(Akiit.com) I do need to clean the car as I can see mud on it from afar… That’s the downside of living down a dirt road… Well let me find this auto insurance quote the wife wrote down while speaking to our insurance agent… Need to check up on a few things before making a decision… Our future is at stake… I tell you this pc is doing better, so I may hold off on purchasing a new one… We shall see…

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(Akiit.com) To my sadness thy team Unc will not be making the tournament this year… Can’t remember the last time a defending champ didn’t get a bid… Out of 64 teams and we will be at home… Oh well let me ship out these promotional products on behalf of the company… Will later on head over to the mall… Need to purchase some new shoes… Also find a winter coat for my youngest child… Let me go now…

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(Akiit.com) Say what you want about Rev. Jesse Jackson, but the value of his legacy cannot be denied. Few have made the sacrifices Jackson has made, and few can match his historical significance when it comes to America’s quest for equality and civil rights. Every politician or American citizen who wishes to question the methods by which Jackson achieves his objectives need only compare his record to their own. Most politicians can’t say that they nearly died in order to serve their constituencies, but Jesse Jackson can certainly make such a statement.

What is important to understand about the legacy of Rev. Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and others is that most of what we know about these men has been presented through the lens of an American media construct that is conditioned to project negative imagery of black men. Therefore, when Bill Clinton has an affair, he’s just another philandering politician. When Jesse Jackson has an affair, he is considered unfit to lead. When Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Harry Reid say racially insensitive things about Obama, it becomes water under the bridge. When Rev. Jackson slips and makes a televised error, some have the audacity to argue that he is no longer relevant. The decision by some to toss out black leadership in exchange for a black president becomes mind boggling in light of the fact that our black president has made it abundantly clear that he has almost no interest in pursuing targeted advocacy for the African-American community.

I remember getting a call from Rev. Jackson the day after his fateful slip on Fox News during the 2008 presidential campaign. I don’t need to remind you of what happened, since the mere imagery of his statement is enough to make you wince. Rev. Jackson immediately apologized for his comments and gave an intelligent and thoughtful statement about the conditions of the urban poor and how they should not be ignored by the White House. He also noted that the White House is almost always willing to discuss policy implications for nearly every special interest group in America, but the unique challenges of the African-American community are consistently left off the agenda. Although I didn’t feel that Rev. Jackson owed me an apology, I immediately forgave him and put his mistake into context. I know that Rev. Jackson’s hurtful words toward Barack Obama were no different from the kinds of words being used behind closed doors by political figures every single day.
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(Akiit.com) Nice try Tiger but it won’t work. Simply gazing into the eye of a lone camera, taking no questions from reporters, and then making a terse plea for privacy, a promise to be a better Tiger, and dropping a hint that he’ll return to golf, won’t buy forgiveness or peace. It will do just the opposite.

By saying so little, it still gives the legion of Tiger loathers plenty more ammunition to gossip, speculate, bad mouth and character assassinate. The record of course still reads that the only bodily damage done from his ill fated car crash was to himself, an agreed rupture with his wife, the flight of some top dollar sponsors, and the obliteration of his fraudulent, manufactured Wheaties Box All-American image. The injuries have healed, the wife has split, the sponsors remain in flight, and his made-up image is unsalvageable. But then again, it probably wouldn’t make much difference if Tiger prostrates himself in front of Barbara Walters or Katie Couric with millions watching, flagellates himself with horsehairs, and blabs about every sordid detail in his alleged trail of pay for sex play romps.

It matters little not because a sex, celebrity gossip, rumor and innuendo starved and obsessed mainstream media, and an equally sex, celebrity, rumor and innuendo gossip starved and obsessed public salivates at the prospect of scandal and titillation at the mishaps of celebrities. Nor because his repeated pleading that his personal life is his business, and his alone.

The hole that Tiger dug deeper with his self-interview was dug years ago. The whispers, innuendoes, and back biting began the instant he exploded on the golf scene. He wasn’t black enough. He was too black. He was too arrogant. He was too aloof. He was too selfish. The more Masters Tournament winner’s jackets that he draped on his torso and king’s ransom riches he piled up from tournaments won, the undertow of carping about him roared unabated. There were the personal and race tinged digs and cracks that golfer Fuzzy Zoeller (”fried chicken“) and Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman (”lynch him“) made about him.

Woods graciously and diplomatically shrugged off the inanities and kept doing what he does best and that’s win tournaments. It didn’t stop the gossip mongers. Woods was simply too big, too good, and too rich for the tastes of a wide swath of the public and the celebrity crazed media.
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(Akiit.com) Last week, California Representative Diane Watson announced she would not seek re-election to her 33rd Congressional District seat.

It was a much anticipated announcement after months of “rumors” that she would. Diane Watson is one of the most respected elected officials in the history of California black politics.

She was the first black woman elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the first black woman to the California Senate. She should have been a County Supervisor, losing an upset election to former Congresswoman Yvonne Burke after beating her in the primary by 20 points.

Earning her doctorate degree from Claremont while in the State Senate, she went on to be appointed Ambassador of Micronesia before returning to run for Congress. She’s had a distinguished public service career indeed. And she’s doing it right by going out on top.

And YES, Assembly Karen Bass should succeed her. Leadership of the past prepares leadership for the future. Their commonality is their both are “champions of the people.”

The point here is leadership secession in the black community is an oft avoided topic. Black leaders often have no vision for the future beyond their tenure of service.

This is a touchy subject in black community’s nationwide, and historically prevalent within the civil rights generation. Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins could not see the change that the younger Martin Luther King saw. King could not see the change coming that Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) saw. Joseph Lowery and Andrew Young didn’t embrace Jesse Jackson’s run for President.

And Jesse Sr. (and most of the older Congressional Black Caucus) didn’t embrace Obama’s run for President. Nowhere is this issue touchier than in Los Angeles where black elected officials serve so long they die in office, literally. That’s Ms. Watson got her congressional seat.

Her predecessor, Julian Dixon, died in office. At one point in the 1990s, L.A. had six black elected officials in their 70s or their 80s. I wrote a commentary about fifteen years ago entitled “Black Leaders Eat Their Young,” after questions arose as to where the next generation of leaders were.

It was a period of contemplation (and confliction) after 88 year old City Councilman Gil Lindsey died in office with no apparent successor, and then Mayor Tom Bradley decided not to run for a sixth term and had no apparent successor. Bradley, after 20 years, endorsed no one to succeed him. In Los Angeles, succeeding generations have to attack the very ones who mentored them. One of the saddest cases was last year when one of the most venerable black elected officials in California, former Lt. Governor, former Congressman, former Assemblyman, and former State Senator, Mervyn Dymally, was beat running for a State Senate seat he had held thirty years, after serving in an Assembly he held nearly forty years ago. Dymally, at 82 years of age, refused to retire and refuse to sit down. Whether it’s politics, civil rights, or the church, black leaders don’t retire, and if they do-they’re looking over your shoulder.
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