Open Letter To Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, And The Obama Critics

[ecstatic]

I do not disagree with analyzing the actions of our President and holding him accountable... I have done it and will continue to do it. However, I have a problem with bias and an inability to be completely objective particularly when your audience may be easily influenced. My problem arises when those “critical” supporters do nothing but criticize without taking an equal amount of time to discuss the positive actions our President has done for this country. Many people look upon you with a great deal of respect and admiration and because of this you have the capability to influence many people, some of whom do not listen to the radio talk shows or watch the political commentaries on TV. In many cases your dialogue represents the only source of objective guidance and analysis these people will experience. If your dialogue is biased and presents only what our President has not done, many will be denied the opportunity to formulate an educated or fair opinion. As highly respected role models you have a responsibility – an obligation – to present an unbiased account of what our President has done. If you feel there are those people who have done nothing but provide praise for our President with positive bias, the answer is not to provide nothing but critique with a negative bias to provide balance…the answer is to eliminate the bias and be objective, fair, and balanced showing ALL sides of his performance (good AND bad).

Yes…there are many things I did not like about the health care reform legislation, but I did like the fact that it was the largest and most sweeping reform in this system in a lifetime and was a tremendous step in the right direction. Pre-existing conditions…gone; lifetime caps on coverage…gone; shrinking the pool of coverage to more who didn’t have access…gone; and many other components that were accomplished that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED UNDER MCCAIN OR ANY OTHER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT! This was a great step in the right direction. Not only will it expand coverage to 31 million who did not have coverage before, it will also reduce the deficit by over $2 trillion over the next two decades (it is often called the biggest domestic achievement since 1965 DESPITE all its imperfections).

Yes…financial regulatory reform didn’t go as far as I would have liked, but it was another great step in the right direction. Nor did I like the expansion of the war in Afghanistan, but the President did remove 100,000 troops from Iraq and has scheduled a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan soon (in his campaign the President promised he would do just this…remove troops in Iraq and focus on Afghanistan – again many critical supporters forget that he is just sticking with this promise). However, there is never mention of the positive components of his legislation. Dr. West, Mr. Smiley, and Councilman Barron…I challenge you to consider how much more you would have had to complain about had not President Obama been elected? Have you thought about the fact that your constant biased criticism (it is biased if it only comes from one direction with no regard for the other side) could be causing Black America, the working poor, and the impoverished in this country to get so discouraged that they just stay at home on election day? Your words are only inspiring many in this country…those who are working class, working poor, and impoverished…to stay home in 2012?!

Did you see what happened when people stayed home in Wisconsin and Governor Walker took office? The unions were attacked. Did you see what happened when the people in Michigan stayed at home and were discouraged causing the victory of Governor Snyder? Benton Harbor, Michigan was taken over and other EFMs are now positioning themselves to take over other cities in my home state. Did you see what happened when people stayed home for the 2000 election? We suffered 8 years of policies from a President who did nothing but end budget surpluses, expand the national debt, cut taxes for the rich, increase our dependency on foreign oil, bankrupt this country with wars we never should have fought while killing thousands of troops, and cause the largest recession since the great depression. This is what happens when people in our urban and working class/poor communities are inspired to stay at home on voting day. This is what can happen if people hear only a biased account of what our President has done and decide that it is useless to vote in 2012.

http://wchbnewsdetroit.com/national/wchb/open-letter-to-cornel-west-tavis-smiley-and-the-obama-critics/#more-2260461

[robinlynne]

1. The other thing that can happen is that Obama can move to the left. He will only

do so with a lot of pressure. you assume that the only result of discourse is people not voting. That is an incorrect assumption. The point is to hold Obama accountable. He will not/ can not do the right thing on his own. he hired Tim Geithner even when the entire country backed him up. He literally put the fox in charge of the hen house. on his own. right at the beginning of his presidency. The effects of that one move, putting Goldman Sachs in charge of our economy are huge. probably larger than the effect of Walker being elected. Yet the people have not yet risen up against Goldman Sachs' position in the white house, even as they are charged with criminal behavior.....

[Fumesucker]

3. Obama will "head fake" to the left in the runup to the election..

The day after it will be back to corporate business as usual.

[Bandit]

4. When did Geithner ever work at Goldman Sachs?

He was head of New York Exchange but as far as I know he never was a part of Goldman Sachs other than owning some stock in the company.

[robinlynne]

5. Larry Summers, his mentor.

[Taverner]

2. At the risk of sounding Kumbaya, I think both sides have good points in this

And I hate Blue Dogs!

[gratuitous]

6. You need a sheet backdrop and a tearful "Leave Obama alone!"

I vote Democratic because I believe in the platform the Democrats have crafted. If the standard is "not quite as horrible as the worst excesses of the late-and-not-lamented Bush administration," then yeah, I have a BIG motherfucking problem with this administration. My major beef is that like Zack Mayo in "An Officer And A Gentleman," I got nowhere else to go. Why are people staying home from elections? Because there doesn't appear to be much daylight between the odious policies advanced by the Republicans and the slightly less odious policies put forth by the Democrats. I want a political party that's going to roll up its sleeves and fight for things like single payer, worker and union rights, an end to big oil subsidies, protecting the environment, and running the country so that it works for more of we the people. Pleasing rhetoric aside, the administration acts as if the rich don't quite have enough things going their way, and need a little more assistance in amassing more of the nation's wealth as created by labor.

[gratuitous]

10. Oh, and as for the situation in Iraq

My friend Peggy Gish has a couple of observations about the new regime we've installed there:

6) Iraq reflection: Like kerosene on a wound.

The following report from the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Iraq is by Peggy Gish, a Church of the Brethren member and long-term volunteer with CPT. She recently rejoined CPT’s Iraq team in Suleimaniya, in the Kurdish north of the country. The CPT team has been monitoring the violent response of the Kurdistan Regional Government to a nonviolent people’s campaign that started Feb. 17 inspired by the "Arab Spring" movements for democracy in many areas of the Middle East:

Lightning and thunder burst over Suleimaniya as thousands of new security forces carrying batons lined city streets. It was April 19, and the backup soldiers positioned around the outskirts of the city got drenched in the storm. A day earlier, the forces occupied the main square after removing protesters who had been a constant presence there for 62 days. Demonstrations were banned, with a "shoot to kill" order that was later changed to "shoot the legs" of anyone who disobeyed.

"I don't know what is happening to our society. Now our leaders are killing their own people," a university student told us, her eyes full of pain and disgust. She too was walking around in the city center assessing the situation the day after soldiers took over the square.

When we asked one of the soldiers from another Kurdish city what he thought about the protests, he said, "These are just people trying to cause problems. We are here to keep the peace."

On our way home, another team member and I stopped when we saw a crowd of students milling around peacefully in front of Suleimaniya University. About 15 students sat down quietly in the middle of the crowd.

"Sixteen buses of students were kidnapped when they drove to the court house this morning," a young woman told me. "They intended to ask the judge why he is not doing anything about the crimes of killing demonstrators. We are going to stay here until they are returned." Another student said, "We are being denied the right to speak out our concerns freely."

Soon security police arrived and stood in a line along the street. I walked up and greeted several of them in Kurdish, with little response. My attempt to find and talk to their commander was interrupted when the police started spraying water over the crowd. Then they charged into the crowd, beating students with batons. We followed students as they hurriedly fled the area. A block away we heard shooting and later found out that 75 students had been injured and 100 arrested.

"They took our buses to a deserted area, and we were told not to phone anyone or we would be beaten," one of the students who had been taken captive on the buses told us the following day. "At first they took off the buses any student organizers, teachers, or members of opposition parties, beat them, and took them away. Then any woman with a head covering or any man with a beard were told to come down, and some were beaten."

He explained that after keeping them about eight hours, security forces let the people go two by two to walk back to the edge of the city. When we asked him how he thought this would affect the students who had been protesting, he said, "It is like putting kerosene on a wound."

Though public protests have been banned, many here tell us that the determination of the people for change has not been crushed.

-- For more about the work of CPT in Iraq go to www.cpt.org . Initiated by the historic peace churches (Church of the Brethren, Mennonites, and Quakers) CPT seeks to enlist the whole church in organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict.

Let freedom reign, baby!

[county worker]

7. If someone has a beef with Obama and has a TV show they have every right to say what they think.

You job isn't to go around the world and tell everybody not to say bad things about your candidate because somebody else might agree with them!

[hfojvt]

8. if someone has a beef with Smiley and West and a keyboard

they have every right to type what they think.

Your job isn't ...

[sabrina 1]

9. I don't think that last argument works, the one about Walker

winning. That in fact, turned out to be the best thing that has happened in a long time for the American people. They got to see the reality of the Republican agenda, and his election more than all the other efforts made to do so, revived the Labor Movement and brought so many people, ordinary Americans, left and right, together in a new movement that might actually have some effect on politics.

What we have been doing is maintaining the status quo by voting our of fear for Dems who then to to DC, sounding better than Repubs, but often not fight them, sometimes voting with them, and this strategy has made it impossible for the public to actually what putting rightwing policies into effect would do their everyday lives.

The election of Walker has done more, ironically, to push progressive ideas forward than if the Dem. had won. Had that happened, everything would have stayed pretty much the same, with Repubs attacking viciously any attempts to stand up for the working class.

So, thank YOU Gov. Walker, for creating a strong, united American Workers movement, something we should have had long ago as it is badly needed.

[Solomon]

11. LOL I guess the people here didn't click on the link.