02/15/08

Looking at politics today, I have to wonder if America is really ready to adopt a person of a different race or gender as its leader.

Are we really ready to have a black man in the White House? What about a woman?

I don’t know, but I know that where we are headed could be a new world that not everyone’s ready and daring to accept.

I am a Barack Obama candidate myself. However, I wonder what may become of the government if he really were elected president.

Candidates are not strangers to lying to get what they want. Obama seems like an honorable person, but I only know through the eyes of media and the opinions of others. How do I know he is not just fibbing like some of the others? How do I know Obama will be a better, more productive president than Bush is right now? How do I know he will make the right decisions as president? Is he really telling the truth about wanting to help single mothers with health care and welfare?

If he is truthful, than I am with him all the way, but what if he isn’t?

Just because I am a fellow minority doesn’t mean I know it would be really good if Obama were president.

I mean, honestly, with incidents like Jena 6 and other, more discreet, race crimes it’s not hard to notice that the nation is not all for minorities.

Sure, there are welfare programs, affirmative action and financial aid for blacks, but many are still disenfranchised because of lack of education among other things.

Obama says it’s time to provide better schools and opportunities for our youth, and he couldn’t be any more right about this.

When I think about it, those who have ever lived in the worst part of a city or a town say the majority of the people there were black.

Statistics still show that the percentage of blacks in prison is more than six times the percentage of them in the state population. Also, according to the Human Rights Watch, a black person is 8.2 times more likely to end up in prison than a white person is. There were only two states where the white population doubled while most of the other states doubled in the population of blacks.

This is no doubt due to the environment that blacks live in.

Most of them don’t have a chance to begin with. It’s hard to be a good person when everything around someone is negative, and therefore it’s hard to be successful.

Many people try to make it out of poverty doing what they know how to do, but they never do.

This is the sad reality of many black people: the dark destiny of prison or death and the government’s continuation of drug and alcohol conspiracy toward blacks.

How come on the corner of every slum, there is a liquor store?

How come every black seems to be able to come by drugs easier than whites?

How come most blacks live in all of this?

Then, there is Jena 6 and the media. How come the media are hard-pressed to put out footage on the war and other matters regarding the nation but cannot be as open about Jena 6?

They tried to sweep it under the rug because it didn’t fit their ideal of something worth broadcasting. That type of stuff makes me sick to my stomach.

If Obama can bring light to these many situations of subtle racial injustice, then yeah, I am all for him, but if he is going to be like Condoleezza Rice and act like everything is all good when it’s really not, then I beg to differ with him.

I like Obama, but I disagree with the fact that America is ready to accept a black man for president for all of these reasons previously stated and more.

As for Clinton, I’m even less convinced. I have never been a fan of Bill or Hillary Clinton.

As a matter of fact, it seemed as though they were always involved in some two-bit scandal.

But I can see how a woman as president could be a big move for women everywhere. However, I disagree that this movement into the White House will involve Hillary in any way.

For one, Hillary is a woman, and there are still many people out there who strongly disagree with having a woman as president, obviously, mostly men.

Second, everyone around that I know does not support Hillary, so I may be correct in assuming that she is not the most popular candidate around here.

Third, all of the things I hear from her are assaulting Obama for the most part, and when she is not assaulting Obama her words seem artificial as if she is faking her whole campaign or saying the same things that Bush once said.

I don’t necessarily think that Hillary would be the best person for the White House right now, not because I’m sexist, but because I think this movement should begin with someone who is deserving of it.

Honestly, I believe that McCain is going to sneak up and snatch the presidency from under the Democrats’ noses.

Knowing that, I’m still going to vote for Barack Obama and see if he can own up to all those issues that he is talking about.

If we have a president who can solve the internal problems of the United States before the problems of the world, then I am all for that person.

However, as long as the demon called racism still exists, whether subtly or openly, than the chances of any black person, man or woman, getting into the White House are indeed very slim.

And even if they did make it, one has to wonder how long they would last in that position of power?