Decisions, decisions, decisions; for Wordsmiths across cyberspace the contemporary American political landscape is a target-rich environment, creating a monumental task by simply trying to narrow down what you want to write about... this little piece of my mind was initially slated to target the delusional Negro Congresswoman from the Mormon state, Mia Love, yet another Aunt Tomasina, self-fashioned in the identical compromising vein as Condoleezza Rice.

Show them this picture and remind them of what Real Americans are capable of

Love is perhaps slightly more than a political prostitute, one who is more-than-willing to bend-over-backwards to satisfy the Republican TEA Party fatcats, which is nothing more than a gathering of angry White men. She’s even allowing Romney to cast her as a crucial member of his, dig this, Black Cabinet. The man doesn’t even have a Black sock or cat, forget real Black people who support him. 

However I flipped the script... to education, or rather the miseducation of Black America; the always popular cocktail conversational topic. A few days-ago a colleague of mine raised the question of educators who see the nation, the world, as Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh do, and these very same individuals also teach your kids, act as administrators, counselors, and coaches. 

Nonetheless, we as Black parents carelessly and recklessly entrust our children’s educational enlightenment to... our former oppressors, who, by and large, andgenerally speaking, just don’t see the nation, the world, or damn near just about any serious issue as Black Americans see it. 

But I was also torn between that approach versus connecting the dots between the trifling fact Black America will purchase more $300 Nike Lebron James hi-tops, then they’ll buy $300 Dell Laptops... and that fact paints a picture of a “lost people...” 

Nevertheless... I had to change skis mid-mountain. 

I ran across the story of a pastor in Indiana, who has put up a sign in front of his church that uses a horrific historical image of the 1930 lynching of two black teenagers, with a crowd of White folks gleefully and menacingly gathered around... 

Clearly this was the man-of-the-cloth’s urgent effort to urge Black folks to exercise the right he says was “hard won.” 

As I read it I thought... all Black America, each and every one of us, owes Rev. Joy Thornton, Pastor of the Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, a gigantic debt of gratitude for possessing the internal fortitude to stand-up and do what’s desperately needed, deliver Black America a slap-in-the-face...

If Mitt Romney’s elected, this nation will be taking a deliberate step backward towards a country where the lynchings of Black people is more likely

According to the AP Wire, the sign, which has stood for nearly a week along the street in front of the church, shows, on one side, a white mob gathered around the teens to watch the lynching in Marion, Ind. Atop the photo is the word “VOTE!!!” Beneath it is the question: “Is this a reason to vote?” The other side of the sign shows an image of slaves in chains, with wording beneath it that reads, “Lest we forget.”

“[The sign] is to let people know there’s been a price paid for the privilege of voting,” Thornton, pastor of what he describes as a multiracial congregation, “Oftentimes people get complacent and don’t realize that people made a sacrifice, matter of fact, the ultimate sacrifice for such a privilege.” 

Here, let me translate the minister’s well chosen words, try to tell it the way it really is... The picture has captured apartheid in America, the price Black people paid for being uppity and wanting to vote, live where they wanted, eat where they wanted, say what they wanted... And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the obvious: if Mitt Romney’s elected, clearly without question, this nation will be taking a deliberate step backward towards a country where the lynchings of Black people is more likely.

Here, let me circle the block on that one and spell it out to you one more time. 

If Romney steals this election, which is the GOP prefered method of operation, it will embolden the obvious racist elements of this country’s “Right,” the “good ol’ boys,” the rank n’ file “Rednecks” and transparent-sheet-wearing aristocrats like the Koch Boys - to attempt a Coup on the cultural battlefield that is America, a strategic but still desperate attempt will be made to return this nation to the good ol’ days when you could merely ‘lynch-a-nigger’ for lookin’ at ya’ wrong... 

Now, I don’t want to waste the moment offering redundant commentary on what the US will look like under Romney rule. What I do want to do is take the opportunity to beg, screw ask, I’m begging Afro-American ministers, from the Big Easy to Liberty City to the Windy City, from LA up to the Bay - “to seize the time...” 

Please, please, please place the identical poster in front of your church! 

Hell, let’s not play-around here, the reelection of Obama represents a critical moment in the tale of America, and the story of a people, Black people, and our seemingly endless quest for equality and respect... 

They, and as Mrs Clinton said, when I say “they” you know who I’m talkin’ bout . “they” begrudgingly call me Mr Cortez, and they half-heartedly refer to you as Mr. or Mrs., but they yearn to call us “Boy” or “Gal.” 

Let’s put the same poignant picture, which is well worth a thousand words, and the same words on three-story high billboards, put them on downtown bus stop benches and plastered on the sides of uptown buildings... for if we, as Black people of this era, if we don’t hold the line... we’ll be increasing the likelihood this current 21st century White backlash will result in lynchings.

“[The sign] is to let people know there’s been a price paid for the privilege of voting”

Who n’ what is to say millions of White folks aren’t capable of bringing back to life the deadly ways of their grandfathers? Who is to say if they do attempt to lynch Black folks, bomb churches and homes of yes, once again uppity Black folks... millions upon millions of “good” White people will do exactly what generations of White folks did throughout US history - not a damn thing but sit passively, meekly, quietly by as their brothers, fathers and uncles wage a war against Black folks. 

Trust me, the good liberals on MSNBC and Huffington Post will place “Black People” on their “to do list” and get to us after they free Willy the Whale, save Bigfoot, find a way to purify the LA air... then they address the “Black Problem.” 

Yeah, I could waste this space to discuss US foreign policy or the economy, but I’m not going to get off-message. I believe the “progress” this nation has had in the arena of race relations has come with the vast-majority of White Americans openly opposing it, and only going-along to get-along. 

And there are those who’d love to return to a prime-time when Black police could not arrest a White man, a White man would not be judged by a Black jury member of his peers for killing a Black person, where Blacks couldn’t shop in stores, receive medical care in a first class hospital, and we had to pick up our meals “’round back.” 

See, I’m one of those cats who strongly believes that more than just Bubba n’ Homer down in Biloxi Mississippi, but most of “Mainstream USA,” isn’t comfortable with what America is reluctantly becoming - a land of diversity and inclusion. This is not what the founding fathers, or the fathers of the little blond-haired, blue-eyed snow princess who lives next door to you had in mind when they said , “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...” 

I ask each and every one of you who reads this to present the poster, the idea to your preacher man or woman, remind them of the real history of this country, not the diluted Disney version we are indoctrinated with from birth. Remind them of the role the Black church played in organizing, motivating and mobilizing the little people. 

Show them this picture and remind them of what Real Americans are capable of.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Desi Cortez, was hatched in the heart of Dixie, circa 1961, at the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the by-product of four dynamic individuals, Raised in South-Central LA, the 213, at age 14 transplanted to the base of the Rockies, Denver. Still a Mile-Hi. Sat at the feet of scholars for many, many moons, emerging with a desire and direction… if not a sheep-skin. Meandered thru life; gone a-lot places, done a-lot of things, raised a man-cub into a good, strong man, produced a beautiful baby-girl with my lover/woman/soul-mate… aired my mind on the airwaves and wrote some stuff along the way. Click here to contact Mr. Cortez.