and a good one. We shall see how this all plays out.
As far as Obama's MOW50 speech the other day, where to begin?
Will say that it was an excellent commemorating speech. It doesn't come close to MLK and "I Have A Dream," but it was received very well by the crowd. It is true that since he took office, black unemployment is still high (latinos are not far behind), there are deep flaws in the justice system (see Trayvon Martin), like women's rights, voting rights have also suffered a serious setback (see Voter ID laws), and racism is still alive and well. Just to name some few.
With that in mind, the question is what can be done about all this? It called organizing, knowing the issues, understanding laws, and registering to vote (in 2014). Like Roland Martin asks (and I don't always agree with him, but he gave people something to think about), how can you turn a moment into a movement? It also involves putting ego and personal things aside for the greater good. That too has been a challenge since Obama has been in office. It was when he was then-Senator/candidate Obama.
Too many people think that voting every four years in a presidential election solves everything. It doesn't. Local and state elections matter just as much as the federal ones. Turnout is one of the biggest challenges Dems face going into every midterms or off-years like this one.
Coates and others noted one criticism of Obama's speech was that it didn't offer any specifics on what he and his team plan to do address all of the above and more. To be fair, he has Syria, sequester, a gridlock Congress to deal with. Hopefully, he will offer more in the future.
He also has to pick a new HSS. If he were to pick NYC Chief Kelly, it would go against everything he spoke about racial profiling. It was a bad political idea to publicly praise him while SAF was being argued. (fortunately it was ruled unconstitutional).
Progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go.
Peace out.
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