Rewinder

“The Price That Was Paid To Get Him There”

Johnny — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:30:34 +0000

Progress arrives slowly, hastened by fear, highlighted by incisive, fleeting moments of transcendence. Weeping along with Reverend Jesse Jackson on Tuesday night as President-elect Obama addressed his country, we experienced such a rare moment. But his tears should remind us that progress is not only defined by its vision of the future but as a product of the past. Jackson wept not because we had reached some fabled “Promised Land,” but because only after a lifetime of steady, but less-symbolic victories for equality, could the country have demonstrated so loudly the “true nature of its creed.”

A look back at some powerful moments in the ongoing struggle:

Rosa Parks c. 1956:

The Little Rock Nine, 1957:

Martin Luther King Jr. & Fred Shuttlesworth addressing attacks on the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL on May 21st, 1961:

Many more videos…

A short doc on Medgar Evers, NAACP State Field Secretary, Mississippi

President John F. Kennedy announces the Civil Rights Act, June 11th, 1963:

“I have a dream”:

Senator Robert Kennedy talks race in South Africa in 1966:

MLK’s reaction to the Selma Marches:

Dr. Kenneth Clark, Psychology Professor, City College of New York asks MLK about Malcolm X:

In a later interview, Dr. Clark asks Malcolm X about MLK:

James Baldwin, “I am not a nigger”:

Bobby Seale explains the Black Panther platform:

Dr. King talks the day before his death:

Shirley Chisholm’s campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in 1972:

Jesse Jackson’s 1984 campaign, “Don’t cry about what you don’t have. Use what you got”:

Minister Farrakhan spars with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes in 1996:

Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell join Bush’s cabinet:

Change we can believe in:

History weeps:

Yes You Can

Johnny — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:29:09 +0000

Obama’s Infomercial Inspiration

Johnny — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:24:59 +0000

This summer, John McCain experienced a rare uptick in the polls when he caricatured his opponent as “the biggest celebrity in the world.” After tonight’s half-hour primetime infomercial airing on CBS, NBC, Fox and Univision, McCain will surely try to resurrect the Brangelina Obama storyline. But in opting for the infomercial format, Barack is definitely no Paris Hilton. Hawking his policies to a couch potato audience, he instead joins the ranks of awesomely bad D-List “sell-ebrities” Billy Mays and Suzanne Somers. Surely, David Axelrod has been studying these fine videos…

The Hawaii Chair:

The GT Xpress 101:

Don West selling baseball cards:

The Day Barack Began

Johnny — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:17:10 +0000

Running even more time off grandfather’s clock, today Barack Obama offered his “closing argument” for this epic race. It got me thinking about his very first campaign speech on that chilly day in Springfield, Illinois on February 10th, 2007. Speaking to the first of his many huge crowds, he said, “I recognize that there’s a certain presumptiousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement. I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” Well Senator, if all goes well this week, you may finally get your chance to change it.

What I Learned In Primary School

Johnny — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:21:09 +0000

As more and more polls and pundits suggest an imminent Barack Obama victory, I thought I’d remind you of the ultimate polling debacle of the election season. As ABC’s Director of Polling put it following Hillary’s January New Hampshire primary upset, “it is simply unprecedented for so many polls to have been so wrong.” So in addition to praying pollsters have gotten their shit straight since then, let’s not count our chickens until they’re inaugurated.

But just in case he does win, I put in for a “personal day” on November 5th ; )