Saturday March 31: The ABW Almost Daily Commentary - Barack in Selma: Pilgramage or Homecoming or . . .

Because That's Where the Voters Are

There are lots of things that have pissed me off this month.  Let's see, just last week the Senate approved legislation including a pull out date for US troops from Iraq.  The President has already said that he will veto the measure.  Now, we get to watch a time wasting game of chicken. You see, money that funds the troops in Iraq is included in the pull out bill.  The Justice Department scandal doesn't have a clear and identifiable scapegoat just yet.  Just since I've been writing this piece, another 1,000 families have lost their homes to foreclosure because of subprime mortgages and in another battle up on the Hill, sure to reignite after the Easter break, the taxpayers get to see what legislator, in the name of taking care of his or her state, can load the most pork into any one piece of legislation, while preening for C-SPAN, trying to appear sane, reasonable and fair.  Lastly, the presidential campaign is in full swing earlier than ever before.  At this rate the 2016 race will start immediately after the polls close in 2012.

So I'll just wade in here on that last issue and on--what some of my listeners have called my long-standing favorite subject--Barack Obama.  On March 4, at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama where Martin Luther King gathered the marchers for the historic march across the Petus Bridge and then to Selma, Barack Obama stood among the living and ghosts of people steeled with nothing but strength of spirit and determination to see a better day for themselves, their children and communities. According to him he came "home."

"I am the fruit of your labor," he told those gathered to mark the 42nd anniversary. "I am the offspring of the movement. So when people ask me if I've been to Selma before, I tell them "I'm coming home."

As any good shrink can tell you, being the offspring of anything can leave scars, emotional, physical and even spiritual scars.  Sometimes those scars are an indication of a well lived life, scars which burst open with pride.  Like when my smiling son shows me the newly acquired gash running down his knee.  He finally learned how to do a new trick on his skateboard.  My son will always remember when, where and how he earned the scar.  And perhaps over time or in the retelling to his kids, the details will become richer and take on mythic proportions.  Where are Mr. Obama's scars?  Not to suggest that he has lived a life that has not garnered him any, it's just that Selma, Alabama's scars are not his to claim, he didn't earn them.  Just the term that has been used for the march, Bloody Sunday, state resoundingly, wounds and scars.

Perhaps to the exclusion of all else, Mr. Obama is a politician.  And I have come to excuse his ilk of the truth stretched, the credentials embellished, the big 120-count Crayola box of shading and coloring, you know the political difference between Cerulean and Pacific Blue can be significant in the game of politics.  Ask the Bush administration about the difference between "Mission Accomplished" and "Shock and Awe." Well, that would be more like the difference between black and white. But I'm willing to forgive Mr. Obama's misguided homecoming.   He has, after all, used his Limited Edition Politician's Crayola box of colors.  Selma is not home for him. Nor was it for his parents or grandparents.  What he was doing was making a pilgrimage, which, on its own merit, is honorable and ultimately necessary. But to suggest a pilgrimage would have smacked of not belonging to that place.  A place so rich in imagery for the news clips and rich in Black voters to fill the ballot boxes that, not to come would have been an even bigger mistake.   Also speaking from the podium on the 42nd anniversary was Congressman John Lewis.  That place, that church, that podium is indeed his home.  Congressman Lewis has been in that place for each anniversary of that march since 1965.

I wish I could have been in the audience on March 4.  I want to determine for myself Barack Obama's earnestness.  I wanted to feel if he generated any heat or sincerity when speaking at such a historic place about such historic, personal and indeed, scarring issues or was he just picking at scabs.  For thousands of Black folks present during those turbulent times and those not yet born, but who have benefited from the tired feet of those who came before, the March on Selma was personal, the assassination of Martin Luther King was personal, the fear of Bull Connor and his minions was personal, the murder of four little girls in a church was personal, the murder of Emmitt Till, Megar Evers and Malcolm X was personal.

So, Mr. Obama had better learn to come correct and humble, because this is not his history, which is also what makes him so appealing on one hand and so easily demonized on the other.

As the list of other infamous, scoundrels, scallywags, politicians and celebrities can attest, when trying to curry favor, win votes or convince their brethren that they are not a child molesting freak of nature, they go to the Black church.  There they will find salvation, redemption, and perhaps the road to a renewed recording career.  Can you say Michael Jackson and R. Kelly?  It still amazes me that two of the biggest celebrity freaks sought very public refuge and forgiveness in the Black church, but the Black gay community is still ostracized from houses of worship across this country (oops, sorry, that's another column).  There wrapped and warmed in Big Mamma's forgiving bosom, nourished by collard greens and fried chicken, forgiveness can be found.  Black folks love a story of redemption and of the poor hapless souls who find that the road to righteousness leads to God and the sanctuary of their church, amid the pastor whooping it up, the chorus of "amens" and a verse or two of "Amazing Grace."  It reminds me of a very old joke.  A bank robber was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, because that's where the money is.  Why do politician insist on the trip to whatever high-profile church they can get themselves invited to or that will get coverage on the nightly news?  Because in their, oh, so last century thinking, that's where the Black voters are.

Now on the same day, just a scant block away, Hillary Clinton spoke at First Baptist Church.  The game of catch up politics was never so obvious.  Obama's popularity among Black voters was increasing.  Polls had just been released that indicated that after being ignored as an outsider by the civil rights movement's old warriors and at a loss to align himself with credible young Turks who had taken up the civil rights mantel, the tide was shifting.  Obama was now Black enough and Hillary was worried.

Politically, those folks down south were hers and by God she was going to claim what was hers.  And before her, those southern Blacks belonged to her husband.  The 2008 Clinton campaign apparently believes that Black folks, like furniture, land or other belongings itemized in the old deed books in the many county courthouses that I've visited throughout North Carolina in search of my maternal ancestors, belong to her. "I William Jefferson Clinton, do hereby bequeath to my faithful and long suffering wife Hillary, all of the Negros of Edgecombe County, North Carolina."  In Alabama, North Carolina or South Philly for that matter, the Clinton Blacks were actually entertaining this interloper and Hillary had to show them who was Mast-- . . . I mean the best candidate.

Back up north, The Washington Post recently ran an article about famous Chicago community organizer Saul Alinsky.   Obama and Clinton have very different experiences with Alinsky's organization and brand of activism.  I was pleased that Obama had learned a thing or two about connecting with people at the grass roots level.  It's an education that will serve him well.  I'll summarize by saying Obama took the job and Hillary declined. It makes for interesting reading.

As the road to the 2008 election plods along, I should revisit my last commentary "Run, Barack, Run." While extolling his virtues, but warning about his naivete, I didn't give the Senator from Illinois enough credit for having what it takes to fight down and dirty politics.  In the last week a rather creative and provocative ad was posted on the internet recreating an old Apple Computer ad, recasting Hillary as Big Brother.  A staffer from the Obama campaign was finally credited with creating the ad.  The staffer was also quickly fired and the Obama camp denied authorizing or creating the ad.  Was the video a test balloon to see just how far campaign advertising could go.  Well, whatever  or whoever put it in motion, Way to go, Obama! 

So for now I'll allow Mr. Obama to claim Selma, much as we accept a transplant from one state or country to another or of one person's heart in another's failing body. If you heard other portions of Mr. Obama's text from his March 4 speech or Bill Cosby, of late, you'd think that the collective African American body is indeed failing.  Keep in mind that transplants are sometimes rejected and all the drugs in the world can't stop the body from rejecting what it sees as foreign.

I hope that Mr. Obama understands that his pilgrimage was just the healing salve that will give the transplant time to heal.

See ya next time,
Sunny