Readers' Corner has returned, with a sampling of comments
from BC Readers. The mailbags are full.
Regarding our series from Health Care NOW on Strategies
for a Single-Payer Health Care System Introduction,
Part
1, Part
2 (Part
3 is in this issue):
I have requested Congress Woman elect Kirsten Gillibrand
from the NYS 20th CD to co-sponsor HR 676. Please send me any
material can use to help convinve her. Also put me on your e-mail
notices/alerts. -DB
Excellent story on Black Commentator.
I will plan to organize a meeting. -JP
I just got fired from my job, and I lost my health
insurance. I live in LA and was covered by Kaiser Permanente.
To continue my coverage for myself and my 2 youngest would cost
$769 dollars per month. Now you know thats a scheme. We are being
played! -WEG
Thank you so much for running this piece on healthcare.
I live in Oakland, California and am studying to be a RN. I am
appalled at the number of my fellow students who do not think
about access or insurance issues. It seems imperative to me that,
in addition to working in our communities toward the goal of insuring
everyone (and, yes, TRULY insuring them), we need to incorporate
the importance of this issue into our healthcare providers' education.
Our code of ethics mention access for all but where is the action
toward that goal?
And, yes, what do we mean when we say 'access'?
As your article smartly points out, access may mean nothing to
those who have to pay exorbitant copays and the like. What is
access if you have to sell your house to pay bills? What if you
don't have a house to sell in the first place? Or the plethora
of other issues using just the word access without thinking about
the entire biomedical industrial complex!
(One last note: Thank you so much for mentioning
that the Egyptians were the founders of the field of medicine.
As a person of Egyptian descent, I am always so angered when the
Greeks get all the credit! Another case of Africa getting erased.)
-JA
Regarding our reprint of Wampsutta's
speech, in the Thanksgiving Issue #207:
Thank you so much for publishing the aritcle by
Wampsutta. I grew up in Rhode Island. Native names abounded, but
no one ever mentioned their meanings. Streets, ponds, lakes, mountains
and even bars and used car lots used Wampanoag names.
Only a few years ago did I really begin to realize
the history of the Wampanoag. This enlightenment occurred when
I read ""Eulogy on King Philp,"" a speech
given in 1836 by Native American author William Apess to a group
of descendents of the Puritans in Boston.
We hear the term "holocaust" used so
much that we do not acknowledge the two biggest holocausts of
all time: those of the deaths of tens of millions of Africans
and Native Americans on U.S. soil. -JA
The speech of Wampsutta was very interesting. It
was cowardly of the people to not let him deliver it in 1970.
In reading it, I'm reminded of the Speech by Frederick Douglas
on July 4th during slavery. It has the same feel of quiet truth
as Douglas' speech did. Thanks... -LC
Regarding Dr. Maya Rockeymoore's commentary, Where
Will Democrats Stand After the Party is Over? in Issue #204:
I am very impressed with the suggestions in this
article. Please send the article to Nancy Pelosi.
It would be great to finally have a government that does its job.
-JR
Regarding the commentary of Dr. Manning Marable, PhD,
Race-ing
Justice, Disenfranchising Lives: African Americans, Criminal
Justice and New Racial Domain in Issue #209:
The African-American male especially, is being displaced
from the work force. In private industry, our presence is negligible.
It seems we are being starved into submission and severely diminished
demographically. Genocide isn't considered a word polite these
days but the trend is unmistakeable. My opinions are based on
long years of observation. Your research and detailed analysis
only confirm them. Thank you. -WM
As a Latino scholar aactivist I have followed your
work, and appreciate this framing of political economy and the
racialization of the criminal justice system. It is quite appalling
to see all the consequences together and notice the pattern you
so cogently have revealed. I also appreciated the concept of "civic
death" as a helpful and powerful. This NRD is however having
another effect, it seems to me, limiting the kind of important
coalitions and alliances Latinos and African Americans were able
to make in the past. The prison system is using race to divide
Latino and African American inmates and these conflicts are becoming
ingrained in the shared urban spaces where these inmates go after
they are released.
Systemic racism has found another way of dividing
the oppressed.
Thanks for your work, it would be great to have
you some day speaking on our campus. -VR
Regarding the Quote to Ponder in Issue #208:
I just got the Nov. 30 issue, and I appreciate tremendously
the pieces by Marilyn Clement, Carl Bloice and Dr. Julianne Malveaux.
They help me orient myself and keep my feet on the ground in this
complicated world.
However, as for your quote of the week from FDR,
I used to believe that stuff, but today we are ruled by a force
of alien invaders called the Bush Administration, which has overridden
Congress, the Constitution and the wishes of a majority of the
people of the United States. The people won a victory in the November
elections, but it will mean little unless Congress acts bravely,
quickly and in unity and unless we retake the White House in 2008.
-BS
Regarding Worrill's World by Dr. Conrad Worrill, PhD,
Get
Ready for Kwanzaa, 2006 in Issue #209:
Just read your article in Black Commentary! It was
very informative and insightful, so I am sharing with relatives
and friends in the South. -BW
Regarding Carl Bloice's Commentary, Will
Cheney Come Clean in Issue #208:
It actually may be possible to guess what was discussed
and suggested by the oil company representatives who attended
the secret Energy Task Force meetings, by looking at a report
that was submitted to Cheney in April, 2001. The report, called
"Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century,"
was commissioned by the Council on Foreign Relations and James
Baker, former Secretary of State under President Reagan and was
linked to a "veritable who's who of U.S. hawks, oilmen, and
corporate bigwigs," according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The report made the argument that there was a need
for U.S. "military intervention" in Iraq to "secure
control of its oil." It said that the U.S. should "investigate
whether any changes to U.S. policy would quickly facilitate higher
exports of oil from the Caspian Basin region...the exports from
some oil discoveries could be hastened if a secure, economical
export route could be identified swiftly."-JMS
I want to commend Mr. Carl Bloice for his article
calling the Democrat majority to task on cracking open the black
box of the "energy task force".
I am not surprised, but find totally disappointing
nonetheless, that the Democrats have already thrown in the towel
on impeachment proceedings; revealing the energy task force work
would be a gesture to save their face somehow (possibly together
with a few other items of a long laundry list that I can think
of).
I wish you could join forces with other like-minded
newspapers, magazines and independent organizations to jump-start
a public opinion movement to put pressure on the Democrats and
bring about at least what your article calls for. -SO
Thank you for your wisdom in the article "Will
Cheney Come Clean?" The meeting between Cheney and the energy
moguls is such an obvious and common-sense place to begin sniffing.
Cheney is being paid by us and therefore has an obligation to
let us know what he is doing on our behalf. Secondly, people generally
hide things that are shameful and cannot stand the light of being
revealed. Get Waxman on this.
And be of good cheer, we shall live to see the
day when most if not all that is hidden will be revealed. -DAB
Regarding Bill Strickland's commentary,
Cover
Story: Black People, George Bush and Overcoming the Politics
of Armageddon - Part 1 of a Series in Issue #203:
Mr. Strickland has written a wonderful, timely article
that pulls no punches yet retains a high tone. The policies against
the Middle East seem to have tapped into a deep racist vein in
white "Judeo-Christian" America. Not only is there every
danger that those policies will extend into Africa which has a
large Muslim population and is seeking financial ties with Asia,
but many African American politicians seem to have abandoned their
anti-colonial stances in the face of the new aggression.
Thanks for cutting to the chase Black Commentator.
-SM
On the creation of the BC
Editorial Board:
I liked the expanded editorial board format as well
as the broader focus. -RR
Congratulations on the new board members. I would
like to suggest that you add a couple of radical voices for the
arts, both visual and performing, particularly our music. White
folks are writing us out of jazz and blues so fast that in a few
years Duke Ellington will be a protege of Dave Brubeck and BB
King will have learned everything he knows from Eric Clapton.
-JA
and the BC Editorial Board Roundtable, Election
Reaction & Early Analysis in Issue #205:
Insist on ACCOUNTABILITY NOT RESIGNATION..push for
impeachment and trials.... -JCJ
Good job! You gave us a balanced set of pieces
that offer a much needed reality check. The single most
important point, for me, is that progressives have plenty of work
to do, and that we cannot just sit back and expect politicians,
left to their own devices, to do the right thing. They won't.
The call for civic responsibility, therefore, is dead on.
-MN
I read today that 40 percent of the electorate voted.
So maybe 21 or 22 percent of the electorate thought that voting
against Bush would be a good idea. And it was, I agree,
but 60 percent of the electorate thought that voting was not worth
the trouble. And they may be right. We'll have to
keep the pressure up starting right now. Thanks for all your good
work. -EM
With election comments on the writings of specific
BC Editorial Board members:
Jamala Rogers, The
Day After:
The Dems are a sorry lot, true, but the extravagances
of the Repugs for the last six years have created an agenda that
even craven worms can't ignore: minimum wage, children's security,
ethical governance, reasonable financial management, improved
education, a more ethical, less brutish, less hegemonic posture
in international affairs, getting the hell out of Iraq, clean
elections, a halt of lavish gifts to the rich--and dozens more.
These are sure to be presented to Bush for his veto,
and while he's considering whether to veto or not, congressional
investigations into the irregularities of the Bush syndicate and
its henchmen will be making daily headlines , and W, his own man
for the first time in his life (except, now, for the shady counsel
of his father and his father's aging retainers) will be considering
the specters of impeachment and prosecution even as he considers
using the veto.
I'm not a pundit, not a teacher, just a small-time
reporter of 68 years (and single dad of three kids for 18 years),
more than 50 of them in the craft. I can't see how these things,
this shower of prospective benefits, are anything but inevitable,
and, barring the unlikely possibility of a Republican win in '08,
most will eventually be realized. It's still not enough, but it's
more than I thought I'd live to see, far, far more. Jubilation
is in order! Thanks for your good writing! -MC
Would like to hear more on new stragey. I am firmly
rooted in the position it is time for African Americans to re-asses
our investment in America. That it is time to build a global foot
print that fosters self sustainability in our communities. That
it is time to hold our financial instutions accountable and participate
in the real world economy instead of the imaginary one the now
wallow in. It does not do much to understand that until we begin
to divert our capital to our own benefit we will have less and
less of a real voice. -CK
Dr. Julianne Malveaux, PhD, Musings
on the Midterms
I am glad that you said that Harold Ford, Jr.'s
centrist politics were sometimes galling. Or let me say it this
way. You were very kind. His policies at times were very galling.
While I would have voted for him if I lived in Tennessee, I would
not be happy. Many people, including some liberals, are praising
him. But I do not think he deserves all of that praise and have
had problems with Junior. After all I would have voted for the
lesser of two evils. Anyway, if junior would have pushed more
progressive or what some of us southerners have called meat and
potatoes issues more aggressively like minimum wages, college
financial aid, clean environment and affordable health care, he
might have won. BTW I grew up in the foothills of the North Georgia
mountains. So I know that poor and working class Whites are hurting
from these conservative policies.
I followed the race because my father grew up poor
in his district. I did not think that Harold, Junior represented
poor people, especially poor Black very well-especially in his
last two years. -ES
Your candid analysis of the mid-terms is insightful
and very informative. -FL
Your BlackCommentator piece is right on target,
pleased that many voters seem to have recognized what some of
us could have told them in 2000, hopeful for change from a Democratic
Congress, concerned that the Party continues to rely on black
voters support even when they neither campaign on our issues nor
much push them once we have helped put them in office. -DB
Comments on Dean Lawrence R. Velvel, JD's, National
Affairs, The African American Experience and George Bush in
Issue #204:
Wow! A great article, and a lot to chew on. 1) As
an African American myself, my impression is that white media
people critical of Bush are pushed to the Internet, or not hired
in the first place. 2) I'm all for proportional representation,
but apparently we're so impotent, we can't even stop open vote
theft. I've also just watched a documentary called "Why We
Fight". We have a LOT of work to do. 3) Speaking (earlier)
of the Internet, I've stumbled upon more American history there
(your article is an example) than in a lifetime of reading and
watching mainstream media. Again, a LOT of work. And thanks.
-JF
I deeply appreciate your article that appeared in
today's Black Commentator, particularly the discussion of southern
dominance in our nation's political life.
Thank you for revitalizing the rhetoric and insights
concerning southern undemocratic, throttling control, pointed
out by almost every 19th c. abolitionist from Douglass, McCune
Smith, J.Brown, Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Sojourner Truth, etc.,
etc., (for all their differences on the Constitution), giving
rise to their persistent use of the term ""the Slavepower""
and description of the nation as perpetuating the original sin
of the 3/5 'compromise'. When I was in graduate school, all the
radical abolitionists were condemned as fanatics and the probable
"cause of the war."
That reductionist view has been largely unseated,
but few researchers have taken the 19th c. critiques of the constitutionally
imposed structural shackles seriously enough to chart a reform
agenda, now desperately needed.
Thank you again for this spearheading analysis.
-BL
Regarding Bill Fletcher's commentary, Wishful
(Political) Thinking in Black America in Issue #204:
Bill Fletcher's article about Black folk that support
the likes of Clarence, Colin, Condi and now Michael Steele just
because they are Black show to the world just how politically
naive many of us are.
There are far too many of us that are so overjoyed
at seeing a Black man or woman in power "Speaking Properly"
and acting with intelligence, especially in the company of White
folk, that all many see is that Black person's socially acceptable
behavior and never bother to ask what is going on in his or her
mind. Too many Black folk think that a successful Black person
will naturally sympathize with other Blacks and have our best
interests in their hearts. Clarence Thomas should have proven
once and for all that "A brother ain't always a brother."
We need to ask tough questions of Blacks in power
or those seeking power...What have you done for your people lately?
What will you do for your people in the future? How will you make
the playing field level for us? How will you show thanks for those
that have gave their lives for you to be in the position you are
now? -DT
And finally, a reader comment on Anthony Asadullah
Samad's Between
the Lines, How America Made Niggas, Revisited (Hopefully For
The Last Time) in Issue #209:
Until this incident, and the uproar around it,
I had never heard of Michael Richards. Until reading your article
I had never heard of Paul Mooney. However, I have often heard
the mindless justification of use of the N word, and it is long
past the time when we tolerate those, Black or white, comedian
or otherwise, who use the word.
Such people should be ostracized. I mean it; no
matter who they are. Problem is, we lack the guts to do so. Mainly
because the next person to use the term will be someone we know
and like. Like, our children. Or maybe Mom will let it slip. Maybe
the wife or husband. Such a state of affairs is proof we are still
slaves. Men & women aware of being free would not use the
term nor would they consent to its use around them.
What is the psychology that does not educate its
group to preserve itself? What is the psychology of some in the
group who would rather destroy it? These are the real questions.
-JH
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