I have a vision that one day "We the People" will work to improve our faulty public schools education system, decrease violence, eliminate top heavy administration salaries, and pay teachers a salary they so richly deserve.
I have a vision that senior citizens will never again have to decide whether to purchase food or purchase medicine that they need.
I have a vision that families of the dwindling middle class realize that continuing tax breaks for the wealthy will not be beneficial to them.
I have a vision that we will discuss more of the needs for the "working poor" because their contributions to America are as equally important.
I have a vision that elected officials will continue to fail to serve the will of the 98% of the population.
I have a vision that if we're not careful, this experiment we call Democracy will cease and give rise to a government that will represent the will of only 2% of the population.
I have a vision that citizens will stop being led astray by individuals and news outlets that are fear mongers, race baiters, xenophobic and dividers of the Republic, and start forming their own opinions and make intelligent decisions.
I have a vision that the 15 minutes of fame for Beck, Palin, Fox News and the Republican Party that sow hate and derision among us is just about up.
I have a vision that Bush, Cheney, and their cronies will be bought to trial for betraying the Republic.
I have a vision that every American will read the Constitution once in their lifetime and understand the true meaning of freedom of speech and religion.
I have a vision that citizens will stop saying the Republic was founded on the principles of Christianity--it wasn't!
I have a vision that Progressives will have an opportunity to guide America.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that every citizen in America is treated equal and that they are endowed with the opportunity to achieve economic prosperity for their families and for the Republic.
Anthony P. Johnson
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
“President Obama Resembles Hitler…Really?”
The next time some people want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler there are a few things you should know. Fact is the fate of black people in Nazi Germany from 1933-1945 and in the German-occupied territories ranged from isolation, horrific experiments, to persecution.
After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.
Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the victorious Allies occupied the Rhineland in western Germany. The use of French colonial troops, some of whom were black, in these occupation forces exacerbated anti-black racism in Germany. Racist propaganda against black soldiers depicted them as rapists of German women and carriers of STD’s and other diseases. The children of black soldiers and German women were called "Rhineland Bastards."
The Nazis, at the time a small political movement, viewed them as a threat to the purity of the Germanic race. In “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler charged that "the Jews had brought the Negroes into the Rhineland with the clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily-resulting bastardization."
African German mulatto children were marginal in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend the university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. Then with the Nazi rise to power in 1933, blacks became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, Himmler and his Gestapo had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments while others mysteriously disappeared.
Further, the racist nature of Adolf Hitler's regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler appeared to allow 18 African American athletes to compete for the U.S. team. But the fact of the matter was actual permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country.
Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government. Hilarius Gilges, a dancer by profession, was murdered by the SS in 1933, probably because he was black. Gilges' German wife later received restitution from a postwar German government for his murder by the Nazis.
Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime. Many, like female jazz artist Valaida Snow, were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals. The artist Josef Nassy, living in Belgium, was arrested as an enemy alien and held for seven months in the Beverloo transit camp in German-occupied Belgium. He was later transferred to Germany, where he spent the rest of the war in the Laufen Internment Camp and its sub camp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.
European and African Americans were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. Lionel Romney, a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine, was imprisoned in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Jean Marcel Nicolas, a Haitian national, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camps in Germany. Jean Voste, an African Belgian, was incarcerated in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Bayume Mohamed Hussein from Tanganyika (Tanzania) died in the Sachsenhausen Camp, near Berlin.
African American prisoners of war were especially faced with illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention. Lieutenant Darwin Nichols, an African American pilot, was incarcerated in a Gestapo prison in Butzbach. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo.
So the next time citizens in America want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, please think intelligently before you speak and remove all doubt.
Anthony P. Johnson
After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.
Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the victorious Allies occupied the Rhineland in western Germany. The use of French colonial troops, some of whom were black, in these occupation forces exacerbated anti-black racism in Germany. Racist propaganda against black soldiers depicted them as rapists of German women and carriers of STD’s and other diseases. The children of black soldiers and German women were called "Rhineland Bastards."
The Nazis, at the time a small political movement, viewed them as a threat to the purity of the Germanic race. In “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler charged that "the Jews had brought the Negroes into the Rhineland with the clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily-resulting bastardization."
African German mulatto children were marginal in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend the university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. Then with the Nazi rise to power in 1933, blacks became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, Himmler and his Gestapo had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments while others mysteriously disappeared.
Further, the racist nature of Adolf Hitler's regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler appeared to allow 18 African American athletes to compete for the U.S. team. But the fact of the matter was actual permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country.
Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government. Hilarius Gilges, a dancer by profession, was murdered by the SS in 1933, probably because he was black. Gilges' German wife later received restitution from a postwar German government for his murder by the Nazis.
Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime. Many, like female jazz artist Valaida Snow, were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals. The artist Josef Nassy, living in Belgium, was arrested as an enemy alien and held for seven months in the Beverloo transit camp in German-occupied Belgium. He was later transferred to Germany, where he spent the rest of the war in the Laufen Internment Camp and its sub camp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.
European and African Americans were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. Lionel Romney, a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine, was imprisoned in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Jean Marcel Nicolas, a Haitian national, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau Concentration Camps in Germany. Jean Voste, an African Belgian, was incarcerated in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Bayume Mohamed Hussein from Tanganyika (Tanzania) died in the Sachsenhausen Camp, near Berlin.
African American prisoners of war were especially faced with illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention. Lieutenant Darwin Nichols, an African American pilot, was incarcerated in a Gestapo prison in Butzbach. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo.
So the next time citizens in America want to compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, please think intelligently before you speak and remove all doubt.
Anthony P. Johnson
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