A Man of Political Awareness
Now I've been an Al Sharpton fan for some time; regardless of what others say of him, he has a point that need be acknowledged and he makes it rather well. Last night, however, he put the icing on the proverbial cake. In a time in which Democrats consider the word "liberal" to be akin to saying "fuck" on national television, and in fact have taken steps to prove that Kerry isn't that liberal, Al Sharpton stood up last night and shamlessly gave a moving and beautifully crafted speech. I would say that it rivaled CLinton's, if not surpassed it had his delivery been more smoothly like Clinton's.
Sharpton did not back down from criticizing the president, nor did he restrain himsle fot the sterile and antiseptic air of the convention in general. With quotes like "If GWB had selected the court in 1954, Clarence Thomas would never had gone to law school!" and reformulating the "Promise of America" around the idea that all families have the right to live not only safely, but also with a certain level of affluence (not meaning, of course, driving an SUV) and privacy. Al Sharpton makes a better stump speaker than either Kerry or Edwards ever will be.
If you missed the speech, I encourage you to listen to it here. It is more inspiring than anything I've heard said at the convention so far.
"You said that the Republican party is the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule; that's where the debate over reparations started. We never got the 40 acres, we went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres; we didn't get the mule, so we decided to ride this donkey as far as it would take us!"
Sharpton did not back down from criticizing the president, nor did he restrain himsle fot the sterile and antiseptic air of the convention in general. With quotes like "If GWB had selected the court in 1954, Clarence Thomas would never had gone to law school!" and reformulating the "Promise of America" around the idea that all families have the right to live not only safely, but also with a certain level of affluence (not meaning, of course, driving an SUV) and privacy. Al Sharpton makes a better stump speaker than either Kerry or Edwards ever will be.
If you missed the speech, I encourage you to listen to it here. It is more inspiring than anything I've heard said at the convention so far.
"You said that the Republican party is the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule; that's where the debate over reparations started. We never got the 40 acres, we went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres; we didn't get the mule, so we decided to ride this donkey as far as it would take us!"