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I Need a Beer, The Birther Movement, and just Whistling Dixie
By Ken Jackson
Posted on 08/15/09

I Need a Beer

President Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sgt. James Crowley and Vice President Joe Biden sat down and had a little chat presumably about the events of the last week when Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct in his home in Cambridge Mass. He showed his drivers’ license and Harvard I.D., but was still handcuffed and led away. According to the Police Report “After exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior.” Immediately, bottom-feeders like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh came out swinging. “He’s a racist,” Hannity said. “He hates white people,” bellowed Glen Beck in syncopation with Limbaugh.

Right Wing-Nut Organizations from across the land were trying to make a huge deal out of this issue and neither participant fell for the bait. It’s not a crime in Massachusetts to yell at an Officer while in your own home being mistaken for a burglar. Gates showed his I.D. and indicated how ticked off he was. Where have we gone when we can barge into a person’s home and arrest him for being ticked off? Where’s my pocket version of The Constitution!?

The Birther Movement

Like White Water followed the Clintons similar to bad flatulence might follow pork and beans, the “birthers” believe that Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya. These creatures appear to be related to that crazy woman who said that Obama was a Muslim at a John McCain rally. Another woman at a Republican congressman’s Town Hall meeting stood up and yelled at the congressman, “Here’s my birth certificate, I can prove that I was born here in America. He was born in Kenya, give me my country back.” These people are showing up at Town Hall meetings demanding to “see a copy.”

Whistling Dixie

Recently, a black leader in an interview stated that the race for Mayor was between Stephanie Minor and Joe Nicolletti. I wonder if he remembers all the urban elderly people he and others drove to the polls when Roy Bernardi was elected- with lots of black votes. It’s time to leave the Syracuse Political Plantation and turn your head-rag in.

What a lesson to send to our youth to discount all the black candidates running for Mayor of Syracuse. Instead of embracing the notion that it may be possible regardless of party that history can be made in Syracuse this year, these candidates are being discounted by their “so-called own.” (BTW: Buck Dancin’ and Shufflin’ lessons are on Saturday morning.)

I’m not saying that it’s our obligation to vote for an African-American just because he or she are of color. But we owe ourselves and our families at least a “look-see” at the so-called dark horses in the mayoral race. And for a so-called- black- leader to stand there on his plantation porch and declare victory for the elite is a lot like seasoning your food before you taste it. With the active engagement of the urban community we can finally change the mental complexion of City Hall with inclusion, not just new positions on a different plantation.