Obama, Romney and Santorum's different style of leadership in a “Rush Limbaugh slut moment;”

Fluke & Limbaugh

President Obama has had his “Rush Limbaugh slut moment;” as a presidential candidate and handled it as a leader should. 

It was when Reverend Jeremiah Wright, then Senator Obama’s mentor and church leader conducted himself in a way with utterances that may have jolted mainstream America to recall the days of black militancy. 

Turned out that Revered Wright had been “bad mouthing” the United States like this quote in 2003 - "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people,"  () "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Rev. Wright

Oh sweet Jesus, the reaction to the above statement almost followed racial lines.  Off course Fox News ran away with Reverend Wright’s comments and for a moment, it looked like Obama’s campaign had shifted into high gear going down the hill of negativity. 

The very opposite of what Obama had run on was now being portrayed; not his 2004 DNC Congress speech in Boston - “There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.”

 

Obama turned negativity into positivity however, with a historic speech titled, A MORE PERFECT UNION. “As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems,” Obama said

Presidential candidate Obama took his time and personally wrote that speech which condemned his former pastor Reverend Wright, a close friend who officiated the Obamas’ wedding and baptism of their two daughters Malia and Sasha. It was a painful and tough decision but the right one, and Obama made it. 

Santorum & Romney

Compare the reaction to Limbaugh’s slut comments from GOP presidential candidate, Rick Santorum - "being absurd;” Mitt Romney - “it is not a language I would use”

 

The leading GOP presidential candidates only slightly distanced themselves from Limbaugh’s comments while still perched on their high horses regarding women’s choices. 

President Obama’s reaction to Limbaugh; - “reprehensible, they were disappointing;” according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. The President also went on to call Sandra Fluke to offer his and; - “he said to tell my parents that they should be proud,” Fluke said.

President Obama making phone call

GOP presidential candidates, Romney and Santorum are vying to be in charge of the most powerful country on earth with the most powerful economy and military. Which of them has the gumption and the guts to sacrifice and make the tough but empathic choices on behalf of the people; Rush Limbaugh?  

It would come down to that, the leader who can demonstrate the ability to make a choice between protecting friends, the powerful, the elite etc, and the everyday practical person who uses contraception yes?

By the way, Limbaugh did not only insult women but responsible men as well who want to be ready with their better halves even if somewhat, before taking that full time job of fatherhood. 

"Step by Step" A Passage of Rites Message

Dipo puberty rites in Ghana: How prepared for adulthood?

Passages of rites like Quincineras for Latinos, Dipo for Ghana’s Krobos or  Bat Mitzvahs for Jews maybe different methods to help ready societies’ younglings to face life.

As adults, and if occurrences near and in the news are any indications to go by however, no one is really prepared to face life who, has ever been through such rites of passage or gone through the formal system of education that have trumped the former.

Forewarned is forearmed and after the age of 8 and before age 15, for every adolescent growing up, Whitney Houston left a guiding message titled, STEP BY STEP.

Well there's a bridge and there's a river that I still must cross. As I'm going on my journey Oh, I might be lost. And there's a road I have to follow, a place I have to go. 

Well no-one told me just how to get there. But when I get there I'll know, cause I'm taking it 

Step By Step, Bit by Bit, Stone By Stone Brick by Brick Step By Step, Day By Day, Mile by mile 

 

And this old road is rough and ruined So many dangers along the way So many burdens might fall upon me So many troubles that I have to face 

Oh, but I won't let my spirit fail me, I won't let my spirit go Until I get to my destination, I'm gonna take it slowly 'cause I'm making it mine.

Whitney at 2009 Grammys

Say it, baby, don't give up you got to hold on to what you got. Oh, baby, don't give up.

You got to keep on moving on don't stop I know you're hurting, and I know you're blue,  I know you're hurting but don't let the bad things get to you.

 

Persistence, patience, never giving up, hope, self discovery, all the motivational words an adolescent needs growing up towards adulthood captured in a song. Words responsible parents needs in that conversation with an adolescent.

Next, a Whitney Houston song for you in adulthood

Whitney Houston Proclaimed Lifetime Policy Statements

Whitney, looking up to the heavens

If Whitney Houston was an angel, then her role was to trumpet messages divine and, sista did proclaim policy statements – guidelines for humans; captured especially in three of her songs. 

“I believe the children are our future teach them well and let them lead the way , show them all the beauty they possess inside Give them a sense of pride to make it easier, let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be. 

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or First Lady Michel Obama could have been delivering those lines at a Beijing type conference and be spot on.  That verse is easily a mantra for The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, or any Human Service organization in charge of the welfare of children.

It is a course charted in that famous speech by former Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selasie’s at the UN with the quotes beginning with the words, “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned.”… A speech celebrated by another sadly recalled musician, Bob Marley in the song “War”

A joyful Whitney

Yet most important, Whitney Houston’s greatest hit song, The Greatest Love of All; is every loving parent’s mantra. The song directs parents to teach but let the child lead the way; give the child confidence but let the child retain that innocence. 

The story behind this song itself indicated an epiphany divine; by the writer and musician Linda Creed who was battling breast cancer and wrote the song assisted by producer, Michael Maser  to show love and strength passed on to offspring. 

This song was first sang by songstress Jane Olivor then George Benson but when the angel going by the name Whitney Elizabeth Houston took it and proclaimed it to the world, nation after nation responded, making it the number one song in most free countries in 1986 . 

Here are the rest of the lyrics to the Greatest Love of All beginning with the chorus and, see why good people of the world had little choice but be seduced and succumb to the power of words.

Everybody's searching for a hero, people need someone to look up to I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs, a lonely place to be so I learned to depend on me.

Chorus:  I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe No matter what they take from me they can't take away my dignity Because the greatest love of all Is happening to me I found the greatest love of all Inside of me.

The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself it is the greatest love of all.

Whitney easy like Sunday a morning

And if, by chance, that special place that you've been dreaming of leads you to a lonely place find your strength in love.  

Next, two other Whitney Houston policy statements of life - guidelines into adulthood.

RED TAILS MOVIE, A Triumphant Entertaining Multi Story of American History

The hushed silence that greeted the opening line of the movie Red Tails, at the theater where I watched it was sure intended, given the true two stories behind the movie.

“Blacks are mentally inferior by nature, subservient, cowardly… and therefore unfit for combat.  - 1925 Army War College Study” – Opening line of the movie     

When the caption above appears on screen before you, that embarrassing but knowing “we are all one people” moment which people like to reassure themselves of evokes itself. It appeared George Lucas, the brain behind Red Tails and its debutant movie director, Anthony Hemingway were aiming for that reaction.

 

George Lucas, a movie making legend, whose Star Wars movie franchise is an industry on its own got a cliché response when he pitched the movie idea to movie studios- literally told that black people based movies did not sell. That studio response actually reflected the movie story line culminating in triumph.   http://bit.ly/ym7foL

The Real Tuskegee Airmen at the White House

You know that old story, questioning the capabilities of people with certain skin pigment at a time when, the kind of melanin compound inherited from your parents was the difference between an opportune and inopportune life. That resulted in the Tuskegee Airmen Experiment creating the first African American aviators called the Tuskegee Airmen. These gallant men triumphed as did the movie about them.

Red Tails is a must watch movie, historically relevant as any movie extolling gallantry, service and sacrifice by a people for their country trying to help save the free; reflecting other unsung stories of heroic and sacrifice.

Tthe story of the first ever African American military unit, the10^th Calvary regiment a.k.a Buffalo Soldiers so named by the American Natives because of their valor for one….. Yes, that one immortalized by Bob Marley’s song Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta, ……stolen from Africa, brought to America, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.” ..They were ill equipped but overcame.

 

Ironically, while the Tuskegee Airmen fought for the right and succeeded gallant to fly for their country, another experiment similarly based on skin pigmentation but hideous and most degrading was being rout on their fellow blackmen. Simply called the Tuskegee Experiment, it was to see if a destructive bug that affected a “superior” skin pigment people would affect an “inferior” skin pigment. It never ended in glory http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

More comparable to the Tuskegee experiment in hard work, low expectations but also ending in triumph was the story of the African American Army Corp of Engineers. These black men came  from the 93rd Engineer General Service Regiment, the 95th Engineer General Service Regiment, the 97th Engineer General Service Regiment and worked on that crucially needed highway in Alaska. 

The military at the time saw them inferior and an Army War College stated, “African Americans were "careless, shiftless, irresponsible and secretive" and "unmoral and untruthful." Commanding officers were instructed to "handle" their African American subordinates "with praise and by ridicule." http://to.pbs.org/wRa0S9


 Like the Tuskegee Airmen, they were initially set up as an all African American unit and were denied good equipment or given hand me down equipment initially; all based on a “smart and intelligent” principle. Chest out, putting brains and shoulder to the tasks proved themselves good at taking risks, going far beyond their expectations and triumphed

Terrence Howard as Col. Bullard

But why you should go watch Red Tails is not simply because of the rich double stories behind it. Expect nothing but adventure, humor and drama from a powerful cast of brawny colored men with brains. Spoiler warning, there is a good dose of romance in there.

Terrence Howard, always a natural in military uniform à la Ironman delivered some powerful lines in the movie including; “We count our victories by the bombers we get to the target, by the husbands we return to their wives and the fathers we return to their children”.

Cuba Gooding jnr as Major Major Stance (Red Tails)

Cuba Gooding jnr was intense as usual and the exploits of David Oyelowo’s character Lightning, reminded me about a childhood story of a certain Ghanaian aviator who reportedly flew his Head of State under a bridge and was demoted. I have always wanted to ask this officer who became president of his Black African country that question but always forgot when I had the opportunity.

Daniela Ruah as Sofia (Red tails)

What is an adventure movie full of action without a girl to soften the heart of the hero? Daniela Ruah who played the role of Sofia the Italian love interest of Lightning filled that chocolate vanilla role romantically.

Emerging Hollywood star Nate Parker, who has been played some Jim Crow Law era movie roles with distinction; remember the Great Debaters and Secret Life of Bees easily nailed his character, Martin "Easy" Julian . 

The cast of Red Tails

Other notable stars in the movie include R&B Star Neyo and, Methodman. A few cheesy dialogues in there but great movie; a date, family and or friends; or going solo movie.  

 

Natural Black African Dread Locked, a Nostalgic Victory

Diana with her locks showing beads

The Dinning Hall during evening meals at St. Paul’s Secondary School, SPACO was usually packed as this was one meal you never wanted to miss after activities. It was also the perfect time to make important announcements.

Still in my first year; ninoes they called us then in the early 80’s it was obvious an important announcement was to be made in the Dinning Hall one fateful evening.

When the Project Monitor (a school prefect) directed by the Senior Prefect; stood up to make an announcement the students shifted focus from their meals for a moment. 

At issue was one of the seniors (can’t recall his name ) then in Form 5 who had his hair in natural locks....He called himself a Nazarene and said it was against his religion to cut his hair...

Now, anyone who has ever been to a Catholic school or knows the concept of Catholic schools is well aware of the discipline and sometimes informal regimented way of life in such schools.

Naturally herself

St Paul’s Secondary School was no different even with its reputation as a “bad boys” school those days. The worse and the best that could ever happen when you put boys with high testosterone levels in a boarding school those days days was the norm. Sports and academic achievements sometimes went side by side with unwanted behaviors like weed and cigarette smoking, boozing and running out of bounds. 

Even with that kind of recalcitrance, no student stood a chance coming up against those Catholic School rules applied. 

That evening, the Project Monitor had the full attention of the young men waiting hungrily for their meal.  With the bell in hand, he announced that soso and so youngman with the “rasta” hair needed to get rid of his locked hair per the school authorities and comb it.

The youngman with the natural locks did not take kindly to the order and he expressed himself physically.  I remember a commotion and the poor Project Monitor and some others stumbling on the floor.  The next day the Nazarene was escorted out of the campus by the school Cadet Corp members.

Youngman had his black African curly hair in natural locks and he was expelled for that. I do not know what became of this student now but I hope he stayed true to his roots.

 

Root of the loc

More than two and a half decades later I was reminded of this story when I saw the Facebook Picture Album titled “Be Yourself” by Diana Sogbey. See, Diana represents part of the new face of the new St Paul’s Secondary School that has become a mixed school admitting and graduating both male and female students. 

 

Diana’s locks looked beautifully natural and those strong black African curly hairs on her head have grown uninhibited into a strong mane, lush, rich in color.  And Diana holds her head proudly; unpermed san hair extensions or attachments

Dinana Sogbey’s natural locks represent a victory however small over that self limiting attitude that makes a black man look down on his own.  It is payback for that day in St Paul’s when a black African in a black African country  was expelled by black Africans; forget its Catholic school, because of his natural black African hair.

Thick Mane

I hope Diana is not discriminated on especially by black Africans because she refused to use ammonium thioglycolate  on her hair. “Why would anybody do that” a chemist asked Chris Rock in his documentary, Good Hair after the comedian told him that women, especially black women used that  chemical compound to perm their hair.

Still, perms, weave ons, plaited hair, nappy hairs are all hair style choices available to women. It seems those that are not black African origin and take a negative toll on the black woman are the ones more accepted by black society. 

For now Diana Sogbey, let it flow….And to my sistas rocking their natural hair, let it flow

A "Weak" White House Foreign Policy, Arab Springs & Russian Protests

3 Cowboy Diplomatic Options President Obama had on his desk after Iran captured an American Airforce drone but the President chickened out of those options 

After invading a sovereign nation’s  airspace, and paid the consequences, why  not come out of the closet? Listen to US  Vice-President Cheney’s gutsy talk shop, "I  was told that the president had three options  on his desk. He rejected all of them” 

Must be painful to sit and watch as Obama  “weakened” America by reigning in firepower  and replacing it with smiles and extended hands. Even perplexing is why a weakened US Foreign Policy would result in Russian Prime Minister and alpha male, Vladimir Putin holding US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responsible as Russians rise up to fight for their freedom.

Russian anti-Putin protestors

The Russian uprising is easily their version of the Arab Spring which began before the Occupy Movements; spontaneous fight for freedom fueled by social media.  Not really touted except by a few like former DNC spokesperson Karen Finney who wrote about it, was the role of US President Obama and the most Senior Cabinet member, Hillary Clinton in fueling these movements.
  
Until the past two years, United States foreign policy could be generally summed up in 5 words, Judeo-Christian Anglo-Saxon Supremacist. Sure, we have heard the phrase “United States is not at war with Islam” then saw the walk taken by the United States Government especially in the Middle East. 

But America did the unthinkable and elected someone with a name which Islamic and Arab countries could even relate to. They saw the new president treat Islam with respect; they observed that even as America would remain pro- Israel, the President frowned on the hard lined ways of the Jewish state. They saw the castigation of the president after that “bow” to King Faud of Saudi Arabia and the general criticism of his charm offensive diplomacy as weak. Heading this foreign policy of engagement is Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton who is said to have logged more than 460,000 and visited 80 countries including, Egypt, Qatar, Afghanistan, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait and Morocco.

Mohamed Bouazizi before, during and after thre fire

With no great Satan to shock and awe their countries, the Arab youth turned against the real enemies, those dictators who like Wall Street, Banking and Finance now came into being with noble ideas and fighting for the people but became corrupt. Gaddafi, Mubarak, Ben Ali,  Saleh, al-Assad were all once popular and somewhat depended on America’s “hatred” of Islam as a rallying point until United States made it clear in deed that Islam was no enemy. Some of us even heard for the first time that the Founding Fathers had a Koran printed in Massachusetts and discussed the possibility of an American Muslim president. 

Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian man who sacrificed himself out of frustration after being bullied by his own country’s police was a FREEDOM FIGHTER in the highest degree who helped ignite the Arab Spring and had no qualms about his real enemies.

Still, imagine if President Obama had ordered a strike to take out the American Air Force drone and it failed or even succeeded in an “in your face manner” that Obama’s critics wanted?

Back in great mother Russia, the czar seeking to re-enthrone and impose himself on Russians even as his countrymen and women like the Arab Springers, European and American Occupiers – FREEDOM FIGHTERS have identified who the real enemies of the people are.Some weak Foreign Policy this White House has

Person of the Year is The Freedom Fighter NOT the “noisemaker;” a.k.a The Protestor

Freedom Fighter or  just a Protester  ( Time)

When everyday American citizens in New Orleans strove desperately to survive after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,, they were labeled refugees and looters by the media; their own government law enforcers did not hesitate to shoot to kill them. 

Ok, that example was extreme and apologies to President George Bush 43 for citing the main issue related to what he called the “lowest point of my presidency.” But that kind of labeling is why there is little surprise when the most recognized news magazine in the world, Time Magazine superficially named the “Noisemaker” as its Time Person of the Year 2011.

 

Yet check out TPOTY 1993, “The Peace Makers,” represented by former South African leaders Nelson Mandela and FW DE Klerk, and the former Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat – 1993. Time Magazine could easily have branded them the “Negotiators,” or “Handshakers” but the Magazine took the high road and named them, “Peacemakers.” 

In the world of Time Magazine, if I entrusted an entity with my wealth to keep and add value to it but the entity betrayed me, by using my wealth to boost his self aggrandizement and power, then used that power to exploit me, and I rose up against him, I am just a “noisemaker”(protester).

The main reasons and people behind these noises worldwide is about entities that used power entrusted them to betray and manipulate the very people who gave them that power. The major differences between these corrupt power mongers are geography and personalities involved.  Not so much unlike that which occurred on a farm introduced to us by George Orwell.

The whole idea of Wall Street, banking and finance; was and is still a noble one. You are an, inventor, a manufacturer, draughtsman, maybe an opera singer, a teacher or health worker. Whatever you were, it was inconvenient trying to handle all the money. Keep it safe with a financial institution and access it when you want to.  You want to expand, start or buy a business, worry not; the collective monies held in trust from other people including you was available to you on loan for a small fee instead of spending time begging relatives and friends to raise money so you could concentrate on your invention, business, work etc. 

Occupier with telling sign (Wikipedia)

Realizing the power they had over the collective, they who invented and produced nothing suddenly became inventors of some things that were basically, nothing. They packaged promises, future yields, values and profits of your collective hard work, presented them as products and took your money for it. Others also controlling the collective power of monies they hold on behalf of the people exploited that power in dealing with individuals by dictating to them – bank fees, closing fees, debit card fees, minimum balance, interest rates, credit scores.

Still, Time Magazine thought Molly Katchpole who helped abolish Bank of America’s last debit card enslaving move is just a noise maker. She is a FREEDOM FIGHTER. 

The financial institutions deemed themselves to be hardworking and plundered and enriched themselves and when all their greed and lies were exposed causing this massive hemorrhage of the economy, they still had the audacity to draw fat checks and bonuses to pay themselves while the people saw their wealth vanish. But according to President Obama, it was all legal. Off course remember they had your collective power (money) and used it to lobby and sponsor campaigns to help legislate or unlegislate laws in their favor. 

 

They were and still are that powerful even in an administration that sought to be progressive that, President Obama could not even appoint Massachusetts senate Candidate, Elisabeth Warren to head the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after she worked hard as the president’s Assistant to help establish it.

Here is an Elisabeth Warren quote - “To restore some basic sanity to the financial system, we need two central changes: fix broken consumer-credit markets and end guarantees for the big players that threaten our entire economic system”. The power of Wall Street and the banks through their allies in Congress cost the ordinary citizen a powerful ally; but hang on till the next general elections. 

Meanwhile a spontaneous force of people rising up against these enslavers not sponsored by millionaires or boosted by massive coverage; individuals sounding online and writing letters, rising up against the greed of Wall Street and calling for accountability even if they call themselves 99 Percent, Occupiers, Anonymous, are FREEDOM FIGHTERS yes?.