If only this was always true. Unfortunately, history has a tendency to be written by the people in charge. For example, I find it rather disgusting that President Abraham Lincoln promoted himself as a racist. Mr. Lincoln was no man with sensitivity for black people and yet black people love him. He freed the slaves! Trust me, if Mr. Lincoln could have met his goals and keep black people as slaves, I’m sure he would’ve died a much happier man. Mr. Lincoln suffers from no stern judgment. And if it can happen for him, why can’t it happen for Mr. Bush?
I was rather appalled to hear the suggestion that the future would be much kinder to President George Bush. This man has wreaked havoc on the United States and the entire world. He will forever be linked to this second war on Iraq under the guise that the United States had the right to initiate preemptive wars against perceived yet totally unsubstantiated threats. We will find the weapons of mass destruction. We will chase Osama bin Laden through the gates of hell and around the flames of perdition until we find him. Mr. Hussein defied United Nation mandates and so the United States had to defy the United Nations in order to prove to the world that no one should be defying the United Nations. The reasons the Bush administration gave for promoting war is as long as the war itself.
Mr. Bush turned a blind eye to the suffering in New Orleans. The other day in his final press conference he held fast to his claim that the federal government moved quickly because the Coast Guard was there plucking people off the roofs of their houses during the storm. Because the local Coast Guard was unhampered by bureaucracy and didn’t get the memo that the lower part of Louisiana did not receive federal disaster area recognition and didn’t wait for approval to come through proper procedure in order to act, Mr. Bush wants to claim the actions of a few helicopters as indicative of a prompt, and it is implied sufficient, response by his administration to cover the lame effort put forth by FEMA. If I recall properly, Mr. Bush said heckuva job Brownie and not heckuva job Coast Guard.
Mr. Bush let oil companies define his energy policy and then looked surprised when those companies started making record profits earning as much as a billion dollars a week while the public suffered with paying four dollars a gallon for gasoline. Mr. Bush put people with sympathy for polluters in charge of the EPA.
Mr. Bush ignored the signs that a financial crisis was looming and instead stuck his head in the sand with claims that the foundation of the economy was strong. Plugging the hole that people were beginning to fall through when it was a relatively small problem never registered on Mr. Bush’s brain. We had to wait until large companies were failing before reacting. Mr. Bush enacted a policy of too big to fail, too small to help. By the time the government began to react, it was too late. A stitch in time would have saved a huge national collective headache. There is the Valerie Plame fiasco which could probably be summed up as No Spy Left Behind. And don’t forget how the Bush administration would manipulate science to deny doing anything about global warming or to fund any science that conducts research with stem cells from embryos.
There is a long list of Mr. Bush’s associates who have sulked away into obscurity, or soon will be. There’s Attorney General Roberto Gonzales, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield, Chief Advisor to the Vice President I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a butt load of white house press secretaries, Julie Myers of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Christine Todd Whitman of the EPA, the former director of FEMA Michael “Brownie” Brown, Thomas White the former Interior Secretary, Elaine Chao the Secretary of Labor, Paul Wolfowitz the former Deputy of Defense Secretary, and the master king pin of all Karl Rove.
Mr. Bush points to his No Child Left Behind policy as one of his few successes. But for the past eight years the government has mandated that schools teach children to take a standardized test in order to compete for their funding instead of teaching children the three R’s. Mr. Bush likes to point to his drug policy for seniors as another success. Let’s see, we’re going to counter a war that has cost millions of lives and destroyed families and robbed our national treasury with the fact that our senior citizens no longer have to go to Canada to afford their prescriptions. Classic Bush.
When I initially heard Mr. Bush say that he will be vindicated by future historians I had to laugh to myself. Ain’t no way in hell people can forget the depth of this administration’s inclination to manipulate facts and distort truths. Nobody’s memory is that short. No history book’s pages fade that quickly. I held on to this notion for about a month or so.
But then I got an epiphany and I realized that there is very good potential that Mr. Bush could be remembered as one of the best presidents this country ever had. I heard a report that President-elect Barack Obama will be using a Christian bible that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln to take his inaugural oath. Mr. Obama will be delivering his inaugural address within sight of the Lincoln Memorial. For a while now, Mr. Obama admitted that he has been using the presidential policies of Abraham Lincoln as inspiration for his strategy for picking his cabinet by reaching out to his political opponents as well as by reaching across the political divide to the other party. Mr. Lincoln’s influence is all over Mr. Obama’s political image at this particular moment.
On the surface this will sound like a good thing to a lot of people. But Mr. Lincoln was no benevolent agent for the black community. While the black community has been trained to love Mr. Lincoln because he was the great white man that freed the slaves, Mr. Lincoln was also a racist and a bigot who felt no inclination to truly abolish slavery and make the black community whole. Mr. Lincoln admitted that he was never in favor of bringing about social and political equality between the white and black races. Mr. Lincoln said he would never support voting rights for black people. Mr. Lincoln was a good example of racism of his time. Yet, his reputation for racial compassion remains one of the greatest products of propaganda in America. This man’s character has been so thoroughly whitewashed that the majority of black people are more than happy to worship this man’s name. The first black president worships this man as well, a man who said he would rue the day that blacks and whites would be free to marry.
So if such a flip of the original script can happen for Mr. Lincoln, why can’t it happen for Mr. Bush as well? History is written by people who control the present. The history of today will be written by people who control the future. If the people who control the future think favorably of Mr. Bush they’ll put so much spin on the reputation of his presidency that a black hole couldn’t suck up all the lighting used to favorably distort his image. The stench of this presidency will be described as little more than the pleasing fragrance from a thorn free rose. Mr. Bush too can be whitewashed. Depending on who controls the future all it takes is time.
History may have a long range perspective that passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates people who fight for equality and the end to oppression. That’s a pretty thoughtful expression and one we’d all like to think holds a lot of water. Vindication sounds good. But another thoughtful expression that holds even more weight is the one that says those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.
afrospear.wordpress.com 
What do you consider of a man who goes aginst his nature to do right?
Lincoln may not have been saintly, but he did pen the proclamation. Slavery would have lasted into the 21th century as Jim Crow almost did. Those that could become president and the congress most likely would not have thought it would have been the time to free the slaves.
I have been told that Jim Crow would have ended if it had been left to the states, as if racist culture would evolve on its own. We have plenty examples in the world to understand why that wouldn’t happen. One of the unfortunate sides of human nature is that tendency to be ethnocentric.
Let’s face it, Lincoln did not free the slaves out of any sense of magnanimity for our forefathers. As he consistently stated during the run up to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, his paramount concern in the struggle between the states was the reuniting of the Union, irrespective of whether such an act would bring about either the freedom or continued bondage of slaves. With this in mind, I truly feel that it is utter folly for us, in this day, to get teary-eyed before his memorial as though he was some type of savior for our people.
The War Between the States was essentially a struggle between opposing oligarchies seeking to grasp greater control of the power structure of the nation. As we were moving from an agricultural based economy to a industrial one, the Industrial North knew that the continued influx of slaves to the southern states would stand as a hindrance in their quest to shift the weight of Congressional representation to the North. Coupled with this, due to their ability to put forth block votes, large southern slave holders held substantially more political sway than was their worth. Thus, something had to give.
That giving came first in the form of the Missouri Compromise, but this measure soon was found to be inadequate for the task. There were, to be sure, grassroots working in both the north and south to seek the abolition of slavery, but as they were coming from a position of weakness–basically, begging and pleading to strike a chord with a non-existent national morality–their overall affect was negligible at best. Power concedes nothing absent the presence of a countervailing force worthy of recognition. Thus, the backdrop was set for the emergence of the auspicious Mr. Lincoln.
At no time did Honest Abe ever decisively stand on the side of African slaves. Waffling like a limp flag caught in the gales of Hurricane Katrina, he blew which ever way was expedient for the achievement of his goal: reuniting the union. Is this a bad thing? No, not necessarily. It just doesn’t give him warrant to be recognized in my eyes as a hero for my people. He was a morally reprehensible person who ascribed to the view that my people were less than. And that, to me, places him, in my viewpoint, as no better than any other racist that may have inadvertently done something that, by happenstance, led to some type of benefit for a people he never intended to assist.
Happy Revrend King Day!!!
Brother peacmaker are you more happy now or do you feel the same with Obama? Tomorrow is Obamaday. I will be celebrating the interracial power with much of the world and Kenya. Yes I agree with you that Obama will be like Bush and Clinton but thing are getting better for Black people. When have we had it better than now? I wish you would rank evil presidents or world leaders. Sure Lincoln was bad but the guy was not worse than those before him. Progress aganst racism is being made constantly. Things are improving and they have been since the end of world war 1 for Black folks Bush was not worse than Kennedy.
Kennedy tolerated Jim Crow stuff. Kennedy appointed no Black major leaders. Bush appointed Blacks to his cabinet. There has been much progress and it will continue greatly with Obamma. When will you acknoledge that all White Republican U.S. leaders are not as bad as Hitler. Even racist leaders like Lincoln promoted freedom in America so next to say Jefferson who owned slaves Lincoln is a saint. Obama is the most pro Black president we have ever had hands down.
He is the best. Bush and Lincoln were not the worst leaders in the world. Stalin, MoaZedon of China and Hitler. Those are real tyrants. Bush was just another ordinary American president he did not hold African Americans down much more than Obamma will hold Black folks down. Bush gave me a rebate check and I am hoping Obama will give me a larger one.
In a list of all the current world Leaders George Bush would be near the top of the list as the best. Remember most world leaders are not even elected. That is what I think of the United Nations. Lincoln and Bush are some of Americas best presidents and amongst the best leaders of the world if you use democracy and freedom of religion as the yardstick. I disrespect all our presidents before World war one. Wilson was a serious racist. After that they have gotten better. U.S. presidents have lead to the progress we have today however even the racist ones becase they were mostly commited to democracy and rule of law.
Most of the leaders of the world are dictators. Mild ruthless dictators like Castro and the leaders of Sudi arabia and Brutal ones like most of the comunist and muslim lead goverments. Dictators are the worst opressors of Black people everywhere. Brother peacmaker I wish you could have a rational ranking of what makes a leader better or worse than the next.
Bush and Lincoln have had some problems but they both set folks free. The Shites of Iraq the majority, have more rights now than they did under Sadam. The sunni have more problems. Remeber Sadam opressed the majority. The women and men in Afganastan have more rights now than they did under the Taliban. So Bush has been a freedom fighter. The slaves were better off after Lincoln. That makes Lincoln a freedom fighter also.
Yes I understand that folks have problems with all U.S. presidents but our Presidents are at the top of all leaders who have ever existed. They are elected leaders. Standing next to the leaders of China, and Iran, North Korea almost all elected leaders stand head and shoulders above these real tyrants.
Obama is helping to salvage Americas past and present leaders of America. If you call that White washing. I call it pointing out where Human beings were correct and rejecting the stupid racist ideas which were wrong. Democracy was the good part along with freedom of religion. I can now say that I am proud to be an American if Obama can live one day as president without getting shot. He may still get shot so therfore I am praying for Obama.
Obamaday!!!!!!!!
{{{ if it can happen for him, why can’t it happen for Mr. Bush? }}}
No videos of Lincoln making an idiot of himself.
No internet.
I don’t think anyone has figured ouy the long term effects of the internet.
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Excellent analysis, BP. It can happen no doubt. You got your boy right now setting the stage by saying Bush is a good guy. What does that have to do with anything
Uhh, what Shaka said!
And IP: what the hell are you talking about???
Not as likely to happen as you fear. The victors write the history book. Ever notice how no one talks too favorably of Jefferson Davis? Bush is no victor and he will not write the history books. At best he’ll be a bottom-third president.
Lincoln may have been what is termed a racist today, but when you look back at the time he was living in, he was very forward thinking. He could have kept the Union together by ignoring slavery, but he did enter the war. And he did sign the act. Malcolm X is a hero to many yet he advocated violence and no race mixing. Hardly forward thinking there.
let us also remember that during this period in Ghana, the country of my grandparents, our forefathers actually tried to stop the UK abolishing slavery as it was so lucrative to local chiefs.
And yes if the war in Iraq finishes well, then history will look on bush in a different light.
Malcolm X never advocated violence. I might be wrong, but I do believe Malcolm X never picked up a gun against anyone. What Malcolm X believed was that black people should defend themselves against people who subscribe to violence. People who are quick to use violence as a means to an end should expect their violence to be met with violence.
But this is the selling of propaganda that the black community should become aware of. We are willing to cut Mr. Lincoln some slack because he was so forward thinking even though the man clearly felt black people were beneath him. Mr. Lincoln went to war not to liberate black people but to keep a rule of law that defined the relationship between the federal government and state governments. No state had the right to secede from the union. The crux of this issue was the spread of slavery which was useful in keeping white wages low. It’s cheaper to buy a slave than to hire white people who had rights. Nothing Lincoln did was done for the benefit of the black community.
Propaganda is a very powerful tool for the dominant community. Lincoln goes to war and is hailed a hero. Malcolm X speaks of equality for black people and is condemned a warmonger.
Peace