Give him some credit.

I have to give it to Mr. Morton, it took big ones to show up in live and living color to the King celebration yesterday in Memphis. He stood up, spoke, and apologized for voting against the King Holiday in the early eighties. He knew that he would be booed by some of the folks there (and he was), but he stepped in and let the chips fall where they may. Good for him for showing an independent streak. (Maybe Chris is right about the guy)

Of course, you really have to love the fact that some rethuglicans were losing their minds. "Why did he have to do that? Don't people realize that when he voted against the King Holiday it was for economic reasons? We didn't need yet another paid federal holiday at the time. Two of our greatest Presidents (Lincoln and Washington) have to share a day (President's Day) why does King have to get one all by himself?" I am sure that quite a few people in that camp wanted to just pull Mr. Morton by whatever hair he has left, and just smack the hell out of him. And some liberals were up in arms too. The guy voted against the King Holiday in 1983, and they don't want him to forget it. Those liberals; always willing to score political points on the backs of their most loyal constituents.

Look, I know there is still probably a chance that he did it for political reasons ---Probably. Because you really have to wonder if he runs against Barack or Hillary if he could possibly get more than 5% of the black vote ---. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. He said he was sorry and he realized that he was on the wrong side of history. And the guy said that he is going after the black vote and not giving any quarter to the dems. I suspect that if the nominee is Hillary, and she uses some nefarious means to get it, Mr. Morton could be looking at double digits from the colored folks.

But there are still quite a few A-merry-cans who are on that side, the wrong side. So Mr. Morton might actually lose some white votes by reaching out to us colored folks. I don't think they realize how important King was to this country. At a time when most blacks were fed up with the so called A-merry-can dream, and were about to do something about it by any means necessary; King was telling us (black folks) that we are a part of the A-merry-can melting pot, and that this country could not be truly great until all of its citizens could participate in building it. The thought of a non violent movement in this country was unheard of. When had A-merry-cans ever achieved anything without violence? Never! So the idea of a non-violent movement was groundbreaking. Adopting the strategy that Gandhi used against the British in colonial India,worked. Embarrassing A-merry-cans into living up tho the ideals that they liked to brag about so much.

I will also cut Mr. Morton a little slack, because he was kind of preoccupied when the civil rights movement was reaching its apex and A-merry-ca's cities were exploding. The other folks, well, they don't get any slack. All A-merry-cans should be thankful for King. But they treat him as if he is a black A-merry-can hero and not simply an A-merry-can one.

So good for you Mr. Morton, I am glad you have seen the light. Now let's just hope that you can lead some of your right wing friends to it.

MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT

Happy President's Day A-merry-ca!

On this the day when we celebrate our Presidents, I would like to tell you who my favorite A-merry-can President of all time is, and why. Now admittedly, the pickings are slim, as I have never really been fond of any of A-merry-ca's Presidents. I mean something can be said for Truman and what he did to integrate the Army, and FDR and the New Deal was cool I guess. Lincoln supposedly freed the slaves, but true historians know that there were other reasons for that.

JFK? He was young, he was stylish, and came along at a time when A-merry-ca really needed him. LBJ? I don't think so. The war on poverty didn't work, and well there was a little problem called Vietnam. Bubba? Please!

No folks my favorite President of all time was Ricahrd Milhous Nixon. "Oh come on field you are smoking your native country's national plant again." No, I mean it. Nixon was the first President to embrace a real affirmative action policy by the federal government. He appointed African American Secretaries like Arthur Fletcher (who crafted the "Philadelphia Plan" which tried to force trade unions into hiring minorities into their ranks) over labor. James Farmer over HEW, and Samuel Jackson (not the actor) over HUD. Can you say Mount Rushmore anyone?

Under Nixon the ante was raised for minority business enterprises from eight million dollars to over a billion. He appointed the first African American four star general (Daniel Chappy James), and he pumped millions of dollars into historically black colleges which he supported. He also wiped out tax credits for schools that discriminated against blacks. And I know there might to be a whole family of us in there soon. But let's not downplay the fact that it took Nixon to allow the firs African American (not counting the servants) to spend the night in one of those fancy White House guest rooms (Sammy Davis, Jr.). Oh, and let's not forget, that we were under Nixon's administration when we finally got out of Vietnam.

So Nixon is my guy, and I know some of you had issues with him because of Watergate, but come on. All politricksters lie and steal, my man just got caught. "But field he was a republican". Yeah and? Look folks don't get it twisted, I don't dislike rethuglicans because they are rethuglicans. I dislike them now because this current group of rethuglicans are so fucked up.

It's that simple.

Finally, "tricky Dicky", you weren't perfect. There was Spiro Agnew and Henry Kissinger. And A-merry-ca still remembers how you folded like a cheep suit in that debate with JFK. But until the "O" man can win the highest office, and spend four years showing me otherwise; you are the greatest A-merry-can President of all time.

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY!