The State Of The Union and Paul Shirley.

I see O is still delivering his latest introduction to the A-merry-ca people. I would wait until he is over to post, but why should I? We all know what's going to happen: The dems will love it. The rethugs will hate it, and the fight will continue in Washington. Over at Radio Rwanda there will be pundits saying that his speech did nothing to change their minds about A-merry-ca heading down the wrong path, and over on other so called main stream news outlets they will be breaking down every little thing he said and "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" his speech writers.

For what it's worth, the speech has been decent so far. (I loved when he gave a shout out to the First Lady. Is it me or does it look like Michelle Obama has seriously stepped up her fashion game?) He told the A-merry-can people that we are in trying times and they call for extraordinary measures, such as domestic spending freezes. (Hmmm, no cut on military spending?) And he scolded himself for not doing a better job of getting his message out to the A-merry-can people. “I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people,” Obama said. “... This problem is not going away.” But we have come to expect nice speeches from O. As they say over at Jello: The proof will be in the pudding. That is what will determine if we will hear nice speeches for three more years or seven.

Another story that got my attention today is the one about this has-been b-ball player slamming the relief effort in Haiti, and chastising A-merry-cans for giving to the cause. Most of you have never heard of Paul Shirley, and if it wasn't for his stance on the Haitian relief effort you would never have heard of him at all. He had a cup of tea in the NBA but that's about it. Still, my man is getting headlines today becaause of his rant. Here is some of what he said:

"I haven’t donated to the Haitian relief effort for the same reason that I don't give money to homeless men on the street," he wrote. "Based on past experiences, I don't think the guy with the sign that reads 'Need You're Help' is going to do anything constructive with the dollar I might give him. If I use history as my guide, I don't think the people of Haiti will do much with my money either..."

".. And he didn't stop there, even writing a letter to the people of Haiti. "Dear Haitians," he wrote, "First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded. "As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it’s possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?" He also asked what's being done to prevent this tragedy from happening again, using New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina as an example. "We did the same after Hurricane Katrina," he said. "We were quick to vilify humans who were too slow to respond to the needs of victims, forgetting that the victims had built and maintained a major city below sea level in a known target zone for hurricanes. Our response: Make the same mistake again. Rebuild a doomed city, putting aside logic as we did."

Now, as to be expected, people of conscience everywhere are outraged, and ESPN has dropped my man as a freelance writer. But here is the thing; there are quite a few people who agree with Mr. Shirley. And I, for one, am of the opinion that he he has a right to express himself just like everyone else. So I don't think that ESPN should have dropped him, and I want people like Mr. Shirley to have a platform to speak. We need to hear all sides of these types of debates here in A-merry-ca. As ignorant and as repulsive as his views might seem to most of us, there are many folks who are saying, right on Mr. Shirley way to speak for me.

To those folks and Mr. Shirley, I give you the following article by the brilliant Hilary Beckles. I realise that Mr. Shirley has been too busy cultivating his basketball skills to actually read a book or an article about Haiti over the past few years, so I am always glad to educate where I can.

"..how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti.
I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.
The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place. "

[More here]

You see that Mr. Shirley? Rather than shout you down, the field chooses to educate you. You can thank me by writing a check to the Haitian relief effort.