Many Americans and others have been compelled especially over the last year and a half to utter in faith and hope that the ugly cloud over America will soon be gone. That it moves out to sea to be seen no more.

That the nation which they were once proud and believed special among nations would free itself of the curse that afflicted and diseased its body and soul. A curse so unrelenting and destructive that they no longer recognized the country of their innocence.

No longer could feel the pride that they once had when they stood with others and saluted the flag and proclaimed their allegiance. Forced to wonder if it was all just some bizarre lie. “No, Virginia, Jamal, Maria, Bill, like Santa it was all just make believe.”

Forced to see their country, a country that they loved and was proud of, become something which it never in their wildest imagination believed would ever become.

America was first among nations in liberty, freedom, justice. A nation of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy and all over the world who came to America for a better life.  A  better life for their children and their children’s children.

They came to America without a single document.  Only the hope for a better life, a faith in their God and the clothes on their back.

They came because they heard America was a land of opportunities. A land where immigrants were welcome. Where they could get a new start, a new day.  So, they came.

Some experience trials and tribulations that would crush their spirits. That would break their hearts. Some were forced to return back to their country of origins. Others would die in America believing it had been a huge mistake to have come.

They were not expecting to be confronted with the harassment, prejudice, mistreatment and discrimination that they were forced to experience. Treatment directed at them as the most recent others. Mistreated and unwelcomed by previous others. America they would learn was not the promised land.

Others weathered the storms and will themselves through the trials and tribulations certain “this too would pass.” They continue forward one day at a time. If not for themselves than their children and their children’s children.

In time, their children and their children’s children would no longer view themselves as merely Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Swedes but American. They would fight its wars all in the name of democracy, freedom, justice, liberty and what was right and just.

Those earlier Americans, if they saw the nation today, would they see the America for which they believe in, felt proud of and were willing to give their life for? Had it all been in vain?

If America survives and there is no guarantee that it will, there will be many who will demand accountability and retribution.  They will want to hold those they believe responsible for America’s current troubled, unhealthy condition. It will be understandable.

They may see it also necessary as a deterrent to prevent the nation from ever again sinking into the abyss of chaos and insanity.

Many will urge federal lawmakers to push for investigations, hearings and tribunals. They will seek and demand punishment. It clearly will be understood. However, it might not be the most useful course of action.

Instead of a new Congress, hopefully far more responsible Congress will use all its energy, time and resources to legislatively undue all of the regulations, policies and directives enacted by the current regime that helped to make America a pariah nation.

Hopefully put all its efforts into reversing the damage and evil unleashed on America and the world in the last year and a half. Not waste energy on impeachments. Let the current regime remain in place, but render it basically a eunuch.

A new Congress, more responsible however, will need the people of the nation to insist and safeguard its representative democratic form of government will never again end up in the outhouse. They will need to vote. They will need to be more selective in how they elect to represent them. They will also need to be far more attentive and involved in their government.

From this dark, storming night in America there may be a new morning, a new day. The evil regime will have breathed its last unholy breath.

Unfortunately, however much of the destruction, pain, suffering, embarrassment, alienation, disappointment experienced by Americans and others will remain for a long time perhaps forever.

Unfortunately also, many inside the nation and outside may never be able to think of America as a land of hope and  goodwill. Of great promise and opportunity. Of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Staff Writer; Al Alatunji

Question or comment regarding this article? Feel free to send a message to: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.

Yet the elders in McIntosh County, with Ashley as its county seat, frequently live into their 90s, and sometimes beyond. It had the highest proportion of people 85 and older in the country. Doesn’t make sense until you see why it does.

Stress levels are low. The farmers pursue a lifetime of physical exercise. When they retire in town, they still mow their small lawns and grow vegetables in the backyard. The numbers may be skewed by the many young people who leave town for economic opportunity in bigger places, but they’re hard to dismiss.

A big factor in this longevity, researchers found, was social connection. Every morning the old men would gather at the Dakota Family Restaurant for coffee and breeze-shooting. The women had their own table.

“The cafe is where the networking takes place,” the county’s director of social services said. “If somebody doesn’t show up for coffee, it would cause a lot of chatter, and someone will check on them.” The pattern repeats itself across the Northern Plains.

The most recent National Vital Statistics report lists the states for the highest life expectancy at birth: No. 1 is Hawaii, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Utah and New Hampshire. What these very diverse places have in common are relatively strong social infrastructures.

A New York psychiatrist known for running group sessions would tell his patients: “You don’t need me. You need friends.” He’d put together people with little in common by age, ethnicity and income level. Forced at first to air their angst before absolute strangers happy to be critical, the group members developed fast friendships that flourished decades after official therapy stopped.

Loneliness has been declared an epidemic leading to sickness and self-harm, and rightly so. The pandemic deepened isolation, but the shrinking personal ties began well before. Robert Putnam’s 2000 book, “Bowling Alone,” documented an ongoing collapse of American community.

Recent research found that from 2003 to 2022, face-to-face socializing among American men fell by about 30%. But for teenagers, it shrunk 45%. (Reporters covering youth sports have long bemoaned driving past beautiful baseball fields with no one on them.)

Email, texting and posting have not replaced in-person socializing. And the result appears to be increased depression, especially among teenagers. And if their communication swims in anger-provoking social media feeds, small wonder so many are drowning in despair.

Are there remedies? Some are being tried. Several cities run activities fairs, where attendees can look over groups to join. Interests can be books, oil painting, choral singing, cooking, whatever. We now read of adult sleep-away camps designed to spark new friendships. Attendees piled into a room of bunk beds have little alternative at night to yakking with new acquaintances.

It’s bit of a shame that these encounters seem more mechanical than the simple act of saying hi to the neighbor taking out garbage at the same time. But let’s give them a try.

The early 19th-century French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville noted Americans’ fondness for joining associations: political, neighborhood, labor. He famously wrote, “Nothing in my view deserves more attention than the intellectual and moral associations in America.”

And in many ways, they were superior to the social groups in old Europe, largely rooted in fossilized class distinctions. Americans, unplug your monitors, open the door to the fresh spring air and strike up a conversation. People need people. You, too.

Written by Froma Harrop

Official website; https://twitter.com/FromaHarrop

A brother can raise one honest question about Democrats, and before he even finishes his thought, somebody is ready to call him confused. A sister can say she wants no part of Trump, and somebody else acts like she is just repeating what she heard on television. A young man can admit he is tired of both parties, and the next thing you know, folks treat him like he needs a political babysitter.

That kind of talk gets old.

Our people have been through too much, voted too often, carried too many elections, and listened to too many promises to be handled like children at the ballot box.

The real problem is assumption. Too many political conversations about us are built on it. Folks assume every Black church sounds the same. They assume every brother sees government through race alone. They assume every sister is loyal to one party forever. Older people get dismissed as stuck in yesterday. Younger people get written off as internet followers. None of that is real life.

We are not one big voting machine. We are people with memory, bills, faith, pain, family, work, disappointment, hope, and different ways of measuring what matters.

Now let me be clear. This does not mean every political choice is wise. It surely does not mean Donald Trump deserves a free pass. He has said and done plenty that deserves a hard look. His mouth has caused storms that did not need to happen. His style can be loud, personal, and rough around the edges. Certain parts of his politics make people uneasy, especially those of us who know what can happen when power starts acting like it owes nobody an explanation.

Still, disagreeing with somebody is one thing. Talking down to him is something else.

I know men who would never vote for Trump under any circumstance. I also know others who may not like him much as a man, but believe the other side has taken them for granted. There are people who vote Democrat because that party, for all its faults, lines up closer with what they believe government should do. Others lean Republican because of faith, taxes, guns, business, immigration, school choice, or a belief that government has gotten too big and wasteful. Then you have plenty of citizens who have no love for either side. They are simply tired.

That kind of mix makes political people nervous because it does not fit the easy story.

The easy story says our community belongs in one lane. It says a good Black person votes one way and a lost one votes another. It says if a man questions the Democratic Party, somebody must have tricked him. It says if a woman rejects Trump, she must be controlled by the media. Both views are lazy. Both are insulting.

A grown person has a right to think things through.

Politics is not Sunday school, and no party is the Bible. That may sound simple, but plenty of folks forget it once election season gets hot. They start speaking as if one side is pure good and the other side is pure evil. Life has taught me to be careful with that kind of thinking. I have seen people shout about justice while ignoring local suffering. I have heard family values preached by men who showed little mercy to actual families. I have watched candidates smile in churches, clap on rhythm, quote Scripture, eat our food, and vanish once the votes were counted.

Our community remembers.

We remember promises made on porches, in barber shops, at rallies, on college campuses, and inside sanctuaries. We remember being told this election would change everything. We remember hearing that democracy itself was on the line. We remember the speeches about how our lives depended on showing up. Then after the election, many of the same neighborhoods still had poor schools, high rent, closed grocery stores, bad roads, crime, weak job options, and young people wondering where opportunity went.

That is not bitterness. That is memory.

When people talk about Trump, they often miss that part. His appeal to certain citizens is not always about love. Sometimes it is protest. Sometimes it is frustration. Sometimes it is a way of saying the old political arrangement has not worked well enough. A person may hear Trump speak rough and direct, and even if the words are messy, that person feels he is saying what other politicians are scared to say.

Now, that feeling can become dangerous if it turns into blind loyalty. Anger can make a bad deal look better than it is. Frustration can cause people to mistake noise for leadership. A man being loud does not make him right. A politician attacking the system does not mean he plans to fix it. That needs to be said too.

But honesty also requires admitting where Trump has connected with working people. His America First message may bother certain circles, but plenty of Americans hear it and feel somebody is finally speaking their language. Factories matter. Manufacturing matters. Building here in the USA matters. Families understand what happens when work leaves a town and never comes back. A young person should be able to learn a trade, work with his hands, make a decent living, and not have to leave home just to find a future.

There is nothing wrong with wanting America to build again.

When Trump talks about bringing companies back, protecting American industry, pushing foreign corporations to invest on our soil, and making more products here at home, that message hits a nerve. A man in a small town who watched factories close understands it. A woman trying to keep a family business open understands it. A worker who has seen cheap foreign labor used against American wages understands it. Even someone who dislikes Trump personally may still agree with the idea that this country should not depend on everybody else to make what we need.

That is one place where he deserves some credit. He has pushed the conversation back toward building, manufacturing, jobs, and national self interest. Every promise may not land the way his speeches make it sound. Every announcement may not turn into paychecks overnight. Working families may still have to wait before they feel the difference in their pockets. Even so, the basic message of build here, hire here, and put the American worker first is not foolish. Both parties should have been speaking that language louder a long time ago.

That is why it is a mistake to act like anyone who sees a positive in Trump has lost his mind.

A person can give him credit for pushing American jobs and still question his character. A brother can agree with building in the USA and still dislike the chaos. A sister can support bringing work back home and still worry about his tone. A churchgoing family can respect parts of his America First message and refuse to worship politics. That is called thinking. It is not betrayal.

Now, folks who stand with Trump need to hear something too. Every Black person who refuses to support him has not been fooled by the news, scared by Democrats, or trained to think one way. Some looked at the man, listened to him for years, watched how he moves, and decided his way of leading is not something they can stand behind. A person can reach that conclusion honestly. Same speech, same debate, same headline, and two neighbors may walk away seeing two different things.

That is part of being free.

What bothers me most is the ownership language around our vote. It shows up from both sides. Democrats sometimes talk like loyalty is owed because of history. Republicans sometimes treat any support from our community as proof they have solved something they have barely tried to understand. That kind of thinking is why people get tired before the real conversation even starts.

The vote does not sit in somebody’s back pocket because a singer, preacher, activist, radio host, or cable news panel told people where to go.

It belongs to the folks standing in line after work, the ones checking their registration twice, the grandmother with her purse on her arm, the young brother voting for the first time, and the working man who still has to clock in the next morning no matter who wins.

That is why many are tired of being told how to think about Trump. The issue is bigger than one man. It is about dignity. It is about having the right to weigh a candidate for yourself. It is about questioning Democrats without being called a traitor. It is about rejecting Republicans without being called a pawn. It is about asking what a leader has done for your family, your neighborhood, your church, your business, your school, and your future.

That kind of independence should not scare anybody who truly believes in democracy.

Our community brings a lot into that voting booth. A veteran may be thinking about war. A teacher may be thinking about schools. A preacher may be thinking about morality. A small business owner may be thinking about taxes and payroll. A union worker may be thinking about wages. Somebody who learned life the hard way may be thinking about survival more than party.

Try fitting all of that into one campaign slogan. It falls apart quick.

So when Trump’s name comes up, maybe people ought to slow down before reaching for insults. Why are certain folks open to him? Why are others firmly against him? What has worn people down? Where have both parties missed the mark? What are working families saying that political people keep brushing aside?

A conversation like that might actually teach us something. Name calling never has.

I am not here to tell another grown person how to vote. That is between that person, conscience, household, and God. What I am saying is simple. Our people deserve to be heard, even when the room disagrees. Candidates need to earn support instead of assuming it. Media voices need to stop acting like one opinion speaks for everybody. A man or woman should be able to think out loud without getting dragged just for stepping outside somebody else’s comfort zone.

There are Trump supporters in our community. There are Trump critics who cannot stomach him. There are people watching both parties with one eyebrow raised. There are also citizens so worn out by politics that staying home starts to feel easier than choosing between disappointments. That ought to trouble the political class, but it should also teach them something.

People are tired of lectures.

Results matter. Respect matters. Honesty matters. A vote is not a love letter. Sometimes it is a warning. Sometimes it is a protest. Sometimes it is hope. Sometimes it is the only tool a person feels he has left.

America needs to remember something simple about our community.

No party owns our vote. Folks are paying attention, and respect still has to be earned.

Staff Writer; L.L. McKenna

Politics explained through the lens of justice and equity. Offering perspective that informs, challenges, and empowers.

One can contact this brother at; LLMcKenna@ThyBlackMan.com.

I am still amazed at my own relationship with Christ, which began over 27 years ago. God radically changed my life instantly. A couple of my colleagues could not believe that the same person who drank beer with them during lunch the previous week was now saying he did not drink anymore. They never saw me go back on that testimony.

On the other hand, none of us has arrived. The Lord continues to work in our lives. We may not be aware that this is happening. He integrates this progressive work into our daily lives, exploiting opportunities to shape us into the image of His dear Son.

I believe that if Christians would be truthful, most of them would admit that they are not satisfied with their current relationship with Christ. Perhaps it’s because they are struggling morally in one or more areas in their life, and they can’t seem to get victory. Or maybe they feel inept to effectively do what they know God has called them to do in the ministry. Maybe they don’t even know exactly what it is, but they just know something is missing in their relationship with the Lord.

Listen to what the Lord inspired Paul the apostle to say about this: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). I want to look at three key words in this verse:

The first word is confident. We must know without a shadow of a doubt that God continues to work in our lives. Have you ever heard a Christian who has a bad temper try to justify his outbursts of rage? He may say, “I can’t help it; God made me this way.” But it’s not the will of God for His children to go about erupting into tantrums. We need to pray for victory in that area. Such prayer for personal change must be undergirded by a confidence that it is the will of God to continuously change us into the image of Christ.

The second word is begun. The good work the Lord has begun in us is salvation. This experience does not denote spiritual maturity. The truth is that when we first got saved we didn’t act much differently than we did before we met Christ. That’s because we were babes in Christ. Not knowing what to do, we did what we knew. Through salvation, however, the Lord has provided us everything we need to become the great champion He wants us to ultimately become.

The third word is perform. I quoted Paul’s words from the King James Version of the Bible. The word “perform” from this verse means to “bring to completion.” You see, God wants to complete the good work He has begun in us. He will not be finished with us until the very end of our journey here. Thanks to the Lord’s salvation in our lives, we are no longer what we used to be, but because of His progressive work in our lives, neither are we yet what we are destined to become!

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is addressed to “all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1). The word “saints” applies only to those who have been saved. But it is important to understand that though salvation is instant, sanctification is a lifetime endeavor.

A lot of misconception has been perpetuated by believers who refuse to be for real. They have promoted this false idea that when a person becomes born again he almost walks on water. Some unbelievers who might accept Christ feel intimidated because they have been given this misconception that being a Christian denotes perfection. Not that we necessarily make statements that bluntly, but at times when someone fails we comment, “I know he said he was a Christian, but he must not be if he did something like that.” Well, friend, sometimes Christians do non Christian like things.

Even prominent ministers bear out the truth of what I am saying. As I write this message, I am reminded of three ministers who made the news big time last year in bad ways. I won’t name them. My intent is not to add embarrassment to them, but to expand on my point. Each of these ministers had national influence. A couple of them pastored megachurches. Because of their moral failures, none of them presently remain in those leadership positions.

Understandably, many Christians who had supported these ministers felt betrayed. They came on TV and stood behind pulpits telling the people of God how to live a victorious Christian life, and they themselves were not doing the same, some argue. Then some of the Christians at the grassroots felt that if these bigger than life preachers failed in such a big way, what hope was there for the little guy?

There is no way to put a positive spin on what those preachers did, the events were tragic for the body of Christ, the devil rejoiced over them, and the ministers involved no doubt endured much pain. But it is also important for us to remember that though ministers are saved and called to preach, God is still working on them as well. Being called to preach the gospel does not denote perfection.

The Bible says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: “and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). God inspired Paul to write this to the Christians at Galatia. He is telling us that a war exists within us. It’s between our born again spirit and our flesh. The one always goes contrary to the direction of the other. In this life, we will never be immune to be being tempted in our flesh. God’s will for each of us, however, is that we learn how to walk in the Spirit that we not fulfill the desires of our flesh (verse 16). This we will do if we cooperate with His progressive work in our lives. By that I mean we must be committed to fully developing. Some Christians fail to mature because they are not ready to die to themselves in some areas.

Perhaps as you read this article you are not where you want to be in Christ. You may even wonder how you will ever reach spiritual maturity, based on where you currently are, and where you desire to be. But believe me, friend, the Lord is not finished with you yet.

He deals with each of us differently for a number of reasons. You may be struggling in an area that you have been battling for the past decade, yet you know of new converts who had the same problem but God just miraculously took it away from them at salvation. That seems so unfair, right? Your theology is as good as mine as to why it happens that way. For example, I know believers who have been delivered from drugs and alcohol but who can’t seem to leave cigarettes alone. But I say never give up. Never read into your lack of progress in an area of spiritual development that God wants you to remain that way. Rather, for the struggles that make you feel less than complete, you must pray and seek the face of God, being confident that He has begun a good work in you, and He is committed to finishing the same.

Staff Writer; Frank King

You can contact this devout Christian at: King@ThyBlackMan.com.

When she rose to the national stage, I understood why a lot of Black folks felt something. A Black woman standing that close to the presidency was no small thing. I do not care how many people try to act like firsts do not matter anymore. They still matter when you know how long our people were told to stay in our place. They still matter when you remember there was a time not that long ago when a Black woman could be brilliant, prepared, educated, and still be expected to sit in the back and take notes for somebody less qualified.

But pride does not mean blindness. I never believed Black people had to clap for every politician just because that person has some connection to us. That is not wisdom. That is emotional spending. We have done too much of that already. Harris has a record. She has choices behind her. She has political alliances. She has things that need explaining. Any serious Black voter should be able to say that without being accused of hating his own people.

Still, something about the way this country has gone after her has never sat right with me.

I am a middle aged Brother from the South, so I know a little something about being told to act right before you even know what you did wrong. A lot of us grew up hearing it. Speak clearly. Do not get loud. Keep your hands where folks can see them. Dress decent. Do not embarrass the family. Do not give people a reason to mess with you. Some of that was good home training. Some of it was survival talk. Our elders knew what kind of country we were walking into.

They were not trying to make us scared. They were trying to keep us alive.

That is what people now call respectability politics, but we did not need a college term for it back then. We just knew there were rules. Rules for how you talked around white folks. Rules for how you carried yourself at work. Rules for how much anger you could show before somebody decided you were dangerous. Rules for how clean you had to be before somebody still treated you dirty.

The former vice president has had to live under those rules in front of the whole nation. Too polished, and people call her fake. Too serious, and they say she is cold. Too sharp, and now she has an attitude. Too relaxed, and they say she is not ready. She laughs, and folks act like the woman committed a federal offense. I have never seen so many grown people bothered by a laugh. That told me long ago that some of the issue was not just policy.

Now, I am not going to play games. Some Black men did not connect with her. That is real. I have heard it in conversations. Some brothers never trusted her because of her prosecutor background. Some felt she was too tied to the same Democratic machine that keeps asking Black folks for loyalty while giving us speeches in return. Some felt she never spoke directly enough to the struggles of Black men. Some just did not feel her. Everybody is not going to connect with everybody.

And truthfully, Democrats need to stop acting shocked when Black men ask questions. We have the right to ask what somebody plans to do about jobs, fatherhood, crime, small business, housing, education, prison reentry, and the cost of living. We have the right to ask why our votes are treated like family property. We have the right to want more than a church visit, a few phrases, and a reminder that the other side is worse.

So no, this is not me saying she should be protected from criticism. She should not be. She is a politician. Politicians need pressure. They need questions. They need somebody standing there saying, “That sounds nice, but what does it mean for my neighborhood?”

But there is a line, and too many people have crossed it with her.

There is a difference between saying you do not like her record and acting like her very presence offends you. There is a difference between asking what she has done and spending all day mocking how she talks. There is a difference between questioning her judgment and acting like ambition from a Black woman is something nasty. We know the difference. Some folks pretend they do not, but grown people know.

I think about that as a Black man because I know how fast people can turn confidence into arrogance when it comes from us. I know how quickly they can see threat where there is none. A brother can stand straight, speak firmly, and look somebody in the eye, and suddenly he is intimidating. He can be quiet, and they say he is suspicious. He can be passionate, and they say he is angry. That game is old.

Black women deal with their own version of it. It is not the same, but it comes from the same place. A Black woman can be prepared and they call her rehearsed. She can be direct and they call her mean. She can be careful and they call her phony. She can be joyful and they call her unserious. She can be ambitious and they act like she is trying to take something that belongs to somebody else.

That is why this conversation gets bigger than one woman.

She has become a place where people dump a lot of their feelings about Black women in power. Some of those feelings are fair political frustration. Some of them are something else entirely. I have heard people criticize her in ways they would never use for a white man with a longer list of failures. I have seen people demand warmth from her while accepting arrogance from others. I have watched folks call her unqualified while praising people who could not carry her resume in a grocery bag.

That is not politics. That is the old sickness wearing a new suit.

Down South, you learn to listen for what people are not saying. Everybody does not have to use ugly language for you to know the spirit behind the comment. Sometimes “she is not likable” means something else. Sometimes “she is too ambitious” means something else. Sometimes “she does not seem authentic” means folks do not know what to do with a Black woman who is not begging to be approved.

And let me be clear. Not every person who dislikes Harris is racist. Not every person who questions her is sexist. That kind of lazy thinking does not help anybody. We have to leave room for honest disagreement. We have to leave room for Black folks who simply are not moved by her politics. I know I have my own questions.

But we also cannot act slow. America did not suddenly become fair when she showed up. The same country that doubted Barack Obama’s birth certificate was never going to look at a Black woman near the presidency and behave itself. Some of us knew that before the first attack landed.

Respectability politics always had a problem. It promised more than it could deliver. It told Black folks that if we were neat enough, polite enough, educated enough, calm enough, and careful enough, maybe America would finally treat us right. But many of us have lived long enough to know better. You can do everything right and still be treated like you got in the room by mistake.

Harris is proof of that. She checks plenty of the boxes America claims to value. She is educated. She has experience. She knows how to speak in official settings. She has served in major offices. She is not some reckless person who just wandered onto the stage. Yet people still talk about her like she has to prove basic competence every morning before breakfast.

That has to get exhausting.

I do not need her to be perfect. I do not need her to be my political savior. I do not need her to represent every Black woman, every Black family, or every hope our ancestors carried. That is too much weight for one person. What I do need is for us to have enough sense to separate critique from disrespect.

Ask her about policy. Ask her about criminal justice. Ask her about the economy. Ask her what she plans to do for Black communities if she wants power again. Ask her what she learned from past mistakes. Ask all of that. We should.

But do not sit beside people who only want to use your criticism as cover for their hatred. That is where Black folks have to be careful. Everybody who agrees with your complaint is not your ally. Some people will nod along with you for five minutes, then use your words to help tear down somebody they never respected in the first place.

That is the part we should understand by now.

This whole story has shown us how narrow the road still is. A Black person can rise high and still be told to shrink. A Black woman can make history and still be treated like she needs permission to stand there. A politician can deserve criticism and still be facing something deeper than politics.

As for me, I can hold both truths. I can question her and still recognize the weight she has carried. I can disagree with her and still refuse to mock her humanity. I can say she needs to answer for her record without joining folks who never wanted a Black woman that close to power anyway.

That is not blind loyalty. That is grown man thinking.

Respectability may help you survive some rooms, but it will not set you free. That is the lesson I keep coming back to. You can dress right, speak right, smile right, and play by every rule they hand you. Then when you get too close to real authority, they change the rules again.

She is not the first Black person to learn that. She will not be the last. But her story reminds us that we still have work to do, not just in politics, but in how we judge Black leadership, Black women, and each other.

Staff Writer; L.L. McKenna

Politics explained through the lens of justice and equity. Offering perspective that informs, challenges, and empowers.

One can contact this brother at; LLMcKenna@ThyBlackMan.com.

A lot of Black men understood early that Obama was going to face pressure most presidents never had to deal with. You could feel it before he even entered the White House. Folks questioned where the man was born. They mocked his name. Some acted uncomfortable simply because a confident Black man with intelligence and composure suddenly stood in front of the entire world commanding attention. Brothers watching all this unfold knew exactly what was happening even when television tried pretending otherwise. Many of us grew up understanding how quickly society can become threatened once a Black man carries himself with confidence without asking permission from anybody.

What impressed me most about Obama was the restraint. Now let us be honest as Black men for a second. There were countless moments where many brothers would have snapped publicly dealing with the level of disrespect he faced. People interrupted him. Mocked him. Lied about him daily. Tried reducing everything about him down to anger, race, or conspiracy theories. Yet the man stayed composed over and over again. That taught many young Black men something important without him even saying it directly. Emotional control is power too.

See, many brothers grow up being told we must remain calm in situations where others are allowed to lose control freely. One emotional reaction can cost us jobs, opportunities, freedom, or even safety. Obama understood that reality deeply. He knew certain people desperately wanted him angry because anger would have fed stereotypes already sitting inside their minds. Instead, he often answered pressure with preparation, patience, humor, or silence. Watching that level of discipline inspired many brothers quietly whether they admit it or not.

The thing I respected was that Obama never came off weak either. Some people confuse composure with softness because modern culture worships loud behavior. Obama never needed fake toughness to command respect. He walked into rooms filled with world leaders and looked completely comfortable standing there. The brother understood who he was. Young Black men needed to see that badly during those years because too often society pushes brothers toward extremes. Either you are expected to be overly aggressive or completely passive. Obama showed another lane entirely.

And let us talk honestly about what it meant seeing a Black family inside the White House carrying themselves with dignity. That mattered deeply inside Black households across America. Seeing Obama speak proudly about his daughters. Seeing the respect between him and Michelle Obama. Seeing structure, education, love, and discipline connected to a Black family on the world stage changed how many young brothers viewed themselves mentally. Some people will never fully understand how powerful that image became for Black America.

For years society pushed narratives about broken Black homes constantly. Television loved showing dysfunction while ignoring millions of hardworking Black fathers raising families quietly every day. Obama represented another image entirely. The brother looked like somebody grounded. Somebody thoughtful. Somebody trying to lead while still protecting his family from the madness surrounding politics. A lot of older Black men respected that because many came from generations where carrying yourself with dignity mattered heavily.

Another thing young brothers connected with was Obama making intelligence look powerful. Let us keep it real. In some environments, young Black boys get pressured into hiding intelligence just to fit in socially. Some brothers grow up feeling like education somehow makes them less authentic. Obama changed that mindset for many people. The brother read books openly. Spoke carefully. Thought deeply before answering questions. He made professionalism look strong instead of corny. Teachers noticed it. Parents noticed it. Young Black men noticed it too.

Even the way Obama handled criticism taught lessons. There were politicians and media personalities saying outrageous things about him constantly. Some crossed lines previous presidents probably never would have experienced publicly. Yet Obama rarely lowered himself into emotional chaos. That patience frustrated many people because they wanted him rattled publicly. They wanted to see the angry Black man stereotype come alive on television. Instead, Obama stayed disciplined.

Now that does not mean everybody agreed with every political decision he made. No president escapes criticism. Some brothers wanted him to move differently on certain issues. Others wished he addressed race more directly during particular moments. That conversation is fair. But this article is bigger than political debates. This is about recognizing how the man carried himself under unbelievable pressure while the entire world watched his every move.

A lot of Black men saw pieces of themselves in Obama’s balancing act. Going into workplaces where you know people question your intelligence before you even speak. Feeling pressure to remain composed while others get emotional freely. Understanding one mistake can follow you longer because you are Black. Obama navigated all of that publicly on the biggest stage imaginable. That reality connected deeply with many brothers trying to survive similar pressures in everyday life.

I also think older Black men felt emotional watching Obama because they came from generations that never believed they would see a Black president during their lifetime. Some lived through segregation. Some marched during Civil Rights years. Some grew up watching Black men denied opportunities openly. Then suddenly there was a Black family living in the White House carrying themselves with grace while representing America globally. That meant something beyond politics.

Young brothers especially needed that example though. They needed to see a Black man operate with confidence, intelligence, patience, humor, and emotional discipline without constantly proving masculinity through aggression. Obama gave many young men permission mentally to think bigger about themselves. College suddenly felt more reachable for some. Public speaking looked cool again. Reading books did not seem lame anymore. Representation matters whether people admit it or not.

One thing I always respected was how Obama never seemed desperate for validation. The brother looked secure inside himself. He could joke naturally. He could speak seriously when needed. He could stand firm without screaming. That type of confidence inspired many Black men because true strength usually speaks calmly.

Now before somebody jumps straight into policy arguments, understand this piece focuses more on the cultural and emotional impact Obama had on many Black men across generations. Brothers respected how the man handled pressure because life already teaches many of us how heavy pressure can become.

And honestly, I would like to know what moment during Barack Obama’s presidency connected with you personally the most. Was it election night? A speech? Watching him interact with his family? Or maybe it was simply seeing a Black man carry himself with grace while the whole world waited for him to fall apart publicly?

Staff Writer; L.L. McKenna

Politics explained through the lens of justice and equity. Offering perspective that informs, challenges, and empowers.

One can contact this brother at; LLMcKenna@ThyBlackMan.com.

            For example, we are told inflation is on the rise which is true, but they are not telling us the actual causes of inflation or what inflation really is. We think inflation is rising costs for consumer goods and services which is true but that is not the cause. Inflation is a result of actions the ruling class do not want us to know about. Why? Because once we found out and we were in our right minds we would hold them accountable for their dastardly deeds and crimes against humanity.

            The truth is, inflation is caused by a rise not in prices but in the amount of money in circulation; which in a fiat system like America has, directly impacts the value of the money in circulation since it is not backed by anything tangible like gold. Western economists use what I call mumbo gumbo speak to obfuscate the reality the US economy which is based upon money, is manipulated by the central banksters. Their machinations have a direct influence on the supply of money in circulation at any given time.

 “Central banks can influence M2 supply by either issuing more money into the economy or by incentivizing people to spend less. Quantitative easing is one way that a central bank can increase money supply and stimulate the economy. To reduce the supply of M2 in an economy, a central bank might issue bonds or other government-backed securities which lenders can buy; in doing so, they loan the government money. This means that a central bank’s money reserves increase at the expense of the money available in the economy. Central banks can also increase or decrease interest rates to influence M2. If interest rates are lower, borrowing will likely become more popular, which will increase the supply of money. Conversely, if interest rates rise, then the cost of borrowing will also go up which will deter people from taking out loans. This will decrease the M2 money supply in an economy.” M2 Money Supply (Emphasis is mine.)

            This is why Trump was applying so much pressure on the former US central bank chair Jerome Powell; Trump wanted Powell to reduce interest rates meaning the cost of borrowing money. In effect Trump wanted to make it easier for people to get deeper in debt! `But what also was/is in play was the actual increase in the US money supply (M2) over the past few years. In fact, this increase has been humongous in the trillions of dollars.

“Since 2009, the TMS money supply is now up by more than 206 percent. (M2 has grown by more than 160 percent in that period.) Out of the current money supply of $20.4 trillion, nearly 30 percent of that has been created since January 2020. Since 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis, more than $14 trillion of the current money supply has been created. In other words, more than two-thirds of the total existing money supply have been created since the Great Recession.” Money Supply Growth in 2026 Rises to Multi Year High as the Fed Pumps New QE (Emphasis is mine.)

            The constant rise in M2 is making existing money worth less and less; which means you need more dollars to purchase goods and services. Trump’s foolish tariffs, his misuse of tariffs and his insane war on behalf of Israel against Iran, are causing massive repercussions which negatively impact US and global economies. The loss of global trade, numerous supply chain disruptions, US dollar debasement as the central banksters print more and more dollars are making life miserable for ordinary Americans while overvalued stocks are making the ownership and managerial classes richer every day!

            Suffice it to say inflation is not going to stop or go down. Due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine there will be food, oil, chemical and petroleum-based product shortages which will affect our pocketbooks and wallets. And this is merely the tip of the spear!

 Trump has already said he is not concerned about how this affects Americans! In an earlier post I predicted the Iran war will continue and it has. Now we are looking at a perfect storm of devastating consequences that will not only smack the American Empire but the whole world; which by the way is why this is being manipulated by the powers who shouldn’t be!

Written by Junious Ricardo Stanton

Official website; http://fromtheramparts.blogspot.com

The defendants are Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four alleged mass murder co-conspirators. Mohammed is the second person that the government has characterized as the ringleader of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Originally, the feds had labeled Osama bin Laden as the ringleader. Yet, rather than charging and arresting bin Laden, in order to keep him quiet it sent a team of Navy Seals to his home in Pakistan to murder him and his wife and their children.

After that, the feds labeled Mohammed as the orchestrator of 9/11 even though that, by the time of bin Laden’s death, Mohammed had been in U.S. custody for eight years. During that time, he was brutally tortured by CIA officers and other U.S. civilian agents.

His torture was truly repellant. He was waterboarded 183 times. He was hanged by his wrists while naked and in well-lit walk-in refrigerators such that he was freezing and denied sleep for days. His head was smashed repeatedly against wooden walls. His rectum, through which he was fed, was so brutalized that he bled for months, often ingesting into his intestines his own blood and fecal material.

At the end of three years of these criminal attacks at foreign sites operated by cooperating intelligence agencies with the torture administered by Americans, he told his torturers what he thought they wanted to hear. Then he was transferred to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has remained since 2007.

Upon his arrival at Gitmo, a different set of interrogators took over. The video tapes of his hundreds of torture sessions were destroyed but not the transcripts of his confession. The purpose of the second round of interrogations was to elicit another confession by agents who could testify to a judge that they did not torture him, and that his confession to them was not coerced.

Though some of these interrogators at Gitmo were FBI agents, no one read him his Miranda warnings, advising him of his right to silence, to counsel and to the legal implications of anything he told his new interrogators. Mohammed made admissions to this second group of interrogators substantially similar to those he made to his torturers.

The government, which once denied but now admits to the torture, nevertheless was prepared to argue that his second confession was voluntary. Then, the feds had a change of heart. And, two years ago, his lawyers entered into plea negotiations, at the request of the government because the military lawyers and their Department of Justice legal colleagues concluded that they could not ethically defend torture in an American courtroom.

Federal law, the federal rules of criminal procedure, the canons of legal ethics and state bar licensing authorities all prohibit lawyers from using coerced testimony in a courtroom.

The government and all defense lawyers entered into a plea agreement that provided for full public confessions, a public confrontation by family members of 9/11 victims during which the defendants agreed to reply truthfully to their questions, and, of course, life in prison at Gitmo.

The Army general in the Pentagon in charge of all Gitmo prosecutions — herself a former military judge — approved the plea agreement, as did the military trial judge, and all five defendants.

Then, the Biden administration Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin fired the general who approved the plea agreement and revoked the Pentagon’s approval. A federal appeals court upheld his revocation. At that point, Mohammed was on his fourth military judge and his fifth team of prosecutors.

After the court affirmed the Pentagon’s change of heart, the military judge who had approved the plea agreement retired. The current and fifth judge has presumably read the 44,000 pages of documents and transcripts that 15 years of litigation has generated as he announced last week that he will rule on the admissibility of the second round of confessions this summer.

The present judge, who did not preside over any of the hundreds of hours of proceedings in the case, including those during which the horrific tortures described above were related in an American courtroom, must now decide if the second confession was voluntary. Though the government now admits that the first confession was not voluntary, its relevance here is not the words Mohammed told his torturers but the degradation of his mental faculties due to the egregious tortures such that the second confession was also not voluntary.

Was Mohammed so conditioned to the power of his interrogators that his will was attenuated?

The standard of proof that the government must meet to get the second confession admitted is voluntariness beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty. That’s the same high standard for proving guilt in all American courts. If the feds fail to meet this standard to the satisfaction of the judge, the case will proceed to trial without the jury hearing the confession.

This is a two-edged sword for the government. If the confession is read to the jury, then the defendants and their experts can relate to the jury all the horrific things the government did in order to produce the confessions. But if the confession does not come into evidence, then the jury will not hear of the tortures unless there is a conviction and the torture testimony is presented in mitigation of punishment.

What we have here is a lawless system of brutality. Torture and all it produces is a profound violation of natural rights, the Constitution’s guarantee of due process, as well as federal law. Even practitioners of this medieval behavior have acknowledged it produces unreliable statements. It is the tool of monsters.

On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, we are asked to accept government at its worst; one that the Framers thought they had prohibited and one to which the governed never consented.

Written by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Official website; https://twitter.com/Judgenap

He still cannot explain how to pay for it. Can anyone?

Single-payer health care has been the progressive left’s signature domestic demand for four decades. It has generated presidential campaigns, mass rallies, congressional cosponsors and an inexhaustible supply of Twitter righteousness. What it has never generated once is a workable legislative proposal.

Brookings Institution economist Jessica Riedl has spent years waiting for one. Her challenge is simple: Show us a progressive bill that specifies

(a) a provider payment system that actually saves money under America’s existing, already expensive health infrastructure, and

(b) a financing mechanism to replace the roughly $32 trillion in private premiums and out-of-pocket costs that would need to be covered by federal taxes over the next decade.

Despite hundreds of legislative proposals and multiple presidential campaigns built around the issue, no one has met the challenge.

It’s not for lack of pretending. Sen. Bennie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have bills that people trumpet as serious legislative vehicles. But as Riedl notes, the proposals are only aspirational. They enumerate generous new benefits with great enthusiasm and then instruct the secretary of Health and Human Services to figure out the rest. The phrase “The Secretary shall …” appears 62 times in the Sanders bill alone.

OK, but what about Europe and Canada? Progressives inevitably say: They made it work! This is a rhetorical sleight of hand that collapses on contact with basic facts.

European countries built modest, government-controlled health infrastructures from the ground up over several decades. They contained costs — meaning, among other things, they rationed care — as they expanded access. America did the opposite.

We built the most expensive, technologically advanced, sprawling health system in human history, which consumes nearly 20% of GDP, under mostly private incentives and market pricing. As Riedl puts it, “We cannot simply pay European prices for the more vast American health infrastructure that exists.”

The central theory of single-payer savings has always been this: Slash payments to providers to offset the surge in the use of universal, no-cost-at-point-of-service coverage. The Congressional Budget Office took a serious look at this fantasy. Its conclusion was that national health expenditures might actually rise, and demand for care would outrun supply. The final result would be European-style rationing, delays and forgone services, all leading to worsening health care.

Then there’s the inconvenient question of how to get the tax revenue needed for a single-payer system to replace private health care premiums, out-of-pocket expenses and state health programs. Although neither Sanders nor Jayapal has an answer, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget does. Financing a Sanders-style system would require a new 32% payroll tax, a 25% income surtax or a 42% value-added tax, more than doubling every individual and corporate income-tax rate.

CBO found that such a system would reduce GDP by 6% to 10% by 2030. From a movement that claims to care about working Americans, that number deserves more than silence.

The state-level record confirms what the nasty arithmetic and voters’ disgust tell us. Vermont passed single-payer legislation in 2011 and assigned an expert commission to make the numbers work. After three years of failure, Gov. Peter Shumlin abandoned the plan, admitting that the required 11.5% payroll tax per company plus the 9.5% income tax per Vermonter (with small businesses paying both) would be politically unsurvivable even in Sen. Sanders’ home state. Colorado voters rejected their single-payer initiative in 2016 after analysis showed that even tripling taxes wouldn’t cover the costs.

Back in California in 2022, the state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst estimated that the proposed single-payer system created by the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act would cost between $494 billion and $552 billion annually. Imagine the taxes needed to more than double that state’s spending overnight.

After the bill died without a vote, Assemblymember Ash Kalra reintroduced it in February 2026, and it failed to advance again few months later. California has now killed single-payer twice in four years.

The absence of a workable plan after 40 years tells you everything you need to know. This is Riedl’s essential insight and the one that cuts deepest. It’s unworkable. It’s expensive. And it will kill the supply of health care. Steyer knew all this in 2020 when he ran for president. The only thing that’s changed is politics.

Written by Veronique de Rugy

Official website; http://twitter.com/veroderugy

At the beginning of every professional sporting event, it has become an American tradition to stand during the playing of the national anthem. By doing so, it represents a moment of unified respect for our nation that goes beyond race, class, gender, age, political affiliation, and religion. It represents a time before the game when players, coaches, and fans of opposing teams are Americans first, and are joined together as one American team. The national anthem is a few precious minutes where patriotism and unity are established. It establishes an atmosphere of fan camaraderie where MAGA conservatives and die-hard liberals can cheer together for their favorite home team while being free of the political divisions from the outside world. Fans sitting in the stands can be totally unaware of the political persuasions of those around them because political differences are put aside, and support for the home team on the court or field becomes the unifying shared interest of those in attendance. It is a part of the game day experience that can easily be overlooked and taken for granted.

As starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick received backlash on multiple fronts when he used kneeling during the national anthem as a means of silently protesting racial injustice and police brutality. At the time, Joe Lockhart was the executive vice president in charge of communications and government affairs for the NFL. He later became a political analyst for CNN. In a column written in 2020, Lockhart stated, “No teams wanted to sign a player – even one as talented as Kaepernick –whom they saw as controversial, and therefore, bad for business.” Colin Kaepernick was not blackballed from the league because of his lack of skills, injuries, or salary demands. He was ostracized because he became a financial liability. “For many owners, it always came back to the same thing,” Lockhart wrote. “Signing Kaepernick, they thought, was bad for business. An executive from one team that considered signing Kaepernick told me the team projected losing 20% of their season ticket holders if they did. That was a business risk no team was willing to take, whether the owner was a Trump supporter or a bleeding-heart liberal. As bad of an image problem it presented for the league and the game, no owner was willing to put the business at risk over this issue.”

Looking back, I personally believe he should strategically use his platform as an NFL player in speaking out against racial injustice and police brutality, but his method underestimated the fan reaction when he invaded the political safe zone on game day with controversial social issues. It arguably led to Kaepernick losing his promising NFL career, and not being re-signed by any other team in the league. Recently, the New York Giants’ starting quarterback was another NFL player who misjudged a politically sensitive situation by introducing President Trump at a MAGA rally. Jaxson Dart’s decision will not cost him his job and career, but it did result in a backlash from a different perspective: The public backlash came from those defending the Black cause, including one of his New York Giants teammates. Linebacker Abdul Carter initially voiced discomfort with the optics of the event, according to multiple reports. “Some things are bigger than football, and this is one of those things,” Carter told reporters during a press conference. “If he chooses to align himself with a man like President Trump, it’s my responsibility based on what I believe and what I stand on to not only show my teammates that I’m against that, but to show the world.”

Dart, along with other Trump supporters, cannot forget that the majority of players in the NFL are Black. Abdul Carter’s comments refer to the character of a leader. If Dart is accepting the character of an anti-DEI leader, how can he, with any sense of credibility, be the quarterback and leader of a locker room that is predominantly Black? Hopefully, during the private meeting used to repair the fractured locker room, the team will learn that a player in leadership cannot bring racial insensitivity into another version of the NFL safe zone. This is why diversity, equity, and inclusion are always needed to bring racial awareness when needed.

Written by David W. Marshall

Official website; https://davidwmarshallauthor.com/

One may purchase his book, which is titled; God Bless Our Divided America: Unity, Politics and History from a Biblical Perspective.