Project Logic Ga

I had a brief conversation earlier today with someone here in Augusta. The conversation initially started with the number of people that seemed to be voting early. And that is a good thing. And then it steered to him telling me that the person he works for had attended and participated in a Stop The Violence Prayer March and Rally the night before. He said it seemed to be a good turnout because he saw it on the news. I was aware of this event and told him that two of my panelists who join me weekly on my radio program to discuss that very subject were in attendance.

His next comment was ‘I was surprised that my boss attended that event.’ My response was ‘why were you surprised?’ And then he went on to say that he is (and I knew this) new to the department  here in Richmond County, that he is well liked by everyone in the office and he’s a pretty good guy ‘even though he is a Republican.’ My immediate response was that ‘this is part of the problem regarding politics, politicians and voting.’ Why should a person be discussed in a conversation in that way? He is a pretty good guy even though he is a Republican. Obviously he caught what I was saying pretty quickly.

All of these labels is what has gotten us in the mess we are in now. And naturally the conversation gave him something to think about after we went our separate ways. But his sentiment, and he really didn’t mean any harm, is commonplace. My new book, Unlikely Allies: 8 Steps to Bridging Divides that Impact Leadership, is what that scenario is about. The idea that a Republican, who works in a department which clearly had every right and needed to be at this Stop the Violence March, would come to an event that was primarily attended by Blacks, organized by a Black church and addressed the growing problem of gang violence which, unfortunately, involves a disproportionate number of Black youth, attended this event was a surprise to this individual that I spoke too. Now, of course, he didn’t say all of that. But it is what he meant when he said ‘I was surprised that he attended this activity.’

We need more Unlikely Allies. We need more Republican candidates, for example, advertising in the Black media. I think it’s a shame that any political candidate would virtually shield his or her political platform from a segment of the voting population that is nearly 50%. That makes no sense to me. Oh, but one political operative said to me the other day ‘oh, but we are advertising on television.” Excuse me. That is not good enough. How will people of all races know, I mean really get to know, the ideology and platform of ALL the candidates if he/she doesn’t reach out to them and let them know what that is? By the way, you can purchase my book at www.authorhouse.com –