The Crispus Attucks Blog: Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, meet Ralph Reed

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, meet Ralph Reed

According to ajc.com, one time would-be American Ayatollah Ralph Reed is looking to reform and re-brand the Christian Coalition.
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories//2009/07/12/ralph_reed_comeback.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Perhaps Reed believes enough time has passed that the stench of Jack Abramoff no longer wafts from his clothes, so he is crawling out of the political sepulcher to be the next in line to attempt to give the reactionary politics of the right-wing a bright new face via social networking and the internet.

The old soup in the new bowl is going to be called the Freedom and Faith Coalition, and since past is often prologue, I'm sure we can count on the FFC to attempt to exploit the old hot button issues of yesteryear, but do it in a nicer way in order to attract younger voters and activists. Instead of handing out voter guides to churches, according to the article, Reed wants to use the Internet to disseminate his brand of faith-based wedge politics. Reed himself said, “I’ve become an elder statesman at 48, but I’m still doing what I was doing at 20".

Reed's comeback is in its early stages, so he has a ways to go before he can look forward to the kind of national press attention that the current GOP leadership (the insane clown posse of Steele, Limbaugh, and Palin) are receiving, but the fact Reed feels emboldened enough to mount such a revival is evidence again of the dearth of new ideas and new blood in the Republican party.

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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