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Can someone help me reply to this email I got (I'm so tired and pregnant right now, I can't even think where to start!)
Here it is:
The below is aneditorial form a black man (Thomas Sowell) who tells a truth you may really notwant to know.
Thomas Sowell's Biography
Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem.As with many others in his neighborhood, he left home early and did not finishhigh school. The next few years were difficult ones, but eventually he joinedthe Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean War. After leaving theservice, Sowell entered Harvard University, worked apart-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would become hispassion and profession: economics.
After graduating magna cum laude from HarvardUniversity (1958), he went on to receive his master's in economics fromColumbia University (1959) and a doctorate in economics from the University ofChicago (1968).
Barack Obama
Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talkabout his 'past associations.' That just gives his many defenders inthe media an opportunity to counter-attack against 'guilt byassociation.'
We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood or invarious recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what ourassociates believe or say about politics.
Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just peoplewho happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things youdo. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choosesays something about you.
Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko arenot just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as BarackObama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and withsome of whom some serious money changed hands.
Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama'selection campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or thetaxpayers' money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance-- butan alliance is not just an 'association' from being at the same placeat the same time.
Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, timeand again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. Noamount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that.
Unfortunately, all that most people know about Barack Obama is his ownrhetoric and that of his critics. Moreover, some of his more irresponsiblecritics have made wild accusations-- that he is not an American citizen or thathe is a Muslim, for example.
All that such false charges do is discredit Obama's critics in general.Fortunately, there is a documented, factual account of what Barack Obama hasactually been doing over the years, as distinguished from what he has beensaying during this election campaign, in a new best-selling book.
That book is titled 'The Case Against Barack Obama' by DavidFreddoso. He starts off in the introduction by repudiating those critics ofObama who 'have been content merely to slander him-- to claim falsely thathe refuses to salute the U.S.flag or was sworn into office on a Koran, or that he was born in a foreigncountry.'
This is a serious book with 35 pages of documentation in the back to supportthe things said in the main text. In other words, if you don't believe what theauthor says, he lets you know where you can go check it out
Barack Obama's being the first serious black candidate for President of the United Statesis what most people consider remarkable but how he got there is at leastequally surprising.
The story of Obama's political career is not a pretty story. He won hisfirst political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot-- afterhiring someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates'petitions, on whatever technicality he could come up with.
Despite his words today about 'change' and 'cleaning up themess in Washington,' Obama was not on theside of reformers who were trying to change the status quo of corrupt, machinepolitics in Chicagoand clean up the mess there. Obama came out in favor of the Daley machine andagainst reform candidates.
Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of whathe has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been asremarkable as the great escapes of Houdini.
Why much of the public and the media have been so mesmerized by the wordsand the image of Obama, and so little interested in learning about the factualreality, was perhaps best explained by an official of the Democratic Party:'People don't come to Obama for what he's done, they come because of whatthey hope he can be.'
David Freddoso's book should be read by those people who want to know whatthe facts are. But neither this book nor anything else is likely to change theminds of Obama's true believers, who have made up their minds and don't want tobe confused by the facts.
A recent Republican campaign ad sarcastically described as Barack Obama's'one accomplishment' his supporting a bill to promote sex educationin kindergarten.
During an interview of a Republican spokesman, Tom Brokaw of NBC Newsreplayed that ad and asked if that was something serious to be discussed in apresidential election campaign.
It was a variation on an old theme about getting back to 'the realissues,' just as Brokaw's question was a variation on an increasinglywidespread tendency among journalists to become a squad of Obama avengers,instead of reporters.
Does it matter if Barack Obama is for sex education in kindergarten? Itmatters more than most things that are called 'the real issues.'
Seemingly unrelated things can give important insights into someone'soutlook and character. For example, after the Cold War was over, it came outthat one of the things that caught the attention of Soviet leaders early on wasPresident Ronald Reagan's breaking of the air traffic controllers' strike.
Why were the Soviets concerned about a purely domestic American issue likean air traffic controllers' strike? Why was their attention not confined to'the real issues' between the United States and the Soviet Union?
Because one of the biggest and realest of all issues is the outlook andcharacter of the President of the United States.
It would be hard to imagine any of Ronald Reagan's predecessors over theprevious several decades-- whether Republicans or Democrats-- who would havebroken a nationwide strike instead of caving in to the union's demands.
This told the Soviet leaders what Reagan was made of, even before he got upand walked out of the room during negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev. That toolet the Soviet leaders know that they were not dealing with Jimmy Carter anymore.
There is no more real issue today than 'Who is the real Barack Obamabehind the image?' What does being in favor of sex education inkindergarten tell us about the outlook and character of this largely unknownman who has suddenly appeared on the national scene to claim the highest officein the land?
It gives us an insight into the huge gulf between Senator Obama's electionyear image and what he has actually been for and against over the precedingdecades. It also shows the huge gulf between his values and those of most otherAmericans
Many Americans would consider sex education for kindergartners to be absurdbut there is more to it than that.
What is called 'sex education,' whether for kindergartners orolder children, is not education about biology but indoctrination in valuesthat go against the traditional values that children learn in their familiesand in their communities.
Obviously, the earlier this indoctrination begins, the better its chances ofoverriding traditional values. The question is not how urgently children inkindergarten need to be taught about sex but how important it is for indoctrinatorsto get an early start.
The arrogance of third parties, who take it upon themselves to treat otherpeople's children as a captive audience to brainwash with politically correctnotions, while taking no responsibility for the consequences to those childrenor society, is part of the general vision of the left that pervades oureducation system.
Sex education for kindergartners is just one of many issues on which BarackObama has lined up consistently on the side of arrogant elitists of the far left.Senator Obama's words often sound very reasonable and moderate, as well aslofty and inspiring. But everything that he has actually done over the yearsplaces him unmistakably with the extreme left elitists.
Sadly, many of those who are enchanted by his rhetoric are unlikely to checkout the facts. But nothing is a more real or more important issue than whetherwhat a candidate says is the direct opposite of what he has actually been doingfor years.
The old phrase, 'a man of high ideals but no principles,' is onethat applies all too painfully to Barack Obama today. His words expressinglofty ideals may appeal to the gullible but his long history of having noprinciples makes him a danger of the first magnitude in the White House.
What about those 'real issues' that Barack Obama's supporters inthe media say we should get back to, whenever some new unsavory fact about hispast comes out?
Surely education is a real issue, with American school children consistentlyscoring below those in other countries, and children in minority communitiesfaring worst of all.
What about Senator Obama's position on this real issue? As with otherissues, he has talked one way and acted the opposite way.
The education situation in Obama's home base of Chicago is one of the worst in the nation forthe children-- and one of the best for the unionized teachers.
Fewer than one-third of Chicago'shigh-school juniors meet the statewide standards on tests. Only 6 percent ofthe youngsters who enterChicagohigh schools become college graduates by the time they are 25 years old.
The problem is not money: Chicagospends more than $10,000 per student.
Chicagoteachers are doing well. A beginning teacher, fresh out of college, earns morethan the city's median income and that can rise to more than $100,000 over theyears.
That's for teaching 6 hours a day, 9 months of the year. Moreover, ateacher's income is dependent on seniority and other such factors-- and in noway dependent on whether their students are actually learning anything.
Obama has said eloquent and lofty words about education, as he has aboutother things-- for example, how it is 'unacceptable in a country aswealthy as ours' that some children 'are not getting a decent shot atlife' because of the failing schools.
In a predominantly black suburb of Chicago,where the average teacher's salary is $83,000 and one-fourth of the teachersmake more than $100,000, Barack Obama noted that the school day ends at 1:30PM.
In his book 'Dreams from My Father,' Obama said candidly thatblack teachers and administrators 'defend the status quo with the sameskill and vigor as their white counterparts of two decades before.'
It is not a question of Obama's not knowing. He has demonstratedconclusively that he knows what is going on.
But, for all his eloquent words, he has voted consistently for the teachers'unions and the status quo
'I owe those unions,' he has said frankly. 'When theirleaders call, I do my best to call them back right away. I don't consider thiscorrupting in any way.'
Only other politicians' special interests are called 'specialinterests' by Barack Obama, whose world-class ability to rationalize ishis most frightening skill.
Even when he verbally endorses the reform idea of merit pay for teachers, hecleverly re-defines merit so that it will be measured by teachers themselves,rather than by 'arbitrary tests.' In other words, Obama placatescritics of the educational status quo by being for merit pay in words, whilemaking those words meaningless, so as not to offend the teachers' unions.
The failings of teachers are only part of the disaster of inner city publicschools. Disruptive and violent students can make it impossible for even thebest teachers to educate students.
Administrators are reluctant to impose any serious punishment on thosestudents who make it impossible for other students to learn. Partly this isbecause liberal judges can make it literally a federal case if more minoritystudents are punished than others.
In other words, if black males are punished more often than Asian Americanfemales, that can be enough to get the administrators drawn into a legallabyrinth, costing money and time, even if the punishment is eventually upheld.
When a bill was introduced into the Illinoisstate legislature that would put more teeth into suspensions of misbehavingstudents, Barack Obama voted against that bill.
A real reformer would want to crack down on both unruly students andunaccountable teachers. A clever politician would speak eloquently, demand'change'-- and then vote for the status quo. Obama talks a greatgame.
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