From: Marr Nealon <m...@vegsource.com> >>This can be verified at >><http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/awortham.asp>http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/awortham.asp >> >> >> >> >> >>Brilliant and frightening >> You've got to read this one, and pass it on and on >>This is Anne Wortham. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at >>Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at >>Stanford University 's Hoover Institution. >> >> >>[] >> >> >>She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the >>American Philosophical Association. >> >>She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored >>as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association >>for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education. >> >>In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who >>were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of >>Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been >>published in his book, A World of Ideas. >> >>Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical >>Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race >>consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues. >> >>She has published numerous articles on the implications of >>individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing >>a book on theories of social and cultural marginality. >> >>Recently, she has published articles on the significance of >>multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of >>victimization and the social and political impact of political >>correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was awarded tenure. >> >>This article by her is something. >> >> >> >> >>Fellow Americans, >> >>Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did >>not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice >>for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not >>require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and >>that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to >>love the ideal of America . >> >>I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is >>no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears >>of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from >>me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of >>human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history >>of the United States of America , all that I know about American >>race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a >>politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that >>Obama asserts has come to America . >> >>Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding >>that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we >>have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that >>individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I >>would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of >>capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to >>think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks >>in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that >>Blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were >>joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him >>because he doesn't look like them. >> >>I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the >>kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will >>fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my >>former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government. >> >>I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I >>would have to believe that a man who asks me to "go forward in a >>new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking >>in my interest.. I would have to accept the premise of a man that >>economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly >>believes that he can will it into existence by the use of >>government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the >>standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the >>most productive and the generators of wealth. >> >>Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the >>scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, >>Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have >>to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, >>pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals >>declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including especially >>Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular >>version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to >>replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything >>remotely equivalent to capitalism. >> >>So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have >>elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United >>States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John >>Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and >>George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the >>Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The >>self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm >>moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person. >> >>So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and >>90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout >>your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. >>You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be >>president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin >>Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has >>picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have >>also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is >>left - for the chance to feel good. >> >>There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness. God >>Help Us all. >> >> >> >>
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