Tuesday, February 26, 2008

How dare you, America?


Michelle Obama and her husband are doing something beneficial for this country that has never been done to this extent before. They are, literally, bringing this country together and by doing so, they are placing what they hold near and dear to them on the line….their family.
This extraordinary woman was recently castigated by the political right for speaking her mind by saying, recently, that she's really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.Well, guess what? I am proud of my country. I omitted the “really” because that exclamatory adverb is still a work in progress as I will explain.
I grew up in America that did not give me a lot to be proud of as a “citizen”. Sure, I could have grown up in some so called third-world country and not be afforded the opportunity for a better life. What privileges that I did enjoy, black folks had to fight for, tooth and nail. Nothing was giving to us as a God-given right.
Being treated as second or third class citizens in America, we had to consistently prove that we were worthy to have a respectable income to raise our families, have decent education and health care, have decent homes, have the opportunity to die for this country!
Why should black folk, inherently, be bursting at the seams with pride for America? The pride that we do have for this country is for the change that we see taking place, oh so slowly over the last four hundred years. Why should we be instantly proud of our birth country when our very existence has been denied as human beings for so long?
What I am “really” proud of is African Americans’ strength and determination to survive and thrive under the historic racist conditions this country created for us. We turned the sins of this country into examples of how great America can be, to right its wrongs. I am also proud of those white Americans who understand the past injustices and are on the right road to join all Americans in an attempt to make this a better country.
America, you should be expressing your pride for the fruit of Africa (and not just in February) for wanting to move forward to make this country a better place for everyone, given the injustices endured by its sons and daughters from the Cradle of Civilization.
How dare anyone question Michelle Obama's pride!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Microbrother:
Your comments on Michelle Obamas pride are well taken. I have issue with your title, "How dare you, America." The questioning of Michelle Obama's sense of pride in America doesn't come from Amercia, those good, thoughtful, disheartened individuals fed up with this reprehensible Republican administration. No microbrother, you have to rightly lay the blame where it belongs-on that cesspool dwelling Republican attack machine comprised of sleazy PR firms, communication companies, party hacks, select Republican office holders, ad agencies and political consulting firms all taking a page out of the Karl Rove say anything, do anything, accuse anything playbook. Get ready for more scurrilous, scorched earth lies and deceptions. It's all part of the grand plan for the 2008 presidential and Congressional elections.

microbrother said...

Yes, I’m quite aware of the lurid and scurrilous minds behind these attacks on the Obamas and their ilk. I speak of the “Atwater/Rove tag team” tactics all the time.

If I tell my defense team that the fullback is coming down the middle and they ask me “how do you know?’ and I tell them that I’ve seen their playbook, I expect that fullback to be stopped at the line-of-scrimmage…..right?

The Republican dirty-tricks playbook is so well known, yet the electorate always falls for the same play and that Republican fullback always runs right over them for a touchdown! What’s up with that? Either the Atwater/Rove tag team is real smart or the American electorate is real dumb.

Somebody help me!