I Wish Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D'Souza Were Right!

Today, Morning Joe reported that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the National Review that President Obama follows a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview. To support his ridiculous argument, Newt Gingrich cited a so-called "insightful" article by Dinesh D'Souza. Gingrich's statement is despicable. When I heard about it, I thought, "Here we go again." Clearly, Gingrich was pandering to Birthers, Tea Party extremists and other fringe lunatics by portraying Obama as a radical, socialist foreigner. Later, I read the two news articles mentioned in the story.

In his Forbes article, conservative Dinesh D'Souza asserts that Obama is fulfilling his father's "anticolonialist" dreams. D'Souza wrote:

"Anticolonialists hold that even when countries secure political independence they remain economically dependent on their former captors. This dependence is called neocolonialism, a term defined by the African statesman Kwame Nkrumah (1909--72) in his book Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, writes that poor countries may be nominally free, but they continue to be manipulated from abroad by powerful corporate and plutocratic elites...This was the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. and many in his generation, including many of my own relatives in India..."

"From the anticolonial perspective, American imperialism is on a rampage. For a while, U.S. power was checked by the Soviet Union, but since the end of the Cold War, America has been the sole superpower. Moreover, 9/11 provided the occasion for America to invade and occupy two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, and also to seek political and economic domination in the same way the French and the British empires once did. So in the anticolonial view, America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world."

"It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying...He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet."

Those two articles confirmed my initial impression. However, in some respects, I wish Gingrich and D'Souza were right. If Obama was anticolonialist, he would have immediately withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead requiring citizens to purchase private health insurance from avaricious companies, Obama would fought for a single payer health care system. If Obama was an anticolonialist, he would not have bailed out the Wall Street. Instead, he would have bailed out Main Street by imposing an immediate moratorium on foreclosures. If Obama was an anticolonialist, instead of lecturing Africans about nepotism, corruption, democracy and the rule of law, Obama would have demanded reparations for slavery and colonialism.  In college, I studied Kwame Nkrumah and Frantz Fanon.  Obama is no Nkrumah.  He is no Fanon.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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Extremist Pastor Regains His Senses and Decides Not to Burn Qurans

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Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, planned to protest the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning Holy Qurans.  Under massive pressure from political, religious and military leaders, Jones decided not to burn Qurans.  If he went forward, all hell would have broke loose.  Thank goodness, we avoided such a catastrophe.  All praise is due to God.

  

Islamophobia Part 2: Pastor Plans to Burn Qurans

During this holy month of Ramadan, a storm of anti-Muslim sentiment has been brewing and bubbling over. First, there is the controversy regarding the proposal to build a Muslim community center near ground zero. Bigots are also opposing the construction of masjids (mosques) in other parts of the country. At least one masjid was recently vandalized. Then, there was the brutal stabbing of a Muslim cab driver. Now, as Ramadan ends, Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida plans to protest the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning Holy Qurans. He said that the burning is to remember the victims of 9/11 and to send a message to radical Muslims. He claims that his message is not a message of hate. Yeah right! This is coming from a man who says that “Islam is of the devil.”

Jones’ actions are misguided and wrong on so many levels. I don’t where to begin. All Muslims are not responsible for not 9/11. All Muslims should not condemned for the actions of a tiny extremist minority. All Muslims believe that the Quran is the final revelation of God. By burning the Quran, he is sending a message of hate to all Muslims, not just extremists. This is a major sacrilege that will outrage the entire Muslim world.

His proposed action is a sacrilege against Christianity and Judaism as well. As Imam Plemon el-Amin stated on CNN, the Holy Quran honors Jesus, Mary, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Ishmael and the other prophets of the Bible. The Quran confirms other divine revelations including the Torah and Gospel. Although there are some differences between the three major monotheistic religions, there are many similarities. I would hope that no informed, pious Christian or Jew would deliberately destroy the Quran. Similarly, no pious Muslim would destroy the Bible.

Jones’ plan will not accomplish anything constructive. He is simply throwing gasoline on a raging fire. He is perpetuating the enemy’s false propaganda, that American is waging a war against Islam. As Gen. David Petraeus’ warned, the pastor’s plans “could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan.” Under such circumstances, his actions are essentially treasonous.

In addition, the burning will exacerbate tensions here in America between Muslims and Christians. Instead of helping to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Jones is imitating their intolerance and ignorance. The burning of books is a common course of action for dictators and tyrants. Such actions should not occur in a democratic society.

Obama Slams the GOP and Vows to Keep Fighting!

Today, in Milwaukee, President Barack Obama delivered a powerful speech on the economy. Below is a small portion of his speech. For the full speech, click this C-Span link. The President announced his plan to rebuild American's transportation infrastructure. Over the next six years, under the $50 billion stimulus plan, Obama will rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of railways and restore 150 miles of airport runways. The goals of the plan include creating jobs, stimulate the economy and building the world's best infrastructure.

Obama's post-partisan campaign rhetoric is long gone. Thank goodness! The gloves are off and the fight is on! It was refreshing to hear President Obama challenge the Republicans' obstructionism and failed economic ideas. Obama asserted, "When it comes to just about everything that we've done to strengthen our middle class and rebuild our economy, almost every Republican in Congress says no...If I said the sky is blue, they would say no. If I said fish live in the sea, they would say no...They think it is better to score political points than to solve problems....Their slogan is No We Can't...." Quoting the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, Obama asked, "What is it about working men and women that they [Republicans] find so offensive?" He went on to diss U.S. Rep. John Boehner as "the Republican who thinks he is going to take over as Speaker." Obama blasted the Bush tax cuts and the Republicans' "you're on your own" philosophy.

The President's speech was totally awesome. However, results are more important. Despite the passage of the first stimulus plan, the unemployment rate remains high at 9.6 percent. For African Americans, the unemployment rate is much higher. Hopefully, this new proposal will be successful.

"Give Peace A Chance"

When humanity has the necessary vision and determination, we can transform the impossible into a tangible reality. Africans were enslaved in America and considered chattel property. After slavery, African Americans were subjected to the brutal oppression of the Jim Crow era. Today, the most powerful man of earth is an African American named President Barack Obama. In the 1990s, Apartheid ended and political prisoner Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa. For the most part, the conflict in Ireland has ended and peace reigns. The Berlin Wall came tumbling down. The Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War has ended. Recently, combat troops left Iraq. Similarly, there can and must be peace in Palestine and Israel. In the words of John Lennon, we must "give peace a chance". Failure cannot be an option.

Two Marches, Two Visions: Are We Ready to Move this Nation Forward?

This past weekend marked the 47th anniversary of the great 1963 March on Washington where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. The Nation’s Capitol hosted two major demonstrations, Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally and Rev. Al Sharpton’s Reclaim the Dream March.

Glenn Beck held his Restoring Honor rally on the Washington mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the same location where King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. For the most part, there were no political signs, no political speeches, and no guns. However, I noticed a few “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. Making a thinly veiled swipe at the Obama Administration, Sarah Palin voiced opposition to efforts to "fundamentally transform" America. The rally was a strange mix of extreme patriotism and evangelical revivalism. To create the illusion of diversity, there were quite a few token African American speakers and singers. However, the overwhelming majority of the participants were white.

Despite Beck’s efforts to describe the date as a coincidence, according to Salt Lake City Tribune writer Leonard Pitts’s article titled Memo to Glenn Beck, Beck said, on this radio program three months ago,

“This is a moment that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. It has been so distorted and so turned upside down. ... We are on the right side of history. We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that movement, because we were the people that did it in the first place!”

Consequently, Beck’s rally has generated a lot of controversy. The date and location are peculiar because Beck and his Tea Party comrades are opposed to most of aims and objectives of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King sought to unite all people regardless of race. Beck, Palin and other Tea Party public figures divide the people with their vitriolic rhetoric and incessant race baiting. For instance, Beck described President Obama as someone who has “a deep seated hatred for white people.” He also described America during this Obama era as “Planet of the Apes”. Sarah Palin has been at the forefront of the racist, Islamophobic opposition to the building of a Muslim cultural center two blocks away from ground zero. After Dr. Laura Schlissinger’s racist “N” word rant, Sarah Palin advised Schlissinger via Twitter “don’t retreat…reload!”

Dr. King urged the federal government to actively address the problems of racism and poverty. Beck and friends advocate for a limited government and support tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. During his interview on Fox News Sunday, Glenn Beck acknowledged that he opposes the Civil Rights Movement’s economic agenda. Dr. King was a man of peace who opposed American imperialism and militarism. Beck and friends romanticize militarism and drape it in the garb of exaggerated patriotism. Dr. King advocated progressive liberation theology. Beck condemns such theology.

If King, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph and the other prominent 1963 March on Washington organizers were alive today, Beck and Palin would call them Marxists and socialists. As others have said, such civil rights heroes would be on Beck’s conspiracy chalk board.

Moreover, right wing conservatives like Glenn Beck have revised history to suit their political purposes. They have reduced Dr. King and the Movement down to a single phrase, “judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The Right has attempted to neuter and, in the words of Cornel West, Santa Clausify Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Under the guise of creating a color blind society, some conservatives have used that "content of character" phrase to eviserate everything that King stood for. In their upside down bizarre world, white men are the victims and African Americans are the racists. Affirmative action and other measures designed to promote racial diversity are viewed as reverse discrimination.

Unfortunately, the Restoring Honor rally will legitimize Glenn Beck and the far right Tea Party movement. The crowd size speaks volumes. Apparently, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the Restoring Honor rally. Like rapper Jay Z says, “man lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”



Now, to end on a more positive note, I also watched Rev. Al Sharpton’s “Reclaim the Dream” rally. The central theme was: “We have made progress but we have not arrived yet.” Other speakers included National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C. Adrian Fenty, Warren Ballantine , Black Farmers Association leader John Boyd, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan and others.

The “Reclaim the Dream” speakers addressed a wide array of pertinent issues including poverty, inner city violence, mass incarceration, unemployment, educational and D.C. statehood. During the rally, John Boyd pointed out how approximately 80,000 black farmers filed race discrimination complaints against the United States Department of Agriculture and no one was fired. However, Shirley Sherrod was fired on the spot based on half-truths and distortions. Mr. Ballantine summed up my view the rally when said, “A dream without a plan is nothing more than a wish.” As Sharpton stated during his speech, the Reclaim the Dream rally cannot just be a one day event.

Judging by the size of Beck's crowd, they are apparently ready and organized to “take the country back.” Commemorations are great, but the real question is “are we ready and sufficiently organized to move this country forward”?

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