Is This The Alamo?

Dr. Errington Thompson

Writing a column can sometimes be the most rewarding and at other times be the most frustrating thing possible. Trying to come up with something new to say, something thoughtful, something insightful… sometimes there’s just nothing there. This creates anxiety. Adding to my anxiety is the fact that Martin Luther King’s birthday was celebrated last month and Black History Month begins next week. This is the time when communities look to black authors to inspire, reflect, and say something intelligent about race in America.

As I considered how to
begin this column, for some reason I thought about the Alamo. That’s
the famous Texas missionary outpost where a small band of men held off
Santa Ana and the Mexican army for 13 days before they were overrun.
I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of it; if I just close my eyes I can see
that tall strong edifice in that off-white stone. I grew up in Texas,
where I learned my Texas history in elementary school. A lot of the
details are gone now, but I remember that great men fought bravely and
they fought for things like liberty and freedom. I also remember that
the Mexicans were the bad guys.

When I was about 13, my father took the whole family down to San
Antonio. During the trip we went to the Alamo, and it turned out to be
one of the biggest disappointments of my young life. It was no fort,
not the big, huge, strong building I’d imagined. It was a simple
missionary outpost, built in the mid-1700s, somewhat small and squatty.
I remember walking through it and trying to imagine what it was like in
1836. There was no city of San Antonio around it. How did General Santa
Ana even find it in the middle of this vast nothingness of South Texas?

I mentioned this childhood story just to say things don’t always work
out as we hope. Currently, we’re in the middle of the most exciting and
contentious presidential primary that I’ve ever seen. A large group of
well-qualified and thoughtful suitors for the office of the President
began the race; now, coming out of Super Tuesday, only two candidates
have a legitimate shot at the Democratic nomination: Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama.   

Since I have a progressive political talk show (The Errington Thompson
Show, 880am – Saturdays), I have tried not to publicly support one
candidate over the other. I’ve tried to hold each candidate up as an
example of a progressive who will change the direction of the country.
We can move away from a country that seems to be geared towards big
business and special interests, and move towards a country that
empowers its citizens to be the best that they can be. Over the last
seven years, as a whole, Blacks, Latinos and other minorities have been
left out of the economic boom. Single women have also been left out of
this bonanza.

I do not have all the answers. I am not going to tell you whom to vote
for. All I can tell you is that today we have more tools to help us
make a appropriate decision than we’ve ever had before. The Internet
opens up a whole new world of information.

The popular website YouTube, where anyone can publish a video, has a
special section dedicated to this election. No longer do we have to
accept little snippets from the evening news or small quotes in the
paper. We can click on YouTube and hear what the candidates said last
week, last month, or even six months ago.

There are literally thousands of blogs dedicated to politics. Some have
good information, and some of them are relatively awful. With a little
work you can find some absolutely fabulous resources.

The major newspapers including “The New York Times,” “The Washington
Post,” and the Los Angeles “Times,” all have segments of their websites
dedicated to nothing but politics. You can read opinions from both the
left and the right and almost everything in between. You can find out
how much money your candidate has raised and how much he or she has
spent.

Finally, you have the candidates’ own websites. All the information
that the candidate would like you to know is contained on their
website. I would encourage anyone who believes that this election is
important and can change the direction of the country to find a
computer spend some time on the Internet and learn some more
information about the candidates.

Since before George Bush took office, there have been rumors about
Hillary Clinton wanting to run for president. Her basic message can be
summed up in the phrase: Did you like the 90s? Although she has
criticized the war in Iraq, she is mostly running as a candidate that
you already know. She’s running on her experience and her access to
power that she had when she was First Lady. Hillary Clinton is running
as a candidate who has already proved herself to the American people. 

On the other hand, Barack Obama, is running as the candidate of change.
In his speeches, he doesn’t give us a laundry list of things that he is
going to do. Instead, he gives us a list of things that we can do
together to change things. In my opinion it is an ingenious message.
Also, if you look carefully, you’ll see something remarkable. His
supporters are young, and they’re old. They are rich and they are poor.
There are men and women. There are whites and blacks and Latinos and
Asian-Americans and Native Americans. It is an amazing cross-section of
America. This is what Martin Luther King was talking about when he
said, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as
sisters and brothers.

If Martin Luther King were alive today, I know that he would appreciate
John Edwards and his fight for the middle class and the poor. I believe
that he would also appreciate the fact that Hillary Clinton is
attempting to do something that no other woman has ever done, become
president of the United States. Most of all, I think that he would be
extremely pleased with the positive and unifying message of Barack
Obama.

Today, in 2008, we live in the real world, where things do not always
work out. You didn’t catch the winning touchdown, and neither did I.
Instead, life is less dramatic. Sometimes life is not a big beautiful
edifice; sometimes it is the Alamo, disappointing but functional.