Melissa Harris Perry | Hip-Hop and Politics

Melissa Harris Perry

Yesterday I watched Melissa Harris Perry on her MSNBC show look into a camera with a straight face and run this argument about how we the public are frequently wrong about our decisions to oppose rushing off to war.. She gave a historical overview dating back to World War II and talked about how the public was opposed war back then but decades later it would be hard to find anyone who would argue that entering into World War II was the wrong thing to do..

Perry then paints a picture of how America prospered after WWII and how things were all rosey…After that she magically leaps over public opinion about various other war and threats of war efforts from the Korean War to Cuban Missile Crisis to Vietnam to Grenada etc to talk about how the public came out and supported Bush’s rush to war and got that wrong..

Hence she implies the pattern is such that even though 51% of the public polled is opposed to bombing Syria, we are probably wrong on this as we were during WW II. If I hadn’t seen this and then re-saw it on the clip I posted below would’ve thought one was lying if they told me Ms perry did this.. To say the least this was ‘fascinating’ to watch and gravely disappointing she took such a ‘hawkish’ position..

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So apparently this looks to be the new Obama talking point: Tell the people; ‘yes the public is opposed to war but the public is often wrong’ .. And to underscore this talking point we now have this compilation of footage already floating around the internet that’s been repackaged by the CIA and presented to members of Congress and local newscasts as ‘new footage‘ showing dead bodies and children gasping for air as a result of chemical weapons.

Here in Cali Senator Diane Feinstein got one of these repackaged films and personally called local Bay Area TV stations asking them to run it so the public can see what’s ‘really’ going on in Syria.. MHP referenced this footage on her show and asked what are we gonna do about this atrocity, as if the only answer is to bomb Syria..The footage shown below is similar to what we saw on local newscasts last night and what’s in the package being shown to members of Congress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaY_vySvq6w

You can link here to see the actual repackaged version

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90051&sitesection=nydailynews_nws_us_sty_vmpp&VID=25143036

After Melissa Harris Perry’s history lesson one of her guests syndicated columnist Bob Franken said if we don’t do anything we are giving up our position as the world super power and we will sink further in world standing because of upcoming sequester cuts..His remarks seem to imply that ultimately US actions are not about saving lives it’s about saving money, saving face and maintaining prestige..

Another MHP guest Michelle Bernard, a political strategist was using her ‘strategy’ to tell us that President Obama was always a ‘dove’ while former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was a ‘hawk‘, implying that somehow our President who is a frequent user of drones which are considered tools of terror around the world, to the tune of at least 300 times in Pakistan alone, was ‘reluctant’ to come to this bomb dropping position on Syria he’s pushing…

Racist People are suspicious of President Obama, with or without a hoodie

President Obama is being depicted as a reluctant warrior in this Syrian Crises

Obama has been pretty decisive even as a candidate about using pre-emptive strikes and violating laws by using drones on foreign soil without permission or knowledge of the government in that land. He said he would do it as a candidate and he’s been doing it as president. The only regret President Obama seems to have is that his decision to bomb Syria might bring about a political backlash including impeachment hence he’s being depicted as a sympathetic figure.

What we should be clear about is that President Obama is going all out to make this bombing situation happen. This is his biggest push since his Healthcare Initiative.. That’s how important bombing Syria is to President Obama..Imagine if he went in this hard to bring about Peace?

Bernard in her remarks attempted to amp up the ‘outrage’ by noting; ‘yes the children being gassed are bad, but what’s really bad are the rapes that are also happening. She leaves of us concluding that the US must intervene to stop the rapes..Talk about pulling emotional chords.

Let’s be clear folks.. Children being gassed are horrific, indefensible actions. People being raped are horrific, indefensible actions. No one with half a conscious wants to be attached to any of this, but before we go running off to the missile launchers to bomb Syria ask yourself what role are we as individuals supposed to play to stop such horrors directly and indirectly? We must challenge ourselves as to what roles we play directly and indirectly in the facilitation of rapes and children being killed not just in Syria but in other areas around the world.

Are we outraged about child soldiers? Enough to give up our cell phones & laptops?

For example, take a place like the Congo where an estimated 6 million people have been killed over the past decade and hundreds of thousands rapes and the deaths and maiming of thousands children are taking place routinely to ensure we have access to precious minerals that are used in our laptops, smart phones and other electronics.

Such atrocities continue in spite of the amendment put into Dodd Frank Protection Act which many had no idea about or even cared that in theory would push for companies to be conflict mineral free. Many say that amendment is weak and full of holes. Do we care or did it serves as a nice excuse to avoid dealing with a harsh reality and our collective conscience?

Genocide continues to this day in the Congo. Where’s our outrage and national debate both in Congress and amongst ourselves calling for it to end? Many are quick to talk about international law and how it needs to be enforced around the use of chemical weapons but are nowhere to be seen about the use of child soldiers which number in the hundreds of thousands used on the front lines in the Congo conflict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFXgEk-w44s

We must ask ourselves where is the outrage and what is our responsibility about all the Black people being raped and tortured by the racist rebel forces that we supported who took over Libya? Why is that not even talked about? Why are we not talking about the fact that many of those same brutal rebel forces in Libya are now among the rebel forces in Syria?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhT5u6ecTQ

If we are and should be upset about rapes as noted on this MHP Show, then ask yourself, what’s our thoughts about Egypt? Are we demanding Congress stop funding folks over there knowing that it was less than a month ago our collective conversation was on the drama unfolding including widespread reports of rapes? That is still going on. Have we forgotten or did we think that all those problems somehow got resolved overnight in time for us to have this debate about Syria?

If we are to be upset and down to go on the offensive for the use of chemical weapons, what’s our take on the use of white phosphorous used on Palestinians in Gaza in 2009 by Israel? Was there a call to bomb her or did we as a country ignore it? Or did the US find ways to work things out diplomatically?

In recent days since this contradiction in policy and subsequent action was pointed out the government of Israel has been on a PR tear sanitizing what took place and insisting that media outlets no longer call white phosphorous chemical weapons. Yesterday the UK Observer which is owned by the Guardian agreed to Israel’s demands after what was described as a ‘degree of give and take’.

All of us have to wrestle with our own decisions and moral compasses about what atrocities we will jump up to fight and which ones we will ignore? As I asked in previous articles; are we upset that 100 thousand people have been killed in Syria including tens of thousands of children or are we upset that certain types of weapons that fit a strict definition that deem them chemicals were used?

In other words, if Assad had simply shot, stabbed, drowned, used white phosphorous gas or perhaps used drones like we do in the US, resulting in 1400 people dying would there be a debate in Congress or would it be business as usual for most Americans? Is this really about the use of nerve gas or something else? Does it matter that England sold Syria the key materials sodium fluoride used to make chemical weapons? Think on that for minute..

We should be very careful about jumping into a civil war..The so called rebels in Syria are not a bunch of sign waving beleaguered college students who are being pushed around.. They are armed, well-trained professional militia types fighting other armed and well-trained militia types over who will control a country..There are lots of forces both inside and outside the country vying for power..Caught in the middle are folks who have no peace at all from either side..Whoever wins does not mean an end to oppression for the average person on the ground.. That’s not a discussion being held..Talks about peace and how we can at all cost find a diplomatic solution were not emphatically discussed both on MHP show and in other circles where pundits are telling us that what the public thinks about War is often wrong..

Lastly there are hundreds of Syrians who live here in America.. What I saw yesterday were 5 people on MSNBC talk about bombing a country and why the public is somehow ‘wrong’ to oppose war without any Syrians to speak for themselves.. I like folks like journalists Faria Chideya and Michelle Bernard seems nice, Same with Bob Franken? and former congressional rep Patrick Murphy but are they from Syria? Have they been there? Stay woke people, Stay Woke 24/7!!!

You Can’t Bomb the World into Peace..Power to the Peaceful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICL-4Onk0PA

In the meantime here’s a Syrian-American we recently interviewed named May Alhassen whose immediate family is still in Syria. In our recent interview she was candid about how she is opposed to US Intervention.. and how her family in Syria is divide on this issue for a number of reasons…She’s a seasoned journalist who perhaps should’ve been on that panel.. Peep out what she has to say.. http://bit.ly/15II78b

15 year old Hadiya was shot and killed in a random act of violence in Chicago

I wanted to follow-up last week’s article we ran on the shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton..It was titled ‘How many Black Children Must Die Before We get a Sandy Hook Response‘.. . It was written by community activist La’Keisha Gray-Sewell who heads up the organization Girls Like Me..In the article she spoke about the urgency that displayed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy in Newton, Ct..

She stressed that while it would be great to have that type of societal response, the reality is in America where Black folks are scapegoats and their concerns often dismissed , we will have to amount a Sandy Hook response ourselves. We will have to put forth an urgency that leads to us ending violence that plagues our community..

We brought La ‘Keisha on our radio show and here’s what she had to say with respect to her widely read article..

Since that interview there’s been a big push to get president Obama to come back home to Chicago to address the issue of Gun Violence..Over the weekend Cathy Cohen who heads of the Black Youth project appeared on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry Show to explain whats going on and why the push:

Asked what such a speech could accomplish, Cohen said Obama can use his “bully pulpit” to “rally the country to understand this issue,” as well as help to encourage groups to coordinate on fighting gun violence.

“symbolically,” people have seen Obama in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., as they should have — but Chicago needs to feel that “our children are worthy also.”

She said that in addition to the short-term need to reduce violence as quickly as possible, “This is about also young people that don’t have jobs and who don’t see a future. This is about young people who don’t, in fact, have quality education. We have almost 50 percent of young African-American men not graduating from high school, right. There are immediate issues that have to be dealt with and then there are broader, longer structural issues. And we have to hold the mayor accountable, but we also have to hold the president accountable.”

You can peep the video and accompanying article and information on the petition HERE..

Obama got a game plan about this gun control stuff

One thing that comes to mind when seeing folks having to petition President Obama to come to Chicago and address the fact that since the start of the new year 43 people have been shot and killed in the Windy City. The fact that he hasn’t shown up on his own and has to be pushed and agitated speaks volumes. It’s a stark reminder that Black people and Black death are still toxic in political arenas and when they are spoken about its done after being weighed from a political lens..In other words there’s a lot of concern about how a Black president addressing gun violence in the Black community will play out in the mainstream..

While I understand the importance of pushing this President to do what he should do intuitively so that money and resources could be released to address the situation, there is a still a need to be cautious..Will Obama use the backdrop of Black shooting deaths in Chicago to heal those who have been traumatized or will he use this as a way to further criminalize youth as he emphasizes, law and order?

Yes those who have guns and do violence in the hood need to be stopped and held accountable.. How will that happen? Will it be more militarization of the police? Will it mean entire communities and groups of people being subjected to profiling tactics, increased surveillance and stop and frisk type tactics?

Personally I think our communities need to be healed and people need to be made whole, where we embrace life versus dissing it.. We have to get to the root causes of violence and hopefully if Obama does come to Chicago, thats the direction he’s pushed in vs wanting to lock everyone up..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQuxG5FAXEs