In confronting racism, Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO is awarded my 'Founding Fathers Award'

It has been a while since I handed out my ‘Founding Fathers Award’ and after hearing, Richard Trumka speak truth to power concerning racism and how we vote, my award goes to him at this moment in time.

I am asking all of my readers to circulate this video where Trumka speaks to members of the AFL-CIO where he confronts racism head-on.  They along with so many other union members are truly the backbone of America’s work force.  Unions have been the very fabric that has indeed made us America.  It is not the corporate heads who make us who we are, but workers who go to work everyday earning an honest wage and all they ask for in return is repect.

He said something truly amazing that in this year, 2008, we as a freedom loving people must turn our backs on the likes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and hate mongering broadcasters and journalists such as, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter.

He even cited, Edmund Burke who stated, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” And in my opinion the true evil that still persists today is racism.  If we allow racism to get in the way when so many in this country are truly hurting, we are turning our backs on them.  We must remember how many have lost their jobs during a Republican administration during these past eight years.  We must remember that the Republicans did not lift a finger to help the working men and women in this country.

We as Americans must come to the rescue of those living in the rust-belt and turn the tide of those workers who have been assaulted with little hope for our shared futures.  We as a freedom loving people must through our votes rescue those who are in need of our help.

There is an age old saying, “If you're not part of the solution; you're part of the problem” and that must be remembered and acted upon for years to come in order to band together to help solve America’s problems.  It is we as Americans who must band together to solve America’s problems since a Republican led government for the majority of these past eight years has only created problems.

In a previous column dealing with racism, a commenter stated that I was “self-righteous” and to that commenter contained within righteous is the word right.  We who oppose racism are doing the right thing when it stands in the way of progress.

As the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party seek to divide us as a nation through social issues as abortion and GAY marriage, let us band together and confront them head-on by outnumbering them at the polls.  As some evangelicals use fear and Armageddon in their mega-churches, let us remind them that the true Armageddon that will destroy this country is a divided America where racism still exists today.

In honor of Richard Trumka I am asking that you who read this piece, send it to the very heart of those red-states and swing states leaning towards John McCain.  In my opinion our ‘Founding Fathers’ are indeed pleased by his actions especially when they penned the Declaration of Independence which proclaimed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net