howie66]

Mr. B. Hussein Obama would do us all a great service by just getting along on down the road....after the Rat party tears itself to shreads, that is.

[ModelBreaker]

"Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students." That is true.

That is not true. There is no evidence that SEGREGATION causes inferior performance by minorities. There is evidence that minority students do not perform as well as Asians, Jews and Whites, regardless of the situation (segregated or not) they are in. It is not a segregation issue. It is, imho, mostly a cultural issue.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Obama and his ilk gloss over the true culprit in the achievement gap, which, as you mentioned, is cultural. The vast majority of inner-city blacks grow up without the benefit of a nurturing father. While it is possible for a single-mother to successfully raise a child, that would be the exception and not the rule. In my house, as in most, a lazy approach to homework or an episode of misbehavior would lead to the inevitable “wait until your father gets home.” I was never beaten and rarely yelled at, but I certainly didn’t want to risk causing him anger, or provide him with a reason to be disappointed in me. The black community ignores the value of a father at its own peril.

[JCG]

Obama and his ilk gloss over the true culprit in the achievement gap, which, as you mentioned, is cultural.

Speaking of culture...

 

Obama: Man of the World
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: March 6, 2007

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to
prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that
seemed delightfully uncalculated [...], Mr. Obama described the
call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at
sunset."

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
http://nevadathunder.com/?p=3626




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[tessalu]

I think that Obama saw that Jeremiah Wright was getting some followers, and decided that this is a good way for him to get some, too. I read that Jeremiah Wright’s church started out with less than 100 people and later on had up to 8,000 in the congregation. This does not suprise me for the bible tells us that there are only two roads, one is the narrow road to heaven, and one is the wide road to destruction, and MOST of the people are on that road. It seems to me that Jeremiah Wright, and his followers are traveling that wide road to destruction. God save America!

[CrosscutSaw]

Amen!