Everything has fallen apart — all his dreams, all his plans. He doesn’t have a job, and he’s three months behind on his bills, and he’s afraid of losing his house, and he can’t find any work, and he doesn’t feel like a man anymore, a real man, the guy who used to walk around with a couple hundred in his wallet, just in case.
He hates asking for help — whether it’s the government or relatives or anyone else — and has sold off most of his possessions. The 55-year-old welder can’t support his family and can’t imagine the future. He doesn’t have a pension and his savings have evaporated. When he thinks about everything, he sees only one way out.
“I think about suicide a lot,” he says.
More here.Obama’s chosen a novel strategy to deal with the media furor over his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. But if he’s not able to somehow get families like the one above to see beyond the soundbites, none of this will matter. For what it is worth I don’t think he has it in him. The model of post-racial politics he is pushing simply does not have enough progressive heft to it for him to make the types of innovative leaps required to bring to life a new conception of American citizenship. It’s too bad, because as Craig Nulan notes, it isn’t as if there aren’t other models:
Barack should’ve spelled out his moral propriety rooted in latter day MLK exegesis and put his membership in Trinity in that context. Should’ve done it up front, should’ve had that entire lexicon of blocks, strikes, kicks, and grapples at his ready disposal…
There’s a cat named MC over at the Protein Wisdom Pub who is investigating Obama’s connection to Liberation Theology. MC is a skeptic, but is at least talking about the core philosophical issues.
Doc the family you mention is just the tip of a iceberg,as the big three start replacing workers with low paying jobs ;we will start seeing the eroding of the middle class(industrial base)and once the finance markets correct from the robber barons,skin color will not matter.
damn near makes me nostalgic for the halcyon days of putting a little writing on the wall at afrofuturism…., the shitstorm has only just begun – and to your point – Obamamandius hain’t said a thing yet addressing the shape of what’s headed this way.
It is a shame for that Florida and Michigan have been treated differently from the rest of the voters in other states without having a broad choice of all nominees on the ticket as reflected in all of the states in the USA.
Why were the rules changed? Well your guess is as good as mine. The question is can these states be treated with disrespect by a few individuals to the detriment of the greater majority and against the good wishes of the electorate? America decide. Let the peple speak. Let the people vote for the candidate of their choice. Errol Smythe
speaking as a michigan ex-patriate i feel you. but the rules weren’t changed. the florida and michigan state party leaders understood what the potential punishment would be if they tried to go around the process.
If you’re sick and tired of hearing what Hillary and Bill Clinton think about Black people and what we can accomplish, please help us engage in some push-back by signing this online petition to the DNC and the super-delegates:
“The signatories to this statement urge that Senator Hillary Clinton must concede defeat in her quest for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and must support the Democratic ticket. ”
http://www.petitiononline.com/ACUDP2/petition.html
Thanks for your collaboration with the Afrosphere Action Coalition.
Baraka’s City of Brotherly Love….,
so… as an Obama “skeptic”, what did you think of yesterday’s speech?
Craig Nulan, Temple3 (i THINK), and a couple of others (including me) noted what the content of this speech SHOULD be.
Of that erstwhile group, me and T3 were probably the only ones who doubted whether he actually WOULD.
This is the best campaign speech delivered in the modern era.
Olympic 2008 looks like there may be a gathering storm of Tibetan politics over it.Some people just want to play sports whereas others want to hammer away what they consider is an important point of view that should be brought into the international arena of the human rights forum.
Election 2008 is looking okay and hopefully no dark clouds of serious or not so serious or questionnable mud slinging and slinging back mud politics will detract the main focus of the election which is to choose the people’s constitutional choice of a leader that will be the next President of the USA. God bless America and God bless the people of America.
As the Election 2008 train picks up momentum and picks up delegates and superdelegates the world watches with interest the unfolding side line issues of soap opera politics as the dirty tricks mud politics machine kicks into high gear. Pop corn fanatics stay glued on their benches and their sofas and their seats to watch Election 2008 feedback and google you tube to find out the latest video highlights of Election Soap Opera. Viva America. Long Live America.God Bless America. Errol Smythe.
The DNC needs to apologise to the good people of America especially Florida and Michigan for having as one would say messed up big time.
The good news is not too late to fix up past mistakes and go on National TV and say sorry for this mess up that they authored and then they if it is the honourable thing to do , they should all resign with humility ASAP.
An emergency meeting can be called to vote a new DNC BOARD to pilot the Democratic party that can excercise due care to the American Constitutional election process without putting the Democratic Party into a needless tail spin because of what would appear to be petty in house fighting .
Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton may split the expenses to fund a proper constitutional vote in Florida and Michigan. Their small change from their campaign funds won’t even feel the pinch.
Yes it’s time to put their money where their mouth is and stand on principles to let the people of Florida and Michigan vote and choose a democratic leader that may well be the next Democratic Presidential Nominee with a clear constitutional mandate from the people of America .Errol Smythe.
The grapevine hotpress states that bloggers are debate blogging chatting and leaving cookie rails on the www trying to promote the joint ticket idea floated on newsclips here and there.Sad thing is who is going to take second place when both want first place? I think that although the idea may have merit it is unworkable because the second place job appears to be a thorny issue that got it’s own pricks from so called POLI -TRICKS.So it looks like democracy prevails and let the people choose. Oh yeah, when are Florida and Michigan going to vote? Errol Smythe.
Maybe someone should ask Americans what they want to see on Election 2008 News instead of getting a onesided view that tends to pull some candidates down so that one or two other candidates more acceptable to a certain group of Kingmakers are displayed more favourably to the detriment of others .
What happened to fair and balanced news coverage? This freedom of the press is a good thing provided it is responsible jornalism.
Long live the free press and may the muzzled press be set free!!!!.Errol Smythe.