Project 21: New Visions

Dear Mr. President: With all due respect, your economic stewardship has been a nightmare. Whether our nation's lingering peril comes from your misunderstanding of basic economic principles, your rigid and religious-like devotion to political progressivism or because the economy simply isn't your priority, credit and fault nonetheless begins and ends with you. As such, I'm writing to you in an appeal to the one thing that didn't contract during your presidency: your ego. No matter how you attempt to spin the news, clear-thinking Americans know — many from personal experience — that the economy isn't improving. The federal Bureau of ...
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Slavery didn't suddenly begin with Europeans carting Africans en masse to the Americas. Slavery has a long and evil history that has touched almost the entire planet at one point or another. Depending on how one looks at it, the buying and selling of people hasn't really ever stopped. It has, however, become more of a mental exercise than actual forced physical servitude. One thing that hasn't changed is that blacks living in America seem to still be the target. Too many blacks are now caught in a form of mental bondage. There was slavery on the African continent long ...
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As the dreaded government shutdown continues and America somehow manages to make it without the assistance of non-essential federal employees, a crisis to end all crises is looming. In just under two weeks, the U.S. Treasury will supposedly run out of cash to pay its bills. When that happens, as the mainstream media describes it, the Obama Administration may begin defaulting on the close to $17 trillion of debt due to a lack of cash. Of course, this economy that the President cannot fix forces many Americans to choose which bills to pay and which bills to delay. But our ...
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Protected by the federal government, the monopolistic nature of forced unionism is detrimental to the livelihoods and interests of Americans of all races and ethnicities. But it is black Americans who seem to be forced to suffer the most when it comes to compulsory union memberships and sharing in the benefits of the exclusive set-asides enjoyed by organized labor. With civil rights lobbyists abhorring disparate racial impacts, one would think that union rules would be at the top of their complaints and calls for change. To the contrary, it is not. In fact, the civil rights establishment seems happy to ...
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On August 16, 2013, an Australian college baseball player was shot in the back as he jogged along a road in Duncan, Oklahoma. The deadly attack on Christopher Lane, which took place in broad daylight, shocked Australians to the point that their government warned citizens about travel to the United States. Upon their apprehension, the three teenagers involved in the crime (two of whom were blacks and allegedly did the actual shooting) claimed they did it because they were "bored." Americans have recently been rocked by numerous racially-tinged news events including the George Zimmerman trial, a campaign against "stop and ...
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America's health care system has been exceptional because it's rooted in the principle of free enterprise. Doctors have been free to practice medicine under guidelines set forth by their Hippocratic Oaths. Patients have been free to seek treatment from physicians of their choice. It's the envy of the world with both clinical and research innovation at the heart of its foundation. Until recently, it has been very simple and affordable — the independent private physician had a moral, ethical and fiduciary responsibility to a patient.  This relationship was sacrosanct, and there was no third party or middleman. That will change ...
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Help me, I'm suffering from acute race fatigue! After gavel-to-gavel coverage of the George Zimmerman trial, I need a break. After all the post-verdict anger, lamentations and inane discussions about what it is to be a black man in America, I'm exhausted. After watching President Obama liken himself to Trayvon Martin, I've had enough. All this talk about race seems intentionally shortsighted and disingenuous. It simply implicates whites and infantilizes the black man. And those needing to hear straight talk the most are shortchanged by the soulless profiteers of the racial grievance industry. I'm tired of Trayvon Martin being compared ...
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ObamaCare advocates are struggling to convince Americans that the takeover of health care is the best thing ever. Even celebrities are helping the White House explain the benefits of being forced into a ethically and morally bankrupt system built on promises never intended to be kept. One thing they aren't willing to say is that it isn't really about health care; ObamaCare is really about centralized government control. It's about control of one-sixth of the economy. All working Americans must submit proof of insurance or enter an "exchange." Exchange participants must submit their tax return, Social Security number, employer's tax ID, ...
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Living in the Detroit metro area most of the last decade, I have experienced many of the events leading to its bankruptcy. Take, for example, the 2008 State of the City address by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. With Detroit facing a perilous fiscal future and him facing ethics complaints, Kirkpatrick highlighted race. He sparked controversy by using the "n-word" while referencing an insult he received from some random person. Kirkpatrick vowed to stand strong against this attack, and asked citizens to stand by him. He essentially used that slur to leverage racial tension, inciting and dividing the mostly-black city against mostly-white ...
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'" But 50 years later, in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman verdict, Maya Angelou told Time magazine we are still marching for justice. Like it or not, it is black Americans who are failing to embrace Dr. King's Dream and true equality. It is we who fail to build upon the foundation he laid at the Lincoln Memorial in ...
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If there was one thing that was certain at the beginning of the George Zimmerman trial, it was that a lot of people weren't going to be happy with the outcome. The extent of the damage is yet to be fully determined, but level heads can mitigate a potentially crippling situation. In the short-term, the fears of rioting -- by blacks if Zimmerman was acquitted or by Hispanics if he was found guilty -- were misplaced; large-scale riots never materialized.  But there's no doubt that there are lingering tensions in the wake of Zimmerman's not-guilty verdict. Any large-scale rioting would ...
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Black lawmakers have such a "sense of identification and empathy" with President Barack Obama that they are allowing him to get away with pretty much anything. It was reported in The Hill, one of Washington's top political newspapers, that such empathy was evident following Obama's alleged impromptu remarks about the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), who has represented Harlem in Congress since Obama was five years old, said: "I don't see how a person not-of-color could possibly do the job that he's doing." This reaction, shocking to no one, is nonetheless troubling because ...
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Justice is a lot like beauty. What one sees depends on his or her perspective. Where race is concerned in America, true justice is beside the point. Whites cried foul at the O.J. Simpson verdict. Now blacks fume over George Zimmerman's not guilty verdict. As both sides become inflamed to a boiling point, racial division is guaranteed. Those who feel denied or betrayed rarely leave the courtroom in peace. With Simpson, the grieving Goldman family fought back in civil court to receive financial justice. Trayvon Martin's family and a supportive black community vow to find justice through civil suits and ...
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After self-appointed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman was acquitted in the wrongful death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, his brother — Robert Jr. — tweeted, "Today... I'm proud to be an American." I am proud to be an American every day. But the knowledge that it is apparently possible to get away with killing someone without punishment is not a contributing factor to my love of country. On NPR's website, one of the early top-rated comments was: One thing I don't understand is what was the young man supposed to do when approached by an armed guy on the side of he ...
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Justice Department lawyers should not attempt to prosecute George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin. They likely won't succeed, and would probably compound the awful precedent set by the state of Florida in pursuing this case over objections from the lead criminal investigator, police chief and the community's prosecutor. These missteps were followed with a decision to bypass a grand jury. Adding a pro-prosecution judge, all the safeguards protecting Americans from political or unwarranted prosecution were missing, allowing this train-wreck of a case to proceed. If the feds follow suit, they will head down the same path of an ...
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Some legal commentators analyzing the George Zimmerman trial believe "star witness" Rachel Jeantel may have been more detrimental to the prosecution's case than a help. It is generally held that Jeantel's demeanor simmered of contempt, her language skills were less than stellar and her entire being screamed of a lack of sophistication. But are these things relevant to the process of determining if Zimmerman maliciously killed Trayvon Martin? No. Specifically, there is a myopic focus on the term, "creepy a-- cracker" — language clearly without place in civil 21st century American discourse.  There's also her less-than-cooperative manner in interacting with ...
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On July 4, a Tea Party activist and aspiring humorist named "Wild Bill" posted a video on YouTube entitled "White Guy Riot." In it, he suggests, "rumors are flying in Florida that if George Zimmerman is acquitted, blacks will riot all across the country." "And it has been suggested," Wild Bill adds, "that if George Zimmerman is convicted, that whites should riot." He continued: "When I heard that, my first thought was that someone would have to teach us how." Trying to be funny, Wild Bill, who is white, goes on to suggest only a few whites would actually show ...
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In the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial, the only surprise is that the media is missing the real race issue — perhaps because they are behind it. Left-leaning media generally chastise George Zimmerman, his lawyers and the authorities in Sanford, Florida, insisting race drove the incident that led to Martin's death and disregarding Zimmerman's claims of self-defense. Meanwhile, right-leaning media insists race played no factor in either Zimmerman's actions or those of Sanford authorities. As an African-American conservative, I am torn. It pains me to see any attempt to manipulate the issue of race and the racial pain those before me ...
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Unemployment is still well above seven percent. The recession ended long ago, but Americans are still hurting. Considering the politics of President Obama, however, should we really be surprised? Remember when Obama was caught on an open microphone in early 2012 passing word to Vladimir Putin that he expected to have "more flexibility" after his re-election? He's certainly made good on that assertion, and now openly exhibits progressive extremism. The American economy is showing it's not so flexible. In fact, it seems as if it's about to break. For June, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the general ...
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Another Father's Day is here. It's only the second one in which I've truly felt a part of the celebration. I take great pride in being a father to my two-year-old son, Luther. But, coming from a single-parent home, I always had mixed feelings when Father's Day rolled around. Before Luther was born, I would wonder about the importance of fathers. I would analyze and assess how my own formative years were shaped by my own father's absence. Although much has been written about the negative effects of fatherlessness on black children from a scholarly perspective, I have my personal ...
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