RE: You’re White and Marched With Dr. King: So What?
To Imani Grandy,
My name is Eric Wattree. I'm a writer, musician, poet, and old school revolutionary from the 60s (Google me). While I understand your passion, as a former Panther associate (I was never a joiner), I've seen unbridled passion before, and it's ALWAYS counterproductive.
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Your position in this matter not only misrepresents the position of Martin Luther King, but also the realization that Malcolm X came to just before he was assassinated. What made Martin effective was he didn't run off angry and half-cocked like many of us. He didn't allow his anger to circumvent his intellect. He understood that Black people couldn't win the civil rights battle alone. He recognized from the outset that he needed to form a coalition by changing the hearts and minds of the American people, and then using the clout derived from that change to apply political pressure on our government. That's how things are changed in the United States.
. Yes, there was a lot of noise and commotion going on during the civil rights movement, but don't be misled. America wasn't afraid of Black people during the sixties, just as no one is afraid of us now. The powers that be have enough experience with Black people to know that all they have to do is call out the national guard and all they'll hear are crickets by nightfall - and besides, no battle has ever been won by flappin' lips anyway. So essentially, all the Netroots stunt was, was somebody's dumb and self-serving idea for a personal photo op.
Again, battles are won by forming political coalitions - yes, political coalitions with White liberals like Bernie Sanders, who you so cavalierly flipped off - and also, inspiring people of every walk of life to embrace the cause of justice - justice for ALL. Martin understood this, and later, so did Malcolm. But due to Martin's resolve in this matter, and his refusal to see us slaughtered en mass by taking to the streets in violence (as many young hot headed idiots like myself were determined to do), we started calling him Martin Luther "Coon." You see, we were too young and dumb to realize that we couldn't out-scream injustice, and we couldn't out-fight the military. You must out-think injustice, and all those who insist on relying on anger over thought are a liability to both the people, and the people's cause.
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More people are turning out to hear Bernie Sanders than any other politician in America. So all you've done is managed to antagonize thousands of people who you should be trying to gather as allies. So there's only one word that adequately describes such an action - STUPID.
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We're In A Class War - Open Your Eyes
We must never forget that God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to THINK, not to act in reckless stupidity. Thus the attack on Sen. Bernie Sanders was unwarranted, and just that - and act of unmitigated stupidity, and it was exactly the kind of political stunt that's giving the 1%ers and social manipulators the upper hand against the people. NEVER ATTACK YOUR ALLIES!!! By doing so you only lend legitimacy to the allegations, distortions, and propaganda of your enemy. So if whoever came up with the idea of organizing this stunt against Sanders and O'Malley didn't have sense enough to recognize such a fundamental reality, neither do they have sense enough to lead the people
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Considering the content of the Republican clown car, and everything that the GOP has been doing, and saying, to undermine and divide the American working class, I find it next to impossible to believe that anyone acting with legitimate intent could be so politically naive and out of touch with reality that they'd believe that staging such a counterproductive political stunt would be in the best interest of either Black people, or the American working class. So I believe that stunt was staged by either a GOP ringer, or a political operative of one of the Democratic campaigns.
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It's my personal belief that Bernie Sanders' long record of civil rights activities - that go all the way back to when he was in the trenches with Martin Luther King and before many of his current critics were born - is clearly resonating with the people, and somebody's been caught off guard, because the people are beginning to realize that what Bernie's been saying for decades is absolutely true. We're in the middle of a class war, and we can't out-fight the 1%ers, because they control the military, we can't out-scream the 1%ers, because they control the media, and we can't out-spend the 1%ers, because they control 90% of the nation's resources. But here's what we can do - we can out-organize and out-vote the 1%ers hands down, and that's what we must do if we're going to survive as a free nation.
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So the working class needs to wake up and stop dividing itself into factions. ALL LIVES MATTER, and the working class in this country needs to come together and embrace that message. Black people, Hispanics, women's groups, and gays need to understand that none of our various groups can prevail alone. The 1%ers have established a solid front, and we'd better do the same or we're doomed, because our division is their most effective weapon.
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On the other hand, if the people come together as a solid front, we can trump money. No matter how much money the 1%ers pour into their campaigns, if the people stand firm, the 1%ers can't win, because the only thing that money can buy in politics is votes, and we OWN the vote, if we would just wake up and recognize that.
. And finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention your grossly unappreciative and cavalier attitude toward the White liberals who believed so passionately in EVERYONE'S right to justice that they were willing to give up their lives so YOU could have one. Those were very dangerous times during the Civil Rights movement, as evidenced by the fact that John and Robert Kennedy, Martin, and Malcolm are no longer with us. So I'm simply going to assume that what I can only refer to as your disgustingly cavalier attitude toward the sacrifices of those heroes is a direct response to a gross ignorance of that era on your part. During that time, White liberals who fought for civil rights were considered traitors to their race. They were hated on a par with Osama Bin Laden, and many were kidnapped in the night and subjected to the most horrible forms of torture and death. Yet, you say, "So what!!!?"
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But today it's about much more than just the hatred of Black people. Today, they're simply USING the various hatreds - of Black people, Hispanics, Muslims, women's rights, and gays - to entice social bigots to keep the working class divided, and to vote against their own interests, and for their own enslavement. It's about dollars, and a lack of sense. It's a class issue, and you're playing right into it. The 1%ers don't care any more about poor and middle-class White people than they do Black people or other minorities. So it's imperative that we ALL come together on EVERY issue as a CLASS, and stop trying to fight little skirmishes as individual factions. That's a losing battle. That's why we're still fighting Martin's battle fifty years later, because we have yet to learn that lesson. But it's a lesson that conservatives have learned well:
Are Your Religious Beliefs Simply An Accident of Birth?
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A friend of mine, who's a Christian and a very insightful writer, recently wrote an article that started me thinking about both Christianity and organized religion in general. In his article he asked a pivotal question that I believe goes right to the core of Christianity - "What if Jesus was merely the teacher of a social gospel and moral philosophy . . .?" . In my opinion, that question captured the essence of what Jesus was all about. Jesus wasn't a superhuman; he was simply a very intelligent and insightful human being, a philosopher. But after he espoused his philosophy, ignorant, self-serving, and superstitious people - people who believed in talking snakes - took his words out of context and turned him into some kind of superhuman being, and gave him powers that contradicted the laws of nature, the universe, common sense, and God. .
If we hadn't been conditioned all our lives to believe in this counterintuitive nonsense it would be clear to us that the Christian belief system holds just about as much validity as voodoo. Take a moment to ask yourself, how does your religion (regardless to what it is) make any more sense than voodoo? An honest answer to that question is, it doesn't. The only difference between what you believe and voodoo is you've chosen to believe it. That's why Christians talk more about having "faith," than they do loving their fellow man. Even as Christian racists were lynching Black people, they were preaching the need to have "faith" in God. The only problem was, as their behavior clearly demonstrated, their faith wasn't in God, it was in what other men TOLD them about God. That's why their God said "Okay" when they decided to lynch men who were unlike themselves.
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The fact is, dead men don't walk, no man can walk on water, no man can tell the Red Sea to scoot over, and if Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth and they only had two boys, who did they mate with, and where did the people come from that Cain went to live with after he slew Abel? Hmmmm . . . So what Christians believe is just as much nonsense as voodoo, or any other cult - and you can take that to the bank. .
Take a moment to consider the following. All of your religious beliefs are merely an accident of birth? If you'd been born in Israel, chances are you'd be a Jew; if you'd been born in Iran you'd be a Muslim, or in China, a Buddhist. So your religion isn't so much God-inspired as it is a result of the environment that you were raised in. You were SOCIALIZED into believing what you believe. Thus, if you truly believe that a person born in Israel, Iran, or China is going to Hell because they weren't socialized to believe what you believe, you're delusional. And if you believe that God sent a White Scandinavian with Blond hair and blue eyes to be born in the desert so he could tell people of color how they should live their lives, you're not only delusional, but you're stupid. God doesn't work like that. How do I know? Because God demonstrates his will by what he has done, and you'll never see a talking snake. God instructs through common sense, and if you believe in talking snakes, you're not using the portion of common sense that you were allocated. Yet, you look down your nose at voodoo. .
This is a serious problem, because people are doing more "believing" than thinking. Hoards of people are taking MAN'S word for the fact that the Bible is "the word of God." So they're placing all of their "faith" in MAN, not God - and a very evil man, at that. On the other hand, we KNOW that God gave us our minds (and by "God," I mean whatever force is responsible for the existence of the universe and what we consider reality), so we need to start using it, because it makes absolutely no sense to place more "faith" in what man TELLS us about God than what is obvious that God has done. And man has clearly shown that he has more faith in the words of other men, than he does in the actual deeds of God. . Take Black people for example. African Americans are some of the most devout Christians in the world, even though they were taught Christianity while they were tied up next to the mules - and every rule, law, and tenet of Christianity was being brutally violated while they were being indoctrinated. Yet, they still believe it - that a blond haired, blue eyed Scandinavian was born in the desert with supernatural powers. God forbid that they would point out that if Jesus was born in the desert that chances are he was a man of color; and since they're inclined to lie to us about what the man even looked like, how can we even begin to believe what they claim he said? .
No wonder so many Black people are finding it so hard to get their act together. They're walking around in a state of zombie-like somnambulism, and it seems that the worse they're treated, the more they cling to that ridiculous myth - "Oh dear Lord, please forgive the White boy who walked into our church and blew nine of our church member's brains out. He simply doesn't understand your word." What kind of insanity is that!!!? . That racist cracker shouldn't have gotten out of there alive, house of worship or not. But the reason he did is very simple. Black people have been conditioned to believe that no matter how bad they're treated, they shouldn't worry about it, because God is going to take care of them when they die. OH, REALLY!!!? Then why is everybody else killing one another trying to get theirs now - including the preachers? So it's no accident that everyone who is willing to believe that nonsense are victims, at the bottom of the social chain, and unless they're very lucky, suffering. Because they're victims of the perfect hustle, where the hustlers (Black and White) don't have to worry about nobody ever coming back to say they're lying. How sweet is that!!!? .
Here's another thing that should be considered. If God HAD decided to put religion on Earth to guide man, don't you think he'd have had sense enough to create just ONE religion so religious dogma wouldn't be the most hate-inspiring, murderous, and destructive forces on Earth? Look around you - here in America, in the Middle East, and literally all over the world - organized religion is THE primary source of most of the agony, pain, and misery on the planet. Thus, organized religion isn't a blessing, it's a curse. Would a loving God place a curse like that on mankind? I don't think so. God gave us spirituality, which is found within. It's a state if existence that's only between you, God, and the universe. Man has absolutely nothing to do with it, because everything man touches, he corrupts. God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to THINK, not to follow a users guide written by other men. .
Man is much too ignorant, self-serving, and greedy to write anything sacred. Yes, man says the Bible was "inspired" by God, but he also said that God told him in the Manifest Destiny to slaughter the Native Americans and take their land, and Zionists are saying the very same thing with regard to the Palestinians today. Do you actually believe that God is telling them to kill children? And what about Boko Haram, do you really believe God is telling them to kidnap young women and sell them into sexual slavery because he doesn't want women to get an education? That's not God saying that; that's self-serving men placing their words and beliefs in God's mouth, and the exact same thing is happening here in this country. Organized religion is man-made nonsense designed to manipulate the ignorance of the masses and promote the prejudice and greed of the elite. You can trace virtually any form of bigotry in a straight line right back to some form of religious dogma. So again, organized religion is a curse on man, that's been created by man, and it's ultimately going to lead to our destruction - even global warming is being defended in the name of God. .
About the Bible
. The Bible that Christians Worship today was compiled and “bless” by the Catholic Church, not God. Any book that disagreed with the Catholic Church was banned. What Christians call "The Holy Bible," and what these preachers run around thumping, wasn’t even put together until almost 400 years after the death of Jesus. So everything in it is hearsay. In terms of years, at the time the Bible was complied, they were twice as far away from the life and times of Jesus Christ as we are away from George Washington today. So in reality, they didn’t know fact from fiction, any more than we know whether or not George Washington really chopped down a cherry tree: . "For the first 300 years of Christianity, there was no Bible as we know it today. Christians had the Old Testament Septuagint, and literally hundreds of other books from which to choose. The Catholic Church realized early on that it had to decide which of these books were inspired and which ones weren't. The debates raged between theologians, Bishops, and Church Fathers for several centuries as to which books were inspired and which ones weren't. In the meantime, several Church Councils or Synods, were convened to deal with the matter, notably, Rome in 382, Hippo in 393, and Carthage in 397 and 419. The debates sometimes became bitter on both sides. One of the most famous was between St. Jerome, who felt the seven books were not canonical, and St. Augustine who said they were. Protestants who write about this will invariably mention St. Jerome and his opposition, and conveniently omit the support of St. Augustine. I must point out here that Church Father's writings are not infallible statements, and their arguments are merely reflections of their own private opinions. When some say St. Jerome was against the inclusion of the seven books, they are merely showing his personal opinion of them. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, A PERSONS PRIVATE OPINION DOES NOT CHANGE THE TRUTH AT ALL. There are always three sides to every story, this side, that side, and the side of truth. Whether Jerome's position, or Augustine's position was the correct position, had to be settled by a third party, and that third party was the Catholic Church. . "Now the story had a dramatic change, as the Pope stepped in to settle the matter. In concurrence with the opinion of St. Augustine, and being prompted by the Holy Spirit, Pope St. Damasus I, at the Council of Rome in 382, issued a decree appropriately called, "The Decree of Damasus", in which he listed the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. He then asked St. Jerome to use this canon and to write a new Bible translation which included an Old Testament of 46 books, which were all in the Septuagint, and a New Testament of 27 books" (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080928064041AATOZUD). . SO THE POPE HAD SPOKEN, AND THE ISSUE WAS SETTLED. THUS, WHAT CHRISTIANS REFER TO AS "THE HOLY BIBLE" IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD, IT'S THE WORD OF POPE DAMASUS I. .
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The Conversion
"Come here nigga and let me teach yo crazy, animal ass about the Lord. The first thing you got to learn is to Love thy Neighbor . . . especially me."
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"Yes sir, Massa. Why would anybody not love you, Sir? You so good to me, Massa. Anybody don't love you needs to have dey ass beat real good, Massa."
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"Shut up, nigga. I'm talkin'."
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"Listen, you been blessed already, and you don't even know the Lord. The Lord made it where you don't have to worry 'bout a thing. I feed you, I put clothes on yo nasty ass, and I give you a shed to sleep in, and all you have to do is whatever the hell I tell you to. Do you know how blessed you are?"
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"Oh, indeed I do, Massa. You take good care of me. I's so happy."
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"Now, listen real good 'cause dis impotant. God said, thou shalt not steal from me, thou shalt not kill (unless I tell you to), thou shalt not stick another coon's wife (unless we tryin' to make some mo niggas), and nigga, whatever you do, thou shalt not even look like you want to stick a white woman, or we gon lynch yo black ass. You here me, nigga?"
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"Oh yes, Massa. We know dat! But Massa, I thought you said thou shalt not kill?"
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"Dat means people, fool - real people! Dat don't go for niggas. God wants us to keep you in yo place."
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"Dat's right, Massa. We sho gotta keep niggas in dey place. No tellin' what a happen if we let dese niggas git loose. God so smart."
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"I said shut up, nigga, and listen to the word."
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"The next thing you got to learn is, whatever happens on this plantation is God's will bein' done. And if you listen to me, you'll get to live like I do when you die and go to Heaven."
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"Live like you, massa? A nigga ain't got no business livin' dat good. What a Po nigga like me gon do with all this? You know I ain't got sense enough to run nothin' like this."
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"Just shut up, nigga!" When you dead you gon get some sense - the lord gon give it to you. The Lord can do anything, even give sense to a nigga. And he gon give you all the other niggas you gon need to help you in the fields, too."
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"Massa, you so good to me! Thank you for tellin' me all dis. I'm gon be a good nigga - the best nigga you ever seened. Look, I'm gon pray for you right now, and thank the Lord for givin' me so good a massa."
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"Shut up and get up off your knees, ya dumb nigga! The fields need tendin'! You pray to the Lord on your own time. God don't won't you talkin' to him when you s'pose to be workin'."
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"A couse, Massa. What I been thinkin'? I's so dumb. I don't know why you put up with me, Sir."
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"How many times I got to tell you to shut the hell up, nigga?"
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"Yes Sir, I's a shuttin', Massa. I's a shuttin', right now."
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"Now get yo ass out there in that field and let's get some work done around here . . . Oh, and Toby, have yo woman meet me in the barn. I need to tell her 'bout the Lord too."
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"Yes sir, Massa."
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"And another thing, Toby, if my momma come a lookin', tell her I'm playin' in my tree house."
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"Why you gon go fibbin' to yo momma, Mr. Tommy? She knows you like to sit wit Lou Ann."
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"Just shut up, nigga, and do what I said! And tell Lou Ann to wear that pretty dress I like, cause we gon be talkin' 'bout the Lord, so it's gon be like chuch."
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"Yes Sir, Mr. Tommy." . . . "Whaaaaaaat a friend we have in Jeeeeesus . . ."
Hillary Clinton Might Make A Great President . . . But We Should Always Think Before We Anoint
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I've received a lot of flak from Hillary Clinton supporters over pointing out that she worked on the campaign ofRepublican, Barry Goldwater, and later, she was the president of the "Young Republicans" at Wellesley College. Her supporters went absolutely berserk over my bringing that out. But I've long since recognized that people generally attack a position not so much because they think they're right, but because the facts or a given truth being revealed, challenges their preferred view of reality. But that's what writing is about, isn't it - challenging comfortable assumptions.
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All of the arguments put forward by Hillary's irate supporters challenging my position and/or motives were either weak, invalid, or based on gross and unwarranted assumptions. For example, the argument that when Hillary Clinton was campaigning for Barry Goldwater at 17, or when she was in college and became the president of the "Young Republicans," she was too young to have developed a fundamental political philosophy. What evidence do they have of that? When I was 14 I held the very same political philosophy - and attitudes - that I hold today.
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So Hillary's tender age at the time she was engaging in these activities should not only be taken taken into account, they should actually serve to bolster my side of the equation. As I pointed out in a previous article, Hillary's political activities weren't just the dalliances of a young girl following in her mommie and daddy's conservative footsteps; she took it to the next level, and actually went to work on Barry Goldwater's campaign, and then she went on to become the PRESIDENT of the "Young Republicans" when she went to college. That reflected a passion, dedication, and commitment to the conservative cause. Thus, that should serve as a useful indicator of her fundamental predisposition. Politics is like religion. As we age we may modify and fine tune our beliefs, but most people take their fundamental belief system with them to the grave.
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And the argument that Hillary's mentor, Saul Alinsky, was a liberal is also meaningless. If Hillary's motive for spinning on a dime from Republican to Democrat was a cynical decision based on ambition and a recognition of which way the wind was blowing, the very first thing she would want to do would be to start building her new liberal credentials, and what better way to do that than to establish an association with someone like Saul Alinsky? In addition, he would be invaluable in helping her to understand the progressive mindset and how to speak the language of a liberal. And further, everything she's done since could have been in pursuit of building her liberal credentials. Just because Alinsky was her political mentor doesn't necessarily mean that she embraced his political philosophy. Perhaps what she wanted most from him was his strategic thinking, i.g., "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits, and infiltrate the system from within." That could be exactly what she's doing.
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Now, I'm not saying that everything I've said above represent the facts, because I can't climb inside Hillary Clinton's head, but they are issues that should be pondered, because efficient thought refuses to elevate ANYTHING, or ANYBODY, above question. In fact, to think, IS to question. So those who are hostile toward questioning Hillary's, or anyone else's history, and take comfort in taking certain issues for granted, they're not thinkers; They're feelers - and one of the biggest problems that we have in this country today is that we have far too many feelers, and far too few thinkers. That's the only thing that sustains the Republican Party.
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But with all that said, if Hillary Clinton is chosen as the Democratic nominee for president, I will support her enthusiastically, because she's head and shoulders above anyone who's running on the Republican side - and one should never become so fearful of the Bogie Man that he leaves the backdoor open for the Devil.
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But of course, one might ask, if that's the bottom line, why did you even bother to go through this exercise? There's a very simple answer to that question. Many in the Black community simply cast their vote for the "anointed one," without taking the time to find out who that person, or their opponent, really is. They tend to vote for the biggest celebrity. So I wanted to put something on the minds of such people, and encourage them to, at the very least, open their ears to the words of Sen. Bernie Sanders. He doesn't have Hillary's celebrity, but he was in the trenches with Martin Luther King while Hillary Clinton was still a Republican.
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IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO BERNIE SANDERS IS, THERE'S A REASON FOR THAT
THERE'S AN ERROR IN THIS POSTER. HILLARY ONLY CAMPAIGNED FOR BARRY GOLDWATER. SHE WAS ONLY 17 AT THE TIME OF THE ELECTION. BUT SHE WAS PRESIDENT OF "THE YOUNG REPUBLICANS" AT WELLESLEY COLLEGE.
A couple of friends asked me in response to a piece I did on Hillary Clinton why was it necessary to bring up the fact that Hillary Clinton campaigned for Barry Goldwater over 50 years ago. I'll respond to that question with a question - why not bring it up? A true progressive always gives truth priority over ideology. In fact, that's what it means to be a progressive. So again, tell me, why shouldn't I mention it?
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I'm a writer. My job is to disseminate information and knowledge, and since there's no such thing as BAD knowledge, I don't pick and choose what knowledge I disseminate. A writer writes to relate knowledge, not hide it. The tendency to be selective in the dissemination of information and knowledge is one of the most serious problems that we have in this country today. Isn't that one of the major complaints being lodged against the mainstream media? And it's a valid complaint, because it's led to an entire generation of under-informed people - a population of people who are merely "edge-ucated,"or who have only been brought to the edge of a true education, because someone, somewhere, have decided that revealing certain information to them is "inconvenient." That's also THE primary reason that most people don't know the many contributions that Black people have made to this country, because someone decided that information was inconvenient.
. The fact is, you probably wouldn't be currently reading this article on your beloved Personal computer if it wasn't for a Black man. "Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He's in the National Hall of Inventors, and he has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM" - Oh, yeah, and he's also the principle architect of the modern-day personal computer. "Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon."(http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/10/black-man-invented-pc-as-we-know-it.html).
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DR. MARK DEAN PRINCIPLE ARCHITECT OF THE PERSONAL COMPUTER
Thus, the fact that Hillary Clinton was a part of the Barry Goldwater campaign in her youth may be quite significant to a person who wasn't cognizant of that fact. And it takes on more significance when you take into account her current association with the very secretive Bilderberg Society, and even more significance when you consider the political strategy espoused by her close friend and mentor, the late Saul Alinsky. Alinsky said, "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits, and infiltrate the system from within." Hmmmm . . .
. Thus, a person who wasn't aware of this fact may want the opportunity to assess her motives for themselves. After all, it's not like Hillary was a naive little girl who was simply following in her mommie and daddy's footsteps. She was so passionately motivated that she didn't simply support Barry Goldwater, she took it to the next level and actually went to work on his campaign. So that obviously wasn't just a young girl's passing indulgence. Then when she went to college she became the PRESIDENT of the "Young Republicans" at Wellesley College.That reflected a passion, commitment, and dedication to the conservative cause. . So to say that Hillary spun on a dime is an understatement. Thus, the question that needs to be pondered is, did she suddenly undergo a passionate epiphany, or was her sudden change of direction a cynical calculation based on ambition, because she saw which way the wind was blowing. Every individual deserves the right to make that assessment for themselves.
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So again, why should I take it upon myself to hide Hillary's past from those who may not have that knowledge? It's one thing to admire a person (as I do Hillary Clinton), but let us not get so caught up in our admiration of an individual that it causes us to go blind and stupid. That's also a serious problem in this country. That's what conservatives do.
I like Bernie Sanders. He seems to be non-calculating, and he talks common sense. The same is true of Elizabeth Warren, and I think they would make a great ticket. In fact, the perfect ticket. The only problem is, Bernie Sanders is a self-avowed Democratic Socialist, and the American people have a knee-jerk response to the word "socialist."
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Americans have been conditioned by capitalists to revile the word "socialism," even democratic socialism. They associate it with despotism and closed societies. So the people simply have to be educated into a better understanding of the "isms." They have to be educated to understand that both socialism and capitalism can be either good, or toxic if taken to extremes - and at this point, capitalism has gone way off the reservation. According to a Princeton study, unrestrained capitalism has destroyed American democracy. That's right. Princeton University has done a study that has declared that America is no longer a democracy. It is now an oligarchy, completely controlled by the rich (http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746).
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In addition, capitalism is responsible for the genocide of as many as 100 million Native Americans (6 generations over 100 years), the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow, America's current economic plight, and capitalism threatens to destroy the planet by placing profits before science. Democratic socialism, on the other hand, simply means to have the common sense to give people priority over corporations, and between now and the next election the people can be educated to that fact - especially when they're hungry and economically depressed.
BERNIE SANDERS AND PEOPLE SKILLS
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A Hillary Clinton supporter told me that one of the problems with Bernie Sanders is he doesn't have any “people Skills.” Well, that’s EXACTLY what most people like most about him. “People skills” implies a well honed ability to manipulate people. We don’t need that. What we need in America right now is someone who’s willing to just go from the shoulders, as we used to say back in the day, and that’s exactly what Bernie does. Bernie simply says what he thinks, while Hillary is prone to first commission a poll to see what words are most popular and what words are least popular.
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In addition, in spite of the claim that Bernie lacks people skills, he’s drawing more people to his appearances than any other politician in America. The reason for that is simple - the people feel him. He's like their next door neighbor. Most people don’t feel Hillary in that way. They see her as a celebrity, and they support her because she has name recognition, and they feel like “it’s her turn.”
I don’t feel that way. I feel like it’s MY turn.
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HILLARY CLINTON'S MENTOR
Finally, I'd like to make it clear that I don't dislike Hillary Clinton, but I don't completely trust her either. She comes off as much too careful and calculating, and she's far too remote from the people. She's also far too much of a political animal for my taste. When I listen to her speak, I feel like I'm being "handled." She also gives me the impression that she's much more interested in attaining office than she is in helping the people. In short, she's much too mechanical and she doesn't seem to have any real passion - and what passion she does have seems manufactured. She strikes me as all ambition, and the people are merely an afterthought that she'll make every effort to help if she happens to stumble across them. In addition, I haven't forgotten that she's a former Goldwater Republican, and I'm also very uncomfortable with her association with the Bilderberg Society. I don't like secret societies - especially when they're trying to control the world.
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BAD KNOWLEDGE
A couple of friends asked me in response to this piece why was it necessary to bring up the fact that Hillary Clinton campaigned for Barry Goldwater over 50 years ago. I'll respond to that question with a question - why not? A true progressive always gives truth priority over ideology. In fact, that's what it means to be a progressive. So again, tell me, why shouldn't I mention it?
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I'm a writer. My job is to disseminate information and knowledge, and since there's no such thing as BAD knowledge, I don't pick and choose what knowledge I disseminate. I write to relate knowledge, not hide it. The tendency to be selective in the dissemination of knowledge is one of the most serious problems that we have in this country. Isn't that one of the major complaints being lodged against the mainstream media? And it's a valid complaint, because it's led to an entire generation of under-informed people - a population of people who are merely "edge-ucated,"or who have only been brought to the edge of a true education, because someone, somewhere, have decided that revealing certain information is "inconvenient." That's also THE primary reason that most people don't know the many contributions that Black people have made to this country, because someone decided that information was inconvenient.
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Thus, the fact that Hillary Clinton was a part of the Barry Goldwater campaign in her youth may be quite significant to a person who wasn't cognizant of that fact. And it takes on more significance when you take into account her current association with the very secretive Bilderberg Society, and even more significance when you consider the political strategy espoused by her close friend and mentor, the late Saul Alinsky. Alinsky said, "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits, and infiltrate the system from within." .
Thus, a person who wasn't aware of this fact may want the opportunity to assess her motives for themselves. After all, it's not like Hillary was a naive little girl who was simply following in her mommie and daddy's footsteps. She was so passionately motivated that she didn't simply support Barry Goldwater, she took it to the next level and actually went to work on his campaign. So that obviously wasn't just a young girl's passing indulgence. When she went to college she became the PRESIDENT of the "Young Republicans" at Wellesley College. That reflected a passion, commitment, and dedication to the conservative cause.
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So to say that Hillary spun on a dime is an understatement. Thus, the question that needs to be pondered is, did she suddenly undergo a passionate epiphany, or was her sudden change of direction a cynical calculation based on ambition, because she saw which way the wind was blowing. Every individual deserves the right to make that assessment for themselves. .
So again, why should I take it upon myself to hide Hillary's past from those who may not have that knowledge? It's one thing to admire a person (as I do Hillary Clinton), but let us not get so caught up in our admiration of an individual that it causes us to go blind and stupid. That's also a serious problem in this country. That's what conservatives do.
Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.
BIO
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."
Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.
Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.
Yes, there was a lot of noise and commotion going on during the civil rights movement, but don't be misled. America wasn't afraid of Black people during the sixties, just as no one is afraid of us now. The powers that be have enough experience with Black people to know that all they have to do is call out the national guard and all they'll hear are crickets by nightfall - and besides, no battle has ever been won by flappin' lips anyway. So essentially, all the Netroots stunt was, was somebody's dumb and self-serving idea for a personal photo op.
And finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention your grossly unappreciative and cavalier attitude toward the White liberals who believed so passionately in EVERYONE'S right to justice that they were willing to give up their lives so YOU could have one. Those were very dangerous times during the Civil Rights movement, as evidenced by the fact that John and Robert Kennedy, Martin, and Malcolm are no longer with us. So I'm simply going to assume that what I can only refer to as your disgustingly cavalier attitude toward the sacrifices of those heroes is a direct response to a gross ignorance of that era on your part. During that time, White liberals who fought for civil rights were considered traitors to their race. They were hated on a par with Osama Bin Laden, and many were kidnapped in the night and subjected to the most horrible forms of torture and death. Yet, you say, "So what!!!?"
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