This week readers discussed police brutality and the Trump impeachment proceedings. We share your letters for “Liberalism Will Get Us Killed,” “Many Blacks Would Welcome Police Exit From Their Communities,” and “The Issue-Less Impeachment: The Corporate Democrats Stand for Nothing, So They Impeach for Nothing.”
“Liberalism Will Get Us Killed” by Erica Caines critiques the approach to police brutality by liberal politicians.
Wallace Nixon writes:
“The black middle class as a whole has abandoned the struggle for the advancement of the downtrodden in America. their only goal is increasing their status and being accepted by members of other ethnic groups. Barry and Michelle Obama are role models for the upwardly mobile black who will sacrifice nothing except their identity in order to get ahead. They like to think they are the beneficiaries of their hard work and prosperity Christian values but the truth is more like they have gotten ahead by collaborating with the powers that be when the chips are down. The best example of this trend is the elected black official at all levels. If we look back at the time when Obama´s senate seat became vacant and then look at how local Chicago elected officials competed for that seat like scavaging dogs in a garbage dumpster it becomes clear where their hearts lie and what they aspire to.
“The author of the article, Ms. Caines states that liberalism will get us killed. She couldn´t be more right. Today in America´s largest cities the black male is only living to be about 50 years old on average. with a national life expectancy of about 76 for all males. What happens to the other 1/3 of their life span? Marginalization from the economy and the resulting demoralization and lowered self esteem and the inevitable stress that are a consequence are killing us on a daily basis but in a silent way. While the Obamas laugh their way to the bank those at the bottom are alone and doomed.”
In “Many Blacks Would Welcome Police Exit From Their Communities” Glen Ford responds to US Attorney General William Barr’s threat to remove police from communities that disrespect them.
Russell Stamper Sr. writes:
“We Black folk are best suited and most capable of patrolling, protecting and serving ourselves. We have no history of lynching ourselves, leaving our dead bodies to hang in trees for days to terrorize us, castrating ourselves, cutting out our unborn babies and stomping them to death, tying us to two horses and driving them in different directions, whipping our naked back until the blood streams down, building a fire under us to slowly burn to death while we hang helplessly, burying us up to our neck and releasing hungry dogs to devour our head (oops, was that reserved only for Native Americans?), seizing our wives, mothers, daughters and now our sons to rape, sodomize and perform other freaky, perverse sexual assaults on us, etc, etc, etc. No, we don't have a history of committing those vile, demonic, inhumane acts on ourselves. We'll take our chances with us!”
In “The Issue-Less Impeachment: The Corporate Democrats Stand for Nothing, So They Impeach for Nothing” Glen Forddiscusses the pointlessness of the current impeachment proceedings.
Mary Wentworth writes:
“I am writing to note that Glen Ford is almost alone among those who write about the US political scene when he makes the important distinction within the Democratic Party by referring to ‘corporate Democrats.’ And I thank him for it.
“Most of the men and women who now chair the House and Senate committees are beholden to their wealthy contributors, be they bankers, insurance executives, war profiteers, union officials, wealthy elites, etc. One of Bernie Sanders many contributions to our political lives was his demonstrating in the 2016 campaign that we have the power through small donations to make our elected officials beholden to us.”
Flick Ford writes:
“One of the scary things the Dems are repeating over and over during this charade is “threat to national security” and while the ‘Twittiot-In-Chief’ is indeed a threat to everything living the OHS/DHS apparatus -- a domestic version of the Phoenix Program -- can use that allegation to put dissenters here at home away for good without due process. I think we should expect to see this totalitarian mechanism come into deadly bloom with growing discontent against the Establishment. It’s time to form a national grassroots network of legal defense to keep it in check.”
Alvin D. Hoffer writes:
“According to scholars such as Stephen F. Cohen, as I understand him, withholding arms from Ukraine is a GOOD idea! It makes Americans MORE secure! It REDUCES the chances for an accidental war with Russia! It PROMOTES world peace.
“Therefore, if Pres. Trump did, as it seems, try to compel the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden & Son by withholding US arms, that would not have injured the security of US citizens. It would have ENHANCED our security!”
The corporate media are working overtime to confuse the issues at play in our communities. We will have to work hard to cut through the obfuscation.
Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.
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