Monroe Anderson

Ten years after 9/11, America needs 911

2011-09-07T10:50:54-05:00

On the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the Chicago Sun-Times assigned all its Sunday op-ed columnists to write on the subject. Below is what I wrote. I've cut and pasted it from a wingnut website, Free Republic. If you'll notice, I got honored with a very grown-up "Barf Alert."

Well, five years have passed. We're Bush-free but still stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We're also still afraid.

We can't catch a flight without going shoeless first and we're more than likely to have to show our private parts to a TSA agent before we're allowed to board. Osama bin Laden is dead but his terror lives on. So does his toll on American freedom and finances. We've spent ourselves into a hole by occupying two countries in our pursuit of invisible men. While we've been blowing things up for the past decade, China has been building and building and building.

We're still stuck in the quagmire with President Obama afraid to pull the plug, rightly fearing that the Republicans will successfully label him our soft on terror, anti-American, pro-Arab, freedom-hating commander-in-chief.

Ten years after 9/11, we're still nation-building in the Middle East while the Midwest in our nation is falling apart. So, for this next presidential election, I think Obama should be making a 911 call for America--we need the emergency services.

Just in time for elections, Bush campaigns on fear (BARF ALERT)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | September 10, 2006 | MONROE ANDERSON

Posted on Sun Sep 10 09:47:18 2006 by Chi-townChief

Just in time for elections, Bush campaigns on fear

by Monroe Anderson

Five years after the 9/11 tragedy, the kingpin of Abraham Lincoln's party is still dead set on fooling most of the people most of the time.

President Bush and his chorus of Republican pols, Cabinet members and neo-con sycophants would have us believe we're safer or, depending on political expediencies, not that safe. According to the president's pre-9/11 anniversary speeches on the progress of the war on terror, we're safer than we were before the attacks but not yet safe enough to steer clear of his failed stay-the-course strategy. As Bush explains it, al-Qaida's leadership is decimated but remains dangerous enough to destroy the entire civilized world.

There he goes again.

With midterm congressional elections less than two months away, the Bush subterfuge machine is in full spiel and spin. Too incompetent to manage problems that are all too real to mainstream America, such as high gas prices, 45 million citizens without health insurance and a sliding income for middle-class workers -- or capturing Osama bin Laden for that matter -- the president and his forces are back to wheeling and dealing terror. They're playing the same fear-mongering three-card monte game that worked so well in the 2002 and 2004 elections: See if you can find the terrorist threat under here or here or there. Find Saddam Hussein's ethereal weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Watch the politically timed color alert rise and fall on cue.

There's a book just out with a title that sums it all up: Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War. Authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn report that Bush hated Saddam so much that he privately let loose expletive-laden tirades against the dictator. In March 2002, months before Bush asked Congress for authority to attack Saddam, he bluntly exposed his true intentions in an unguarded moment with two aides. When told that White House correspondent Helen Thomas was questioning the need to oust Saddam, Bush snapped: ''Did you tell her I intend to kick his sorry m - - - - - - - - - - - - ass all over the Mideast?''

The president's anger was understandable. ''After all,'' Bush said six months later while speaking at a fund-raiser in Houston, ''this is the guy who tried to kill my dad.''

I think that's admirable that Bush 43 loves his dad, Bush 41, enough to try to revenge Saddam's botched assassination attempt in 1993. I loved my late dad as much as Bush loves his, and while I too would have been livid if the Iraqi dictator tried to whack my father, I wouldn't have set into motion a wave of international shock and awe that would result in the deaths of more than 2,600 U.S. military men and women and more than 41,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.

I also love my two sons as much as I'm sure he loves his twin daughters. If we're really in danger of Apocalypse Soon, as Bush keeps insisting, then we ought to act like it. The president should re-institute a mandatory military draft. I'll tearfully send my sons off to war, right after Bush tearfully sends his daughters to sign up in our co-educational military. If the war against Islamic terrorists compares to the fight against Nazis, as Bush insists, and if a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would lead to its conquest by our nation's worst enemies, then we ought to have a military reflecting that clear and present danger. There were 16 million Americans fighting to keep the world safe for democracy in World War II. There are 130,000 in Iraq.

I'm afraid Bush's plan to save the world from Islamic fascism is way too modest. He wants Congress to pass his terrorist surveillance act and authorization to try the al-Qaida detainees held in his secret CIA torture prisons. For reasons too simple for many Americans to understand, he's not interested in following the 9/11 Commission's recommendations to shore up security at U.S. harbors or keep a close watch on checked airplane luggage. Those measures, which would obviously make America safer from the inevitable al-Qaida strikes in the future, would cost big business big money.

But what fool would want to take those measures when it's so much more politically practical to scare most of the people one more time?

'Fox And Friends' Defends News Corp. In Phone Hacking Scandal (VIDEO)

2011-07-15T14:07:44-05:00

Fox and Friends clumsily defended News Corp. on Friday morning, inaccurately defending the company as a victim of hacking instead of the one that did the hacking. Host Steve Doocy said, “It’s too ...

Fox and Friends clumsily defended News Corp. on Friday morning, inaccurately defending the company as a victim of hacking instead of the one that did the hacking. Host Steve Doocy said, “It’s too ...

Dilenschneider also said that News Corp has done "all the right things" in its response to the scandal. He then likened News Corp. to companies that have been the victims of hacking, such as Citigroup, American Express and Bank of America. It was an odd analogy, given that News Corp is not a hacking victim, but has been found guilty of hacking others.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Looks like Rupert Murdock is going down. It's about time. But Fox and Friends are making a clumsy attempt to defend the big bad boss and the evil media empire's unethical practices. Is Doocy right? Is this much to do another nothing? Or should the MSM keep reporting on this and should the Justice Department make sure it gets to the bottom of the barrel of rotten apples.

Carol Moseley Braun: A mayoral foot race?

2011-01-14T12:42:30-06:00

The Root asked me to write a piece on Carol Moseley Braun's run in the Chicago mayoral race. I talked to half a dozen Chicagoans who are hip-deep in the city's politics. None had anything glowing to say about the campaign of the woman who was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. I called her press secretary, Renee Ferguson, a good friend whom I've known since college. I'm still awaiting a return call. I called Braun's campaign office. I'm still awaiting a return call. So here's the commentary I wrote for The Root.

Since I didn't have any positive feedback from anyone, I ended up writing a not-so-positive piece.

Carol Moseley Braun's Quixotic Bid for

Mayor of Chicago

The former Illinois senator wasn't the first choice of the black power elite to take on Rahm Emanuel in the crowded mayoral race. Or the second.

Getting the nod as the black consensus candidate for next month's Chicago mayoral election worked like a charm for Carol Moseley Braun -- the third time around.

The first time the coalition of the Windy City's self-appointed black power elites met to bless one of the half dozen or so African Americans vying to replace the unexpectedly retiring Richard M. Daley, Braun was not the first choice, or the second. Those honors went to the Rev. James Meeks, an Illinois state legislator who boasts ministering a mega-church with 20,000 faithful, and Larry R. Rogers Jr., a prominent personal-injury attorney and commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review (property taxes).

Nor was Braun the first choice the second time around, after Rogers opted out, and when the reality set in that many of Chicago's white and Hispanic voters might just not be that into the anti-gay, pro-school vouchers Meeks. During Round 2, Rep. Danny Davis was crowned the one-who-would-mostly-get-most-of-the-black-votes.

The second decree of the coalition of aldermen, business leaders and community activists worked just fine for Davis -- but Braun, not so much. Mission unaccomplished.

Finally, after a year's-end intervention, with the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson summoning both candidates to a late-night meeting at Rainbow PUSH, Davis stood down on New Year's Eve. That left Braun, who had the support of two of Chicago's most prominent business titans -- John W. Rogers Jr., chairman, CEO and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments, and real estate mogul Elzie Higginbottom -- as the last viable black candidate standing.

The notion that Braun, the first and only black woman to serve as a U.S. senator and a former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, was a viable contender, and the belief that a black consensus candidate was a viable strategy, both lasted for about 3½ days -- and since then, it's been one "oops" moment after the next.

As a harbinger of missteps to come, on Dec. 29, just two days before Week 1 of her "The One" campaign began, Braun got into the first of her two pissing matches with folks who buy their ink by the barrel.

In response to a critical column by Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times, Braun lashed out at the columnist during a news conference to outline her public-safety platform, stating that, "He is a drunk and a wife beater, and that's a matter of record. I didn't make that up. It's the truth."

Steinberg, in his column headlined, "Carol, I Miss You Already," had facetiously claimed, "part of me wishes she had a snowball's chance in hell of becoming Chicago's next mayor," because he'd have so many things to ridicule in a hypothetical Braun administration.

On Jan. 5, when asked to discuss her problematic personal finances as she appeared at the scene of a South Side shooting to decry city violence, Braun took on the mainstream media again, flippantly responding, "Some of you may work for the Tribune or the Sun-Times, and last time I looked, the Tribune was in bankruptcy."

This miscue followed a bad answer two days earlier, when she was asked why she was refusing to release her tax returns, as the other candidates had done. Her response: "Because I don't want to."

Not 24 hours later, Braun flip-flopped, releasing some of her tax returns. It's understandable why she didn't want to.

Her tax returns and personal financial statements did not speak well for a candidate seeking to manage the $6 billion annual budget of the nation's third-largest city. In 2009, Braun claimed a net income of $15,954, all of which seems to come from her public pensions as a former U.S. senator, Cook County recorder of deeds and Illinois state legislator.

Her 2008 federal income-tax return showed that she lost more than $225,000 that year -- $200,000 of it in what she called a "net operating loss" that she did not bother to identify on the form. She would, though, indicate to reporters that her financial troubles stemmed from Ambassador Organics, her spice-and-tea company.

The next day, Braun released new pages from her tax return, showing that she had a loss of $120,000 from her public-speaking business, CBM One Corp. Just days after Braun's pointing out that the Tribune is in bankruptcy, the newspaper reported that she was late in paying property taxes on her Hyde Park home -- which she has on the market for $1.9 million -- five of the last six times her bill was due, and that she had paid more than $3,400 in late penalties.

Unfortunately for the 63-year-old Braun, this is not the first time she has found herself mired in misdeeds and money problems. Her one term as a U.S. senator was tainted with controversies concerning campaign finances and a visit to Nigeria to meet with military dictator Gen. Sani Abacha.

And while none of Chicago's other black mayoral wannabes come close to matching Braun's résumé, it's understandable why she wasn't the coalition's first choice. In a Tribune-WGN poll conducted last month, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was backed by 32 percent of voters, followed by 30 percent undecided. Gery Chico, a Hispanic who is former schools chief, and Rep. Davis each had 9 percent, while Meeks had 7 percent. Braun polled at 6 percent.

Even Braun's support among the city's black power elites mirrors her recent polling. Mellody Hobson, the president of John Rogers' Ariel Investments, has signed on as the co-chair of Emanuel's mayoral campaign. And former White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, John Rogers' ex-wife and the mother of his daughter, hosted a sellout fundraiser Tuesday night for Emanuel, featuring Jennifer Hudson, at Chicago's House of Blues.

With six weeks left until the nonpartisan election, it's still possible that the coalition's default candidate could become a contender. If Emanuel falls short of the 50 percent-plus-one vote threshold -- as it now looks like he will -- and Braun garners the second-largest number of votes, she could conceivably rack up all the "anybody but Rahm" votes during the April runoff.

But in order to do that, Emanuel, who is running a Rose Garden campaign, would have to falter big time. And Braun would have to move her campaign from stumblebum to fleet of foot -- while making sure it stays out of her mouth.

Cyber columnist Monroe Anderson is a veteran Chicago journalist who has written signed op-ed page columns for both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, executive-produced and hosted his own local CBS TV show, and was the editor of Savoy Magazine. Follow him at http://twitter.com/#!/MonroeAnderson.

This commentary was also reposted on the websites of NPR and WBUR.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost on Right's Hate Spews

2011-01-11T18:11:00-06:00

The blame game started Saturday within hours after reports of the Gabrielle Giffords assassination attempt in Tucson. The left correctly blamed the right for all the hate speech and political vitriol that may have fed the madness of accused murdered Jared Loughner. The right defensively played the moral equivalency card much like a bunch grade schoolers on the play ground, whining that while they got caught name calling, the other kids were doing it too.

What the right and left have done may be the same thing but was done at different times. In the late 1960's the left was almost as bad then as the right is now. I say almost because the left’s political leadership wasn’t behaving as badly back then as the right’s political leadership is right now. The Left’s extremist talk and actions some four decades back helped swing the nation to center right. My sense is that the right's extremism will surely move the pendulum back.

But while talking about bad talk is satisfying, we need to talk more about the pink elephant in the room: gun control.

A mentally ill, hate-filled 22-year-old armed with a butcher knife may have killed and maimed, but his toll would have been a lot less than six dead and 20 wounded. Here's a column I wrote four and a half years ago for the Chicago Sun-Times. It's painfully personal.

We're killing ourselves more effectively than terrorists

Chicago Sun-Times

July 30, 2006

by Monroe Anderson

My kid brother, Dariek, gave me the only handgun I've ever owned: a target gray, stainless steel .357 Magnum. This gun was the not-so- little cousin to the .44 that co-starred in "Sudden Impact," when Clint Eastwood, as "Dirty Harry," told a bad guy: "Go ahead, make my day."

The weapon came into my possession right after Dariek had a bad night. Voices from his stereo speakers had kept him awake, talking to him, telling him to blow his girlfriend's brains out. He had fought valiantly to ignore the voices but feared the next time he heard them he might not be as strong.

"Are you taking your medicine?" I asked.

"No," he grunted. "I stopped taking it. That stuff is poison."

"You've got to take your medicine," I said, worried but grateful he had managed not to become another statistic in one more tragic news story.

Back in 1977, Dariek dropped out of Indiana University to be all that he could be in the Army. About a year and a half into his tour of duty, he was yanked out of the American nuclear missile silo he was guarding in Germany after he suddenly suffered a mental breakdown. He was flown to an Army hospital in New York where he was diagnosed as schizophrenic, then given a medical discharge.

By the time the voices in the stereo speakers were telling Dariek to shoot to kill, he had been in and out of the hospital and on and off medications designed to treat his delusions of grandeur, paranoia and schizophrenia several times. His nervous condition, as my mother always referred to it, had proved not to be a barrier to legally buying the .357 from an Indiana gun shop.

"I need to borrow the gun," I said, with all the authority a brother 11 years older can wield.

"Why?" he asked, distracted from repeating his descriptions of what the speaker voices had to say.

Knowing that Dariek kept up with the news daily and that there was yet another Lincoln Park rapist running loose, I told him we needed it so that my wife, Joyce, could carry it for protection. He understood. The next day, I drove to my parents' home in Gary, where he handed over the gun and the Indiana gun permit.

I recalled that unsettling episode last week as reports of sniper fire in Indiana hit newspaper headlines and broadcast news. Zachariah Blanton, 17, confessed to the series of Downstate Indiana highway shootings that killed one man, wounded another and left four vehicles shot up. He allegedly went on a shooting rampage after arguing with family members over gutting a deer during a hunting trip. Two days later, after the alleged Blanton sniping, a copycat sniper was reportedly taking potshots at vehicles in Northwest Indiana.

Gunplay in our nation is almost as much a national pastime as baseball. And, with the never-ending, inadequately controlled abundant supply of firearms, we're killing ourselves more effectively than any terrorist organization could. In 2003, the most recent year that data is available, there were 30,136 gun deaths in the United States. Forty percent were homicides; 56 percent were suicides.

When the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, stating that "a well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," was ratified in 1791, the good citizens were worried about the Indians successfully stopping the theft of their land and the African slaves rebelling, violently reclaiming their freedom. Those are all dead issues now. And yet, even as tens of thousands of Americans die year in and year out from firearms, conservatives carp and babble about Second Amendment rights whenever any lifesaving gun control proposal rears its logical head. As the National Rifle Association likes to sloganeer, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

But had the angry Indiana teenager bore stones instead of a firearm, he'd be charged with vandalism, not murder.

Rent too high, pants too low!

2010-10-19T22:44:10-05:00

It's not often that I miss not having my own TV show, but I'm there right now.

If I had a TV talk show, I'd love to book two guests for a joint appearance: General Larry Platt and New York Gubernatorial Candidate Jimmy McMillan.

Between the two, they cover the current American political spectrum.

You may remember General Platt from American Idol when he performed "Pants on the Ground," a whamit, bamit, cut-it-out damnit song about young men wearing baggy, saggy pants.

And, of course, Wannabe New York Governor Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party is the media story du jour after yesterday's gubernatorial candidate debate.

If I had my show, the three of us could talk politics and culture. We could talk about how the war on drugs and the outsourcing of unskilled jobs have produced a guns and drugs commerce in the nation's inner-cities that has led to a prison culture in America from inner-city to suburb to farmland to the world.

After that, the three of us could discuss how Reaganomics and deregulation has led to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Of course, I'd drop in the fact that the CEO compensation ratio to worker was 24 to 1 in 1965 while today it's 300 to 1, therefore highlighting one reason the rent's definitely too damn high.

Unfortunately, I no longer have a TV show, so I'll just have to have Platt and McMillan as my guests right here, right now.

White House blackout peeves some black columnists

2010-10-18T19:24:23-05:00

I was a columnist at a major American newspaper nine years before three black East Coast columnists brought "the idea that a group of black columnists would come together to share our common experience and probe the soft underbelly of our craft" to fruition in 1992.

By the time these three men had formed The Trotter Group, I was no longer writing a signed, op-ed column for the Chicago Tribune but had moved on to a post as a department head at WBBM-TV and the executive director and host of Common Ground, a public affairs TV talk show.

Five years ago, I was back in print, writing a signed, op-ed page column for the Chicago Sun-Times. It was during that time that I became a member of The Trotter Group.

I've gone into my ancient history because of current events that are still unfolding.

Ten members of The Trotter Group met in the White House with President Barack Obama and other key staff a few days ago. I only learned of the meeting after fellow Trotter, Robin Washington, the editor and a columnist at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune--with whom Obama spent a better part of a day for an interview 20 years ago, even cutting class at Harvard Law--sent me an angry Facebook message questioning how certain Trotters were selected to attend the meeting and others were not. While I didn't receive an invitation at all, other Trotters were invited then dis-invited. As a result, travel plans had to be changed and there was considerable explaining to do to the editors who had signed off on the trips to the White House.

So far, the aftermath has fallen just short of that old axiom: Hell has no fury like a columnist scorned. But just barely.

There has been a flurry of emails between Trotters criticizing the selection process. Trotter member Faye Anderson (no relation), didn't write about it on her blog, Anderson@Large but did discuss it on her Facebook page. Under the headline, Did White House Decide Who Represents Trotter Group?, Trotter member Richard Prince brought the controversy to light in his Journal-isms column.

And, of course, I've just written about it, here, on my political blog. This may be the end of the story. Then again, it may not be.

We'll see.

Daddy Fearest

2010-09-20T12:08:46-05:00

As far as I’m concerned, James Jones should be a candidate for Father of the Year. Instead, the Central Florida father is just one more mug shot of just one more black man who had a run-in with the law.

Jones was arrested Thursday in Lake Mary, Fla. and charged with disorderly conduct and disturbing a school bus for this crime: Protecting his 13-year-old daughter.

Jones’ daughter, a transfer student, had been bullied time and time again by some of her fellow students. Deciding that he was mad as hell as wasn’t going to take it anymore, Jones boarded his daughter’s school bus and threatened to open up a can of whup ass on the students who had been bullying her and the bus driver for allowing them to do it.

According to an ABC News account, Jones boarded his daughter’s school bus, obviously angry. "Everybody sit down. Everybody sit down," Jones said, not caring that the bus’ surveillance camera was recording him. He then ordered his daughter to point out the bullies. "Show me which one. Show me which one," he demanded.

Jones confronted the middle school students he says have been bullying his daughter, who has cerebral palsy. He charges that they had taunted, hit and even thrown condoms at her, ABC News reported. "I'm gonna (expletive) you up.…this is my daughter, and I will kill the (expletive) who fought her," Jones said.

He also had a few choice words for the bus driver: "If anything happens to my daughter I'm going to (expletive) you up and everybody on this (expletive)," he said.

As a father myself, I understand his anger. In fact, I resembled his remarks.

But, beyond just threatening, I took action. A taxi cab driver nearly hit my then pre-teen sons, Scott and Kyle, while we were out riding our bicycles. The cabbie cruised through an intersection, ignoring them, although they were already in the street. Luckily, they stopped in time, since he had only bothered to slow down before blowing his stop sign. Although he cleared the intersection, there were too many cars stuck in traffic ahead for him to go anywhere. Thinking of what almost happened, my rage, like Jones’, got the better of me.

“You almost hit my kids,” I yelled as I rode my bike next to the side of his cab. I dismounted and kicked his taxi as hard as I could startling his passengers in the back seat.

Later, after I’d cooled off, I thought about what I’d done. I realized then, what Jones realizes now, that I may have over-reacted.

On the other hand, to this day, I can’t help for hoping that the cabbie’s passengers gave him this tip in lieu of money: Watch out for children.

Rod Blagojevich Superhero!

2010-08-22T10:29:21-05:00

For pundits, comedians and Cable TV show hosts, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is the Energizer Bunny of comic material gift giving. His latest foray into the land of There-Is-No-Such-Thing-As-Bad-Publicity was yesterday at Chicago Comic Con in suburban Rosemont. During his appearance at the show--where he stood among grown men dressed as Superman and Batman while charging $80 if you wanted to be photographed with him and $50 if you merely wanted his autograph--Illinois’ second convicted-governor-in-a-row compared himself to a superhero.

Not being able to resist, this is what I posted on my Facebook Wall, giving my FB friends a chance to beat the punits, comedians and Cable TV show hosts to the punch.

Here was my commentary: Which Superhero would you liken Gov. Blagojevich to?

And this is how the thread was running at the time of this blog post:

Ej Murray-- How about Wonder Woman? He's got the hair.

15 hours ago · Like ·

Angela Ross-- Supermouth, a super hero whose mouth has sink many ships including his own.

15 hours ago · Like ·

Monroe Anderson-- ‎@Angela How about Superblabber?

15 hours ago · Like · 2 people ·

Ej Murray--The man can not keep his mouth shut for one darn minute.

15 hours ago · Like ·

Phil Melcher--I'd kind of like to see him run into The Punisher...:)

15 hours ago · Like ·

Susan Mazzeri--Pete says the atom. he had a suit that when he put it on he shrunk real small.

15 hours ago · Like ·

Terry Senner Davis--The Joker b/c he's a joke?

15 hours ago · Like ·

Dana Camp-Farbe--George of the Jungle!!! If George is a superhero!!

14 hours ago · Like ·

L.b. King--@Monroe-"Superblabber"

14 hours ago · Like ·

Monroe Anderso--Oh, oh, I got it: Fuckinggoldman!

14 hours ago · Like ·

Brian Ray--The Eel, one slippery mofo.

10 hours ago · Like ·

Florence Tate--mighty mouse

10 hours ago · Like ·

Dick Kay--Have no fear... Underdog is here.

9 hours ago · Like ·

Christopher Lenz--10.Rasputina 9. Elmer Putz 8.Captain Nim-ROD 7. Lois Lame-Brain 6. The Boy Wonder-Woosy 5. The Green Hoarding-Maggot 4. Mister Schlock 3.The Un-Amazing (full of) Crap-man (!) aka Peter ("How's My Hair?") Peckerhead 2.The "Thing" 1. The Adventures of Rob and Rod: "The Wonder Twits"

8 hours ago · Like ·

Sam Greenle--Elmer Fudd!

2 hours ago · Like ·

Bruce Elliot--George Ryan.

about an hour ago · Like ·

Monroe Anderson--How about Mr. Magoo?

43 minutes ago · Like ·

Peter M. Fuller--Pathetic Pup

4 minutes ago · Like ·

Monroe Anderso--Crap Cat?

Remembering Abbey Lincoln

2010-08-16T14:51:22-05:00

I knew who Abbey Lincoln was before I invited the legendary Max Roach to my Prairie Shores apartment for dinner in 1973. I’d seen and appreciated her performance as Josie in the movie, Nothing But A Man, which had come out nine years earlier. Although in reality, that was Ivan Dixon’s movie, not hers. I’d seen her with Sidney Poitier five years earlier in For the Love of Ivy, but she hadn’t quite registered because, in today’s parlance, it was too much of a chick flick for the younger me.

Her name had resonance, for reasons I couldn’t empirically explain.

I knew that she was a renowned jazz singer but I would have been hard pressed to name what she had sung. And although Roach was at my home assisting me in putting together what would be the first of the short-lived Ebony Black Music Poll, he hadn’t gotten around to mentioning her at all.

He talked about his life and fabled three-decades long career as a jazz percussionist. He talked about playing with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins.

He told me about that rainy night in 1956, when band members Clifford Brown and Richie Powell were killed in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The two were being driven from Philadelphia to Chicago by Powell's wife, Nancy, in the quintet’s car caravan. Roach told me that Powell and Brown had violated the code of never letting a woman drive when they were on the road.

He didn’t tell me that in 1960 he and Lincoln had recorded, We Insist!--Freedom Now, the landmark civil rights jazz song. I think he thought I should have known. I don’t think it occurred to him that I was just becoming a teenager when their collaboration went vinyl.

I don’t remember if Roach told me, as we sat in my Southside Chicago apartment, that she was from the Windy City. I do remember that Roach’s date that night was this beautiful, willowy woman who was about my age. She said she was a model who boasted that she maintained her flawless dark skin by drinking her own urine, which she claimed had some sort of cleansing effect.

As you might imagine, her sharing her beauty secret was a conversation stopper. But not for long. Abbey Lincoln took charge. Roach began talking about her and what she meant to his life. He didn’t go into a great deal of detail about their working together. Instead he talked about their lives together.

I can still hear the love and faint pain in his voice as he talked about Abbey Lincoln. And that’s how I remember him referring to her. Not as Abbey, but as Abbey Lincoln.

At the beginning of their eight-year marriage, Roach told me that he was a heroin addict. Lincoln had supported him and nurtured him through withdrawal and off the drug. He said he then became an alcoholic. Once again, Lincoln stood by her man, helping him through that crisis.

After that, he said she had nothing left so she left him. Roach spoke of his love and appreciation for his ex-wife even as the young, gorgeous model listened in. And even back then, all I could think about was what a strong, amazing woman Abbey Lincoln was.

When I learned of her death on Saturday, I could have thought about her jazz recordings and compositions or her roles in those two 1960s movies or her 1990s role as Denzel Washington’s mother in Mo’ Better Blues, but I didn’t.

I thought about how sorry I had been when I heard of Roach’s death three years ago and about what he’d shared with me about Abbey Lincoln. I’m sorry I never met her in person but thanks to her ex-husband’s stories about her, I know that we lost a very special woman.

Thank the lord for the Teabaggers

2010-05-21T13:49:26-05:00

I think I owe the Teabaggers an apology for all the nasty things I've written about them since they started stupidly protesting against the healthcare reform bill that will benefit them as much as most other Americans.

Sure, some of them may be racist. Others may be the dull knives in the drawer. A few may even be well-meaning but misguided in their cause without a cause. But no matter who they are or what they say, I've got two words that says they're okay with me: Rand Paul.

As a result of their successful effort to put one their own on top in the Kentucky Republican senate primary, the Teabaggers have accomplished what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have only dreamed of doing: Leaving the echo chambering Republican establishment leadership speechless.

Within a 24-hour news cycle, Ron Paul's boy, Rand, had Michael Steele, Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint morph from their "just say no" political policy to a "no comment" stance on the the Kentucky Republican senate candidate's stance on the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act and The Americans with Disabilities Act.

Libertarian Paul has a nit to pick with all three established, USA seal-of-approval laws. When it a choice between the citizens or business, big or small, he's not with the citizens. Of course, less than a day after Paul confessed on NPR and the Rachel Maddow Show that he was in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act--except for the part that would allow businesses to prevent Americans who look like me from sitting at their lunch counters--he made a mad scrabble to a saner position.

But it's too late. He's now the poster boy of what the whole conservative movement really is about. And for that, we've got to thank the Teabaggers for giving us the gift that's bound to keep on giving.