I have some things I want to say. First and foremost, let us all support the Democratic candidates running for statewide offices this Tuesday. They need our support and we need to get them elected in order to send a larger message that this country will no longer tolerate lying, unethical, low life criminals ruining the fabric of this Republic. If we don’t start taking back the statehouses to stop all of this Gerrymandering and crazy state laws, then we will not be in a position to address offices at the national level.
This is just the hardcore truth of the matter. Another truth is that our social media has been infected with foreign propaganda that continues to stand ready to exploit any divisions in our course of party politics. This is another hardcore truth. We need to recognize every time it happens and not fall for the okie dokie. Also, we need to now demand that Twitter, Facebook and Google clean up it’s act, lest we thoroughly stand down from using their products. And that means stopping with the excuses as to why these products are ones you can’t do without and using your power as a consumer to get these social media platforms to act like responsible American companies.
Whew. I had to get that off my chest first. Now.
As an African American woman, I wish to apologize for Donna. I have not addressed her specifically because as a black woman, I didn’t want to accept that she would involve herself in something without being on solid ground first, knowing what is at stake. Furthermore, as an African American and as a woman, every time there is a mass murder or act of terror, I have to cringe and pray that ‘it wasn’t done by one of us’. When African-American politicians get caught up in criminal wrongdoing, I cringe because it undermines the credibility for all of the rest of us. I shouldn’t have to feel this way and it shouldn’t be this way, but another hard core truth about this America that I am a part of says that black folk are just judged differently.
President Obama surely was. You think he or Michelle Obama would have lasted one month, let alone 10, if they carried on the way Donald J Trump has as President? You better believe they wouldn’t. The truth of the matter is that black folk are held to a higher standard than anyone else in order to be trusted. I know I hold myself to a higher standard and even sometimes (more often than not), even that’s not enough.
So when a generally well respected political fixture in the Democratic Party gets something so wrong like this, I stop to wonder does she understand the impact this has on someone like me? Or to make it more impactful, someone like Senator Kamala Harris, Representative ‘Reclaim My Time’ Maxine Waters, or a Fredericka Wilson, whose credibility and reputation was smeared by a white man using stereotypical and borderline racist memes of black politicians?
Black women continue to stand up for this country, no matter what it costs us. And the costs continues to be high because we don’t deal with ‘the racism problem’.
Yet, we are just as human as anyone else and should be able to get it wrong sometimes. Except in this highly charged, quick to judge atmosphere, it’s just a risk that one cannot take.
I didn’t get all alarmed about the Clinton/DNC story because intuitively, it smelled fishy to me, or at the very least, half-baked. I think that we all can acknowledge that the DNC has a lot of problems and has not been ran very well. The mere fact that it had to be an infusion of funds that Clinton provided to keep the DNC afloat should be alarming to all Democrats. If we don’t trust the DNC enough to contribute to them, then it will continue the habit of relying on dominant candidates in this way.
Also, it is clear to me, that many don’t understand the workings of political parties. They are not beholden to government regulation, except perhaps when it comes to campaign financing, so it is on them to represent themselves as a trusted, ethical bodies. Governor John Dean has stated that these types of agreements are par the course and has been for over a decade. If we don’t like the way the DNC does business, then fair enough — let’s work to fix it.
But this incident should not be used to continue the bitter intraparty bickering because someone is looking to continue the need to want to continue to feel aggrieved.
Rome is fire and the containment right now is at 0%. The last hardcore truth I want to impart is that we have a very short window to start containment measures. If we miss that window, then the fire will be out of control and if you cannot or are unable to evacuate, you will be consumed.