The Crispus Attucks Blog: Health Care Reform -- Not So Fast

Monday, July 20, 2009

Health Care Reform -- Not So Fast

The Health Care Reform train has begun to lose momentum as old Joe "Mentum" Lieberman urges the White House to slow down. President Obama continues to insist that some form of of reform is coming, but the thing that the White House continues to ignore is if their reform is the reform the American public is asking for. A single-payer option was declared dead nearly before the legislative process started, and there has been much contention over a public option, and I believe this is one of the true sticking points.

The time is approaching where the President is going to have to begin using his bully pulpit. He's going to have to use his skills to either persuade or frighten members of Congress. I doubt Obama wants this kind of fight, but want it or not, he'd better be prepared for it.

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Crispus Attucks?

According to PBS.org:

"In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man, became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although Attucks was credited as the leader and instigator of the event, debate raged for over as century as to whether he was a hero and a patriot, or a rabble-rousing villain".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p24.html

From its earliest days black people have fought and died for this country, in every war we've fought, as soldiers and patriots. The average person, if they were to judge from the media and their lifetime of misteaching, would believe all we've ever been were slaves, civil rights workers, athletes, entertainers, welfare recipients and criminals.

In the minds of many people, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, or both, are the leaders of Black America. The utter ridiculousness of such thinking is apparent if its applied it in the inverse, say by considering Newt Ginrich or Sarah Palin to be the leaders of White America.

Black Americans are a complex mosiac within the expansive tapestry of this country and its history. Our sweat, blood, and toil helped create and maintain America, and we've paid a price higher than those paid by many others. This blog is a reflection of that point of view.

Why are you talking anyway?

Although we've seen many changes in our society, for me, there's still a lot of misunderstanding about Black Americans and our role in shaping this society...and not just by people who are not black.

Al Sharpton is not Black America. Jesse Jackson is not Black America. Neither was Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglas, or Cripus Attucks, but they all were Black Americans. And despite the rhetoric used against them during their lives and times, they all have proved their love for their country by challenging it to be true to its promise of justice and equality.

I feel the same way as they did. They used their voices. I want to use mine.

The Crispus Attucks Blog