Hines - Mayor Henry and Obama Not Held To Same Standard

Before we get to the issue of this post you need to understand where I come from. I am a white male in my late fifties. I was born and raised in the southeast side of Fort Wayne. In my youth I lived in white neighborhood and parent’s house was within a quarter mile of the city limits. The closest I recall any African-Americans living to us was nearly a mile away. I did not know an African-American until I was in high school. African-American issues where something that never came up in our house until the 1960’s. I can not remember my mom or dad saying good or bad things on this subject.

So my education of the plight of the African-Americans came via the black and white television news (when reporters reported the news and did not spin it), the local newspapers, and AM radio (yes, they had real news shows). I remember Life magazine being around the house so I am sure it had some influence on me as well.

I could write a book on my views but let me share this quickly and move on.

Frankly I am tired of anyone who attempts to compare anyone to Dr. King and others like him of the 1960’s. Those people are the only people in my lifetime that “showed up for a gun fight without a gun!” They fought nearly daily battles and lost many. But they never gave up, they never packed it in, and they ended up winning the noble war they declared.

They are in a class of their own and no one, and I mean no one, can even think they are on equal footing with them. Yes, they “talked the talk” but they also “walked the walk” for the millions that have followed. Many have come since that have talked the talk, but could only take a baby step compared to these people.

Now to the focus of this post----

City Council member Glenn Hines ripped Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry on the hiring of African-Americans into his staff. While I disagreed with Hines’ as to his timing wrong and even his method of delivery of his message but I will defend him in his right to say it.

Here is quote from his chastising comment to the Mayor.

“I just don’t trust that this administration will do the right thing based on their record in the nine months that they have been in office. They’ve let down the African-American community in not having a single African-American at a department head and there’s been empty promises and I don’t see any commitment like I seen with the Lebamoff administration, even the Helmke administration, Win Moses’ administration, even Graham Richard’s administration.”

However, Hines comes up short and clearly indicates he wished to only to embarrass the Mayor. Hines apparently does not speak out across the board to all those who fail to follow his beliefs. Hines has never made a public statement about the Obama’s so few African-Americans in his campaign operation.

Obama has fewer then three people, in public speaking rolls, which represent his campaign at the national level. Obama has a nearly an all white staff that works out his National Headquarters in Chicago. That his office is located in the highly upscale and high rent district of North Michigan Avenue, just north of the Chicago River. The area is known is Chicago as the “magnificent mile.”

I will again defend Hines right to say what he did about Mayor Henry. But not to do the same to Obama would tend to show Hines lives by a double standard.

In July, Obama appeared before a group of youths at the NAACP convention in Ohio. He talked about the great mach on Washington back in the 60’s that demanded justice and jobs for blacks. Yet, he hardly tries to promote such with in his own campaign.

Why does this concern me? I wonder what really are the motives Hines and Obama? How can I trust them on issues I do not understand because the ones I do I know, they are not true all the time?