No More Excuses? No Bootstraps!

Great post. As if a magic wand was brandished the day Obama took office and everything else was suddenly wiped away. "President Obama is a potent symbol, but he’s no panacea." Compelling article, thanks for sharing.

United we stand, divided we fall. Color never meant a thing to me, I was raised that way.

I would say there are no more "excuses" for American people who remain impoverished in hearts and minds.

Good ones!

I especially like your comment, Jan.

I say, "LET PEOPLE BE".

I say, "Freedom...

Everyone doesn't have to see it the SAME way but everyone SHOULD SEE IT."

I agree with you. Each person's case is different for their reasons of failure.

we as Black America have had no excuse for bringing up the rear for over 100 years... Obama's presidency will not change anything for Blacks who don't realize they are responsible for their own destiny... The president is just one man, whether he be Black or White... Blacks are too willing to sit and wait on some agency to save them, instead of taking the initiative and doing the things necessary to achieve success... Why anyone would wanna wait for anyone, while paradise is all around us to have, is beyond me...

Well, Kente. . .first some people will have to rise above the muck and mire, then act as if they've never sunk so low by navigating the 'system' while cleaning themselves up in public restrooms, maintain a positive outlook no matter how worthless and alone they may feel, doing something with the hair, legally find 'appropriate' attire, doin a 360 on the speech thang, get into a school of some sort, have a P. O. Box and change for the pay phone, be able to walk long distances, dodge thugs and bullets, belong to a church or other organization that helps with some of the above even if personal hygiene is still 'iffy', get necessary medical care--including mental health support--without insurance. . .you get where I'm going with this.
And all concernsapply to ANYONE who is going through hard times wading through the muck and mire WITHOUT BOOTS! Black people do not own poverty nor ignorance, but many are not a stranger to it.

Being the daughter who was once considered "White trash," I've always thought we should treat people like people. All colors of people have those who have had it beaten into their minds that they are impoverished and disadvantaged. It would be great if we could have a way to help all people of all colors reach their full potential.

ok... but there is still the element of choice- free will. You can choose to look at the circumstances and situations that are present in ur neighborhood, or you can go ahead and put in sum major werk to improve ur life... I understand how most ppl feel about this subject, as you and countless others have mentioned to me over the years... I still maintain that so many Blacks are/have been cuckolded into believing that they cannot succeed without some gov't agency, someone other than themselves putting in the werk. I grew up in a housing project- several of them. I saw that mentality play out, and it's sad that so many pplz, minorities or not, have given up, and chosen to just "sit on the ball" and w8 for either the state or Washington to come with answers... That's justa real good way to breed dependency, and keep shysters in power. Look t what this mentality has done to Black America... we are needlessly bringing up the rear- we have the most potential of any one group in this land... We should be ruling it- we don't need Uncle Sam, and various agencies interfering with what we gotta do in this life. I understand ue position on this subject, as I understand how most would be offended at the statements I have made here and throughout the years on this subject... Dependency doesn't breed success. Look at all other countries that have embraced Socialism... they are in the crapper. If Socialism worms its way into the heart of this nation, we are only beginning to have troubles. The system is broken, FUBAR ifya ask some, we as a people (Americans) are gonna have to not fall for every gov't power play disguised as some charity outreach. It's BEEN time for Americans to start thinking, and stop getting hypnotized by all that we see and hear from the media... That's my 2 cents worth

So much to do and so little time. The problem with sound bites is they are way too general and way too brief. Our job as citizens is to rise to the occasion and encourage those who can do to do. Be responsible, take care of yourself and help those who can't. Our job as citizens is to hold out a hand to those who need help due to their disadvantaged situation be it mental or physical. We are all Americans. All of us. We need to look out for one another. If we don't who will?

Hey da byrdman! I understand exactly what you're saying. I only want you to consider that everyone doesn't have the same intestinal fortitude as yourself. Humans are social creatures. We need to help and be helped to be our best. I don't believe that anyone's success is self-made. Being lucky is more like it.
I have seen folk I knew from a former time begging on the corner, drugged up out of their minds. They came from "good homes", had education, jobs. What went wrong?
I don't believe that some folk just don't care. I think they, as you mentioned, have bought into the perceptions of others. Those same others most likely wouldn't give the time of day if it would help because of apathy and/or fear.

Robert, you get what I mean.

If I were black, I'd have an excuse for my poverty.

I was struck, Nyota, by working in this last campaign & election, by the difference between the 60 and 70-something attitudes and the 30-50 attitudes...It was not so much a "wide span" of disparity between what 60 & 70 year olds were not able to overcome...but rather it hit me like a 2x4 across the head...What a vertical drop, a real and very deep chasm.
Not all--but many--60 and 70 year olds, who were raised in their tight white world and who had never voted republican in their 50 some years of voting, abandoned their dem party. And, some 30-50 year olds, who live in rural white parts of our world, still encased in their "grampa said" minds--explained to me how they voted repub. It was a mental dance.

I honestly have to attribute this to lack of interaction. They read the skewed news, but don't ride the bus with folks. They listen to Fox news or CSNBC, and take the newscaster's word that "this is the problem," but they never had the advantages of attending a deseg school, or riding a bus with this other great kid who was in gospel choir, or that one that played in the orchestra. So, two things occur to me: I daily thank MLK and Rosa, and all the freedom fighters who walked the walk and took the grief to enrich MY world today. All the young, scared black moms who were brave enough to send their kids to "white" schools for the kids sake. They were doing it for their own kids, but ALL kids were allowed the chance to grow and befriend each other. These brave parents widened my perception of life, of the world, and of the human spirit.

Therefore, Obama becomes for me an even more perfect "icon" of who we can be: half white, and half black. He also stands for "what we can aspire to: brilliance, balance & blessings."

And I am so grateful for the fact that I was raised in the 60s & 70s...not the 30s & 40s.
And grateful for the "kids" (all kids) on the bus, going to school.

Is it right yet? No. Are we closer? Yes. Will we get closer yet, to what is right and good for everyone. I work for that, daily. I am very pleased that "community" will be one of the major focus points of the new administration. It is from having neighborhood events, and working neighborhood projects that the chasm will be narrowed still more.

Perhaps the narrowing of the economic "chasm" between "the haves" and "the have-nots" will also widen the connection between groups of people. Those perceived to be black and those perceived to be white. I can't quite say thanks to Bush for economically raping all Americans...but if it brings us all closer together-heart and mind-then SOME positive thing might yet be wrested from the mess.

Blessed be, to all who struggle--the moms and dads of the world--to give better to their children than they ever received. Keep writing, Nyota. Keep putting it out there.
Wilka

As a young man I experienced the great racial devide. In 1958 the Air Force transferred me to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Misssisppi. I witnessed some of the worst that white people could do to another race and or religion.

No, our new president can not change everything, but he has opened the door for everything to be changed.

Karl, I'm not sure how you meant your comment to come across. Just to be clear:
"And all concerns apply to ANYONE who is going through hard times wading through the muck and mire WITHOUT BOOTS! Black people do not own poverty nor ignorance, but many are not a stranger to it [them]."

Thank you, Wilka, for your take.

You're right, David.

"....ANYONE who is going through hard times wading through the muck and mire WITHOUT BOOTS! Black people do not own poverty nor ignorance, but many are not a stranger to it."
I must thank you for this comment, and the entirety there, as I had to do all that, only did it (still doin most of it) without the so called 'necesary' medical care and mental health support 'that I get from just folks around me that care! It's just about being an American, not born into any advantage. I'm just that little ole white chick from Detroit whose dad's steel mill went under first, without taking care of him or his Asbestosis and Cancer that would end up killing him and then her son's father's steel mill is going down now. Went across the country I did, I wait tables and I get by.

In addition, David, WE (the country) have opened the door to change.

"So black people have to keep their feet on the ground even as their heads are in the clouds. If we want to give these children a fighting chance, we must change the worlds they inhabit. That change requires both better policies and better parenting — a change in our houses as well as the White House." from the article

I agree with this and hope for some practical solutions........thanks for pointing this article out!

"Karl, I'm not sure how you meant your comment to come across."

Sarcastically, of course.

I had a long diatribe. I deleted it.

Obama shows it can be done just as Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodger front office showed it could be done. Once they showed what was possible others could follow the trail that they had blazed. I am hoping that this Presidency can do the same for all kinds of minorities across the U.S. (Not that it will be easy by any means but it can be done.

Such BS

You are born into this world and then you die, in between there is circumstance, a mystery as to whether it will have meaning. The only difference as to the out come, is what you really want to do with it. For some, they take as it comes, for other they bend it to their will and for others, they never can seem to figure it out and what remains is the great mystery of life. Was the world a better place with you being there.
Got a problem, then be the solution.

Charles, how the f**k would you know what it was like to live under Jim Crow and for that matter, one who looks into the window but has never lived in my house understand nothing of the suffering endured under your ignorance.
However, a change is going to come, the script has been fliped and there is light at the end of the tunnel. And out of love to you, I do know all to well the negative circumstances of my people but the context is far from the whole picture of any group of people. There is a past a present and there is a future and know one can tell what the future will bring but with hard work and determination nothing remain the same. The waste of the treasury on fear has cost us a better future that is the inhertance of the people to provide an opprotunity for improvement otherwise greed will steal it all, I pay taxes and I onw apart of this government, I voted and my man won and he don't believe in no trickle down theory. So let the healing start.

Right on Ms. Star.

Interesting.