For Teddy

Here is a song by the SNCC Freedom Singers - I would like to dedicate it to Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy. This is a promise from all of us who worked so hard to make this a free and just country. Rest in peace brother Kennedy. We will conti...nue the fight for equal rights and most especially we will continue his fight for health care for all.

Young reporter gets exclusive wit the President

PRESIDENT OBABMA SPEAKS TO THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NAACP

07/17/2009


President Obama delivered a rousing speech that used an important milestone in the history of the Civil Rights organization to target the plight of African Americans. Part sermon part cold analysis it is an important speech that helps to outline the presidents position on the economy health care, education and on race relations.

From the New York Times: "No Excuses for Failure "
"President Obama delivered a fiery sermon to black America on Thursday night, warning black parents that they must accept their own responsibilities by “putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour,” and telling black children that growing up poor is no reason to get bad grades.

“No one has written your destiny for you,” he said, directing his remarks to “all the other Barack Obamas out there” who might one day grow up to be president. “Your destiny is in your hands, and don’t you forget that. That’s what we have to teach all of our children! No excuses! No excuses!”

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From the Washington Post: "Obama Speaks Of Blacks' Struggle
Disparities Remain, He Says to NAACP:
"We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else," the president said. "We know that even as spiraling health-care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else."

"The barriers of our time," he added, are "very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. . . . But what is required to overcome today's barriers is the same as was needed then."

Obama used his 34-minute speech to rally a loyal constituency that is working to hold him accountable even as it continues to celebrate his presidency.

ELECTION NIGHT 2008

By Miriam Ching Yoon Louie
November 12, 2008
First appeared online HERE

Weep history/ honk hallelujah!
Sea swell rapt faces runny mascara joy
Chain breaks ancestor bone sighs
At last! Oprah & Jesse blubber
On shoulders of strangers
Now kin in victory
Sweeter than Raiders
Snagging hundred Super Bowls
Blessed as Martin’s Dream as
General Tubman’s night vision courage
Rippling out from Grant Park
To Everett & Jones BBQ
Oakland Convention Center
And everywhere hunger
Dared vote hope.

Tonight Brother President’s eloquence
Invites redemption after eight
Old Testament l-o-n-g years
We wandered Dubya-ill-derness
Dubya-gonna smoke em out
Dubya-either with us or agin us
Dubya-bunkerman Cheney in charge.

Tonight Brother President challenges us
To serve/ sacrifice/ remake our nation
“Block by block/ brick by brick
Calloused hand by calloused hand”
For if Joe the Plumber is code
For angry white men then b by b
Is mortar/ trowel/ Bronx cheer
To Rudy Red Meat/ Sarah Six Pack’s
“Community organizer? [Snigger] What?!”
Sneer slur on Barak’s past.

Where’s snigger in 700 plus field offices
Stunning ground operation that harvests
Millions of new voters / doors knocked
Leaders electrified/ volunteers parachuted
Pizzas sliced/ cell minutes eaten
Citizenry connected/ country conversating
So all those red states/ counties/ towns
Could try on blue dance shoes
And give ole Virginia seat of Confederacy
Chance to upstage past with surprise future
Naughty Richmond, you racooned my mascara.

Where’s slur in note from Barak?
Tagged Wed 11/5/2008 12:43 AM
Thanking me--& gazillion cohorts
—all power to Internet!—with words like
“We just made history
Every single day you knocked on doors
Made donation/ talked to family/friends/ neighbors
We have a lot of work to do
To get our country back on track
Be in touch soon about what comes next
But I want to be very clear about one thing
All of this happened because of you.”

Brother President
Your late night note is vintage
organizer
Barak
smooth
I raise my styrofoam coffee cup to you
And worker bee millions you inspire
May we keep humming cause
Sí se puede is American is farm is hand
Is mama tongue for yes we can and will.

I know roadside bomb
Crater despair lies up ahead
As campaign season high hits Katrina low of
Digging out from under Dubya-triggered wars
Shock-n-awe economics that burn homes
Jobs/ college/ retirement down to salt ash tears.

But can I just hold on to joy a lil longer
And grin like mutt fool when Sister First Lady
Closes her slender cinnamon fingers
Around White House front door keys?

And let this old girl pray, Dear Lord
Please watch over Secret Service
Make them strong smart see around corners
You know what I’m talking about—Amen.

COPYRIGHT 2008, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



HER BIO IS [ HERE ] WITH LINKS TO HER BOOK SWEATSHOP WARRIORS.

THE BROKEN PEACE

Defeated and defeating
Gone the last hill
Of our final drive
Gone too the patch of green
Clinging to the trampled soil
And we were wasted here contemplating
The blood filling up our boots
And touched with histories
Fading light
As if all civilizations talked
Turn to quiet murmurs from the gallery
Speaking we do not know what
Yet droning like the chorus
Placed desperately on this state
To prove a point
Inspire and inspiring
Placed upon the quilt of squares
Staring unsighted at each others space
Wondering why they wandered here
Defeated and defeating
The echoes thunder in the distance
Measuring their trajectory
Their voice calling out
The final minutes
When hell rains down
And no one speaks
Poem Copyright
©2008, Frederick Douglasss Perry, All Rights Reserved

CHANGE.GOV

CHANGE.GOV is the new web home of the president and Vice President elect. Signaling that the web presence that was built to win the presidency will not fade, president elect, Team Obama has developed a new web site href=http://change.gov

FACING RACE

FROM THE APPLIED RESEARCH CENTER

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