sheshe2
sheshe2's JournalHaving the Authority
Nancy the Artist | November 20, 2015
Ever since Barack Obama began his run for the Presidency there has been a challenge to his authority to do so. The first controversy was the authenticity of his Birth Certificate. More recently was the questioning by the press after his speech at the G20 summit. Several members of the press asked the President a very similar question about his strategy in Syria. Underneath the words of the questions that were being asked was another question which was "When will you be willing to admit that you are and have been a complete and total failure". Since they weren't getting the answer they wanted they had to keep asking the same question.
Since President Obama has been in office there has been a nonstop attack on his authority. No matter what he says or what he does his authority is questioned. President Obama was elected through the Democratic process after which he took the Oath of Office making him the 44th President of the United States which therefore grants him with the authority given to the office of the Presidency. With that authority he has been given the opportunity to understand and utilize the authority that has been granted to him.
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As he continues to be attacked and to have his authority put into question he continues to respond in the same reality based and educational manor and by doing so he causes his detractors to react and in their reaction they participate in endorsing ideas and policies that appear more and more outside the realm of reality. By the use of his authority President Obama is drawing a contrast between his ideas and the ideas of his detractors and making it clear who is living in reality and who is living in a fantasy. By the use of his authority he is causing his detractors to say and do things that seem to be borderline if not outright insane.
President Obama is using his authority to meet the needs of a changing world. Those who are fighting this authority are of the past. Their old authority was exclusive. The new authority which President Obama represents is inclusive. The old authority has no ideas to address a changing world because those ideas are from the past. Those ideas are in a state of decay. The old authority is in denial which is causing those who identify with it to act out and behave like unruly little children who are yelling and screaming for attention rebelling against the grownup. In reality they are afraid. They are afraid of their loss of power.
As painful as it has been for those who support this President to observe the treatment he has received I think it is important to stand back and look at the bigger picture. The way this President has been using his authority is powerful. President Obama has not folded under the never ending pressure that has been seeking to destroy him and by not folding and instead using his authority what he has done is draw a line in the sand and he asked us to question do we want to evolve or do we want to rot in the decay of the past? The answer to any thinking person is clear and he is helping to clarify the answer to that question with each passing day. President Obama has been using his authority to both construct something and also to abolish something. President Obama is creating a new template. His use of authority is the representative of a new beginning and due to his election and through his actions we are closing the door to the past.
Read More http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2015/11/20/having-the-authority
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This is a very good read.
"When will you be willing to admit that you are and have been a complete and total failure".
Inauguration day 2009, the GOP met to plot his demise. They wanted to make him a one term President. They could not stand that uppity black man in their White House.
Well for me, this man has been the adult in the room always. He has looked to the future and they only embrace the past. I am not going back there, I refuse.
******************This is posted in The Barack Obama Group. Please show us some respect*****************************
An Open Letter From a Black Man to White America's Dying White Working Class and Poor
Posted by chaunceydevega at 2:01 PM
I believe that she may have been exaggerating. But her observation does get to something real about the way white privilege manifests. Research suggests that the average white American has no basic idea about how white racism and white supremacy impact the day-to-day lives and life chances of non-whites. In fact, social psychology experiments have shown that white folks believe that not having access to television is a far greater hardship than being black. This absurdity is compounded by the belief, demonstrated in recent surveys, that in the Age of Obama, “discrimination” against white people is now a bigger problem in the United States than racism against people of color.
In all, white privilege is a system that gives unearned advantages to white people because of their perceived racial group membership. Those unearned advantages in turn nurture and cultivate a deficit in coping skills. (This is not a function of race, but rather of power. Men likely have worse life coping skills relative to women, and straight people less so than those in the LGBT community.) This should not be a surprise. White America was built upon stolen land, income, labor and wealth, taken from First Nations, African-Americans and other people of color. More recently, the modern white American middle class was created through transfer payments and government subsidies such as the G.I. Bill and VA/FHA housing programs, opportunities that were systematically denied to black and brown Americans. Racism (and sexism) in the American labor force meant that jobs which earned a living wage were deemed the near exclusive province of white men.
And now white people — and white working class men in particular — are suffering an identity crisis, as their perceived birthright is being taken away from them.
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White America is hurting. White America is in a panic — stirred up by know-nothing nativists like Donald Trump, the bigotry and resentment-based politics of the Republican Party, as well as the eliminationist anxieties produced by the right-wing media. I worry that, as horses in a fire, that White America will run back into the burning barn instead of running out to the freedom that awaits them should they ever try at meaningful alliances with people of color.
Read More http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2015/11/an-open-letter-from-black-man-to-white.html
Please read it all, Chauncey DeVega is spot on here. I could only post so much and it does not even begin to tell the story.
Soon we will no longer be a White America and I embrace that. We will be colorful and diverse. I find that change beautiful. My family started as German Swiss Irish and a few other nationalities thrown into the pot. We are mixed now. We added Japanese Hispanic and African to the mix. The children grow more beautiful with every generation.
NON-WHITE AMERICA IN NORMAN ROCKWELL’S PAINTINGS – HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT, JANE ALLEN PETRICK
Jane Allen Petrick has written a wonderful book about Norman Rockwell, the artist and his work. It focuses on the “invisible people” in his painting, the non-white children and adults who are his legacy.
For many readers, this book will be an eye-opener — although anyone who visits the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts or takes a serious look at Rockwell’s body of work can see Norman Rockwell never portrayed a purely white America. This perception of Rockwell’s work is a gross injustice to a man for whom civil rights was a personal crusade.
This country’s non-white population were in Rockwell’s paintings even when he had to sneak them in by a side door,figuratively speaking. Black people, Native Americans and others are anything but missing. Rockwell was passionate about civil rights and integration. It was his life’s cause, near and dear to his heart. Yet somehow, the non-white peoples in his pictures have been overlooked, become invisible via selective vision. They remain unseen because white America does not want to see them, instead choosing to focus on a highly limited vision which fits their prejudices or preconceptions.
Ms. Pettrick tells the story of Rockwell’s journey, his battle to be allowed to paint his America. It is also the story of the children and adults who modeled for him. She sought out these people, talked to them. Heard and recorded their first-hand experiences with the artist.
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Read More http://teepee12.com/2015/02/28/non-white-america-in-norman-rockwells-paintings-hidden-in-plain-sight-jane-allen-petrick/
I have my reasons for posting this tonight. I said I embraced an America that no longer held a white majority. Why, as a white woman did I say that? Well for one thing I love the color of people.
I majored in art. When you blend certain colors together, you find a new color. Each color is different, sometimes subtle and sometimes more vibrant than the last. My family, one side Irish they blended with AA, damn they are vibrant. On the other side, Irish/ German blended with Japanese. Their child went on to marry Hispanic. Their colors are sweet and subtle and they are so very beautiful.
I believe in the color of change. Census shows that by 2040-2050 white Americans will no longer be the majority. Yes, the point I made was that I will embrace that with open arms I believe in diversity and that it will make us a better Nation. I love color, all colors are beautiful.
Women never make it to the top of the page on DU.
Hell. We don't make it to the greatest page at DU.
How sad is that, we are 50 percent of the voters.
Dead or in Jail: The Burden of Being a Black Man in America
By Wilbert L. Cooper
Senior Editor
All photos by Awol Erizku
"The day you were born, there was a pine box and a prison cell built with your name on it."
I can relate to the blinding, hot rage I've seen swallow up so many other brothers of my generation, from the pain they foolishly inflict against one another because their arms can't reach the system to the pain they inflict upon themselves because they are trying to escape the realities of the everyday. It's in those fits of anger that I wonder, Were we always destined to live and die this way, like savages in the street or alone in cold cells? And if this is it, why did our parents have us at all? Why bring us into this world where our lives are short and wracked with pain?
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But even if we manage to avoid the death-or-jail-cell quagmire my father warned me about, there's still the plantation in our minds to contend with. The terror we live under today may not be comparable to that of the 1860s, but the fear, the humiliation, and the emasculation remain in subversive and subtle forms, creeping in and crippling us from the inside. Of course, not every altercation between the police and black youth ends in death, but the indignities we endure every day take a different kind of toll. They chip away at our personhood, our humanity, and can very easily make us meek—or else a uniquely American breed of monster.
When I first began to tune into the slew of cryptic videos and horror stories that have been arriving by the boatful in the last few years, I wanted to weep. What I did instead is weep inside until my emotional well went dry. And then I started to feel nothing but a gnawing angst, searing through the sides of my belly.
It's that burning feeling that at one time made me certain I would never bring another black child into this world. For what? To be beaten, to be caged, to be taught to hate himself and everyone who shares the same skin as him? There was a time when I couldn't imagine subjecting anyone else to that curse, that burden.
Read More http://www.vice.com/read/dead-or-in-jail-the-burden-of-being-a-black-man-in-america-804?utm_source=vicetwitterus
It is a long read, so powerful. So much pain, fear and despair yet the last line gives me hope, that they will overcome.
I am weeping.
Photo of the Day: Fearless
I don't know about you, but I've shed a lot of tears over the last 10 days. Some have been tears of grief and some of joy. It's hard to miss that we're going through a great historical moment in this country.
And so I wanted to mark this occasion with a few important words that have been written about it.
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Ten Days in June by David Remnick
What a series of days in American life, full of savage mayhem, uncommon forgiveness, resistance to forgiveness, furious debate, mourning, and, finally, justice and grace. As President Obama led thousands of mourners in Charleston, South Carolina, in “Amazing Grace,” I thought about late 2013 and early 2014. Obama’s Presidency was surely dwindling, if not finished. His mood was sombre, philosophical—which is good if you are a philosopher; if not, not.
Obama described himself to me then in terms of his limits—as “a relay swimmer in a river full of rapids, and that river is history.” More than a few columnists believed that Obama was now resigned to small victories, at best. But pause to think of what has happened, the scale of recent events.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court (despite an apocalyptic dissent about “pure applesauce” and “interpretive jiggery-pokery” by Justice Scalia) put an end to years of court cases and congressional attacks against the Affordable Care Act, which means that millions of Americans will no longer live in a state of perpetual anxiety about health costs.
On Friday, the Supreme Court (despite a curiously ill-informed dissent about Kalahari, Aztec, and Han mating rites by Chief Justice Roberts) legalized same-sex marriage nationally—a colossal (and joyous) landmark moment in the liberation of gay men and lesbians.
The theme, of course, is that we have been led both to and through these last 10 days by a great man...one who has been fearless.
Many great links here: http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/06/photo-of-day-fearless.html
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That image tells the story.
This Is How America Will Remember Barack Obama
A Bond That Will Never Be Broken
George E. Condon Jr.: This Is How America Will Remember Barack Obama
Long after the last partisan battle has been fought over Obamacare, long after Barack Obama has settled into a comfortable post-presidency, and long after the last joke has been made about some Joe Biden verbal misstep, people will remember the moment when the always-in-control president struggled to control his emotions. They will remember the moment when president and vice president embraced in front of the altar and exchanged heartfelt kisses on the cheek. And they will remember how their hearts ached at this intimate glimpse of one family’s pain. In an age when so many political moments are scripted, this was real. In a country whose presidents and vice presidents have rarely been close, this was genuine closeness. In an administration that prides itself on being hip, this was decidedly old-fashioned love.
The funeral at St. Anthony’s was another highly personal moment for the president. White House aides have often tried to persuade reporters that this president and this vice president have a close bond. Just as often, reporters have voiced skepticism, aware of a two-century history of relationships ranging from open enmity to cool indifference between the men in the White House and their vice presidents. But more than six years into the presidency, it may be time to accept the claims as accurate. Even when Biden has misspoken or jumped the gun on positions, aides insist Obama harbored no anger at the vice president. “That’s just Joe being Joe,” they often say. “It’s part of who he is.” They always appreciated Biden’s loyalty and humanity. Saturday was a chance for the president to return that embrace. How he did it will be hard to forget.
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/06/06/a-bond-that-will-never-be-broken/
That second picture, it looks like Joe is consoling Obama as he rests his head on Joe's shoulder.
Tears.
BOG
For two men we so admire. They have touched our hearts.
U.S. Police Have Shot Dead 385 People In Five Months: REPORT
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. police have shot and killed 385 people during the first five months of this year, a rate of more than two a day, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The death rate is more than twice that tallied by the federal government over the past decade, a count that officials concede is incomplete, the newspaper said.
The analysis is based on data the Post is compiling on every fatal shooting by police in 2015, as well as of every officer killed by gunfire in the line of duty.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation records over the past decade show about 400 fatal police shootings a year, or an average of 1.1 deaths a day. Reporting of shootings by police agencies is voluntary.
But the Post's analysis indicates the daily death toll for 2015 is close to 2.6 as of Friday. At that pace, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year, the paper said.
Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/31/police-fatal-shootings-20_n_7477658.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices&utm_hp_ref=black-voices
The First Decoration Day
Article. By David W. Blight. 2011.
The people’s history of Memorial Day.
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Memorial Day, originally published in the New York Times. Used here with permission of the artist Owen Freeman. (Click photo for artist’s website.)
Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders’ race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy’s horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”
At 9 a.m. on May 1, the procession stepped off led by three thousand black schoolchildren carrying arm loads of roses and singing “John Brown’s Body.” The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathering in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens’ choir sang “We’ll Rally around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. No record survives of which biblical passages rung out in the warm spring air, but the spirit of Leviticus 25 was surely present at those burial rites: “for it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you… in the year of this jubilee he shall return every man unto his own possession.”
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Over time several American towns, north and south, claimed to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. But all of them commemorate cemetery decoration events from 1866. Pride of place as the first large scale ritual of Decoration Day, therefore, goes to African Americans in Charleston. By their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of flowers and marching feet on their former owners’ race course, they created for themselves, and for us, the Independence Day of the Second American Revolution.
http://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-first-decoration-day/
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Whitewashed.
This I do know.
I will not sit down and I will not shut up.
I have nieces and nephews also four great niece and nephews. I will do anything to make this a better place for them. The two of them are incredibly strong, talented and beautiful women. I would die for them if need be. Actually, when the eldest was two, she fell to the concrete floor, following my sister up from the laundry room. She had her doll in her arms, her name was" super baby". When I saw her with her leg strapped to a board, intravenous lines attached, unresponsive and bruised, I prayed. Yes, it is not something I do anymore, yet that day I did. I was twenty six. I prayed I go in her place, she was only two and I had already had twenty six years. She survived.
There is so much talk here that we need to focus on economic justice and push social justice behind us for now. I have been told this! I say to hell with that 'cause one without the other is meaningless. This cannot be trickle down for for social justice. Trickle down has never worked. You know that! Stop pushing it.
I will vote in every damn election, for my candidate or not if they lose. I will always vote for the Democratic candidate. Always. Never a write in.
Some believe I am a stupid Bogger, the most loathed group at DU, that is okay. I know I am not. Hell yes, I am going to enjoy the time remaining. He and his family have brought dignity and grace to our White House.
There have been times in my life where I learned your life can change on a dime. So, you know, I cannot and will not live my short life on earth in misery and despair. I have known it, not going to dwell in a dark place.
Yes, silly me. I have hope.
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