Tha Artivist Writes: (This is part two of a conversation I had concerning Barack Obama with my Beltway Friends...To read part one click here)
Dear Fam,
Dear Fam,
I thank you for the constructive feedback as well as for allowing me to contribute to this conversation…
Sis. Crutch keep on raising those hard questions...I love your spirit...
I wanted to provide yall with a great article that was critical of Barack Obama by Dr. Lamont Hill of Temple University…I thought what he said was well thought out and written:
Once again after the results of Super Tuesday I stand proud of voting for one Barack Hussein Obama…
I think we as people do get caught up sometimes in the superficial hoopla and the other things that appeal to our senses…
We believe yet we have no faith...We see yet we are blind to the facts…
Presidents to me, rightfully or wrongfully, have always been the conflicting symbols of the era and times in which they serve…You can basically sum up the good and bad of any time or point in American history rightfully or wrongfully through the lenses or prism of a U.S. Presidency…For example, we can easily blame Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair…In hindsight we are able to see the 1929 Stock Market was going to crash anyway and that Hoover, an expert businessman (he was the first Secretary of Commerce), just so happened to be in the Whitehouse at the time…Hoover actually started programs to reinvigorate the economy that his successor FDR gets all the credit for!!! Who do yall think the Hoover Dam is named after???
I have no allusions about the “change” that Barack can actually make…It is going to take a lot hard work on the part of everybody to make America what she needs to be for all people…I feel however that his ascension to the highest possible office in the land is more important in abstract terms than it is concrete (the concrete meaning and significance will come with time)…
He symbolically gives hope to countless other brothers who are currently standing on the street corners with nothing to do or who are doing the wrong things, being processed like cattle in our juvenile halls and in our prison industry complexes and being mis-educated in our public schools…Barack knows how it is to be lost without an identity and to be shuffled through the system…The guy truly did work hard to get into the position he’s currently in and let nobody take that away from him…
His wife Michelle, a sister from a working class family on the Southside of Chicago also gives the same hope to Black women in particular and woman in general of being able to pursue career aspirations outside the success of her man and yet still feel comfortable to support him in his aspirations while at the same time holding her own and raising a beautiful family…It seems in our society Black women and men are usually pitted against each other to what usually amounts to crumbs and not for our common good by the powers that be…We must realize that we all have a common enemy and it isn’t each other…We need to learn how to truly love and support each other…I think by example the Obamas show us Black Love in one of its most beautiful elements…
The reality is Barack Obama is not going to change the Prison Industry Complex situation in 4 years…That took 500 years to build…
When he is sworn in there will still be war, genocide, poverty and hunger and 47 million Americans without healthcare in this rich country…
But we must realize like he said in his victory speech last night and so many others said before him, We Are The Change That We Are Looking For…
JFK once said ‘ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’…
I say ask not what Barack can do for you, but what WE can do for US…
Barack Obama is like the Joel Osteen of politics…He’s a t.v. evangelist with a nice engaging smile who say things that make you feel good about yourself and makes you believe in your unlimited potential…In other words he can point us in the direction to go, but it is up to us to gas the car up, read the map correctly and drive to our destination…
He has inspired me to do what I can with what I have been blessed with…
I hope that you all are inspired to do great things as well regardless of who or what motivates you…
The graveyard is filled with broken dreams and unfulfilled potential…I myself don’t want to be a casualty of that war…
There is too much work to be done for us to really get too bogged down in things that are out of our control…
We are the leaders that we are looking for…I am not going to let Washington or the powers that be dictate my personal moral code…
I just feel blessed to be alive right now in this moment in history…”Positive Change” is in the air, we must not be afraid of the form it takes or the messenger who brings it…Don’t be on the sidelines get in the game…YES WE CAN!!!
Barack Obama and The Hip Hop Effect on American Politics on W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio…This Sunday @ 4PM Central/5PM Eastern…
Also family on another note I would like to invite you all this Sunday to an important discussion on Barack Obama and the influence of Hip Hop on American Politics…
Our Special guests will be journalists Alex Billet and Margaret Kimberly, visual artist Morris Howard and rapper Yung Blac…
I encourage everybody to listen and join in on the conversation…The show will be this Sunday Feb. 10 @ 5pm Eastern/4PM Central…
You can listen to it live by clicking on the following link:
Also the call in number is 646-652-4593
Books yall should read:
These are some of the books I have read in the past four weeks and I think some of you all may enjoy:
Why We Can’t Wait by MLK
Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
My First Days in The Whitehouse by Sen. Huey Long
The Huey P. Newton Reader by Huey Newton (edited by David Hilliard and Donald Weise)
photo by wilma potts
(Ron Herd II also known as R2C2H2 Tha Artivist hosts the internet radio show “Tha Artivist Presents...W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio” at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe . His Website is http://www.weallbe.blogspot.com... He is also the author of James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant http://www.jazzlieutenant.blogspot.com)
Hire Tha Artivist To Speak At Your Event:
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photo by wilma pottsHire Tha Artivist To Speak At Your Event:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/07/hire-r2c2h2-tha-artivist-to-speak-and.html
Also Tha Artivist Is Available As A Political/Educational/Arts Consultant:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/11/tha-artivist-available-as_26.html
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