I live in a subdivision that is “hood adjacent” and share your concerns. You briefly touched on the biggest issues and most should be solved starting at home…in people’s houses.

Most of the CBC should be gone for not getting to these issues and the liberal section of the DNC wants to toss money at problems after they become problems. While I love my brothers J.C. Watts and Rev. Herman Cain, their business centered actions in the conservative movement only goes so far and the Black conservative talking heads are off-putting to me.

I personally like the idea of conservative southern sister with southern sister sensibility going into congress and using that to say that we were not raised to wait for the government to improve our lives—provided defense against enemies foreign and domestic, yes…but replace the family, no.

I also love Rep. John Lewis but Atlanta is one of the greatest cities on earth for us and some fresh leadership should be coming.

I take issue with the entire construct of your post.

For the Black community – IF we are more concerned about any “slight cast upon Obama” MORE THAN we are focused upon the long series of slights done to the:

* Education Of Our Children while the machine that Obama sits atop of runs all of the schools where Black people live in our highest concentrations

* The threats to the safety of our people upon the streets where the mayors that are in line with the popular interests of the Black community and thus command the police forces

* The inability of the business districts where we live to generate jobs and provide a platform for us to exchange goods with each other

THESE ARE GREATER ASSAULTS UPON THE BLACK BEST INTERESTS.

Slyram – as I have debated various Black people in the past year some argue that “the PRESENCE OF BARACK OBAMA IN OFFICE” is, in and of itself, PROOF OF BLACK ADVANCEMENT. I roundly disagree.

My measure of “Black Advancement” is seen at the periphery, not at the increased head count of people who “look like me” in the institutions running our communities and America.

In fact with their growth in head count I would expect to see such improvement in:

* Academics
* Public Safety
* Local Economic Condition
* Healthy Lifestyles

I think that your argument would be strengthened IF you took a more “community centric approach”….SHOWED THE EVIDENCE that certain policies held by Obama and others that currently dominate all of our institutions are in fact working to deliver us closer to our Permanent Interests and THEN go after anyone who might attack the proven examples of advancement.

For me – Barack Obama is no sacred cow that can’t be attacked. He SHOULD BE ATTACKED when he falls short of delivering what he was put in office to accomplish. Failing this we are actually complicit in promoting ineffective leaders who linger in office way past the point of their effectiveness. (Did someone say Congressman John Lewis?)