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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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Barack wins, One black man's thoughts

On Tuesday November 4, 2008 Barack Obama won the presidential election to become the 44th President of the United States. This was a great day for my family. It so moved me that I haven't been able to sleep for two days and am still trying to come to grips with the Barack Obama victory.

Everything is like a blur and I am just starting to realize on November 6 that we have a black president. Even now in my slightly delirious state I keep waiting for some reporter on Fox News to start screaming about a voter discrepancy somewhere. Most likely Alaska.

I knew I had to write something but I was just too emotional or exhausted. Probably a combination of both. That and a few celebratory Heinekens.

Election Day was very special for me and besides the 3 hour wait to vote ( which will become six hours as I age and tell the story of how I walked in six inches of snow with no shoes to vote for Obama 30 years from now ) it was a beautiful day.

Early on I drove 3 elderly African American women who were all over 75 years old to the polls. They were acting like little school girls giggling and smiling. I almost said, "Don't make me pull this car over."

But it hit me that as happy as I was that I could not really appreciate what they felt. At only forty I have not faced real overt racism. But they had, They lived through Jim Crow and segregation. They saw America's ugly side.

Their joy was really one of "We have overcome" and I knew they really appreciated and understood what was happening in their lifetime.

That made me think of my daughter who will in her lifetime think it's normal for a black man to be president and hopefully one day will see a woman attain the highest office in the land. Now when I tell my daughter she can be president I wont be talking out one side of my mouth

All these thought brought a few tears to my eyes. That's a big deal for me since I can only remember crying three times in my adult life. Those three being when my great grandmother died, when my daughter was born, and when the Giants lost the Super Bowl in 2000.

I want to close by returning to those three old women I drove to the polls. Now everyone who has ever been in an old black persons home knows along with plastic covers on the furniture there are pictures of three people you will always see on the wall.

Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy.

Now they can add one more..............

George L. Cook III www.letstalkhonestly.com