Dreams are what development is all about. Yet in 21st Century America, only rich men’s dreams are allowed – Thou shalt have no other dreams but mine, says capital. Black politicians have collaborated in this people-stunting politics, believing the cities in which they wield at least nominal power are worthless. Why else would they so eagerly transfer urban assets for a song, or for nothing at all, or in Wal-Mart’s case, for a job- and community-destroying monstrosity.

The new urban politics must be rooted in a development strategy that calls upon the people to imagine a city that fulfills their needs, a politics that provides them with the tools to transform their surroundings in ways that they choose, through a process that affirms the value and power of democracy – the value and power of themselves. If people can dream a city, they will fight to make it real.

"In the 28-mile area around where the proposed store will open (the typical market area for a big box retail store in an urban market), there are 763 retailers that do business in one or more of the retail sectors that competes directly with Wal-Mart. Among those, there are 61 general merchandising stores and the 40 discount retailers that will likely bear the brunt of job loss…. Without a doubt, the vast majority of the residents who live within the expected service area of the proposed store already have comparable retail options. If the proposed Wal-Mart store opens, the retail options will undoubtedly decline as will the total number of jobs in the local market…”

In place of Brown, today’s voucher advocates would subsidize the “choices” that somehow become available in an American social marketplace that has historically devalued Blacks.  They would achieve this unregulated educational supermarket by liquidating the principle and promise of universal, quality public education….

This then, is the Right’s answer to Brown: that urban public education is not worth funding. African Americans should join with the privatizers, put their hopes in the “market,” and abandon demands for equality in the public sphere. 

Once again, I thank Black Commentator for the excellent way it brings out issues that are pertinent to the Black community.  There are many working parents (all of us) who are fed up with overcrowded and dangerous public schools.  The clever politicians dangle a voucher in front of parents, telling them that private schools are the way to go.  The poor, uninformed parents, often overworked, only want the best education for their children and see a "voucher" as the saving grace for their children, in much the same way as probably Mr. Brown saw filing his lawsuit on behalf of his daughter, saw it helping her get a better education. Vouchers are just another way to get rid of public education, unions, etc.

The problem is with how public schools are funded.  When that is changed, I believe the playing field will be level.  School funding should not be based on property taxes.  It should be based on sales taxes generated within the state.  Then, no matter where a person "runs," his/her child would get the same amount of money allocated for public education.  This way, if a parent truly wanted his/her child to get a "private" education, come out of the pocket and send the child to a truly "private" school.

I've been following your reports regarding Wal-Mart and their secret organizations that are manipulating poor Afro-Americans and other minorities into accepting  corporate America's push for a federal school voucher program.  As someone who is working toward a career in teaching, I am very disturbed by what “Sam the Monster” is doing.

In that light, I thought you might be interested in the “mainstream media” advertising that they are also pushing on the rest of America;  it's a complete, 180 degree turnaround from their clandestine activities.  Check out the Walmart Foundation's Website for all the self-righteous, pat on the backs they're giving themselves for their tireless and devoted appreciation of America's teachers and schools.

The black church is now taking the easy way out. It is easy to quote scripture and say that homosexuality is a sin. It is more difficult to quote scripture and point out that warfare is a sin if the powerful warmongers call themselves Christians. Speaking out against them would mean calling their Christianity into question and might also jeopardize the possibility of a Faith Based Initiative handout to those who go along to get along.

If the church persists in ignoring the oppressed and helping the oppressors it should at least be honest. Let’s call off our King Day celebrations next January. King’s warning about the evils of racism, militarism and poverty have come to fruition. If we can’t live up to his expectations we should stop pretending to honor him. Let’s have Faith Based Initiative day instead. King can stop turning in his grave because we have ignored him and our words will be consistent with our actions.

For those who do not know, this is the low down on black clergy and their silence or their desire to stand and denounce gay marriage.  I will share these three words: FAITH BASED FUNDING.  They got to have that money! 

Money , the root of all evil and the anticipation of such funds have gotten black clergy afraid to say anything and jeopardize their standing in getting this money.  However, if you think about it, if they stood up to the wrongs, they would get more money and support from the community.  For those waiting for those faith based funds, think of what BUSHCO has done to Saddam Hussein, Chalabi, and others when they no longer needed their services.

Amen Sister Kimberley!

First, may I congratulate you on your excellent column(s) for Black Commentator and your own informative blog.

I am the granddaughter of paternal and maternal Methodist ministers, the daughter of a Baptist minister, and a lesbian.

I continue to agonize over the status of the black church regarding sexuality. I want to be a proud member of an accepting congregation in the black church but none to my knowledge exists. There will be no gay or straight heaven as there will be no separation for race or ethnicity. I moved from my home in Ft. Lauderdale sixteen years ago and have not been a member of a church in all that time. My mother and others in my family are accepting of my sexuality but unfortunately, my 87-year-old father just recently recalled my fate of damnation on a recent visit.

Suffice it to say, I do not feel the need of the black church to bless my status. I know I belong to the Almighty. However, it is most disturbing to me that the church has lost its import or "salt" in our community while at the same time continues grafting itself to the values and fortunes of our historical enemies. Thank God for the Al Sharptons and other black politicians who bravely counter such bigotry.

You would think that the AIDS crisis in our community would wake up these so-called leaders to the obvious. Further, this spiritual, cultural and historical resource, the black church, languishes in the face of challenges within our community where we must now struggle with every muscle to surmount. Illiteracy, the criminalization of our youth and black males in particular, single mothers, ever crushing poverty, joblessness and homelessness. Not to mention the crisis in Haiti or the plight of our African/South American sisters and brothers of the Diaspora.

My sister there is much work to be done in the "highways and hedges" as black pastors have uttered in many a Sunday morning homily. I for one would stand with a movement to challenge the hegemony of a culture that unwittingly works against its own interest in regard to the people it supposedly serves.

Vouchers and such be damned! There is a Balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul... All hail the legacy of Dr. King!

You very eloquently put my thoughts into words. I am a white farmer living in a white rural county (only one black face in the pictures of the local high schools grads).

I am however a Democrat and have always looked to blacks as a group that understood the true nature of corporate republicanism.

Long ago my rural white neighbors got their brains muddled and began to vote against their own interests. I chalked this up to the pervasive influence of racism and thus thought blacks would be immune form this "soul cancer." Now they have found the black weak spot: faith-based initiative money, and good old fashioned religious hysteria.

I can't think about it too much or I find myself wanting to withdraw from politics and immerse myself in my farm-mom duties. Then I begin to get a vision of the world my children and grandchildren will live in. It is so different from Martin's "I Have a Dream" vision; it is so different from the vision we had in the Sixties when we stood up against this same powerful corporate republicanism under a different mantle in the South and again in Viet Nam.

How do we stop this from taking hold of us? The allure of the rapture vision is so great. It sweeps away all uncertainty in its apocalyptic prophecy. It is like a TV show where we have a script, know the conclusion and we can all play our role. So much easier than real life with its uncertainties. How can poor and working class people of all colors fight this latest incarnation of wealthy greed and power?

My sister, your article is powerful, insightful, and right, as in correct.  I appreciate it, and I am going to send it to my e-mail lists, as well as to some of our preachers in this town I call Cincinn-apathy, Ohio.  Peace, love, and continued blessings to you and yours. 

Does Karl Rove have a rainy day fund of issues to raise in tough times? Did he and John Ashcroft talk about emerging cases that would make Bush look truly compassionate, i.e. friendly to black people? The decision to reopen the Emmett Till murder investigation certainly challenged the Abu Ghraib story for media attention. Did they pick Emmett Till out of a hat or was he being held in reserve? The rightness of reopening the case is clear. Who would argue against finding the evil killers of an innocent child?

The announcement of the new investigation will be a test for Ashcroft and the rest of the Bush administration. Having raised the hopes of millions with just one announcement the political geniuses must now deliver. They must be watched to guarantee that justice will truly be done in the case of Emmett Till. The war on terror should begin at home. It should not take a back seat to saving the election prospects of a man who cheated his way into the White House and lied to get his nation into a disastrous war.

Once again Margaret Kimberly  trains her laser vision on the real deal!  Others in the media may be mesmerized by the tricks of this administration, and fail to see when they are being  manipulated to act as mouthpieces for those currently in power.  Ms. Kimberly cuts through all of the "spin" and lets us know what is really going on.  It is no mere coincidence, in my mind, that this reopened case is taking place now.  Studying the modus operandi of this Bush team, this headline grabbing  event or something like it could have been anticipated.  If this does not get the desired result of diverting attention from the Iraqi  torture story, we can look for something more dramatic to be announced  in a few weeks. The great thing about Ms. Kimberly is that she is no shrinking violet when it comes to calling it like she sees it.  And we can all thank our lucky stars that she always sees it very clearly.  I look forward to her column each week.

“Why do they hate us?” Americans are hated because we want to control and dominate, which always leads to killing, stealing or helping others who want to do the same thing. They hate us because we say we want to free a country from the grip of an evil dictator when we really want to take a nation’s resources and turn it into a military base. They hate us because it is inevitable that the theft and destruction will lead to using the dictator’s torture chambers for our own torture sessions. They hate us because after we kill and destroy we ask stupid questions as if we were innocent.

I just read your article as posted on the web site The Smirking Chimp. I just wanted to say thank you for writing one of the clearest, simplest explanations for why the war in Iraq is a colossal, horrible, deadly mistake.

While most on the right would call me a traitor for saying so, I think it is past time for the US to be shunned by the world community as an out-of-control imperial power. I consider John Kerry to be a decent guy, and a far and away better choice than the current occupant of the White House, but he still is part of the dominant national paradigm, and does not seem to have the vision to move beyond it (or perhaps the courage to speak publicly about alternatives.)

Until we can move as a nation past the attitudinal problems (and resulting behaviors) that you imply in your article, we will probably become involved in similar horrific messes in the future, or worse.

Thank you for being a voice of sanity.

Your column is on the mark. There should be a UN resolution that states that no nation is allowed to attack another nation unless at least fifty percent of its own population can point out the adversary nation on an unmarked map. That would basically end any possible legality for future American "adventures" – excepting Mexico and maybe Canada.

Now the Americans have been knocked senseless by the photographic boomerang from Abu Ghraib, revealing the psychosexual aspect of the Occupation. U.S. intelligence and psychological warfare techniques are designed to assault the target’s sense of cultural and sexual self – thus “breaking” him. Since the U.S. war in Iraq is in practice a race war, the military’s mission inevitably becomes the total subjugation of one people by the other: the breaking of a nation. Iraqis correctly perceive that Americans intend to defile their nationality and – for the men – their manhood. This aspect of the rape of Iraq is felt even more strongly than the economic pillaging of the country, because it assaults all Iraqi regions, ethnicities and classes….

Rice and Bush are worried about Abu Ghraib’s effect on their own images with the American electorate. Normally, atrocities against Arabs would not represent a domestic problem for the White House. The American electorate was largely unmoved by the collective punishment of Fallujah, where hundreds of Iraqi noncombatants were slaughtered to avenge the killing of four armed American mercenaries. Potential Bush voters care nothing for the fate of male Iraqi prisoners – but they are gravely concerned about how the war might affect young American soldiers.

I just checked out your current issue and I had to tell you your publication is absolutely brilliant!  I'm a white woman, a Brazilian immigrant, who has traveled and worked around the world as an English teacher and a journalist and writer.  I spent several years in the Middle East and Africa.  Your lead article "Not Fit to Change the World" is absolutely on-target.  I have been looking for exactly this argument in the left-liberal press, including the alternative press.

While a few commentators have alluded to it, none have quite said it as explicitly, directly and as clearly as you have.  I've checked your site before, as it was often recommended by the folks at Counterpunch.  But I checked it out today because a letter-writer on the antiwar site recommended your current issue and the lead article, quoting from it.  It's a magnificent piece.

The USA is ideologically, institutionally, historically, and inherently incapable of bringing democracy and freedom to ANYONE.  It still has not done so with its own people, let alone anyone else.  I've referred several friends and colleagues to the article.

It is amusing to watch white folks act out their fantasies regarding the sexuality of people of color. Just as it was during the days of lynchings of black men, as soon as white folks have you physically under their control the first thing they reach for are the genitalia. I wonder how our resident black conservatives/Uncle Toms are dealing with this mess.  

The stories about Abu Ghraib continue to pile up, and... gasp... begin to make clear the truly downward spiral taking place "Iraqetnam".

Thankfully, some in the mainstream media are seeing the light and engaging in real journalism again. The Washington Post has had good stuff out recently, particularly on Abu Ghraib. Seymour Hersh at the New Yorker – particularly in this new piece – has all but politically assassinated Rumsfeld. (It seems clear now that a group of establishment hawks on the inside want "Rummy" out.)

The point of this little note is that , and a handful of other progressives on the Net and in the blogosphere, have been there from jump street. The mainstream media publications have only come on board now that they can smell blood in the water. I commend particularly because of the way you have taken global issues that specifically impact black people and talked about how they impact us. But you've also then placed them back into the broader context of war and global domination to present us with both the forest and the trees. Right on fellas! Keep it up.

I'll leave you with one last thought. After perusing the papers today, and the past couple weeks, things look as though they are rapidly spiraling out of control for the Bush cabal. I don't know if y'all at are classic NBA fans, but as I think about your references to the Bush crew as a cabal of global pirates I'm reminded of the immortal words of a would-be basketball legend, Michael Ray Richardson, about Red Holzman's Knicks, "d.. d.. dis ship be sinkin'.")

I am a very successful man that went thru Vietnam along with my brother, we achieved our goals by hard work and some luck and affirmative action by people that gave us a chance letting us in the door. One we both agreed on is that we did not do it alone. A lot of Black folks died for us to get here, and that is something we can never forget no matter how far we go.

This is just a common sense observation about affirmative action. My father and mother were right. This is not about crabs in a barrel, it is about getting to a position of authority and responsibility and pissing on the same people that fought tooth and nail to open the doors.

Affirmative action by sucking up: Dr. Rice, PhD – very smart, works for a "c" student President. No common sense, just book learning. Go figure.

Affirmative action by tommin’ up: Armstrong Williams – blinded by money and is evil. Will sell his soul for money.

I was brought up to think that no matter how far we go or what we achieved, we did not do it alone. It has always been a group effort to affect change so that individuals may achieve. We had to raise hell for many generations from the end of slavery until 1965 to really gain our true place in this society. 

When I was growing up in Louisiana I ran into so-called black people just like these two – never risked anything but got the rewards and said they did it all by themselves.

I love your web site, very informative. Thank God for common sense.  Bless you all.

June 3 2004
Issue 93

is published every Thursday.