Martin Luther King Jr. Day

To Jason and Earle, who I'm consistently involved in fantasy basketball leagues with, I apologize that you have to read this two years in a row. Now that I have a blog, I believe this is the more appropriate place for this note. I did not want Martin Luther King Day to go by without attempting to add some perspective. I was born in L.A. in 1971, in a multi-cultural community. I've been fortunate enough not to see racism. Oh, sure I've seen dummies who called people of different races bad names; and I've seen older women clutch their purse tighter around minority young men; and I've seen people stereotype different races. To me, these are examples of a category lighter than racism - ignorance or personal prejudice. But what I would consider "REAL RACISM" or institutional racism as Stokley Carmichael defines as the organizational structure excluding of minorities (specifically blacks), I have never seen.
So Helen, my now 7 yr old was in kindergarten last year, and was being taught about Martin Luther King in school and I was concerned exactly what message would be taught. So, as a parent I am constantly trying to gently communicate to the girls the things that they may not be ready for. Before this school lesson, Helen wasn't aware what a black person was. I recall a situation when she told me to "Look at that black guy". I would look over only to find a white guy in black clothes. She has friends of different races, but the issue of the color of their skin has never been a question in her mind. It was of no significance to her, as it shouldn't be. I certainly did not want the school to start teaching her the opposite of her own true and decent experience, I did not want them teaching her that race SHOULD BE of great focus. To me, creating this distinction (or segregation) in my girl's mind at her age can only be a negative thing. So, I decided to read up a little bit on Martin Luther King to see if I could take some truth right from the doctor's mouth into my girls' ears in a way that they can understand it constructively.

Some things that struck me tremendously, were there was not very much that I could directly communicate to my 6 year old (at that time) for two major reasons. 1. King's arguments were political about how the government needs to change. This is a concept that is over the head of my very intelligent youngin. 2. The reason I wrote this piece, was that it is just shocking how bad racial oppression was just 45 short years ago. This is stuff that happened in our parents lifetime. I'm only 8 year short of 45!! It's not so long ago that the situation in this country was so absolutely disgraceful with respect to black people. The degree of this disgrace, I can not yet communicate to my developing daughter and stunt her developing spirit by telling her the country I love so much and uplift every time I get a chance acted so evilly towards decent people for no good reason.

I was most moved by King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". Here's an excerpt from it to spell out how much evil America allowed, and why King DEMANDED change from this government and its blatant hypocrysy towards the Declaration of Independence principal stating that "All Men are Created Equal":

"We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill -your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."

Can you imagine such treatment just 45 years ago? I hope that this information can cause us all to take a moment, bow our heads and thank the Almighty God that this great man was willing to answer God's call to stand boldly, and give his life, for the Freedom that America holds as it's ideal, at such a time when his words could be heard loudly. At such a time, when he could change the hearts of men.

Now as we are on the doorstep of a new first for black Americans, Monday will serve as a reminder of a great man and why we celebrate him.

The Obama Presidency - The Bad and The Ugly

In keeping with the Civil Conservative two-part series on the Obama Presidency and what it means for America, this post will outline the negative side of his election and administration. May I suggest and remind any liberals who are reading this post who might be sensitive to criticism of Obama, especially before he even gets into office, to view the post entitled "The Obama Presidency - The Good". Hopefully, consideration of both posts would provide a comprehensive perspective on my positions, and therefore allowing both sides to be heard more clearly.

Before any discussion of what impact an Obama Presidency would have on three major issues, a huge factor that must be discussed and plays a role in every issue - Barack is an unknown quantity. While 53% were inspired to vote for him, most are not clear exactly where he stands on the issues (of course other than "change"), even two months after being elected. I do understand that all politicians make conflicting statements in attempts to be all things to all people. This is a terrible thing in itself, when the pursuit should be the clarity of ideas not the confusion of ideas. Unfortunately, we allow and even expect our politicians to send different messages to different groups in order to get elected. However, their record on big issues can provide insight to their true beliefs; those same beliefs they spend a good amount of time attempting to make cloudy. Very often, the decisions made at a time when a person is not campaigning, reveal more about a candidate than campaign promises. Sadly this is the state of politics, especially when voters are disinterested.

To compound this problem, Barack Obama is set apart from most politicians in that he does not have much of a record to look back on in order to gain a clear view of how he would govern. Since he 1. speaks as artfully as any politician's ever had evading stands that could be limiting his appeal, 2. has been a US Senator for only 2 years before running for President and 3. had opted not to be put on record by voting 'present' on many controversial votes while in the Illinois state senate. These three points disallow us from having a good understand where he stands. So, with each issue I layout, please keep in mind that he is a wild card on each one, which can be a cause for great uncomfort to all.

I will make only a few short points on three issues that could make his an unsuccessful presidency. Other than the issue of Innocent Life which is always extremely important and of which he has an abismal record, the three issues that are most timely are foreign policy, the economy, and energy policy, which I believe he has shown at best dangerous ignorance, at worst a dangerous ideology.

Obama's foreign policy has not been very well explained other we should to act in a way that other countries will not resent us. He first obtained national attention from the anti-war American Left in 2002, while a member of the Illinois senate, by opposing the effort to go to war with Iraq. I do wish to state I find this a very fine position to take, if you believe the evidence doesn't justify such a risk. However, many of those who were in a position of responsibility and better information in the United States Senate on both sides of the isle, including such prominant Democrats such as Hillary, Biden, Kerry and Edwards found Obama's viewpoint a position too risky to vote for. On top of this decision, when the war was not progressing well, he called for a 16 month time table for withdrawl. As we know now, if this would have been acted on when he called for it, the world would be a much more dangerous place, and we wouldn't be at the doorstep of relative peace in Iraq. While this position of his made for a better run to the presidency by exciting the Left and the youth, it reveals him as a bit more careless and naive in terms of how to address the world.

In addition, he has made uninformed and downright irresponsible positions on our relationship with rogue countries ("I would"), and seemed completely uninformed on the Georgia Russia conflict, as he held both the victim and aggressor as equally blame worthy, looking for both sides to stop fighting. Sadly, attempts to have other countries view us as fair make likely expose the country to danger. In fact, his positions have been so dangerously naive, his VP and Secretary of State ("I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002,") selections have felt it important to call him on the carpet in most serious ways.

During the primaries, he hasn't offered any compelling insight on the economy. Frankly, he is often too busy discussing what the government can do for you, rather than how the private sector can do for you. This leads to the charge of Socialism. Where one draws the line of socialism in this day and age is debatable. What can be said is that his commitment towards Global Warming, a type of Universal Health Care, and increasing taxes on the richest 1% (or put another way, the most productive 1%) compounded by having a very strong Democratic congress, will create very large obstacles for the free market's attempt to bring this country back to prosperity. Keep in mind: the government does not generate any wealth, private business give people jobs through innovation within the rules the government makes. Could the rules that an Obama administration create make innovation more difficult?

I had planned to issue a blog solely about the third issue, energy. Hopefully this daddy of three will have time to publish that piece, so I will keep this point brief. This is an extremely important small window of time in history when gas prices are cheap. Once the world recession recovers, those prices will be a distant memory and we will see $4 a gallon again, even worse. So we have a little breathing room to focus on the solution. Obviously, the situation cannot be fixed within the next year, however a foundation can be laid for weening us off the oil of volatile nations while also doing all things necessary to get our economy back to its typical world-leading strength. There is NO ONE who believes that we can have a successful economy when the only energy we use is wind, solar and currently undeveloped clean coal energy, yet this is what Obama is pushing for. He has often portrayed "Big Oil" as an enemy to the US and for the most part has disagreed with create more of our own oil, talked of the coal industry going out of business, and has stated that nuclear is not a viably safe option. With these positions, Obama has revealed that being Green nation is more important than being prosperous nation.

This tri-fecta of ignorance will likely dog Obama's presidency, and could put us in a worse place than we are today. In light of these points, I think it confused and unfair to compare Barack to Lincoln & FDR, it appears he is more similar to Carter. But I will keep an open mind. Perhaps that unknown factor I spoke of earlier could mean he'll abandon his promises on these issues once he has responsibility on his shoulders.