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16 - The Savannah Tribune • Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Hope Defines Black Outlook at Dawn of 2009
This woman in Chicago celebrates the news of the Obama
win Nov. 4. She is among African-Americans around the
country who remain hopeful about the future.
Credit: Monica Morgan
By. Leiloni De Gruy
Special to the NNPA from the
Los Angeles WAVE
LOS ANGELES (NNPA) -
Anticipating the new year,
African-Americans across
L.A. say the Obama Age
brings an optimism that many
have never experienced
before.
With unemployment
rates skyrocketing, homes
being lost in a spiraling hous
ing market and daily cuts to
social programs and services,
it might seem there is much
to fear at the beginning of
2009.
But as they await the
swearing-in later this month
of President-elect Barack
Obama, Black residents of
South Los Angeles inter
viewed this week are more
hopeful than concerned about
the coming of the new year.
“I don’t have any fears,”
said Terry Bass, who spoke to
a reporter while enjoying the
weekly Sunday drum circle in
Leimert Park. “You just have
to do the best you can do, you
have to have your agenda
together and do whatever it is
you do and push forward ... I
see all the negativity in the
papers, and the pessimism
out there, and people feed
into what they believe and
what they hear. So I don’t
even take a lot of that stuff in.
I focus on my agenda and
what I’m trying to do.”
South L.A. resident
Vanessa Taylor agreed: “I
don’t believe the hype of the
media,” she said, “I don’t
believe all the negative talk.”
Instead, Taylor believes in
creating her own destiny and
is looking forward to the
opportunities that will arise in
2009.
“I think it’s a new
beginning,” she said, “and in
order for us to start all of
those old systems ... have to
be [discarded] so it gives us
an opportunity to begin again.
It evens out the playing field,
and people that didn’t have
opportunities before will
have opportunities [now]. So
I’m excited.
One opportunity,
according to Heaven Cisse, is
a renewed sense of individual
responsibility. “Yes, he
[Obama] has a job to do, but I
think that everyone has an
individual responsibility to
make the changes they want,”
she said. “It starts within your
own home, after that within
your neighborhood, within
your own community, to your
own city, and eventually it
will get out to the state and
then the world on a bigger
scale. I think people get it
now. With the economy in
chaos ... It’s up to us to seize
the moment, take charge and
keep going.”
For Taylor, “it’s not
about him fulfilling all his
promises [alone]. Obama is a
movement, it’s not just one
person. It’s a spiritual surge
that has come through and
has given us all an opportuni
ty to show up with a collec
tive consciousness and reveal
who and what we really say
we are. It’s not about one man
showing up — it’s about him
raising the bar, us seeing that
this can happen and us raising
the bar for ourselves. There is
no way he can do it himself;
if you think that, then we’ve
lost the game.”
Those with less opti
mism concede that the hope
generated by political
realignment may be com
pletely lost — and soon — if
the African-American com
munity does not become
more conscious in its collec
tive decision-making.
David Flishmen, who
works as a security guard for
a juvenile detention center
and is also a part-time disc
jockey, believes that Obama
“was put there to do a job, but
the system is still the same.
With the way the economy
[is] and [how] things are
going, there’s a lot of crime.
People really have to get
strong and hold onto God no
matter what’s going on.”
Said Robert Jones: “My
main fear is that most people
are uninformed and they’re
not responding to [the eco
nomic crisis] as they should.
People really need to pay
attention to what’s going on
behind the scenes, what the
manipulators are doing with
the system and take the nec
essary precautions to protect
themselves and their family.”
He added: “If we don’t
get it together, it’s only going
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to get worse. We have to get it
together and be smart and
leam how to improvise in this
system. The system is not
built for us, and we know that
so we have to be smarter and
do better than what we’ve
been doing. Otherwise, we
are going to be in a bad wave
and we’re already headed
there.”
Kevin Pennant, a public
relations specialist, said he
has been affected by the eco
nomic crisis firsthand. With
many companies in financial
jeopardy, several of his
clients and potential clients
have begun to decline his
services.
Watching his own
finances dwindle, said
Pennant, has humbled him
and forced him to become
more aware of his own spend
ing habits.
“For me personally, it
has been a time for me to
reflect on how I’m spending
my money and career choices
that I’ve made in the past,”
Pennant said. “So, I look at it
as a time to really reflect and
I think everyone’s going
through that right now, and
because of that there’s going
to be a more positive change
in the future. I know it’s bad
now but it won’t be for forev
er. I mean we are at our worst
and I think that we’re going to
coast at this level until it gets
better.”
Aspiring musician Troy
Manuel, who was also at the
Leimert Park drum circle,
said he felt “more excited and
enthused because we have a
new leadership coming in ...
and I’m more happy for our
ancestors that worked so hard
to see this day.
Don’t Hate, Celebrate:
Inauguration will Unfold
in Divine Order
Opinion Piece by Edrea
Davis
We all want the last
word, to be the final act, to
close the deal. It makes
you wonder why main
stream media and gay-
rights activists focused so
much on the opening act of
the inauguration and failed
to pay tribute to the man
who will deliver the bene
diction, civil rights icon,
Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.
Since President-elect Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
Barack Obama announced the Inauguration Day lineup there's
been a lot of attention paid to Rev. Rick Warren's views on
same-sex marriage. In several reports Rev. Lowery is only
mentioned to underscore the opposing views of the two pas
tors. I don't believe these ministers were chosen for their
stance on gay rights.
Obama promised to bring change to America by uniting
people with differing opinions to work together on issues that
impact all Americans. What better epitomizes change than a
conservative evangelical minister and a social justice civil
rights minister serving as bookends for the inauguration of the
first Black president of the United States of America?
Rev. Warren is the senior pastor of the fourth largest
church in America. He is an author, fights to end poverty and
disease, and champions environmental issues globally.
Rev. Lowery, the man who will have the final word on
Inauguration Day, retired as pastor of Cascade United
Methodist Church in Atlanta. He co-founded with Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. and other ministers, the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC), and succeeded Ralph
Abernathy to serve as the organization's third national presi
dent from 1977-97. Affectionately known as the dean of the
civil rights movement, Rev. Lowery has received numerous
awards, including an NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award,
and was twice named by Ebony magazine as one of the 15
greatest Black preachers.
As fate would have it, the inauguration comes one day
after the nation celebrates the birthday of Dr. King. In 1965
Dr. King, Rev. Lowery and other foot soldiers in the civil rights
movement led the historic Selma-to-Montgomery March for
voting rights. Many of those leaders, including Rev. Lowery,
were beaten, spit on, hosed, shot at, and jailed countless times
fighting for the right to vote. Rev. Lowery's family lived under
the constant threat of violence and his wife, Evelyn Gibson
Lowery, was shot at by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama.
Dr. King and many others died in the struggle to make
this historic inauguration possible. The country is blessed to
still have a few of the civil rights icons among us like Rev. C.T.
Vivian, Dr. Dorothy Height, and Rev. Lowery. These dedicat
ed warriors carried the torch passed on by our ancestors and
helped make it possible for hands that once picked cotton to
have a hand in picking the first Black president.
These freedom fighters advocated on behalf of everyone
- Blacks, Latinos, and the gay and lesbian community. They
deserve to be honored without self-serving distractions.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for gay rights. The election
of a Black president does not stop the civil and human rights
movement. However, at this moment, it's time for the nation to
come together to lift up our ancestors and reflect upon the
progress that African Americans have made in their long jour
ney from slavery to the White House.
On Jan. 20, 2009,1 will celebrate all that our torchbearers
have accomplished for all Americans and exult in witnessing a
brilliant, Harvard educated, child of a single mother and
Kenyan father, husband of a strong educated Black woman,
and father of two lovely young Black children, accept the
responsibility of bearing the torch that will boldly lead
America into the 21st century.
To borrow from Rev. Lowery, "We have marched too
long, cried too bitterly, bleed too profusely, and died too
young" to let anybody spoil this historic moment.
Edrea Davis is a communications strategist and author of
the social commentary novel "SnitchCraft."