As with my 2 previous installments of this “American Car” series, I begin with a personal anecdote. It was 1961. I had recently graduated from high school, and had an apartment in Santa Rosa, CA. A friend lived in an adjacent apartment, and one afternoon we took a drive in his 1951 Chevrolet Sedan. This was an old 4-door that he had inherited from his parents, nondescript and gray, with a shabby interior and absolutely no qualities that would turn your head, except for the slight engine knock, which a mechanic would immediately notice. Well, on the way home, the oil pressure started to drop, and the knock in the engine became more noticeable. The stream of smoke that the car always left behind grew more and more alarming. The water temperature started to climb. But did my friend stop at a service station to investigate the problem and add oil and water? Of course not. We were only five miles from home, and he had some oil in the garage. He was sure he could “make it.” Continue reading
Daily Archives: January 25, 2012
At Least Rep. Cleaver Admitted It,But Rep. West Called It
In the midst of all of the SOTU (“STFU”) hoopla, there were two stories that went under-reported, and both of them deal with the Congressional Black Caucus.
With the first, the headline really says it all:CBC Chairman: African Americans Would ‘March On The White House’ If Obama Wasn’t Black.
I suppose that’s SOMETHING. At least he admitted it, right? Uh, yeah, sure. Here is more from the article:
[snip]Following his appearance at Republican Rep. Allen West’s Black Conservative Forum, Cleaver elaborated on his past comments about Obama’s image in the African American community, saying, “The point I was making is that black people hold the president in such high esteem, that they would not dare march on the White House even though unemployment is at 15 percent and higher and if there was a white president we would do that because we’ve had white presidents since George Washington.”
Cleaver continued, “The point was that if we had anybody else in the White House, with this level of unemployment, that you know, you would see a lot more African Americans, African American organizations and retro organizations speaking out against it. But because he is revered, you know, he gets I guess the benefit of, you know, understanding that the situation was terrible when he came in. So, we’re not doing that.” [snip] (Click here to read the rest and to see the video available.)
