Respect: Building Each Other Up! And the Need for more positive African-American blogging

Quick thought. . .

We need to focus on the positives in our community. Let's blog more about how we build up our communities. The stories are out there. It's our opportunity to report them.

Black men and women give back to their communities on a daily basis. They rarely get the credit they deserve. Their stories don't fit our oft-times cynical view of the black community. Their community service initiatives continue to challenge the zero-sum mentality too many of us have adopted . . . the image of dedicated brothas and sistas working with and for each other is something we don't see too often in the media.

As black people we've been preconditioned to hate each other. Don't believe me? Just type the words "black men" or "black women" on your next google search. You'll find a long list of websites, studies and YouTube videos dedicated to bashing black men and women. Forget the white man . . . we do it to ourselves.

Let's get one thing straight. . . self-destruction is not a revolutionary concept.

Ask yourself this question: As a people, do we expend more energy building each other up or tearing each other down?

Well, I for one am going to start posting A LOT more stories highlighting the positive work taking place in the black community.

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Memo to the Media: Hate Matters

Have we reached the point where the media can no longer ignore the elephant in the room? For reasons that I'll discuss later, this question is somewhat rhetorical, but the following clip at least begins to talk about the problem in more direct terms (Note: sans the obligatory Is the White House responsible? introduction). . .



Don Lemon asks for an answer. I'll address the media as a whole.

Memo to the Media: Hate matters.

And your failure to call it hate is a big part of the problem.

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That purity list keeps getting shorter and shorter

And we're all the better for it. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) changed his stance on the health care bill today to announce that he will be voting for passage.

Here's a quote from the congressman:

"I know I have to make a decision, not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is."

Now, here's a clip:

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Funny, but it seems Mr. Kucinich just said almost the exact same thing a lot of supporters of this bill have been saying throughout the year. In other words, we pass it now and work on it later. In other words, a half-a-loaf is better than no loaf at all. In other words, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Yet, the fact that Mr. Kucinich had to even hold a press conference to announce his vote speaks towards a problem within left-of-center politics in my opinion. I am talking about purity tests.

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"Death Panels" meets "Death Sentence"?

How is Moore's claim of a "Death Sentence" any more constructive than rightwing shouts of "Death Panels"?

There's a reason why I've stopped watching cable news as of late. Hyperbole has long been a habit of the networks and last night was no different. The problem is when such hyperbole leads to misinformation or, even worse, disinformation. And though the hyperbole from the Right has been increasingly destructive and, at times, violent, there is also a good amount of hyperbole from the Left as well.

I give you Mr. Michael Moore and his introduction of two talking-points: "4 years" and "Death Sentence."

Now, the "4 years" talking point actually isn't all that new. It's been around since people learned that some of the major benefits of health care reform won't kick in until 2014 under the Senate bill. Fair enough, I'd like to see the benefits kick in sooner as well. However, what this talking point fails to mention is the fact that there's a list of benefits that begin within the first year of the bill's enactment. Among them:

• Outlawing discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions.
• Coverage of preventative health services.
• Prohibition on rescissions
• and allowing young adults to remain on their parent's insurance plan until the age of 26

So the whole "This bill is useless argument" is unpersuasive when considering some of the immediate benefits. Talk to a parent with kids in college to see if they'd like to cover their son or daughter on their plan until the age of 26. Listen to a parent who's worried that her child will be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. I'd think they'd like what's in this bill. They wouldn't dismiss it as better than nothing.

Would I like to see the entire bill kick in immediately? Of course. Am I willing to scrap the entire bill because it doesn't? Absolutely not.

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President Obama - A new standard of "tough" politics

In case you missed it, President Obama gave everyone a first class lesson in tough politics when he faced a room full of his harshest critics at the Republican retreat on Friday.

Take a look at the following videos:

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And here's the really good part:

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Make no mistake about it . . . President Obama is tough.

And by the word "tough" I mean actually confronting one's adversaries instead of hiding behind surrogates and talking points.

By the word "tough" I mean actually addressing the issues head on rather than dodging questions or pandering to be liked.

By the word "tough" I mean having the ability to completely destroy your political opponents without once ever having to resort to name-calling because you have a far superior grasp of the issues and a powerfully clear and persuasive way of getting your point across.

By the word "tough" I mean being able to engage in debate on two different levels at the same time; being able to slog through the wonky policy details while still arguing a larger point on the state of political discourse (or lack thereof) in our country today.

By the word "tough" I mean always being one step ahead of your competition.

By the word "tough" I mean being flexible enough to acknowledge when the other side makes a good point, not allowing pride to commeth before the fall.

By the word "tough" I mean standing on principle, but being smart enough to know that there is more than one way to get from points "A" to "B" without succumbing to predictable political dogma and ideological purity.

By the word "tough" I mean understanding that voters care far more about results than political chest-thumping.

And . . .

By the word "tough" I mean going against an entire room of individuals who wish nothing more than to see you fail, and finding joy in knowing that you're just too damn good to let that happen.

That's what being "tough" means in today's politics. It's knowing who you are and being comfortable in your own skin. It's talking to the American people like adults. And it's having faith in the belief that voters are smart enough and patient enough to strive for something better than bumper-sticker politics and cheap political gamesmsnship.

We saw this on Friday.

Good job, Mr. President.

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Lesson learned? Don't trust fair-weather liberals

Perhaps you'll hear from a "frustrated" voter who claimed to walk 100 miles to canvass for Obama. And that voter will tell you that Obama is weak because he didn't fix eight years of bad policy in his first year of office. This voter will wax poetic about a time when he or she once made out to Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" song. And, if you're lucky, this "disenchanted" voter will lecture you on how Obama should have done XY or Z without the necessary votes in Congress because Presidents FDR, LBJ and GWB were. . . (sigh) I don't know . . . special?

And you’ll certainly hear endless criticism of the Democratic establishment and stupid mistakes by the candidate.

But if history is any indicator, you might also hear pundit after pundit talk about the "protest vote" or those who deliberately chose to sit on their hands to "teach the Dems a lesson" (assuming they are qualified to teach whatever that lesson may be).

What lesson, you may ask?

Well, the same lesson Dems supposedly learned from their great teacher, Ralph Nader, in 2000. That oh so persuasive "lesson" that only the truly progressive, ideologically pure, intellectually superior must teach to the masses of mindless "Obamatons," "kool-aid drinkers," "cult members" - feel free to add any of a number of condescending pejoratives -who are just too emotionally swayed by the President's swagger to remove the rose-colored glasses when judging this President and his policies.

You'll hear it, and you'll know it verbatim. Why? Because you've heard it a million times before. Which speaks to one of two possibilities:

1. Democrats are extremely dense; or
2. Liberals take themselves way too seriously

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