FCNNEWSSOURCE
(FinalCall.com) – Senator John Kerry respectfully takes “extraordinary exception” to a characterization of him as the “flip side of the coin with President George W. Bush” made by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan during his May 3 world press conference at the National Press Club.
As president, Sen. Kerry cannot do any more for Black people than any other president who has preceded him, without Blacks sharing more of the responsibility for their own destiny. With nearly 10,000 Black elected officials nationwide, Blacks are in a worse condition today than we were 40 years ago when Congress passed the historic Civil Rights Act.
-Minister Louis Farrakhan
He defended his record in an interview with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks (AURN). Campaign finance reform is his strong suit. He is the only United States senator who has run for office four times voluntarily refusing to take money from political action committees (PACs). He, Sen. Kerry insists, is not at all like the Incumbent. He has “tried to separate American politics from big money,” making him “different from George Bush who’s been lock, stock and barrel tied up to all that big money for years,” he maintained.
Also, his staunch support for education funding and his human compassion make him different from Mr. Bush, insists Sen. Kerry. “I will fully fund ‘No Child Left Behind’ (Mr. Bush’s education program). I will fully fund Head Start and I will fully fund special needs education, and for years I have fought for programs that make a difference in minority communities,” he said.
But, at the same time, Sen. Kerry defends the Bush-led U.S. occupation of Iraq. “We have to stay the course. We cannot cut and run.”
Like Blacks in America, Iraqis can now legitimately ask a potential Kerry administration: “Are we free yet? Where do we send thank you cards?”
Sen. Kerry also considers his lifelong support for set-aside programs and affirmative action among the things he supports which “make a difference in minority communities.”
As president, Sen. Kerry cannot do any more for Black people than any other president who has preceded him, without Blacks sharing more of the responsibility for their own destiny. With nearly 10,000 Black elected officials nationwide, Blacks are in a worse condition today than we were 40 years ago when Congress passed the historic Civil Rights Act, Min. Farrakhan points out. “We are a greatly deceived people, like a dog chasing his own tail,” the Muslim leader continued, pointing out the folly in the reliance on politics alone to liberate Blacks.
It is Sen. Kerry who is mistaken if he feels that his satisfactory statements on one or two issues earns him a “free pass” concerning many other much more troubling issues including public policy initiatives targeted to deal with Black community problems.
His supporters are mistaken if they feel he deserves support from us because he is the “lesser of two evils.”
Proposed legislative “crumbs” from Sen. Kerry and the Democratic Party should not be considered satisfactory reciprocity for 90 percent of the Black vote in the 2004 elections!
Minority set-aside programs and affirmative action are not now, and never will be, the equivalent of re-payment of the debts America owes to the descendants of her slaves, especially in an environment where self-sufficiency born of a healthy dose of “Do for Self” is practiced.
Respectfully, we seek to set the record straight concerning the difference and/or the lack of difference as far as Blacks are concerned, between presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Neither of the candidates is concerned about the true liberation of Black people.
