Project 21: New Visions

During "Black History Month" most people focus on black America's "heroes." Stories are shared about the past, or what some call the "black experience" in America. Unfortunately, Black History Month seems to have become a mechanical celebration of a few people and a few things that are deemed appropriate by the media and black establishment. This tired programming doesn't do justice to the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of "Negro History Week" — the precursor to Black History Month. I suggest that merely heralding a few black heroes and situations is a perversion of the reason Negro ...
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Pro-crime black folk are an existential threat not only to law-abiding American blacks, but to law-abiding Americans of all races and creeds — period! "Ohhh, you racist," spit some, appalled that I'd dare speak such heresy. Maybe they think it's a perverse form of self-hatred against my own race. With one sentence, I've defiled modern progressives' most (un)holy of holies when it comes to public safety/civil rights issues: The Cult of the Blameless Black. The Cult of The Blameless Black decrees that black-on-black crime is "victimless." The origins of the Cult of the Blameless Black lie in the fiery crucible ...
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MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry seeks forgiveness. On a recent program, she participated in discussion poking fun at Mitt Romney's Christmas card, which featured him holding his new, adopted African-American grandchild. The race of the newest Romney was the key focus of the jokes. Days later, and after a firestorm of criticism, Harris-Perry tweeted an apology for the insensitive remarks. A tearful on-air apology followed. Fine, but the problem is that Harris-Perry didn't apologize for the worst offense. Melissa Harris-Perry's career is rooted in discussing, writing about and advocating for African-American issues. Someone claiming such expertise should not only have known ...
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Last year, officials of a local Teamster union alleged in a state court lawsuit that Michigan's new right-to-work law violates the state constitution's prohibition on slavery. Teamsters Local 214 union lawyers claimed that nonmember workers who want to file a grievance with the company must pay a $150 fee because, even though they have chosen not to join or pay dues, they must still file grievances through the union. Lawyers for the Dearborn-based local claimed that if the law requires the union to provide grievance representation to the workers without compensation, then it is unconstitutional involuntary servitude. In 2012, a ...
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While attending a church service dedicated to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I was struck by the conflation of what the Civil Rights Movement fought against and what should be our modern-day priorities. In particular, the speaker at this church attempted to say the atrocities of the past remain alive today, only through a different name. Conservatives – those who fight for things such as less government intervention – are getting an unnecessary and undeserved bad rap. There is no question the legacy and reputation of Dr. King is second-to-none. The Civil Rights Movement that secured the ...
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Oprah Winfrey, a prominent billionaire member of America's racial grievance industry, is claiming once again that the society that idolizes her is racist to the core. In a recent interview with the BBC to promote the European release of "Lee Daniel's The Butler," a movie in which she stars and is considered an Oscar contender, Winfrey said about her friend, President Barack Obama: There's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs in some cases, and maybe even many cases, because he's African-American. There's no question about that. And it's the kind of thing no one ever says, but ...
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It was all supposed to be so different for race issues in America after Barack Obama became president. Then again — given the players who are still involved in the game — it's no wonder things aren't any better. Despite a rocky primary process in 2008 where things did get a little controversial between Obama and chief rival Hillary Clinton, America did elect its first black president. Even before his official nomination, much less his inauguration, Obama proceeded to lecture us all about the ills of racism in this country and how to overcome them. After he was elected, new ...
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There is a black-white wealth gap.  It's a quantifiable reality. Getting rid of it, however, may be an impractical, albeit sincere, goal. While this equality goal is not insurmountable, there is no precedent for it ever having been achieved -- and that raises serious challenges when developing a strategy for success. In recorded human history, a substantial black racial demographic group has never experienced a wholesale rise to economic equality with its white counterpart within a leading world power.  This excludes, of course, the rise and recognition of a select few individuals from a racial minority group (e.g., Robert Johnson ...
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Making a so-called "living wage" is all the rage these days. Forget the minimum wage set by Congress. A living wage adds all sorts of political factors to the equation, usually lumped upon business owners just barely making a profit in this economy. It's class warfare at its worst. In late August, labor unions helped organize picket lines at fast-food restaurants to demand employees there be paid $15 an hour and allowed to unionize. The living wage demanded is more than twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Restaurant owners warn such a dramatic increase would be passed ...
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Christmastime is supposed to be the season of giving. Why is so much being taken away from people? As a man of the cloth and a staunch defender of the Judeo-Christian faith that built our great nation, one thing that always bothers me is when atheists seek to deprive us of the true reason for the season — the birth of Jesus. There are legal and physical attacks on public Nativity scenes, restrictions on religious aspects of holiday programs and even those who want to essentially ban the "Merry Christmas" greeting. Atheists seem to come of out hiding as stockings ...
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This is the time of year when belligerent atheists corral fellow "freethinkers" together in an attempt to legally disrupt displays of the Nativity. Wherever these innocent — and usually welcomed — Christian religious displays are found, there's often a bitter atheist complaining to local authorities and the media because public display of the baby Jesus in a manger offends their irreligious sensibilities. And the atheist hand appears to be gaining strength as the "war on Christmas" seems to escalate each year. But this is the only time of year when angry atheists are apparently willing to present themselves in large ...
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Once again, liberals demand an increase in the minimum wage. President Obama said raising the minimum wage — the lowest amount, by law, most employers can pay — is a step in addressing rising income inequality, something he called "the defining challenge of our time." Data on income inequality does not lie... when the goal is to make an oversimplified argument about the rich getting richer and the poor not catching up. The top quintile of wage earners, for example, are not always the same people. Consider the riches to rags stories of rapper M.C. Hammer, football star Ryan Leaf ...
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After the recent revelation that the National Security Agency monitored cell phone conversations in foreign countries, including the cell phone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders, the excuse of President Obama's spokesmen and most ardent defenders was that he didn't know the NSA was conducting such controversial surveillance. Two thoughts immediately come to mind. Neither favor Obama's leadership style. First, it is incredibly ironic that then-Senator Obama's 2008 campaign appearance in Germany was labeled a revival of American foreign policy by the media. Without any idea of what security steps may be required to protect Western ...
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Americans are being led down the wrong path. There has been, and continues to be, a concerted effort on the part of liberal politicians — who are encouraged by the media — to convince the American people that their health care system is the worst in the industrialized world, that doctors are to blame for high costs and that someone taking responsibility for their own health insurance is both selfish and somehow hurts the less fortunate. People are also supposed to believe opposition to government intervention that is designed to pick winners and losers implies they hate the poor or ...
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American men are fed up and angry — and rightfully so. Sick of being constantly portrayed as rapists, abusers, bumbling idiots, irresponsible losers, deadbeat dads (if they're absent), immature fatherly buffoons (if they're present) or overall "bad guys" by the mainstream media and Hollywood, many men have reached a tipping point. Tired of being mistreated by a family court system that either forces financially-crippling child support obligations upon non-custodial fathers or — worse still — forces many men to pay child support for children they later discover are not even biologically their own, men have had it. More and more, ...
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To say the ObamaCare rollout has been difficult for President Obama is an understatement. It is the epitome of a disaster. Obama has been in damage-control mode since October 1. The release of his signature legislation, the misnamed Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), has been disastrous. Bureaucratic incompetence is on full display as the website slows, freezes and crashes, preventing millions of Americans from enrolling in Obama's new entitlement program, or even from shopping on the exchanges to see what they offer. Worse still is Obama's apparently intentional lie claiming that people would be able to keep their current health care ...
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Despite the desperate attempts at distraction and demonization and the outright lies about what ObamaCare does, the truth remains that having health insurance does not equal getting quality health care. There are definitely problems with the American health insurance industry. If anyone bothered to ask independent private physicians why they no longer take Medicare or Medicaid, or why many are opting out of insurance towards cash-only practices, it's because the game is rigged. It is harder for doctors and, by extension, patients to access quality affordable health care these days. ObamaCare expands and empowers the most expensive aspects of our ...
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At the end of October, supplemental aid to the federal food stamp program — officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — ran out. USA Today reported "[v]ulnerable populations will be hardest hit." CNN posted a column by Feeding America's Bob Aiken that warned of the new "strain on millions of families struggling with food insecurity." Currently, there are 47 million Americans receiving SNAP entitlements. There were just over 28 million enrolled in 2008. What's largely missing from the coverage is why cuts happened in the first place. Heartless conservative politicians are not responsible for sending kids to ...
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How did radical Islam become a legitimate threat in sub-Saharan Africa? Should we care? Perhaps, because one possible reason stretches beyond the African continent. It may eminate from our own houses of worship. After the recent shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya by the Muslim terrorist group Al Shabaab, counterterrorism experts fear increased collaboration among the growing ranks of religious radicals in Africa operating across borders in vast, poorly-policed regions. While terrorism experts are concerned with expanding radicalized Islam, my own leadership role in the Christian community has me preoccupied with how historically Christian areas and formerly majority-Christian countries are ...
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As ObamaCare clears a major hurdle in its implementation and begins enrolling individuals into the new entitlement, it's interesting to see how much has been delayed, dropped or hastily fixed (or has remained broken, in the case of some insurance exchanges) at this late date. And, with lawmakers continuing to argue over its funding and implementation schedule, it's laughable that ObamaCare proponents are arguing that the fact that ObamaCare is a law makes it sacred and untouchable. It cannot be repealed, they say. Really? I'm sure glad that my ancestors and others fought and died to repeal other bad laws ...
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