Is President Obama better than the Alternative?

I am just thinking out loud, talking like it is just you and me as a person who voted for President Obama in 2008 I want pull back to a WIDE ANGLE SHOT to see what is really going on in the scene. Now in a nutshell everybody who is "down with Obama" says if I am hearing correctly from so many Obama Apologist and friends of President Obama is that the President cannot do anything for Black people because White folks would turn on him and he would not get elected again if he dealt with black issues. We cannot expect him to do anything specific for Black folks that would be absurd. Ok and I am not saying he should BUT many people voted for him thinking he would address some issues that Americans face and especially African Americans. So Lets DEBUNK these TALKING POINTS that the President can't do anything:

Imagine hypothetically if President Obama was POTUS during slavery would he have as president issued The Emancipation Proclamation an executive order issued by the President on January 1, 1863? (Nope not using today's logic, white folks would not let him nor would he even suggest it, so would it have benefited us to have him as President in 1863? I guess we should stay slaves and quit "complaining"

Let's go further, would President Obama pass the Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act (1890) - Required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of today's Historically Black colleges and universities. - Wikipedia

This was a SPECIFIC piece of legislation for BLACK PEOPLE.

President Obama 1890 scenario "well the President cannot pass something like that Land Grant Act because White folks would turn on him etc etc

So I guess we should accept limited education opportunities and "stop complaining"

REALITY CHECK:

We can look throughout history and see The White House with White Presidents addressing the needs of people of with specific ethnic based issues, YET we can't ask President Obama to do this (insert Scooby Doo confused sound effect). It is suggested through talking points that it would be absurd for the President to even wear black let alone address any black issues, yet we need to vote for him because he would be better than a non-black? REALLY?
History says otherwise.

The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 was targeted towards Black people yet non-black Dwight Eisenhower served the best interest of his country by dealing with the issue.

I believe that the United States must make certain that every citizen who is entitled to vote under the Constitution is given actually that right. I believe also that in sustaining that right we must sustain the power of the Federal judges in whose hands such cases would fall.
-President Dwight D. Eisenhower, July 31, 1957, News Conference

Then we have:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public ("public accommodations"). -Wikipedia

If President Obama was POTUS in 57' and 64' he may not have even attempted to speak on these matters because they were too race specific to black folks and thus we still would not be able to Vote and thus:

"keep marching and stop complaining even though you cannot vote"

What else we got? Oh this one:

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. §§ 1973–1973aa-6)[1] is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S.[2]-Wikipedia

Do you see my point? The fate of Black people does not REST in the hands of black faces in high places (I did a Jesse Jackson); Our fate never has and never will. Policy is the key to determine what is best for a community and NOT skin color. African Americans must ask themselves is President Obama good for America and Blacks in 2012 and not stand by color but by policy. People are not asking questions out of fear but FEAR is when you are afraid of the alternative that does not look like you, when you are suppose to be a people of FAITH. History has shown GOD clearly can operate through ANYBODY to serve justice to any people in need from Pharaoh to Nebuchadnezzar to Eisenhower.

Thus the question we must ask is WHERE is our faith? Is it in MAN or GOD!!! In 2012 your faith will be tested and vote if you do vote according to your FAITH.

TROY DAVIS: THE JUSTICE WE VOTED FOR

In America, where we get the justice that we VOTED for. Sadly, in GA where Troy Davis is to be executed the parole board, was created in February 1943 by statute law, and in August 1943 Georgia voters ratified an amendment setting forth the Board's authority in the State Constitution. The voters need to be aware of what is going on instead being reactive in this case we need to be proactive and spend this type of energy to vote in the JUSTICE we want. There are 5 members on the parole board appointed by the Governor that voters voted for, when we don't vote or are unaware of the issues at stake we get these type of situations like Troy Davis. The chairman of the parole board Garland R. Hunt, Esq. is Black and co-pastor of The Father's House in Norcross, Georgia. Two of the five members on the parole board are black ( Garfield Hammonds, Jr.), they have the sole power to grant clemency and should be held responsible. Thus when all we do is get outraged and protest and don't follow up with say mobilizing voters aligned with politicians sympathetic to the cause, this will continue to happen. The outraged protesters in GA should propose an amendment to the law that allows 5 people to have this type of authority. We have to be strategic and not reactionary in order to be effective, otherwise there is nothing to prevent this from happening again and again and again.

Is this another chapter in THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TRAGEDY? I say Don't be OUTRAGED about Troy Davis be PROACTIVE, mentor a Troy Davis, we got a cradle to prison industrial complex being expanded while we are DISTRACTED, get involved with our youth in the community, Our children are less likely to be in a two parent home in 2011 than in 1870 (slavery) we can MOBILIZE for the Essence Festival but we can't mobilize and be PROACTIVE to vote against bad legislation before it passes and becomes Law, we must translate the outrage into a PAC (Political Action Committee). Be less emotional and more STRATEGIC and PROACTIVE.

President Obama – The Utopian Opus

Experience in life has a way of “curbing your enthusiasm” and instilling pragmatism. When we lack experience we often can have a distorted view of reality, we can have unrealistic expectations. When we look at marriage in America which has a 50% divorce rate what is evident is that the blissful utopia that one thought marriage would be when they said “I do” is not reality. This brings us to our bright President who in 4 years has seemed to mirror marriage in America, the rapturous dating stage, the extravagant nuptials, the amazing honeymoon phase and then REALITY sinks in. The “expectations” do not mirror the day to day reality. When I think back to what we were sold during President Obama’s campaign run back in 2008, it reminded me of a Babyface tune entitled “Soon as I Get Home”:

I give good love
I'll buy your clothes
I'll cook your dinner too
Soon as I get home from work
I'll pay your rent
Your faithful lover
Soon as I get home, soon as I get home from work
Girl, I'll treat you right
And I'll never lie
For all that it's worth
I give good love (good love, good love, good love, good love)

Is this NOT what we got from President Obama? I mean Babyface promised all this stuff that sounds GREAT, who would NOT want somebody to do all this BUT for real who can do all this? We didn’t ask Babyface “how is he going to do all this as soon as he gets home”, we didn't consider the realism of it BUT we yet clamor to expect it.

Utopian (noun) -
4. An inhabitant of Utopia.
5. An ardent but impractical political or social reformer; visionary; idealist.

How can you be concerned with Healthcare when you don’t have a JOB? It sounds good Healthcare for everybody, ok BUT we did not ask for that. It was not our priority but it was the "ideal" of our partner in "Change". How many times in a relationship has a man tried to give things to his woman that she did not ask for and failed miserably? Finding Osama Bin Laden and bringing down Gaddafi are things that nobody asked for, it is the "hello honey surprise", that gets *blank stares*. Folks on mainstreet were looking for relief from “bad loans” that are causing foreclosures, not crossing names off America's Most Wanted list. What good is passing legislation to get folks to eat healthy when some folks are not able to eat at all? Why try and make our schools resemble South Korea where children go to regular school and then to Hagwon (cram schools) after school that end at 10pm, causing children to get 6 hours a sleep a night, when our schools don’t have enough resources? Sadly the critics of this President said he sorely lacked experience and it looks that way, it seems he has no sense of reality outside of the Utopian bubble he has grown up in. The “its easy I did it”, I came from nothing to Senator and 2 years later from senator I am in the White House, "YES WE CAN", we can do it too attitude. This type of rapid success can set a bad precedent, kind of like a couple who for their first vacation go to Hawaii versus someone who has been married 20 years who finally go. Who do you think will appreciate that trip more? Who will understand that these types of trips are not common place, who will take it for granted. Accelerated success can cause an absence of realism and produce utopian thinking like Lebron James proclaiming to win 7 championships when he had not even won one yet. As we continue through the President Obama Opus I am reminded of another tune by After 7 entitled “Ready or Not”:

I'll give you the sun
The Rain
The Moon
The Stars and The Mountains
I'll give you the world
And all that you wish for
And even more

When do we ask “How are you going to get to the moon to give it to me?”, “How will you grasp the sun without getting burned?” The oratory wizardry may be music to the ears but where is the substance to the style? How do we quantify what is being said, what is the realization of success? Until we push past nebulous campaign slogans like “Hope” and “change” and demand to see the details and fine print, we will be like most church goers. Where on Sunday we can hear a “good word” and feel good for the moment but when the “feeling” wears off we are back to feeling like we were before the organ started playing. I believe this President is sincere but his since of reality is strictly utopian. In a utopia we can tax the rich and create obstacles for Corporate America and STILL expect them to provide jobs and stimulate the economy. We can bailout the banks and trust them to pass the savings and goodwill on to the consumers in a utopia. We can expect the first African America president in history of a country with 400 years of slavery to just waltz in and get cooperation from the opposition party. I believe the impossibility of an African American president getting elected created unlimited possibilities YET many did not realize the construct of the American social-political system did not change. I don’t know if this President will listen to the people or not, or will he keep trying to project his audacity of hope into the atmosphere but sadly I think the last song in this set will be an oldie but a goodie. Will the President be singing The Temptations “It was Just my Imagination” as he leaves office realizing that the girl named "utopia" was just a figment of his imagination.

Just my imagination -- once again --
running away with me.
Tell you it was just my imagination
running away with me.
I never met her, but I can't forget her.
Just my imagination..
-- ooh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah --
running away with me

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