CLICK HERE FOR HEART SPEAKER

 

 

 

Raise your hand if you believe that Hillary is a Monster?  Can anyone here define Bitch for me? Just checking!

 

 

Dedicated to one who understands that  proximity is in the eye of the beholder…Twin flame recognition is in the heart and the soul not in the mind. Alternate endings occur frequently in life. May yours be written in the fire that continues to burn …..

 

I do not think in black and white.

I stir the shadows in the night.

And I navigate by a lonely star.

So I will not wander very far.

 

I wait for you to call my name.

My life will never be the same.

Your words still echo in my mind.

They touch my soul and turn to rhyme.

 

 

I see the candle burning bright.

I feel the flame warm the night.

No matter what I hear you say,

I think I’ll love you anyway……

 

 

In the 1990’s the Clinton administration started to acknowledge and publicly apologize for slavery and other terrible wrongs that blot our history. There came another round of legislation and a huge attempt to require equal protection and enforcement under the law.

It is my belief that the acknowledgement not the apology was important.

The Bush administration has had a concerted effort to undo all progress in every area of America. Bush has a reactionary record, from the attempts to dismantle Affirmative Action, to the destruction of environmental laws and even the chipping away at the most basic rights of the Constitution. 

We have real problems in America. We have a window to change America in some very progressive ways.

 

I have sat in Black churches and I do not believe that Obama’s church is typical of the teachings of the Black churches  in Texas and Louisiana that I know. Perhaps hate speech and the Farrakan doctrine of anti-everything is gaining ground instead of fading in our society. I doubt it.

 

In 1992 I walked out of a church that had more Whites than Blacks. I left not because of racism. I left the church because it had tables of political brochures lining one wall. The church was pushing political agenda’s to the congregation instead of God. My aunt never really understood what bothered me about the church. I tried to explain, but it didn’t work. So be it.

 By the way my aunt and uncle went on to do some wonderful missionary work for many years in Hong Kong. The church grew into a mega-church. The church with it’s slanted politics that never made it into the pulpit continues to do a lot of good for the community and overseas.

 

My ex-husband's step mother was Mexican from Laredo. My kids step Mom is Asian America….I have a rainbow extended family….mixed American Indian…mixed Black…mixed Indian from India…mixing Hispanic. My grandson is bi-racial. He says he is “mixed-up Brown and White and he believes I am mixed-up White"…. I hate the very separatist (not so thinly veiled) doctrines  that apparently have not faded in Obama’s church. I do not care for extremism whether it be Black or White.

But it’s not about religion and it’s not about race. This conversation may be  about those 2  very explosive issues. But the speech is about throwing those two issues in the face of America so we cannot see the man sitting in the church for 20 years with no effort to change things and no effort to leave. And his daughters sat there with him.

The Obama speech failed to truly distract many of us because it exposed the contradiction between Obama the myth and Obama the man. For months, certain voting blocks have been in love with the mythic Obama -- the WE Obama.

The "we" Obama inspired us with the promise that we were agents of change, we were going to the White House, we were transcending conventional politics. People fell in love with this concept (to use Ferraro's language) –The problem is the reality is peaking through the persona. We need a President that truly can transcend race and we wonder how he feels about ALL the people.

The Obama speech did not answer any questions. The temporary distraction leads  Americans from the  real issue.  However it was a powerful political ploy and an interesting route to take.

 

This speech demands a conversation on race in general -- how we experience race, how America has failed to transcend the historical racial division, how we are all guilty, including those closest to Mr Obama. But most people listening to the speech  were expecting an answer from Obama the man. Most expected him to defend or offer an explanation of what looked like "poor" judgement on his part. Instead, they were told that we have to be more honest about racism in our lives.

 

 

Make no mistake this was very clever: Obama’s political problem became our national problem. Now instead of hopes and dreams, people are projecting a lot of  frustration on the  self- proclaimed  “blank  slate” known as Obama. I have not been thrilled with the racial divide that has been opened into the public discourse. I consider this Mr Obama's attempt to throw America "under the bus"

 

Does this mean I am a racist? When you read that I am a Hillary voter does that cross your mind? Well if so then the entire Obama strategy is working. Or maybe I am a closet cross burner. At least this conversation has been about me. 

 

 So the media will be examining Hillary’s record and exaggerations. The media has accepted “the speech” as a fix for the issue. It makes a better story.

 

But I have delivered on my end of the deal. I had a conversation right out loud about my experiences and fears. I am a middle class, middle aged, “typical white person”. You know what I believe and you know where I stand on the issue of race. You may sense my fears. Perhaps I remind you of your grandmother more than your minister.

 

In other words Mr Obama I showed you mine you show me yours…..I am demanding a two sided conversation.  

 

Recently America has been indulging in a conversation. A conversation demanded by Obama in an effort to distract from the religious extremism of his church. A conversation that he hopes will divert attention from some very real facts.

 

I refuse to take this conversation back to Slavery and the Civil War. I was born in 1956 and that is where my conversation can start.

 

There are no solutions in this type of conversation, which lends itself to apologists and the validation of victimization. The true guilt lies in the soil and the blood of every nation.

There have been times in history where cultures clash and society breaks open to reveal the true injustices and class distinctions that separate us. The 1960’s in America was such a time. Black people rose up and demanded change. Jews stood side by side with them to organize and fight for rights. Women left their families and died in the frontlines of a battle that was fought in the South.

 

While idealistic college students were marching with Dr King LBJ was president. He lacked the charisma and the charm of the Kennedys . The camera did not love him and he spoke with a blunt Texas drawl. Nevertheless, LBJ used all his political capital and most of his personal energy to pass the Civil Rights Acts that were left as only a promise with no underpinning by the inspirational JFK. The short Camelot era was a time of hope. LBJ was not inspirational, but he got things done.

 

Men and women like Dr King, John Lewis, and Rosa Parks were the true heroes in this story. They organized and were beaten and arrested and sometimes murdered in small towns in Mississippi and Alabama.

The Martin Luther King branch of the Civil Rights movement embodied a dedication with true faith to the principles of peaceful resistance and Gandhi’s teachings.

 

LBJ’s legacy may always be Viet Nam, which was another inheritance from Kennedy that grew like a cancer on his Presidency. LBJ who was known to utter racial slurs leaves a stark contradiction. But without him the story could not have been written. He was a hero too.

Laws were hammered out and attitudes began to change. Sometimes when the people rise up, change happens.

 

 From lunch counters and buses to the streets of Washington DC people stood up and demanded change. With Affirmative Action and the Federal efforts and Supreme Court decisions to equalize education and opportunity a window was opened. Change actually began in the US before the 1960’s and 1970’s.

 

In 1968 I cried in the arms of a Black woman when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Actually I was in middle school and Stella Davis was my surrogate Mother. I lived in an America where Blacks were still struggling for Civil Rights, but White working women trusted them with their children. The irony does not escape me.

In 1973 during integration my high school was occupied by a SWAT team for months. A small number of Black students were bussed into Bryan Adams HS in Dallas. Signs carefully made in the art room after school (by some of the football team) demanded “Ni…r Go Home”. A race riot erupted the next morning. It was only the continued police presence,  that ended 3 days of sporadic fighting.

 

The worst of the conflict took place in the courtyard where the signs were and in the cafeteria where Black and White anger spilled into a food fight with butter knives and fists.

From the shelter of underneath a table I met my friend from English class. We ran hand-in-hand outside to the tennis court. We watched together. I was a white girl who was half stoned and she was a black girl who said she was “A lover not a fighter”.

 

I believe that my conversations with Stella and Deborah were not about words but about hearts. But there are times when words are important.

In my lifetime, I have encountered random good old boys, fading old men, my small town cousins, Black teenagers, and more recently a high school teacher of one of my daughters who have used racial slurs. I have stood to confront these attitudes and words that divide us. I do not have to accept the unacceptable words or slanders even in those that I love. I am doubtful that I have changed any minds or hearts. But I believe strongly in personal responsibility.

 

Has America done enough? I say no! But time is on our side.

 

When people shake off the bonds of slavery and discrimination it takes generations for any society to right itself. It takes the equal application of laws. It takes the constant vigilance of an electorate. It takes the political will and understanding of the people of this country. It takes people willing to dispel myths and insist on solutions within the circle of their friends and family. It takes the moral courage to reject separatism whether it be Black, White, Brown or Red.

In some cases, it may be argued that we have overcorrected. Others may demand that we tear down the government and start again.

 

Our society is not color-blind and growing up Black in America still limit’s your opportunities and increases your risks. If you are poor you may be denied equal protection in our justice system. Our society is not equal and growing up Brown in America often eliminates your chance to have your voice heard. Asians are the fastest growing minority in America and assimilation is generational not situational. Women are not represented proportionally in government or in industry. Gays and lesbians still do not have the simple right to marry and the protections of the law in both civil and law enforcement lapses. America has an uneven history of warehousing and control of minorities and the  poor. Usually these periods are followed by earnest attempts to right these deep and wounding wrongs.

 

Growing up White in America you may be the ancestor of abolitionists or slave owners.  Every immigrant has their story. Every story has its terrible chapters in American history.

 

My bi-racial grandson sees the world in shades not colors. I hope I can influence him to live with an open heart and an embracing spirit. I believe that we have an obligation to try and influence those closest to our hearts and spirits

 

Will I fear you for your color as we break bread? Will I hate you for your accent as I learn your language? Will I distrust the immigrant soul as I acknowledge it is my own?

Will you blame me for the sins of my grandfather? Should my skin define me? If I sense prejudice in myself is that equal to denouncing America?

I believe it takes the direct and personal mixing of the melting pot to make the truest changes. My responsibility is simple. I must speak out at the very level where I live my life. In my church or community or in my own home is where I have the most responsibility to “talk this talk and walk this walk”. America is built on a dream that must be nurtured and not damned.

 

Sometimes when you feel guilty you are…..sometimes when you feel guilty someone is manipulating you for political purposes.

 No one in their right mind can deny that we have big problems in America. The time for talk was decades ago the time for action continues.

 So why are we having this conversation?

It is my belief that this conversation is designed to distract. It is born of political desperation and pandering. This conversation that is demanded of America is one that Mr Obama did not think was important to have in his own church. It has within it the seeds of separtism and division and is designed to play on guilt and anger for political gain.