MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
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MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
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SOUTH CAROLINA - In the wee hours of this morning, on the Starz cable movie network, they aired a film which featured the proud heritage of the state of South Carolina. The 1979 film, The Freedom Road, starring Muhammed Ali and Kris Kristopherson, chronicles the life of Gideon Jackson, the first ex-slave to serve as a United States Senator. Against incredible odds, including the growing agitation and violence of the Ku Klux Klan, Jackson organized black ex-slaves and white share croppers in his tiny community by teaching them to "work hard and play by the rules," pool and save their meagre earnings, and purchase the first land they had ever owned in their lives. With the election of President Rutherford B. Hayes and the end of Reconstruction policies in the United States, Jackson and the community he formed were served with a court order claiming they had bought the land illegally and notifying them of eviction. When they banded together to resist eviction, members of the South Carolina Red Shirts (the resurgent Democratic Party) fighting side by side with white-hooded Klansman massacred every man, woman and child.This is a powerful film which serves as an ironic backdrop to the controversy over the "Star and Bars" flying over the South Carolina statehouse in the year 2000. It cannot help but make one ask, is this the proud heritage of the people of South Carolina that they insist they must defend?
No? Then it must be the massacre of thirty-seven Black people, who had the legal right to vote under the state's constitution during the Grant administration, again by the Klan, that they are referring to.
Tomorrow the proud people of South Carolina get to cast a pivotal vote on the road to the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Because politics have not changed that much in a hundred and twenty-two years, just as President Hayes could "compromise" with the states of Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina --- who through fraud held the Presidential and gubernatorial elections hostage --- to end Reconstruction, today candidates Bush and McCain refuse to condemn the "Stars and Bars" flying over the state house. Politics before people, it's an old song.
The World's Magazine: g21.net
Event # 203: DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
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But these gentleman must know in their heart of hearts, as do all Americans, that that flag flying over the South Carolina state house is an insult to the memory of brave men and women like Gideon Jackson who fought and died for the freedoms which all Americans are supposed to enjoy. Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain must know, despite political expediency, that that flag is a repugnant symbol to all living Americans who believe in human dignity and equal opportunity, and especially heinous, hurtful and repugnant to Black folks.
These gentleman, Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, have self-defined this race as about "Character." (We all know that's a code word for "Not Clinton.") So I challenge them to define themselves and their candidacies by their own terms.
As far as G21 is concerned, a sign of character is standing up for what is right, even if it means that you won't profit from doing so. A sign of character is NOT equivocating on an important issue ("I think we should leave this up to the people of South Carolina to decide." "I think that condemning the use of the flag would be infringing on States' Rights.") because it's politically expedient.
You accuse President Clinton of waffling and making decisions based on public opinion polls, Mr. Bush: What are you doing in South Carolina? You tell us this is the Straight-talk Express, Mr. McCain: Talk straight to Blacks, Jews, Catholics and other Americans about the "Star and Bars" flying over a state house in the United States of America in the year 2000.
Gentlemen, we're waiting....
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