The impudent boldness of Barack Obama

My reaction on reading Obama’s words to the Congressional Black Caucus—“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes, Shake it off. Stop complainin.’ Stop grumblin.’ Stop cryin.’ We have work to do.”—at their 41st Awards Dinner on September 24 was jaw-dropping.

First of all, Obama’s words are a clear chastisement of the very leaders in that Congressional Black Caucus, like Maxine Waters among others, and other black leaders in other places, who have recently voiced their concerns over those Obama’s policies that have given so much to the rich and wealthy, to the banksters and the insurance companies to the Republicans’ Garden of Greed, in general, but have done so little to help the poor, the jobless, the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the communities hardest hit, where jobs have evaporated, where crime, homelessness, and poverty in are on the increase.

By prefacing his words with, “Take Off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes” and by ending his perfidious call for, once again, action on his behalf, with, “We have work to do.” Obama flips his intended chastisement of these beloved and illustrious leaders, who indeed work for democracy, the disenfranchised, the poor, and the hard-hit neighborhoods, making it sound instead like he is issuing forth the clarion call, the invitation, of a man who has rolled up his sleeves, put on his work shoes, hit the pavement, hard breaking sweat on behalf of those he issued promises to two years ago, rather than, like the call it really is.

Obama’s call, or invitation, to the Congressional Black Caucus and black leaders everywhere is nothing more than a smoke and mirror call of the pragmatists who breaks no sweat, do not take off their bedroom slippers or silk jackets.

It is the call of one who lets others do his work for him, cozies up to the Republicans with beer and invitations to watch televised football games from the White House, as Maxine Waters so truthfully pointed out.

It is the call of someone who is seen by many, these days, as a diehard Republican in his soul. It is the call of someone who is not only channeling Ronald Reagan, but who is also channeling George W. Bush and beyond.

It is the call of someone who is actually seen as being beyond of George W. Bush.

Despite al of this, what is jaw dropping to me also, is that Obama’s words were received with, “rising applause and mounting cheers.”

Did the people in that Black Caucus room really hear the essence of his message, “You don’t tell Me what to do. I tell You what to do!” Aren’t those words reminiscent of the days of the slave master, when cracking his whip, he’d tell the slaves, “You work for Me. I don’t work for you.”

How audacious of Obama!

Now the catchword he is dishing out to the Congressional Black Caucus is “faith.”

Obama is like one of the sons in the Bible whose father asks him to go tend to the vineyard. He replies to his father that yes he will, but he does not.

Now that he needs the Black Caucus, the black leaders and the black people to vote for him, Obama asks them to “have faith in the future—and understand that the fight won’t be won if they don’t rally to his side.”

But Obama’s track record indicates that once he gets the wine from his vineyard, Obama will soon forget those who put on their marching shoes to hit the pavement hard on his behalf.

One thing Obama apparently understands: without the Black vote this time around, Obama has a very little chance of a second term.

He gives the illusion that he is pleading with them: “The fight won’t be won if you don’t rally to my side.”

Or, is he issuing a threat?

Beware.

Obama needs your help. He says.

Will you get his if he has a second term?

Obama is right in one aspect. It is time to put on those marching shoes and hit the pavement hard, working for a candidate who indeed works for the working class, for the middle class, for all those who are in any way in need in this country: those who need jobs, those who need rehabilitation, those who need food. A candidate whose track record speaks to the values and policies that indeed most of America is crying for. A candidate who can primary Obama, get on the ticket, and get elected to run this country in a direction opposite from the direction Obama’s ship has been taking it.

It is time to listen to the cry of the people

Obama does not understand that it is not about shoving the cry of the people under the table, off the table or under the bus!

Isn’t the president supposed to work for the people who elected him? Isn’t he supposed to listen to the people? Isn’t he supposed to listen to their needs, to their concerns? Isn’t he supposed to adjust his policies to the people and their needs? Isn’t that how politicians get elected, by telling people, I know your pain; I hear your voice; I will work for you to make your life better and so on.

Aren’t people’s needs and their concerns supposed to be a compass to guide a president who was elected by the people on a promise of hope and change?

“Change you can believe in”? Wasn’t that Obama’s catchphrase?

This is about really listening to the cry of the people who are tired of a president who is deaf to the people’s cry.

E. T. SIMON is like a transplanted palm tree from the land of Santiago de Cuba where she was born to a Cuban, Tulane University educated, lawyer father and a Mississippi, mother. She is the great-great-granddaughter of American Revolutionary War hero, Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who is credited with the victory against the British in the Battle of the Cowpens.