®*?* Fortiani» (Ob ser Her
O ctober 12. 2011
Page 7
Pressing On for Jobs and Equality
Obama defends progressive values
by M arc
H. M orial
After months of
reaching out to the
other side to find com
mon ground on the
issues of job creation
and deficit reduction.
President O bam a’s
recent speech at the
Congressional Black Caucus din
ner signaled a shift towards a more
robust defense of the progressive
values he shares with the CBC, the
National Urban League and millions
of middle class and working class
Americans.
The President used the speech to
contrast his vision of equal oppor
tunity and shared sacrifice with those
in Congress who are only looking
out for big business and the
wealthy.
He also reminded us that de
spite fierce opposition, his Ad
ministration, with the help of the
CBC, has accomplished much
that has b enefitted A frican
Americans. This includes a pay
roll tax cut; an expansion of the
Earned Income Tax Credit and Child
Tax Credit; enactment of the stron
gest consumer financial protections
in history; making college loans more
affordable; investments in early
childhood education, community
colleges and HBCUs; and passage
of a health care law that has already
resulted in one million more young
people having health insurance.
This real progress has largely been
drowned out by the loud and raucous
partisan opposition that has domi
nated much of the President’s first
term in office. But President Obama
also acknowledged that with unem
ployment approaching 17 percent
among African Americans and al
most half of African American chil
dren living in poverty, much more
needs to be done.
The blueprint for the work that
lies ahead is contained in his Ameri
can Jobs Act, which includes a num
ber of measures I have personally
pushed for in direct meetings with
the President. These include sum
mer jobs for teens, infrastructure
investments and direct job creation.
The President also shares our
belief that funding for these and
other provisions in his bill requires
that the wealthiest Americans and
the biggest corporations pay their
fair share. He said, “Warren Buffet’s
secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax
rate than Warren Buffet.
A teacher or a nurse or a construc
tion worker making $50,000 a year
shouldn’t pay higher tax rates than
somebody making $50 million ayear.
That’s just common sense.” We
agree.
A nd w hile I su p p o rt the
President’s demand that Congress
pass this jobs bill now, I have also
urged improvements to ensure that
its benefits do not bypass urban
communities.
For exam ple, in frastru ctu re
spending needs to be expanded
beyond schools and transportation
to include work on community cen
ters and libraries to bring more jobs
to urban neighborhoods.
Job training is also needed to
prepare more urban residents for
work refurbishing foreclosed prop
erties. And funding for these and
other projects should be provided
directly to municipalities rather than
through the states to ensure that
communities hardest hit by unem
ployment are not left behind.
The P resident’s speech paid
homage to the leadership and sacri
fices of civil rights legends like Rev.
Joseph Lowery and Congressman
John Lewis. He urged all of us to
follow their example and “press on”
for the sake of jobs, equality and our
children. 1 urge him to keep up the
pressure and carry that message to
every com er of this country.
Marc H. Morial is president and
chief executive officer o f the Na
tional Urban League.
Serious Case of Misguided Nostalgia?
Learning from the Columbus’ story
S ara J oseph
Many of us will
never forget that
famous elementary
school rhyme: "In
fourteen hundred
ninety-two, Colum
bus sailed the ocean
blue."
At the time, it’s not likely that
we would have sensed any loom
ing co n tro v ersy behind those
grade school lessons. With C o
lumbus Day being observed this
week, however, it’s worth asking
w hether affection for the holiday
is really a serious case of m is
guided nostalgia.
Columbus Day celebrates the
"discovery" of the Americas. But
it’s clear that the continent had al
ready been inhabited by well-estab
lished indigenous communities.
The people who already lived
in the region welcom ed the first
European immigrants with curios
ity and open hearts and minds.
But it soon became clear that the
explorers sent by European roy
alty had come to dom inate, de
feat, and destroy.
On Oct. 12, 1492, Colum bus
wrote of the native people he en
countered: "They should be good
serv an ts...they can all be subju
gated and made to do what is
required of them."
Columbus is credited with forg
ing the first links betw een A m eri
can and European civilizations.
But w hether the m anner in which
by
these cultures collided merits
com m em oration as a federal
holiday is doubtful at best.
T hroughout m ost of the
A m e ric a s, s c h o o lc h ild re n
d o n ’t rem em ber C olum bus
Day with cutesy images of
the Nina, Pinta, and Santa
Maria. In fact, it’s often called
by an entirely different name: Dia
de la Raza (Latin Am erican H eri
tage Day). This is a way to recog
nize indigenous roots in the Ameri
cas. It also serves as a tribute to
the lives and civilizations lost in
the name of slavery and European
expansion — beginning with C o
lum bus'arrival in 1492.
Today, Latin American and Car
ibbean schoolchildren that migrate
to the United States are unlikely to
receive a hero's welcome. In fact,
they are often forced to live in the
shadows as their parents struggle
to survive. Presidential hopeful
Michele Bachmann recently went
so far as to mock Rick Perry's state
ment that anyone with a "heart"
would want to protect the rights of
immigrant children to an education
— even if they were brought to the
United States "through no fault of
their own."
M igration across what's now
the U .S.-M exican border has ex
isted for centuries. The reality is
that this history was m arked by
periodic shared interest in pro
m oting imm igration. But as eco
nom ic and anti-narcotic policies
initiated by W ashington have in
creased pressure on Latin A m eri
can people to m igrate, im m igra
tion has become a hot-button is-
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sue for people across the political
spectrum .
To many, the flow of im m igra
tion seems daunting. Bachmann
recen tly proposed a so lu tio n :
"B uild a b a rrie r, a fe n c e , a
w all.. .every mile, every yard, ev
ery foot, every inch will be cov
ered on that southern border."
But spending billions on border
militarization hasn’t stopped un
documented migration. In fact, one
of the only notable outcomes of
beefing up the border has been more
death, danger, and lives lost in the
desert.
Ideally, every October we would
celebrate the coming together of the
cultures of the Americas. Sadly, the
legacy of cultural domination and
separation continues with border
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militarization as a tenet of our for
eign policy.
According to President Barack
Obama, it is Columbus' "intrepid
character and spirit of possibility
that has come to define America,
and is the reason countless families
still journey to our shores."
To whom is Obama referring if
not the immigrants who come to the
United States for a chance to sup
port their families? On this Colum
bus Day, let's consider the discrep
ancy between how newcomers are
celebrated in our history but ostra
cized in our society — and what we
can learn from a modem analysis of
Columbus' story.
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