For you young'ns saying Obama can't get involved with the OWS movement

[county worker]

because it has to start at the local level. Here is how Democratic Presidents did things when I was a young'n.

In the two years after he became president, John F. Kennedy faced no more daunting domestic issue than the tension between African Americans demanding equal treatment under the Constitution and segregationists refusing to end the South's system of apartheid. While Kennedy tried to ease the problem with executive actions that expanded black voting, job opportunities and access to public housing, he consistently refused to put a major civil rights bill before Congress.

He believed that a combination of Southern Democrats and conservative Republicans would defeat any such measure and jeopardize the rest of his legislative agenda, which included a large tax cut, federal aid to elementary and secondary education, and medical insurance for the elderly. His restraint, however, did little to appease Southern legislators, who consistently helped block his other reforms.

When a civil rights crisis erupted in Birmingham, Ala., in the spring of 1963, Kennedy considered shifting ground and pressing for congressional action. In May, as black demonstrators, including many high school and some elementary school children, marched in defiance of a city ban, police and firemen attacked the marchers with police dogs that bit several demonstrators and high-pressure fire hoses that knocked marchers down and tore off their clothes. The TV images, broadcast across the country and around the world, graphically showed out-of-control racists abusing innocent young advocates of equal rights. Kennedy, looking at a picture on the front page of The New York Times of a dog lunging to bite a teenager on the stomach, said that the photo made him sick.

Kennedy concluded that he now had to ask Congress for a major civil rights bill that would offer a comprehensive response to the problem. Kennedy told aides: 'The problem is there is no other remedy for them . This will give another remedy in law. Therefore, this is the right message. It will remove the to mob action.' On June 11, Kennedy made the decision to give a televised evening speech announcing his civil rights bill proposal.

http://www.historynet.com/president-john-f-kennedys-civil-rights-quandary.htm



For his most important moment since the assassination, President Johnson wore a dark suit and wire-rimmed glasses. He had his hair slicked back in the style of the day. Using a restrained, deliberate voice, he spoke directly into the camera and in a ten-minute message called on the American people to comply with this effort “to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country” and “to close the springs of racial poison.” He then handed out souvenir pens like postpartum cigars, giving a whole handful to Robert Kennedy to take back to his assistants in the Justice Department. The president was also pleased—as he told the crowd surrounding the desk awaiting their pens—that the event occurred on his daughter Luci’s seventeenth birthday and on the ninth anniversary of his 1955 heart attack. 3

His elation did not last. Later that evening, in a mood described by White House aide Bill Moyers as “melancholy,” Johnson predicted that “we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.”4 That remark is one of the most telling (and frequently repeated) statements about race and politics from Johnson’s presidency. Unfortunately, those words were not recorded by any of the electronic equipment at the White House. Several hundred other conversations from that summer and fall, however, were captured by audio recorders, and the material on those once-secret recordings constitute one of the richest and most dramatic sources for exploring the politics of race in the Johnson era.

http://presidentialrecordings.rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/essays?series=CivilRights

[Quartermass]

1. The difference is obama is owned by the corporations and will not go up against them.

[msongs]

2. to get involved one has to personally believe in the movement, as in commit to it. nt

[catgirl]

3. Obama is NOT owned by "the corporations"

Welcome to DU. LOL.

[slay]

4. Yes, he is

n/t

[emulatorloo]

9. No, he is a Socialist and a Kenyan nationalist.

[slay]

10. rofl

nice one :rofl:

[Desertrose]

5. He is bought & paid for.....

if not he's doing a good imitation.

But honestly, ALL presidents are by the time they get in office.

[deaniac21]

24. You mean all politicians.

[Carolina]

14. Oh yes he is!

[Maven]

20. Yeah, he is.

You can believe otherwise if you wish.

[roguevalley]

22. I remember that. there were dems in our day. not so much anymore

[mmonk]

6. Thanks.

There is a built in aversion to risk by elected officials. Movement protests change the operating dynamics.

[Quartermass]

7. it's just immoral and reckless, not illegal

This video should tell you that he is really bought and paid for by the corporations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z0jPX4kYpg

If that's not proof, in that he claims what Wallstreet did is not illegal, then he's excusing FOR Wallstreet. Since he is excusing Wastrels' actions away, that means he will NOT be supporting the OWS movement.

If he was supporting the OWS movement, he WOULD be prosecuting Wallstreet.

Pure and simple.

[Kahuna]

8. Not even apples and oranges. How do you fix your words to equate

OWS with the civil rights movement? What total nonsense. If you compared marraige equality with the civil rights movement, that would be valid. But, OWS is in no way on par.

[mmonk]

12. If MLK were here today, bets on that he would disagee with you.

Poor People's Campaign was hardly a different issue.

[county worker]

13. Think of this, The civil rights movement was a fight for the rights of a portion of the population.

OWS is a fight for the rights of all of the population. I think you will not agree with me today but I bet anything you will come to see things as I do in the future.

When you see all of the working class treated by the 1% the same way that African Americans were treated by the segregationists you will understand and it isn't long in coming if OWS is not successful. It is that important!

[Kahuna]

21. Talk to me when they break out the water cannons and the dogs..

Then equate the two movements.

[Occulus]

29. You can equate the two without either water cannon OR dogs.

You've just proven that the OP was intended for you. As you grow older, you'll develop the critical thinking skills required to perform that sort of mental math. For now, listen to your elders, at least until you get your high school diploma.

[EFerrari]

17. That's as wrong as possible.

Economic justice was always a part of the civil rights movement.

[Kahuna]

19. It's apparent that none of you lived during that period as I did, if you

believe that in anyway, OWS mirrors Dr. King's movement, which was dignified and peaceful. They put on their Sunday best to make sure that their outward appearance bespoke their intentions. Those black people knew what would have happened to them if they had confronted the police the way occupiers are confronting the police. They knew they would not have lived to tell about it. I don't see any water cannons and dogs being sicked on OWS.

The economic justice Dr. King worked for was for people who were barely existing to eek out a living, not for people who were concerned that their middle class incomes were far below what their bosses were making. You have that very confused. Dr. King would have marched for jobs and access to health care, that's for sure. He probably would have eventually evolved to marraige equality. But he would do it in a dignified and organized manner with a CLEAR MESSAGE that everybody would understand.

If you want to truly understand Dr. King's movement, you can now purchase the original PBS, Eyes on the Prize documentary DVD, which will show you in graphic and visual detail how THAT struggle evolved. It would be an excellent lesson for all activists if they want to see how to truly capture and keep the good will of the American people. Unfortunately, what I'm seeing on DU is that the OWS activists are not interested in capturing and keeping the good will of the American people. They seem increasingly intent on just wanting to display anger. Not good enough. And definately, not what Dr. King stood for.

[EFerrari]

28. Save it and learn more about the occupations

who in all cities have been feeding and sheltering the homeless.

Seriously, you can't understand the comparison if you don't know what you're talking about. And you know, anger is a perfectly appropriate response and one that Dr. King was not unfamiliar with.

[Rex]

11. Right, his actions betray him and then apologists declare he

stay out of ALL political fights...cuz he might lose voters. Pretty lame excuse imo.

[Carolina]

15. Touche!

He's already lost this voter because he STANDS for nothing, least of all his flowery 2008 campaign promises.

[Rex]

23. I knew what I was getting, but hey I voted for Hillary.

He has surprised me in how pro-corporate he really is. BP did it for me, he is nothing more then a business suit imo.

[catgirl]

25. How about the pipe line decision

The one Hillary is for? When she was my Senator, she was also a friend to corporations. People here can claim Obama
is "owned" by corporations, but that is far from the truth... and they know it.

[Rex]

26. Bullshit, Obama is the biggest pro-corporate POTUS since LBJ.

[catgirl]

27. Yeah sure.

[Fumesucker]

16. If he only knew what was going on, he would order it stopped.

[gkhouston]

18. +1. Pollsters often measure "shares our values".

Police are assaulting peaceful protesters while the President does and says nothing of substance. That's not a "value" the 99% is likely to share. At best, he looks irrelevant; at worst, a coward.