America Grows Up!!!

America, we have finally grown up! We have come a long way from being skeptical in 1960 of a Catholic President, to the election 48 years later of a Black American. It's time to do away with this business of hyphenated anything ; African-American, Hispanic-American, Japanese-American, or any other mongeralization .

I may not have it exactly correct, but we are at that point where those prophetic words of Dr. martin Luther King Junior have come true: "The time will come when men are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin."

We have been hindered in our quest for being the best we can be by denying to some the opportunity to be part of that greatness as individuals and a nation. I am optimistic that we have finally gained the momentum to make that happen, and we can be called "An equal opportunity Nation".

Although I had good feelings about the results of this Presidential Election, I was pleased by the reassurances that were given Sunday evening on CBS TV's "Sixty Minutes" by our new President and first lady. I have read some criticism of the dress and demeanor of the new first lady, but bear in mind she is not a clone of the President, but is her own person. You only have to look back to Eleanor Roosevelt to see the different personalities that first Lady's have brought to The White House. I certainly hope that Michelle Obama is not forced into a mould not of her own making, and she will be able to withstand the controversy and criticism that surrounds people in public life

Especially amusing and informative were the little exchanges between husband and wife, instead of a President and first lady. There was an air of honesty about these exchanges, and not some phony attempt to show that they are just ordinary people. Face it, ordinary people are not elected to the Presidency, but they need to be able to empathize with all people, and have an understanding of who and what they are. Some of our Presidents have come from humble backgrounds, and they should not forget that, and at the same time it shouldn't hinder them from doing the duties of the office they have chosen and to which they were elected.

For the past sixteen years, we have had divisive elements and controversy surrounding our Presidents. We have seen a people being divided by similar events that divided us during the Vietnam era. It was one ideology against another - so called Conservatives against So called Liberals. What ever happened to the "loyal opposition", and going along to get along? the words negotiation and compromise were removed form our language. Everything should be open to negotiation and compromise.

Religious and moral differences have reared their ugly head. We have had, and still do, religious groups that are trying to push their agenda, that their form of religion and dogma is the only way. It is almost as if religious war has broken out. Islam is not the enemy, but other Christians with differing beliefs. These groups have, in effect, made their God very small, narrow, and one way. Is there no longer room in this country as our Founding Fathers envisioned it, for all religions to be able to worship without fear, and with freedom?

No, it is not God that has narrowed His view, but it is we the people, who have let our narrow, bigoted, prejudices govern us instead of being tolerant and understanding of the religions of others. If you claim Christianity, as many Americans do, you were told by the founder of Christianity to take His message to all the world, but not to force it on them. As a matter of fact, Christ said that if they would not accept His message, to move on and present it to those that would.

The South Rises Again!

From the 1930's until the 1960's, the Old South was known as "The Solid South. Solidly democratic, that is. One of the last of the turncoat Democrats is Trent Lott. Most of the others have already died out. The break up of the solid south coincides with the civil rights movement. Most of the white South were staunch segregationists, and active Klaverns of the Ku Klux Klan still existed. For the most part, they depended on fear tactics rather than actual physical violence. It was sometime in the early 1950's when the last person was lynched in the South. The last open confrontation was not between the Klan and Blacks, but was a Klan Nazi confrontation in Greensboro NC on November 3, 1970, billed as a Death to the Klan event.
This is one of the accounts of what happened:

http://www.ictj.org/en/where/region2/517.html

The big split and Exodus of Democrats from their party came on the heels of Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson, a good old Southern boy, had betrayed the Democratic Party, and even the whole White South when he signed this act.
Some 44 years since, there is still resentment in the South. It may take another generation or two before the South is reconcilled to the fact blacks are humans and Children of God same as whites.
A lot of this is stirred up by evangelical and fundamentalist sects who claim that the Bible teaches and endorses slavery and the idea of the superiority of the white race. Genetically this superiority has not been proven. and in my opinion, the idea that one person can own another person is morally bankrupt, and a crime against nature.
Even with voting Republican in the Presidential race, Much of the South maintained a Democratic State government. Since the end of reconstruction in the late 1800's, North Carolina has elected only two Republican Governors. It can be counted as one of the more progressive states in the South, with the city of Charlotte having become the banking center for 10 of the natrion's largest banks, and has outgrown Atlanta as one of the most populous cities in the South, and according to the 2000 census, ranks 16th in the whole country.
The South, for the most part has remained anti labor. Organized labor unions are scarce, and Southern workers still have lower paying jobs on the average. This is something else I have never understood; why , with the known Republican objection to labor unions, does the lower paid workers of the South continue to reject them. The largest union buster that has ever occupied the White House, Ronald Reagan, is almost a deity in the eyes of Southern Republicans.
But the days of a Republican lock on the South seems to be coming to an end. Virginia and North Carolina both moved into the ranks of blue states this election. North Carolina even ousting their non-resident Republican Senator, to make their contribution to a strong Senate Democratic majority.
That old saying, "The South will rise again" has finally become true, and once again, Southern Democrats, black and white will assume their rightful places of leadership in this great nation

New Leadership

Barack Obama is not just the President of Democrats, but is President of all of us. He is a leader in so many ways that George Bush was not, or could not be.

The people elected Barack Obama, while George Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court.
Bush owed the people nothing, which he demonstrated in so many ways.

From the Bush administration we will be left with the largest deficit in this country's history, a still sinking economy, and the largest economic welfare giveaway for the largest banks and corporations, and many of them still holding their hands out for their tax break incentives for sending our jobs and economy overseas. We have to start saying no to this socialistic corporate welfare even if it means some of our old time American plants close their doors.

Who is contributing to the well being and improvement of our infrastructure? Honda, for one. Currently they are constructing two plants in Central North Carolina. Jet engines to be manufactured in one of the plants, and in the other, a new business class plane to use that new engine.

Both Obama and McCain called for change, and indeed we must change. There will be sacrifices to make. We have been involved in some type of military conflict in every decade since World War II. On the domestic scene, you could hardly tell a war was going on.

Those of you old enough to remember the Second World War, or have heard your parents and grandparents talking about it heard about shortages, rationing and making do with what we had. In the last time this nation stood together as one, almost everyone contributed to the war effort.

There were no new automobiles to be had, and even had there been, no gasoline to put in them. All of this was directed toward the war effort. Coffee and sugar were in short supply. Meat was rationed at the supermarket. Cigarettes and tobacco products went to our servicemen first.

Women en masse entered the labor market, taking jobs that women traditionally had never held before. Most of the available manpower was off fighting a war, while their wives and girlfriends were building the tanks, planes, and ships that were being used to fight and win this war.

When Korea and later, Vietnam came along, we were tired of wars, killing, and shortages. We wanted our cake and eat it too. And we did a pretty good job.

But somehow it wasn't the same. Not everyone contributed to the war efforts, and many even protested to them. Instead of being a uniting factor, they caused the divisions which today still mar our society. Not everyone agrees with war, that's true, but everyone can believe in America, and its leaders. Leadership is a factor greater than two to one over everything else.

For too long we have suffered from leadership vacuums all over. We need a strong leader at the head of this country, Not only there, but throughout the whole of this country - leaders in business, industry, commerce, education and religion. We need, too, to rearrange our priorities and focus once again on the things that mean the most to the most people.

We cannot neglect the majority while a close knit, almost impenetrable minority follows its own agenda at the expense of the rest of us.

America can once again be the land of the free and the freely united.

We have elected a man who says he can show us the way. Let us not only follow his lead, but use his example and inspiration to develop our own leadership abilities.