In response to 140 Syrians killed by ISIS suicide bombers, Sec. of State John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) is touting what is being called a “provisional agreement” for a ceasefire.
One caveat. It’s not likely to be signed by all parties (Russia, Syria, and the U.S.) and if signed, is even less likely to be enforced.
ISIS isn’t part of this provisional agreement. Makes for a great photo-op though.
There is a lot that we, as Americans, do not know about what is now called Black History Month.
Here are two pieces from Stacy Swimp at the Project 21 website on the subject.
The Origin and Purpose of Black History Month
History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they have been and what they have been, where they are and what they are. Most important, history tells a people where they still must go, what they still must be. The relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to her child.
– J.H. Clarke
Stacy Swimp
February is observed as “Black History Month” in America.
Its precursor, “Negro History Week,” was created by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926 and observed on the second week of February.
A staunch Republican, Woodson choose that week in that month to honor the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Woodson created Negro History Week because black Americans and their accomplishments were largely left out of the educational curricula of that time. Where blacks were mentioned, it was usually very demeaning imagery or discriminatory ideas.
Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro (now African-American) Life and History in 1915 and the Journal of Negro History in 1916. He was dedicated to helping educate black and white Americans about blacks and their accomplishments and potential in a way that would benefit everyone.
His week-long observance was expanded to become Black History Month – officially recognized by the U.S. government – in 1976.
Unlike it often seems to be today, Woodson never intended black history to be about black firsts and a parade of black icons. Woodson was a scholar. He intended this observance as a means to get around the institutional hatred of the era and ultimately have this new information included in the teaching of American history, period.
In particular, Woodson wanted black Americans to understand the strong family values, work ethic, sense of individual responsibility, spirit of entrepreneurship and incredible dignity that was indicative of black Americans and their African ancestors.
This educational pursuit was also important to Woodson because he felt that historical awareness would inspire black Americans of his time to avoid becoming dependent on government to do for them what they could do for themselves.
Woodson also believed that, if white Americans knew the true history of blacks in America and in Africa, it would help overcome negative stereotyping.
Negro History Week was envisioned as a tool to develop and cultivate new awareness and new critiques. It was about unity. It was not a basis for ethnocentric pride and cultural divide – the path radical black Americans on the left have pursued over the past few decades.
I personally take advantage of the national spotlight that Black History Month provides to educate others about the real history leftist scholars rewrite or ignore, and stress the original purpose of Negro History Week.
Woodson’s vision was that someday a special week or month would no longer be required in order to appropriately honor black Americans and their accomplishments. Black history is American history – and a year-round school curricula relevant to all.
But that won’t occur under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Education as long as there continues to be a left-wing domination of public education.
When we segregate months to highlight ethnicities and genders, we cease to simply recognize accomplishments and instead encourage disunity among Americans of all stripes. The political left deserves scorn for their determination to keep America divided along ethnic, cultural and so-called class lines.
I am thankful for the work and the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson. History is indeed a human need. His contribution and that of other black Americans is considerable and far too important to ever be compartmentalized into just one month.
I pray for a day when Dr. Woodson’s desire to observe “Negro History” comes to proper fruition.
Black History Month Makes a Mockery of Black History
During “Black History Month” most people focus on black America’s “heroes.” Stories are shared about the past, or what some call the “black experience” in America.
Unfortunately, Black History Month seems to have become a mechanical celebration of a few people and a few things that are deemed appropriate by the media and black establishment.
This tired programming doesn’t do justice to the vision of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of “Negro History Week” — the precursor to Black History Month.
I suggest that merely heralding a few black heroes and situations is a perversion of the reason Negro History Week was originally created back in 1926.
The great Dr. Woodson believed we study black history to learn an historical perspective to use to deal with modern problems and practices.
Dr. Woodson wanted black Americans to understand where we came from, who we were and what we had done so that we might also understand where we really are, who we really are and what we can do today as well as where we still need to go, who we still need to become and what still must be done.
Negro History Week, as Dr. Woodson saw it, was not simply a commemoration or a celebration — it was a call to action.
His hope was that, by learning the valuable lessons of history, we would not make the same mistakes. Likewise, studying history and learning about the struggles of the past should motivate us to take some level of personal responsibility in making our home, neighborhood and society at-large a better place to live, work and play.
In his speech to the National Urban League’s annual conference on September 6, 1960, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. provided a strong indictment of the black community’s failure to honor heroes with personal integrity and dignity rather than with phony ad hoc observances, saying: “The Negro must make a vigorous effort to improve his personal standards… One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self-criticism.”
We are suffering today for not properly studying, understanding and acting in response to the lessons of yesterday.
As a result, too many of us have become cynical and disillusioned. Some of us have conditioned ourselves to perpetuate a system of segregation. We have lost touch with an important something that’s called initiative.
Too many now cite the oppression of the past as an excuse for modern mediocrity.
Many of us also live beyond our means, spend money on frivolities and fail to give to serious causes, organizations and educational institutions that so desperately need our charity.
In that same 1960 speech to the National Urban League, Dr. King said: “Our crime rate is far too high.”
It is indeed an insult to the legacy of so-called Black History Month heroes that so many of us claim to honor when we too often live our lives in direct contrast to the values and principles that they challenged us to maintain.
Black History Month celebrations, in my opinion, have all-too-often become something other than an honorable commemoration.
It’s not an outright mockery, but the ways we sometimes behave would surely disgust Dr. Woodson and the people about whom he sought to teach us. They would be disgusted at how their contributions are increasingly being wasted.
If they saw how we commemorate Black History Month today, I think our forefathers might say: “Keep your fake celebrations. Try practicing some integrity and self respect.”
Have you heard the latest Hillary interpretation, or, impersonation? She does a pretty good dog.
We all know, well, unless you only look at mainstream media, then you might not know, how Hillary changes her voice inflection to suit the audience she is addressing. Like when she takes on a Southern Black Preacher accent/cadence when speaking to a Black audience in the South. Then there’s her famous cackle of a laugh. Like when she is nailed with a question about her Benghazi or e-mail server issues.
Her latest being a barking dog. Rush Limbaugh had some fun with this soundbite and made a montage of her greatest hits (including his watermark) in a 29 second treat.
Here, graciously lifted from Rush 24/7 (the subscriber’s side of his website), is this little ditty.
Yesterday, the House voted to keep due process and private enterprise by passing H.R. 766 by 265-199.
Operation Choke Point was the Obama administration’s way to unlawfully use the back door to stifle businesses, if not end them, that they do not like, based solely on ideological grounds. Due process not required.
The two primary targets of Operation Choke Point have been the short-term lending industry and firearm sellers. The distaste for both are rooted in leftist ideology. Progressives hate private lending, because they believe people cannot make financial decisions for themselves. In addition, there is ample evidence that the federal government wants to replace private lending with financial services provided by the Post Office. As for firearms, well, we know all about progressives and the Second Amendment.
It is also instructive to note that the bill passed pretty much on party lines. Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the bill. Or to put it another way, Democrats voted to keep the use of the federal government as a tool to punish businesses and industries they do not like.
H.R. 766 “prohibits a federal banking agency from formally or informally suggesting, requesting, or ordering a depository institution to terminate either a specific customer account, or group of customer accounts, or otherwise restrict or discourage it from entering into or maintaining a banking relationship with a specific customer or group of customers, unless: (1) the agency has a material reason to do so, and (2) the reason is not based solely on reputation risk.” The bill passed 265-159 and now goes to the Senate.
For years, and through multiple administrations, the pols in Washington have been driven to appeal to illegal aliens in this country. The meme being that if you want to expand your party (this is aimed at the Republican Party), you have to include some kind of amnesty. Bush 43 totally bought it and, he called it Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
Since that time, the only thing we are told about illegals flooding the border is that the immigration system is broken. And we have to have comprehensive immigration reform. Obviously, changing the demographics of the country to turn all those undocumented democrats into a voting block in perpetuity.
Reasonable people, not interested in pandering to illegals, but interested in preserving our sovereignty and security contend that the system is not broken. It’s that the laws on immigration are not being enforced. The president, any president, can’t claim the system is broken if they are not willing to find out by enforcing the law. Oh by the way, like they took an oath to do.
Now, the Obama administration is in full-fledged crisis building on illegal immigration. Sanctuary cities, importing illegals and spreading them all over the country, letting illegals out of jail, not securing our borders, and now this . . .
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being told to release illegal immigrants and no longer order them to appear at deportation hearings, essentially a license to stay in the United States, a key agent testified Thursday.
What’s more, the stand down order includes a requirement that the whereabouts of illegals released are not to be tracked.
“We might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether,” suggested agent Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
https://youtu.be/39O_q3tbLEs
It is indeed, a manufactured crisis. And it is no accident. It’s exactly what the Coward-Piven Strategy is all about. Who advocates doing that? Barack Hussein Obama, that’s who.
No matter where the strategy is implemented, it shares the following features:
The offensive organizes previously unorganized groups eligible for government benefits but not currently receiving all they can.
The offensive seeks to identify new beneficiaries and/or create new benefits.
The overarching aim is always to impose new stresses on target systems, with the ultimate goal of forcing their collapse.
In one of the most ignored (by the media) campaign events so far, this little gem from a Bush campaign stop in New Hampshire.
There’s never been a need for an applause sign in a presidential campaign. Until now. This is pathetic. Watch Jeb ending a key point about defending the country fall so flat that those in attendance must have been asleep.
If you have to tell your supporters “please clap.” The message is that they are more curious about him than they are supporters of him. This should be the time to re-think staying in the race.
So a Cruz campaign supporter, based on a “breaking story” on CNN that said nothing more than Carson’s itinerary, suggested Carson supporters vote for Cruz, in a tweet, has become the latest in the soap opera coverage of the 2016 presidential primary.
CNN’s “breaking story” was that Carson was going home, then to Washington, instead of going right to New Hampshire. They said Carson was “taking a break.” This was characterized as “unusual news.” Wolf Blitzer followed with “very unusual news.”
Excuse me, but if you’re going to claim that you lost a position or two in the Iowa caucuses because of a tweet that happened 15 minutes before the voting begins, then you’re not saying very much about the smarts of your supporters. Supporters who would not bother to verify the assumption that Carson ended his campaign, which the tweet never claimed he did.
CNN’s senior political reporter, Chris Moody, merely said this. It didn’t say Carson quit. But the way CNN’s on-air talent put it, video above, it was full of speculation that it was over. Yet, they never said it was over.
Carson won’t go to NH/SC, but instead will head home to Florida for some R&R. He’ll be in DC Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast.
Doesn’t say much about Trump either who, because of that tweet, says he wants a do-over.
Gee, can we get on with the issues of why we need to toss the Democrats out of The White House already, and stop this BS soap opera?
Republicans are losing valuable time, and focus, on this. All of which benefits Democrats and the Obama administration. Why? Because no one is talking about what a mess Obama created and how much more of a mess either Democrat candidate has in store for the country. Instead, they are feeding the media soap opera that is covering back and forth tweets about nonsense.
Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.
