Project 21: New Visions

  Victory of Black History by Lisa Fritsch (bio) For me and a special group of youth in North Tyler, Texas, Black History Month began in September.  That's when the coordinator in charge of the "Black History Bowl" at my school began confirming who would participate in this annual competition among neighboring churches the following February. I would conspicuously hover around Sister Dorothy Wheat to get noticed.  After doing this for some time, she finally relented, telling me: "You can be on the Black History Bowl team.  I'll tell you now, 'fore you worry me to death the next two ...
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  Anyone Can Do Anything by B.B. Robinson, Ph.D. (bio) Black History Month is an ideal time to measure progress.  This year is especially appropriate as we embark on a new decade. Some indicators of progress are how blacks are catching up with their white counterparts with regard to income, education and political participation.  In the latter two categories, reports say blacks made marginal progress.  But we have not yet really progressed on equalizing incomes. Some might argue this income disparity is of overwhelming importance and must be rectified immediately.  They may contend it directly affects education and other opportunities ...
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Why aren't more black people against abortion? To sell a virtually unabated abortion agenda, people are told abortion is necessary for instances in which the life of the mother is at risk.  The need to terminate a child conceived by rape or incest is also cited. Such reasons may seem logical, but they account for only a small portion of actual abortions. According to a 1987 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the great majority of abortions - 93 percent - are for social rather than health reasons.  These women don't want their babies because it might interfere with work ...
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Abortion: A Key Economic Factor by Mychal Massie (bio) There is a real economic toll related to abortion, but it's not something Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or the Congressional Black Caucus complains about.  In fact, they all support abortion. To hear abortion proponents talk about it, infanticide is an economic boon.  In 1998, a U.S. News and World Report article called a child "a high-priced consumer item with no warranty." Less children supposedly means less welfare spending, less unemployment and generally more money to spread around. Actually, the opposite is more likely to be true. In a telephone interview, Mark ...
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  The Inadequacies of a Hundred Billion Dollars by Ak'Bar A. Shabazz (bio) It's great to see the Obama Administration is clear on its priorities.  Too bad these priorities don't benefit the American people. Over the last year and a half, we've been mired in the worst recession in over a generation.  Despite signs that the economy is beginning to turn around, there's still double-digit unemployment, inflation and deficits so high it required legislation to legally raise the limit on the amount of debt being passed to future generations.  America is also engaged in two very costly wars that are ...
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  Thoughts on the Public Use of the Word "Negro" by Lisa Fritsch (bio) Bravo for President Obama for shunning the race card. Many have condemned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for the revelation that he marveled at Obama's light skin and lack of a "Negro dialect" back in 2008.  Obama took the high road.  He immediately forgave Reid. Why should Obama be offended?  He is well-spoken.  He is light-skinned.  And, by now, he is undoubtedly thick-skinned. But, no matter how kind and gracious it is to forgive Reid for his "poor choice of words," one should be mindful ...
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  The Return of Race-Based Voting by Bishop Council Nedd II (bio) Atlanta is called the "city too busy to hate."  But some political activists found the time. Kasim Reed, a state senator, just won a runoff election to become Atlanta's next mayor by a mere 714 votes.  On Election Day, however, he received only 36 percent of the vote next to city councilwoman Mary Norwood's 46 percent. Reed's campaign was boosted by activists who opposed Norwood because she would have become Atlanta's first white mayor in 36 years.  They felt the loss of a black face behind the mayor's ...
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Tiger Woods and the Problem of the "Great Black Example" by Lisa Fritsch (bio) There's an interesting wrinkle in the Tiger Woods scandal. There are some blacks who are angry that none of Tiger's mistresses were black. For example, a recent New York Daily News headline declared "Tiger Alienates Black Community with White Lovers." It's probably the least of his troubles, but it exposes a big problem in the black community. Whether he knows or cares, Tiger has been alienating the black community for some time because he was sought as a Great Black Example to foster racial approval and ...
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  Don't Shortchange Your Kids at Christmas by Mychal Massie (bio) Christmastime is supposed to be a time of good cheer, but what I have to say about it will likely offend some and infuriate others.   More often these days, it's a time dominated by the concern: "What do I get the kids for Christmas?"  A lot of parents plaintively searching for things they can ill-afford and - in reality - their kids really don't need. But, for those unable to differentiate between wasting money, overspending and what a child really needs, the quest is on. Children really need ...
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It's time the Obama Administration came under the scrutiny of its first special prosecutor. Michael Mukasey, predecessor of current Attorney General Eric Holder, correctly appointed a special prosecutor to investigate if politics guided hiring and firing decision in the Bush Justice Department.  Holder should follow his lead, but he hasn't. That's why Obama must get involved. On Election Day 2008, three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense allegedly viciously sought to intimidate voters outside a Philadelphia polling place.  Bartle Bull, a veteran civil rights lawyer and aide to the past presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy and ...
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How Political Correctness Kills by Kevin Martin (bio) Nidal Malik Hasan faces murder charges in the shooting deaths of 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood. His co-conspirator, "political correctness," remains at large.  While political correctness runs amok, no one is safe. In Hasan's case, political correctness protected his extremism and apparently allowed it to fester until it exploded with deadly consequences.  Why?  Apparently no one wanted to be considered a bigot.  To act against Hasan would open up allegations that one was anti-Arab or anti-Muslim. Hasan's embrace of radical Islam - including advocacy of violent jihad and trying ...
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The Obama (In)Difference by Lisa Fritsch (bio) One word comes to mind for describing Barack Obama's tenure since last year's election: indifference. It's a vast contrast from the "hope" and "change" Obama peddled to voters on the campaign trail.  It's not that he doesn't aspire to hope or change.  It's just that his definitions seems to have little to do with the desires most of the rest of the American people. He knows his ideas are unpopular, yet President Obama remains stubbornly indifferent to the voices of his consituency.  He is petulant toward dissenting voices. Whether it is health care ...
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  Are Loaded Questions and Clenched Fists the New Politics? by Mychal Massie (bio) "What kind of nigger are you?" Like "have you stopped beating your wife?," it's a question with no right answer. The question is even harder to answer when it's being yelled at you by one of two angry men who are over six feet tall and together weigh close to 500 pounds (and you weigh just 130). Making it even more uncomfortable is that all of you are black! Welcome to the world of Kenneth Gladney. This past August 6, Gladney was handing out pens and ...
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It's time to kick those expensive kicks, black Americans.  Nike and Timberland aren't working in your best interests. Saying goodbye won't be hard to do since these companies want to eventually make it impossible to afford their shoes. Nike and Timberland are affiliated with the Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) coalition, which wants to unilaterally impose a risky "cap-and-trade" regulatory scheme on our nation.  This would raise prices on virtually everything, with costs falling the hardest on those who can least afford it. To disrespect consumers in this way is reason enough to take your business elsewhere, ...
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Racism Allegations Hurt Obama by Lisa Fritsch (bio) Former president Jimmy Carter made it official.  Liberals are making the country pay for the mistakes of the Obama Administration and their agenda.  They are ignoring the merits of any criticism of his policies or actions and simply faulting Americans who disagree with him as racist. This is a travesty. It is time for minorities to step up and say that they will not be used as the scapegoat, be used for propaganda, be the victim or become a dividing force in this country just to protect the nation's first black President ...
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President Poser by Kevin Martin (bio) Throughout the Bush presidency, a new golden age was promised to the American people if they would just put liberals in charge of the government. That happened last November after Obama's election and the strengthening of liberal majorities in Congress.  But after ten months in power, liberals now appear to be a bunch of posers. "Poser" is slang for a person falsely claiming skills, smarts and connections.  That guy at the club who says he hangs with Kanye when everyone knows he lives in his mom's basement and works at Popeye's?  Poser. Posers are ...
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Why Rush Should Sue by Bob Parks (bio) After being ousted from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams, Rush Limbaugh has a duty to punch the media in its collective mouth. Not literally, of course.  What Rush must do is sue the mainstream media for damaging his reputation.  His earning potential in not being able to buy into the football team was clearly hurt when the media helped create a firestorm of controversy based on out-of-context or completely made-up statements. By definition, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says "libel" is "a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that ...
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Unless you've had your head in the sand during the past few months, you know our nation has been engaged in heated debate over the direction of health care reform efforts. Health care costs have skyrocketed by 300 percent - adjusting for inflation - over the last decade.  It's about 16 percent of our economy.  But, at this rate, the National Bureau of Economic Research says it will nearly double to an estimated 29 percent by 2040. Despite increasing costs, complaints abound about deceasing services.  Insurers are criticized for denying coverage to those who have paid for it or refusing ...
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  Cap-and-Trade is a Ball-and-Chain for Poor Americans by Deneen Borelli (bio) As Congress considered the Waxman-Markey "cap-and-trade" bill, President Obama rallied House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats at the White House.  In making a point, he gestured to Abraham Lincoln's portrait and said, "He had a chance to affect history.  You, too, have a chance to affect history." How ironic.  Lincoln is remembered for liberating blacks from slavery.  Cap-and-trade legislation supported by Obama, allied lawmakers and now the NAACP would, conversely, enslave all Americans.   Billed as a way to combat global warming, cap-and-trade legislation already passed by the House ...
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The following is my reply to an unsolicited e-mail I received from David Alexrod, President Obama's senior advisor.  Axelrod's letter, which was recently received - unsolicited - by many Americans, asked me to help promote the President's health care agenda: Dear Mr. Axelrod, Thank you for your letter encouraging me to support President Obama's plan to fundamentally restructure the way Americans obtain their health care. Because you and President Obama seem to have no qualms whatsoever about building yet another big government bureaucracy and increasing our taxes, I'm afraid I cannot support it or your efforts to get it passed ...
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