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A
generation ago, campaign observers anticipated the “October Surprise” that
presidential incumbents might spring to suddenly alter the political
landscape just before Election Day. Today, with the media reflexively
responsive to the corporate regime in power, manufactured “surprises” can
occur at any time. Thus, when thoroughly politicized American generals
in Afghanistan announced last week that they are confident of capturing
Osama bin Laden before the year is out, the folks at the Intelligence
Squad site broke out their graphics to chart the impact of such
a “surprise.”
Under
the headline, “Bush
Shoots ‘Em Up To Pump Up His Popularity,” the
Intelligence Squad presents Gallup Poll data on George Bush’s approval
ratings from inauguration through September 11 to the present – then
posits a mid-summer gift of bin Laden’s living or dead body. Bush’s
numbers soar to Twin Towers-like heights.
In a rational world such
exercises would be considered unworthy of serious journalism. Only
the lunatic fringe would wonder out loud whether the Bush men “already
know exactly where Osama is and have been waiting to time the capture
just right.” Instead, recent history dictates that we must consider
this possibility. The current administration strives to invent each
day anew, by confronting the public with both fresh and stale layers
of fiction and carefully calibrated “events.” There’s nothing lunatic
or fringe about the Intelligence Squad piece or scores like it across
the Internet. Bush’s crew definitely has many “surprises” in store
for us. It is equally certain that the Corporate Power Media (CPM)
will treat each contrived “crisis” or “victory” as genuine; they
provide the blank slates on which Karl Rove writes Bush’s version
of history. That’s their function in the corporate matrix – and they
revel in it.
Sensing a potential hazard
to the general corporate welfare and to their own particular interests,
the CPM savaged Howard Dean’s presidential campaign with piranha-like
ferocity. The breathtaking speed with which they halved his popular
support is the direct result of years of media mergers, buy-ups,
and bribery-sanctioned seizure of the public airwaves.
As we wrote in last week’s
Cover Story, “The Awesome
Destructive Power of the CPM,” Howard
Dean has “joined the list of victims of U.S. corporate media consolidation.”
This commentary,
however, is not about the merits of Howard Dean. If a mildly progressive,
Internet-driven, young white middle class-centered, movement-like
campaign such as Dean’s – flush with money derived from unconventional
sources, backed by significant sections of labor, reinforced by big
name endorsements and surging with upward momentum – can be derailed
in a matter of weeks at the whim of corporate media, then all of
us are in deep trouble. The Dean beat-down should signal an intense
reassessment of media’s role in the American power structure. The
African American historical experience has much to offer in that
regard, since the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements were born
in a wrestling match with an essentially hostile corporate (white)
media. However, there can be no meaningful discussion of the options
available to progressive forces in the United States unless it is
first recognized that the corporate media in the current era is the
enemy, and must be treated that way.
Despite our disclaimer regarding
Dean’s candidacy, his stalwarts comprised the bulk of the huge response
to the commentary.
Maddi Bee is a contributor
to ,
from Dayton, Ohio.
Your editorial
on the Corporate Power Media, its victims and victimization strategies
was
on the mark. That the media is the tool of the enemy is well-known
by those who have felt its blows. The blows are like the lashes
of the Plantation Overseers designed to keep people cowed and feeling
powerless. The major media is now totally owned by the Plantation
Masters, as you noted. The Overseers were previously called
Journalists,
Reporters, Hosts, and Commentators, etc. It is better to call
them Overseers at this point, for they have been emasculated. They
are
now used by the Plantation Owners to do the dirty work. Some
Overseers don’t realize they, too, are slaves because they’re drowning in a
jar of honey called money.
We the People cannot
continue to rely on the media for coverage of anything crucial
to our lives.
They are not on the side of the people.
The massive
amount of energy created by widespread anger throughout society can
be harnessed
to devise new systems of spreading the word. Like 21st Century
Paul and Paulette Reveres, we can sound the alarms. Like
a new Underground Railroad, we can do end-runs around the power structure.
Like Malcolm
and Martin and countless others we can stand up at Town Meetings
and in Church Pulpits and on Street Corners to tell our stories,
to rally our people, to speak up. We can mimeograph broadsheets
to pass around neighborhoods. We can start community News Sheets.
We
can link up through the Internet through sites like The Black
Commentator, etc. Every voice needs to be heard now. Every voice
is important.
We can
counter the stinking thinking. Before the upcoming presidential election.
We must get
out the vote. We must monitor the vote closely. We must
deny the war criminals and charlatans in the Bush administration
and Congress
and media a chance to keep us down on their Plantations any longer.
Is there hope?
Bob Fleischer was in a funk
when he wrote to us from Groton, Massachusetts.
After
watching Bill
Moyers last night, I realize that there is no
democratic (small-d)
way out of this mess.
The situation on Moyers'
program was the media ownership cap. Millions
of Americans took an active part in the process to object to the FCC's lifting
the ownership cap. The FCC lifted the cap anyway. Congress voted
to retain the cap. That gets overturned by back-room manipulation of
the omnibus spending legislation. The senate
then votes to disapprove the FCC rule, and when
that gets
sent to the House, Tom Delay kills it.
Democracy is dead, get used to it.
I think it is possible, in principle at least, to establish
alternative media. But to bring alternative media
to a prominence where it reaches a majority (or even
a large minority) of our population is hard to conceive – especially
if it is rightly perceived not just
as competition but as a threat to the very existence
of
the corporate media.
I despair. Got hope?
Democracy is not dead until the people become inert. However,
it is necessary to strike directly at the corporate media, which
now actively suppress the
processes of popular decision-making.
Even if popular forces were
able to halt and marginally roll back the process of media consolidation,
the political character of the corporate media would not change,
and it would remain dominant for the foreseeable future. Therefore,
it is necessary to de-legitimize the corporate media's
messages – to pull back the curtain on the lie-creation machine.
For obvious reasons, this
cannot be accomplished through strategies that
are themselves dependent on corporate media favor. Rather, organizers
will find that they must confront corporate media in order
to accomplish anything worth doing.
Candidates in mass electoral
campaigns are ill positioned to educate the public about the evils
of corporate media. That's a task for activist organizations. For
models, look to the history of the anti-war and civil rights movements,
and then add corporate media to the permanent list of targets.
Of course there is cause
for hope. But progressive leadership is not yet, in general, prepared
to break with corporate media-dependent organizing practices. Unfortunately,
in a high-velocity world, inertia can be fatal.
Brian LeCloux was already
thinking along these lines. He writes from DeForest, Wisconsin.
Your analysis
of how the corporate media smashed Dean is awesome! This is the
best I've read. You nailed every key point with fact and argument.
And, you're on to something
when you point out toward the end that we
have to take on the media. Most
of America's shopping mall voters are still going to always get their
infotainment from the corporate networks. They
are using our property,
the public airwaves to pollute the public
mind. On that basis alone we should be legally
and
nonviolently challenging big media.
Thanks
for your great analysis.
DLC: the enemy within
Ruth Henriquez-Lyon rightly
takes to
task for downplaying corporate influence within
the Democratic Party.
Thank
you for publishing this excellent article. The writers clearly stated a feeling
I've had for many months, but have been unable to articulate so well
in discussing it with others. There was one point, however, upon
which I disagree, and it is this: "Media apologists offer
fictions about press vs. power, when in reality corporate media =
corporate power, just as Bush = corporate power. The Democrats
are no part of this equation."
However, in truth a very
influential segment of the Democratic party is indeed part
of this; it is the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC. The
DLC describes itself (on its website) thus: "The
Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)
leads the New Democrat movement, a
national
network of elected officials and community
leaders whose innovative
ideas are modernizing progressive politics for the 21st Century."
However,
their politics are not progressive. They are closely tied with corporate contributors,
and their whole reason for being is to bring the party rightward. Their
attacks on Howard Dean have been every bit as vicious as those of
the press. I believe that progressives of all ethnic
groups and races need to come to grips with the re-shaping of the
party which the DLC promotes and executes. It, as much as
the right-wing Republicans and the press, stands in the
way of a free flow of progressive political energy.
has been trying to purge
the DLC from the Democratic Party for
so long, we sometimes treat the corporate faction as if it is not
there. But of course, it is.
The DLC was originally created to slow
white voter and corporate dollar flight from southern state parties
in the face of growing
African American influence, and gained
control of the national party machinery under Bill Clinton and Al
Gore. As Associate
Editor Bruce Dixon has pointed out, “The only
masses the DLC cares about are massed
dead presidents, stacked high.” More
from Dixon’s
June 12,
2002 Cover Story:
“The
DLC's mission is to erase the last vestiges of social democracy
from the Democratic Party, so that the corporate consensus will
never again be challenged in the United States. Acting as a Republican
Trojan Horse in the bowels of the Democratic machinery, the DLC
claims the "real" party lives somewhere off to the right,
where George Bush dwells, and that minorities, unionists, environmentalists,
feminists, men and women of peace – virtually every branch of the
party except corporatists – must be purged or muzzled.”
Dixon calls the DLC “a candidate
shakeout mechanism for big business, a clearinghouse for betrayal.”
An
astute blogster named Zagg writes:
I thought
the piece you did on Dean and media was excellent and in general
am a huge fan
of the site.
I have a similar analysis of what occurred with Dean, though I think
a key aspect in the process was the establishment of the Democratic
Party itself.
They have played a role in influencing
the media to marginalize the most progressive candidates. And they
took Dean down not because of how he stood
on any issue, but because he did an end-run
around the Party's leadership to jump to the top of the race. And the
fact that there was a grassroots
campaign associated with Dean (even if
he's done all he can to distance himself from that campaign) was also
a threat. The last thing the Democrats want
to see is a rebuilding of social movements
in this country. Even the Dean campaign, as little of a threat as it
represented in comparison to a new
civil rights movement or a rejuvenated
anti-war movement, apparently concerned them enough to smash. Remember
too how in 2000 the Democratic Party called
off protests in Florida taking up the issue
of the systematic disenfranchisement of black voters and opted instead
to fight the result in court on the issue
of chads in predominantly rich counties.
In that case they punted on the real issue and went for a safer one
and it cost them the White House. I believe
in large part it was because the Democratic
Party does not want to see a rebirth of social movements in this country.
One more observation: Notice too that now that Kerry is the frontrunner
he is not being subject to the same attacks
(either from the media or from the other candidates) as Dean was when
he was the frontrunner.
Anyway, keep up the excellent work.
Corporate media
frat brats
We were pleased to hear
from Dr. Janice Moulton, of the philosophy department at Smith College
in Northampton, Massachusetts.
What a
good analysis of the media! Thank you.
However, I do still harbor the hope that individual journalists
would behave better if they were shown the way. Some of them actually
half-apologized to Howard Dean (like fraternity boys who had broken
a pledge's leg during
hazing and said, "Oops!"). I
also think that incompetence is always
a more likely explanation than deliberate
malevolence. Those
Corporate Media "journalists" hang
out together, feed off the hearsay
they pick up at the bar or coffee shop,
are
trained to go after ratings instead
of news, and forget that they might
be an inspiration instead of a destructive
force.
The worst thing, I think, is that their
behavior convinces so many people that
there is no point in learning about
the candidates, no
point in getting
involved, and no point in voting. The
Dean supporters have written hundreds
of letters complaining of the misleading
news stories and perhaps
it had some effect. We can do something,
together. Let's not put up with it anymore. Let
the Civil Rights movement be our inspiration. Let
your article be the starting point.
replied:
Your frat
boys example is a good one. If you take that logic further, however,
you will
get closer to the truth,
which is that the corporate media guys and girls "just happen" to go after the same people their employer's
hate. (Just as the frat boys bully the pledges simply because
they can.) News producers would get even higher ratings if they went
after bigger fish, like Bush, Cheney, etc. – but that is not
allowed.
The lower
newsroom ranks pick up quickly on the cues given from the top – or perish. As for the
Executive Newspersons, they hang with the other execs, not in the "coffee
shops and bars." They also hire and fire.
All of them know exactly
what they are doing.
They are among the most cynical people you will ever meet.
The Civil Rights and Black
Power movements confronted a hostile white media that alternately
censured and reviled Blacks (the southern press) or attempted to
select and contain Black leadership (the national corporate media).
Black print media, churches and informal networks attempted to keep
the movement in touch with itself. Nowadays, however, corporate voices
dominate in Black America. As we wrote:
[M]edia
consolidation has had the same strangulating effects on Black radio
as in the general
media. Radio One, the
largest Black-owned chain, recently entered into a marketing
agreement with a subsidiary of Clear Channel,
the 1200-station beast.
Both chains abhor the very concept of local news.
There
is no question that Blacks and progressives must establish alternative
media outlets,
and not just on the Internet.
However, there is no substitute for confronting the corporate media
head-on, through direct mass action
and other, creative tactics.
The rich men’s voices must be de-legitimized
in the eyes of the people, who already suspect that they are being
systematically lied to and manipulated. African Americans have an
advantage in this regard, since we are used to being lied to and
about.
Susan Shropshire got the
point.
Thank
you for the well-written and incisive article on the power of the
corporate media.
What a sorry state of affairs we live in. Obviously the fact that
they got away with lying to and about black Americans on a massive
scale is part
of what gave them the arrogance
to try it on everybody in the country.
I have watched every one of the Democratic debates and it is clear
(and shameful) the way the media act toward progressive candidates
(and last night
I swore I saw Bill Clinton
on the stage, he was mentioned so many times).
The only thing that gives me hope is that every time Kucinich or Sharpton
lay a smackdown on the moderators the audience goes wild.
JoAnne is a Dean supporter
from Sag Harbor, Michigan.
Yours
was the most cogent, incisive analysis of the "corporate/media" problem that
I have read to date. Perhaps because of our history of being
savaged by the media, African-Americans are keenly aware of the danger. This
essay should be required reading for all Dean supporters. It
certainly gave me renewed hope that the Democratic Party
will realize that Howard Dean has got it right. It is my hope
that Rev. Sharpton will throw his support to Dean at some point. Sharpton
is politically savvy and can make a real difference to the Dean campaign.
Christine Hayes writes from
the State of Washington:
I would
like to commend you on your article about corporate media squelching the Howard
Dean movement. It was an eye-opening piece. I
think it really
put it in its
proper perspective
to bring out
the point that
if it can happen to middle class white America, we are all
in trouble.
I believe
our country is in a dire situation at present and you are certainly
doing your
part to bring
this to the attention of a sleeping America. Unfortunately,
by the time they wake up, it may be too late.
Mass disillusion
In the early to mid-Sixties,
opposition to the Vietnam War marked one as a radical. Then, white
liberals swelled the ranks, some of whom became radicals. Who knows
what the corporate media’s beat-down of Howard Dean may trigger among
his millions of supporters? There’s lots of rage out there. Here’s
a letter from Joy Farmer, from Kennesaw, Georgia.
Thank
you for
your excellent analysis. I find the image of Howard
Dean screaming inaudibly in that Iowa room to be a metaphor for every
American who is screaming to be heard above the right-wing din
and whose voice has been deliberately distorted and decontextualized by
the corporate media. We all cried, "Foul," at the media's
unfair and biased treatment of Al Gore four years ago, but our
scream began in earnest when the Supreme Court appointed Bush
president, even though the 2000 election manifested so much
malfeasance that democracy was fully, and perhaps permanently, compromised.
Yet the media refused to investigate – not just in this circumstance,
but in every shady instance that has characterized the Bush presidency.
Instead, the media consistently diverts the public's
attention from such scandals as Bush's National Guard disservice, the
phony rationale for the Iraq war, the Halliburton contracts
and other White-House related corporate irregularities,
the Plame outing, and the Administration's shameful stonewalling
on the 9/11 investigation by endlessly spinning every mote in the
eye of a Democratic candidate. At the same time, the corporate media
characterize our wail of outrage as unpatriotic. Some have even called
us traitors, and most have scoffed at our liberalism – synonymous
with weakness,
atheism,
moral turpitude,
and a desire
to foster
similar
characteristics in our fellow citizens.
In
destroying
Howard Dean, the corporate media have destroyed a decent individual, a viable candidate, and a man who could have
changed the course of American politics for the better. In November,
God willing, we will vote George W. Bush out of office. Sadly,
we have no such opportunity to vote out the corporate media, which
will continue to limit our choices and warp our civic judgment.
I fear that you are a voice crying in the wilderness; nonetheless,
you have articulated my scream, and I am grateful.
Carl E. Hartung wants to
put in
the classroom.
I am
writing to commend you on a beautifully written, highly insightful
and compelling article
should
be required reading in every high school freshman civics course. Thank
you and well done!
I just
read your fantastic column on the Corporate Media and their ability
to crush anyone who
dares speak the truth. Thanks so much for your insights.
The way
in which Democrats reach out to African American voters in 2004
is critically important.
Drive-by campaigning, in which candidates spend months courting
white voters
and independents and then spend the last two weeks courting
African American voters, is simply not acceptable. Democrats must
reach out
to African American voters and community leaders now and
engage them not just for their votes but to get their opinions
about how
our future should be shaped. Registering and turning out African
American voters is simply vital to the success of the Democratic
Party in
2004….
We must
demand that states comply with the new Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) and ensure that
minorities are not systematically disenfranchised in 2004. As 2000
indicated, states have a variety of methods of doing just that – by
purging voter roles, by discriminatory distribution of antiquated
voting machines, and by intimidating voters at the polls. There must
be a vigorous voter education campaign, training of poll watchers,
and an army of lawyers ready to monitor the elections to ensure that
African-Americans are not denied their constitutional rights in 2004.
Steve Cohen enjoyed Ms.
Brazile’s article – until she championed the “HAVA” voting law. That’s
when “she lost me,” said Cohen.
The Help
America Vote Act is not a friend to African Americans or anyone else
interested
in seeing a fair vote count. I don't have any quarrel with
Ms. Brazile's wholly justified complaints about purging voter rolls,
or intimidating voters at the polls, but when she complains about "discriminatory
distribution of antiquated voting machines" she appears to have
been taken in by the snake-oil salesmen of Diebold and other manufacturers
of the new electronic voting machines which are less secure, more
prone to tampering, provide no feasible means of recount and are
a real nightmare – which is becoming more and more noticed. Yes, "hanging
chads" were a problem in 2000, but they were a problem dwarfed
by purging and intimidating African American voters. The cure
proposed in HAVA is worse than the disease.
Here is just one of the many articles that have appeared on this subject:
”Bipartisan Request Seeks
Halt to Internet Voting,” Washington
Post, January 30.
While
I can agree with Ms. Brazile
that there may some discriminatory
intent in the distribution
of these antiquated voting
machines, ironically,
they probably
provide a fairer chance
of getting a correct count than
do the newfangled and
insecure monstrosities
that are being foisted
upon us
by people who have too
much faith in technology. See
this link where technologist
Robert Cringely tells
why such technology is not well
applied in this context:
“Follow
the Money,” PBS,
December 11, 2003
Thanks, as always, for being here. is
a very useful antidote to conventional wisdom.
Wal-Mart brand schools
The Walton Family spends
vast sums to pollute American political discourse with ideas crafted
to help the super-rich get richer. In addition to manufacturing
front groups to push their agenda, the Wal-Mart billionaires have
taken
a hands-on role in making New Jersey a testing ground for school
privatization notions. The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA),
the state’s largest teachers union, has identified Walton family
fortune heir John as Sugar Daddy for local voucher activists. In
last week’s
,
NJEA President Edithe A. Fulton warned of “The
Wal-Martization of Education.”
For years,
Walton has been an active supporter of the national voucher movement,
spending
millions on voucher initiatives and pro-voucher organizations. He
is intimately allied with the ultra-right Bradley Foundation of
Milwaukee, which used its political and economic clout in that city
to launch
the nation’s first publicly funded voucher program in 1990. Bradley
is also a major funding source for the national voucher effort.
Fulton urges folks to “follow
the money” – the real source of the Hard Right’s phony “movements.”
Leutisha Stills is a frequent
correspondent from Oakland, California.
Blacks
should become familiar with the many methods the Hard Right uses
to co-opt the public school
system and deprive our children of quality public education.
If your school system is "failing" the state will bring
in a "hired
gun" who takes control of the entire school district and proceeds
to start closing schools. In Oakland, the hired gun's name is
Randolph Ward. They brought him in from Southern California, since
he did such a wonderful
job in "cleaning up" the Compton Unified School District. Now
the kids in Compton are going cross town to school – long commutes
outside of their own districts to get educated. So they brought
him to Oaktown to do the same thing. Only Oakland wasn't Compton – and
Mr. Ward soon "got
served".
Two weeks ago, at an Oakland School District Meeting, Mr. Ward
proceeded
to present to a capacity-crowd of angry parents, children and
teachers, a list of elementary schools he proposed to shut down, since
they weren't
cutting it under the "No Child Left Behind" requirements. There
were 11 schools on that list, the majority in predominantly Black
or Latino communities. By the time the teachers, parents, students
and the civil rights group BAMN got finished with Mr. Ward, that
list was scaled back to five schools instead of eleven. Oakland
wasn't having none of that Hard Right Agenda nonsense and told
Mr. Ward to @$%# with his proposal!
However,
we still have our work cut
out for us. This is the starting
point towards discussions about school vouchers – first they shut down
the schools. For
this reason, plus the way Wal-Mart treats its workers, I have boycotted
them ever since.
Freedom Rider
Margaret
Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column is an inspiration to many of
our readers. Last week’s piece was particularly eloquent, titled
“A
Glass Half Empty and Half Full.”
We don’t want to discuss
anything that gives credence to negative stereotypes perpetuated
about us. The impulse is understandable, but not particularly helpful
when confronting difficult issues. Why are so many black children
born not only to unmarried parents, but to parents who have not even
formed committed relationships? Because of DNA testing there are
men paying child support to women whose middle names they don’t even
know. That behavior doesn’t speak well for men or women and renders
moot the old, tired arguments seen in the headlines of black publications
and heard in conversation. “Whose at fault, men or women?” “Do black
men treat women right?” “Do black women support their men?” We
need uncompromising
introspection,
not worthless tabloid
headlines, to
improve our family lives.
It is
important to remember our loyalty to one another despite the many
problems that black people
face in dating and maintaining marriages. Point out that the glass
is full the next time someone says that black men and women can’t
get along. But it is equally important to speak up when the more
complicated and sensitive issues are also raised. The time for platitudes
has passed as well.
Thelonius
Massai’s words are as compelling as Ms. Kimberley’s. He writes:
Looking
at statistics from a negative perspective does create the impression
that we Black
folks are the most messed up people in the world. We tend to
internalize that impression and use it to define ourselves. I
used to be guilty of that even though I knew in the back of my mind
the stereotypes we sometimes play into aren't that accurate. Based
on statistics I'm supposed to be in or have been in prison, dropped
out of school, can't read, unemployed, an absentee father, on drugs,
have AIDS, etc. But I'm not and neither are most of the guys
on my block or at my job or in my family. A lot of our young
brothers are confused because they don't see themselves reflected
in these statistics. I started seeing the glass half full after
attending the Million Man March in 1995, every kind of brother under
the sun was there, I didn't see any looking like the picture the
statistics paint. We have problems but there's more good about
us than not.
In our corner
Carol Asberom, of Dayton,
Ohio has an interesting way of introducing herself.
I sometimes
think that I am insane. That is, my thoughts and observations of
the current
times seem out of step with what I see and hear around me. I hear
myself thinking, "Am I the only one who thinks this way?” Then
once a week "The Black Commentator" arrives and reassures
me that there are others like me out there. You are a strong
voice of enlightenment. You see, I live in the hinterland of
Ohio and we have been blinded. People here work hard, go to church,
play a little, but don't do much independent thinking. You do
excellent work and I wish more people knew about you. Be strong
and be encouraged for there are many unknown and unseen warriors
out there that can be called into action once you awaken them from
the hypnosis of materialism and entertainment.
John Harshaw sends greeting
from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
I started
reading Black commentator in 2003. I am impressed by the intellectual
commentary
written for every willing reader. When many Black males have been
reduced to the discussion of the last "piece" they had
or would like to have, it is refreshing to have a website where
honest, hard hitting commentary is shared.
I know
the best is yet to come.
Pat Humphrey describes herself
as a “devoted reader” of .
She writes from Little Rock, Arkansas.
I would
fight before I cancelled my privileged access to The Black Commenter.
I have enthusiastically
shared the web site with many of my friends, both locally, and with
others far away. You deserve supporting in any way we can. Be advised
that everyone I have forwarded the to
were really amazed that
we had not yet heard of it, and worse, were so late to hear of it
now. I prefer the positive! The more we can stay informed and help
educate each other the better off we African Americans are in terms
of being more involved in our communities, etc. Keep up the good
fight and do an article some time about
how we can proactively support your very noble efforts. Every issue
just blows me away with the depth of your analysis of what is happening
in our country. It certainly confirms the views I have long held
but brings, more importantly, facts and names of those filled with greed
and self-hate. Thank you for being there for all of us!
Loretta Renford is our favorite
activist in Buffalo, New York.
Thanks
for your commitment to the education and hopeful enlightenment of
the African American
Community.
You know,
I hope our folk understand and appreciate the push
for excellence, and where we
ought to be as thinking and positive functioning adults. It is required
of us that we think critically, and for ourselves. How else can
we pick and accept leaders if we are unable to discern their attributes
and separate personal vested interests from the collective concerns
and issues critical to our needs and well being?
www.blackcommentator.com
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