When president Obama was lifted to the presidency promising hope and change, no community was more hopeful than the black community. And inside the black community, no city was prouder than Chicago.
But not anymore.
Today blacks are disenchanted with an administration—both Obama’s and the current one in Chicago—that has played them.The politicians, who have been so ready to write trillion dollar checks to Wall Street, auto companies and cronies haven’t spent a dime on addressing issues decimating the black community.
Instead they have fostered more dependence, using money that rightly belongs in black pockets, to keep blacks servile and voting Democrat.
So in poverty, unemployment, mortality and education blacks continue to lag behind the rest of the country.No discussion of reform can begin without taking into account this absolute fact: There are two countries in America today, the black United States and everywhere else.
And the murder rate in Chicago is making that point in a way that even politicians can’t ignore.
A recent vigil for an 11 year-old black girl, Shamiya Adams, who was killed by stray bullet while at a friend’s sleepover has folks in the Windy City angry.
“Though well attended by ministers and local residents,” reports the Chicago Tribune, “some were bothered that few politicians turned out to pay their respects. A speaker at the vigil listed off the names of elected officials who didn’t attend, and a woman singled out Mayor Rahm Emanuel before the vigil for not doing more.”
So, however much one or two blacks may have thrived, no city demonstrates how disappointed blacks feel in the so-called progress that has not been made for ordinary African-American citizens.
Three decades ago, race issues polarized the city, with some blacks claiming that there was no more segregated northern city than Chicago. The result was a breakup of Chicago’s old Daley Machine, replaced by a coalition of blacks and Hispanics under the city’s first black Mayor Harold Washington.
Obama’s election, first to the United States Senate and then the White House, wasn’t just progress, but a promise of more to come, even with another Daley in the White House.
But one need only look at the crime statistics to get an idea why blacks are disaffected after six years of Obama and 30 years of so-called progress.
Chicago is a city gripped by a massive murder wave, affecting mostly black communities. In response the city, now run by former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has come up with a variety of policing options, the most effective of which has been cooking the books to make it appear that crime is getting under control under new policies.
“The city’s crime numbers seem too good to be true,” reported Chicago Mag in a June series looking at number fixing by the Chicago Police Department. “One former lieutenant has a name for the system: the washing machine. ‘They wash and rinse the numbers,’ the lieutenant says.”
As if on cue, the numbers of shootings have suddenly gotten so completely out of control that no amount of laundering can cover the stink.
Over the July 4th weekend, over 80 shootings occurred with 16 deaths. This past weekend 40 shootings occurred including the death of Shamiya Adams.
The woman who criticized the mayor for not attending the vigil, “Venice Bickham, said Shamiya’s death was a symptom of Chicago leaders prioritizing improvements to Grant Park and Navy Pier over investments in the city’s neighborhoods,” says the Chicago Tribune.
The fact that the city’s union-protected employees get lifetime constitutional guarantees to employment benefits, while Chicago blacks are denied their right under the constitution to not just own a firearm, but to enjoy life, liberty and happiness, would be ironic if it weren’t so tragic.
And this is the true civil rights issue in America.
If Shamiya Adams were a blonde-haired, blue eyed 6th grader from Lincoln Park the National Guard would be called out to fix the problem. But she’s black, so she’s disposable.
As a conservative, I’m not OK with this. I’m not OK standing by while a holocaust grips the black community and the nation does nothing.
I’m not OK with a Republican Party that does nothing either.
Conservatives are smarter than that.
It’s time we demonstrated that we care about the real problems facing black America.
We just need a touch of imagination-- and leadership.
Standing by.
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