I Don't Know this America...But I'm Most Happy to Meet It by Ezili Dantò/HLLN

Publié par Elsie HAAS sur 22 Novembre 2008, 10:12am

Ici ce texte de M. Laurent, illustré par 2 photos, Mme King et sa fille lors de l'enterrement de Martin Luther King
et de l'autre michèle Obama et sa fille. Les 2 enfants dans des postures similaires.
A ce texte d'espoir prudent ont répondu un certain nombre de messages.

I Don't Know this America...But I'm Most Happy to Meet It by Ezili Dantò/HLLN
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/newAmerica.html#thisAmerica

**************

From: Wallace Nixon
To: erzilidanto@yahoo.com
Sunday, November 16, 2008 10:01 AM

Greetings,

The America you don`t know doesn`t exist. The new man at the helm
of the ship has not indicated any change in direction! Look at the people he is
surrounding himself with. They have no interest in Haiti, Congo, Harlem or
Chicago. Obama has aspired to lead the American empire that you do know and
just like Hilary Clinton and John McCain he will do all he can to keep the
enterprise afloat. He has chosen to help clean up the white man`s vomit. He
does not know Dessalines, Toussaint or Peralte and he has no interest in them.
It will not take long to see his true colors!

Wallace-Mexico City
***********

From: DC
To: erzilidanto@yahoo.com

... now back to reality. Mr Obama's pronouncements on policy especially foreign
policy, put him in more in the class of status quo, or "same ole', same ole"
than any change coming (Remmember Better Mus' Come?). 37 out of 40 Obama
transition team members are Clintonistas and lobbyists. Rahm Emmanuel possesses
an Israeli Passports for f*cks sake. They are singing the Clinton gang is
back!!!! I don't know about you, but the Clintons to me are no different from
the Bushs.

Policies like 'wind up in Iraq', build up in Afghanistan, calling people
terrorists, pronouncing on who may have what, trampling on the rights of
Palestinians and others etc etc.....no changes there.

His personal accomplishments are extraordinary...

Personally I hope and pray Mr Obama fulfills ALL of the promise he shows, or at
least is as humane and caring a president as Jimmy Carter, which means he will
be whipped and pilloried in the media and be out after one term.

Please Pesident Obama, prove me wrong...

******************************************************************

What might Louis Armstrong be Thinking?
Friday, November 7, 2008 7:35 PM
From: Dick Bernard
To:'zili danto' <erzilidanto@yahoo.com>
Message contains attachments

Marguerite:

Here's a memory I sent to my own group today...
*

Thursday night, I was at a meeting and one of the guys, someone about
my age, was commenting on a visit with his mother after the election of Barack
Obama. He said she was scared of what would happen with Obama as President.

Before that I was basically around people who were and are very happy that
Obama had been elected. None of these folks would be what one would call
frightening, and none of them expect or anticipate any great change.

What the guys Mother is afraid of is unknown to me. But fear sells, and
sells well.

The election of Barack Obama reminds me of the first time I ever saw a
black man up close.

It was mid-September, 1957, in Carrington, a small town in central North
Dakota.

For some reason Louis Armstrong and his group came to town, and I went to
the concert with my girlfriend. It was an awesome evening, that I do remember.
I still have the program from that evening, autographed by Louis and three
other members of his group (Edmond Hall, Billy Kyle and Squire Gersh). Velma
Middleton, Trummy Young and Barrett Deems were the others in the band. Even
though Carrington was just a small town, with an audience sitting in metal
folding chairs in a National Guard building, Louis and his group gave a great
performance.

I was a senior in high school then, and had no concept whatsoever about how
it was that Armstrong came to Carrington, or what conditions he and the band
had to endure while on tour. I am pretty certain they came by bus, and not a
particularly fancy bus.

Until the Minot and Grand Forks Air Force bases came to North Dakota, about
that time in history, there were almost no Negroes in North Dakota. I might
have seen one at a distance in Fargo, once, but that was it. It was a very big
deal that Armstrong was in our presence, though I don't remember reacting that
way that night or later. After the performance, I stood in line to get the
four autographs. My parents had the good sense to take good care of the
program.

I know that Armstrong had been in Grand Forks probably right before his gig
in Carrington. I know this because some years ago, in Ken Burns PBS series on
Jazz, there is film footage of an angry Armstrong being interviewed in Grand
Forks about the situation in Little Rock. September, 1957 was the time that
Gov. Orval Faubus closed down Little Rock Central High School to block
integration of the school, causing Pres. Eisenhower to send in the Army and
federalize the Arkansas National Guard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine. Armstrong's anger, untypical
for him to show publicly, was because of the treatment of the children in
Little Rock. He had endured plenty of discrimination himself, but in his own
way had learned to deal with it.

Most likely after the Carrington gig, the band travelled immediately to
Bismarck.

In those years, only 51 years ago now, this internationally famous
travelling ensemble most likely would not have been able to stay in hotels, nor
would they have made the attempt to do so. Probably they did the gig in
Carrington and went either to Grand Forks, or more likely Bismarck, and stayed
overnight with some private citizens. I don't know this, and I suppose such
information would be difficult to find.

I can't claim to have any idea how Armstrong, his band, African-Americans
in general, really felt then, since I wasn't living in their skins, nor did I
have their histories. I can only imagine.

Similarly, I don't pretend to have any idea the depths of the feelings of
African-Americans at this point in history, with the election of the first ever
African-American President. But that I can imagine as well.

I can imagine that Louis Armstrong is pleased with what happened on
Tuesday. That all the pain and tribulation was all worthwhile. And I know a
new day dawned for America Nov. 4, 2008. Give a listen to Louis singing one of
his greats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IIXeR5OUI&feature=related

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I Don't Know this America...But I'm Most Happy to Meet It by Ezili Dantò/HLLN

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