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Dear Pat Buchanan, You Are Right, I Should Be More Grateful.
Dear Mr. Buchanan,
I am sorry that no one from my race has ever shown gratitude for all the of the wonderful things that American has done for us.
So, here goes:
I would like to thank American for the opportunity to fight and die for American’s freedom even though many who did so were not themselves free.
I would like to thank America on behalf of Crispus Attucks the runaway slave who was killed on March 5, 1770 during the Boston Massacre making him the first person to die in the American Revolution.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the Peter Salem, Cato Stedman, Cuff Whittemore, Cato Wood, Prince Estabrook, Caesar Ferritt, Samuel Craft, Lemuel Haynes, and Pomp Blackman, who fought at Lexington and Concord.
I would like to thank America on behalf of Peter Salem, Pomp Fisk, Grant Coope, Charleston Eads, Seymour Burr, Titus Coburn, Cuff Hayes, and Caesar Dickenson, and especially Hayes and Ceasar Brown who fought and died at Bunker Hill.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 300,000 men of Africa descent who were given the privilege of fighting in the Revolutionary War to demonstrate once and for all time that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 650,000 Africans who were brought to this country in chains so that they could contribute to the industrial, commercial and agricultural development of this great nation.
I would like to thank America on behalf York who assisted his master William Clark in his exploration of the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Territory and the lands of the Pacific Coast. I would also like to thank America on behalf of James Pierson Beckwourth who helped to explore, map and settle the western fontier.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 180,000 African Americans who served during the Civil War which culminated in the free of African Americans from chattel bondage.
I would like to thank America for denying Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to worship freely in white churches so that they would go on to found the African Methodist Episcopal Church which would bring millions into the Christian fellowship with other Americans, a denomination that would go on to found the first African American college.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 400,000 African American who volunteered during WWI rather than being lynched in the streets at home.
I would like to thank American on behalf of the 2.5 million African Americans who served in the US military during WWII, 12,000 of whom were cited for bravery and meritorious service for the opportunity to defeat fascism and to make the world free for democracy, despite the fact that many could not participate in democracy at home.
I would like to thank America for creating a country of such staggering inequality that African American’s like Martin Luther King, Joseph Lowery, Fred Shuttlesworth, Fanny Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers fought to bring about programs that benefited not only African Americans but poor whites as well.
And lastly I would like to ask America to excuse me while I become sick from having to remind this great nation that African Americans have nothing for which to be grateful for. Our “debt” to American has been paid in full by our sweat, hard work and sacrifice. If gratitude is forthcoming I would hardly think that it would coming from African Americans.
I am sorry that no one from my race has ever shown gratitude for all the of the wonderful things that American has done for us.
So, here goes:
I would like to thank American for the opportunity to fight and die for American’s freedom even though many who did so were not themselves free.
I would like to thank America on behalf of Crispus Attucks the runaway slave who was killed on March 5, 1770 during the Boston Massacre making him the first person to die in the American Revolution.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the Peter Salem, Cato Stedman, Cuff Whittemore, Cato Wood, Prince Estabrook, Caesar Ferritt, Samuel Craft, Lemuel Haynes, and Pomp Blackman, who fought at Lexington and Concord.
I would like to thank America on behalf of Peter Salem, Pomp Fisk, Grant Coope, Charleston Eads, Seymour Burr, Titus Coburn, Cuff Hayes, and Caesar Dickenson, and especially Hayes and Ceasar Brown who fought and died at Bunker Hill.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 300,000 men of Africa descent who were given the privilege of fighting in the Revolutionary War to demonstrate once and for all time that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 650,000 Africans who were brought to this country in chains so that they could contribute to the industrial, commercial and agricultural development of this great nation.
I would like to thank America on behalf York who assisted his master William Clark in his exploration of the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Territory and the lands of the Pacific Coast. I would also like to thank America on behalf of James Pierson Beckwourth who helped to explore, map and settle the western fontier.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 180,000 African Americans who served during the Civil War which culminated in the free of African Americans from chattel bondage.
I would like to thank America for denying Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to worship freely in white churches so that they would go on to found the African Methodist Episcopal Church which would bring millions into the Christian fellowship with other Americans, a denomination that would go on to found the first African American college.
I would like to thank America on behalf of the 400,000 African American who volunteered during WWI rather than being lynched in the streets at home.
I would like to thank American on behalf of the 2.5 million African Americans who served in the US military during WWII, 12,000 of whom were cited for bravery and meritorious service for the opportunity to defeat fascism and to make the world free for democracy, despite the fact that many could not participate in democracy at home.
I would like to thank America for creating a country of such staggering inequality that African American’s like Martin Luther King, Joseph Lowery, Fred Shuttlesworth, Fanny Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers fought to bring about programs that benefited not only African Americans but poor whites as well.
And lastly I would like to ask America to excuse me while I become sick from having to remind this great nation that African Americans have nothing for which to be grateful for. Our “debt” to American has been paid in full by our sweat, hard work and sacrifice. If gratitude is forthcoming I would hardly think that it would coming from African Americans.
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Breathtaking post. I thank *you* on behalf of all of those who (unfortunately) needed this history lesson.
March 23, 2008 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Ovcatto.
March 23, 2008 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
And thats all the gratitude you can summon for my pale forebearers! Sheesh! Ingrate!
March 23, 2008 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a sneaking suspicion you will never be grateful enough in Buchanan's world. But the good news is that men like him are slowly losing their grip on the reigns of power. Very slowly, indeed, but losing nonetheless. To hell with him, he doesn't get it.
We should take Obama up on his challenge to us all, and have a real discussion about race. Where do we start?
March 23, 2008 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fantastic post. Thanks.
March 23, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am grateful for the African American men who fought at Yorktown too.
March 23, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thank you one and all. As a black man of the jeremiah Wright generation, my bitterness can at times be consuming. When I look to the young Obama's - be they black, white, brown and yellow - I feel that there will come a time in my America where my bitterness can give way to hope, as ridiculous as that sounds. :-)
PS- The campaign has made this old brother a huge fan of the Black Eyed Peas
March 23, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Utterly brilliant entry.
March 24, 2008 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The best Buchanan can do is hide his fear of slave insurrection behind a scolding demand for gratitude.
He is a xenophobe who would still be distrusting the Irish if he weren't one.
March 23, 2008 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's forward this to MSNBC... Morning Joe, Hardball and David Gregory especially, where Buchanan imparts his "wisdom." Maybe someone will pass it on to him.
March 23, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is truly appalling that Rev. Wright's words taken out of context have been decried all over the place, yet Pat Buchanan is allowed to say things like this and it is tacitly legitimized by the people who give him a forum.
And, beautiful post.
March 23, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good comment
Pat Buchanan is just one example. Imagine my suprise when Howard Kurtz had Michael Medved a White Conservative on with two African-American reporters, Byron Pitts and Eric Deggans.
Eric Deggans posted a fuller recording of Rev Wright's sermon which pointed out that Wirght was quoting someone else's comment about chickens coming home to roost on his website at the St Petersburg Times. It also showed Rev wright's sadness about the deaths that occurred on 9/11.
Michael Medved published an article suggesting that ovcatto and all other African-Americans should be grateful for US slavery.
Rev Wright is an abomination. Buchanan and Medved are well respected pundits. Why should I not be angry?
March 23, 2008 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
African-americans forget that they were sold into slavery by their bros of a different tribe.
They don't see what is happening in Africa today.
Yes, years ago, longer than most can remember, they drank from a separate water fountain, came in the back door and road in the back of the bus.
In Africa today children are drinking from mud holes, wish that they had any door to enter, and forget about a bus, they walk and carry the load.
And the only evil whitey's in sight are those working for aid organizations trying to releave the never ending suffering. Where are Rev's Wright,Al and Jessi, definately not sucking from a hind tit.
March 23, 2008 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The biggest American charity in Africa is Exxon Mobil kindly sucking up all of Nigeria's oil, not that you'll ever know any shame.
March 23, 2008 11:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Searay185
Reasons that Africa gets less attention from African-Americans today
1) GW's adventure in Iraq insures that no US military intervention will happen in any country in Africa thus we will need competent diplomats. This is not possible in GW State Dept.
2) While overt symbols of racism have disappeared there are still some issues that have to be attended to here in the US
A) Less access to state of the art medical care even when income levels and insurance plans are taken into account
B) Less access to loans for housing despite equal incomes
C) Increased likelihood to be shunted to high risk loans despite qualifying for better loan status
D) Dealing with the aftermath of Katrina. Thousands remain displaced. Some were placed into trailers containing formaldehyde. The CDC told FEMA about the toxic chemical. FEMA took no action
3) After 7 years of GW Bush, there has been so much damage done domestically that there is a decerased effect to lok outward. Hopefully, that will change with a new President.
As an aside here, I will point out that the three day lack of action in NOLA coupled with the trailer debacle, makes government conspiracy theory a real possibility to effected communities.
Some felt the levees had been deliberately blown up.
One reason that some NOLA residents believed that the levees had been deliberately blown up by the government is that in 1927 to save parts of Louisiana, levees were blown up creating hundreds of thousands of evacuees. The evacuees included 13,000 Blacks who were stranded near Greenville, Miss. These Black evacuees were left without food and water for several days. To some, Katrina was history repeating itself.
Finally, you seem to take delight in the fact that some monstrous Whites and Blacks participated in the slave trade. Those folks are dead. Folks like you are alive and continue to represent a festering boil on my Gluteus Maximus. The short list of problems that I listed above are events happening today not in the past.
Oh, by the way Idi Amin was not a good person either.
Race-pimps like Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, Star Parker, Angela McGlowan, Shelby Steele, Larry Elder, etc may give you a sense that the bad stuff is in the past. It most definitely is not.
How interesting to see you make an effort to communicate. It is amazing that you can perform this task without an opposable thumb. In the future, try using English instead of Eurobonics. Let me help:
African-americans should be African-Americans
bros should be brothers (unless you are a NASCAR driver trying to be hip)
"road" in the back of the bus should be "rode"
Perhaps you can find a Eurobonics to English dictionary at your local Klan store. Please make use of it before posting again.
Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter.
March 24, 2008 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just an aside on your aside on New Orleans...
"As an aside here, I will point out that the three day lack of action in NOLA coupled with the trailer debacle, makes government conspiracy theory a real possibility to effected communities.
Some felt the levees had been deliberately blown up."
I was taken by a NOLA native on a tour of the 9th ward a year after Katrina. It was pretty horrifying to see an entire neighborhood turned into empty weed-covered lots, with spots of rubble and destroyed houses still with furniture inside (could see living rooms through torn-up walls). It was like a war had happened that drove off everyone who lived there.
Then we went to the nearby Lakeside community, were middleclass whites and blacks lived. They looked pretty destroyed too, but there was an effort going on to rebuild and reclaim the neighborhood.
One neighborhood had the power to rebuild, the other didn't.
March 24, 2008 7:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
In response to Katrina:
It is amazing to me that Hillary could have stood with a straight face vowing to help the AA community in the aftermath of Katrina. At the beginning of this race, the Clinton's longtime family friend held a fundraiser for her.
From the NYT:
NEW ORLEANS, May 19 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has cast herself as an ally of African-Americans in rebuilding this city, this weekend accepted fund-raising assistance from a family friend who is controversial with many black and white victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The friend, Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish, has been close to former President Bill Clinton for many years, and he is popular among some Democrats here. But Sheriff Lee has a long history of making divisive and derogatory remarks, sometimes aimed at residents of neighboring New Orleans, which is predominantly black, and his relationship with many black political leaders is turbulent.
Sheriff Lee drew notoriety shortly after the hurricane when some of his deputies helped prevent hurricane evacuees, most of them black, from crossing the Crescent City Connection bridge into Jefferson Parish. Sheriff Lee defended the move, saying his office had “a duty to protect our people.”
Sheriff Lee was a host committee member for a fund-raiser here Friday night for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. The event, which the senator attended, was closed to the news media. A Clinton campaign spokeswoman declined to comment on Mrs. Clinton’s views of Sheriff Lee’s actions in 2005 or on his fund-raising support.
Phone messages left for Sheriff Lee were not returned. A Clinton adviser declined to discuss his role, citing the personal nature of his relationship with both Clintons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/politics/20commence.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Milestones%3A+Hillary+Clinton&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
It is truly disgusting what this Sheriff did to these poor refugees, who were not only black, but white, asian, elderly and children. The police stood on bridges with machine guns drawn at these poor people who were just trying to escape the flood and get help. See the news footage of the Sheriff Lee's stand off against these refugees, black, while, young, old. It is really disturbing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSsgwajStCo&feature=related
March 24, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
And just in case all of you Hillary supporters try that tired old "Look what the Clintons have done for the AA community"
I can't shake the vision of that scene in the movie The Color Purple, when Ms. Millie (Hillary) is shouting "I've allways been good to you people"
Sorry, but that is the way Hillary appears to me. The Clintons will take their votes. They will even pass some legislation to appease. But they really don't care at all about AA concerns.
When it appeared that the AA vote would not go to them, they threw them under a bus. These are both seasoned politicians, they knew exactly what kind of reaction the MLK/LBJ comment would raise. They actually counted on it. They fanned the flames in SC with the JJ comparison. And now they are hoping the Wright embroglio (similar speeches they have heard and appeared to sympathize within the past) are now a oppositon tactic.
I just hope America is getting this reality as much as we poli-junkies are.
March 24, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Once again, did you know that Jesse Jackson Jr. actually campaigned for Obama the month of October in South Carolina, comparing Obama to his father Jesse Jackson Sr.?
So is this as bad to you as Bill Clinton making a one-time comment?
March 24, 2008 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an astonishingly sicko comment. Are you saying that whites "rescued" blacks by buying them and then enslaving them for centuries? Or that blacks are an inferior race destined to oppress and enslave each other, so they have no right to complain of oppression?
Yikes. This is racist at its most pure.
March 24, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, that was for searay.
March 24, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent. Thank you.
If you haven't already, I hope you will forward it to MSNBC, as well as to "linda" who posted that awful "Brief for Whitey"
Email: LindaMuller at Buchanan.org
http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=969
Of course I'm sure you all have the contact list for MSNBC, but here ya go anyway:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/22/msnbc-brings-on-a-new-talking-head-karl-roves-former-aide/#comment-571406
(they're within that linked comment)
March 23, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
searay, I feel ashamed for you. You are a very clear example of the white guilt/resentment paradigm.
ovcatto, the aside from Crispus Attucks, the Revolutionary war veterans listed are largely new to me, I'm embarrassed to admit. Any recommended reading?
March 23, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
ovcatto,
That was absolutely beautiful. Thank you for setting the record straight.
March 24, 2008 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes it is amazing that we can have an area in the US impacted by an event that we knew could happen. The response has been pathetic. The toxic trailers compound the travesty.
Instead of attending to US citizens, we would rather spend billions to rebuild a country overseas. Don't get me started on the infrastructure in the rest of the US.
As I have pointed out before, Islamists have no Air Force or Navy. Terrorists will not run across the sands and swim across the ocean to attack in droves.
The next attack will be either home-grown or via penetration of the border. FEMA will be useless as a response agency once again. We need a competent Presidential administration.
March 24, 2008 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jade: Send it to MSNBC and maybe someone will finally take a pass on him when it comes to scheduling talking heads.
March 24, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for a history lesson that is far too often overlooked.
As another post here mentioned, things have changed. Much progress since earlier in my own lifetime, when a black man who tried to vote could be taking his life in his hands in parts of the US.
And we still have some distance to go. The difference is that the legal and institutional barriers have been lowered, what remains now is in the minds of individuals. Tougher to change, to be sure, and yet very much worth the effort.
Recommended, to keep it on the list, because it's well worth reading.
March 24, 2008 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, I made a huge typo,
The number for the Revolutionary War was 5,000.
My apologies. I was pissed and in a rush. No excuse but that's what happened.
March 24, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for catching your own mistake. It's a shame no one else checks obviously erroneous numbers.
As an additional item, you might note that of the 10 million slaves to the New World, only 4.4% ended up in British North America. By far most ended up in Brazil and then the Spanish territories, followed by the British and French West Indies. Approximately 650,000 slaves were brought to what is now the US. This is a bit fewer than the 1-1.25 million Europeans grabbed as slaves by the Ottomans during the same period, though much smaller than the 11-18 million slaves taken by Arabs during a longer period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
March 24, 2008 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the "2.5 million in World War II" is closer to 1 million as well (the 2.5 million is probably those who registered for the draft). A total of 16 million Americans served in WWII.
African American Soldiers WWII
March 24, 2008 7:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I learned something today.
March 24, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man - in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The 382-day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the supreme court declared such segregation unconstitutional.
[b]1955. 1955. [/b]Not 1855. I have a lot to be grateful for but others before me, bravier than me, fought for the rights we have today.
March 24, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to extend your point, we don't even have to back to 1955. The Tuskegee study didn't end until 1972. Since that was after I was born, it's not part of ancient history. ;)
March 24, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"And lastly I would like to ask America to excuse me while I become sick from having to remind this great nation that African Americans have nothing for which to be grateful for. Our “debt” to American has been paid in full by our sweat, hard work and sacrifice. If gratitude is forthcoming I would hardly think that it would coming from African Americans. "
Damn straight, and well said.
The furthest I would go to defend Pat Buchanan is that the Irish experience has been dramatically different from the African one. Buchanan is a product of that.
For one thing, the Irish generally came here of their own free will, crammed into the hulls of ships though they might have been. They were treated reasonably well when they got here, and many were able to escape the poverty that would have doomed them had they stayed in Ireland.
Of course, substitute "England" for "America" and Irishmen of a certain age will show as much bitterness as black Americans can sometimes do, if not more. Just mention Charles Trevelyan, for example. He was the person responsible for overseeing the English (non-)response to the potato blight of 1846, and publicly stated during the crisis that it was a divine means of eliminating "surplus population".
America became, to Irish immigrants, a refuge from people like him, and people like Buchanan simply can't understand that African Americans have their Trevelyans too, and they didn't get left behind on the other side of the Atlantic.
March 24, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
ovcatto, thank you for this post. It has long struck me that our history books are sorely lacking with regard to AA contributions to our nation prior to the civil rights movement. Your post has helped me to fill this in a bit (the first American to die in the Revolution was an AA – how fitting!). Does anyone know if there is a project to correct this sorry state of affairs?
March 24, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Splitting Image, how should the plight of the Irish explain Buchanan's nastiness ? Besides, saying that the Irish came to the States of their "own free will" when the country was losing 15 % of its population to starvation and fever is something of an overstatement.
Which is not to say I don't agree wholeheartedly with Ovcatto !
March 24, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
"how should the plight of the Irish explain Buchanan's nastiness ?"
Buchanan is hard wired to see America as the "good guy" and a country overseas as the "bad guy". Parallels between how Katrina was handled by the U.S. and how the famine was handled by England are lost on him.
This is why he has fits where he is practically the sanest commentator on the air, and other times that he seems completely out of his mind.
My point was that Irish people of different generations do see the parallels and think very differently from Buchanan. This is one of the reasons the Irish government supported the Iraq war over considerable opposition from ordinary people.
March 24, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just talked to Pat and he says if you stand at the back, don't scare anyone and become white by next tuesday. He'll forgive you.
March 24, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a Jew whose Ukrainian grandparents fled here from pogroms, Cossacks, and WWI, I'm very grateful to America for even existing.
But we came here on our own, literate in Yiddish and Russian and thus easily schooled in English, familiar with Western culture, and eager and able to assimilate. Most of us have caucasian features, so we blended in. The story of black oppression is something we immigrants can't come close to understanding. Even though many of us had been discriminated against in our old countries, and many suffered from discrimination here, we came voluntarily.
That being said, this style of attack is going to offend many whites who otherwise would be indifferent or moderately critical of Obama about Wright. Buchanan might get away with it, but if Republican PACs start acting out with this kind of rhetoric they'll be shooting themselves in the foot. So maybe we should be encouraging them in this.
March 24, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eliyah, the word "slave" comes from "Slav" - i.e. Ukrainians and others. I think you probably have quite a bit of cultural history on this. Please come back with a Victim Report so we can start to empathize with you.
March 24, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
More race-baiting from Buchanan:
http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=969
"PJB: A Brief for Whitey"
First, only angry whites use the word "whitey" to pretend to be equally victimized by racism. (Never quite had the sting of the N-word. Must be that it wasn't accompanied by a lynch mob. )
The GOP wants to play the racism game by now claiming that "blacks hate whites". This is a great excuse for white racism since it posits some sort of parity.
The new white racism = "blacks are bigots"
So you rightwingers get to get indignant, bash blacks, and paly the boo hoo victim card all at the same time. Oh, you poor beleagered white conservatives!!! LOL
March 24, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just another baby boomer,
African Americans are starting to research what is left out of history books. Sites like Ancestry.com and Afrigeneas.com ( yes I know genealogy and history are different disciplines) are places where genealogist collectively find the people left out of history. Visiting county courthouses, genealogical societies, historical societies, looking through the federal censuses, death certificates, obituaries, marriage records, deeds and wills and State Libraries are the jumping off point for this project.
I have a post-secondary education and I still have the history book "American History since 1865" from that class. It opens with the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It fails to mention the African American men who fought on both sides of the Civil War. Again it starts with the Civil War so it fails to mention the American Revolution and the black men listed by ovcatto and those who fought the battle at Yorktown. I know at least one black man who fought in the American Revolution. I have a copy of his pension file which is stored at National Archives. He is my relative.
March 24, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
MSNBC should force Buchanan to resign. He possesses the same “static” worldview that Obama spoke of in his speech on race; instead of acknowledging the legitimacy of Obama’s ideas, he goes to great lengths denying them, while simultaneously fulfilling them.
http://thenewargument.com/index.php/2008/03/24/msnbc-needs-to-let-go-of-pat-buchanan/
March 24, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Ovcatto. Buchanan's statements were despicable. I really hope you'll consider the suggestion upthread and send this to MSNBC (and other news outlets and blogs as well); it's a perfect response to Buchanan and his ilk. Well said!
March 24, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I think it is time we take on the DNC. We need to write to the DNC and ask that they stop this race and get behind the person with the most pledge delegates and popular votes. It is high time that we focus on the General election. It is apparent that the Clintons have decided to ensure that McCain will win the General so that she can run again in 2012.
This type of politics is too costly for the democratic party to continue to do and as long as she continues to run, the worst it is going to get.
Does anyone have the information where to send emails or snail mail? We really need to do this now.
Are you all ready to take back our country? If so, then we need to go to our leaders and make it clear that the bloodbath needs to STOP NOW!
March 24, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno.
As a first generation American, I'd like to thank America for allowing my father political asylum after he lobbed a grenade at Batista (he did that for Cuba's Blacks, but whatever), and for allowing my mother to immigrate from Winnipeg. If America had not opened her arms to such as my parents, I would not exist.
I'm sorry that African Americans in this country have had a rough road, but so too did my father. He arrived in NYC in 1957 with $50 bucks and a suitcase. He made the most of it. He "got on" with his life.
I'd suggest that is a more positive road. I suppose he could have bitched and complained about the unfairness of life, but hey. No one ever promised him life would be easy.
March 24, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now you've gone and done it - showing gratitude at an ingratitude party. You make a really lousy ingrate, buddy.
March 24, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love you Desidero and Workerbee. Both of you know more about American history than I could ever know . How ungracious of me to ask more questions about who I am and the true history about my country. I am so ungracious that LALO35 labeled me as a Holocaust denier. I am so ungracious that I don't understand how studying my families history in the United States is directly, indirectly or accidentally related the Holocaust.
Let me be ungracious and continue looking for the truth and not someone's opinion.
March 24, 2008 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
My gratitude to America is sincere. As for your non sequitur about Lalo, I have no idea what that poster's American experience is. Perhaps they or a loved one has lived someplace a lot harder and more unfair than America is.
My father always told me, "To whom much is given, much is expected." Kind of an old fashioned idea, (Noblesse Oblige) but one that serves me well.
I'd think your interest in your personal history would also give you some perspective on how the sacrifices of your forebears made way for your relatively easier life, but perhaps not. Incidentally, I am a fan of history, but I tend to be more knowledgeable in Western Civ, as that's where my forebears came from. I'm grateful to them for their hard work and sacrifice as well.
March 25, 2008 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Workerbee, I would love to hear what you think I have been given? I will tell you what I have to continuously work for.
March 25, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, gee. You're using a computer. That makers you pretty damn lucky. Don't believe me? Check it out:
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=stats/web_worldwide
Yeah, you are one LUCKY SOB to have been born in America. Shall we go into indoor plumbing? Or do you take that for granted, too?
March 25, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um, no one gave me a computer, I worked for it. Free in door plumbing; sorry to inform you, I worked for that too.
Sounds like the echo of Ferraro, no? Lucky me!
March 26, 2008 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
No excuse or apology would ever suffice for any evils in American history.
One thing I do find comforting about our history is that many white abolitionists took meaningful risks to fight against slavery. America didn't move past slavery because there was an overwhelming revolt by slaves and the majority in power was left with no choice. We moved past slavery partly because many of those in power, together with brave victims of slavery, were decent people who refused to accept such evil.
America's willingness to self-correct on many issues-- however imperfectly--might be our best quality. This quality gives me faith in most Americans and the values upon which this country was founded. This gives me hope that we can also correct the inequities that exist today.
March 26, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink