Since election night a few weeks ago, the passing of Proposition 8 in California--legislation that bans gay marriage--has become a hot-button issue among blacks, whites, Hispanics, etc... The reason: many Americans believe that freedom for all means the ability to marriage whoever you love, regardless of the gender. Others disagree.
Where do you stand?
Simply put, Black Voices wants to know if you are for or against gay marriage.
I get the feeling most Americans would like to say an early good bye to the current White House resident and get an early start with President-elect Obama. And it's no surprise - given how vacant the White House has been the past year as the nation has tumbled into a financial ditch.
I think President-elect Obama feels the same way.
For a nation crying out for leadership and change, just having a president-elect who seems fully engaged for the difficult tasks ahead is a breath of fresh air and will should provide a needed psychological boost for us all during these dreary times. ...
Just as a followup to my last post about help needed in Haiti to offset the damage done by this year's hurricanes and the recent school collapses.
Now, the Democratic Republic of Congo is in trouble, too. While you were sleeping, the nation (not to be confused with the Republic of the Congo, it's neighbor to the west) is very close to approaching a Rwanda-style genocide.
In fact, the reason for the fighting in Congo is because of spillover anger spurred by that conflict in 1994. Now, Hutus and Tutsis are at dangerous odds again, and the international community is once again failing to see what is obvious. ...
In 2004, President George Bush garnered 44% of the Latino vote and pundits everywhere declared that "Hispanics" were conservative, and might provide a growing base of support for the Republican party going forward. It was a reasonable hypothesis, I guess. But what no one saw coming in 2004 is how sharply a first effort at immigration reform would be excoriated and then vetoed by both members of the Republican party and the right wing electorate.
The call to stop all efforts toward immigration reform "until we secured our borders" left a foul taste in the gut of many who were surprised at how quickly John McCain dropped his rather mavericky effort and lurched as close as one could get to the Minutemen without walking a shift on the border.
You don't see people running out to get guns in black communities and big cities. Why? In those neighborhoods, guns are more commonly used by criminals and cops.
The great secret behind the recent gun boom is that the majority of these guns flying off the shelves are being bought in the South and in Red States.
You might remember, when Clinton took office way back when, the EXACT same thing happened. The NRA told voters that Clinton would take everyone's guns away and used the Clinton assault weapons ban as evidence. Now, Rednecks and NRA members are maxing out their credit cards on guns and ammo again.
If that's not "clinging to your guns," I don't know what is?
For we in the Pan-African diaspora, the election of a black President of the United States has been something for us all to celebrate. But there are those who, despite our apparent victory, still don't have much to be happy about.
It's not new news to you that the tiny nation of Haiti is, and for years has been, in desparate trouble. The only reason it has survived is because of the fortitude of its people over the past two centuries. But things keep going from bad to worse for the nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Ravaged with poverty, hunger, and constantly beset by hurricanes, the latest tragedy is the collapse of a school there that killed 94 children because of the poor building construction allowed by lax enforcement of standards and a poor national infrastructure.
Here is an example of why President-elect Barack Obama may be the perfect fit for a country too often swayed by religious bias. In this video from June 2006, he explains his religious perspective and comments on the... gasp, dangers of sectarianism!!! For those who still question his religious association, this video is for you.
Some highlights from his speech include:
"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translates their concerns into universal rather than religion-specific values. What do I mean by this? It requires that their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason"
"I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I can't simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all. Now this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible as many evangelicals do. But in a pluralistic society, we have no choice."
The Bradley Effectwas supposed to be the ace in the hole for Republicans during this presidential election -- a dirty little Election Day factor steeped in white mistrust of a black candidate.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the 2008 presidential election results.
The Bradley Effect had no effect. Voting in the election pretty much mirrored what pollsters had predicted. Whites who told pollsters they were going to vote for Obama, in fact, did.
So for now, the Bradley Effect, the theory that says in elections between a black and white candidate that some white voters will express a willingness to vote for a black candidate to pollsters before the election but will ultimately vote for the white nominee, is left in tatters. ...
Far be it from me to criticize the decisions made by another editor in his own paper.
I've been in this business for a minute and I know people make news decisions based on the needs and demands of his readers. With that said, I've never heard of a news outlet actually deciding not to publish a story of international interest like the election of the U.S. president.
Well, as it turns out, some goober journalists, if you can call them journalists, in Oklahoma decided to do just that. ...
Now that America has finally elected a black president there is a movement afoot to take away the significance of this moment.
I was riding along the turnpike the other day and I struck up a conversation with a token booth worker, who I've talked with for the last fifteen years driving this route.
"So we have a black president, huh?" I said to him as I handed him my ticket and money.
"Why do people keep saying that?" he said. "His mother is white! So he's not just black."
"Okay. But he's still black," I said.
"So Tiger Woods is black, too, I guess," he said, chuckling.
"Exactly. He sure is."
What's very curious to me is that before November 6, America was very clear about the blackness of Barack Obama. ...
After you finish reading this, I suggest that you head on over to Change.gov, President-elect Barack Obama's official Web site.
As you might expect, its design is clean and easy to navigate. On it you will find information about the Obama administration's agenda, the inauguration, news headlines and all sorts of information related to the transition now in progress.
But most intriguing to me, is that if you would like to work for the Obama administration, Change.gov is where you sign up to begin the process. Go to Change.gov, click on 'Jobs' and then, fill in your information. ...
Find out what members are saying about everyone from Barack to Beyonce. There are nearly 100 forums from which to choose. Click on a category below and discover the right board for you.
ince election night a few weeks ago, the passing of Proposition 8 in California--legislation that bans gay marriage--has become a hot-button issue among blacks, whites, Hispanics, etc... The reason: many Americans believe that freedom for all means the ability to marriage whoever you love, regardless of the gender. Others disagree.
Now that America has finally elected a black president there is a movement afoot to take away the significance of this moment. 
