Poor
Trent Lott - disowned. The GOP has wrapped him in his own soiled
blanket and dropped the orphan in the back alleyways of history,
claiming they never knew the boy. Trent, who? say Republicans, as
they wave a dirty rag, claiming to have wiped the slate clean.
The
GOP's faith-based funding juggernaut will resume with renewed aggression
in the New Year, packaged as the cornerstone, pro-Black program
of a born-again Republican Party. What George Bush wanted to say
on December 12, in Philadelphia, before he was interrupted by the
Trent Lott unpleasantness, is that the main historical victim of
discrimination in America is - religion! It is the script
that his henchmen have been reading all year to audiences of Black
ministers. God needs some affirmative action, and His clergy require
federal contracts.
In
January, faith-based bribery legislation will re-emerge with a vengeance
in both houses of Congress. It is by far the most ambitious plan
ever devised to destroy the Black political consensus. As we wrote
last week in "Trent
Lott Furor Threatens Faith-based Bribery Scheme":
Politically
connected churches are to be awarded federal contracts to perform
social services, setting in motion a permanent patronage system
tied to the party that made the payments possible - the GOP. Ministerial
allegiances would be expected to change, overnight, splintering
the Black voting bloc.
The
commentary struck a chord with Aubrey J. Howard, CEO of Midtown
Mental Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Howard has a nose
for cooked books.
Funding
church based programs should be challenged, as it is a conflict
between church and state. Additionally, I can say factually, being
involved in lending money for churches, a lot of ministers will
go to jail when they are required to comply to federal accounting
standards. If African American ministers accept funds, they will
be the most scrutinized and made examples of as poor managers.
Last
week we asked, Who is going to defund the Right Rev. Dr. Greedygut,
once he has been rewarded by the GOP with a social service contract?
In light of Mr. Howard's letter, we might better ask, Who is going
to bail out Rev. Greedygut, when the vote-buying frenzy is over
and the investigations begin?
Dr.
Bruce Prescott is Webmaster of "Mainstream Baptists,"
the online journal of the progressive branch of Southern Baptists.
He found 
's
commentary useful:
Your
editorial on Trent Lott threatening Bush's faith-based bribery
is brilliant, insightful, and dead on target. I posted a link
to it on the website of the Mainstream Baptist Network's news
page:
http://www.mainstreambaptists.org/news.htm
The
journal is based in Norman, Oklahoma.
From
Maryland, medical doctor Cuthbert Simpkins, writes:
Outstanding,
informative commentary on Trent Lott. We need a revolution in
the church to upgrade the education, integrity, Afro-centricity
and quality of our ministers. Also we need to develop a religion
that serves our needs. The present dogma keeps us ignorant.
And
another doctor from Maryland, Salisbury's Ron Jarrett, believes
that
is good medicine.
Thank
you for a wonderful breath of fresh air. I may not agree with
everything you say, but you say it so well, that it is clearly
worth my time to see what's on your mind. I am not a strongly
religious man but the more I read your publication I am reminded
of the phrase, "They shall know truth, and the truth shall
set them free." I am sure from your literary talents that
the both of you could make a lot more money working on a white
man's dream. Which makes it all the more refreshing to see two
brothers working on a dream of their own.
On
the other side of the Lott controversy, however, there were strong
tactical reasons for keeping him in office. And that is, if all
of the Republicans were pushing for him to go then perhaps we
ought to be pushing for him to stay. They weren't pushing for
him to go because he is and was an avowed racist, virtually the
whole of the Republican Party is that, they were pushing for him
to go because his leadership presence and support of their racist
positions politically lets the world in on what their real agenda
is.
It
was heartening to learn that our reprint of the article "Strom
Thurmond's Black Daughter" actually put a smile on a face
named Thurmond. Writer B. Thurmond is Black, proud, and anything
but rootless.
I
enjoyed the article on the offspring of Strom Thurmond. Today
I will meet with family to begin research for a family reunion.
My father's family originated from Edgefield South Carolina and
my maiden name is Thurmond. I am certain that I am a descendent
from the Thurmond Plantation.
A
great people arose from places just like that.
Anti-War
Lite, Hardcore
A
swarm of new visitors roamed and rustled around our pages, last
week, thanks to a posting in CounterPunch,
the indispensable political resource published by Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair. Our piece, "Anti-War
Hard Core & Anti-War Lite: Privilege, comfort and fear cause
schisms," was, in part, designed to
express
the most extreme irritation at the nasty little people who, not
content to simply do something useful by organizing as many folks
as they can against Bush, feel it necessary to badmouth the organizers
of October 26's demonstrations. At minimum, 100,000 and 50,000
people protested in Washington and San Francisco, respectively,
against the wishes of the corporate media, which virtually boycotted
the events. By proving that the opposition was capable of mounting
an effective popular response to the Bush administration's war
hysteria, the organizers may well have changed the course of history
and saved countless lives.
Our
complaints were directed against The Nation's David Corn and others
who seem to believe it is more important to wage tiny turf wars
than to turn out masses of anti-war demonstrators. It is a tendency
among the white left that many Blacks find repulsive.
CounterPunch's
tentacles reach into strange and foreign places to find interesting
expatriates like Mick Collins, who writes to us from Paris.
I
thought you might want to set things straight between Harry Belafonte
and Malcolm X.
When Mr. Belafonte recently referred to Colin
Powell as a 'house nigger', a White House nigger at that, who
exists at the whim and pleasure of the Man - though he may not
have actually used the 'n' word - as being separate and apart
from the rest of us 'field niggers' who live to see the Man dead
and buried and our birthright returned to us, he was ripping off
Malcolm for a distinction that he made back in the day when all
colored folks weren't always that active in their own liberation
- and it might well apply to your 'Antiwar Hardcore' and 'Antiwar
Lite' distinction.
And
as much as I'm with you all in stopping this war, I think it imperative
to realize this war has been continuous since WWII--and you really
must work something about the 10 year (and still ongoing)
war in Balkans into your critique (You know, No Yugoslav ever
called me 'Nigger'!), and only altered its forms and means of
destruction from bombing, invasion, sanctions, war crimes/reparations
trials, back to bombing and invasion.
Joan
Lee, of St. Charles, Missouri, also found
by way of CounterPunch. She's lost patience with the "brats"
(our term) who chatter from the sidelines of Anti-War Lite.
Several
friends and I participated in the Oct 26 march in D. C. sponsored
by the ANSWER group, etc. It was a marvelous experience, despite
the criticism we all had to endure from the American Prospect,
the Nation, and other supposed progressive magazines.
In my opinion, a full 80% of the people there
had no affiliation with any of the sponsor groups, nor did they
plan to form any, but all of us will be eternally grateful that
theses folks had labored so long and hard to make the event happen.
It was l00% better than anything the pontificating purists could
have arranged. I wrote them all expressing my dismay and none
even had the courtesy to respond. Too bad, eh?
Again, thanks for the great article.
Ron
Jacobs is a contributor to CounterPunch. He also sometimes reads
the Lite stuff.
Thanks
for the commentary Antiwar Hardcore and Antiwar lite. I agree
with your perspective and believe it to be the primary sentiment
among those who aren't in the Corn, Berube, Gitlin, etc, camp.
Trojan
Horse TV
Our
December 12 commentary, "America's
Black Rightwing Forum: The grotesque devolution of a Black news
program," caused quite a stir in African American journalistic
circles. Richard
Prince's Journalism column, part of the authoritative Robert
C. Maynard Institute for Journalism in Education, noted that ABF
"claims that it is seen in 80 major television markets across
the country - reaching 70 percent of U.S. TV households. However,
the show's Web site doesn't say how many of those markets show it
in the wee hours."
Even
the wee hours are too much exposure for a program that showcases
Armstrong Williams and Niger Innis as commentators, moderated
by the closet conservative Juan Williams. Pat Buchanan and other
white Rightists drop in regularly to dispense opinions on what purports
to be "the only credible weekend news source for African American
perspectives on national issues."
For
the last two weeks, ABF's featured guest has been Margaret Cho,
the Korean-American comedian.
Harriet
Matthews has had enough of ABF.
You
have made me feel that I'm not completely out of step, or consciousness.
I have been expressing those very same views for years, but have
been made to feel that I'm just too bitter!! Thanks for putting
America's Black Forum in perspective. I stopped watching it because
it made me nauseous.
Life
has its bitter pills, but we've got a New Year coming. Keep writing.
