Iran And Traces Of American History

It was not so long ago when African Americans, and women, were denied the right to vote and when they tried uniformed policemen attacked them with Billy-clubs and police dogs.

[On The Spot]

Like most people, I too, continue to follow the unrest in Iranian following the aftermath of the presidential election. 

As I watch the different major news networks, they all seem to champion some of the blame toward President Barack Obama, who is the President of the United States of America.  It is like the pundits are expecting him to pick a side in this terrible foreign situation, even at the risk of providing fuel to the incumbent Mahmoud
Ahmadenijad, who would love to denounce the “great Satan.”

I watched as the video of the young lady Neda, who was shot in the heart in the street and died, continues to be played over and over the television with different news broadcasters appearing to be in shock. 

I watched until I began to feel the way the cartoon character Popeye did when Pluto would be beating him to a pulp. He would reach in his shirt and pull out a can of spinach and say: “I took all that I could stand; I can’t stands no more.”

The election in Iran and its aftermath also brings back memories of what African American endured during election time right here in the United States.  It was not so long ago when African Americans, and women, were denied the right to vote and when they tried uniformed policemen attacked them with Billy-clubs and police dogs. 

Firemen sprayed them with high powered water hoses, which had enough pressure to knock an average weight adult off their feet.  Many lost their life just trying to vote.
There were no major news stations showing pictures of wounded African Americans and no one calling for the president in the White House in those days to intervene or say it was wrong—not until much later. 

One network went so far as to compare the unrest, which occurred at Kent State years ago to the present unrest in Iran. This could only happen because the mainstream media choose not to remember the ugly pictures from the Civil Rights era, an earlier era, and try their best to distance themselves across the globe from the truth. Why stop at Kent State, if we’re to use historical references?

Yes, there is an African American president in the White House. Yes, the United States has come a long way; but we are far from being out of the woods and just a breath away from witnessing riots just like the ones we see in Iran right here in our own streets.

For some of those who are so moralizing today, have we already forgotten Florida?

And while we have some things we can boast to the world about, let’s not forget governmental paralysis right here in Albany.   

 

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