"Will the Leaders Finally Come Home?"

You have the million dollar buildings located in impoverished communities, and in some instances, one on every corner but you reside outside the city. The neighborhoods that you serve are drowning in a myriad of problems including unemployment, living at or below the poverty line, increasing teen violence, teen pregnancy, and teens dropping out of school by 8th grade, illiteracy and senior citizens who are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being victims of a crime in a lawless society. You do little or nothing at all to offer effective solutions to improve the quality of life for the people you represent.

Will the leaders come home?

You claim you want to serve your community as an elected official because the community you reside in is impoverished and bereft with violence, and yet once elected, you relocate so far from the community that residents have to put out a missing person's report to locate you. When you do return to the place that you promised to serve, the visits are so infrequent that your constituents hardly recognize you.

Will the leaders come home?

Just visiting the community you're invested in that demands effective leadership is not enough. People don't follow big buildings, fancy cars, clothes and hollow promises--they follow courage, strength, compassion, integrity, and loyalty.

We're concerned about our children because their role models are the drug dealers, the pimps, and the carjackers. But where are the ministers, the priests, rabbis, the elected officials, the entrepreneurs, the attorneys, and the doctors to guide them to be productive servants for humankind?

Will the leaders come home?

Our broken communities have been degraded, fleeced, overlooked by politicians, and finally, abandoned by those that were suppose to motivate, empower, and be the beacon of light that the youth, adults, senior citizens, and families need. And so we continue to wait. We wait but for how much longer?

Will the leaders finally come home?



Anthony P. Johnson, Candidate for State Representative for 42nd Ward & 180th District
647 East Raymond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19120
215-744-1773
215-715-0355
antho@earthlink.net

"Vote Not for Ethnicity…Vote for Effective Change."

HAPPY NEW YEAR Citizens of the 42nd Ward/180th District.

Whether you are Black, Irish, Latino, Italian, Asian, or Jewish, and whether you attend a church, mosque, or a synagogue, here's an important message for you.

When you vote for your next state representative from the 42nd Ward/180th District in November 2010, vote for the candidate that will bring effective change to the community. Elect the candidate that will address and effectively reduce the crime that permeates our neighborhoods threatening the safety and security of our loved ones and neighbors. Elect an individual that will provide and will enhance the children's future as well as adults' by creating mentoring, education, and tutoring programs. Elect an individual that will listen to your input individually and as a community.

Don't elect a candidate based on ethnicity; vote for a candidate that offers and will bring effective change to the 42nd Ward/180th District. We can be the outcome for a brighter future. Let's come together and make it blossom!

Vote for me, Anthony P. Johnson, and together we can--together we will!



Anthony P. Johnson
Candidate for State Representative for 42nd Ward/180th District
647 East Raymond Street
Philadelphia, PA 19120
Phone: (215) 744-1773
Cell: (215) 715-0355

"Go Sit At The Children's Table."

Senator Jim DeMint is placing blame on President Obama for the most recent attempted terrorist attack on America because President Obama has yet to place an individual to head the Transportation Security Administration (T.S.A.)

Huh!

The President has named an individual to head the T.S.A. Department, but the nomination is being blocked by an individual who’s afraid that President Obama's choice will allow the airport baggage handlers to unionize. The person blocking the nomination is the jester himself--Senator Jim DeMint.

It appears that Jim DeMint is more concerned about being a union buster than protecting Americans from would-be terrorists which leaves me perplexed. Republicans blame Democrats and vice-versa for the near fatal but foiled attack on the Republic. Americans, the very citizens that career politicians are elected to serve, have lost trust in the aforementioned, and the wretched "venom of pessimism" has begun to flow through our veins.

We must fight the pessimism. Fight it!

Jim DeMint wants to be President a friend told me recently. "Of what?" I responded. Of America my friend said. "Of what America?" I asked. He said the United States of America. Jim DeMint wants to be President of the United States, and yet he not only flip flops between being a Republican, a Conservative, and a Tea Bagger, but he is also performing the same juggling act between saying he will protect Americans from terrorists but fails to actually perform the effort. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney gave the same speech, and after 9/11, Americans are still asking "How" and "Why."

Senator Jim DeMint is relegated to the children's table because he still views the world through the eyes of a child. Like a spoiled child at that. If Senator DeMint does not get what he wants, he takes his ball and leaves the playing field, and America cannot afford adults in leadership roles that act like children. What America requires is elected officials that are grown-ups with integrity, non-partisanship, intelligence, ingenuity to implement effective action plans, and compassion to guide and safe guard the Republic. Alas, Senator Jim DeMint is not one of those grown-ups.

Senator Jim DeMint, unblock President Obama’s nomination for the head of the Transportation Security Administration and let’s implement an action plan that will protect American citizens from adversaries that would attempt to bring the darkness of Hades on our soil. In doing so, Sir, you’ll take your first step towards becoming an adult.




Anthony P. Johnson, Author

“We Are Moving On…Without You.”

We are moving on without you.

"Democrats," "Blue Dog Democrats," "Fiscally Conservative Democrats" all equal up to Democrats failing America. What happened? Even with the majority you could not achieve the objective of making America a “better” America. Even with the majority you could not pass legislation that most Americans need.

Progressives that supported Democrats are now comparing them to the north’s General George McClellan who during the Civil War had more soldiers and better equipment than the south and its General, Robert E. Lee but couldn't defeat General Lee; this happened even after Lee accidentally left his battle plans on how to defeat the north were discovered by one of McClellan’s subordinates. The Republican Party, the party of “no,” the party that is now split into two factions, has defeated the Democrats by doing what they do best--nothing. Under no circumstance am I comparing the Republican Party, in which only 28% of Americans support, to the brilliant tactician and great leadership of General Lee.

What I am saying is neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party can lead America in the “right direction.” Both parties' representatives are sucking from the same “tit” of Wall Street and the healthcare industry, so how can they serve the middle class and poor Americans i.e. you and me?

As difficult as it is for many Americans to accept--and it was very difficult for me--Democrats cannot lead. Why has President Obama's popularity been tanking? Why is that only 35% of Americans support Democrats? One reason is the aforementioned is no better than the other weak party and the other is Progressives are going in a direction that the "so called" Democrats and President Obama clearly are not headed.

I am an “Ultra” Progressive and I do support President Obama but on some of his policies he has been entirely too soft such as Wall Street, and the President is down-right weak on "real" healthcare reform for all Americans, especially the middle class and the poor.

Ironically enough, after the failure to defeat General Lee from a long list of “decorated” northern Generals, it was the most unlikely soldier from the north, Ulysses S. Grant who would rise to become the first three-star General and eventually defeat General Lee and bring an end to the Civil War. Perhaps, it is time for America to leave the “decorated parties” of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and their splintered cell the Tea Baggers behind and seek a new party that serves the American middle class and the poor.




Anthony P. Johnson, Author

If Not Now…When?

As we continue to witness the beginning of the end of the public schools in America which have been failing nationally for the last 15 years, it appears that for some individuals public schools are not closing fast enough. In Philadelphia, for example, some students are afraid to enter the “house of education” for fear of being physically assaulted.

At South Philadelphia High School, Asian American students are being attacked by fellow students for no other reason than being--Asian American. Or is it? Some accuse the Asian American students of attacking a handicapped student of African American descent off school property. Others say that some of the African American students are assaulting the Asian American youth because they are the minority group at the high school, where as others are saying its gang related. Whatever the reasons, one thing is clear: there is a lack of adults involved to effectively address the issues. Once again it seems that only until a youth is murdered do we, the adults, get involved to stop the violence albeit too late.

Although the School District of Philadelphia has promised to address the matter, the Asian American community wants action, not promises. Until such action occurs, the Asian American students have refused to return to South Philadelphia High School. It is important to understand that this problem of racial tension among African American, Asian American, Italian American, Latino American, and Irish American youth that attend the aforementioned school has been simmering for years, but safety precautions and conflict resolution programs were never put in place to counter the current strife that has boiled over. Now the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund plans to file a federal civil rights complaint against the School District of Philadelphia over a series of attacks against Asian American students attending South Philadelphia High School.

As if public schools could use anymore disheartening news, this incident is growing into a national debate which questions whether segregating public schools be initiated. As the adults and role models, it appears we’ve instilled racial intolerance compounded with the use of violence in our children and the results are catastrophic. We also continue to present “baseless rhetoric” to the youth that they are the bright future of America and then vigorously destroy it by leaving the youth to their own devises in which they self destruct. The racial tension and senseless violence at South Philadelphia High School merely highlight the continued failure of America’s public schools not only academically but also from a socialization perspective.

If not now…when do we begin to address the racial intolerance and academic impotency decaying the public schools as well as our youth attending these institutions in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Mississippi, California and the rest of America? At the current pace, if we’re not very careful, an entire generation of youth will be wiped out of the pages of history, and when the next generation asks why, we can respond by saying, “Why not?”


Anthony P. Johnson, Author

“Sometimes…”

Sometimes it looks as if the road to justice is unattainable. Sometimes it looks as if greed and corruption will rule the day because when cast as shadows on the wall, justice and injustice are one.

Sometimes it feels like we are going through the motions of life. We go to work, pay our bills, go to church, grow old and then fade into oblivion, forever sleep--death. But there is more to life than the aforementioned.

Sometimes it feels like our society lacks the capacity of compassion and sympathy. When civic activist Joaquin Rivera dies on the emergency room floor and then is robbed, when insurance companies deny children and adults’ healthcare because of a pre-existing illness, and when a husband knowingly pricks his wife with a sewing needle tainted with HIV of his own blood--is apathy the new compassion?

Sometimes it feels like educating our children is a useless cause. Career politicians charge that not enough money is invested in public school education. However, the same career politicians vote “no” to increase funding to improve public school education. Parents argue that their children are not properly receiving the type of academic instruction and resources to compete globally and yet the same parents are not actively engaged in improving their children’s future.

Sometimes it feels like we are our worst enemy. We engage in behaviors that are counter-productive to our physical and spiritual growth. Whether it is “toxic relationships,” apathy, complacency, violence, drug and alcohol, and other addictions, we continue to implode and in the process negatively affect our family and the lives of others.

Sometimes it’s about standing and defending the rights of others, sometimes it’s about giving without receiving, sometimes it’s about standing alone for the greater good of society, sometimes it’s about respect when swimming in the ocean of disrespect and hatred, and sometimes it’s about peace in the storm of aggression and chaos.

In the end, though, we must “always” be held accountable and responsible for our actions because sometimes individually, we will be the outcome for a peaceful or chaotic society.





Anthony P. Johnson, Author

"Higher Education: The Art of Discrimination and Hypocrisy."

Lincoln University one of the first historically African American colleges founded in part because many of the institutions of higher education in the state of Pennsylvania and the United States would not admit African Americans based upon discriminatory policies. Now Lincoln has a policy of its own that discriminates against students that are overweight by not allowing them to graduate.

A requirement that the institution which has been in place since 2006 will now be enforced on students attending Lincoln University. Students with a body mass of 30 or more will be mandated to take a physical education class in order to receive a degree despite the fact that students have fulfilled the mandatory academic requirements that the school has set.

The irony is this policy is discriminatory, especially against African Americans who are the primary students attending Lincoln University. There is no compromising with discrimination, and I find it appalling that Lincoln University's administration would ostracize and belittle students attending the school based on their weight instead of their academic intelligence, integrity, and the positive impact they'll have on society.

And so it begins. First discrimination starts with an individual's weight, then their height, followed by religious beliefs and finally, their ethnicity. Perhaps the students should transfer from Lincoln University to an institution of higher learning where in the past they made no pretense of equality and integrity and where discrimination can be taken literally and without the base aloid of hypocrisy.

If the administration at Lincoln University was attempting to get the public's attention regarding this issue, they've succeeded--but for all the wrong reasons. The administrations have embraced this discrimination towards the students and have the audacity to call it compassion and respect to the student body.

Sadly, compassion and respect for students attending Lincoln University was the furthest things away from their thinking when they made such an inhumane decision. The civil rights movement worked endlessly to eliminate the stereotypes society portrayed against minorities. Lincoln University has set the cause of equal opportunity back 50 years by promoting the old stereotype that overweight people are not worthy of the same advantages as thinner people. Maybe next they can require their students to have plastic surgery in case they don't meet society's standards of beauty. Shame on Lincoln University for taking people who are vulnerable to the ignorance of others and perpetuating it in a formal school policy.



Best Regards,

Anthony P. Johnson, Ph.D. Candidate, Author