| Part 2 In 2006, the country experienced the winds of change emanating from the devastation that came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to the "thumping" of the Republicans in the midterm elections. As things got worse and worse, President Bush continued to play Chicken Little falsely reassuring the nation with notions about "staying the course" when in reality it is "steady as she sinks!" The Democrats retook both Houses of Congress and Nancy Pelosi became the first woman elected to be speaker of the House. The bottom line on the federal budget posted more red ink than ever before; and the assault on Affirmative Action continued unabated. Republicans lost control over Congress and rendered George Bush to be little more than a lame duck as he finishes the last two years of his presidency. The Republicans lost the election directly as a result of the nation's frustration with every aspect of what has transpired and what the future holds for the war in Iraq. The American electorate proved that it could no longer be hood-winked by the lies, false statements, and scare tactics used by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfolwitz, and the other neo-cons in the run-up to the War on Iraq and to help Bush win re-election to his second term as president. With Democratic control of both Houses, efforts will be undertaken for the first time to bring focus to just where we are headed in Iraq, how we will define victory as they force the Iraqi leadership, military, and civilian leaders to come to the table and reveal just what is going on here. As President Bush proceeds to further ramp-up the number of troops deployed in Iraq, he will face a much more skeptical Congress and not be given an automatic pass. Various committees of Congress will use open and transparent hearings to scrutinize Halliburton and other large military contractors for the first time in an effort to weed out corruption and provide accountability. The federal budget deficit is now at an all-time high. Directly as a result of this deficit, Japan, China, and several European and Arab nations now own the bonds that future generations of Americans will have to pay off to make our nation solvent again. The process of hiding appropriations for the War on Iraq as an addendum to the budget process will abruptly come to an end as Speaker Pelosi has promised more transparency and clarity. The new Congress will exercise its federally mandated role of oversight in fiscal controls that were ignored by the Republican leadership and the Bush administration. One of the first acts that Pelosi and the Democrats have vowed to take is to roll back the Bush administration tax cuts focusing on the top 5 percent who own 90 percent of the wealth in the U.S. Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest natural calamities in U.S. history that wreaked untold damage and havoc throughout Louisiana and much of the Gulf Coast. Like Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, Katrina represents the first time in our nation's history that a hurricane had literally taken out one of the largest cities in the country -- New Orleans. The death toll has been one of the highest of any natural disaster; thousands have become homeless and displaced in New Orleans and the broader region as the economic and physical infrastructure lays in ruins. The disaster exposed the soft underbelly and incompetence of FEMA at the national level, that of the various states affected, as well as the City of New Orleans itself. Similar to how Congress professes to expose the mismanagement of the Iraqi War, the new Congress has vowed to hold hearing to bring scrutiny and accountability to all aspects of this tragedy by addressing questions such as why the region was so vulnerable, what could and should have been done differently, what was happening on the ground at the time that the storm came ashore, and what has happened or not happened in its aftermath. The Congressional Black Caucus will push Congress to address the question that the Republicans loathe which is to what extent did/does race influence the Federal response as most of those so adversely affected were African American and poor. Those responsible for ripping off the taxpayers by stealing, with inflated contracts and price gouging will also be held accountable. Nationally, the issue of Affirmative Action, justice and equal opportunity came under intense scrutiny with several key challenges. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for two cases that could undermine the use of Affirmative Action in k-12 education in Seattle and Louisville and the rest of the nation as well. The Court is scheduled to rule on these two pivotal cases sometime in 2007. The NAACP, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and many other progressive organizations are fighting these efforts to undermine Affirmative Action at the national, state and local levels. After an effort led by Ward Connerly and his American Civil Rights Coalition, 58 percent of the electorate in the State of Michigan voted to pass Proposal 2 to amend the state's Constitution to bar public colleges and other state agencies and institutions from using Affirmative Action based on race, ethnicity or gender. The result is that it is now illegal to use Affirmative Action in college and university admissions and in contracting with women and minority firms. Legal challenges are already underway that have resulted in a successful one-year delay in the implementation of Proposal 2 until the 2008-2009 admissions cycle for the public institutions across the state. According to a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mr. Connerly's organization has announced plans to attempt similar ballot initiatives as part of a "Super Tuesday Against Affirmative Action" for the 2008 elections in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. This past December, Connerly attended a hearing in Wisconsin at the invitation of Senator Glenn Grothman from West Bend to continue his assault on Affirmative Action. In an editorial critical of this effort entitled "Don't cripple UW diversity," the Journal Sentinel noted: "Racial diversity is too important of a goal for the state to discard. Diversity enhances the educational environment, meets the legitimate needs of corporate America, bolsters the country's non-white middle class and narrows the nation's racial rift." The huge crowd of supporters present at the hearing let Mr. Connerly and Mr. Grothman know that their efforts will face major opposition here. Lastly, on a sad note, the nation lost many key notable individuals who collectively contributed to the good of our nation and who represented an end to an era of sorts. We lost Coretta Scott-King, the beloved widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. and indeed the queen mother of the Civil Rights Movement. We also lost James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr. Funk" -- the precursor for hip hop, rap etc. Nobody rocked the party better than King James! We also lost Brother Lou Rawls, the man with the deep, rich and warm baritone who sang about "the Hawk" or those stiff winds that blew off of Lake Michigan into his native Chicago. My favorite Lou Rawls song is "Lady Love." While he didn't get as much publicity as James Brown, Gerald Lavert's death was also a big loss for the soul and R&B music community. My generation grew up listening to his daddy, Eddie Lavert, who sang with my most favorite all-time group, The Ojays. As I have listened to Gerald singing those deep soulful tunes over the years I have heard many say, "that boy is too young to be singing about so much pain and misery!" Finally, the passing of Ed Bradley was also a big loss for the nation. A cornerstone of noted television news magazine Sixty Minutes, Ed was the consummate journalist who reported with such ease and professionalism on just about all of the big issues of the day. As noted by his colleagues at Sixty Minutes, Ed had another side to his personality, and that was the "Teddy" Bradley who sang on stage with Jimmy Buffet. How refreshing it was for him to be able to find some space where he could truly be what he wanted to be -- unfettered. All will be sorely missed but not forgotten. |
| The Literary Divide/Dr. Paul Barrows Looking back to 2006 and the nation |
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