Change

What is the change that we can believe in? Well the change that we can believe in is that no matter who’s the President of the United States of America, come January 2009, they will not change much in America in the next four years. Let’s be real people, change doesn’t happen overnight and the talk about any Presidential candidate changing America in the next four years will be a tough one to make. Think about this, the Democrats took back control of Congress in 2006 and what type of change have we seen from the new Congress besides some ethics reforms and some higher education bills passed. However we have seen a lot of pork than usual continues to be written into bills and a lot more money package bills for Iraq funding being passed.

Thus can we believe that change is on the horizon from anything different unless our Congress can change its way. We cannot expect the President of the United States to solve our problems if our Congress doesn’t change its attitudes and feelings in terms of how they spend American taxpayers’ money while in DC. The change that America needs is change in the face of how Washington lawmakers do business on a day to day basis. We the people need change in terms of how our elected officials vote on bills and how they talk about the issues.

Change is not always good either because if we actually think that if we bring our troop’s home from Iraq, leaving none behind than Iraq would be a better place or the Middle East will become peaceful. Well I’m sorry to tell everyone but the Middle East will not have peace until tolerance is thought in the world. War and violence is not the solution but tolerance and talks among nations is what is needed to solve the problems of the Middle East and the world. However we do need to change our foreign policy in terms of how we don’t talk to our enemies but it needs to be done in a diplomatic, peaceful and spirited way. We can’t simply talk to our enemies without preconditions in mind for those that we call our enemies. America does need to change in both its domestic policies and foreign policies but this change can only occur if the people of this Great nation stay involved in the political process.

We the people cannot expect one person to change the hardships of America if we the people don’t hold our elected officials accountable on all levels from local & city governments to state and federal government. We the people cannot simply turn out in huge numbers to elect a President of the United States of America who doesn’t draft legislation but simply signs or vetoes it. We the people can no longer take any election off and expect for the repercussions of that election not to come back to haunt us years later. We the people can no longer afford to politically intolerant or uneducated. We the people can no longer allow ourselves not to know the Governor of our state is, who our U.S. Senators are or U.S. Representatives is. We the people demand change but we have to be a part of that change and that means going out and electing politicians on all levels of government and holding our politicians accountable.

Change does start from the bottom up but that only occurs when we the people hold all elected officials responsible for their votes, their actions and their policies. Change in America’s domestic policy and foreign policy will only occur if we the people understand that being a diehard Democrat or Republican doesn’t give us anything if we never have dialogue about the issues that plague all Americans such as school’s being underfunded and no child left behind leaving hundreds of thousands of Democrats and Republican children behind. Pledging allegiance to one party over the other will not get us universal healthcare and will not get us out of Iraq any time soon because at the end of the day, both parties need each other in order to help America solve our domestic and foreign policy problems.

Change starts with the people putting political philosophy aside and start teaching tolerance in order for Democrats to understand Republicans and vice versa, Blacks to understand Whites and vice versa, Christians to understand Muslims and vice versa, and etc. This is the only way that change in America can occur; when tolerance and understanding of our differences is thought and at least shared so that we the people can teach our politicians that while our differences might be what make us different, it is our beliefs in change to help uplift our common man that make us similar. Only through tolerance and discussion can our religious differences and racial differences be understood and accepted by those who know nothing about what makes the other side think the way it thinks and vice versa.

Therefore, if it is change that we the people want than that change can only happen through a collective movement that doesn’t end after November 2008 but continues on. Change has always occurred in America and throughout the world but it usually ends and starts a new change where some or many people become left out of the process. Therefore, America’s change that needs to occur is the change that involves all people being involved in all parts of government from the bottom on up. We the people must not continue to become so enthused and excited about Presidential elections that we forget about the elections that raise our taxes on the local level and force us to pay for many state sponsored programs that some or half of us probably don’t have the opportunity to participate in. Therefore we must stay involved in the political process. We must hold our city council officials accountable for not picking up trash and shoveling our snow. We must hold our mayors accountable for our streets not being cleaned and safe and for not rebuilding our neighborhoods by shutting down drug houses and for not tearing down abandoned houses and buildings that bring down the value of our neighborhoods.

If its change that the people want than that change can only occur through a collective mindset of individuals being tolerant of each other’s views, being mindful of each other’s similarities and differences but being understanding to compromise in order to solve the problems that plague our nation on the local, state and federal level. Change is a two Way Street that is filled with accountability, responsibility and credibility from all parties involved in the process of change.

Being B.L.A.C.K.

Being Black is not a one month a year job. Being Black takes us living with the essence of knowing where we are from, where we are and where we want to go. Therefore being Black is a 365 days a year job but right here in 2008, it requires us being Black 366 days. So what does this mean to us as a people, when we as a people don’t even celebrate our own history? What does it mean when we don’t even honor those who came before us and who dead for us to have some of the rights and privileges that we have today?

We can no longer accept the realities that we as a people have succeeded because we haven’t. The day we accept that we as people have succeeded is the very day that we are defeated as a people. We cannot and will not be able to uplift ourselves if we continue to practice the old practices of racism that were used against us. We are quick to call our fellow black man and woman Uncle Tom’s or sell outs when they do not support another black man or woman. However we never bother to think or ask, is this black man or woman that one black man or woman doesn’t support, worthy of our support to begin with. Let’s be real and honest, just because one is black doesn’t make them worthy of our support. Being Black is not about the color of one’s skin or the rhetoric they use. Being Black is about showing the character, wisdom and cultural knowledge of us as people.

Being Black requires us to look beyond the color of one’s skin and requires us to look at the heart of one’s character. We must look at the motives of one’s thoughts and actions in order to understand just how far they have come to understand that Black is the essence of all life and therefore should be in the center of one’s heart and soul. We cannot no longer reject the fact that we are Black and that being Black is beautiful. We cannot continue to use the race card in terms of telling us that we are being discriminated against or that we hate on our own people. We must realize that being Black requires us to think outside the box and to think beyond racial lines.

Now by thinking beyond racial lines, we must realize that we must continue to stay knowledgeable of our own history. We must not think for a minute that anything that anyone is saying about us as a people is new because it is not. We must not think for a minute that we as a people have arrived because we have not. We have not arrived until we can get beyond the color of our skin and start being accepted for what we know and how we act. However we cannot be judged by our character if we continue to allow others who are Black to act in ways that are not characteristic of us as a people as a whole.

Thus, we must not shy away from controversy but we must be defiant in speaking out against those who depict us as a people in a negative and unfair way. If you are Black and proud of it than don’t use the word nigga, Negro, bitch, hoe or any other derogatory word to classify our men and women. If you are proud to be Black than when you see a young man or any other black male sagging or wearing his pants in an unbefitting way than call him out. We can no longer allow us as people to accept mediocrity as a people. If we do not stand for something now than we will never stand for anything. Therefore being Black requires us to focus on ourselves by teaching ourselves, motivating ourselves, and uplifting ourselves.

Being B.L.A.C.K. requires us to REMEMBER EACH ONE, TEACH ONE, AND REACH ONE so that we as a people make us as people better, America better and the world better.

SUPERDELEGATES

Super delegates are those Democratic Party leaders who are elected officials and former Governors as well as top notch Democratic officials who have helped the Democratic Party succeed and strive over the years. However, no one ever thought for a moment in the Democratic Party that the super delegates would play a major factor in any Democratic election. Therefore as we sit here in the 2008 Presidential election for the Democratic Party, we see that super delegates could decide who the next Democratic Presidential nominee is.

Is it fair that super delegates will play a major part in selecting the next Democratic Presidential nominee? Yes it is fair because at the end of the day, the super delegates are individuals who have the best interest of the Democratic Party at heart and they do have a right to decide who carries the party flag in a very critical Presidential election. While some might say that super delegates should vote in favor of how the people vote, I disagree because if that’s the case than all the super delegates in the states that Senator Hillary Clinton won should go to her and all the states that the Senator Barack Obama won than those super delegates should go to him. However that is just it, it won’t go like that.

You don’t hear Senators John Kerry or Ted Kennedy talk about switching over to support Senator Clinton instead of Senator Obama like Congressman John Lewis did after Obama won his district in the state of Georgia. You don’t hear any one from Obama’s camp speaking about any of his super delegates switching over to Clinton if Senator Clinton won that state or the district that a particular super delegate represents. We cannot expect these politicians who are elected officials to vote in favor of the people because do they consult the people on all their voting positions while in Congress.

If our elected officials are only picking one candidate over the other because the people in their voting districts or states voted for one candidate over the other than where is our elected officials’ integrity. If our elected officials have no integrity and power to think on their own without always making decisions hoping to garner votes than the people who are most harmed by our elected officials’ decisions are the people because we don’t need elected officials who only make decisions that they feel will keep them elected for another term. Also if the people are against an elected official because he or she did not vote for Hillary or Obama than that just goes to show how naïve and stupid the people are. Think about it, we are the same Americans who elected Georgia W. Bush not once but twice regardless if he stole either election.

We are the same people who don’t even vote in our local elections and care more about whose the President of the United States of America more than we care about who is the Mayor of our cities and towns. Therefore anyone who wants the people to decide who the Democratic Presidential nominee is needs to be against the Electoral College which ultimately elects the President. Thus, I’m not saying that the people are not intelligent enough to know what they want but at the same time, they people vote for individuals not based off their record and who has the best solutions to our problems but rather off various reasons that to me are naïve and idiotic.

So now, the best hope for the Democratic Party future is that after 2008, they take the power out of the super delegates hands and re-write party rules so that all state primaries and caucuses have a say so in who becomes the Democratic Presidential nominee. If the people who have voted for Senator Obama and Senator Clinton don’t want the super delegates to decide who is the next Presidential nominee than it is up to the people to put pressure on the Democratic Party to give the people, the Dream Ticket that the people have wanted since the 2004 Presidential Election. Otherwise, allow the super delegates to make their own decision on who is best for not only America but who is best for the Democratic Party.