NYT ONLINE: Clyburn said slowly. “Here we are 45 years after the ‘I have a dream’ speech. Forty years after the assassinations of Kennedy and King. And this party that I have been a part of for so long, this party that has been accused of taking black people for granted, is about to deliver the nomination for the nation’s highest office to an African-American. How do you describe that? All those days in jail cells, wondering if anything you were doing was even going to have an impact.†He shook his head silently.
It’s been more than forty five years and Barack ain’t hardly black, but it is pretty awesome. I’m not saying Ron Paul doesn’t talk sense, but just the fact we got here so quick inspires me.
NYT
…he told me a story about watching his father, a South Carolina sharecropper with a fourth-grade education, weep uncontrollably when Cummings was sworn in as a representative in 1996. Afterward, Cummings asked his dad if he had been crying tears of joy. “Oh, you know, I’m happy,†his father replied. “But now I realize, had I been given the opportunity, what I could have been. And I’m about to die.â€
Comment by Rolston — August 6, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Imagine how great this would be if he was actually qualified to run our country!
Progress as the expense of progress, I’m afraid. I can think of many black candidates I could have gotten behind. Not this guy, though.
Comment by Lyle_s — August 7, 2008 @ 11:44 am
it feels like they found a half black sellout after all these years. Democrats suck.
Comment by Rolston — August 7, 2008 @ 8:05 pm
but why was Bush more qualified?
Comment by Rolston — August 7, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Well, from a political experience standpoint, Bush doesn’t have much but I’d put 5 years running one of our larger states up against a spattering of US Congress and state senate experience any day. Governors are leaders. Senators and representatives are individual contributors to a larger entity. I think that’s why most presidents are ex-governors and rarely come from the senate. Bush also has a long leadership resume from the private sector.
Obama doesn’t have any real leadership background but, in reviewing his Wikipedia bio, one thing jumps out at me. This guy does a great job of creating something out of nothing. That probably sounds snarky but it’s at least half compliment. He’s spun up a number of Board of Directors in his time in Chicago.
Comment by Lyle_s — August 8, 2008 @ 9:48 am
I don’t have facts, just heresay, that Bush did an awful job running Texas, same with most other jobs he was given. Doing something terribly for a long time isn’t necessarily the type of experience you want in your guy.
Anyway, the voice in the original article is more about the joy people should feel that for better or wors, the Democrats picked a “black” man. Black people couldn’t marry white people in the 1960′s in America. White people are starting to accept black people. That’s good news to me. Our country is too fucked for it to really matter if a dead black man wins the next election. But at least before we imploded we showed some growth in positive directions.
Comment by Rolston — August 10, 2008 @ 11:37 pm
We’ll see. Something tells me the November election will be a real eye-opener as to just how far we’ve really come. I suspect that political correctness is actually setting us back when it comes to social progress.
Comment by Lyle_s — August 11, 2008 @ 8:39 am