A $1 a day will feed this American

Three years and five months ago I wrote an essay “Have We Over Come?” it’s what I was feeling and thinking when this country elected the first black man to be president of the United States of America. The essay will follow these introductory thoughts.

I believed naively that we Americans have finally grown up. That we are now seeing each other as we see ourselves.  As I read and hear all the crap being thrown around by the GOP, Republicans and the Tea Party people I am sadden, because they are hiding behind their political views to discredit our first black president by saying he fucking up the economy worst then the republicans were in office starting with Reagan, who left office in 1989. The phrase ‘Raganomics’ was coined, due to his bias tax laws and plans to reduce government spending and control inflation.. You know where the rich kept more of their money and the poor paid more in income taxes.  It  was further fucked up by George H. Bush who was Regan’s vice president then became president from 1989 to1993. That was sixteen years that the Republicans were in office to set up policies that are being carried over into today.

 Don't the American people remember how badly they wanted the Republicans out of office when they elected Bill Clinton in 1993 he spent eight years trying to clean up sixteen years of the republicans’ mess.  Bill Clinton did a great job in my opinion but Americas' children gave back it to the Republican, and elected George W. Bush became president in 2001. 

Nine months after George W. was in office on 9/11, Ossama Ben ladin and his terrorist group Al Qaeda flew planes into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon and a failed attempt at the White House.  George W. sent troops into Iran to find weapons of mass destruction which to this day, mind you was never found. This was done in a guise to go after Saddom Hussein instead of Ben ladin who just attacked Americans on American soil. The American intelligence said that Ben ladin was in Afghanistan. Why were the American troops in Iran looking for Saddom Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction? It appeared that George W. Bush’s only objective was to get back at Saddom Hussein for defying his daddy back in 1990 when he invaded Kuwait. (The Gulf War) The majority of the government finances went to the military. I don’t care if it was only 100k any money spent to kill and destroy lives is too much money. Just say’in it’s just my opinion. Ben ladin and his terrorist group killed thousands of Americans and many more are suffering the after affects. I think the American people wanted an eye for an eye for the twin towers. But George W. had a hard on for Saddom Hussein so our troops were on a hunt for weapons of mass destruction  and a few troops were sent to Afghanistan.  I don’t want to feed into the conspiracy theory that the attack on 9/11 were devised by the American Government. However under President Obama  watch troops went into Afghanistan an found and murder the head of Al Queda, Ossama Ben ladin. He is also pulling our troops out of Iraq.

The lower class people of America are struggling to put food on their tables at night, they can't find jobs and can't get descent health care.  We have a president that wants to help the people not only the rich but the low income poor folks of this country. But poor congress man John Fleming, of Louisiana said he’s barely getting by on $400K a year.  He needs to ask some one who’s trying to make it on less then $20K a year. President Obama is doing what he can to produce jobs, he wants to raise taxes for the rich, which many rich believe their taxes should be raised. He helped low income people with pre-existing conditions get affordable health care. He wants to help our children get college educations. This is a president that is doing things that a novice political person like me can see and understand.

Our President has been called so many derogatory names with racist under tones. Are the
American people so damn stupid? Listen to the words of the Republicans running against the President. They don't care about you. Both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had a hard on for Donald Trump’s endorsement. Come on they wanted that greedy racist money to back them. When one of the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet said he doesn't pay enough taxes. I mean that's common sense. Why can’t some of the American people see what President Obama is trying to do, do these Americans want to be like third world countries and have  more families on the street begging for food. Should we make commercials with our poor asking for money to feed us here in the land of the milk and honey?

I had hope, that when Barrack Obama became president we became one people that we could really stand and be united individually for all. That we had overcame racism.  It appears that racism is buried so deep in the core of America’s children that it may never be eradicated.

 Have We Arrived?

11/5/2008

All across America the weather was peaceful, no rain, no wind, no cold and occasional sunshine, a day of perfection.  There was four of us determined to arrive early to vote, we left for the polls at 6 am to discover the line going all the way to the corner, we turned the corner and the line was extended to the next corner.  Wow, the folks really were out there to vote.  I decided to greet everyone as I made my way to the back of the line.  I said good morning and reminded them that it was a lovely day.  Everyone was pleasant, smiling talking positive.  There was no pushing, no cutting the line.  I walked to the end of the block and at the corner made another turn to finally come upon the end of the line.  It was many of us joking laughing and hoping.  There were people with canes who were told they could go to the front of the line and get in, there were senior citizens who were also told they could go to the front of the line.  They refused; they wanted to experience the moment to bask in the greatness of this historical event.  It was overwhelming, touching, it was a steady pace to the front of the line, we shared tips, reminded each other to take their time when they enter the booth, to vote for president first and then for the other candidates on the ticket.  All the time I stood on the line the people were coming and the line didn’t discourage them they too took their place on the back of the line and waited.

It was almost two hours after I joined the line that I was standing in front of the voting booth.  It didn’t seem like it took that long.  I signed next to my name, I entered the booth and locked the curtain behind me, I paused, looked at Barrack Obama’s name, I said a little pray asking for victory and change, then I clicked the lever.  Tears filled my eyes for it was a moving experience.  I was living history, an event that may change the world.

My mind thought of my mother and father.  My mother a descendant of a slave, and American Indian and my father the son of Spanish immigrants that entered this country by way of Ellis Island.  My father marrying a black woman was taboo in his family and they would have nothing to do with my mother, sister and I.  All my life I wanted to know my fathers family I felt that I was missing something, yet I was ashamed that I had light skin, soft hair and pleasant features.  I hated the white part of me.

I would look at my self in the mirror, I was pale, almost white, everyone else in my family was dark skin, even my younger sister was darker then me.  I hate my skin color, I wanted to be dark, so I would lie in the sun all summer and love my dark suntanned complexion that would last almost all the way to Thanksgiving.

I was a only three years old, but I remember holding my doll and sitting on the floor watching Martin Luther King Jr. On the black and white TV give his I have a dream speech.  I didn’t understand much, but my whole family was there, everyone was sitting or standing and quietly listening.  After King spoke the people on TV were holding hands, swaying back and forth singing ‘We Shall Over Come, Someday’.  My grandmother had tears in her eyes, so did my mother, my aunt chuckled with her nervous laugh and my uncle just smiled.  I’m sure my brothers were there but I don’t remember, they were much older then me.

I was too young to understand what it was all about, but I remember King saying he had a dream that one day his children and your children will walk hand and hand to the mountain top.    In the next few years, King, Malcolm X, and John F. Kennedy were always on the TV, what ever they were talking about penetrated in my head and I became aware that black people were treated different.  King was saying things like, peace and love.  Malcolm was saying by any means necessary.  Out side my home the panthers were standing with black clothes, berets and army boots.  They spray painted signs all over on the side of buildings, on light post, everywhere, Free Huey, Free Bobby.  I didn’t know who they were, but I anted them to be free. Kennedy was speaking bout brotherly love and equality for all men. I even brought an album of John F. Kennedy speeches for $2.00 or something like that.

All around me the civil rights movement was happening, I was a little girl and didn’t understand.  Then they were killed, one by one, Kennedy, King, Malcolm.  I remember when King died; my grand mother stood out side the house and rang a bell.  I remember the neighbors on the block standing out side crying.  I remember seeing the funeral on the black and white. And I remember the sadness.  I was too young to understand these men, but I heard what they were saying and it was buried in my mind.  Their words were uplifting us and we were trying to change our station in life.  They had to be murdered, and become martyrs, men with passion willing to die for what they believed in, to fight against injustice. What did we do, we retaliate by destroying our own communities.  We burned down stores and business that were run by the Jews and white people, it hurt us more then it did the shop owners.  It took years before anyone would open some of these businesses back up.  We forgot what was preached to us and went back into a dead state of mind.

These were our hero’s and they were stolen from us. So we became quiet. Quietly we educated ourselves. Quietly becoming successful businessmen and woman.  Quietly participating in the judicial system, become first black Mayors, Senators, Congressmen, Assemblymen, Councilmen and Judges.  With all our success the fore fathers of the Mayflower did their job well. They taught their descendants they were superior, and that the black people were ignorant, animals dangerous and angry. And we should be angry because of the lives we lost, and the families we were separated from.  However the only ones we harmed were ourselves.  We kill each other over gang and drug territory  the drugs which further kills and destroy our community.  We sell drugs that make us addicted, forsaking our family for the drug.  The drug being our number one priority, we will sell our bodies, abandon and sell our children.  We will rob even kill our parents for the drug.

Was it brain washing, was it conditioning, or a distraction to keep us down, to forget that we, the descendants of slaves have been both physically and mentally abused.  We were first tricked into following the white man to the shores of America, with the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, where the streets were paved in gold.  Greedily we followed.  The white people seeing how easily we were to manipulate, they decided to go back to Africa and steal tribes of Africans and transport us on ships across the ocean like cattle. We were kidnapped from our lands, starved, robed and beaten.  We were humiliated, examined like animals, every crevice inspected before being sold at auction.  The women were raped; our children snatched from our mother’s breast and sold, and these mothers mourning their babies, were used as wet nurses for the white babies. We were denied our language, religion and culture.  We were force to study Christianity, which didn’t apply to us because we were considered animals.

We were force to work from sun up to sun down.  We were the builders of the roads and buildings, we plowed the lands, harvest the crops.  We tended the master’s children; we cooked and served the master’s meals.  As payment you gave us a bit of straw to lay on, discard clothes, and scraps from your tables.

We weren’t allowed to learn to read.  We were not allowed to leave the plantations.  We couldn’t even choose our own mates.  We gave birth to children that were sold and we never saw again.

If we tried to run and got caught and the masters would sadistically beat us with leather whips on our bare backs, leaving whelps that would become infected and leave scars.  The masters would cut off our body parts, including the tongue.  Our men were castrated. We were hung, and burned alive.  We had to witness these, sick forms of torture as a means to plant fear into us, so that we could be easily controlled.  We endured this for 600 hundred years. This was a job well done; it has controlled us for centuries.
There were some white people who were against slavery, there were the Quakers, and others who knew slavery were wrong.  The would help runaway slaves get out the south, by providing safe places for them to hide, make travel arrangements. Some even made false traveling papers.  There were others that taught slaves to read and write.  So as today, and in all walks of life you have the good and bad.

Over the years we learned our place, we bowed our heads when in your presence, spoke only when spoken to.  We would lie and turn on our own kind to keep the favor of the master. We would not reach too high and we knew our place.  When we started getting strong and the fear couldn’t keep us down, you gave us booze and drugs.  We would get drunk, act a fool, and start fighting, giving just cause to lock us up or kill us.  To this day this tactic still works, drugs are on every corner in the black communities.  In every neighborhood, every few blocks, you find a liquor store, a check cashing place and a church. Black folks have no respect or regard for each other’s lives. The first thing they tell us regardless of our race or nationality, when we go to rehab is you are going to relapse, funny addicts are not expect to stay sober, we will be tempt until we relapse.  And we will continue to get high, until we kill ourselves or end up behind bars for life.

We are jealous and full of vengeance.  We will sabotage each other rather then to help each other move forward. We will kill our neighbor for apiece of bread, we will kill our mama for the insurance money, we will kill our baby for getting in the way.  We will kill our mate for speaking their mind.

You see we have been dehumanized, through frustration.  Our struggles are great and many, we struggle to feed our family, to keep a roof over our head. To ensure that we have clean clothes on our backs, heat in our homes. We are under pressure to try and keep up with what society considers success.  We have rich black folks, entertainers, entrepreneur, and athletes earning millions of dollars to entertain us and they create designer clothing, shoes and bags.

These designers are making money, like flowing water.  Million dollar deals to entertain you.  You can’t keep up when you’re just earning  $11.00 an hour or less and juggling maxed out credit cards so you can buy your kids designer fashions.  Hell these designers don’t even make these clothes in the US, so that your kids, or you for that matter can get a job to buy these things.  They build factories in other countries and use cheap labor. This allows the manufacture to make a large profit while the poor living in poverty in America  salivate to have what their idols have. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But this is another issue.

Our children are our future and they should be our priority, first and for most.  They don’t need two hundred dollar sneakers, one hundred fifty dollar designer jeans, five hundred dollar leather coats. Nor do they need false eye lashes, piercing and tattoo’s they can’t afford.

We want to emulate those who have, we want what they have but we all don’t want to work for it.  We won’t go to school and educate our selves so we can accomplish and succeed.  Our children go to school and practice being thugs and gangsters.  They want to be cool and fit in.  They want to have this so called rep(atation), they have to live up to.  They are being taught by teachers who don’t respect our children and believe that teaching our children  is a waste of time.  Our children know this and don’t try.  As parents we must hold the teachers accountable, we have to know our children and listen to our children and hear what they are saying. It’s not only the teachers job, as a parent, you must be a strong influence in their children’s’ lives. We are their first and most important teacher.  We don’t realize how short their childhood is until they are grown.  We are caught up in trying to provide the food, clothing and shelter, we neglect nurturing them, pushing and to help them excel.  We often don’t take that time to listen to them and hear what they are really saying.  We need to turn off the TV and take our kids to museums, the stocks exchange any where that will exposed them to a better life other then gangs, drugs and killing.

Our children need love, they need to be hugged often, they need our undivided attention always.  They need to be praised.  They need quality time spent with them.  They need to be given a sense of pride, and learn to respect for the sacrifices made in the past that brought us to this place in history.  We need to teach our children to love one and other.  To respect and see the good in all people on this earth, for we are all human, and imperfect like God made us all.

Today we are yelling, “Yes WE did!” from the mountaintop King dreamed of.  We are seeing Kennedy’s 40-year prediction.  The eyes of the world are on us. We are living the hope of the future today.  We must continue to support President Obama, we must hold our heads up high, push our chest out in pride and always tell our children “Yes We Can.”

We must be vigilant in our prays asking for Gods guidance to help President Obama to make the right decisions.  We American Black people must learn to forgive the white Americans of the past for their trespasses and to forgive us for ours.  We must look at the flaws of each man, as well as our own defects in character and not an inherit racial behavior. We are all human, and subject to making mistakes, subject to misinterpretation. Today is the dawn of a new world and we must keep that feeling in our heart and soul.  We must spread love, joy and peace around the world.  We must learn compassion and true brotherly love.

It has been a long road.  Many bumps to ride over, many ditches to climb out of.  Finally I can see the road repairmen arriving, and they are paving a path to salvation and the road is getting smooth.