We live in red state Oklahoma a state that houses more than its share of wing-nuts per square inch. We have a cadre of haters of everything Obama. No matter what he says and does they find some way to make light of it. Is because he is half black? Most of the time I would say yes because they cant openly hate him because of his color that would make them bigoted and a tad racist and they even in their heart of hearts cant admit to that, though it in a lot of cases is patently true, so they attack everything he does as no other president has ever been attacked. I guess I should hate them but I dont. I feel very sorry for them because when you let hate cloud your life you lead a very miserable life. I have never hated anyone in my life. My mother taught me that you disagree and dislike someone but for her and her children hating was not an option. I try hard to like everyone or at least find something in them that I can, if not like, at least admire about them. Not an easy thing to do for me especially with some people and very much so with those people out who attack our president unmercifully on anything he does. He is a loving, caring decent human being. Of course hes not perfect we havent ever had a president that was perfect, even though a lot on the right worship Ronald Reagan he certainly was fully flawed in many ways. But Barack Obama is a kind, loving family man who cares for people and who tries always to do the right thing. He has a House of Representatives that has refused to even consider most of his proposals that would have created millions of jobs. You can say no to that but only if you refuse to look at the record. They made a pact early on in his presidency that they would not work with him and they have patently refused on so many levels it sometimes becomes almost absurd when they try to protest otherwise. But beyond all that is the latent racism that permeates everything these days in politics. This country is turning non-white very fast and because it is we have one party who doesnt want to change its stripes taking the position that if we cant continue to have our way we will enact what we want and preserve our way against all odds. In the short term it is working because of the many voter suppression laws being enacted millions of women, students, seniors and minorities are being denied their basic right to vote. In the long term it is a losing prospect because you cant stop the rising tide that is the fact that whites will soon be in the minority and cranky rich old white guys can only buy so many elections and when they are gone on to whatever reward awaits them in the afterlife this nation will still be filled with a majority of citizens of color. And their day will come and being pissy about it isnt going to change the fact that it will happen. Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. What we can do now to make a difference in our world both locally and nationally is to learn the lessons of history. This summer which becomes official this Saturday will herald the 50th Anniversary of Freedom Summer. There are a lot of significance to that anniversary but the lesson we need to learn and remember and take to heart is what that summer started and how it changed the face of the South and of America. What was accomplished then can be repeated today but we have to have the will to do it. Voter Registration. Freedom Summer began the push in southern states to register minorities, primarily African Americans who for almost a century since the end of the Civil War had been disenfranchised from their basic right to vote by Jim Crow laws that were made and passed simply to prevent them from having a say in our nation and its laws. We can do that again. We can turn back the tide of a few cranky people who rather than change want to turn back the clock to the days when the white majority was the only one who had unfettered rights in this nation. And its not something that cant be accomplished but it will take boots on the ground and a modest amount of money. But it can be done. Ben Jealous former head of the NAACP has broached the idea, that if we would spend a few million dollars on registering of voters in the red states of the south we could turn most of those states blue and give millions of our citizens back their basic right to vote. It may sound like a daunting task but as the old Chinese proverb says, The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! we just have to take that step. We cant do it sitting on our duffs and saying Oh that will take too much money and too much time! Whatever time it takes will be time well spent and if we spent only a fraction of the money tossed around by candidates for office think how we really could change the dynamics. But it wont work unless we are willing to make the effort. As Mohandas Gandhi said, We must be the changes we wish to see in the world! That was my friend Kent Castleberrys favorite saying and its in scribed on the bench in his honor in Milligan Hall at my church. We can only be that change if we are willing to make the effort! Bob Bearden
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:11:04 +0000
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