from HuffPost:
Rep. Major R. Owens
Bio
02.26.2007
The Next Move for Mean Maxine
Wanted: A war debate in the Black community. An article in the February issue of the New York Daily Challenge newspaper lamented the fact that dialogue about ending the war is so scarce and low-keyed. African Americans appear to be so overwhelmingly against the war that it no longer arouses emotional arguments.
From the beginning the barbershop philosophers had insisted that Bush and company were not interested in going halfway across the world to bring freedom to some ordinary colored people. It had to be about protecting the sheiks and big shots who were going to share the loot from the oil wells.
When Maxine Waters launched her "Out of Iraq Caucus" in the U.S. Congress she received loud applause from the Black community. She was also strongly supported by the majority of her colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus. Mobilizing this mass of hostile disapproval against the war is now Maxine's challenge. Every component of the anti-war movement must ratchet up a high level of energy and keep the pressure on the neo-conservative warmongers.
More than a few Blacks also remember that the majority followed Martin Luther King when he turned against the war in Vietnam. Many recall that there was talk of a peace dividend to be used for education and social programs. But the dividend never appeared under Nixon or later under Reagan or Bush or Clinton. They wisely watched a Democratic White House gloat about balancing the budget while the winter winds continued to blow through the broken windowpanes of their overcrowded schools.
Fervor that goes beyond ending the war and into winning some dollars for ravaged inner-city communities will not blaze forth automatically. Leaders like Maxine Waters must light some fires with a systematic campaign. She deserves some priority assistance. Always when she is needed she has been there, whether it was Haiti with Aristide or Connecticut with Lamont. .....(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-major-r-owens/the-next-move-for-mean-ma_b_42161.html
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