Monthly Archives: August 2011

Presidential candidate Herman Cain in Fantasy Land

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When I was a child and Walt Disney’s playground “Disneyland” was young and his television show was in full swing, one of my favorite imaginary destinations was his “Fantasy Land.” It was the place of castles, and fairy godmothers, where childish dreams really came true.

As I grew older and was no longer enchanted by the hope for sugar-plum outcomes to life’s real problems, I also came to realize that Fantasy Land was just an illusion, a fake destination that does not exist in the real world.

I never imagined that grown-ups, even successful looking and sounding adults, could live their waking hours in such a Fantasy Land, or in similar destinations of their own creation. But they most certainly do.

Take African American Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for example. Continue reading →

Pres. Obama: Forgetting the Dream

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Many of the special days in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., have taken on special meaning for all of us. This year, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will be dedicated in Washington on August 28, at which time tens of thousands will gather to celebrate The Life, The Dream, the Legacy of Dr. King.

Of course his birth anniversary is rightly observed as a solemn national holiday.

The dates surrounding his assassination have also become iconic. On April 4, 1967 Dr. King delivered his famous Riverside Church address in New York City, speaking out against the Vietnam War. On April 3, 1968 in Memphis, he delivered the immortal “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” remarks. Continue reading →

The ‘OOWE Syndrome’–Our Own Worst Enemy

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There are hardly any grounds for disputing the fact that Black people in America are surrounded by “natural enemies:” who kidnapped us from Africa; enslaved us for 300 years; who lynched us for another 100 years; and who up until this very moment are fiendishly plotting to foil any advancement for which we might be eligible, to keep us forever on our knees before them. That goes without saying, unless of course you mention Oscar Grant in Oakland, or Amadou Diallo in New York City, or James Craig Anderson, a Black man, who just the other day was beaten by two carloads of White punks yelling “White Power,” before they repeatedly drove over his body in their cars.

But we are reminded by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam for 45 years, that we–Black people in America–are Our Own Worst Enemy. Continue reading →

President Obama (choose) lost? Surrendered? Capitulated?

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It would be hard for me to imagine an explanation in which President Barack Obama gets a good grade for his performance in the debt-ceiling-capitulation, that’s been called a “deal.” There’s no question: the president got snookered by a band of rowdy Congressional freshmen.

Why, I remember the time when first-term members were not even supposed to speak on the House floor until they’d been seasoned enough. Now, these 80 or so Tea Party-afilliated members have re-designed the entire government tapestry.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who was pushed further and further to the right during the weeks of these on-again, off-again White House negotiations by the Tea Party contingent of his Republican Caucus, declared victory. “It isn’t the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town,” Mr. Boehner said on a conference call, according to GOP officials quoted in published reports. He added the agreement was “all spending cuts. The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down.” Continue reading →