Ding ding ding…

As Birmingham Blues said, the gloves have come off. Patricia Todd held a press conference yesterday to encourage the Alabama Democratic Party to dismiss the contest of the election results (full text of her statement here).

I tried to quit talking about this subject earlier this week, but a quick glance at some local blogs got my blood boiling again.

Andre also took his gloves off in his first post this morning, a thing he does not do nearly often enough in my opinion (although I understand why he doesn’t). In the 60’s Black leaders in this city and state quickly brought about drastic changes for the civil rights of minorities for this entire country. It seems that ever since that victory, Black “leaders” have been shooting themselves in the foot. The district 54 “race” is just the latest in a long history of Birmingham area Black “leaders” and politicians attempting to bolster their race’s position in society, politics, power or whatever, but instead end up dividing the community and continuing the long running stagnation of ideas and action in our region.

I’m ready for cooperation, I’m ready for progress, I’m ready for REAL LEADERS, and I don’t care if they’re white, black, purple, male, female, gay, lesbian, christian, etc.

More items of interest:
Tapestry’s story of Spider Martin’s struggle to document the Civil Rights fight in Alabama. Link. Audio..
I listened to this on my ipod on the way to work this morning and it really shook me to my core. After I got in to work and read the blogs that I linked to above, I nearly cried because of how far we haven’t come.

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It. I’m lazy when it comes to reading, but I’m buying this book…