TEXAS’ Widest Circulated and Read Newspaper with a Black Perspective

Marriages fail because we oftentimes don’t take time to know our potential spouse, therefore when we learn that that he or she isn’t equally yoked, we must either divorce them, or ignore their shortcomings and remain in a miserable relationship. To carry the marriage analogy even further, African-AmericanNews&Issues’ political astute editorial staff would be remiss not to remind our audited estimated 2 million readers in over 30 Texas towns and millions more accessing our Web page (www.aframnews.com), that when voters are charmed and/or turned on by political rappers that have more style than substance, they’re no different from malleable minded people that look for love in all of the wrong places.
We Must Understand, as we use marriage as an imaginary analogy for elected and selective public servants, the worse possible reason for filing for a divorce would be because somebody told us that it was a time for a change. Insofar as we’re Texas’ widest circulated and read newspaper with a Black perspective. Let’s use our state’s grounds for divorce to compare marriage to politics. In Texas, a “No Fault” stature allows marriages to be dissolved: “On the petition of either party to a marriage, the court may grant a divorce without regard to fault if the marriage has become insupportable, because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.”
Objectivity aside, when you really look at the race for incumbent Rep. Al Edwards’ District 146, it would more than likely to fall into the no fault category. Surely, cruelty, adultery, conviction of a felony, abandonment and confinement in a mental institution for at least three years don’t apply. Unless Edwards’ constituents think that he’s crazy to think he can stop kids from shaking their booty. On a more serious note, let’s also assume that children are involved in the political marriage equation therefore, a divorce is going to negatively impact them as well. If so, citizens in District 146 should applaud Edwards for his Godly stand against the forces corrupting our children. Perish the thought that AAN&I is endorsing Edwards over Boris Miles, a very brilliant, involved and dedicated young man.
We Must Understand, in politics, just as in marriage, one has to be Black History illiterate to vote against an effective incumbent (that has accrued over a quarter of a century of experience, political savvy and decision making power), simply because some special interest group says that it’s time for a change. Especially when they know all too well that getting rid of Ron Wilson, who had become the most powerful African American in the Texas Legislature, was “plantation politics” at its best. Quite frankly, Black people should be very suspicious when racist Texas Democrats show undue interest in the politics of predominately Black districts. Districts which ideally were created specifically to allow underrepresented minorities to participate in an elitist and/or racist political process.
Then again, most of our editorial staff are old school. We remember when the White folks confused Black voters by putting a spoiler in the race to divert votes from an incumbent that they’ve targeted to remove from office. Surely, Al Bennett would’ve fallen in that category in the old days. But, who is to say that the people who voted for Bennett would have voted for Edwards if he hadn’t been running? In fact, since less than 10 percent of the registered voters in District 146 bothered to vote at all, there’s a distinct possibility that if Bennett hadn’t been in the race, his friends and family members wouldn’t have voted at all. Perhaps it is time for a change. Even so, when Black voters can’t win for losing, they’re crazy to think that they’re going to change something if they keep doing the same thing, but except to get different results.
Nevertheless, in keeping with the marriage analogy, voters in District 146 would be wise to decide that there’re grounds to divorce Al, before they kick him to the curb simply because it’s time for a change. What we’re saying is, unless married people see that their mate has special interests, or a self-serving agenda outside of the marriage, there’s no real reason for a divorce. We suggest that the same logic should apply to our elected officials. Meanwhile, let’s think about the children involved and show up in unprecedented numbers at the polls on April 11, 2006 and vote as if their future depended on whom they marry.