Obama
Is Not The Answer
To King’s Dream
By David Truskoff
31 August,
2008
Countercurrents.org
I was appalled at the staged attempt by the Democrats to link the anniversary of the August 28, 1963. Speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King to the nomination of Obama. The message was, King’s Dream has been answered." CNBC and other major media outlets joined in the charade.
On that very hot August day in 1963 I sat in front of the Lincoln memorial and listened to King enthrall the marchers who were full of optimism. The one line that stands out in the great speech was, " I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. " He used the phrase "one day" very often, that day has not yet arrived. We know very little of Obama's character. We do know that he is a driven politician like many others the difference being only that he has a black Face.
June 16, 1966, when the Freedom marchers arrived in Greenwood, Mississippi, The violence took another turn. I was almost run over by a car that screeched through the marchers with a swastika banner on its side. Rocks and bottles greeted the speakers and Carmichael was arrested. Yes, it was the same town that three civil rights workers disappeared from and were later found murdered. It was after Carmichael’s release when he made his "Black Power" Speech that was to divide the Civil Rights Movement forever. From that day on the march was a two-week debate on tactics. It intensified when the tear gas and clubs greeted us in Canton Mississippi.
There were those who said we can register all the voters in Mississippi, but they will not have anyone to vote for. The two parties are both controlled. In answer to that The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was by far the most important achievement of the march. It created the momentum for the election of many black office holders in the north and south.
Carmichael was absolutely right when he said in a speech delivered October 1966, in Berkeley, CA
"It’s a privilege and an honor to be in the white intellectual ghetto of the West. We wanted to do a couple of things before we started. The first is that, based on the fact that SNCC, through the articulation of its program by its chairman, has been able to win elections in Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, and by our appearance here will win an election in California, in 1968 I'm going to run for President of the United States. I just can't make it, 'cause I wasn't born in the United States. That's the only thing holding me back."
Yes there was great optimism and many political victories were achieved or so many liberals thought.
The frustration began when blacks and liberal whites realized they had been taken down the garden path. Very rarely did a black administration improve the lot of the city dwellers. The white chamber of commerce and the corporations they represented saw to that. . Cities like Chicago and Detroit (where the Black mayor is under arrest) deteriorated in the slums where murder and mayhem became daily fare. In Hartford Connecticut we had two black mayors and today we have a Hispanic and we have a black police chief.
In the sixties I ran inner city overnight work camps for city kids. Today I would not venture out in the streets of Hartford. We see the reports of the daily shootings and killings on the morning news.
No King’s ONE DAY has not arrived. I said we had a two-week debate during the Mississippi March about tactics. The militants referred to the black preachers and the few black elected officials as, "Oreos" (The famous American cookie that is black on the outside and white on the inside.)
From what I have learned about Obama he is an Oreo and he will do no more for America than black mayors have done for our cities.
Shortly before he died Martin Luther King made this important statement that all liberals must think about today. King said, "it is one thing to throw a coin to a beggar. It is another to address the edifice that creates beggars"
Corporate America knows that in one more decade the so-called minority will be the majority and we will be a nation of over four million people. They need a black face to be in their control. They spent hundreds of millions to protect themselves and keep control of both parties.
With the two party system in a shambles and both controlled by the fundraisers, we as liberal Americans have no way left to "Address the edifice" except in the streets. I know that is coming. I fear for our young people.
Realists have to prepare for that and develop leadership that will help avoid the violence that is sure to come.
David Truskoff author WHAT THE HELL IS A LIBERAL'
www.erols.com/suttonbear
