Dear friends,
The link below is to a piece that was written by a very dear friend of mine who is a longtime and well-traveled journalist out of Philadelphia. His name is Elmer Smith. He writes for and serves on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Daily News. Actually, aside from having a personal relationship with a number of writers from that newspaper, I actually have a long history with the Philadelphia Daily News,
You see, back in the Fall of 1978, a couple of months after Joe Frazier brought me from New England (where I was a top amateur boxer) to Philly, in order to make me a pro fighter, I was in a tv commercial promoting/marketing the Philadelphia Daily News...
It was aired regularly in Philadelphia and the surrounding area television markets, for well over a year. The players in that commercial were myself, Joe, and Willie "the Worm" Monroe. Willie, in fact, a legendary middleweight, was the only fighter to ever really beat Marvin Hagler. Marvin himself was an occasional gym buddy of mine. That is, when the roof of our gym was leaking, or my stablemates and I just needed sparring, Goodie Petronelli, Marvin's lifelong trainer (coach), would let us come down to their gym in Brockton to work out. Our leaky-roof gym, by the way, was shown on television, over a period of several years, at the beginning of each episode of "Spenser for Hire" (which starred the late Robert Urich and our good brother Avery Brooks - who later drew even greater "fame" in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tv series)...
The link below, once again, shows Elm Smith's combined wit and wisdom, that, in my biased opinion, reveal him to be the best male journalist in America (and I am including Paul Krugman of the New York Times in my pool of great ones). In any case, the piece here is about the recent prosecution of Osama bin Laden's former driver. It raises questions about what many Americans may believe, regarding equality, dignity, and justice. And at least to me, it also makes me wonder exactly where the "War on terror" presently is, much less where it is going.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080808_Elmer_Smith__Lovers_of_our_Constitution_can_t_feel_good_about_this_trial.html?adString=pdn.news/local;!category=local;&randomOrd=080808021908
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Sunday, August 17, 2008
Swimming and Golf - are they "Black" enough for you?
Dear friends,
Nothing is more crucial to maintaining systems of oppression and exploitation than stereotypes - i.e., images and symbols - that give one group a feeling of superiority over another. The idea that "Blacks can't swim.", for example, does not even make sense; yet, the phrase is constantly bandied about. We do all have the same type of mental and physical structures, after all. Besides, as Melville J. Herskovits pointed out in his book about the pioneering scientist Franz Boas, "the range of the average of differences within any specific group is greater than the range of the average of differences between all groups"...
Also, in his special book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilheim Reich, the great scientist and clinical psychologist, insisted that the concept of race is only of interest to an "imbecile". He points out the reality of the pejorative moniker just mentioned, by reminding us that the exception in human has been racial circumscription. The rule, on the other hand, has been promiscuous mating among all people. Of course, the activities in which we engage have much more to do with cultural expression, than our biological assets. Yet, those expressions are themselves based upon availability or lack thereof, regarding specific resources. However, if the context of culture is ignored, if not altogether denied, and replaced with the notion of "race" - a totally unscientific concept that is solely based on politics, our view and understanding of reality gets twisted.
At any rate, I brought all of the aforementioned up, because as you will read on the link below, at the end of the article, Cullen Jones, the African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal ten days ago, in an excitedly proud moment and loving lament, tried to connect the absence of African American golf champions with their counterparts in swimming, saying, "Not many black people played golf before Tiger Woods." Actually, that is not true. In fact, there have been many great African American golfers, long before Tiger.
Remember Lee Elder of the Seventies? He played on television, at times. Here in New England there have, for a long time, been great African American golfers. For example, the late Spencer Leek, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won the New England Championship and other tournaments, back in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, all over our country, for, at least, a few generations, there have been and are African American golf champions. Tiger Woods simply represents a long tradition, although he does not recognize himself as either an African American or Black man. As a matter of fact, I have read that he invented a term for self-description with the help of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend. Woods calls himself a "Caublanasian". Wow!
A short note: First of all, as far as I know, neither Tiger's father Earl (an African American who has passed), nor his Mother (Asian), are of immediately European descent. Why did he and Michael Jordan put the "Caucasian" element in (and first, mind you), for his self-description? Secondly, when Herodotus, the man who Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas call "the father of history", was travelling through the Caucasus Mountains, some 2500 years ago, he ran into a people called the Colchians. That meeting, just mentioned, has been documented by many other historians since. Nonetheless, Herodotus described the Colchians as a "dark-skinned, woolly-haired" people. Considering his vigor to disassociate himself with African Americans, it would seem, at least to me, that if Tiger Woods knew more history he would call himself something else. After all, Caucasian, just like "white", is a means-spirited term that people use in order to put themselves in an artificial majority group. Let us face it; people who live in mountains are hardly very much of a part of civilization. That is why they live on the periphery of it (civilization). Imagine, a thousand years from now, instead of describing themselves as Americans, our descendants called themselves Appalachians. What rational person would identify with people, culturally, who deliberately live apart from civilization?
At any rate, a buddy of mine, Corky Siemaszko, who writes for the New York Daily News did a piece, recently, about Cullen Jones who is, as already mentioned, the young African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal, as the third leg of a relay squad, a little over a week ago. Corky raised the issue of stereotypes and, also, wrote to me personally after I sent him a message about the piece (and I am printing this part with his permission), " Thanks Djata. And thanks for the golfing history lesson. I can't say that's my sport. But I'm sure glad swimming is Cullen Jones' sport. When I began writing that story, I remembered hearing theories about Blacks being poor swimmers because of heavier bone density and things like that. I don't know if that's true or not, but it struck me as silly. I always figured a lack of access to quality swimming pools and quality coaching was a more likely reason for the scarcity of competitive African American swimmers. "
Amen to that, Cork. But please do not leave out another obstacle - i.e., discrimination. Cool? After all, if the European American (white) coach does not give an African American swimmer the same attention that he/she gives to others, or the European American person who is timing a race gives an African American competitor a "bad" time so that the aforementioned swimmer will not qualify for higher levels of competition, then that also reveals a much broader issue of why more African Americans are not seen at the higher levels of some sports - and other activities.
At any rate, friends, please join Corky [and myself :-)] in celebrating the achievements of a young man, while he is revealing both his inner and outer powers to the whole world.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2008olympics/2008/08/12/2008-08-12_riding_olympic_wave_bronxborn_swimmer_no.html
Read full post
Nothing is more crucial to maintaining systems of oppression and exploitation than stereotypes - i.e., images and symbols - that give one group a feeling of superiority over another. The idea that "Blacks can't swim.", for example, does not even make sense; yet, the phrase is constantly bandied about. We do all have the same type of mental and physical structures, after all. Besides, as Melville J. Herskovits pointed out in his book about the pioneering scientist Franz Boas, "the range of the average of differences within any specific group is greater than the range of the average of differences between all groups"...
Also, in his special book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilheim Reich, the great scientist and clinical psychologist, insisted that the concept of race is only of interest to an "imbecile". He points out the reality of the pejorative moniker just mentioned, by reminding us that the exception in human has been racial circumscription. The rule, on the other hand, has been promiscuous mating among all people. Of course, the activities in which we engage have much more to do with cultural expression, than our biological assets. Yet, those expressions are themselves based upon availability or lack thereof, regarding specific resources. However, if the context of culture is ignored, if not altogether denied, and replaced with the notion of "race" - a totally unscientific concept that is solely based on politics, our view and understanding of reality gets twisted.
At any rate, I brought all of the aforementioned up, because as you will read on the link below, at the end of the article, Cullen Jones, the African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal ten days ago, in an excitedly proud moment and loving lament, tried to connect the absence of African American golf champions with their counterparts in swimming, saying, "Not many black people played golf before Tiger Woods." Actually, that is not true. In fact, there have been many great African American golfers, long before Tiger.
Remember Lee Elder of the Seventies? He played on television, at times. Here in New England there have, for a long time, been great African American golfers. For example, the late Spencer Leek, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won the New England Championship and other tournaments, back in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, all over our country, for, at least, a few generations, there have been and are African American golf champions. Tiger Woods simply represents a long tradition, although he does not recognize himself as either an African American or Black man. As a matter of fact, I have read that he invented a term for self-description with the help of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend. Woods calls himself a "Caublanasian". Wow!
A short note: First of all, as far as I know, neither Tiger's father Earl (an African American who has passed), nor his Mother (Asian), are of immediately European descent. Why did he and Michael Jordan put the "Caucasian" element in (and first, mind you), for his self-description? Secondly, when Herodotus, the man who Europeans and their offshoots in the Americas call "the father of history", was travelling through the Caucasus Mountains, some 2500 years ago, he ran into a people called the Colchians. That meeting, just mentioned, has been documented by many other historians since. Nonetheless, Herodotus described the Colchians as a "dark-skinned, woolly-haired" people. Considering his vigor to disassociate himself with African Americans, it would seem, at least to me, that if Tiger Woods knew more history he would call himself something else. After all, Caucasian, just like "white", is a means-spirited term that people use in order to put themselves in an artificial majority group. Let us face it; people who live in mountains are hardly very much of a part of civilization. That is why they live on the periphery of it (civilization). Imagine, a thousand years from now, instead of describing themselves as Americans, our descendants called themselves Appalachians. What rational person would identify with people, culturally, who deliberately live apart from civilization?
At any rate, a buddy of mine, Corky Siemaszko, who writes for the New York Daily News did a piece, recently, about Cullen Jones who is, as already mentioned, the young African American swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal, as the third leg of a relay squad, a little over a week ago. Corky raised the issue of stereotypes and, also, wrote to me personally after I sent him a message about the piece (and I am printing this part with his permission), " Thanks Djata. And thanks for the golfing history lesson. I can't say that's my sport. But I'm sure glad swimming is Cullen Jones' sport. When I began writing that story, I remembered hearing theories about Blacks being poor swimmers because of heavier bone density and things like that. I don't know if that's true or not, but it struck me as silly. I always figured a lack of access to quality swimming pools and quality coaching was a more likely reason for the scarcity of competitive African American swimmers. "
Amen to that, Cork. But please do not leave out another obstacle - i.e., discrimination. Cool? After all, if the European American (white) coach does not give an African American swimmer the same attention that he/she gives to others, or the European American person who is timing a race gives an African American competitor a "bad" time so that the aforementioned swimmer will not qualify for higher levels of competition, then that also reveals a much broader issue of why more African Americans are not seen at the higher levels of some sports - and other activities.
At any rate, friends, please join Corky [and myself :-)] in celebrating the achievements of a young man, while he is revealing both his inner and outer powers to the whole world.
Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2008olympics/2008/08/12/2008-08-12_riding_olympic_wave_bronxborn_swimmer_no.html
Read full post
Ike - a real Rapper, a true Player
Dear friends,
Last Sunday, one of the most genuine artists of this era, Isaac Hayes, passed. He was an original who took his craft seriously and had the integrity to expand his genre of music in a way that it would retain the status of being, in his own words, "classical". That is right; Europeans are not the only people to have classical expressions of their sounds. African Americans have classical music of our own, some of which is called "jazz"...
Isaac Hayes followed the flamboyant style of some of his other popular contemporaries. That is, his outlandish dress was nothing new to African American entertainers of that time. Players like Little Richard, James Brown, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone preceded him with their exotic style of stagewear and stage antics. Most of the other Black male performers maintained a more traditional type of dress - suit and tie.
Ike's first album went relatively un-noticed. However, he "broke out" on his second album "Hot Buttered Soul", opening with his cover of Dionne Warwick's gigantic hit "Walk On By", and a smooth but sympathy-garnering narrative covering Glen Campbell's mega-hit, "By the time I get to Phoenix". Although the other two numbers on the album were great too, a stirring ballad and a funk-jam, the previously-mentioned two munbers by themselves made him a star.
At least to me, his real "rap" though was on the Black Moses album, when he did "Good Love", a number that could easily be called the national anthem for "Players", if one is to make a comparison to what was formerly called "rap", but has now deteriorated into what has been rightfully called, by the likes of music giant Wynton Marsalis and noted writer Stanley Crouch, "buffoon minstrelsy". I am speaking, of course, of the so-called "hip-hop" genre of music.
Nevertheless, while his singing and rap were unique, the music was down right funky - and sweet. But Ike came along at a time when there was great social upheaval happening in our country. Unlike many of the other popular African American artists of the time, he did not involve himself with either politically- or socially-conscious lyrics, except, on the record called "Soulsville", of the Shaft movie score, as well as a rather accommodating social piece called "Windows of the World" that he actually recorded on both of his live albums. And so, he was criticized for that by many Black progressives, at that time, myself included. Of course, the music itself in that movie (Shaft) was incomparable, and, in hindsight, very culturally-correct. It cannot be diminished! Additionally, the Shaft score was phenomenal then, and still is, almost four decades later. I believe, in fact, that it will always be.
At any rate, prior to Shaft's huge success, Ike was being marketed as "Black Moses" - vigorously. An album with that title was released. On it, to name a couple of them, he covered Jerry Butler's R & B classic "Never Gonna Give You Up" and Michael Jackson's (then the Jackson Five) equally classic "Never Can Say Goodbye". Of course, great singers/musicians always do great covers, from Smokey Robinson to Nancy Wilson to Diana Ross or Stevie Wonder to Luther Vandross, for example. Moreover, Ike's concept of maintaining a "classical" expression of any music that he played, cover or no cover, reveals a level of personal, artistic integrity that is rarely displayed by the artists of today, especially the younger ones.
Ike's musical style became contagious too. Therefore, a mere two years after the Black Moses album., a brother named Barry White came onto the music scene, [in a huge way (pun intended :-)]. Barry's voice was deeper than Ike's and he "rapped" more frequently, using a sexy tone that made his female listeners swoon and his male listeners plagiarize. As a matter of fact, to this, any brothers who are World War II baby boomers will testify. For it was not uncommon to hear a cat say to his buddies, "I'm gonna put some Barry White on that woman". Of course, that meant that, whether calling her on the phone or seeing her in person, the fellow was going to playfully imitate White's deep voice and smooth talk to the woman or girl.
To be sure, that created a big smile on the face of any woman or girl who had the pleasure of being approached that way. Anyhow, Barry's songs were accompanied with incredible orchestral arrangements that echoed Hayes' own orchestral offerings, in their magnificence. Moreover, it is an accepted fact that those sounds, of both Ike and Barry, helped to bring in the "disco" era. By the way, even more so than Isaac Hayes, Barry White stayed away from political or even social views in his lyrics, completely. His stuff was about personal, erotic relationships only.
Finally, Isaac Hayes' music career seemed to just disappear, as the Seventies wore on. He reappeared as an actor and radio show host, in the Eighties. He was a different man though. He was no longer Black Moses. Rather, he was just a brother "doin' his thing", so to speak. He co-starred in Keenan Ivory Wayans' classic movie, "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka", a spoof of what had been called "blaxploitation" films of the Seventies. That was a surprise, because, again, Ike had normally stayed away from being involved with political affairs - at least publicly.
Nevertheless, he later took some other movie roles and got a regular spot as the voice of a cartoon character on cable television. Yet, it had just been announced, recently, that he had planned to resume his music career next year, even though he had unsuccessfully released "comeback" albums in both the Eighties as well as the Nineties (and one in 2003). The sad part is: Unless he already recorded some of it, we will never have any idea of exactly what he was going to share. But his music of the past, mid - Seventies and before, is unforgettable. and we will not only always have that, but it (said great music) will surely continue to inspire other musicians for a long time. For what more can we ask?
A link to Ike's discography appears below.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Hayes,_Isaac/Discography/Index/P83140/1/
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Obama is "heckled" about the Pledge of Allegiance
Dear friends,
Yesterday (8/5/08), in Berea, Ohio, Senator Barack Obama was skillfully set up by a terrorist who identified himself as "John Q. Public". The man displayed "press credentials" and appeared to be taking photographs throughout Senator Obama's "town hall" meeting...
This is going to be a tactic from now until November. Mr. Obama should "nip it in the bud", as it were, before it becomes a distraction like the ones that Hillary Clinton used during the primaries to manipulate voters (e.g., the "bitter remark" and Michelle's "I'm proud of my country for the first time"). If the "heckler" was so concerned about liberty, then why did he use phony press credentials? It was a blatant act of terrorism.
Additionally, of the thousands of "hit and run" drivers in this country, who cumulatively kill thousands of innocent people each year, how many have "pledged allegiance"? How many of the thieves of today have pledged allegiance? How many politicians who have been indicted for crimes while still in office pledge allegiance? How many pedophiles have pledged allegiance? What does pledging allegiance mean, if you are treating your neighbor badly? Have many executives of US "multinational" corporations who outsource work away from American workers pledge allegiance? Do the executives of the oil companies pledge allegiance? Do the actuaries of the insurance companies pledge allegiance? Do the executives of the "health care" conglomorates pledge allegiance? How about the executives who control the food and automobile industries? Do they pledge allegiance? And, if so, to whom - or what? Moreover, who is under the illusion that pledging allegiance makes you a good citizen? There is absolutely no connection between pledging allegiance and/or saluting the American flag, or wearing a flag pin on one's lapel - and being patriotic. Duh?
Anyone can say that he or she believes in whatever he or she chooses, but how does that reflect his or her behavior? How many mass murderers, conveniently, believe in "God", once they are on death row? How many citizens who "pledge allegiance" either have wronged or are still wronging African American, Asian, and Latino men and ALL women, much less Early American Native peoples?
As well, it is both a false abstraction and a distraction, if not deceitful, to suggest that Senator Obama has no "allegiance" to our country and is, therefore, unpatriotic, for not leading a town hall meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, when the person who was inquiring did not even have the integrity and decency to reveal his true identity. Besides, if the Pledge of Allegiance, in and of itself, is such a sign of conformity to societal values, it sure does not seem to help much.
Below is a link to the Associated Press report about the incident. I have been to town hall meetings before, right here in New England where they began, and, although maybe they do - it has been a long time for me - I do not recall ever hearing anyone leading with the Pledge of Allegiance, in order to open such a forum.
"Dare to struggle - dare to win!" - Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_HECKLER?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME
Read full post
Yesterday (8/5/08), in Berea, Ohio, Senator Barack Obama was skillfully set up by a terrorist who identified himself as "John Q. Public". The man displayed "press credentials" and appeared to be taking photographs throughout Senator Obama's "town hall" meeting...
This is going to be a tactic from now until November. Mr. Obama should "nip it in the bud", as it were, before it becomes a distraction like the ones that Hillary Clinton used during the primaries to manipulate voters (e.g., the "bitter remark" and Michelle's "I'm proud of my country for the first time"). If the "heckler" was so concerned about liberty, then why did he use phony press credentials? It was a blatant act of terrorism.
Additionally, of the thousands of "hit and run" drivers in this country, who cumulatively kill thousands of innocent people each year, how many have "pledged allegiance"? How many of the thieves of today have pledged allegiance? How many politicians who have been indicted for crimes while still in office pledge allegiance? How many pedophiles have pledged allegiance? What does pledging allegiance mean, if you are treating your neighbor badly? Have many executives of US "multinational" corporations who outsource work away from American workers pledge allegiance? Do the executives of the oil companies pledge allegiance? Do the actuaries of the insurance companies pledge allegiance? Do the executives of the "health care" conglomorates pledge allegiance? How about the executives who control the food and automobile industries? Do they pledge allegiance? And, if so, to whom - or what? Moreover, who is under the illusion that pledging allegiance makes you a good citizen? There is absolutely no connection between pledging allegiance and/or saluting the American flag, or wearing a flag pin on one's lapel - and being patriotic. Duh?
Anyone can say that he or she believes in whatever he or she chooses, but how does that reflect his or her behavior? How many mass murderers, conveniently, believe in "God", once they are on death row? How many citizens who "pledge allegiance" either have wronged or are still wronging African American, Asian, and Latino men and ALL women, much less Early American Native peoples?
As well, it is both a false abstraction and a distraction, if not deceitful, to suggest that Senator Obama has no "allegiance" to our country and is, therefore, unpatriotic, for not leading a town hall meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, when the person who was inquiring did not even have the integrity and decency to reveal his true identity. Besides, if the Pledge of Allegiance, in and of itself, is such a sign of conformity to societal values, it sure does not seem to help much.
Below is a link to the Associated Press report about the incident. I have been to town hall meetings before, right here in New England where they began, and, although maybe they do - it has been a long time for me - I do not recall ever hearing anyone leading with the Pledge of Allegiance, in order to open such a forum.
"Dare to struggle - dare to win!" - Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_HECKLER?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME
Read full post
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Them Ole Blues.and All That Jazz...
"Where does
this music
come from?
Not seeking truth
sure seems wrong.
Where did
this music start at?
Not with some crazy,
stiff cat.
Did it start
with the sax,
or
some other ax?
Or,
was it cow bells
and
sea shells.?
Where did this music come from?" -
"This is That"
lyrics by G. Djata Bumpus
music by Wil "Soye" Lettman
Dear friends,The history of Black music in America is the history of the first secular songs played here. For example, during the War of Independence, basically, all fiddlers who led the troops were Black men...
Lorenzo Johnston Greene further confirmed this assertion in his timeless book, The Negro In Colonial New England, "Zelah, a Negro of Groton, Massachusetts, who later fought in the American Revolution, became famous in his neighborhood as a musician." Greene also refers to Newport Gardner, "...the slave of Caleb Gardner of Newport, Rhode Island, was given music lessons. He soon excelled his teacher and later opened a music school of his own on Pope Street where he taught both Negroes and white persons."
Thje link below points to a tradition that has gone on for centuries. Please enjoy!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92423408&sc=emaf
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Saturday, July 19, 2008
Someone to keep an eye out for this Olympics
Dear friends,
Considering the fact that the Olympic Games, to be held in China, are only a few weeks away, perhaps, it is instructive for us to pay attention to some of our proud and distinguished athletes. Moreover, with all of the talk about "patriotism" this presidential election year, what about cheering for our fellow citizens who work so hard at revealing both their physical and intellectul powers to us through sports? At the link below, legendary LA Times columnist Sandy Banks makes us aware of an athlete, who represents our nation, to whom we should pay close attention...
Cheers!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks19-2008jul19,0,5611847.column
Read full post
Considering the fact that the Olympic Games, to be held in China, are only a few weeks away, perhaps, it is instructive for us to pay attention to some of our proud and distinguished athletes. Moreover, with all of the talk about "patriotism" this presidential election year, what about cheering for our fellow citizens who work so hard at revealing both their physical and intellectul powers to us through sports? At the link below, legendary LA Times columnist Sandy Banks makes us aware of an athlete, who represents our nation, to whom we should pay close attention...
Cheers!!!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks19-2008jul19,0,5611847.column
Read full post
Pledging Allegiance to Immigrants' Citizenry
Dear friends,
The link below is to a piece by a young man, Damon Williams, who I hold in deep regard. In my own biased opinion, he is a rising star in journalism. That is quite refreshing, because, except for female African American journalists/writers (some of whom have been featured on this blog), at least to me, especially since the Eighties, the overwhelming proponderance of their male countrerparts, although the latter often have had a longer history of being employed in the field of journalism, spend far too much of their time being in deference to both the views and wishes of their publishers and editors, while, simultaneously, engaging in intellectual acrobatics, to even recognize truth, much less share it with others. And there is such a thing (i.e., truth). After all, as myself and others have been insisting for decades, "If there is no such a thing as truth, then why do so many benefit by hiding it?"...
To be sure, although capitalism has contributed tremendously to our country's development in many areas, in its present "advanced" state, our economic system is having trouble insuring that all of our fellow citizens even have food and housing. That is, whereas USA capitalism has created great amounts of food and, thus, a large population, it has not been able to provide sufficient resources for a good many of its citizens.
Some of our fellows attribute the lack of the aforementioned resources of food, and so forth, for all of our citizenry to "immigrants" acquiring too great a share of the nation's income. However, the facts prove differently. The truth is: Most low income people in this country are European Americans or so-called “whites”; therefore, it is they (said EuropeanAmericans) who receive the largest share of benefits from government programs. Consequently, the argument that Caribbeans, Latinos, Asians, Africans, or other non-European groups are taking anything away from "native" citizens is a complete fabrication, if not s lie.
At any rate, this particular message that Damon is sharing is quite personal. It is, in fact, about his wife, Francina, gaining full American citizenship. Because she comes from Barbados, the same island from which, almost a century ago, my maternal grandparents (the only grandparents who I ever knew) emigrated to the US as adults (they both lived well into their Nineties), I have some personal reasons myself for sharing this piece with you.
Of course, whenever people leave their homes of origin there are always - or, at least, usually - feelings of guilt. Many people, like my grandparents, never return to their former homelands -not even to visit. And so begins the process of self-alienation that is so ingrained in citizens of this largely immigrant - whether voluntary or forced, "advanced" nation.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080719_New_American__A_woman_s_path_to_citizenship.html?adString=pdn.news/local;!category=local;&randomOrd=071908071819
Read full post
The link below is to a piece by a young man, Damon Williams, who I hold in deep regard. In my own biased opinion, he is a rising star in journalism. That is quite refreshing, because, except for female African American journalists/writers (some of whom have been featured on this blog), at least to me, especially since the Eighties, the overwhelming proponderance of their male countrerparts, although the latter often have had a longer history of being employed in the field of journalism, spend far too much of their time being in deference to both the views and wishes of their publishers and editors, while, simultaneously, engaging in intellectual acrobatics, to even recognize truth, much less share it with others. And there is such a thing (i.e., truth). After all, as myself and others have been insisting for decades, "If there is no such a thing as truth, then why do so many benefit by hiding it?"...
To be sure, although capitalism has contributed tremendously to our country's development in many areas, in its present "advanced" state, our economic system is having trouble insuring that all of our fellow citizens even have food and housing. That is, whereas USA capitalism has created great amounts of food and, thus, a large population, it has not been able to provide sufficient resources for a good many of its citizens.
Some of our fellows attribute the lack of the aforementioned resources of food, and so forth, for all of our citizenry to "immigrants" acquiring too great a share of the nation's income. However, the facts prove differently. The truth is: Most low income people in this country are European Americans or so-called “whites”; therefore, it is they (said EuropeanAmericans) who receive the largest share of benefits from government programs. Consequently, the argument that Caribbeans, Latinos, Asians, Africans, or other non-European groups are taking anything away from "native" citizens is a complete fabrication, if not s lie.
At any rate, this particular message that Damon is sharing is quite personal. It is, in fact, about his wife, Francina, gaining full American citizenship. Because she comes from Barbados, the same island from which, almost a century ago, my maternal grandparents (the only grandparents who I ever knew) emigrated to the US as adults (they both lived well into their Nineties), I have some personal reasons myself for sharing this piece with you.
Of course, whenever people leave their homes of origin there are always - or, at least, usually - feelings of guilt. Many people, like my grandparents, never return to their former homelands -not even to visit. And so begins the process of self-alienation that is so ingrained in citizens of this largely immigrant - whether voluntary or forced, "advanced" nation.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080719_New_American__A_woman_s_path_to_citizenship.html?adString=pdn.news/local;!category=local;&randomOrd=071908071819
Read full post
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
About what is Senator Obama's plan for leaving Iraq?
Dear friends,
Yesterday (7/14) the New York Times had an Op-ed by Senator Barack Obama where he made his case for the United States military leaving Iraq. First of all, personally, I am still not sure of what the purpose of the US being there is. Have thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people, let alone the thousands more crippled on both sides, been used as a means to an end to enhance power and profits for various governments and religious institutions (like the Muslim sects at war there)? How is any war going to benefit either American or Iraqi citizens, much less the rest of the world? And what will the war with Afghanistan - or, if included, Iran - do for everyday people here and abroad? Again, if the people are simply being used as means to ends, then it seems, at least to me, that the ends are greater wealth for a few and more power and prestige for institutions like governmental and religious ones - at the expense of people. Please think about it.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Yesterday (7/14) the New York Times had an Op-ed by Senator Barack Obama where he made his case for the United States military leaving Iraq. First of all, personally, I am still not sure of what the purpose of the US being there is. Have thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people, let alone the thousands more crippled on both sides, been used as a means to an end to enhance power and profits for various governments and religious institutions (like the Muslim sects at war there)? How is any war going to benefit either American or Iraqi citizens, much less the rest of the world? And what will the war with Afghanistan - or, if included, Iran - do for everyday people here and abroad? Again, if the people are simply being used as means to ends, then it seems, at least to me, that the ends are greater wealth for a few and more power and prestige for institutions like governmental and religious ones - at the expense of people. Please think about it.
G. Djata Bumpus Read full post
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Is troop withdrawal from Iraq coming?
Dear friends,
Exactly what does troop withdrawal from Iraq mean? While Senator Obama has insisted that he will begin bringing troops home, as soon as he is elected, more or less, Senator McCain has been equally adamant that, at least, "some" troops need to stay in Iraq for years to come. President Bush's position has been the same as McCain's, basically.
Now we hear from the Iraqi government that they want a "timetable" for withdrawal of all "foreign" troops (which includes the US). The initial response from the Bush administration is that they still do not want to be limited by a timetable. So what is happening here? There are several possibilities it seems.
They are: 1) The Iraqis, in cahoots with the Iranians, have their own idea about what to do with all of the oil there, profit-wise. 2) The Bush people (and their business partners) have been assured their "cut" or share of future oil profits and are now willing to bow out. (However, that would seem to be a "shaky" contract in which to enter for US oil people.) 3) The claim of the troop withdrawal by Iraqi leaders proves that the US, particularly the Bush administration, has been right on target about "staying the course". (Of course, if McCain wins the election, that hypothesis would be exposed as a sham, immediately, if the war intensified again.) 5) By not attacking Saudi Arabia after nineteen Saudis flew planes into the country and blew up two of our largest symbols of being the world's only "Superpower", the World Trade Center and Pentagon buildings, and had another jet on its way to blow up the White House, many of the enemies of the United States (which is most of the world), may now be considering the idea of banding together, in order to counteract decades of economic abuse at the hands of US rulers and their allies.
Meanwhile, the government- and corporate-controlled media, along with our politicians, have the people of this country focusing upon "gay marriage", celebrity divorces, the artistic validity of Will Smith's latest movie, and other such important topics.
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Exactly what does troop withdrawal from Iraq mean? While Senator Obama has insisted that he will begin bringing troops home, as soon as he is elected, more or less, Senator McCain has been equally adamant that, at least, "some" troops need to stay in Iraq for years to come. President Bush's position has been the same as McCain's, basically.
Now we hear from the Iraqi government that they want a "timetable" for withdrawal of all "foreign" troops (which includes the US). The initial response from the Bush administration is that they still do not want to be limited by a timetable. So what is happening here? There are several possibilities it seems.
They are: 1) The Iraqis, in cahoots with the Iranians, have their own idea about what to do with all of the oil there, profit-wise. 2) The Bush people (and their business partners) have been assured their "cut" or share of future oil profits and are now willing to bow out. (However, that would seem to be a "shaky" contract in which to enter for US oil people.) 3) The claim of the troop withdrawal by Iraqi leaders proves that the US, particularly the Bush administration, has been right on target about "staying the course". (Of course, if McCain wins the election, that hypothesis would be exposed as a sham, immediately, if the war intensified again.) 5) By not attacking Saudi Arabia after nineteen Saudis flew planes into the country and blew up two of our largest symbols of being the world's only "Superpower", the World Trade Center and Pentagon buildings, and had another jet on its way to blow up the White House, many of the enemies of the United States (which is most of the world), may now be considering the idea of banding together, in order to counteract decades of economic abuse at the hands of US rulers and their allies.
Meanwhile, the government- and corporate-controlled media, along with our politicians, have the people of this country focusing upon "gay marriage", celebrity divorces, the artistic validity of Will Smith's latest movie, and other such important topics.
G. Djata Bumpus
Read full post
Monday, July 7, 2008
Is John McCain a man who believes in Inclusion?
Dear friends,
The link below, written by a longtime estabished and outstanding journalist named George Curry, at least to me, reveals the presumed Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, to be "worse than weak", regarding his vision of the USA as an inclusive society. Does he even understand what the word "democracy" represents? Moreover, if that is the case, that is, if he does not relate to inclusion, then one may consider wondering about the type of relationships that Senator McCain seeks to have with our fellow citizens of the world, as a whole?
Djata
Read full post
The link below, written by a longtime estabished and outstanding journalist named George Curry, at least to me, reveals the presumed Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, to be "worse than weak", regarding his vision of the USA as an inclusive society. Does he even understand what the word "democracy" represents? Moreover, if that is the case, that is, if he does not relate to inclusion, then one may consider wondering about the type of relationships that Senator McCain seeks to have with our fellow citizens of the world, as a whole?
Djata
When it comes to civil rights, McCain has some explaining to do
Read full post
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The longest walk video
Dear friends,
The link below is a short video recording (about five minutes or less long) that shows a group of our fellow citizens, from all cultural and economic backrounds, led by Early American Natives, who are walking to the nation's capital. They began in California, several months ago, and are anticipating that they will reach their destination by July 11th (2008).
Moreover, in a time when the government- and corporate-controlled mass communications media outlets focus our attention on the alleged differences between the two major political parties, rising gasoline prices, the latest summer movies being released, celebrity births and divorces, mass murderers and rapists, along with poorly-parented, uneducated teenage girls making pacts with each other to get pregnant, we should be assured that, while everything is okay here, there are still those who are truly looking towards the future, concerned about where our current course is taking us. Cheers!
Read full post
The link below is a short video recording (about five minutes or less long) that shows a group of our fellow citizens, from all cultural and economic backrounds, led by Early American Natives, who are walking to the nation's capital. They began in California, several months ago, and are anticipating that they will reach their destination by July 11th (2008).
Moreover, in a time when the government- and corporate-controlled mass communications media outlets focus our attention on the alleged differences between the two major political parties, rising gasoline prices, the latest summer movies being released, celebrity births and divorces, mass murderers and rapists, along with poorly-parented, uneducated teenage girls making pacts with each other to get pregnant, we should be assured that, while everything is okay here, there are still those who are truly looking towards the future, concerned about where our current course is taking us. Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MFeCNu0sLoRead full post
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Frederick Douglass' speech for July 4th, 1852 (an excerpt)
Dear friends,
Considering the time of the year, and considering the fact that for the first time in this country's history, a Black man will be elected as president, it seems, at least to me, that the following July 4th speech (excerpted here) by the great Frederick Douglass, which was actually said to have been done on July 5th, is quite timely, because we should be able to determine whether or not Senator Obama's election will mean that African Americans, who are, by far, the oldest of the large cultural groups (like Irish, Germans, Italians, and Polish) in this country, are truly being seen as "equals" by all other citizens, in the way that we are treated both now and in the future.
G. Djata Bumpus
************************************
Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions? Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful? For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.
The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you, that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation (Babylon) whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin.
Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.
My subject, then, fellow citizens, is "American Slavery". I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing here, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July.
Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity, which is outraged, in the name of liberty, which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery -- the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate - I will not excuse." I will use the severest language I can command, and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother Abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light?
Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slave-holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment.
What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that we are engaged in all the enterprises common to other men -- digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave -- we are called upon to prove that we are men?
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? How should I look today in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do so would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What! Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No - I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may - I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Frederick Douglass - July 4, 1852
Read full post
Considering the time of the year, and considering the fact that for the first time in this country's history, a Black man will be elected as president, it seems, at least to me, that the following July 4th speech (excerpted here) by the great Frederick Douglass, which was actually said to have been done on July 5th, is quite timely, because we should be able to determine whether or not Senator Obama's election will mean that African Americans, who are, by far, the oldest of the large cultural groups (like Irish, Germans, Italians, and Polish) in this country, are truly being seen as "equals" by all other citizens, in the way that we are treated both now and in the future.
G. Djata Bumpus
************************************
Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions? Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful? For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.
The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you, that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation (Babylon) whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin.
Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.
My subject, then, fellow citizens, is "American Slavery". I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing here, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July.
Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity, which is outraged, in the name of liberty, which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery -- the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate - I will not excuse." I will use the severest language I can command, and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother Abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light?
Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slave-holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment.
What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that we are engaged in all the enterprises common to other men -- digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave -- we are called upon to prove that we are men?
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? How should I look today in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do so would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What! Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No - I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may - I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
Frederick Douglass - July 4, 1852
Read full post
Sunday, June 8, 2008
On Senator Obama's "bitter" remark
Dear friends,
The statement that Barack Obama made recently (April 6th) that both Hillary Clinton and the government- and corporate-controlled media are jumping on is actually quite eloquent. He shouldn't have apologized at all, in my opinion. It appears below.
“It’s not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
At least to me, that's pretty powerful (and I'm not one to always feel that way about what Obama says). It may seem a little over the heads of those about who he is talking. Duh? He's not getting their votes anyway. However, it's quite accurate and eloquent. Cheers!
Djata
********************************
D,
I think you hit the nail on the head that he was talking over some people's heads. Only because we're socialized in this country to be so disinclined to try to understand each other or to look with some modicum of compassion at the motivations of those with whom we disagree.
The part that makes me angry is that people like Clinton are cruel enough to use that knowing that people have been dumbed down enough to go for her argument. It's the same with the racism argument over Rev. Wright. She knows better, but her politician mentality outweighs her humanity to the extent that she's willing to argue points that she knows are invalid or argue agianst things that she knows are right, just to make the other guy look bad in the eyes of the "ignorant masses" for whom she is showing utter disdain and contempt. Thanks for sending this.
E Read full post
The statement that Barack Obama made recently (April 6th) that both Hillary Clinton and the government- and corporate-controlled media are jumping on is actually quite eloquent. He shouldn't have apologized at all, in my opinion. It appears below.
“It’s not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
At least to me, that's pretty powerful (and I'm not one to always feel that way about what Obama says). It may seem a little over the heads of those about who he is talking. Duh? He's not getting their votes anyway. However, it's quite accurate and eloquent. Cheers!
Djata
********************************
D,
I think you hit the nail on the head that he was talking over some people's heads. Only because we're socialized in this country to be so disinclined to try to understand each other or to look with some modicum of compassion at the motivations of those with whom we disagree.
The part that makes me angry is that people like Clinton are cruel enough to use that knowing that people have been dumbed down enough to go for her argument. It's the same with the racism argument over Rev. Wright. She knows better, but her politician mentality outweighs her humanity to the extent that she's willing to argue points that she knows are invalid or argue agianst things that she knows are right, just to make the other guy look bad in the eyes of the "ignorant masses" for whom she is showing utter disdain and contempt. Thanks for sending this.
E Read full post
Friday, June 6, 2008
Reverend Wright is Pastor Wrong
Dear friends,
The piece on the link below was scribed by one of Philadelphia's (and the nation's) premier journalists. It was published after the Pennsylvania primary, in April. You will see, however, that the vision of the writer corresponds with what has been happening ever since - and into the upcoming future. Check it out!
Djata
Annette John-Hall: The past and the pastor Philadelphia Inquirer 05/02/2008* Read full post
The piece on the link below was scribed by one of Philadelphia's (and the nation's) premier journalists. It was published after the Pennsylvania primary, in April. You will see, however, that the vision of the writer corresponds with what has been happening ever since - and into the upcoming future. Check it out!
Djata
Annette John-Hall: The past and the pastor Philadelphia Inquirer 05/02/2008* Read full post
Thursday, June 5, 2008
A question regarding Rev. Wright's ranting
Was Reverend Wright working for the Clintons, in order to hurt Senator Obama's chances of winning?
After all, exit polls in Indiana showed that many of the people who voted against Senator Obama used Rev.Wright's grandstanding as an excuse for voting for Hillary Clinton. Moreover, neither Wright nor either of the Clintons have raised the fact that he was, personally, invited by them to the White House, for counseling, when Bill Clinton was going through the Monica Lewinsky problem. Therefore, what was different about Wright then that made Hillary Clinton lambast him and his beliefs, during the nationalized television debate in April? And why did Senator Obama not mention that? He surely knew.
In fact, we also know that, just a few days prior to the debate mentioned above, the Clintons' former pastor was convicted for sexually molesting a seven years-old girl, and sentenced to three years in prison. Why was that not brought up by either candidate or the government- and corporate-controlled media? Read full post
After all, exit polls in Indiana showed that many of the people who voted against Senator Obama used Rev.Wright's grandstanding as an excuse for voting for Hillary Clinton. Moreover, neither Wright nor either of the Clintons have raised the fact that he was, personally, invited by them to the White House, for counseling, when Bill Clinton was going through the Monica Lewinsky problem. Therefore, what was different about Wright then that made Hillary Clinton lambast him and his beliefs, during the nationalized television debate in April? And why did Senator Obama not mention that? He surely knew.
In fact, we also know that, just a few days prior to the debate mentioned above, the Clintons' former pastor was convicted for sexually molesting a seven years-old girl, and sentenced to three years in prison. Why was that not brought up by either candidate or the government- and corporate-controlled media? Read full post
Monday, June 2, 2008
Bruce Springsteen
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rock star Bruce Springsteen endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday, saying “he speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years.”
In a letter addressed to friends and fans posted his Web site, Springsteen said he believes Obama is the best candidate to undo “the terrible damage done over the past eight years.” “He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next president,” the letter said. “He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where ’...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.’ “
The bard of New Jersey is known for his lyrics about the struggles of working-class Americans, particularly in the economically ravaged factory towns of the Northeast. Springsteen and his E Street band were part of the Vote for Change tour, a coalition of musicians opposed to the re-election of President
Bush in 2004. He wrote the anti-war ballad “Devils and Dust” about Iraq.
President Reagan used Springsteen’s then-popular song “Born in the USA” at campaign rallies in 1984 until he was asked by Springsteen, who supported Democrat Walter Mondale, to stop. The song about a Vietnam veteran’s hard times was often misinterpreted as a patriotic call to arms.
Springsteen did not directly mention Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, in his letter, but appeared to take issue with her recent criticisms of comments made by Obama about working-class
voters in small towns in Pennsylvania and controversial statements by his pastor. “Critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships,” Springsteen wrote. “While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the
context and fabric of the man’s life and vision ... often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement
of our environment.”
———
On the Net:
http://brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html Read full post
In a letter addressed to friends and fans posted his Web site, Springsteen said he believes Obama is the best candidate to undo “the terrible damage done over the past eight years.” “He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next president,” the letter said. “He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where ’...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.’ “
The bard of New Jersey is known for his lyrics about the struggles of working-class Americans, particularly in the economically ravaged factory towns of the Northeast. Springsteen and his E Street band were part of the Vote for Change tour, a coalition of musicians opposed to the re-election of President
Bush in 2004. He wrote the anti-war ballad “Devils and Dust” about Iraq.
President Reagan used Springsteen’s then-popular song “Born in the USA” at campaign rallies in 1984 until he was asked by Springsteen, who supported Democrat Walter Mondale, to stop. The song about a Vietnam veteran’s hard times was often misinterpreted as a patriotic call to arms.
Springsteen did not directly mention Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, in his letter, but appeared to take issue with her recent criticisms of comments made by Obama about working-class
voters in small towns in Pennsylvania and controversial statements by his pastor. “Critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships,” Springsteen wrote. “While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the
context and fabric of the man’s life and vision ... often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement
of our environment.”
———
On the Net:
http://brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html Read full post
Michael Moore
My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore
April 21st, 2008
Friends,
I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?
I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic"
next to the candidate's name.
Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.
Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!
This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!
Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.
But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).
There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.
That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.
I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?
I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.
I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.
Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.
Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"
But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.
That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.
Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.
Yours,Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.comhttp://us.mc342.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mmflint@aol.com Read full post
April 21st, 2008
Friends,
I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?
I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic"
next to the candidate's name.
Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.
Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!
This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!
Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.
But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).
There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.
That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.
I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?
I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.
I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.
Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.
Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"
But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.
That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.
Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.
Yours,Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.comhttp://us.mc342.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mmflint@aol.com Read full post
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