BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
It was bound to happen eventually. On Monday night, CREDO Action was targeted by Glenn Beck as a result of our campaign to get Discovery Communications to cancel Sarah Palin's "nature" show.
Beck not only came after CREDO Action — which is 1.5 million members strong — but he also put a picture of our CEO Michael Kieschnick on the blackboard, along with five progressive groups that CREDO has been proud to support with our donations.
We will not be intimidated by Glenn Beck. If he attacks us, we'll wear it as a badge of pride. And if he doesn't like that CREDO gives money to certain groups, we are going to give them even more.
Tell Glenn Beck that you stand for progressive values, and you're proud to be on his blackboard.
If 350,000 people sign our message to Beck — the same number who signed our petition about Sarah Palin's show that put us on Beck's blackboard — that will be more than $87,000 to fund some excellent progressive work.
Those organizations include The Center for Constitutional Rights, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Media Matters, Color of Change, and the Ruckus Society. We are already proud to support them. If Beck wants to try to intimidate them, too, we want to help them grow.
Thanks for joining CREDO in standing up to Glenn Beck. We'll see you at the blackboard.
Matt Lockshin, CREDO Action
P.S. — What did Beck actually say about you? When he was defending Sarah Palin he challenged the authenticity of our grassroots action which was joined by over 350,000 activists. Here's just one quote from what Beck said to insult your activism:
"There's another grassroots boycott! Yes, this time of conservative Sarah Palin's Alaska. This is a fantastic reality show which looks great ... Well, Discovery is being targeted by environmentalists. Now, it's a grassroots boycott, it must be that regular Americans are outraged at Sarah Palin. Man! Well, the group organizing the boycott is CREDO Mobile, and CREDO Action, which is a part of the larger organization... These groups focus on 'progressive' philanthropy and activism! And they're also a mobile phone provider, which is great, so your phone calls go to help these ... hmmm... It's the same group of people. So very 'grassroots' — there's your grassroots boycott of Sarah Palin's Alaska on Discovery! So organic, so pure."
If you can stand watching several minutes of Glenn Beck's rabid rightwing performance, you can watch the video here.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT SHIRLEY SHERROD REALLY SAID HERE IT IS, AND EVEN BETTER WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH THE SPOONER FAMILY FROM CNN. AT THE END OF THIS POST IS THE VIDEO OF SHIRLEY'S SPEECH, CLICK THE HEADER TO GO TO THE VIDEO POSTING ON MEDIA MATTERS.
This should be the thing that really scares the right wing media, the gop and the tea-baggers:
There's a couple of reverse racist dirty hippies for you.
SO, TO CONTINUE THE POST FROM HULLABALOO
You've all seen the edited Breitbart version of Shirley Sharrods speech by now. The full video has been released, so we can all hear the whole thing. And it's really quite wonderful.
You'll recall that the last words were
"That's when it was revealed to me that y'all, it's about poor versus those who have, and not so much about white -- it is about white and black, but it's not -- you know, it opened my eyes, 'cause I took him to one of his own ..."
'cause I took him to one of his own and I put him in his hands, and said, OK, I've done my job. But, during that time, we would have these injunctions against the Department of Agriculture and -- so, they couldn't foreclose on him. And I want you to know that the county supervisor had done something to him that I have not seen yet that they've done to any other farmer, black or white. And what they did to him caused him to not be able to file Chapter 12 bankruptcy.
So, everything was going along fine -- I'm thinking he's being taken care of by the white lawyer, then they lift the injunction against USDA in May of '87 for two weeks and he was one of 13 farmers in Georgia who received a foreclosure notice. He called me. I said, well, go on and make an appointment at the lawyer. Let me know when it is and I'll meet you there.
So we met at the lawyer's office on the day they had given him. And this lawyer sat there -- he had been paying this lawyer, y'all. That's what got me. He had been paying the lawyer since November, and this was May. And the lawyer sat there and looked at him and said, "Well, y'all are getting old. Why don't you just let the farm go?" I could not believe he said that, so I said to the lawyer -- I told him, I can't believe you said that. I said: It's obvious to me that he cannot file a Chapter 12 bankruptcy to stop this foreclose, you have to file an 11. And the lawyer said to me, I'll do whatever you say -- whatever you think -- that's the way he put it. But he's paying him. He wasn't paying me any money. You know, so he said -- the lawyer said he would work on it.
And then, about seven days before that man would have been sold at the courthouse steps, the farmer called me and said the lawyer wasn't doing anything. And that's when I spent time there in my office calling everybody I could think so to try to see -- help me find the lawyer who would handle this. And finally, I remembered that I had gone to see one just 40 miles away in Americus with the black farmers. So, I --
[tape change]
SHERROD: Well, working with him made me see that it's really about those who have versus those who don't.
AUDIENCE: That's right.
SHERROD: You know, and they could be black, and they could be white, they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people -- those who don't have access the way others have.
I want to just share something with you and I think it helps to -- you know, when I learned this, I'm like, oh, my goodness. You know, back in the late 17th and 18th century, black -- there were black indentured servants and white indentured servants, and they all would work for seven years and get their freedom. And they didn't see any difference in each other -- nobody worried about skin color. They married each other. You know, these were poor whites and poor blacks in the same boat, except they were slaves, but they were both slaves and both had their opportunity to work out on the slavery.
But then they started looking at the injustices that they faced and started then trying -- you know, the people with money -- you know, they started -- the poor whites and poor blacks -- they -- you know, they married each other. They lived together. They were just like we would be. And they started looking at what was happening to them and decided we need to do something about it -- you know, about this. Well, the people with money, the elite, decided, hey, we need to do something here to divide them.
So that's when they made black people servants for life. That's when the put laws in place forbidding them to marry each other. That's when they created the racism that we know of today. They did it to keep us divided. And they -- it started working so well, they said, gosh, looks like we've come up on something here that can last generations -- and here we are. Over 400 years later, and it's still working. What we have to do is get that out of our heads. There is no difference between us.
The only difference is that the folks with money want to stay in power and whether it's health care or whatever it is, they'll do what they need to do to keep that power.
[APPLAUSE]
[...]
[25:03] SHERROD: I couldn't say 45 years ago, I couldn't stand here and say what I'm saying -- what I will say to you tonight. Like I told, God helped me to see that its not just about black people, it's about poor people. And I've come a long way. I knew that I couldn't live with hate, you know. As my mother has said to so many, if we had tried to live with hate in our hearts, we'd probably be dead now.
But I've come to realize that we have to work together and -- you know, it's sad that we don't have a room full of white and blacks here tonight 'cause we have to overcome the divisions that we have. We have to get to the point as Tony Morrison said race exists but it doesn't matter. We have to work just as hard -- I know it's -- you know, that division is still here, but our communities are not going to thrive -- you know, our children won't have the communities that they need to be able to stay in and live in and have a good life if we can't figure this out, you all. White people, black people, Hispanic people, we all have to do our part to make our communities a safe place, a healthy place, a good environment.
This is not a racist person. Quite the opposite.
But the right doesn't need that as a reason to hate her anyway. After all, she's talking about racial equality, solidarity among all working people and caring about the common good. What could possibly be more antithetical to everything they believe in?
