Harlem World: When The President Comes To Town

This blog post is in no way an indictment against President Obama or the work he has been doing to clean up the mess that his previous predecessor, George H.W. Bush left behind. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite.  I applaud and appreciate President Obama for taking on this inordinate task of trying to undo eight years of damage and for making an attempt to bring two wars to an end. I applaud the President for the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill so that all Americans can receive health care coverage  regardless of who they are or the medical condition that they may have. I have no complaints about the President trying to reach across the aisle and across party lines to put a stop to petty foolishness, stagnation and other tactics used to derail getting the job done by members of both the House and Senate. His efforts are to be commended for sure. I believe the President's job performance has been excellent considering the disaster that was left behind when he assumed office. What this blog post is about is the critical nature of the President's visit to my neighborhood. For the most part I live in a majority minority neighborhood, with a few sprouts of gentrified white neighbors. The streets that surround me are named after highly regarded African Americans whose contributions cannot and should not be forgotten...Adam Clayton Powell, Frederick Douglass among others. Sure, I believe that President Obama should be mentioned within this same class of people for the accomplishment he has made alone as being the first African American President Of The United States on record. What concerns me above all else is the fact that because President Obama has broken the "color barrier" to become President, he may or may not be producing the change that was promised in his campaign for the White House fast enough and as a result people are under a mystified illusion.

The scene outside of these doors are insane, honestly I don't even remember Former President Clinton getting this type of attraction when he moved his William J. Clinton Foundation to Harlem. Stargazers on one street, hoping to get a fleeting glimpse of the President hosting a fundraiser at the newest restaurant Red Rooster only to be disappointed when he doesn't directly go through the front door of the establishment; for which we all know the reason why. Protesters on the main thoroughfare, 125th Street holding up signs calling President Obama the "War President" for his decisions with regard to Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi. My question to these protesters: where were you when it was not only shown but also proven that George H.W. Bush, eerily silent as he has become in recent years, was accused and is guilty to have done the very same? Bush was and still is the true War President who got this country involved in two wars in the names of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden but who has yet to be called before a war crimes tribunal and held accountable for his war crimes, chief among them torture and waterboarding...are you serious? Stop blaming Obama for Bush's mess! while I don't agree with the U.S. meddling in Libyan affairs, the U.S. has done far worse things than this. To these white protesters mingling in as tourists, the reality is,  except for the fact that the President is here in this "ghetto" that you honestly are afraid to walk down, much less be seen in, you wouldn't be caught dead in Harlem bright as the sun shines by day and except for these sidewalk cafes you wouldn't dare be caught here in the dark of night especially after a certain hour of the night so please stop perpetrating a fraud and go home.

Let's bring it on home. Locally speaking, not only Harlem but all of New York City and the rest of this country is still in the same wretched state that it was in when it woke up this morning and more specifically speaking because I am a member of a minority, black people regardless of President Obama's coming and going to this neighborhood that I call home, are still in the same wretched state that we were in when we woke up this morning. Unemployment, crime and the accoutrements that go along with it still exist. Having a black President, our President doesn't negate the problem it brings the problem more closely to the surface. All of the think tanks, elbow rubbing, and bread breaking in the world with the so called politically elite, be they white, black or any othe color in between will not change what has long been in existence. Stop expecting the President to be as instant as microwaved food and fix America's ills. Stop thinking that because he's 'our' President, black people that he is supposed to be exclusively on 'our' side and only be for, with and about us. To all of the protesters and all others who have a problem with the President's leadership and his decision making, take your complaints to the polls November of next year. Please be mindful of all of this when it is time to go to the polls. Remember what we have gone through in eight years but what was attempted to be cleaned up in four. Until such time as we can all go to the polls and voice ourselves, let's start doing for ourselves. Stop waiting for someone to do for us that which we have the power not just because of race, color or creed to do for ourselves. Those of us who have common sense, let us use it and use it wisely. Let us bring back that civil rights spirit coupled with that Black Panther activism and start making the change within our own neighborhoods, one neighborhood at a time and maybe just maybe we might see the change we've been looking for.