President Barack Obama is the Jackie Robinson of the American Presidency . Obama understands as Robinson did, what his place in history will be. He knows his trail-blazing sprint to the top was not going to be without hurdles. He understands well, that those who erect barriers in his way will be mere foot-notes when the pages of history are written. Like other American patriots before him , he understands the ignorance of intellectual cave-dwellers will only make his story that much more interesting.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the only black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bond. From this humble beginning would grow the first baseball player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years. Jackie Robinson’s life and legacy will be remembered as one of the most important in American history. In 1997, the world celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Jackie’s breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier. In doing so, we honored the man who stood defiantly against those who would work against racial equality and acknowledged the profound influence of one man’s life on the American culture. On the date of Robinson’s historic debut, all Major League teams across the nation celebrated this milestone. Also that year, The United States Post Office honored Robinson by making him the subject of a commemorative postage stamp
. On Tuesday, April 15 President Bill Clinton paid tribute to Jackie at Shea Stadium in New York in a special ceremony.http://www.jackierobinson.com/about/bio.html.
During his major league carrear Robinson endured the searing heat or racial ignorance in ball-parks all over America as well as from many with whom he shared a locker-room. Robinson was ridiculed, jeered and even spat upon. Today Robinson’s contribution to his country is incalculable. Many who today invoke Robinson’s name should hang their heads in shame. They use Robinson’s name as they do Doctor King’s to further their own agendas. It is the continued shame of America to eat it’s greatest leaders and celebrate it’s worst demagogues. Lincoln, Kennedy, Kennedy, King, Malcolm X, Evers , the list of distinguished Americans sacrificed is long and varied . In the same breath Jefferson Davis, Bull O’Connor, George Wallace and Strom Thurmond Joe Arpio are heroes.
Obama is partly to be blamed for the pickle the country is in, just not in the way some would like to explain it. The previous occasion on which the confederate Republicans took the Nation hostage he negotiated with them. This emboldened them to again adopt this dangerous, regressive, tactic as bargaining leverage. Here’s the rub, why would the president negotiate with the Confederate/Republicans on his signature domestic achievement ? What precedent would he be setting for future presidents by caving to extortion? This hostage taking is by one faction, of one house, of one branch of Government. Their job is to fund the Government. How dare they take the entire county hostage?
Why would Democrats negotiate with the Confederate/Republicans after they have closed the Government down to extract what they want from the president? John Boehner the confederate/Republican Speaker of the house, acting like a thug, demands the President negotiate an end to the impasse he created. Really ? His and his cronies actions are tantamount to a hostage taker who calls the police demanding that the cops negotiate with them so they may extract a ransom.
If ever there was a case of power going to the head of politicians this is it. This is the most egregious case of abuse of power I have ever seen in my lifetime. It is craven, arrogant, it borders on seditious. In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order.The sad thing is, the Confederate/Republicans don’t even know what they want out of this dangerous , regressive gambit. Quote :” We will not be disrespected We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R‑Ind.)
Don’t forget that this is a manufactured crisis which is hurting the nation’s economy and affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands , if not millions of Americans. The anarchistic confederate/Republicans simply don’t care. This has been their tactic for decades, when they don’t have their way, they simply shut the government down. Remember this cartoon during the Clinton Administration? These misfits should be run out-of-town but they won’t be, these are the elected leaders who represent specific gerrymandered congressional districts in red states. The only criteria to getting elected it seem, is absolute rabid stupidity. Elected Representatives mirror the voters who elect them. We have seen and heard some of the things some of these voters say and do, it is no wonder during the boon years of the Clinton Administration most of the people living in certain geographical areas would ask what boon? They simply refuse to open their minds to new possibilities . Racism is one of the corrosive tentacle still strangling them. These are the same people who wrap themselves in the Flag and try to convince you they are patriots. They are not, they have sold their votes to special interest, country be damned. They are the ones who have the nerve to question the nationality of others , they are frauds.