Health Care Reform & Questions African Americans should Ask

To My Black Colleagues:

Will Health Care Reform mean that all of the so-called Public Hospitals that blacks have been force to go to for decades will be done away with and replaced with new modern hospitals so that blacks will no longer have to go these government run hospitals for medical care? These inner-city Public hospitals are considered as government run medical programs.

From my understanding the answer is no. Poor blacks in inner-cities across America will still be forced to go to public hospitals, hospitals that the members of Congress will not be caught dead in. As a child I remember going to Public Hospitals. My mother was so upset with their care and their lack of sensitivity toward black folks that she stop taking us to the hospital and came up with home remedies to treat us. I still have several of the medical books that my mother bought to treat her family. These public hospitals are government run hospitals, but they are never referred to when Congress is asked can they provide quality health care programs.

According to Tavis Smiley's State of The Black Union, since the Tuskegee Experiment, blacks do not trust the government and government run hospitals. Not only was there the Tuskegee Experiment, there have been other secret government experiments targeting blacks, one in particular at the prison in Monroe, Washington (state) a few years ago. Because of the Tuskegee Experiment, the 20,000 members of the National Medical Association (an African American Professioal Medical Association) demanded an apology from the Clinton Administration. Clinton said, "To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist...."

Should blacks trust the government's proposed Health Choice Commissioners in Section 201 of the proposed Health Care Bill, a Commission that will decide what care the patient should receive, particularly when blacks know that this is the same government that has approved a system of death that has killed over 17 million black babies and a system that was started and inspired by Eugenics (a program to control the population growth of blacks)? If a black need medical care, can he or she trust this Commission to reach a decision without the consideration of one's race? Or will the commissioners withhold treatment of the black and just let him or her die because they are old or a gang banger? How can they assure blacks that these Commissioners are not prejudice?

These are some of the questions that blacks should be asking Congress.

Rev. Wayne Perryman

Is anyone surprised they attacked the black guy?

"One of the worst things a black person can do is wander off the liberal plantation. Speak your mind, have your own beliefs and Lord help you speak out against the first black president’s policies. This is because over the years, white liberals and their black lackeys have done an excellent job creating group think through victim hood in the black community. As such, way too many blacks view everything, especially politics, through the distorted prism of racism, thus giving them an 'us vs. them' mentality."

"This is why Kenneth Gladney was singled out for attack. The black SEIU guy viewed Gladney as working against his fellow blacks or as a traitor if you will."

Where were my fellow blacks?

"The crowd was exuberant with shouts of no taxation without representation. All around me were people who were fed up with big government. This was our moment to corporately express our dissatisfaction with a runaway big spending and overtaxing government. Americans from all walks of life joined together in one great voice … I wish!

"Missing from this crowd was my fellow black Americans along with Hispanic Americans. In a crowd of a thousand or more, I could only count 10 or less black and brown people … WHY?

"This tea party was not about the current president, any political party, or ethnic group. It was about the right of all Americans to be taxed fairly and governed justly under the Constitution of our Founding Fathers. A call for sanity; a call for our representatives in Washington to hear the voice of the people and stop the madness, stop the spending!

"Where were our fellow Americans of color? Surely you feel the same sting of Big Government that the Anglo-Americans feel. This is not about color! We are all Americans and must stand shoulder to shoulder against the insanity of the past administration and this present administration – or we shall all fall.

"I missed you today. How I would have loved to stand in a sea of diverse Americans with one purpose: save this country from socialism, fascism and a one-world government. God will judge us by our loyalty to Him, not by our loyalty to color. God is no respecter of man. We must stand together as fellow Americans or face the chaos of division.

"One Nation under God. United we stand, divided we fall!"

Rev. Lucian L. Thompson

Rev. Thompson, I will tell you why. Many blacks have been bamboozled into thinking that your tea party was tantamount to a KKK rally. They thought the tea parties were opportunities for "white folks" to bash the "black president." They thought the tea parties were Obama "hate fests." Media is mainly to blame on casting dispersions on those events. I heard a black caller on Michael Savage calling the the attendees of the tea parties "idiots." He was happy to see the white people angry because they had a black president. Dimwit.

Obama Accountability Does Not Equal Hateration

Come on Jeff. Did you attend the Tavis Smiley School of Hateration?

You know you are a hater against our blessed redeemer President. Blessed is he that cometh from the Potomac.

"People criticized the fact that I suggested we hold President Obama accountable as the equivalent of being a 'hater' or subscribing to the crabs in the barrel methodology. I think it is not only troubling, but also dangerous that any community, specifically the African American community would feel that they should give up their right and responsibility, when appropriate and prudent, to hold accountable their president on issues of concern.

"The election of the first black president did not somehow remove the laundry list of pressing social and political matters facing rural, urban, poor, wealthy, educated and uneducated members of the very diverse black community. The same black community that blamed and challenged President Bush on almost every decision he made from the gate. This is a community that despite the very high approval ratings of President Clinton, also challenged him on issues of federal mandatory minimum drug policy past under his watch. This is a community during much of its history in this country has engaged president after president about issues of equal access and even human dignity when too many others would not. Why now would we even imply that President Obama should get a pass because he is black and we are still celebrating his election?

"I am not suggesting that today we begin to rally the Nation of Islam, NAACP, Urban League, and the membership of all of America's black churches and historically black colleges and universities to the steps of the White House to ask President Obama why he has not cut reparations checks. I agree with Americans in and outside of the black community that want to give our new president the opportunity to walk out his administration's plans for turning around the political version of the titanic. The historical implications and the magnitude of the economic, educational, and environmental position we are in as a nation require that we allow for some time. However, the way we make government better is through an active and not a passively appreciative approach; by making sure that lawmakers (at all levels) know we are watching and responding to the moves they make on our behalf. The president and his administration have created a more open environment for accountability to take place and thus met with many black leaders. We also must hold these black leaders also accountable to use those meetings for more than photo ops, but rather opportunities to discuss real strategy to transform communities around the country.

"Two truths about the current political climate make the desire by some to condemn accountability in the name of history making celebration, well...foolish.

"One of the values that the African American community used to lift high was the notion that as a race of people in America we had to be twice as good because of the lens of white supremacy we are being judged with. Why now, that one of our own has made history, proving that this work ethic and way of thinking still works would we spit in the face of our history and lower the expectation because it's the first 100 days, because he is black, or because we are lazy citizens that have forgotten what it means to truly engage."

Hater, hater, hater. Why you want to diss Brotha President?

Love those comments:

"You all are acting like sheep. You are doing exactly what he is talking about.
Great article Jeff.
You all keep saying, 'he's only been in office for a month, then 2, now 3'.
He has been moving at breakneck speed and should be held accountable EVERYDAY.
It matters not, how long he has been in office. It only took 1 day to spend 3.6 Trillion.
It only took days to appear to be a liar on so many issues.
1. FISA
2. WAR
3. HABEUS (STILL WAITING)
4. PATRIOT ACT (STILL WATING)
My bad. Hes only been in office for 3 months.
Wake Up people! We have been had!"

A Schism in the Black Community

"Like (Tavis) Smiley, I've been called a 'sellout' and an 'Uncle Tom.' One person who saw me on MSNBC wrote in an email, 'I think you and your colleagues, do the Black community a disservice, when you over look the positive aspects of what a Black president would mean for this country and the world, you also diminish the position that you hold as a Black journalist at a paper like the Washington Post. [sic]' Another wrote, 'You disappoint me young brother.'

"The vitriol hit its peak during the first blow-up over the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright last year. One over-the-top emailer wrote, 'What kind of step-n-fetchit, house boy are you? You are DISGRACING Black people....God curse your house with tragedy, calamity, and poverty for the rest of your slimy, miserable days, you minstrel show clown.'

"I've been called a 'traitor' and 'self-hating.' One viewer wrote, 'To me, you appear to be a little self-hating, in that you are a black man, and the words that come out of your mouth are obviously not filtered through a genuinely felt lens.' Another said, 'Can you please do all of us a favor and bleach your skin white as white can get. [sic]'

"I've also been accused of forgetting where I come from. A cab driver who listened to an interview I'd just done with Andrea Mitchell yelled at me through the window, 'Mr. Capehart! Don't forget your history!' One gentleman wrote, 'Enlighten our black people when you are on cable news shows instead of bringing down Rev. Wright and Obama, let me remind you that you benefitted from the Civil Right's movement not just being a Capehart. [sic]'

"No reminding needed.

"The pride among African Americans in having one of our own as president is understandable. As Gene Robinson noted in his column last week, it just makes you feel good to see him not only represent you as a black American, but also represent the United States of America as he's done in Europe. But it does him no good and does the nation a disservice if he is not made to answer tough questions about his policies and decisions. Black reporters fought hard to get into positions from which they can hold the president to account. That cannot change now that the president himself is black."

Abortion: The robbing of a heritage

Abortion: The robbing of a heritage

By Rev. Johnny Hunter
Life Education and Resource Network

Abortion is racism in its ugliest form. Because of some very suave planning by abortion supporters and providers, abortionists have eliminated more African American children than the KKK ever lynched. This is one truth that is very disturbing. Think about it. From 1973 to 1992, abortionists have snuffed out the lives of over nine million African American children before their first birthday. Over nine million beautiful black children were prevented from ever having the opportunity to become artists, musicians, doctors, teachers, lawyers, judges, taxi drivers, ambulance drivers, nurses, secretaries, senators, representatives, salesmen, sales clerks, computer programmers, analysts, managers, waitresses, waiters, tellers, leaders, followers, ordinary people, extraordinary people, parents, grandparents, and ancestors. They were robbed of the most essential of all rights--the right to life. They were robbed of their opportunities, and those of us who remain are robbed of their contributions to humanity.

When liberal racists defend abortion as a way to help blacks, I challenge them to show me the bodies of the dead African American children the abortionists have helped.

When a plantation Negro says he supports abortion because he cares about the sisters, mothers and daughters, he is a hypocrite of the lowest order. To deny the next generation of brothers and sisters the right to exist is the ultimate self-destructing mechanism in the African American community.

When two out of every three minority babies are aborted, it doesn't take a mathematical genius to understand the effect this will have on the minority race in the United States of America.

I find it dangerous the way abortion is promoted today. In the July 1992 issue of Life magazine, you will read an attempt by white media to be objective. It amazes me that objectivity means printing and showing both sides of abortion, which kills babies, but avoids showing the victims the effect of violence on the abortion table.

I am glad the media are not being objective about hard drugs. If they covered it like abortion, they would have to let the drug dealers get equal time to show the good side of the business (high salaries for teens) but avoid showing victims of overdose and the effect of violence in the drug world.

In the article titled "The Great Divide," a young black woman getting an abortion is pictured twice and quoted several times. The black man, who is a pro-life leader and supports the right to life for all children, was only pictured once and never quoted. Also, two young white women are both comforting the black woman while she is getting an abortion. What the reader does not know is that the white woman holding the hand of the black woman treats black women who attempt to offer help to their sisters before they enter a clinic in a much different way. She curses and body-checks them.

I suspect that the editors of Life magazine made a calculated decision with total disregard for the racist implications of this "objective" article. Of course they almost showed Tia, who according to a pathologist was a victim of an induced abortion. However, to be objective, they did refer to the child as a fetus and mentioned a county coroner's opinion that the fetus was a stillborn. They did not mention that the reputable medical sources believed the child was a child of color. Was Life magazine supporting racism and annihilation of the black race? I believe so. Was it intentional? For some on their staff, no; for others, yes; although they will not admit it. The most liberal white (person), while supporting abortion, does not want to be exposed for encouraging abortion of black children.

The saddest crisis of all is the ignorance and indifference displayed by prominent black people and black magazines. The September 1992 issue of Ebony magazine contains a full-page advertisement favoring abortion, produced by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. The ad smacks of the racist overtones of Margaret Sanger's "Negro Project." Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood, implemented the "Negro Project" in 1939 to eliminate those she called "human weeds." Her recommendation to the steering committee was, "let's attempt to let the colored run it."

From her grave, this prejudiced woman is still using ignorant colored (people) to keep the "Negro Project" in operation.

The men featured in the ad, entitled "African American Men for Choice," are totally uninformed or indifferent to the fate of the millions of African American children who will be painfully destroyed because African American women respected their opinion. These are some of the dumbest smart men on earth.

Please examine a few of the lines in this ad. The title says, "African American Men for Choice," which means they have believed the great lie. The great lie being the one where Planned Parenthood changed the question to one concerning a woman's reproductive rights instead of concerning a baby safely snuggled in his/her mother's womb. The ad's first statement is "Today, we are taking a stand side by side with women to guard their most fundamental right. The right to choose."

This is the great abominable lie. The most fundamental right every human being has is life. If a child is not allowed to live, all other rights become moot. This is what bothers me most about so-called social leaders. There are leaders who fight for better health care, better housing, better job opportunities, better education and safer playgrounds. All these things, including the safe playgrounds mean nothing to dead African American babies. An aborted baby needs no health care. An aborted child needs no place to live. The dead baby will never have a career. You cannot educate an aborted child, which is sad, hearing them say, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." The African American Men for Choice believe it is O.K. to waste a mind and a body as long as the woman agrees. My eleven-year-old son called them "The African American Men for Death"!

Ebony should know better, since many who would have been readers are now dead! They died at the hands of abortionists.

The legacy and heritage we are leaving are the most important treasure we can give our children. As African Americans, it is our responsibility to leave a legacy to the next generation, one upon which they may build a better life for themselves. Many great men and women have left us a heritage, but much of our heritage was robbed by slave owners. Two hundred years ago our African American heritage was robbed by a group of elitist individuals who intentionally kept us ignorant concerning the devastating effect of slavery. Today, our heritage is being robbed by elitist individuals who have intentionally kept us ignorant concerning the devastating effect of abortion on our race. They are robbing us to profit from the deaths of our sons and daughters.

The time has come for people of all races, religions, creeds and nations to stand up on behalf of the next generation of children. It is time to reclaim what is left of a broken legacy of enduring love and strength through faith in God. It is time to no longer use excuses of poverty. Who knows whether or not this is the child who will bring his family out of poverty.

It is time to no longer use the excuse of having this child later. No man and woman can ever conceive the same child twice.

It is time to no longer use the excuse of a more convenient time, after the promotion. Many first sons who should have been the recipients of their parents' heritage and wealth were robbed by an untimely death. It is time to insist that no child ever face discrimination because of race and/or place or residence. It is time that African American men and women insist that their children and their children's neighbors no longer be denied the inalienable right to life and the opportunity to appreciate their heritage. There is an old African proverb which says, "No one knows whose womb holds the chief." Have they killed the chief? I hope not, but I do know that many of the chief's people have been destroyed in a war directed at them in their most defenseless moments.

What Were You Black Folks Thinking?

"A black woman quit paying her rent after Obama became president. She said 'We have a new president and things are going to change.' A young black man stole a bag of chips from a store on the night of November 4, 2008, election night. He felt since we had a black president, he did not have to pay. A relative of comedian Kevin Craft said 'F___ white people! Black folks ain't gotta do s___.' A woman in Texas thinks that Obama is going to make black people all 'rich.' I wonder if that woman in Florida is waiting for a check from the White House so that her mortgage gets paid. Look for cobwebs around her as she waits.

"What were these black folks thinking?"

An Open Letter to Black Obama Supporters

To Black Obama supporters across America,

The election of 2008 is tightening. Those who have followed it since it began over two years ago knew this was coming. Neither candidate will win by a Reagan-esque landslide, regardless of how much the nation's media has rooted for one side. America remains strongly divided over two different philosophical centers, and while neither is perfect--not even ideal, one will have a dramatically worse effect on black homes, black families, black churches, and black communities. And it is you--America's most historically ill-treated--who will suffer most.

Under the Obama administration there will be a calculated effort to reduce the already low number of jobs in most urban centers.

He has been promising it from the beginning. He's just been untruthful in its total effect. He has claimed that he will tax "big business" and "CEO's" in his speeches. But in the fine print of his policy proposal he is threatening to shut down your local grocer, force lay-offs in your business enterprises and head start areas of commerce. Perhaps no one has explained how--so allow me.

Businesses never pay taxes. (It's impossible to make them do so.)

When Mr. Obama wishes to tax the prosperous middle class Barber Shop on the near South Side of Chicago that barely eeked across the finish line with revenues at $265,000 for the year, it will not be the owner of that shop who pays Obama's tax. The one who will pay the biggest cost will be the newest barber on the team. The owner was happy to be able to give that new kid a chance in 2007. There was much pride in him having the chair closest to the window. But because the owner must now spend nearly 45% of his revenue in payment to the Obama administration, he will no longer be able to pay that young man his $20,000 a year base pay and tips.

But cutting jobs won't get the owner of this barber shop down to what he still owes the Obama administration. So now, there must be new revenue generated, which means that this barber will have to increase his prices in the economically depressed area that have been coming to him for decades for their styles. Thus the tax load is not really shouldered by the business. It never is. Businesses do not pay taxes. And in business it's the customer and the worker that pays for all of them.

Under the Obama administration there will also be a calculated effort to create greater poverty.

In two previous notably liberal administrations, socialist ideas were entertained: Bloat government to it's largest degree and cause people to become dependent upon it for their livelihood. Under Franklin Delano Roosevelt the longest lasting experiment with Socialism was instituted. Social Security has now become what people think of as a stream of money flowing from the government. Perhaps in Urban America you know a number of people who get Social Security benefits who aren't even retired (which is what it was originally intended for) or disabled, or even in legitimate need of it. Every check of Social Security that goes to an undeserving recipient plunges Black America into deeper poverty. Since my son is both African American and special needs I've seen some of those abuses up close.

But the result of both the FDR "Great Society" and Lyndon Baines Johnson's "War on Poverty" were both identical. Within a decade, those living off the government were doing worse, and those who had broken free from the government dependency were prospering.

No society has ever taken taxes from one group of its workers, and unjustly given them to those who were not working, and ended up assisting the overall growth of that nation's wealth--especially for the poor and middle class. There is only one way to grow wealth in America: equal education, hiring practices, and social justice for all. To remain dependent upon government to pay your bills, cover your food and rent, and to "take care of" your family is dehumanizing, degrading, and causes shame to the one accepting it. Which is why, the two different times I have been laid off from my jobs, I was then and always will be, highly motivated to work, earn, and grow my way out of economic downturns. There is nothing to be ashamed of in accepting help. There is everything to feel guilty about in living off of it indefinitely.

Lastly - under the Obama administration there is already an effort underway to reshape the values you hold dear.

Black America is not pro-abortion. I know this. In many ways your personal belief that life is sacred is more devout than many "white" sectors of society. Unfortunately, the rest of America doesn't understand this because your "civil rights leaders" of recent years have made deals with devils to keep the racist operation of Planned Parenthood active in your inner city communities where your daughters are now ending seven out of every ten pregnancies with abortion.

Black America do you not know, have you not heard that your ethnic group is the only segment of the population in the United States that is shrinking in number? It has been exactly the policies of Senator Obama and the back-room deals they have brokered with Planned Parenthood that have caused this travesty.

I also know that Black America is especially opposed to "partial birth" abortion, where a baby is sliced, mauled, and mashed at the point of delivery. Yet Senator Obama has been this procedure's biggest advocate in votes in the Illinois Senate and in the United States Senate.

But let's put those forms of death aside. Senator Obama even advocates the allowing of discrimination and starvation of an especially vulnerable class of people: disabled children who were aborted, but had the audacity to survive the procedure! You see, as the father of a black special needs son, I can't tell you all the ways this hardened pragmatism towards the death of children horrifies me...

And lastly, under an Obama administration black churches would be silenced under new laws to ban the preaching of scripture--especially as it relates to sexual purity. His administration and those who support him have already made clear their intention to censor air-waves of anything they find disagreeable. They have also promised to train their fire on pastors, churches, and Christians who believe the full gospel.

My friends, brothers, and fellow citizens in Black America: Barack Obama seeks office to institute radical policies that will make you fiscally, emotionally, and spiritually impoverished for generations to come. And while his stump speech has been rhetorically impressive, it has not dealt honestly with you as to his true intentions. And in the end if Obama is elected, he may very well be the most negative influence upon the totality of the Black American community this nation has ever seen.

This country IS ready for a president of any race. But race alone is not nearly a good enough reason to put into office a man who will enjoy overwhelming, veto-proof power to change the entire landscape of everything you hope for and dream of.

Hoping you choose well on November 4th,
Kevin McCullough