I, A Black Conservator, Support Shirley Sherrod

I agree with the radio interview that I heard of Ms Sherrod on the local radio station in Atlanta this morning. She is correct that the conservatives in the media have often clipped the full run of her speech as they focused upon the clip that indicts her.

I protested when MSNBC clipped the video of the Black man who carried a gun to the Tea Party, without showing his race, because it would have destroyed their argument that White people were bringing guns to political rallies. I choose to remain consistent and say that Ms Sherrod was "video Photoshopped" and thus taken out of context.

I recall a few years ago when former HUD Secretary Alphonzo Jackson was called out for making an account of a Black contractor who was looking for business but said a critical comment against President Bush. Jackson claimed that he denied the contract because the contractor failed in his consciousness of how to play the political game - muffling his criticism. It turned out that Jackson embellished the story yet the partisan attackers went after him.

The lesson learned on all of these points - racially motivated or purely political - is that the GOVERNMENT'S resources are actually the PEOPLE'S resources and not the POLITICIANS resources to play favor with. Those officials who fail to put their own biases at bay and work for the people's interests should be checked. Worst of all if this is indeed what their viewpoints are they should keep their thoughts to themselves.

The fact that both of these individuals felt that they were in "accepting company" which would accept this tampering with their official duties and/or government property is an issue that both groups - the group that Jackson was speaking to and the NAACP need to do some introspection about.


I don't support this type of "gotcha" politics. It is shallow.
At a time where our nation has massive problems at present and greater one's over the horizon, we can't afford to allow for this type of behavior on the front end or the target practice that attempts to pick off people on the backend - when these deeds are not worthy of their relative proportion to the whole of this person.

Such attacks don't promote good governance. They promote silence and more aggressive attacks.