What “Change” has there really been in America?!!!

Since we are approaching the last official year of the 1st. presidential term of Barack Obama, one has to honestly reflect upon how his presidency has affected this country & the world. We cannot just get caught up in the nostalgia of “He’s the first Black President, woo hoo!!!”. We must critically think about what policies that he’s supported & carried out as the Chief Executive of the United States, during his nearly four-year tenure of what could potentially be his only term as the leader of the “Free-World”.

No, it’s not time to break out the worn out Obama hats, shirts, bumper stickers, etc. labelled “Yes, We Can”, or “Change We Can Believe In”. It is truly time for reflection as to whether the U.S. is truly a better country since this man’s been a President. For this reflection, I’ll be taking the liberty of mentioning several happenings throughout the current tenure of this U.S. President & I’ll let you decide has “Change” that this man had promised for this country truly come.

Hate crimes:

Dec. 10th, 2010:

A twenty-seven year old Black man, by the name of Frederick Jermaine Carter, was found hanging to a tree, in Greenwood, Miss. The Obama administration has yet to even acknowledge the event taking place, and there was no mention of a Federal investigation of this case (ironically enough, Greenwood is a mere 10 miles away from Money, Miss., where Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black youth, was tortured and murdered by racist whites, exactly 50 years after the Emmet Til tragedy)-This case was just swept under the rug, by Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks, along with the county coroner, declaring Carter’s death a “Suicide”, as a result of him having a history of “Mental-Illness”.

Now, for you & I, who possess basic-intelligence, here’s some serious questions for us to sincerely ask ourselves: When is the last time that a legitimately mentally-ill person used a tree to assist them in a “Suicide”?!!! (Never); when is the the last time that Black man used a tree to assist him in a “Suicide”?!!! (Never!!!); also, how is the man going to “hang himself”, when he was found tied/bounded to the actual tree that he “hanged himself” from?!!! (Impossible!!!).

Now, just by virtue of the fact that there’s a Black man in the White House is justification enough to have had this case world-wide news; however, sadly, it was just another important issue that was kept under cover, for fear that people would truly realize that having a Black man as a President doesn’t secure shit for Black people, those who came out in droves to vote for this man, really believing that he was their savior-If a White man, or any group of Non-Black individuals would’ve done the same to one of them, this case would’ve been treated the same exact way, especially if they weren’t of any type of known, significant status in our society.

The economy:

It’s not that the Federal bailouts given to the Wall Street titans were bad enough, but to add insult-to-injury, they’ve grown more wealthy & powerful during the Obama years, thus far-According to a report, by Zachary Goldfarb, of the Washington Post:

• Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show. [...]

• The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year.
• Securities firms — the trading arms of big banks and hundreds of other independent firms — have fared even better. They’ve generated at least $83 billion in profit during the past 2 1/2 years, compared with $77 billion during the entire Bush administration, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

#Enough said!!!

International relations:

As recent as this year, Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Muslim, as well as a U.S.-citizen, was violently blown to bits, by a CIA-controlled drone-missile attack in Yemen. What still puzzles me, till this very day, is the simple fact that none of the actual charges of “terrorist-activity” against this man was even established, until after he conveniently out of the country, relocated to Yemen, even though he was continually probed by the Feds for at least 5 years before he even left the U.S. to spend the rest of his life in Yemen-Ironically the charges that he had actually gotten arrested for & then released while in the U.S. had absolutely nothing to do with “terrorist-activity”. This is something really difficult to wrap my head around: Anwar Al-Awlaki was accused of being the chief recruitment figure for Al-Qaeda in America, yet you wait until the man leaves the U.S. to go to Yemen to do something about it?!!! What sense does this all make?!!! (None).

He was denied his right as a Human being & a U.S.-citizen to have his day in court/any court, via due-process, even though his historical counterpart, Oliver North, the most corrupt U.S. Military official on record, who aided known terrorist-groups, by supplying them with money gins, in exchanges for drugs to be smuggled into the U.S. during the 1980′s, infamously known as the Iran-Contra Affair, did more than Al-Awlaki was even accused of. Yet, North was eventually acquitted of all 16 counts of Federal felonies thrown at him, received an official Presidential-Pardon, and retired with full rank & pension as a Lt. Colonel of the U.S. Marines (check out my article on www.garethbryant.wordpress.com titled, “If Anwar Al-Awlaki were Oliver North, he’d still be alive & chillin’” for more info. about the Iran-Contra Affair). Then, there’s Somalia, the mythical land of African Al-Qaeda & pirates, even though, unlike the Taliban, Saddam, and Qaddafi, As-Shabab have not been ousted (check out my article on my blog, www.garethbryant.wordpress.com titled, “Somalia [The Anatomy of a Tragedy]” to find out why).

These are just a few of the countless examples of how the mythos of Barack Obama has continually become a political epic-fail, and has been able to keep the American people deaf, dumb & blind. It’s very obvious to me, and should be just as obvious to you all, that Obama being a President, the first Black President, or what ever posthumous title that you’d wish to refer to him by, has not changed any of the business-as-usual policies well-established in this nation.

In short, “Ain’t shit change, except da number after da dot, on da Range (Rover).”

(Notorious B.I.G. voice)

#I’m just sayin’!!!

9/11 (Ten years later):

Even the mere utterance of the household phrase "9/11'' still sends chills down people's spines, invoking fear, fueling the fire of anger, and encouraging hate to resonate in people's hearts. But, why does September 11th still grasps the attention of Americans, whom many were not even alive to even witness the shocking events that took place on that day?!!! I have an answer for that, it's called the blame-game. The American people have not been allowed to heal, from an event that has killed more American civilians, on American soil ever (more than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, HI in 1941, the race riots of Tulsa, OK in 1921, the first NYC World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City, OK in 1995, and the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998 combined) because they've been lead to believe that 19 Muslims, Arabs, Saudi nationals, had the sophistication to breach NYC & Washington, D.C. airspace, and wreak havoc on America, by crashing into buildings that represent the financial & military prowess of the United States.

When a person is injured by someone that they love, and then they're told that someone else did the damage, it is a lot easier to accept that fallacy. But, over time, the psychological & emotional trauma from that injury will not heal, because the person refuses to admit that the person that they love would ever do something hurtful to them. Likewise, with these attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, the American people have not been able to heal from this tragedy, because they've accepted this obvious lie that some big-bad terrorist network, once headed by someone who has spent nearly the last twenty years, dwelling in caves in Afghanistan, suffering from Kidney problems, before his pronounced "death" this year (conveniently during a Presidential election year), had the capabilities to complete such an intricate & complex task.

Unfortunately, many of us, as Americans, we just love to be entertained & to be lied to. It allows us to not have to take out enough time, use basic intelligence and/or enough integrity, to seek out the truth of things. It's a lot easier to accept a lie, as opposed to the truth. And, the truth is that the attacks on September 11th were orchestrated by our own government, on the highest levels, to promote an agenda that places them directly into the realm of global domination, by using things like a "terrorist attack" to push policies that give more power to the U.S. government, and even less power to the American people, along with promoting their military war-machine in places like the Middle-East.....no question about it. The results of this event, as tragic as it was, has also placed the Muslim-Community, globally, on the for front of being potential, inherent terrorists-in-the-making. I've even recently met someone, who was injured in Iraq & actually just became a Muslim himself, who admitted to me while we were talking that this whole "war-on-terror" is a complete lie & that the U.S. military are tyrants. Unfortunately, most Americans, especially U.S. servicemen will not manifest enough courage to admit something like this.

The whole religious-extremist, Islamists, Islamic-Fundamentalists angle has basically been thrown out into the media, to be internalized by the American people, to keep them thinking that Islam & Muslims are the enemy. I seen the look of anger & fear on people's faces every time I go out of my home, whenever I'am at Yankee Stadium, whenever I've ever been on a plane, every time I go to the movies, there's always someone, somewhere, who me & people like me, just because I'm a Muslim, just because I have a beard, just because I may be reading the Qur'an in public, that I am a terrorist, or at least not that far from it. Even among people whom I've grown up around around, even those who've known me before I even became a Muslim, have been deeply affected by the lies & deceit that has been projected about Islam & Muslims in main-stream media. But, I as an individual am supposed to just accept the lies along with everyone else.....nah, not me. I refuse to to allow myself to be lied to, especially when the lies are going to directly influence how people will forever view my religion, and my fellow practitioners of my religion.

Now, I'm no fool...we all no that unfortunately, Muslims have used religious justification to commit acts of terror against people, but what group of religious fanatics historically have not done such a thing...we remember the Inquisition, right?!!! But, to say that 19 Arabs high-jacked four planes, by only using box-cutters, and to breach NYC & Washington D.C. airspace to crash into the Twin Towers & the Pentagon, and not only not intercepted, but not even detected...I mean, c'mon...that's a lil' ridiculous!!! There was a man by the name of Robert McIlvaine Sr., who lost his son, Robert McIlvaine Jr. at the World trade Center on 9/11, and was also interviewed for the 9/11 documentary, Zero, who had this to say,"I'm not a conspiracy-theorist. I'm a parent looking for the murderer of my son. And, you have to be a moron to think that 19 Arabs did it!!!"

It's been ten years since the tragedy of September 11th took place, and I still find myself, having to explain that Islam doesn't condone violence, that Muslims are not terrorists, that we're not the blood-thirsty tyrants that we're portrayed as being, who want to wreak havoc on the Western/American way of life, in the media, as if I'm being put on trial by virtue of the fact that I am a Muslim. The perpetuation of these fallacies will only allow the U.S. to play & perfect their divide-and-conquer game, to continue to push non-democratic policies, that infringe on the basic rights of Americans in the name of "national-security"/"national-interest", and to increase the already clear-and-present hatred as well as fear that many Americans have for Islam & Muslims.

The only way that America & the American people can truly heal from this tragedy is honesty. We need to stop blaming those who were not involved: Islam did not attack the U.S. on September 11th, Muslims did not attack the U.S. on September 11th, and the Muslm-World did not attack the U.S. on September 11th. I'm really sick & tired of even Muslims taking this apologetic stance against what happened. Was it tragic what happened on September 11th...of course, was it unjustified...of course, but, is Islam responsible for what happened, are the Muslims responsible for what happened, hell no.

#I'm just sayin'!!!