From The Guardian
I am a black Tea Party patriot opposed to Barack Obama
I've seen lives ruined by the welfare dependency backed by this Democratic president. We need the dignity of self-reliance
Obama was marketed as a "new" kind of politician.
Hogwash! Black America has suffered the devastating consequences of numerous Obamas, mostly whites ones, for many years.
Here is my personal story.
A urine smell permeated the stairwell. In the darkness due to smashed light bulbs, the sound of broken wine bottles underfoot echoed off the concrete walls. I was nine years old. With the elevators out of service half the time due to vandalism, I was forced many times to take the scary trek into the shadow of death up the stairwell to our sixth-floor apartment in the projects of east Baltimore.
This was a far cry from the brand spanking new building we had moved into just two years earlier. I remember our excitement when my parents, three younger siblings and I moved in our apartment. It was a dream come true – moving from our leaky-roofed ghetto into a place where everything, including the appliances, were new.
We were one of the first in the 11-story, all black residents building. While a few people kept their apartments lovely, most seemed committed to destroying the building.
Lloyd Marcus as a child growing up in BaltimoreAll I kept hearing was that everything was the "white man's fault". Even at the age of nine, I sarcastically thought to myself, "how can we stop these evil white people from sneaking in here at night peeing in the stairwell, leaving broken wine bottles, smashing the light bulbs and attacking people?"
So, my early experience living in the government project taught me that some folks simply have a ghetto mindset. I also witnessed the trap of government welfare. And why were so many around me angry and violent – despite getting free housing, food and healthcare?
It was the late 50s when my dad was one of the first blacks to break the colour barrier into the Baltimore fire department. The sight of him in his crisp blue firefighter's uniform made everyone proud, though none more than me. With dad's new job, the government raised our rent to $72 per month. I remember my dad saying, "Seventy-two dollars! They must be crazy. We're movin'!"
We moved to a suburban black community. I truly believe I would not be who I am today had we stayed in the projects.
Several of my cousins stayed enslaved to the system and the bigotry of low expectations. Because true self-esteem comes from personal achievement, they possessed very little. They lived angry and bitter lives, consumed with serial impregnating, out-of-wedlock births and substance abuse. An outrageously high number died prematurely.
So, when I hear politicians, such as Barack Obama, pandering to the so-called poor of America, it turns my stomach. I've witnessed the deterioration of the human spirit, wasted lives and suffering that happens when government becomes "daddy".
• Lloyd Marcus, who is riding with the Tea Party Express, will be blogging the midterms election campaign
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Being happy–is it good for the Jews? "Before Professor Dershowitz accused me of being an anti-Semite (news to me), I was a happy person. Since then, I'm still a happy person". –Michael Santomauro
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