[TLBSHOW]

A non-religious holiday, Kwanzaa celebrates African-American heritage, pride, community, family, and culture. The seven-day festival commences the day after Christmas and culminates on New Year's Day.

snip

Maulana Karenga, an African-American scholar and activist, conceived Kwanzaa in 1966 following the Watts riot. Currently, Karenga is chairman of the Department of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. snip

Karenga says Kwanzaa is organized around five fundamental activities common to other African first-fruit celebrations:1

the ingathering of family, friends, and community;

reverence for the creator and creation (including thanksgiving and recommitment to respect the environment and heal the world);

commemoration of the past (honoring ancestors, learning lessons and emulating achievements of African history);

recommitment to the highest cultural ideals of the African community (for example, truth, justice, respect for people and nature, care for the vulnerable, and respect for elders); and

celebration of the "Good of Life" (for example, life, struggle, achievement, family, community, and culture).

Sources: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, United Press International, San Francisco Chronicle, Encarta 96 Encyclopedia

1From Karenga's contribution to Encarta 96 Encyclopedia

[BenLurkin]

Bush is showing a little political prostitution if he feels the need to issue a proclamation about this phony "holiday" He should be embarrssed to dignify it it with any recognition.

[Texas_Jarhead]

I can't believe that the President validates this bogus 'holiday'. What a sham.

[sinkspur]

Kwanzaa is also a time for Africans and African-Americans

Didn't Bush just stand by while a man who praised a segregationist was run out of office and here Bush is, praising a segregated holiday?

My head is spinning.

[rovenstinez]

If Africa is anything like Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala or India. This 'may' have been a true heritage to one of the 1,321 different cultural tribal peoples of Africa, but hey, you ain't foolin' no one, this is conjured up to draw people together who don't know which side of the Continent of Africa they came from. So pick a tribe, guess at a culture, and say 'that's mine'. Does anyone have an idea what E PLURIBUS UNUM means that is stamped on coins? Does this activity that W does validate the slogans on coins?

[Always A Marine]

What bullshit.

[pabianice]

Yes, that "traditional African holiday," Kwanzaa. (c) 1967 by Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

[cgbg]

Would somebody please explain to our politically correct President that this holiday has as much to do with Africa and African Americans as Christmas has to do with Mars and Martian Americans?

(Yeah, I know. If Mars is settled and then threatens rebellion and wants to claim XMas as their own we wouldn't want to harm their self-esteem or anything.) ;-)

[jungleboy]

Just another example of why most people (since the age of man) get sick of Politicians...all that hot air they blow.

[skeeter]

Maulana Karenga, an African-American scholar and activist, conceived Kwanzaa in 1966....

while cooling his heels in the slammer

[kako]

"....collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics....."

It's just so heartening to hear Bush lauding a communist holiday.

[MJY1288]

What he should of done is just ignore the whole thing and we could spend the next three months hearing how GWB snubbed the (concocted) African holiday.

I know your mad over the Trent lynching, but don't act like those idiots over at DU. You're bigger than that TLBSHOW

[Uncle Bill]

Bush is a moron. Worse, he's a socialist. This little Kwanzaa moronic diversity grovelling multi-cultural yearly pandering pimp psychosis is a yearly event.

Hooyah!

Compassionate Conservatism Means Big Government

No To 'Compassionate Conservatism'
"Marvin Olasky, the former Marxist journalism professor who coined the term. But he and George W. Bush are barking up the wrong tree if they think "compassionate conservatism" is going to rally popular support necessary to effect the real change needed to turn this country around."

---

Did You Have A Happy Kwanzaa?

WorldNetDaily
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
By Joseph Farah
JANUARY 10, 2002

I'm a little late in asking, forgive me.

But, did you have a happy Kwanzaa?

I know the celebration officially ended 10 days ago, but the news has kept me busy until now.

President Bush was quicker to the trigger than I was.

Back on Dec. 20 – a full six days before onset of this very spiritual weeklong rite – he sent "warm greetings to all who are celebrating Kwanzaa." It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over – even though I don't personally celebrate this sacred event.

Why did Bush issue a proclamation on Kwanzaa? Well, he explained that this important holiday was established in 1966 as an African-American celebration of "family, community and culture. The seven-day observance, beginning Dec. 26 and ending Jan. 1, serves as a special time to recognize and reaffirm the Nguzo Saba, or Seven Principles, of African culture. These are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith."

Bush continued: "Kwanzaa provides an opportunity for people of African heritage regardless of their religious background or faith, to come together and to show reverence for their Creator and creation, to commemorate the past, to recommit to high ideals, and to celebrate the good life. These life-affirming traditions take on particular resonance this year, as the United States and the world face new challenges to peace. As individuals, families and communities take part in this celebration of unity and enduring values, I extend best wishes to people throughout the globe for a wonderful and memorable Kwanzaa."

Touching, moving, multi-cultural.

Bush was correct in pointing out that this new high holy day is a very recent invention. There are few holidays we can actually attribute to one man's vision. Kwanzaa is such a holiday – coined by Ron Karenga in 1966.

Who was Ron Karenga?

Glad you asked.

He is a convicted felon – sentenced five years after inventing Kwanzaa for torturing two black women by whipping them with electrical cords and beating them with a karate baton after stripping them naked. He placed in the mouth of one of the victims a hot soldering iron, also scarring her face with the device. He put one of her big toes in a vise, and detergent and running water in both of their mouths.

But that wasn't the beginning of the bizarre and violent behavior of Karenga, the patron saint of Kwanzaa – not by a long shot.

Just about the time he was dreaming up this new holiday, he was also inventing a new political movement on the campus of UCLA. That movement was called "black cultural nationalism." His group was called United Slaves. And it was defined mainly by violent confrontations with the Black Panthers at UCLA. Two of his followers shot dead two members of the Panthers in 1969.

But no sooner did Karenga get out of prison on the torture charges in 1975 than all was forgotten about his criminal and violent past. He was proclaimed Saint Karenga. Four years later, he was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach.

How did he get that job in academia with his record?

Glad you asked again.

Paul Mulshine, who has done an admirable job of chronicling Karenga's history for FrontPagemag.com, has a theory.

Karenga had a jailhouse conversion.

No, he did not become a born-again Christian. He did not renounce violence. He did not even repudiate his past. But he did become a Marxist.

And, while becoming a Christian might have disqualified him for a role in the world of the modern U.S. university, a conversion to Marxism was perceived as a sign of rehabilitation. The one-time psychopath had seen the light.

In conclusion, I hope this little cultural and history lesson helps you see the light – about Kwanzaa. It's being taught to your kids in your government schools. It's become a commercial bonanza in black communities through the United States. And, now, even the president of the United States is praising it as a legitimate holiday.

Good grief. What's wrong with America?

My fellow Americans, there are two things we must do.

[RLK]

Bush, please go back to Kinnebunkport and stay there.

[Libertina]

Karenga is a convicted FELON, a man who disdained blacks and tortured two of his female followers with electric devices. Kwaanza = traditional Africa? NO

[RightWinger]

Kwanzaa sounds a little racist to me.
A holiday based on the color of your skin.
Oh, never mind. I'm probably a racist for even thinkin' that.

[The Duke]

What am I missing? I thought Africa was a stinking hell hole of poverty, disease and famine?

What's to celebrate?

[DAnconia55]

Note to self - If elected President, do not acknowledge fruitcake fictional holidays.

[onedoug]

"It's me. Lionel Joseph from the Hallie Sallassi pavilion!"

[Tauzero]

bttt

[Tauzero]

"WE PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE RED, BLACK, AND GREEN, OUR FLAG, THE SYMBOL OF OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE, AND TO THE LAND WE MUST OBTAIN; ONE NATION OF BLACK PEOPLE, WITH ONE GOD OF US ALL, TOTALLY UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE, FOR BLACK LOVE, BLACK FREEDOM, AND BLACK SELF-DETERMINATION."

(Source: Kwanzaa Information Center, at the bottom of a page titled "Feel Good")

Minor edits show how horrible this is. For the realpolitkers:

"WE PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE RED, WHITE, AND BLACK, OUR FLAG, THE SYMBOL OF OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE, AND TO THE LAND WE MUST OBTAIN; ONE NATION OF WHITE PEOPLE, WITH ONE GOD OF US ALL, TOTALLY UNITED IN THE STRUGGLE, FOR WHITE LOVE, WHITE FREEDOM, AND WHITE SELF-DETERMINATION."

Obviously George couldn't possibly have foregone a Kwaanza message. </sarcasm>