|
The people have spoken?
By Roy Douglas Malonson |
 |
Believe it or not, but
it was no easy decision to use the foregoing head. And that’s the
reason there’s a question mark that seems to be out of place on an
affirmation. If you noticed, we also used a sub-title for the first
time. Surely, if you’re one of our estimated 2 million readers, you
also known that whenever we capitalize “WE,” we’re talking Black
people’s personal business. We’re not disagreeing with political
expert’s supposition that Bush shamelessly used fear tactics (to
scare enough undecided voters to vote for him), so that he could
keep his job. On the other hand, while fear might have motivated a
whole lot of political apathetic Black people, who hadn’t been
voting (to go to the polls and vote for Kerry), their fear had
nothing to do with terrorism.
The fear that compelled Black Americans to disregard bad weather,
suffer long lines and waits at the polls (Or even alleged attempts
to discourage them from voting), had absolutely nothing to do with
the Iraq war. Nor did it have anything to do with the war on
terrorist, or Osama bin Laden’s chilling broadcast. African
Americans who have experienced one of the worse years since the
pre-affirmative action era, instead, feared that if they didn’t vote
Bush out of office things were going to get much worse before it
gets better. On second thought, perhaps, what Black America fears
does have something to do with bin Laden, insofar as he struck a
nerve when he threaten to bankrupt America, according to an Nov. 2,
2004 Associated Press article that revealed. “ Osama bin Laden vowed
to bleed America to bankruptcy, in portions of last week's video.
“Al-Jazeera released a transcript (that wasn’t shared with the
general public) Monday, reveals that bin Laden's is a close student
of the United States, as well as a strategist bent on getting the
most impact from his words as well as his attacks. The al Qaida
leader boasted in his first appearance in more than a year that for
every $1 his terrorist organization has spent on strikes, it has
cost the United States $1 million US in economic fallout and
military spending, including emergency funding for Iraq and
Afghanistan. ‘As for the size of the economic deficit, it has
reached record astronomical numbers,’ bin Laden said, estimating the
deficit at more than $1 trillion. In reality, spending in the war
against terror and other factors have resulted in an expected $377
billion shortfall for 2003, the highest deficit since the Second
World War when inflation is factored out.
“Bin Laden noted reports that al Qaida spent $500,000 ‘on the event’
-- referring to Sept. 11 attacks -- while the United States has lost
more than $500 billion ‘in the incident and its aftermath,’ he
added, citing an estimate by a British think tank. ‘ The total U.S.
national debt is near the $7.4 trillion statutory limit. So we are
continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of
bankruptcy,’ a calm and forceful bin Laden said in the tape that
appeared near the end of a U.S. campaign that has focused on the war
on terror as well as the foundering U.S. economy.” You can be sure
that a record number of unemployed African Americans aren’t taking
bin Laden’s threats lightly, because we have historically been the
last hired and first fired, during an economic downturn. But, sadly,
money tends to speaks louder than frighten citizen’s words in an era
when America’s presidents are selected by TV networks.
We Must Understand, four more years of a president who is possessed
with a war, at a time when his nation desperately needs his
attention, is Black America’s worse nightmare. Need we say that when
the TV commentators declared that Bush had snared Florida’s 27
electoral votes, just as his little brother promised him, hopeful
African American’s worse fears were realized? Lesser of two evils
notwithstanding, the people, indeed, have spoken, loud and clearly,
but one can only hope that Bush and the Republican Party gets the
message. The fact that Sen. John Kerry, who actually wasn’t the
Democrat’s first choice, was able to take an incumbent Pres. George
W. Bush to the wire-- in spite of the GOP’s deep pockets-- speaks
volumes about the mood of a thoroughly divided and confused nation.
Naturally, the Bush people are wont to use the half full, rather
than half empty bottle analogy. Therefore they will interpret the
message, sent by over 52 million citizens, who voted for Bush, as a
vote of confidence. And that well might be, but from our Black
perspective, we see a cracked, half empty bottle that is in
desperate need of repairs. Surely, we can’t discount the fact that
51 percent of the voter’s choose Bush, but on the flip side, he
would be foolhardy not to be mindful of the fact that 48 percent of
the votes were against him. In addition, he should also consider the
large number of political apathy citizens who apparently have lost
hope, therefore don’t bother to involve themselves in the democratic
process one way, or the other. In summary, we translate the message
-- of those who voted for Bush --to say that they’re giving him a
chance to clean up the mess that he has made.
At the same time, those voting against him are sending the message
that it’s time for change, because they don’t believe he can fix
what he has broken. Then, of course, the citizens who didn’t bother
to vote at all are sending the message that they are sick and tired
of being sick and tired of pouring water into a cracked bottle.
Meanwhile the voters in Houston, Texas/Harris County have also sent
a message to incumbent District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal by
supporting newcomer Reginald McKamie (an African American attorney,
running low budget grassroots camapign) in such large numbers.
Unfortunately, Rosenthal, much like Bush, ignores the crack in the
bottle and consider s it half full. But, as the old proverb goes,
“Ignorance is bliss.”
|
