One more from the Times: Thomas Friedman muses about America's sense of lost greatness, and throws in the fact that hope and inspiration, on the order that Barack Obama is trying to deliver, are not trivial to the daunting task of rebuilding America. It strikes me that, and Friedman didn't say this, Hillary Clinton is attempting to gin up a sense of "fight" in her voters -- we're going to fight this one and that one, the Republicans and the Obamaphiles, the media and whoever else gets in our way. In a sense, what she's promising is to bring the 90s back wholesale -- including the drama and the clashes of civilization with whoever's considered "the other side."
That kind of thing may inspire a temporary sense of superiority, which on a bad day can be mistaken for greatness, and she's making downscale Democrats feel in charge (and older, white women, too) but none of these can be mistaken for the kind of rebuilt American greatness that Friedman is talking about -- the sense of industry and invention, that we've ceded to Asia and other parts East.
The more I watch the present campaign,the more convinced I am that Hillary is simply not capable of leading that kind of movement. She's too divisive, too angry, to much in it for the fight and the kill, rather than for the much needed outcome: a changed and whole America.
My friend and mentor James T hipped me to this article from this Saturday's Palm Beach Post. A great read, about a different time for African-Americans...
Two Black fraternity members have been sentenced to two years in prison for "felony hazing" in Florida. Meanwhile, four white frat guys get charged with a misdemeanor, for the same thing. What's wrong with this picture? We talked to the lawyer in the Black frat hazing case this morning, and he's filing motions calling on the judge to step down, saying she was biased toward the prosecution from the get-go. Circuit court judge Kathleen Decker said the two Black men -- one a pharmacy major and the other an engineering major -- needed to be made an example of. Hm... Doesn't sound biased to me.
Meanwhile, a Florida farm boss gets 30 years for running a virtual slave camp -- recruiting homeless Black men from Miami and then putting them to work in his cesspool of a camp, where money for booze, cigarettes and even crack cocaine -- which was sometimes stuffed in their meager paychecks -- was deducted from the workers' pay, sometimes leaving them with just 30 cents on the dollar. The guy's wife and son were also convicted in the case. Read the unbelievable story and the Herald's investigative work on the subject here.
Staying on the race topic, a new study says that the lighter you are, the more money you make, and that goes not just for African-Americans, but also for immigrants from ... well ... anywhere.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
