I am an extremely angry 55 year old white man. I hesitate to even speculate as to what my temperament would be if I was black. Has anger been so stigmatized that we are to sit back and politely say, “ah, hang on a bit, that’s not quite kosher”, rather than cry out against injustice and corruption with all of our heart and soul. Shall we all just sit back and become cogs in the wheels of a system where the gap between the rich an poor is ever widening, where the opportunities of equal education are still over the horizon, and our civil liberties are more under attack all the time?
Is it wrong to be outraged at the reprehensible and even criminal
treatment the victims of Hurricane Katrina received, and continue to be
subjected to? Is it wrong to be incensed that close to 4,000 of our
young men and women, as well as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, have
been killed in a senseless war, entered into with lies as the rational?
Is it wrong to be infuriated that our government and the major
corporations are not taking the issue of climate change seriously
enough? I could go on, but I’ll skip straight to the point. Very few
politicians will stick their neck out unless we do it first. We must
serve notice that the time for change is now. Just as in the days of the
Civil Rights Movement, it was the action by the people in the streets
that gave the politicians the courage, or cover, to act and legislate
the needed changes. We elect politicians to represent us. None of them are
perfect so we must elect the ones that we feel we will have the best
chance of influencing once they get into office.
It is time we turn the system on it’s head. Democracy requires
participation. Nothing that matters comes without a struggle. Action in
cyberspace alone won’t do it. Physical participation will be needed as
well. We have to wake up as a society. What is going on is no joke, and
we may very well need to get into peoples faces. The ‘BIG BOYS’ have a
lot invested in the status quo, and change won’t come easy.
To me, anger, is the big difference between MLK and Obama. MLK looked past his anger. He stood in front of his anger. He looked in between his anger. He stood in his anger and let it burn him until his ego was ashen.He transcended his anger. Which is very , very, very difficult. It’s a monumental colossal achievement. MLK wasn’t trying to be black. MLK wasn’t “Trying” to be anything. He was and is.
In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqLvzFv5Q14&feature=related
Obama, trying to be black????
hmm?
My current stance is undecided, by the way.
I have no way of backing the ‘facts’ of either stance personally.
This email is circulating through the right….
Who is Barack Obama?
Fact check below…
Potential U.S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama, was
born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black
MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white
ATHIEST from Wichita, Kansas.
Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was
two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya.
His
mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from
Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to
Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also
spent two years in a Catholic school.
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He
is quick to point out that, “He was once a Muslim, but that he also
attended Catholic school.”
Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that
Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this
influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama
returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any
direct influence over his son’s education.
Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham,
introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi
school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is
followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against
the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN
when seeking Major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein
Obama hasm joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to
downplay his Muslim background.
ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT
use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.
Let us all remain alert concerning Obama’s expected presidential
candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US
from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level
–
through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!
All false according to this fact check below.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
Whatever the facts are I’m sure he’ll be vetted if he goes much further.
Just for the record, I said nothing about Obama being an angry black man. In fact within the context of how the term is being used by J.W., Barack Obama is in no way, shape or form an angry black man. In case it was missed, one of the points of my post was to de-stigmatize the phrase. Historically that phrase is loaded with racist undertones. Speaking of undertones the insinuation that Obama is ‘trying’ to be black, speaks volumes.
If you read insinuations and undertones into words, it’s just speaking volumes of your own projection. How could it be otherwise.
Pretty broad statement. “In fact within the context of how the term is being used by J.W., Barack Obama is in no way, shape or form an angry black man.”
If you feel angry you can cope by making sure to vote, using some herbal transafixion and go surfing as much as possible. I am “old” too but let us be thankfull that we had it when it was “good.”
http://www.presidentpolls2008.com/primary-election-poll-results/florida-democratic-republican-polls.html
Florida is deal breaker
Ohio too. Love your blog
http://www.presidentpolls2008.com/primary-election-poll-results/ohio-democratic-republican-polls.html
how shall insinuations and undertones be received? surely there is something readable within them, and not just our (the reader’s) own emotion.
the whole ‘blackness’ thing needs to be dropped. it’s meaningless. dude’s as much white as he is black. let’s compromise and leave it at angry human being, or angry homosapien.
give obama some time. perhaps he’ll transcend this (supposed) anger. like you said, MLK obviously did at one point. then again, look where that left him.
how shall insinuations and undertones be received? surely there is something readable within them, and not just our (the reader’s) own emotion? Huh?
insinuations and undertones are nothing but projections. Words are words.
give obama some time. perhaps he’ll transcend this (supposed) anger. like you said, MLK obviously did at one point. then again, look where that left him. Huh? what does that mean?
apparently clarity alludes me.
well, i’ll ask again.. where did he end up?
his star burned a little too bright and he was dealt with.
Fuck you ass hole
Thats not all that alludes you fellar
can’t really figure out what’s going on here, but I just got back from seeing Mavis Staples…so I’m good.
i’m very sorry annette. my cynicism and sarcasm i’m afraid may have been taken the wrong way. i in no way meant to refer to MLK’s death as a positive thing. quite the opposite. sorry for any offense.
bb, do enlighten me (again sarcasm).
and ian, you lucky bastard.
People are tribal,I’m voting for the whitest, most conservative,Romney.
To bring this to a civil close: J.W. I was a bit abrupt and didn’t fully explain my ‘undertones’ comment. It was not my intention to assail your character, and I apologize that it came out that way. The point is that the discussion of race relations is filled with ‘loaded language’ ripe for misinterpretation on all sides, and this is something we all need to be aware of. As for any philosophical discussion on anger, I will just have to leave it with; anger in and of itself is not an inherently bad thing. When properly managed and channeled it can be a wonderful fuel for getting important things done. We all need a jump start every now and again. Take care and let’s elect some good people and get the show on the road.
anger, n. 1. a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong.
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.
–James Thurber
Peace,
JW