[Sosfbay-discuss] What Do You Think About Cynthia McKinney's 'Dignity' Statement?

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Green Friends, 









I checked out the Facebook page of the "Dignity Action Movement"
Cynthia McKinney is involved in and have been trying to research where the group is coming from.? 

















I am very happy to report that Dignity does seem like a good "Green" project. I
became a Facebook fan. 

















I honestly do not understand why at this stage of our struggle outstanding Black progressives
like Cynthia McKinney, Margaret Kimberley, and Glen Ford, people whose work I have admired for years, had to "frame" their Harlem
kickoff rally with tiresome obsolete 1960s "Black Power" separatism.? But with a deep sigh,? I
know I can't win that argument with my fellow 60's baby-boomers.















I have lately been reading a lot of stuff about the "political brain."? All the research indicates that the brains of even the most rational, reasonable people make judgements based on associations with past events.? Political partisans use facts and rationality not to form opinions but rather to reinforce previously held "gut" beliefs about values and principles, Indeed, Drew Westen, in his book "The Political Brain," wryly notes how many liberals have "an irrational emotional commitment to rationality." 



Many African-Americans that came of age in the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s have this "gut" belief that the only way to organize descendents of African slaves for progressive change is to reprise Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, Malcolm X's Organization of African Unity, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale's Black Panther Party, etc. And nevermind the inconvenient fact that none of those groups ever really represented the views of the overwhelming majority of African-Americans. I came of age in the 1960s also and I certainly am no better or wiser.? It's just that my experience working in peace and justice causes pushed me in a different direction.? Particularly here in California, the communities I worked in were just s-o-o-o-o diverse that after awhile it just didn't make any sense anymore to keep describing every situation under the sun as "Black" versus "White." ? 

But I know I can't win that argument (and even this "friendly" e-mail praising Dignity will likely trigger a new wave of accusations about my wicked "integrationist" vibes).? 

Anyway,  I have always thought Cynthia McKinney was a visionary and I still do. 



























Dignity Action Movement On Facebook



















URL:



















http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dignity-Action-Movement/108382693351?v=wall&viewas=1601286380#/pages/Dignity-Action-Movement/108382693351?v=wall&viewas=1601286380





Alex Walker
Los Angeles Greens 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20090616/0ec81f41/attachment.html>