America – the Next Generation, by Mike Gold: Brainiac On Banjo
November 10, 2008 Mike Gold 14 Comments
America – the Next Generation, by Mike Gold
Brainiac On Banjo
“’Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk,’” Jay-Z told the crowd. ‘Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run.’ An anonymous black man on the ‘L’ in Chicago put his own spin on it when he announced to a car full of strangers: ‘Rosa Parks sat down. Martin Luther King marched. Barack Obama ran. And my grandchildren will fly.’”
Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, November 5 2008
Well, they called him an elitist. They called him a Muslim. They called him an Arab. They called him a socialist. They called him a communist. They called him a terrorist. They called him everything but black, and he gently shoved it back in their faces. We all did, all 52% of us who turned out to vote last week in record numbers – a plurality undreamed of (and, sadly, unneeded) by his predecessor.
It’s about time.
Barack Obama is my landsman. I am proud to say we both were Chicago community organizers, although I was at it about 12 years before our President-Elect. When he addressed the hundreds of thousands of Americans in Chicago’s Grant Park last week, I couldn’t help but note that 40 years prior that was the very park where President Johnson and Mayor Daley had the national guard and the local police tear gas and beat the poo out of us so that the people of this nation could have a voice in our own future.
It was the very park where Denys Cowan remarked to me about 20 years ago that despite the large number of people in Grant Park, he and I were just about the only interracial duo walking around together.
President-Elect Obama’s new chief-of-staff, Rahm Emanuel, is the congressman from the neighborhood in which I grew up. So when I see Obama taking the oath of office in January, I’ll be seeing a person who looks a lot like me.
So will lots of people, each for their own reasons. Oh, he’s not “one of us.” We weren’t president of the Harvard Law Review who graduated with an automatic write your own ticket for life card and if we were, most of us probably would have gone for the money. We probably can’t speak as eloquently. We probably can’t smile as warmly in the middle of a shit storm.
President-Elect Obama might be smart and he certainly has style, but you could say the same about Fred Astaire. President-Elect Obama gives us something that Still-President Bush, and former President Clinton, and original President Bush could not – and the hallowed shill President Reagan gave only to rich Republicans.
President-Elect Obama gives us hope. And just in the nick of time, too. He and Senator McCain were running about neck and neck before the stock market crash, but when push came to shove, we put our future in the hands of a smart person who knows the real trick to leadership is the ability to inspire.
Well, heck. Let’s give that a shot.
Times change, if you work at it. I’m feeling better about this world than I have in a long, long time.
• • • • •
To those of you who have endured this column previously, my thanks for following me over to www.michaeldavisworld.com. To those who are experiencing my uttering for the first time, you’re in for a bumpy ride that, I hope, you will find entertaining, amusing, mind-rattling, and/or offensive.
I want to thank my old pal MOTU Michael Davis and the awesomely talented and damn beautiful Tatiana El-Khouri for giving me a place near the door to park the Banjo. Like Michael’s Straight, No Chaser, this column got its start at ComicMix.com a mere 91 weeks ago and, if you’re really bored or researching a lawsuit, you can probably find the earlier columns there.
I’ll probably have less of a comics feel to the Banjo in this venue, although it will most certainly be there. I welcome your comments and, as before, promise to be as responsive as time and sanity allows. And I’ll do my best to be polite. But I refuse to act my age.
——
Damn, what a great drawing of Mike that is. BTW-Mike Gold has not acted his age since I met him 20 years ago when I was six and he was 60. -MOTU
Martha Thomases
November 10, 2008 - 6:24 am
More to the point, Americans voted overwhelmingly for something defined as socialism by the opposition. If that’s not a mandate for doing things in a more progressive fashion, I don’t know what is.
And the hell with that whole “America is a center-right” country. Yeah, a center-right SOCIALILST-LOVING country.
Chris Gumprich
November 10, 2008 - 7:22 am
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said, but I’m happy that Michael gave you a place to park!
Marc Fishman
November 10, 2008 - 7:56 am
Last Tuesday, as I walked down the steps of the metra station at Randolph and Michigan to go home, I could hear the gathering crowds cheering. As I read my copy of “Tales of the DC Universe by Alan Moore” on the train ride home, I could hear a small child ask his mother if ‘Omah-bah’ was ‘pwesident’ yet. As I walked down the hallway to my apartment in Richton Park, I could feel the building’s energy rising. And at 10 PM, I could feel the building, the town, hell… the whole city quake with joy.
As the MOTU said… 10 million more votes, and double the electoral votes. This wasn’t going to be a hotly debated ‘hanging chad’ nightmare… this was a vote for hope, and a commitment to change. It will be truly an exciting time.
Don’t forget I owe you bagels sir. Welcome to your new home.
Mike Gold
November 10, 2008 - 9:05 am
Well, Marc, that Randolph and Michigan train station is the site of my all-time favorite Chicago mob hit.
Back in 1930, a Chicago Tribune reporter named Jake Lingle was shot down by a two men dressed as priests, which was and remains an easy way to blend in in Chicago. Lingle earned $65 a week as a leg man — a street reporter who phoned in his stories into rewrite. Despite the fact that Jake couldn’t spell worth a damn, he was well known for his business acumen. After all, he managed to have a second home in Michigan and a chauffeur-driven limo. Then again, his income was greatly enhanced by his work as a business consultant for Al Capone.
That work put him at odds with the post-St. Valentines Day friends of Bugs Moran. Bugs wanted to reopen one of his gamboling joints as a source of income. Evidently, while acting as an interface between Moran and Capone, Lingle tried to shake Bugs down. If that’s true, it was a fatal mistake. As was his decision to take the train to the Washington Park race track that day, instead of calling his chauffeur.
There’s a theory (there’s ALWAYS a contrasting theory when it comes to Chicago mob history) that Capone had Lingle killed because he was in debt to the man. I think this is highly unlikely: following Lingle’s killing, the Capone mob typically reciprocated by killing four major Moran kingpins. That’s a bit much for blue smoke and mirrors in the post-St. Valentine’s Day era, even for Capone.
So, the next time you’re taking the commuter train home, look over your shoulder. If there are two priests following you, you might want to take cover.
Mark Wheatley
November 10, 2008 - 11:07 am
I’m very happy Obama is the President-elect. I’m very sorry we have to wait until mid-January for him to do something about it. How many regulations, bills, laws and pardons will Bush tackle on his way out the door? Too many, I’m afraid.
R. Maheras
November 10, 2008 - 1:30 pm
I have mixed feelings about Obama being elected president. While I voted for him in 2004, I did not vote for him this time around because I think his resume is too thin to be president. I felt the earliest he should have run was 2012. He actually agreed with me the day after the 2004 election, when he ruled out a 2008 presidential bid by saying at a press conference that before he applies for a job, he likes to know what he is doing.
And while he may turn out to be a good, or even great, president, my non-vote for him was a form of protest that he let those around him talk him into doing something that he, in his heart, knew was being done prematurely. Frankly, I’m worried that he will give himself an ulcer, shingles, a heart attack, or some other stress-related problem.
And while I’m glad that the fact he was elected has made millions world-wide all warm and fuzzy about the future, it is no protection from those who truly hate this country and the ideals it stands for. Bill Clinton was also a popular president abroad, yet it was under his leadership when al Qaeda first tried to bring down the World Trade Center towers in 1993.
It’s still a very dangerous world, and I hope Obama is up to the task of protecting our national security, and, in the process, is not perceived as a weak, ineffectual leader by those who would attack us.
Regarding the candidates both parties offered up as potential presidents this election, I think they were the weakest leadership pool ever offered in any election during my lifetime. As a matter of fact, I went back 150 years and found no major party finalists who had less executive and leadership experience than Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin. This was truly a weak bunch, and a sad testament to our whole presidential candidate selection process.
One final note. If Obama pulls this off and has a couple of good years as a popular president, in 2010 we could see the Democrats get such a majority in both the House and the Senate where it will be just a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea of repealing the 22nd Amendment, which limits the presidential term limits at two.
M.O.T.U
November 10, 2008 - 1:43 pm
Good post-R. I don’t agree with a lot of it but that’s why this forum (I hope) will be different from some. You got me thinking and that’s the biggest compliment I can give someone.
Mike Gold
November 10, 2008 - 6:52 pm
“In 2010 we could see the Democrats get such a majority in both the House and the Senate where it will be just a matter of time before someone gets the bright idea of repealing the 22nd Amendment, which limits the presidential term limits at two.”
As you know, Russ (and probably everybody else), it’s not the make-up of the Congress that determines the final outcome of Constitutional amendments but the individual state legislators. A bill to amend starts in both the House and the Senate and must be passed by 2/3 majority of each, but then it goes on to the individual states. Generally, they have seven years to vote in favor or else it dies. It’s a tough process, and it should be. That’s why all but a handful of amendments didn’t make it.
Generally speaking, I am opposed to term limits. I think the hallmark of a true democracy is that anybody can stand for election (which isn’t true in practice; you pretty much have to be a Democrat or a Republican) and, once in office, has to be re-approved for the job towards the end of each term. However, I am somewhat less certain of this position when it comes to the POTUS. Here, I can argue both sides. Clinton probably would have won a third term in 2000 and Reagan the same in 1988, but those are the only two cases I can think of since the 22nd went into effect. The nation would have been better off with another round of Clinton (as opposed to Bush the Younger), and certainly no worse off with another round of Reagan.
Ultimately, I believe in the old adage of Mayor Daley the Elder, the one that he said at the end of every election, the one that goes through my brainpan at the end of every election even 30 years after his death. “It’s the will of the people.” And that will should not be undermined.
Russ Rogers
November 11, 2008 - 8:43 pm
My election diary: I voted for Obama. He won. Yeah.
I voted for Tinklenberg. He lost. “TINKLENBERG!” Why were you given such a fey sounding name as “Elwyn!” For those who don’t know, that means we all have to put up with another two years of the wit and wisdom of Michelle Bachman in Congress.
I voted for comedian Al Franken. I will have to wait for the recount to see if he beat Norm Coleman. 2,800,000 votes cast. 78% of the eligible voters in Minnesota. And Coleman leads Franken (unofficially) by just 206 votes. In Minnesota an automatic recount is called if the vote is within 0.5%. This is within 0.01%! That’s in-flippin’-sane! Now, I think that Franken still has a shot for a come from behind win.
One reason, Minnesota’s votes are machine counted. Like standardized tests, you’ve got to FILL IN THE OVAL COMPLETELY to have your vote counted by the machine. But, recounts are done by hand. And the people counting have to go with the intent of the voter. So if a voter put an “X” in that oval or a check mark, the machine wouldn’t read it, but it still must be counted as a vote cast (if the voter’s intent is clear)! The people more likely to make that kind of mistake are first time voters and Democrats registered more first time voters! Now, I just have to hope that more than 1 in 10,000 voters screwed up their ballot but still registered their intent. And I have to hope that those numbers actually fall significantly toward Al Franken. Cross your fingers.
Miles Vorkosigan
November 12, 2008 - 10:34 pm
We have a wee stink going on here in Tennessee involving our President-elect. A columnist for a small local paper wrote an article inferring that the Obamas are going to be strolling into the White House singing a variation the the theme from “The Jeffersons”:
Well we’re movin’ on up,
To Washington DC,
To a dee-luxe pimp-pad,
Painted white,
Movin’ on up,
We’ll be jetting with P.Diddy ‘cross the sky.
There are a lot of people who are hugely pissed about his, as much for the racist tone as for the fact that the writer is a school principal. And I’m one of ’em. The fact that it’s racist and stupid are annoying, but mostly what honks me off is the fact that it’s tackily done.
If you’re gonna be offensive, do it with some style. This guy hasn’t got any.
Go to newschannel5.com and you can find the whole story.
Really makes me proud of my fellow Tennesseans.
Miles
M.O.T.U
November 13, 2008 - 12:57 am
Miles can you PLEASE get me this guys name. I got some “Good Times” advise for him.
John Tebbel
November 13, 2008 - 9:25 am
Hail MOTU:
I sent guy’s name to yr email; I won’t give the guy another quantum of solace.
Mike Gold
November 13, 2008 - 12:31 pm
“If you’re gonna be offensive, do it with some style. This guy hasn’t got any.”
I’ve lived my life that way. Let’s show some style!
Russ Rogers
November 13, 2008 - 12:46 pm
Here’s the problem. The song parody isn’t funny. And it’s not the racially insensitive, disrespectful tone that makes it unfunny. It’s just not funny. There’s nothing funny here. There is nothing clever or insightful. The “song” doesn’t even rhyme or scan properly. It has pronoun trouble, beginning with the subject of “WE” and ending with “I”. I give this song parody an “F”!
There is no connection between the Obamas, the Jeffersons, P. Diddy and “pimp pads” other than race and racial stereotypes. This doesn’t even cleverly mock these stereotypes or somehow turn them on their ear. This just blatantly perpetuates them.
The sad thing is, at least two people had to find this funny. The author and the publisher of the Murfreesboro Post.
We have free speech in the country. That means you are free to make a complete idiot of yourself sometimes. Congratulations, Principal Lewis, you did just that.
I will take Principal Lewis at his word that he doesn’t consider himself as a racist. But Lewis doesn’t even give a proper apology! He regrets that the comments were taken in a way not in which they were meant. He doesn’t regret making the comments; he regrets that nobody found them as funny as he did! He BLAMES the readers who were offended, by clearly offensive material, for misconstruing his meaning! That’s not an apology.
I don’t think Principal Lewis should be lose his job as a Principal. But, I think the Murfreesboro Post should reconsider letting Lewis continue to have a column in their paper.
What kind of respect does Principal Lewis expect to get from his students, when this is the kind of disrespect he’s willing to spew at the President Elect and his family?
Here’s a song for the Rock Springs Elementary School Newspaper. Pricipal Lewis’ students can sing it in the halls.
He’s creepy and he’s kooky
Unfunny, kind of spooky
Unapologetically ooky
Principal Lewis
da-da-da-dum
Dumb!
da-da-da-dum
Bum!
da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum
Hoh-hum.
Let’s slander someone’s name
Find someone else to blame
It all will be the same
For Principal Lewis!