From The RampartsJunious Ricardo StantonRandom Thougths About Current EventsThe last few days and weeks have been historic and quite memorable. Of course I have my thoughts and opinions about much of what has happened. For one day Back Obama was the rage. His acceptance speech in Denver was watched by thirty-eight million people on televison and seen in person by seventy some thousand people. I watched at a viewing party at the Philadelphia African-American Museum. The atmosphere was giddy and high with anticipation because we were watching history in the making. Barack Obama is an accomplished orator and he did not disappoint. Nevertheless I was saddened by the lack of critical thinking during the speech, folks were so caught up in the hype and history they didn’t really evaluate the things Obama said. For example he mentioned young people being able to earn money for their future by serving their country either through community service or the military. Is this a precursor to a modified form of military conscription? Who knows because no one asked him to elaborate on it. Obama keeps talking about the war in Afghanistan as if that is a righteous war. The US invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taiban not because they harbored Osama bin-Laden or 9-11 but because the Taliban refused to approve the resurrection of the opium trade or go along with the trans-Afghani pipeline system designed to carry natural gas and oil from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean a consortium of multi-national oil companies wanted. As proof positive that this was the real reason for the invasion, the first thing Hamid Karzia the former CIA asset and oil company consultant the Bu$h administration installed as president did after he was sworn in was sign the pipeline deal. Afghanistan also has experienced record opium crops ever since the invasion! Are we so caught up in the hype we forget this system is so corrupt and wicked that we think having a black man in the White House will magically transform AmeriKKKa? Cosmetically perhaps a brown complexioned family living in the White House will make a difference, but what about our consciousness? Is the nation ready for a change of consciousness and direction? Will Obama’s melanin and pineal gland help him transform AmeriKKKa or will the system corrupt him like it has so many others?The Republicans were probably apoplectic watching all those people in the stadium during Obama’s speech. They know their candidate John McCain lacks Obama’s charisma, and appeal. John McCain is as photogenic and exciting as a wet rag and his mental lapses are cause for great concern. So what did McCain do to diminish the afterglow of the Democratic Convention and boost his own stock? He selected a relatively unknown, Sarah Palin the governor of Alaska, to be his running mate. While it is very risky, McCain’s gambit does several things: it creates an immediate media buzz which by default takes the focus off of Barack Obama, the successful Democratic Convention and the slumping US economy, it obscures the third anniversary of the most abysmal failure (except for 9-11) of the Bu$h administration, it’s criminal response to Hurricane Katrina, it also energizes the feminist movement and twists the knife in Hillary Clinton’s back by offering a woman, albeit an unknown even to McCain and untested one, to be Vice President, and it gives racist whites a reason to vote for the lackluster McCain who for all intents and purposes is wedded to the disastrous policies of George W Bu$h, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and the NeoCons.The question is, will the corporate media continue to give John McCain and the Republicans a pass? Will they keep on telling us he has foreign affairs and national security expertise while ignoring his poor judgment, his ignorance and hopelessly out of itness? Will the mind control apparatus suppress what people familiar with his personal history know, he has anger management issues, he is mentally unstable and he has had numerous bouts with cancer. While I admire John McCain for remaining engaged in life and politics, he is seventy-two years old. Age is not a factor but unfortunately for him, he is not photogenic and he doesn’t look and sound like a wise elder. Sadly he comes off as an awkward doting old man. Will the media dump on Palin’s lack of experience like they did Barack Obama? Will they put her under the microscope and nitpick everything about her or will this former beauty contestant become the darling of white AmeriKKKa? Will her youth and looks offset McCain’s age his cardboard appearance and his mental liabilties?Once the Republican Convention is over the campaigns will really get ugly. Black people tend to velcro emotions and psychic trauma when one or more of us are under attack. Will we be able to hold up under the blistering racist attacks, slurs, lies and innuendo the opposition will hurl at Obama? Will we take them personally and absorb the pain onto ourselves? Or will we get tougher and emerge stronger and better able to confront the challenges of life no matter what the outcome of the election is? In many ways this election is more of a test of us as it is for Barack Obama and the system; because we already know the system is corrupt. The question is, will we be better or bitter when all of this is over?-30-
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