As in previous years, the fifteenth anniversary memorial service began at 09:02 a.m., marking the moment the bomb went off.  The somber service included speeches by local, state and federal dignitaries.

Perhaps the most touching and poignant part of the service was the roll call reading by relatives of the names of each person who died in the blast.

Following the ceremony, many of the family members passed in a solemn procession by the memorial’s 168 empty memorial chairs.  They paused near a large American elm dubbed “The Survivor Tree” because it withstood the blast 15 years ago. Under a state law signed this month, the bombing and its aftermath will become a regular part of history classes in Oklahoma’s schools.  Most of the media reported the Oklahoma City bombing as the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil at that time.

However, another terrorist attack goes virtually unnoticed and unmemorialized.  Approximately 106 miles northeast of Oklahoma City during the course of some 18 hours on May 31-June 1, 1921, the city of Tulsa erupted, fueled by a firestorm of terrorism and violence perpetrated by a white mob hell bent on ethnic cleansing.  Entire Black neighborhoods were destroyed; an estimated 300 blacks were killed, more than one thousand homes were burned to the ground, leaving over 9,000 people homeless.

In all, some 40 square blocks were laid to waste including the city’s thriving Black commercial Greenwood district.  Dubbed the “Negro Wall Street,” Greenwood was an economic powerhouse.

The rigid segregation of the time forced Tulsa’s Blacks to create their own business district.  However, the white Tulsa business owners began to feel resentment.  White residents of Tulsa referred to the area north of the Frisco railroad tracks as “Little Africa” and other derogatory names. They were threatened by the success of the African American community and worried that the community might continue to grow.

The thriving “Negro Wall Street” that was giving blacks a sense of independence and self-determination was a festering keg of dynamite.  The match that ignited the riot was an alleged assault of a white woman by an African American man that was published in the Tulsa Tribune.

The Greenwood businesses destroyed were some of the finest in the country;  21 restaurants, 30 grocery stores, 21 churches, two theaters, banquet halls, recreation facilities, a hospital, two newspapers, a black bus line, schools, libraries, hotels, and professional buildings that housed doctors, lawyers, dentists and realtors.  Over 600 businesses destroyed making a surreal wasteland.  The total property loss was estimated at 1.5 million dollars; a staggering amount in 1921.

One observer who visited Tulsa following the conflagration wrote, “in terms of sheer brutality and willful destruction of life and property, this orgy of mayhem and murder stands without parallel in America.” Not one white person was ever arrested or charged for the Tulsa Massacre.

The president of the Tulsa chamber of commerce furnished news associations across the country with a press release stating, “…as quickly as possible rehabilitation will take place and reparations made.”

But the reality of rehabilitation and restitution never materialized.  Tulsa’s white leaders secretly plotted to do precisely the opposite of their promises. A conspiracy of silence evolved, key documents disappeared, and white business and political leaders at the state and federal levels worked feverishly to sweep the massacre beneath the carpet of history.

The Black community of Tulsa attempted to revive Greenwood during the ‘30s and ‘40s without the promised help.  They were partially successful, but, less than a decade later, dissected by highways, emptied by suburban drift, and rebuffed by officials at every turn, the revival efforts finally succumbed.

All that remains of the magnificent vision and entrepreneurial determination that created “the Negro Wall Street” is a single gentrified block of Greenwood Avenue, surrounded by new urban-renewal projects, a new university complex, and a new cultural center that houses a jazz museum.

As an historical foot note, some historians feel that Adolf Hitler and the Germans based their plan for their “final solution” to the Jewish problem on America’s treatment of Blacks between 1914 and 1935.

A fitting monument to honor Black America and its heroic Black martyrs would be to create working replicas of Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” in urban communities across the nation.  These dynamic memorials, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, would be a living testament to the African-American men and women who in spite of the blatant inequalities of a separate but equal nation accomplished the unimaginable; transforming their dreams into reality.

Black America it is time to do it again.  In fact, it is past time.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

Many will remember Dr. Hooks for his legendary civil rights efforts.  He was also an inspirational mentor who’s quiet but forceful mannerisms initiated a resurgence in the NAACP after he became the executive director in 1977.

When Rev. Hooks took over the NAACP the organization’s prestige had plummeted from the heights attained during the civil rights battles of the 1960s.  The group was $1 million in debt and its membership had shrunk to approximately 200,000 members from the estimated half-million reported a decade earlier.

To resuscitate the organization Dr. Hooks began to visit the larger NAACP chapters across the country to personally deliver his call to action.

I first met Dr. Hooks on June 10, 1978 in Fort Wayne, Indiana when he was the keynote speaker at the local NAACP chapter’s Freedom Fund Banquet.  While that was over 30 years ago the memories of the serpentine sequence of events that took place in getting Dr. Hooks to detour from his big city tour and come to the out of the way hinterland of Fort Wayne are still fresh in my mind.

The black community was confronting the Ft. Wayne school board over the disproportionate burden being placed on black children by busing them out of their areas.  The NAACP decided that bringing the dynamic Rev. Hooks to the city would not only increase attendance at the Freedom Fund Banquet but also provide much needed public relations leverage for the legal suit.  The question was how to get Dr. Hooks to accept our invitation?

A letter of invitation was sent to the NAACP headquarters and after a week I made a follow up call to verify that the letter had been received.

 Dr. Hooks’ secretary was very polite but reminded me of how busy the executive director was and informed me it was very unlikely that he would be able to accept.  Each week I would call NAACP headquarters to inquire about the status of the invitation and was dutifully informed that it was still under consideration.

This inquiry cycle went on for six weeks.  The banquet planning committee at my bequest began publicizing that Dr. Hooks would be the keynote speaker to encourage ticket sales.  Meanwhile, the clock continued to run and each day passed with no affirmative response from NAACP headquarters.

Thirty days before the banquet we had over 900 tickets sold but no confirmation from the keynote speaker.  An emergency meeting was called to consider names of potential alternative speakers.  After lengthy discussion, the committee concluded that since Dr. Hooks’ name had been publicized the branch’s reputation would be forever marred if we did not produce.  All eyes were on me.  I suggested that we join hands in prayer.

The next morning out of desperation I dialed long distance information and asked for the telephone number of Dr. Benjamin Hooks in Memphis.  I was pleasantly surprised when the operator gave me a number.

I nervously dialed the number and Frances Hooks answered.  After pleading my case for a few minutes and explaining the frustration I was having in dealing with NAACP headquarters there was a short pause when neither one of us spoke.  I was about to have a heart attack when after what seemed to be an eternity Frances very calmly said, “He will be there.”

On June 10, 1978 we had an overflow crowd of over 1,200 anxious to see and hear the renowned Reverend Benjamin Hooks.  A significant number of the white community turned out notwithstanding the lawsuit issue.

Timing was critical.  Dr. Hooks was arriving in Ft. Wayne following an earlier engagement at the Los Angeles NAACP.  His plane was scheduled to land at the exact start time of the Ft. Wayne banquet.  The local police department had agreed to supply five motorcycle policemen to escort his limousine from the airport. The program master of ceremonies was instructed to start the program on time but to stretch out the preliminary events.

The divine intervention that had started with the initial phone call to Frances Hooks was still working.  As the presentation preceding Dr. Hooks was concluding the auditorium door opened and Dr. Hooks accompanied by his police escort walked in as the audience rose with spontaneous applause.

The atmosphere was electrifying from the moment I stood to introduce him. His keynote address was mesmerizing and made even more so because there was not a single index card or note pad on the podium. His message was ingrained in him.

While he laid the fire and brimstone on the heads of derelict elected officials and recalcitrant members of the majority community he let the black community know they had obligations also.  His anecdote on overcoming great obstacles has remained embedded in my mind.

On the 16th day of January 1865 General Sherman issued executive order 15 that bequeathed to the freedmen of Georgia 40 acres and a mule.  Andrew Johnson vetoed the order and Sherman’s 40 acres and a mule never became a reality.  Only God knows how much further ahead we would have been had Sherman’s order become reality.  We suffered greatly because black people had nothing.  And yet somehow from nothing we made something.

My message to young black men and black women today is:   Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope.  Your grandmothers and grandfathers made something out of nothing.  A borrowed chicken, a cow that strayed, a pig that wandered.  They built a civilization.  They built a universal life insurance company.  They built a Chicago Defender newspaper. They built institutions of higher learning like LeMoyne and Morehouse.

If they could produce a generation of people that fire could not burn out and water could not drown out, what is the excuse today for not moving forward? There is no excuse.

Yes we still have some white folk who would like to see us enslaved.  But I’m not going to let them destroy me or misguide me.  And I try to instill in all the folk that I come in contact with to do the very best you can with what we have while we continue to fight for the fullness of the rights that we still have not been granted.

Dr. Hooks made it clear that one must place the law of God before the law of man.  He spoke from his heart and preached love from his soul.

May God rest his soul as our prayers go out to Frances and daughter Patricia.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

The chairman said that the world’s best golfer disappointed everyone with his sex scandal and didn’t live up to expectations as a role model.

“As he now says himself, he forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility. It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here. It is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids.  Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.”

“We at Augusta hope and pray that our great champion will begin his new life here tomorrow in a positive, hopeful and constructive manner, but this time, with a significant difference from the past, This year, it will not be just for him, but for all of us who believe in second chances.”

“Is there a way forward? I hope yes. I think yes. But certainly his future will never again be measured only by his performance against par, but measured by the sincerity of his efforts to change.”

The moral hypocrisy of Billy Payne bears examination.  Apparently, he has conveniently forgotten the egregious, racial and sexist history and continued discriminatory practices of the world renowned Augusta National Golf Club.

A brief look at the background of the club gives some insight into the mindset of Chairman Payne.

Founded in the early 1930s, it has long been an exclusive haven for the wealthiest Americans to retreat from the public.  Its 300 members are among the wealthiest and most powerful men in American industrial, legal, business, and political life. The early history of Augusta National included a persistent practice of racial and gender discrimination.

The controversy over the male-only membership policy of the Augusta National Golf Club, host of the Masters Tournament each year, is often associated with the disputes over the racial integration of golf in which Augusta National played a prominent role.

The club has long been one of the nation’s most visible bastions of all-white golf. The Masters is an independently run event that does not fall under the control of the PGA Tour and no black player played in the tournament until Lee Elder in 1975.

The racial restriction on players was also applied to memberships.  It wasn’t until the Shoal Creek Golf Club/PGA Championship controversy in the early 1990s that Augusta National decided to invite, Ron Townsend, president of Gannett Television Group as its first token black member. Bill Simms became a member in the mid-1990s, but resigned under fire in 1997.  Kenneth Chennault (American Express) became a member starting with the 1998-99 season and Lloyd Ward (Maytag) became a member during the 1999-2000 season.

Why does Chairman Payne feel it necessary to stick his nose in the private affairs of Tiger Woods?  It surely wasn’t done for Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo the Brit who spent a total of 98 weeks as the world’s number one golfer before Tiger Woods dominated the sport.

Faldo left his first wife after it was discovered that he was having an affair with his manager’s secretary.  He married the women and had three children then started a relationship with a 20-year-old American golfing student.  However, his infamous three- year affair with the American student ended when his affections were directed at another young woman.  The spurned American student battered Sir Faldo’s Porsche 959 with a golf club, 

From this perch, Chairman Payne, you do not get to lecture about who has and hasn’t let America’s children down.  Augusta National with its blighted history has forfeited that right. 

While Tiger Woods’ behavior was shameful and harmful to him, his family and others he has acknowledged it repeatedly.  It’s equally immoral and despicable for others to use Tiger’s failings as an opportunity to project a level of morality and righteousness they clearly don’t have.

Billy Payne is a hypocrite and the other Augusta Golf Course members should call him on it.  But they won’t because structurally, Atlanta National still stands as a premier example of America’s white male supremacy tied to a binding policy that the chairman alone controls every aspect of the Club’s operations.

Tiger’s return to competitive golf after a five month absence had all the hoopla of a circus event: the chastisement by the host chairman, flyover airplanes towing taunting banners, global media coverage, supersized galleries, and the suspense of how Tiger would handle the stress.  In the final analysis Tiger should follow the advice that former golf icon Nick Faldo gave Greg Norman after his colossal collapse at the 1996 Masters. 

“Don’t let the bastards get you down”, referring to the hounding Faldo assumed Norman would face for blowing a six stroke lead in the final round.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

He said he would do it and he did it.  With a steadfast tenacity and an eye on the prize President Barack Obama has subdued the vaunted GOP dragon after some 15 months of battle.

In Christian symbolism, the dragon has often been associated with the serpent also known as Satan.  Cast out of heaven by St. Michael and his angels, the enraged dragon consumed by selfish desire, blindly strikes out against the vulnerable innocents in an effort to satiate these desires.  In reality, the dragon’s efforts to deceive and devour tend to feed its hunger rather than allay it; the more he gets the more he wants.  Because of the resultant chaos and its destructive power the dragon has increasingly represented the evil inherent in the world and the perpetual conflict between good and evil.

It was onto this age old battlefield of conflict and controversy, where the GOP consistently bedeviled Democrats, that Barack Obama became President of the United States of America.  Several generations of democratic presidents and presidential contenders have been smeared, slandered, and attacked with insidious innuendo and outright lies.  Their response was to take the high road without fighting back.  The result has usually been that the scurrilous underhanded tactics used by the GOP dragon have made them victorious on critical issues even when they were not the voting majority.

For over a year it seemed that the historical tactics of the GOP dragon were working as the relatively inexperienced but calm, cool and collected Barack Obama took over the White House.  Certainly the total shock of a black man vanquishing the GOP presidential candidate by an electoral margin of 365 to 173 was the last straw.  The coordinated muckraking campaign the GOP dragon unleashed was only exceeded by the breadth of change that Obama undertook.

In his speech accepting the Democratic nomination Obama meticulously outlined the critical problems facing Americans with the war, the economy and the inability to enjoy the American promise because of the total failure of Washington’s broken politics.

Obama’s specifics for addressing the American Promise was to: cut taxes for working families, end America’s dependence on foreign oil, provide every child with a world-class education, guarantee affordable healthcare, reform bankruptcy laws, protect social security, and provide equal pay for an equal day of work.

President Obama did not get the usual time to transition into the presidency.  His administration had to immediately deal with the relentless decline in the economy that began in late 2008 and whether or not to bail out the financial institutions.  Getting the $787 billion dollar stimulus package through congress presaged the partisan rancor that followed.

Not a single Republican in the House voted for the package, and it took the votes of three Republican senators to avert a filibuster fight.

Partisan hell broke loose when health care reform was introduced.  As various bills made their way through Congress over the summer and fall of 2009, there was practically no bipartisan support.  Congressional Republicans were in lock-step agreement to stop any health care measure that Obama backed.

Buoyed by the special election win of Scott Brown to the senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy the GOP dragon went into overdrive mode to derail healthcare reform.  The party of NO had dedicated itself to prevent Black President Obama from achieving success where no other (White) president had succeeded in over 45 years.

But they underestimated the resolve of a determined Obama.

He rolled up his sleeves and went back into campaign mode to talk directly to the people about the failed status quo and the need to look to the future.  After the bitterest of debates, the House passed the health care legislation late Sunday night on March 21, 2010 ensuring that whatever any adverse political price, history will show President Obama as one of the few presidents who found a way to reshape the nation’s social system.

Mr. Obama proved to the skeptics in his own party and to the GOP dragon that he is willing to fight for something that he believes in no matter the potential political consequences.

And if winning the healthcare battle over the GOP dragon was not enough five days latter Obama concluded a new strategic arms treaty agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.  Two huge wins for Barack Obama at home and abroad in a span of six days.

President Obama, you have taken the best hits the GOP dragon could muster and prevailed. You have shown that you are a domestic and international leader but most importantly you have proven that you can deliver on what you promise and that you will stick with a task, no matter how treacherous the obstructing dragon, until it is finished.

But the GOP dragon shall rise again. They will be forever dogging your footsteps, looking for an opening to launch another attack.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

His prophetic words have become a reality at every level of the African American landscape as Blacks are increasingly being forced into defensive mode.  No one seems to be exempt from attack.  Blacks targeted run the gamut from the rich and powerful, to distressed middle class families, and laid off single parents trying to save their homes from foreclosure.

A report released on March 17, 2010 by the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of congress provides an in-depth look at unemployment and long-term unemployment among African Americans and shows that the current Great Recession has been absolutely crushing on the African American community.

The report found that the unemployment rate for blacks is more than six percentage points higher than the overall national unemployment rate.  From February 2007 to February 2010, unemployment among African American men more than doubled, climbing from 9.0 percent to 19.0 percent.  During this same period the unemployment rate for African American women increased from 7.1 percent to 13.1 percent.

Blacks are also experiencing longer periods of unemployment than the general population.  Though African Americans make up 11.5 percent of the labor force, they account for 17.8 percent of the unemployed, 20.3 percent of those unemployed for more than six months, and 22.1 percent of the workers unemployed for a year or more.  Of the unemployed African Americans forty-five percent have been out of work for six months or more.

Blacks who’ve been encouraged to obtain four-year college degrees so they could find better and more secure employment are unemployed at a rate of 8.2 percent compared to the 4.5 percent rate of whites with similar levels of education.

These statistics, while frightening, do not fully characterize the breadth of the tough times Blacks are experiencing.  From the president, to black congress members, to sports stars, there seems to be a never ending list of Blacks being castigated.

The question naturally arises; is racism behind this sudden fixation on powerful blacks?  In the case of President Obama much of the hostility and vitriol directed at him goes well beyond political disagreement over the economy, the wars, or the direction of the country and has the distinct odor of rank racism.

The names Tiger Woods, John Lewis, Charles Rangel, and David Paterson can be added to the growing list of notable Blacks confronting challenging times.

There is ample justification to consider conspiracy theory or Klansman mentality as the driving force behind the suspicious actions and inflammatory rhetoric of Tea Party activists and conservative media both to undermine Blacks in powerful positions and turn the clock back on the civil rights gains achieved during the latter part of the 20th century.

John Schmitt, senior analyst at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, adds another variable for consideration in his report Inequality as Policy.  The dramatic increase in inequality in the United States is not due to chance circumstances but is the direct result of a set of policies designed first and foremost to increase inequality.

The debate over the causes of this Black antagonism could go on ad-infinitum with no definitive conclusion.  In reality, it could be a combination of racism, the current economic environment, a backlash against America’s first black president, or simply the reaction of a small segment of unenlightened Americans conflicted that the natural order of society as they perceive it is changing.

The real reasons may never be uncovered but the realities of life must be dealt with as they occur.

Life is tough no matter one’s status, background or position.  But the apostle Paul gives us guidance in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 on what needs to be done to excel in the race that life necessitates.

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.   Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

While Paul was symbolizing the race for salvation the principles he advocates are applicable to running the race in our secular lives.  Blacks must be prepared to pay with the sweat of their brow to get anything worthwhile.  The days of getting something for nothing are fast disappearing so we need to roll up our sleeves and get busy.

We need to stop crying the blues so much and wishing for somebody else to do something to give us the abundant life promised as God’s benefactors.  Yes, there will be problems along the way but no one wants to hear the constant wail of groaning and moaning.

Paul said succeeding in the race of life takes determination, dedication, discipline and perseverance.  Anything less subjects the runner to disqualification.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

The National Pan-Hellenic Council is made up of nine historically Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs) that are often referred to as “The Divine Nine.” Established on May 10, 1930 at Howard University, Washington, D.C. NPHC had five charter members: Omega Psi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternities, and Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta Sororities.  In 1931, Alpha Phi Alpha and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternities joined the Council.  Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority joined in 1937 and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity completed the list of member organizations in 1997.

While there is some debate on the origin of stepping it is generally believed that the black Greeks started using it around the mid 1960’s as part of their crossing over celebration when bringing new members into the organizations.  Once the local sororities and fraternities began to show off their step moves the competitive aspects of stepping began to take root and by the 1990s the competitions had moved beyond the campus and large sponsors began to host step events.

When the Sprite Step Off tournament kicked of in September 2009 it was touted as the largest Greek step competition ever.  Sprite announced that it had partnered with the nine organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council to launch a dynamic multicultural competition featuring 30 events in over 20 cities in which step teams from undergraduate fraternities and sororities from all across the country could compete for a share of a $1.5 million prize pool; the largest in the history of stepping competition.

Stepping had finally become big time with big money. Qualifying rounds were held in various cities with the Grand National finals hosted in the back yard of Black Greekdom, Atlanta, Georgia.

All went well during the Sprite 2010 Step Off finals until Zeta Tau Alpha, the lone white team in the competition, was declared the winning sorority and received the grand prize of $100,000.

The Zeta Tau Alpha team, comprised of nine white females, clad in matrix like black trench coats, dark shades and black boots came out and turned on the capacity crowd with eight minutes of awesome stepping, precision routines, and an over the top finale.  The predominately black audience gave them a standing ovation as they exited the stage.

However, the audience erupted in boo’s when Zeta was awarded the top prize.  This seemed odd since they had given the Zeta team the loudest applause and most boisterous cheers of the night for their mesmerizing Matrix inspired performance.

Hate-filled comments and race based dialogue filled the internet sites following the competition with nonsense ranting about cultural theft, the inferiority of Zeta’s performance, vote rigging, and the need for black only contests.

The troubling part of this unwarranted ending to the step contest is the message being sent that blacks have no qualms against perpetrating the same discriminatory practices that they fought so hard to eliminate.  And to make the point even stronger this incident occurred in Atlanta the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Sprite, as the sponsoring organization, made the wrong decision to capitulate to the pressure.  Five days after the contest they announced that because of a scoring discrepancy in the sorority results, the second-place winners, Tau Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. from Indiana University, would be recognized as co-winners and awarded the same $100,000 prize as Zeta Tau Alpha.  This is disingenuous and in direct opposition to the Step Off rules that state the decision of the judges is final.  No proof of a discrepancy and no comment from the judges were offered.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council needs to seriously evaluate who is in control.  There is an age old rule that he who has the gold makes the rules.  In essence you can’t sell your heritage/traditions and control them at the same time.  Taking Sprite’s money opens the door to the ego busting situation of having strangers come into your house and beat you at your own game.

Ironically, the Zeta team got into stepping because of a unity outreach program sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha black sorority at the University of Arkansas some 15 years ago.  Zeta took it seriously, worked hard, learned a variety of steps and the history of stepping and began to enter competitions.  They qualified at every level for the Sprite Step Off.  Is this backlash to be their reward for their diligence?

After watching the videos of both ZETA and AKA performances any objective observer would come to the conclusion that both teams were outstanding.  Either team could have been declared the winner.  But in any competition the judges make the decision.  In this case they selected ZETA who not only gave an outstanding performance but showed a total understanding of the art form.

In that light the black Greeks should congratulate the girls of Zeta Tau Alpha and strive to improve their own routine for the next competition. Real champions also act like champions.  Whining and complaining sends the wrong message about who and what black Greeks are.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

Standing at a podium, in a hushed room at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL before an invitation only audience of 40 close friends, family and selected journalists, a somber Woods read his statement apologizing for marital indiscretions.  Tiger’s imprint on golf is so massive that the four major TV networks along with every cable news channel broke into their regular programming to carry a live feed of the press conference.

Tiger apologized to his wife, family, friends, fans and business associates.  He said he was sorry for his behavior, took personal responsibility for his inappropriate actions, promised to focus on getting himself together, and would continue to seek professional help for his uncharacteristic behavior.

Numerous critical responses were made to Tiger’s statement both in the blogosphere and in mainstream media decrying that Tiger had not given enough details about his transgressions and should not have had a closed press conference.

A blog written by CNN Sports Anchor, Justin Armsden, is representative of the attitude of many who believe they have a right to demand that Tiger reveal all aspects of his private life.

Armsden writes that, “Tiger is asking the media to leave his family alone because he brought this all on them but he is choosing to spoon feed the public what he decides they need to hear.  Is he still entitled to do this?  I don’t think so.”

Mr. Armsden insists that the media and the public need answers to questions like: What was behind the car crash in November?  You admit to being unfaithful but was it on multiple occasions?  Do you still have the same hunger as a golfer?  Can you ever be as intimidating as a player if you come back?

He goes on to say, “Their desire to control everything is arrogant and disrespectful to fans who want the hard questions asked.”

There were fans who disagree with Armsden’s demands for ongoing unrestricted press conferences as evidenced in their responses to his blog.

“What goes on in his bedroom should be none of our business. He does not owe any of us anything. The man said it right when he said it’s between him and his wife. Let it go.”

 “Of course he can spoon feed the media.  It is an issue between him and his (future ex?) wife. The media aren’t entitled to any more than he wants to give.”

“Give the guy some credit.  He has demons just like the rest of us.  As for the questions that you say we – the public, the media – deserve to know answers to: The car crash details are the business of law enforcement, not us.  The details of the affairs are the business of the people involved, not us.  Get a life. It is what it is. Quit your whining and let the guy move on!”

To encourage naysayers to move on, the advisors and public relations experts who prepared the statement that Mr. Woods read should have included a concise closing that clearly identified where Tiger draws the line between his professional and private life.  The following is offered for consideration.

“My family and I are going through a difficult period in our lives.  While I am still in the process of evolving and understanding who I am I feel confident that my reaffirmation with my core faith is a move in the right direction.

I appreciate all that you have done over the past 32 years of my life.  You embraced me as a two year old prodigy after I appeared with Bob Hope on the Mike Douglas show.  You were there during my formative years as my future career began to take shape while participating in Junior World Golf,  U.S. Junior Amateur Golf, U.S. Amateur Golf, a two year stint at Stanford University, and finally becoming a professional golfer in 1996.

You were there during the difficult days of 1997 as I struggled with the daunting task of integrating myself into the professional ranks. The pieces began to come together in 1999 and for over a decade I and golf fans the world over have had an amazing ride as we witnessed raising the bar of professional golf to new heights.  I cannot thank you enough for your support.

While I respect your right to have any opinion about my actions as a professional athlete, in the final analysis I alone must define who and what Tiger Woods is.  I cannot concede to you a power of attorney to define me via consensus polling or committee analysis.  It is impossible to please everybody and even if I tried to do so precedence has shown it is the wrong road to travel.

As a human being I have made mistakes.  I cannot guarantee perfection.  I can only promise that I will learn from my mistakes and try to do better as I grow in wisdom, maturity, and understanding of myself and the world I live in.

I have and will continue to dedicate myself to providing you with professional golf played to the highest level of my ability.

It is time to move on.  I and my family must deal with the issues of my mistakes because they are our issues.  My professional life is open to you but my private life is and always will be mine.”

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

While the main stream media has covered the emotional comments of both supporters and detractors of Pat Robertson’s curse theory very little factual information has been provided regarding the negative impact on Haiti over the years by America’s duplicitous foreign policy.  Tim Matthewson’s “A Pro-Slavery Foreign Policy”, Henry Louis Gates “The Curse on Haiti”, and Noam Chomsky’s “Year 501” provide excellent background information.

In the emotional debate there is an ambivalence of public attitudes.  There are some that believe that the very poor in Haiti, like Katrina victims, are not worth assisting and that these culturally dysfunctional misfits should be sent elsewhere.  New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in a recent op-ed that, “Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences.”  Brooks, however, fails to mention the role of U.S. trade policy in destroying Haiti’s former thriving economy.

The Republic of Haiti was established on January 1, 1804 following a slave uprising against the French colonial rulers.  Hans Schmidt wrote that, “Saint Domingue was the wealthiest European colonial possession in the Americas”, producing three-quarters of the world’s sugar by 1789 and also leading the world in production of coffee, cotton, indigo, and rum. The slave masters provided France with enormous wealth from the labor of their 450,000 slaves. The white population, including poor overseers and artisans, numbered 40,000.

Despite American support, in principle, for independence movements there was little enthusiasm for the efforts of Haiti’s slaves to end their enslavement and establish the New World’s second republican government.

Between 1791 and 1804, the slave population of the French colony of Haiti revolted against the white minority. The revolt appalled Europe as well as the newly independent United States of America. The United States because of its commercial interests with the French colony, sent the French $750,000 in military aid as well as some troops to help quell the revolt.

The Treaty of Alliance of 1778 signed by France and the United States required that the United States protect French colonies in the New World.  American merchants also hoped to exploit the loss of French control over the colony and extend the commercial interests of the United States into the West Indian market.  The ongoing French Revolution, the Quasi War, and anxiety about the future of the Louisiana Territory and the port at New Orleans also effected American policy decisions.

The French commander in Haiti wrote Napoleon that it would be necessary to wipe out virtually the entire black population to impose French rule.  However, his campaign failed and Haiti became the only case in history of an enslaved people breaking its own chains and using military might to beat back a powerful ruler.

The Haitian victory came at tremendous cost.  Much of the agricultural wealth of the country was destroyed, along with perhaps a third of the population. The victory horrified Haiti’s slave-holding neighbors, who backed France’s claims for huge reparations, which Haiti finally accepted in 1825 as a precondition for participation in the global marketplace.

The result was decades of French domination of Haiti’s financial well being.  Assisted by an American embargo, Haiti’s trade fell approximately 80 percent.  Reparation payments that amounted to almost 70 percent of Haiti’s foreign exchange earnings were made until 1922.  The United States did not recognize Haiti as a nation until 1862.

While Presidents Washington, Adams and Jefferson made policy decisions detrimental to Haiti it was during Jefferson’s tenure that the revolt’s critical mass developed.

There has always been a contradiction between Jefferson’s ownership of slaves and his expressed belief in the rights of all to enjoy liberty.  One aspect of Jefferson’s beliefs was both Blacks and Whites would always view each other in racial terms and when slavery no longer existed blacks would rebel due to the long years of intense and cruel oppression. This view of slavery led Jefferson to support the concept of colonization in a new country as the ultimate solution to the slavery problem.

Jefferson had initially expressed to the French in 1801 that the “United States opposed Haiti’s independence under Black rule and wanted to see French authority restored.  The French emissary reported to Paris that it was Jefferson’s “dread of the blacks, not devotion to French interests” that motivated his offer of assistance to the French.

Jefferson reconsidered his offer to aid the French against the Haitian rebels when he learned in August 1802 about Napoleon Bonaparte’s plan to use Haiti as the first step towards building a colonial empire in the western hemisphere. His policy change at the time when Napoleon was in desperate need of money to support his army resulted in Jefferson making the largest land acquisition in American history, the Louisiana Purchase.

Thus, the ultimate change in Jefferson’s policy that contributed to France’s defeat in Haiti was due to geopolitical and commercial implications impacting the balance of power in the Caribbean and not a moral imperative to support the emancipation of an oppressed people.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

An estimated 250,000 civil rights supporters witnessed King’s oration that is considered by many to be one of the greatest speeches in human history and still remains an inspiration to millions of people around the world to this day.

The speech, though well received by the massive crowd, did not garner instant national or international acclaim.  News reports following the event focused on the orderliness and non-violence of the participants.  The New York Times headline was: “200,000 March for Civil Rights in Orderly Washington Rally- President [Kennedy] Sees Gain for Negro.”  In most news accounts of the march Dr. King’s participation was buried deep inside the report.

There was an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear throughout Washington prior to the march.  No one knew what to expect.  People were afraid, sensing that a revolution was about to sweep the city.  The administration had placed barricades along the streets and put troops out on alert in case something went wrong.

But the Baptist Preacher from Atlanta, speaking passionately and powerfully on a personal level to the people, did not provoke the crowd to violence.  Instead, his eloquent rhetoric became a universal vocabulary for people the world over to understand the social and political unrest that existed and what needed to be done for the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence to be realized.

Each year there are parades, prayers, musicals, dinners, and speeches to pay homage to Dr. King’s legacy during his holiday celebration.  The “I Have A Dream” speech is perfunctorily recited on programs and excerpts are played on television and radio stations in solemn tributes.  But 46 years later do those honoring the memory of Dr. King truly understand his Dream beyond the mesmerizing poetry of the speech?

The following excerpts from an analysis of Dr. King’s Dream Speech by Professor Hajii and his student Hassna Alfayez of King Saud University (KSU?) in Saudi Arabia indicates not only the universal appeal of The Dream but the strong desire of non-Blacks to fully understand this oratorical masterpiece.

Dr. King knew the authorities were carefully watching him and scrutinizing every word that came out of his mouth.  Despite all this attention, he delivered the speech flawlessly and without fear.

He does not use just ordinary language to convey his message.  He makes use of a number of semantics to enrich and make his message bold.  He speaks of having come to the nation’s capital to cash a check and refers to the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note signed by the government.

Once a promissory note is signed one cannot go back on that promise and by this Dr. King was reminding as well as warning the government that they had to act on their promises and failure to do so would continue to be met with demonstrations across the country.

Dr. King reminds the authorities of having defaulted on their promissory note and the black people’s refusal to believe that there are “insufficient funds in the bank of justice” and that there are insufficient funds in the” great vaults of opportunity “of this nation.  By invoking banking semantics Dr. King adds colorful meaning to his speech and keeps his audience attentive and wanting to hear more.

Martin Luther King chooses his words carefully to inspire in his audience the forceful attitude he wants them to adopt in their struggle for freedom while maintaining non violence.  “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.  We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

Words such as “dignity, discipline, creative protest, majestic heights, and soul force” inspire a sense of self worthiness and mature dignity in the audience.

Dr. King bonds with his audience when he tells them that he is not “unmindful” of their situation.  He totally understands and shares their plight and hardship. He uses adjectives such as “storms and winds” in describing the audience’s fight for freedom. It is like a typhoon that twirls them around and rips them apart but they have to endure it with “creative and redemptive suffering” and go back to their towns, to their demeaning jobs and to their ghettos to continue their dignified struggle for freedom.

While using stimulating words to inspire his audience to seek their lost freedom at the same time he chooses his words carefully to control the potential physical effect of his inspirational rhetoric.  He was protecting his hearers from any form of violence and brutality that might erupt after the speech and cause the troop patrols to take action.

Today, 46 years after the exhortation in Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, Blacks and other minorities remain second-class citizens while being subject to political, economic, and educational stealth discrimination. This stealth discrimination is perhaps more dreadful and deadly than the overt discrimination that King addressed.

Dr. King has gone, but his dream and declaration on racial equality, freedom and justice remains to be fulfilled.

The key to making Dr. King’s dream a reality is to first fully understand the dream and the secret of change embedded in the Dream Speech.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com

The nine year war on terrorism with it’s associated nuances of religion, suicide, and fanaticism have transformed the terrorism concept into something exotic, incomprehensible and confusing.

Motivated by political expediency to do something the government is trapped in a never ending war while misleading and mis-educating the American people into the false belief that terrorism can be totally conquered or eliminated.

The war against terrorism, as currently constructed, has no chance of success because there has been no realistic success criteria defined.  The anti-terrorism program is antiquated, cost-ineffective, mismanaged, driven by political opportunism and fear inducement with minimal relationship to relevant terrorism facts.

This article is not intended as a broad indictment against the administration but is a plea that a corrective be made, based on facts, to the methods that have not produced satisfactory results in combating terrorism for almost a decade.  In fact, what has been implemented since the 9/11 attacks have made things worse.

A new terrorism program should not be decided upon by the continued trial and error methods being used that merely tweak previously failed programs and throw more money and bureaucracy at the problem.

Rather, It is a matter of exercising common sense in approaching, preparing, and educating the American people with the proper facts in order to deal with the reality of the terrorism threat instead of the perception of what ought to be.

The first reality is to stop perpetrating the unrealistic expectation of winning a war in the sense of stopping all terrorist attacks.  It is possible to make terrorist plots less likely to succeed but NOT possible to prevent them entirely.

The Foreign Policy Research Institute in a paper entitled “The History and Future of Suicide Terrorism” concluded that despite the historical roots of suicide terrorism even with the kamikazes in WWII, the era of suicide terrorism really began in Lebanon in the early 1980s.  Terrorism can be best understood if we think of it as a military innovation, not as something exotic, and if we study it from a diffusion perspective instead of emotionally.

Diffusion is the cooperation between extremist organizations in conducting training, operations, and support in terrorist methods that has continued to grow even when the organizations do not share motives or ideology.

Statistics from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) show that approximately 57,978 terrorist attacks occurred since 2005.  Fatalities during this period attributed to terrorist acts totaled 73,301.  They were highest in Iraq with 11,760, the United States is second with 3,227 and India, Pakistan, Israel, Columbia, Russia, Lebanon, Algeria, and Afghanistan round out the top ten.

For the year 2008 NCTC reported 15,765 deaths and 11,770 attacks.  The Near East and Southeast Asia accounted for over 73 percent of the deaths and 76 percent of the attacks.  By comparison, the Western Hemisphere reported 370 deaths and 362 attacks representing 2.5 percent and 3.0 percent respectively of the world wide totals.  Thirty-Three Americans were killed during attacks in foreign countries; 21 in Iraq, 6 in India, 4 in Afghanistan, 1 in Yemen, 1 in Sudan. Over 50 percent of the individuals killed in the terrorist attacks reported for 2008 were Muslims.

There were 154 known terrorist organizations distributed throughout some 48 countries with Afghanistan (13), Pakistan (12), Lebanon (10) and India (9) topping the list.  Iraq and Israel tied for seventh place with 6 known organizations.  The United States along with 26 other countries had 1 known terrorist organization.

The “enemy” will remain an invisible presence, unseen except for its devastating effects when an attack occurs, creating more fear.  The real terrorism question then is:  What logic is there for America to spend billions of dollars supporting an army in Iraq and Afghanistan knowing that terrorist organizations are operating in 48 countries?  If the security of American lives is paramount then the facts dictate that terrorism resources should be spent on keeping terrorists from entering the country instead of fighting wars on foreign soils.  

Fear-based responses are conducive to unreasoned reflective actions based on guesses and hunches, the creation of massive unresponsive agencies, and awarding lucrative contracts for databases and equipment that cannot be integrated into connecting dots.  Who besides the contractors have benefited from the development of the massive NCTC database or the full body scanners that have been sitting in warehouses for months?

Economist Mancur Olson argues that as countries and bureaucracies age, they develop more and more sub-layers and decision points.  As specialization infiltrates an organization and it develops more extensive bureaucratic layering, the internal inertia makes it much harder for the organization to change what it is doing if it turns out that it should do something different.  Most important, in these bureaucratic labyrinths it is almost impossible to access accountability. 

The continued mis-education and misunderstanding of terrorism’s reality, if not corrected, will continue to pose serious threats and risks to America’s safety.

James W. Breedlove

Comments or opinions may be sent to the writer at: www.truthclinic.com