31 Mar 2010 Project 21 Members’ Essays Published in New Freedom’s Journal Magazine

The March/April edition of the black-owned Freedom’s Journal magazine features three essays from members of the National Center’s Project 21 black leadership network.

The issue, which has an overall focus on the problems brought by big government, includes commentary from Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli and members Emery McClendon and R. Dozier Gray.

In the essay “Social Justice: Not What It Used to Be,” R. Dozier Gray notes:

Who could possibly be against social justice?…

In one sense, social justice is the basis for a sound and civil society. The struggle for social justice is, in its purest form, the struggle for equality of opportunity over outcome. That’s not a problem.

Consider that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Woolworth lunch counter sit-in and the 55th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. These were struggles for social justice, and were key to ending the scourge of enforced segregation in our nation.

Abolishing slavery. Women’s suffrage. All social justice movements of their time. All good.

But there is a problem in modern times, where social justice is often redefined for progressive political gain. This problem usually comes when social justice is intertwined with a quest for economic justice…

In this new interpretation, social justice can more appropriately be considered “collective retribution” or “restorative justice.” The lingering question, however, is to restore what to whom and at what cost. It opens up a Pandora’s Box of unsettling possibilities.

Merely suggesting that “justice” needs a qualifier is appalling. To be just or equitable is a simple task: all parties must be treated fairly as reasoned conscience dictates.

In his essay, “What’s brewing in America? A Tea Party Revolt!,” Emery McClendon notes the non-violent and non-racial underpinnings of the popular tea party movement against big government. McClendon writes:

Since his election, Barack Obama and his supporters have sought to move our nation leftward at breakneck speed. In the process, they’ve exhibited a blatant disregard for our Constitution, traditions, military and the general rule of law.

Americans accepted it at first, but now their patience is wearing thin.

Young people are being indoctrinated in left-wing politics, personified by figures such as Mao and Bill Ayers – enemies of our nation’s founding principles nonetheless admired by members of the Obama Administration.

Those same people also appear bent on taking us further away from our traditional Judeo-Christian morals and values.

It’s shocking that a nation with more freedoms and liberties than most others could fall for such garbage. What happened to the hearts and minds of so many Americans? It’s clear there’s a battle for the soul of America being waged.

Also, Deneen Borelli, in her “Government Climate Claims Will Cost You More Than You Know,” notes:

Too bad for the global warming lobby that the facts don’t meet the rhetoric. Too bad for the rest of us that, despite this, it is still set on imposing its flawed agenda on our nation…

At its core, cap-and-trade is a tax directed at people who use fossil fuels. The lofty intent is to promote alternative energy sources, but — seeing as there are not yet such abundant or feasible sources available — this means virtually everyone will suffer under the tax for the foreseeable future…

And the U.S. would be imposing cap-and-trade unilaterally, without other major nations governments such as India and China imposing similar limitations on themselves. In going it nearly alone, the U.S. risks all of the economic harm while getting none of the alleged environmental gain.

It’s a folly the Obama Administration’s EPA is walking into with eyes wide open. At a July 2009 hearing, when Senator Inhofe presented EPA administrator Lisa Jackson with the EPA’s own data that showed a unilateral cap-and-trade policy would have no effect on global climate, Jackson replied: “I believe the central parts of the [EPA] chart are that U.S. action alone will not impact world [carbon dioxide] levels.”

With all of these revelations and the state of the economy, it’s no surprise support for cap-and-trade is so low. Cap-and-trade was one of the catalysts for the tea parties and for the town halls of 2009. In a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, just 28 percent of those surveyed called global warming a top priority for 2010 — as opposed to the economy (83 percent), jobs (81 percent) and terrorism (80 percent).

Besides these Project 21 members, the March/April issue of Freedom’s Journal also includes essays from Walter Williams, Herman Cain and Ken Blackwell.

To see a sample of this issue, look for the new issue tab on the Freedom’s Journal web site after clicking here.

Labels: Conservatives, Government Power, History, Liberals, Project 21, Race