Great speech on the American Worker.

I discovered the video on NPR today. It is the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka's Remarks to USW Convention, July 1, 2008. It is one the most powerful things I have ever heard.

These are the things we should be talking about right now and not the negative campaigning that is going. The American people are the subject not the candidates. I wish everyone could see this video and truly understand what this election is all about.

http://www.usw.org/media_center/speeches_interviews?id=0003

America average will not do!

I am going to admit something that would shock some people. I was a lousy high school student. It would be easy for me to blame a great deal of things which contributed to this but it was over 20 years ago and quite frankly those four years were some of the worst of my life. However one semester I managed to get about 2 B’s and 3 C’s. When I came home and declared to my Mother how successful the semester was for me she looked at me and said “ Average is not going to get it in life. “ After several mishaps in life I think I finally get what my Mom was saying, and over the years I wish I had not settled for mediocrity. The truth is when you settle for mediocrity you loose, and take it from me it takes a great deal of time to make up for it .

As a country we cannot settle for mediocrity, it is what we have done for the past eight years and all you have to do is look at the unsuccessful wars, stock market and unemployment to know it will take about two Presidents(each serving eight years) to get us out of this mess. We need people in the Oval office who will not just relate to us but people who are capable of doing the job. America, average and just getting by and low expectations will not do. If we continue in the path future generations will look at us and always wonder why we settled.

When did being an educated person become a bad thing!

I am posting the comments by Roland Martin about the VP debate. My question is when did being an educated person become a bad thing? It seems to me it is only a bad thing when it comes to a black person. What kind of message is this sending our children?

Do not panic we have been here before.

For the past few days I have been quiet about the financial mess in the county and if McCain and Obama should debate. Perhaps this is not a great thing for a writer to admit but I am at a loss for words. Never have a I seen so many people panicked and clueless . Just today I saw Erin Burnett of CNBC practically in tears begging for leadership in DC the other day I saw Susie Orman on Oprah screaming at the audience stating “ The Party is Over”.

I have to admit I am not in panic mode just yet. Yes, I have lost money this week, not a great deal ,but enough to make me re-think some investments . What I realized this week is my history does not dictate me to panic and to be truthful it is not allowed. The blood that runs thru my veins is the blood of Africans who survived a boat voyage too horrendous to imagine, the humiliation of slavery and all of the unmentioned horrors involved. I come from people who lived thru Jim Crow and worked to repeal those laws to make things not only better for themselves but also for generations after them. My ancestors defined a generation during the Civil Rights movement by marching, voting, sitting in and standing up and creating laws to protect all Americans.


I come from a resilient people, a people who had to be strong long before there was a Wall Street. When I look back at what we have been thru I truly understand that we can and will get thru this crisis. Will it be easy? No. We are going to have to change the way we do things, buckle down and work harder than ever before. But more importantly we have to pray like our ancestors before us. I once heard that prayer is not plan and white that is a true statement sometimes all you have is prayer.

So I urge all of us not to panic but reach back and grab some of the backbone and faith our ancestors had. We all may be surprised how far it will go.

Will America do what is best or will racism fail us?

I am not ashamed to admit I am 41 years old and I am proud of it. Although to many I am still very young, I have witnessed a great deal in the ongoing saga of race in this county . My generation is the post civil rights generation, the generation that was supposed to manifest the “Dream of Dr. King” Personally I do not witness overt racism everyday but I have seen it somewhat hidden from time to time. My first introduction to racism was when I was five years old, it had to be on my first or second day in kindergarten and I asked three white girls could I play with them. One of them answered “ no blackies” allowed. “ At the age of five I did not know what a “blackie” was and have never been called such a name in my life but even in my five year old mind I knew the statement was said because I looked different. I bet if I asked one of the three of them about that incident today none of them could recall it, but I remember it like it was yesterday, that is the thing about racism, minorities know it and remember the pain they feel when it happens but I bet some whites can never recall if they have ever spewed racism. Funny one of my aforementioned classmates ended up having a baby by a black man and another is a community organizer in a minority community , strange how life works out.


In my naive mind I thought things would have changed 36 years late.r but after reading the Yahoo AP poll on racehttp://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race;_ylt=AlZbuKtbvLvCm65wld0PXq1p24cA I am not so sure. The poll sites at least 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view towards blacks, that includes many Democrats and independents-voters that Obama can’t win without. The poll also states many in this group are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don’t have such views. The poll also found a one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views towards blacks calling them “lazy” violent and responsible for their own troubles.



Many of my friends who I spoke to were not surprised or shocked by these statistics, in fact one told me “ I thought it would be much worse”. Although most of them are voting and supporting Senator Obama in their hearts they don’t think America is really ready for a Black President. Some of them have already conceded to a McCain victory on November 4, 2008.


Of course we live in America and people have the right to vote and support who they feel is best. However the question has to be asked are Americans voting what we feel or what is in the best interest of the country. In my humble opinion if Obama looses this election this country , all of us ,needs to take a really good look in the mirror and ask ourselves are we really trying to be the best county that we can be without letting our prejudices fail us. Are we leaving our children a country less greater than it can be because we fail to dig deep inside and pull out love, respect and grace that God has granted each of us.



The truth is the greatest failings of this country have been when we treated those who look differently in the worst way, whether it be Americans who were Indians, African, Japanese, Hispanic etc... But this country is at its greatest is when we realize our faults , correct them and work together towards making this country great even greater than it already is. We owe this to those who came before us this much and those who come after us we owe so much more.


"The Americans will always do the right thing.......... after they`ve exhausted all the alternatives". Winston Churchill

Will America vote for a Black man?

Inquiring minds want to know!

It's close so watch what you say.

At this point in the election the polls are close and everything you say and do will be looked at under a microscope so folks as the guy would say on Hill Street Blues " Let's be careful out There".

Now is not the time to say " Our economy is fundamentally strong." It just may be but Monday was not the day to say that. (John McCain)

Now is not the time to say " ...don't vote for a candidate because she is cute" This also may be true but the other candidates wife should not say that (Michelle Obama)

Now is not the time to say " It is your Patriotic Duty to pay taxes" This may also be true but some people lost a bundle this week, let them worry about that on April 15, 2009. (Joe Biden)


With the clock ticking and the November just around the corner these folks need to watch what they say because all of America is.