As I set in front of the TV watching how Candace Owens had enticed a group of Blacks and Latinos from all over the nation to hear the president give a twenty minute speech about how much he appreciated them and loved them, it reminded me of “da massa throwing down chicken wings and water melon at Christmas time down to the slaves from the balcony and dey hollerin.. we love you!! To which he says I love you too!! …now get back to work my children..” I’m like these cats don’t have an iota of self respect.. I’m looking to hear the overseer’s whip at any minute… Of course the president only talked about himself and how he was getting over Covid -19. He didn’t say anything about how the disease was disportionality affecting the minority communities. It made me sick to my stomach to think these black and brown people would bring the Trump disease back to our community with them after they left and possibly contribute to more pain, suffering and death.. infected of all places… at a Trump rally at the White House which some people refer to as the place viruses want to be seen at… The Covid-19 Hot Spot Hotel. Anyway.. I thought about a kinder gentler time when although president’s were bigots and racist.. at least they were honorable. George H.W. Bush was the last honorable bigot. Please enjoy this reprint of the honorable bigot.
George H.W. Bush 41st President of the United States died last Friday, November 30. He was proceeded in death by his wife, Barbara Bush who passed away in April of this year. As the accolades come pouring in from around the world about this kinder gentler statesman, not as many are coming from minority communities. Many of his policies and legislative accomplishments were in direct opposition to minority interest. From as far back as 1963 the young conservative Republican campaigned against any civil right legislation. During his 1988 Presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis, he was harshly criticized for what was thought of as a racist dog whistle campaign advertisement. The advertisement feature a black man called “Willie” Horton. His real name was William R. Horton. Horton who had been sentenced to life was the recipient of a Massachusetts furlough program. During the time, Dukakis herald the program as a significant rehabilitation tool. Once released, Horton did not return. Instead on April 3, 1987, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted. He was subsequently captured and sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years. The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, “I’m not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again.” Republicans eagerly picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H. W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches. Bush’s campaign manager Lee Atwater said, “By the time we’re finished, they’re going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis’ running mate.” Of course, by the time they finished, Dukakis didn’t stand a chance of winning the contest. When later interviewed by “The Nation,” Horton had this to say,
“The fact is, my name is not ‘Willie.’ It’s part of the myth of the case. The name irks me. It was created to play on racial stereotypes- big, ugly, dumb, violent, black — ‘Willie’. I resent that. They created a fictional character — who seemed believable, but who did not exist. They stripped me of my identity, distorted the facts, and robbed me of my constitutional rights.”
In 1976 President Gerald Ford tapped Bush to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It was during this time that Bush started cultivating ties with Nicaragua and the Contra’s in Latin America. He only spent one year as CIA director under Ford. President Carter replaced him with Stansfield Turner. Turner was an Admiral in the Navy and was a fierce critic of President Ronald Reagan. Although Bush only served one term as CIA director, the ramifications of opening up ties to central American right-wing political activist would come to harm a generation of Black Americans. Although it is widely reported that H.W Bush was responsible for the crack epidemic which ravished the black and brown communities of the 1990’s, it was Ronald Reagan that was responsible for the generational holocaust. It started with the Iran-Contra affair under which weapons were purchased from Iran and given to the US backed Contra’s to fight the right wing socialist Sandinista. Congress had forbade the use of tax payer money to buy weapons for the US backed Contra’s. The money that was used to purchase the weapons was derived from the sales of crack cocaine in the inner cities of Los Angeles. Not long afterward crack cocaine spread to minority communities all across America. Now I am not saying crack was unknown before then. After all it was during the Bush years that Marion Berry was caught smoking the drug in the infamous Vista International Hotel incident. All I’m saying is crack went national after Reagan made drugs lords in our country. Another incident happened in 1989 which may account for the anti-minority backlash the former president is accused of. During HW,s war against drugs , he made an anti drug speech from the White House and it was reported that the DEA lured a black teenager to the Lafayette Park to purchase the drugs, so that the President could say,” This is crack cocaine. It was seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House.” The teenager, Keith Jackson would spend 10 years in federal prison. You can read more about this here and here.
During his presidency, Bush signed a number of major bills into law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This was one of the most pro-civil rights bills in decades. He was also the only president to successfully veto a civil rights act, having vetoed the job-discrimination protection Civil Rights Act of 1990. Bush feared racial quotas would be imposed, but later approved the watered-down Civil Rights Act of 1991. He worked to increase federal spending for education, childcare, and advanced technology research. He reauthorized the Clean Air Act and in March 1989, he placed a temporary ban on the import of certain semiautomatic rifles. This action cost him endorsement from the NRA in 1992. Bush publicly resigned his life membership in the organization after receiving a form letter from the NRA depicting agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as “jack-booted thugs.” He called the NRA letter a “vicious slander on good people.” H.W also presided over the first Gulf war, when Saddam Hussein, invaded its oil-rich neighbor to the south, Kuwait. While the official reason for US involvement in the war was as Bush stated before a joint session of the United States Congress, “Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait completely, immediately, and without condition. Kuwait’s legitimate government must be restored. The security and stability of the Persian Gulf must be assured. And American citizens abroad must be protected.” He then outlined a fifth, long-term objective: “Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era — freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony … A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak,” The real reason was not to let those oil fields in which US corporations had substantial investments, fall into the hands of Saddam Hussein who would have promptly nationalized them. A few years later, HW’s son, George W. would invade Iraq, Saddam Hussein would be captured and killed and America would enter into the second longest war in its history. The longest war in our history has been with Afghanistan.
HW died from vascular parkinsonism, a form of Parkinson’s disease which had forced him to use a motorized scooter or wheelchair. Parkinson’s disease is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. He died on November 30, 2018, aged 94, at his home in Houston. Bush became the 12th U.S. President to lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, although there have been others who were not politicians. Rosa Parks was among those honored with the tribute. Click here for a complete list. George Herbert Walker Bush will be laid to rest on the grounds of his Presidential library in Houston, where he will lie beside his wife Barbara and his daughter, Pauline Robinson Bush, who died of leukemia in 1953 at the age of 4.
Be the first to comment