According to the website CNN.com, some of the criticism of first lady Michelle Obama is driven by partisan politics. However, “others say the attacks are rooted in White resentment of the “uppity Negro.” Two things quickly come to mind. The first is that no one other than Harry Reid uses the word “Negro” anymore. Second, that it is the 21st century and yet there are those who continue to talk about race as if it were 1955.

Last February, in a speech to honor Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder remarked that Americans of all colors should stop avoiding an honest discussion of race in America. Said Holder: “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

by Shannon Williams

Does this not seem like the absolute worst possible time for anyone to be president of the United States? I mean, wow. First there was the seemingly never-ending health care debate, then there was the whole race thing, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and now there’s so much hoopla over recent comments President Barack Obama made regarding the possibility of a mosque and community center to be built near Ground Zero in New York City.

(NNPA)—For more than 10 years, tens of thousands of Black farmers have been denied justice and a share of a $1.25 billion government settlement as compensation for decades of discrimination in federal farm loan programs. Many have lost their farms waiting. Some have died waiting. And on Aug. 5, before going on its summer recess, the Senate prolonged the wait by failing to once again appropriate the funds to right this egregious wrong. Consistent with an unfortunate pattern that has stalled congressional action on everything from health care reform to unemployment benefits, the Senate is stuck in a stalemate over the Black farmers’ settlement due to partisan bickering over how it will be financed. But, as noted in a recent Reuters news story, “The measure brought to the floor included offsets required under congressional ‘pay-as-you-go’ rules mandating new spending be offset with cuts elsewhere so as not to add to the deficit.”

The other night I ran into a son of Mal Goode, who was one of my heroes. There are some people who had such an impact on our lives that they will always be alive.

We decided to have a beer and the conversation came up about our love and appreciation for our fathers, and during the conversation we began to reflect on those who felt the same way as we did. I realized that the privilege of writing a column afforded me an opportunity that the average person did not have, and that is why the spaces are in the caption so that the readers can insert their daddy’s names.