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Should Major League Baseball Do More in Light of Cindy Hyde-Smith Donation?

18/11/26 at 5.50am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash

I’m sure had I met Cyn Marsh before I was introduced to baseball, she would have been my first love.

But I didn’t. And although she is my ride or die today, she wasn’t my first love. I would not meet the future Mrs. Harvey until 22 years later.

My uncles Paul and John introduced me to the game of baseball one Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1956. The adults took the kids outside to work off a delicious after-church meal of fried free-range chicken, mashed potatoes, butter beans, corn bread, and fresh blackberry cobbler. We used an old broomstick for a bat and a red rubber ball. It was about the size of a baseball.

My first two swings were swings and misses. Someone, I think my uncle Paul, took my last swing because two decades before major league baseball instituted the Designated Hitter rule, our family pick-up games had a Substitute Batter rule. This rule allowed an adult to serve as the substitute batter anytime one of the smaller kids had two strikes on him or her. He hit the ball and I ran to first base. At 4 years old, I was hooked and in love with the game of baseball, my first love.

This love affair ended for a period after my senior year of college. I was, to say the least, disappointed I was not signed by any of the major league baseball franchises. I was, in the teenage parlance of the day, “stood up” by my true love.

I stayed away from the game for 20 years, only returning when my son came along and wanted to learn the game of baseball. Today, as a member of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame Legends and Pioneers Committee (this committee vets Black College baseball players from 1887–1975 for induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame) most of my interest in the sport of baseball today is limited to Black College Baseball, which in name, is becoming a bit of a misnomer as more and more white and Latino players are filling out the rosters of Black College baseball teams.

Before the war between the states, baseball — or a reasonable facsimile of it — was played by Africans living in America. They continue to play and enjoy this game, but their numbers among the 30 major league franchises are few, perhaps about eight percent of all major league baseball players. That’s a far cry from the number of African Americans playing in the first 20 years after Jackie Robinson signed to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball Club, breaking the “old gentlemen’s agreement” among professional baseball owners not to employ Black baseball players.

As Black Americans have again been pushed out of major league baseball in the 21st century, teams have made no secret of their desire to cater their teams to white suburban and Latino fans. A case in point, the Atlanta Braves Baseball Franchise recently moved their stadium out of downtown Atlanta to the more affluent Cobb County suburb. The franchise said at the time, they wanted “to be closer to their fan base.”

To be fair, since 2000, MLB has created several urban baseball academies on the mainland to increase the number of African Americans playing on the major league level. This summer, the Atlanta Braves held the first 44 Baseball Classic (named in honor of Hank Aaron), where they invited 44 Black high school baseball players to participate in a professional style workout.

While athletes in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association have been outspoken on the issue of police brutality and inequality in the criminal justice system, very few major league baseball players have broached the subject. One explanation for this fact is that there are very few Black Americans playing professional baseball. Any brave soul would stick out like a sore thumb and likely would be ostracized out of the league like Colin Kaepernick, who has been essentially blackballed from the NFL. Given the paltry numbers of Blacks in the league, a similar player might not be missed, and in a few years, hardly any fan would remember that he ever played the game.

Cindy Hyde-smith FEC Form 6. Section B shows the $5,000 campaign donation made by Office of The Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC.

With the absence of a clear African American presence in major league baseball, it comes as little surprise then that the Office of The Commissioner of the league’s Major League Baseball’s Political Action Committee donated $5,000 this November to Cindy Hyde-Smith, a candidate with concerning rhetoric about lynchings, who is running for a US Senate seat in Mississippi.

According to Federal Election Commission Form 6, Hyde-Smith disclosed that the Commissioner’s PAC made its contribution on November 23, 2018. That means the four-figure donation came a week after knowledge of Hyde-Smith’s now widely-discussed public hanging remarks were made known.

It was in reference to a Tupelo, Mississippi, fundraiser who also was willing to aid her campaign when Hyde-Smith cheerfully said earlier this month: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’ll be on the front row.”

According to the NAACP, no state had more lynchings between 1882–1968 than Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith is an unapologetic southern confederate heritage buff. As a state senator, the Republican introduced legislation to rename a state highway after Jefferson Davis, the man who served during the Civil War as President of the Confederacy. She is currently serving out the unexpired term of Thad Cochran in the US Senate. Cochran resigned in the spring due to health concerns.

Hyde-Smith is locked in a heated run-off with Mike Espy. The Democrat is vying to become the first Black Senator from Mississippi since Hiram Revels (1870–1871). Revels’ appointment to the US Senate enabled the state of Mississippi to be readmitted to the United States following its succession from the USA and the defeat of the Confederate States of America. His appointment made history as no African living in America had ever held a seat in the US Senate or the House of Representatives prior to February 25, 1870.

If elected, Espy will make history of sorts. He will be the first descendant of enslavement heritage to be elected US Senator from Mississippi. Under laws that existed in the US Constitution in 1870, Revels, like all senators, was appointed to his post by the state legislature.

Espy’s election, like Revels’ appointment, could usher in a new era of race relations in Mississippi, removing the stain of her hurtful past during the eras of enslavement, post-reconstruction, Jim Crow and segregation. It’s worth noting that Espy is no stranger to history. The Yazoo City, Mississippi, native is the first African American to be the Secretary of Agriculture. It’s a post he held in the 1990s during the Bill Clinton administration. Before that, he served four terms as a member of Congress from Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District.

Why then would Major League Baseball get involved in this campaign, financially endorsing a candidate who seems to run antithetical to the societal progress it has attempted to champion for more than 70 years? This donation appears to support a time of professional baseball pre-Jackie Robinson instead of offering to help foster a more perfect racial union in post-Barack Obama America.

It’s anybody’s guess why baseball would give this support. After all, Hyde-Smith serves on the following committees: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Granted, I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, but albeit, I’m hard-pressed to discern what any of these committees have to do with the business of major league baseball.

The Commissioner’s Office could have very easily stayed on the sidelines of this raging political war for the soul of Mississippi.

American citizens of African descent were immediately offended by Hyde-Smith’s callous reference to public hangings given Mississippi’s sordid history of hanging Black people in public during that particularly murderous aforementioned 86-year period. The public hangings, for white people, were public entertainment where families would gather with picnic baskets full of food and drinks to watch the mutilated body of some poor Black soul swing from a tree way passed the time of death.

From Reconstruction and the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, there were 581 documented public hangings in Mississippi. More than in any other state in the nation. God only knows how many private hangings took place during this period.

There is nothing amusing to Black Americans about attending a public hanging or being reminded that no matter how much times have changed, there is not a single African American family who has not had a family member hung because white men once had the power to lynch any Black man or woman whom they perceived as a threat to the system of white supremacy and white superiority.

What will Major League Baseball do next to ensure that our society grows into something more than it has ever been rather than regressing back to the dark ages of public hangings to prove the point that it is the southern heritage way, or it is the hangman’s noose way?

“Hi, Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smith’s recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations,” tweeted Walmart in response to a tweet from Debra Messing (@splng_giants), who tweeted that Walmart had made their donation after Hyde-Smith’s cavalier “public hanging” remark.

Also, Union Pacific, Leidos and Boston Scientific have asked the Hyde-Smith campaign to refund a combined $12,500 contributed to support her neo-conservative views in the US Senate.

A total of $126,550 was reported on Hyde-Smith’s 48-Hour Notice of Contributions/Loans Received on her FEC Form 6 filing made on Nov. 24. A tidy sum to run a modest get-out-the-vote campaign for the run-off set to occur two days from this reporting.

It was not surprising to find notable financiers on this report like Regions Financial Corporation PAC, Koch Industries, Inc PAC, Ernst & Young PAC, and Daniel, Douglas, Maria, and Pamela Devos, but to find the Office of The Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC amongst these paragons of conservatism is stultifying.

With the run-off election two days away, as of this writing, it does not make any difference to demand a refund of baseball’s contribution to the Hyde-Smith ethos, which MLB did on Sunday, a few days after making the controversial donation.

Now that the contribution has been made, it is not enough for MLB to simply ask for the money back. There must be repercussions for the lobbyist who attended a Hyde-Smith campaign function and convinced the PAC that despite her insensitive remarks, the Commissioner’s office should help her win this senatorial seat.

Moreover, MLB should step-up efforts to develop more African American talent in the front office, in the managerial and coaching positions as well as the players on the field. Not to mention in the ranks of the lobbyist firm that lobby Congress on behalf of MLB.

Now is the time, MLB must make it clear that it rejects the politics of the unrepentant South, that despite the low number of African Americans on major league rosters, it supports a diverse society where equality is the order of the day and not front row seats to a public hanging akin to the days when white Southern men showcased terror before their womenfolk to prove they could, at will, usurp power from people of color.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium, and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com


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HBCU Baseball Showcase Quickly Becoming Premier Event

18/11/05 at 9.10am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

More than 100 Black high school baseball players assembled to listen to Taj Bradley a top 2018 draft pick explain some of the little things he learned in rookie baseball camp this summer. Photo credit: © 2018 Harold Michael Harvey

Under patches of gray in an otherwise blue sky, on a baseball diamond in urgent need to recover from a rain storm which swept through north Georgia the day before, assembled more than 100 Black high school baseball players. Some of them traveled a few blocks to the baseball field at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Many of them traveled several hundred miles.

One family took a red-eye out of Riverside, California 2,164 miles away so their son could display his talents to HBCU coaches. Another family drove 8 hours and one minute from St. Louis, Missouri to give their son an opportunity to woo HBCU baseball coaches.

“This is a wonderful event,” said Marvin Freeman, who played college baseball at Jackson State University and went on to become a premier relief pitcher in major league baseball.

Freeman frequently gives back to the game of baseball and his community by attending events associated with advancing and developing Black baseball players.

Former major leaguer Marvin Freeman (L) and San Diego Padres crosschecker Chip Lawrence (R)take time out from mentoring aspiring Black high school baseball players at the PRO Showcase to pose for a photograph. Photo credit: ©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

“I don’t get anything out of coming out here helping these kids. I do it because there is so much, they have to learn in order to make the jump to the big leagues,” Freeman pointed out.

Duane Sanders from Southern California said he came because he wants to see his son Daniel play baseball for an HBCU, so he can become “more involved in what is going on in the Black community.”

Daniel Sanders (L) and Duane Sanders (R) have been flying around the country in search of an HBCU baseball program that is a match for Daniel’s skill set. Photo Credits:©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

Sanders’ father played football at Miles College in the late 1930s and early 40s. He was inducted into the Miles College Hall of Fame in 1991. Last week Sanders took his son to visit Miles College in Birmingham and to visit Alabama State University in Montgomery. While at Miles, Daniel’s admission application was accepted. However, the Sanders were not able to work out before the baseball coaching staff, as the team was away from campus playing a fall game.

Raymond Straughter, Il, a construction company owner from St. Louis said that his mother wanted him to attend Tuskegee University because of the historical reputation of the school Booker T. Washington introduced to the world. Instead he went to work in his grandfather’s construction business.

Raymond Straughter, III (L) and Raymond Straughter, II (R) drove eight hours from St. Louis, Missouri to attend the 2018 HBCU Baseball showcase, so Straughter, III could showcase his baseball skills to HBCU baseball coaches. Photo credits:©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

He drove his family overnight to Atlanta, hoping that the baseball coaching staff would be in attendance and offer his son Raymond Straughter, III a baseball scholarship. Unfortunately, Tuskegee was one of the few HBCU programs not represented at the showcase.

“I came because I wanted to showcase my talent to these coaches,” Raymond Straughter, III said. “I don’t care which school offers me a scholarship. I just want a chance to play college baseball. I hope that if the coaches here can’t use me in their program, they will tell some other coach about me,” Straughter said.

Gordon Smith, a well-spoken Eagle Scout from Macon, Georgia drove the 100 miles with his dad, a public health professor at Mercer University. Three years ago, Smith’s Eagle Scout project was to identify and recognize Black baseball players from Macon, Georgia who had played in the Old Negro Leagues. He researched the history of three players and had bronze plaques made of them which were placed on display in Macon’s Luther Williams Park, the second oldest minor league baseball park ever constructed.

Gordon Smith, an Eagle Scout and avid fan of Old Negro League Baseball displayed his skills to the top HBCU baseball programs in the country during the 2018 HBCU Showcase. Photo Credit:©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

Smith said he came to the showcase to interest an HBCU in his baseball talent. “If not for baseball,” he said, “my preference would be Howard University, (Howard no longer plays baseball) but with baseball it is any HBCU where I can play baseball.”

“I like how different coaches giving their instructions telling us their perspective of baseball,” he said of his experience at the showcase.

Smith plans are to email all the coaches and “thank them for being here and go back to school and prepare for baseball in the spring.”

Dee Covey drove over from South Carolina with his mother. The stocky Tony Gwynn look alike plays outfield. He has a strong arm and a bit of pop in his bat. Covey is a veteran of baseball showcases. His family makes sure that he gets his skills viewed by the best college coaches and professional scouts in the business.

Dee Covey showing the batting form at the HBCU Showcase that he hopes will land him a Division 1 baseball scholarship. Photo credits©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

“I had fun today and learned some new things,” Covey said.

In addition to the student-athletes who are flocking to the HBCU Showcase, several cottage industries associated with youth baseball were visibly in attendance. For instance, Thomas Eaton who runs the Prolific Collegiate Post- Grad Baseball Academy “for baseball players looking to play college or pro baseball but don’t have any offers.”

“We take kids who fall through the cracks for one reason or another and teach them the game of baseball. We get them enrolled in college courses at Central Piedmont Community College. We play a 40–45 game schedule and after a year with us they are ready to play baseball on the Division 1 level,” Eaton said.

Thomas Eaton (R) and his head baseball coach at Prolific Baseball Academy taking stock of the talent during the HBCU Showcase. They expected to sign several student-athletes who are not quite ready for Division 1 baseball. Photo credit ©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

“Look at that kid over there,” Eaton said pointing to a young man about 5” 10” 215 pounds of fat. “He will probably not be offered a scholarship because of his body. We can take him in our program, shape up his body, teach him how the game is played and in one year, he will look more attractive to a Division 1 coach,” Eaton said.

Michael Thomas drove up from Florida to showcase his son to the HBCU coaches. He runs Family Creed, an organization that teaches baseball skills to 6–10-year old.

Thomas a former tennis player at South Carolina State University said, “For $60.00 I can outfit a kid from head to toe and teach him the basic baseball skills that will make him competitive with the top kids playing baseball by the time they reach 10 years of age. Beyond 10 years, and I can’t teach them, but we get them prepared to be competitive in the sport of baseball for the rest of their lives.”

An impressive list of HBCU baseball coaches turned out to asset the baseball talent at the HBCU Baseball Showcase.Photo credit:©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

There was a wide array of HBCU coaches on hand to view the talent on display. James Randall from the highly competitive program at Claflin College seems to always show up where good baseball talent is on display. His team will play an independent schedule next year as Claflin left the SIAC this year and has joined the CIAA which does not include baseball as one of its sports.

James Hattenstein head coach at Bishop State Community College is looking to sign more Black baseball players for his HBCU program. Photo credits ©2018 Harold Michael Harvey

Also, James Hattenstein from Bishop State Community College in Mobile, Alabama had his watchful eye trained on the talent on the field.

“It’s a shame that we are an HBCU school and we only have a few Black players on our team. I’m hoping to find some Black players who I can bring in to help our program out,” Hattenstein said.

The HBCU Baseball Showcase is sponsored by a foundation created by Chip Lawrence, Providing Resources and Opportunities (PRO). It is headed up by Chip Lawrence, the Cross-Checker for the San Diego Padres.
  

“After the success we had last year with the showcase in Atlanta, we decided to come back this year,” Lawrence said.

The two day event drew 210 enthusiastic baseball players. 

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

They Came for the Jews, Suddenly no one’s left

18/10/29 at 12.21pm   /   by Michael   /   2 Comments
Men Walking on a concrete road by Blake Campbell on Unsplash 

Finally, the Nazis, the Klan, the white brotherhood came for the Jews, just as they did in Hitler’s nationalist Germany; and suddenly there is no one else left to come to the aid of the defenseless, the vulnerable, the Blacks, the Christians, the Muslims, the immigrants, the poor.

First they came for unarmed Black teenagers walking home on the streets of Florida and Missouri and in the drive-thru in Jacksonville. Then they came for a defenseless young lady in Texas, a group of elementary school children in Sandy Hooks, a group of African Methodists in Charleston and a father selling cigarettes on a street corner in Harlem. The beat goes on and on and on.

They came for the Muslims, the immigrants, tearing children from their families, and they came for the gay, the bi, the trans and the queers. They have come for every group except their own, the white bigoted males spewing vile hatred for the great diversity of the earth with every breath.

When they came for the Black teenagers all fingers were pointed at the Black teenagers. They should have not smoked pot, played loud music or articulately expressed their rights under the U S Constitution.

When they came for the young children, well you know the drill, it was the teachers fault for leaving their guns at home that day. And that big dude selling filter king Kools on a New York street corner, come on man, you ought to have been able to overcome the lack of enterputerial opportunities in the Black community without having to resort to selling lawful cigarettes in an unlawful manner.

When they came for the Muslims, you could hear a collective sigh of relief: “Thank you Jesus, I follow thee.”

But then the African Methodists did follow thee; and were massacred in prayer meeting because they should have had better discernment than to invite the devil incarnate into their worship service.

Immigrants themselves, they came for the immigrants in some cases ripping babies out of their mothers’ arms; but they were brown immigrants, they should have known better than to head to the U S border with a wall building Gringo in charge.

They came for the non straight sexually orientated and straight men and women turned their backs and pretended that it was the curse of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now the Nazis and the Klan have come for the Jews again. Who is left to defend all the defenseless people who have been wounded by their hatred for non-white, non heterosexual people.

Who will stand up for the Jews this time?

Unless, all the aggrieved groups band together in a tribe against hatred and bigotry, we are doomed to the rule of hate mongers, bigots and pale face supremacists cowardly wielding high powered, clip feed assault rifles.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.co


Russians Trolling Black Voters -Appropriating Words of Malcolm X

18/10/20 at 10.24pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

 

Just 18 days before voters hit the booths in the 2018 midterm election and Russian

trolls (for lack of a better definition) have launched a vigorous attack on Black voters with an old Malcolm X Speech.

In the early 1960s Malcolm X broke down the Democratic Party as the northern wolves and the southern Dixiecrats. During this period of American history, Blacks were prohibited from voting in the Democratic Party Primaries in the South. These primaries were termed as the White Primary by southern Blacks. The White Primary determined the white Democrat who would represent the Democrats on the ballot in November. Blacks usually voted Republican during this period of time without any suggestion from Russian trolls.

But during the presidential election of 1960, Robert Kennedy showed unusual kindness to Coretta Scott King when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been arrested on trumped up charges in Dekalb County, Georgia. The authorities secreted King out of Dekalb County and held him in the notorious state prison in Reidsville, Georgia.

Police chicanery like this was often a precursor to murdering a Black leader. As King’s followers scrambled for ways to gain the release of their leader, Bobby Kennedy made several telephones calls which caused the Georgia authorities to release Dr. King unharmed.

Kennedy’s intervention led the father of the great orator, Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., a staunch Republican, to switch his allegiance in the 1960 Presidential race from Richard Nixon to Bobby’s brother, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This marked the second time in the 100 years since the Civil War that blacks had broken rank with the Republican Party and voted for the Democrats.

The other occasion was the 1932 election when Robert Moton, the second President of Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama withdrew support from the incumbent Herbert Hoover, a Republican, because Hoover reneged on a 1928 promise to give southern plantations over to Black farmers, as a form of reparations, as those plantations went into bankruptcy.

For the next five elections, Blacks swung their vote to the Democrats, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

In 1952, Black voters returned to the GOP under the leadership of President Dwight David Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon. In the 1960 election Nixon and Kennedy were locked into a brutal battle for the Presidency. The contest was Nixon’s to lose. He had it in the bag and while history assigns several reasons for the collapse of Nixon’s campaign at the end, seldom do historians give credit to the late surge of Black support which swung to Kennedy as a result of “Daddy King” pulling his support away from Nixon.

Since 1960 Blacks have voted between 88 to 92 percent for Democrats in presidential elections. It appears that Trump and the Russians are dead-set upon making America a one party state, `a la Russia.

It is no secret that the Democrats are top heavy with Black support and the GOP not so much.

How do you break up this dynamic?

First, it is not necessary to convert a majority of Black voters to Republican voters.

Second, all that is necessary to weaken the Democrats is to make Black voters hate them as much as they hate Republicans, thus causing Blacks to become non-voters.

The Russian trolls have come up with this clever video, which I will not repost here because I do not want to participate in the distribution of this propaganda. It contains audio of the iconic Malcolm X destroying the southern Dixiecrats who were holding up the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the United States Congress at that time.

As we know, Malcolm waxed truthfully and strong.

There is no way the passage of time can dilute his message and in many ways the Black leadership, that filled the void when the Dixiecrats ran to the Republican Party when Richard Nixon resurfaced in 1968 with his “Southern Strategy” to win back the White House, has failed to make the party accountable to its Black constituents.

The late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Holbrook Jackson was prodding the Democratic National Committee to become more responsive to Black voters in the Party when he met his untimely death at age 59 in 2003.

This video features pictures of current Democrats over the audio of Malcolm X as he slices and dices the Dixiecrats of old. President Obama (according to the video was a sell out) and the Clintons are featured prominently in this video. It ends with Hillary taking an oath declaring she is “a racist.” While the partisans debate whether she is or whether she isn’t a racist, I submit to you, that if true, it is unlikely that that Hillary Clinton is dumb enough to be caught mouthing those words for a video camera. If there is any doubt about the authentic purpose of this video, that seemingly parting disclosure from the former First Lady is a dead giveaway.

In the immortal words of Malcolm X during his dissertation on the 1960 Democrats, “What kind of chump believes this…,” a hate filled video that depicts Democrats, 18 days from the 2018 midterm election, as a vile enemy of Black people?

There were far too many of these kinds of videos circulating on Facebook and other social media sites during the 2016 election that surely had an impact on Black voters who could not separate truth from a false narrative purportedly based on truth.

Apparently well educated, highly professional Black Americans do believe this distorted view of Malcolm’s thrust that Blacks should be independent and not in bed with any particular party. This video was shared privately with me by an award winning journalist that I admire. It was shared with other well educated Black professionals.

I shudder to think how many senior Black voters, who are old enough to have known the context of Malcolm’s words, will be impacted by this video. Not to mention young Blacks who are not old enough to fully understand the dynamics of the 1960 rhetorical posits of Malcolm X.

Needless to say, far too many of these videos under the onslaught of Russian trolling negatively impacted the 2016 General Election.

For two years we have talked about Russian trolling in the 2016 election and yet, when we see their trolling efforts in the 2018 midterms we can’t decipher them. We continue to fall victim as prey to this predator hell-bent on toppling American democracy at home and ultimately American Imperialism abroad.

Wake up sleepy heads before we are all doomed to worship at the throne of a one party state!

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Time Up for Talking, Time to Early Vote

18/10/12 at 9.20am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment
Floyd Griffin

Our guest columnist, Floyd L. Griffin, former Georgia State Senator and former mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia sound off on early voting in Georgia’s midterm elections.

By: Floyd L. Griffin, Jr.

I think we all know what time it is. It is time up for talking. It’s time to early vote.

Let me hasten to say that I am a Democrat. I make no apologies for believing in Democratic principles. There is nothing lukewarm about my support for Democratic governance. As a former politician, I have worked both sides of the room. I am pragmatic enough to know that in government we need our best ideas coming from both sides of the aisle.

That said, a few weeks ago, I wrote an Op-Ed that was published in publications around the state, I set forth my fear that voters not forget the down ballot candidates, many of whom, offer the state a much-needed breath of fresh air. In this Op-Ed, I mentioned down ballot candidates by name and not by party affiliation.

Many people contacted me and said they welcomed my piece on not overlooking the down ballot. Several said it brought to their attention candidates they would otherwise not have thought to research before voting in the midterm election.

One Milledgeville politico took issue with the fact that each of the candidates I listed were Democrats. It’s true that those candidates just happen to be Democrats. But I did not single out the fact that these bright candidates represented any political party. Their party identification is not important to why I think voters should pay special attention to them. Their character and their stance on the issues are and this is what I hope I communicated to my readers.

If party had been a criterion for me, I could simply have saved a lot of ink and asked voters to vote a straight party ticket.

However, I don’t believe in voting a straight party ticket. I believe candidates should be chosen because of their position on the critical issues that face our country and state.

Talk is cheap.

One of the many problems facing our nation is that too much hot air is spoken at people and not enough sensible words are spoken towards those who have a different view from our own.

Stacy Abrams, Tabitha Johnson-Green, Janice Laws, Otha Thornton and others on the down ballot represent a refreshing change that will make our state great again.

Early voting is a privilege.

As we move into the early voting period, the time is up for talking, it’s now time to vote. This year, the vote of every Georgian is very important. I’m urging my neighbors and friends throughout the state to vote, and to vote early. We never know what weather conditions we will encounter in November. An early trip to your neighborhood polling precinct ensures that your vote is recorded no matter what happens on election day.

Early voting begins on October 15, 2018 and end on October 27, 2018. State law requires one mandatory Saturday for voting, some counties permit early voting on October 20 as well as October 27, 2018. Check with your local board of elections for Saturday voting dates if Saturdays work best for you.

Early voting allows you the opportunity to select the day you cast your ballot that best suits your schedule. It does not force you to have to figure out whether to rise early on election day and vote before going to work or to work your eight-hour shift, then stand in line to vote behind other people who put in their eight hours on the job that day too.

Also, if there were problems with your voter registration and you were unable to vote, you would have time to investigate it and solve the problem before the polls close on election day.

Moreover, if you go to the polls early, a special trick that has been played for years by unscrupulous political operatives will be rendered null and void. For decades, office seekers will seek to deceive the voters by dropping a hand-bill on the doorsteps of voters on the Sunday morning before the election. Essentially this amounts to a smear sheet on their opponent.

Usually, these smears arrive with little time to rebut them. An otherwise well qualified candidate is made to look like the devil incarnate.

It’s time out for this type of political campaigning. It’s time for us as a community to vote early and to go back often to take our family, friends, neighbors and church members to ensure that the highest number of people possible will have a say in the outcome of the midterm election.

American democracy only works if we exercise our right to vote. In the old days, we only had one day we could vote. Times have changed. Now we can vote when it is most convenient for us.

Nathalie and I will see you in the early vote line.

Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. is a retired Colonel in the United States Army, former mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia and a former State Senator representing Georgia’s 25th senatorial district. He lives in Milledgeville with his wife Nathalie.

Don’t Forget the Down Ballot In Midterm

18/09/17 at 3.55pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment
Floyd L. Griffin Guest Columnist
Our guest columnist, Floyd L. Griffin former Georgia State Senator and former mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia sound off on the down ballot in Georgia’s midterm elections.

By Floyd L. Griffin

This year year, don’t forget to vote the down ballot. I’ve been in politics for a very long time, probably far longer than I want to admit. I’ve cast votes in the Georgia General Assembly that at the time seemed liked the most important vote in my lifetime and the lifetime of the good people of Milledgeville who sent me to Atlanta.

Like many of my neighbors, I’ve participated in national and local elections that were described at the time as the most important vote that we would ever cast. Certainly, one or two of the votes I cast as mayor of Milledgeville, at the time, were thought to be as grave as it gets.

Many say that this year’s midterm ballot is the most important vote we have ever made and will make for the remainder of our lifetimes. This may or may not be true. It is however, a very important vote.

The education of our children, the access to health care for our aging and moderate-income citizens, the safety and security of our precious ballot are among the life changing issues that will be decided in our state on November 6.

This week county election officials will deliver ballots to the U S Postal Service for delivery to Georgians who have requested absentee ballots. By the time my opinion reaches you, many of you may already have voted.

For those who are waiting for early voting, or those who like to weigh the possible candidates until election day, please don’t forget the down ballot when you vote in the 2018 midterms. This year, the down ballot races could be the most significant of your votes; especially if you are a moderate Republican, or an Independent voter who is seeking good non-partisan governance from your elected officials.

It is past time that we break the grid lock, not only in Washington, D. C., but under the Gold Dome in Georgia.

The up ballot presents us with the opportunity to elect a Black woman, Stacy Abrams, as the first Black female governor in the history of America. This is a big deal. If elected, Abrams will take the oath of office in 2019, 400 years after the first Africans were brought to these shores in chains.

Abrams will expand Medicare in the state, bringing much needed health care to rural Georgians and with this expansion an uptick in job creation to accommodate the expanded health care network in the state. Abrams has pledged to bring industry to South Georgia communities like Milledgeville, Roberta, Donaldsonville, McCray and Hazlehurst. These are not socialist ideas. They are people first ideas. Abrams’ candidacy offers Georgia a chance to refresh herself as we move into the “roaring twenties.”

As historic as an Abrams election will be, we cannot forget the down ballot candidates.

The race for lieutenant governor offers the state the unique opportunity to be the first state in the nation to boast of having women holding the two top constitutional offices in a state. Sarah Riggs Amico, is an unapologetic progressive who believes in the personal freedoms of every Georgian. We’ve tried restricted politics in this state the entirety of the 21st century. I believe it is time we show a little more respect for each other. Amico offers us this type of leadership.

In this age of concern about ballot security and alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 General Election, the post of secretary of state takes on critical importance. In fact, our mid-term election may be in peril because the current secretary of state does not wish to infuriate President Donald J. Trump by taking measures like going to paper ballots, which would suggest that Georgia’s election process may be vulnerable to a hack attack from foreign forces.

John Barrow, a lawyer and a former congressman, offers us the independence of thought that can make the necessary decision to protect our ballot from those who would manipulate the outcome of free elections in a strong democracy; and make voting an easier process which will encourage more citizens to participate in the sacred vote.

One thing we have learned from the one-party rule in Georgia, whether it was the Democrats for much of the 20th century or the Republican in the 21st century, and that is, crime and corruption becomes entrenched because the authorities fail to go after the friends in their party.

This year, Georgia can elect an independent attorney general. Charlie Bailey, a lawyer from Harris County, who cut his legal teeth prosecuting criminals, says he will concentrate on protecting Georgia’s families from crime, corruption and consumer fraud. Bailey seems like just what the doctor ordered.

As Georgia attracts the attention of corporations like Amazon, the education of our children takes on a heightened sense of importance. Corporations like to move into states that have good educational systems. We know that Georgia can do better, should do better and we all want Georgia to do a better job of educating our children.

Otha Thornton, a retired military officer like myself, is on the down ballot seeking to become the next State Superintendent of Schools. Thornton believes he has the passion, experience and leadership to restore hope for all the children of Georgia. Moderate Republicans and Independent voters would not go wrong in giving Thornton their vote. He will run the State School Board with a steady hand and with sound judgment.

Nor should we ignore Richard Keatley for Commissioner of Labor, Fred Swanson for Agriculture, nor Janice Laws for Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire, each will bring sound new perspectives to their respective posts.

As will Dawn Randolph and Lindy Miller in Public Service Commission Districts 5 and 6 respectively.

In the year of the woman in politics, Georgia is poised to be a big player in breaking up the gridlock in the District of Columbia. There are three contested congressional races featuring three fresh female voices to weigh in on health care, common sense gun control, education and a host of bread and butter issues that deserve a woman’s perspective.

In the First District, Lisa Ring, as progressive as they come, is waging a fierce fight, with limited resources, to represent the voice of our first congressional district.

Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis who was killed in the loud music case in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012, wants to represent the 4th congressional district. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, we need her voice in the coming years to explore ways to lessen the chances of senseless mass murder with sensible gun ownership regulations.

In the 10th, my congressional district, Tabitha Johnson-Green came out of nowhere to earn a place on the midterm ballot. We could use her determination in the halls of congress.

It is my sincere desire that when you go to the polls whether by absentee ballot, early vote or a trip to the polls on election day, you will not forget the good men and women on the down ballot who can contribute to our state and nation.

Floyd L. Griffin is a retired Colonel in the United States Army, former mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia and a former State Senator representing Georgia’s 25th senatorial district. He lives in Milledgeville with his wife Nathalie. 

Did He Say It or Didn’t He Say It and Does It Matter If He Said it?

18/08/18 at 5.48pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment
“biscuits on chopping board” by any other name is still a cracker by Anita Peeples on Unsplash

Did Donald Trump say it or didn’t he say it and does it matter if he said it. The it being the “N” word, which stands for you know what, the name given to Black Americans by white Americans when they want to denigrate Black people and to flex their white supremacist muscles.

Trump said he did not say it. Omarosa Manigault Newman said he said it. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she would not be surprised if there is a tape of him saying it. Georgia State Senator Michael Williams says it does not matter if Trump said it years before he became President.

Sen. Williams says he can excuse the term if it was used 50 years ago. However, I will have the Senator know this term was not acceptable 50 years ago, 100 years ago, or 240 years ago. The fact that Blacks were powerless to confront whites who used this term in yesteryear did not make it anymore acceptable back then, than now.

When I was in the ninth grade, I was one of a handful of Black boys from my neighborhood to integrate the Lanier Junior High School for Boys in Macon, Georgia. I had an old, wrinkled faced English teacher named Quida Poe. She was a distant relative of Edgar Allen Poe.

She was a staunch segregationist. It was said that she had retired at the end of the preceding school term, but that she had come out of retirement so she could run us back to the colored school. Of the 12 young men who braved the taunts, spitballs and fist fights that year, Poe was successful in sending two of them back to the colored school from whence they came.

But not this writer. During the 1965–66 school term, I endured 180 days of Poe’s racial hatred, punctuated by her calling me a nigger throughout my third period class. I was powerless to object, to say a word in my defense. I cringed every time that word rolled off her tongue. Had I objected, I would have been labeled a troublemaker, perhaps sent to the principal for discipline, and ultimately suspended from school.

My sweet revenge was that I could diagram sentences better than any white boy in the class. At the colored school, they began teaching children how to diagram sentences in the third grade. I was an expert by the time Poe tried to embarrass me at the blackboard in front of the class.

Yet she would have the last word. When I would confound the class and her with my ability to diagram the King’s English, she would remark: “I don’t see why the niggers don’t want to stay at their own schools.”

A few weeks ago, I responded to a Facebook page for people who had attended this junior and senior high school. The question posed was who was your favorite teacher. With tongue in cheek, I quipped: “Certainly not, Quida Poe.”

A white student replied Poe was an excellent teacher. I responded that I disliked the fact that she called me a nigger every single day. One would have thought that other former students would have understood how it would be impossible for me to have anything good to say about this particular teacher. However, this was not the case. Several white students, who heretofore, had not identified Poe as their favorite teacher, felt it necessary to opine on my comment, by saying that Poe was the best teacher they had during the Lanier experience.

Let me put these comments into perspective. Five years after we integrated this school it was merged with the colored school in the same school zone, thus it has been 48 years since anyone attended this school, which means that those who did not find any sympathy with me 48 years later, were people who are at least 66 years old or older.

Therefore, whether they are liberal in their thinking today or not, they can not come to the realization that language freely used in their homes and segregated groups 48 years ago was not acceptable and if not condemned then, certainly should be condemned today.

So if he did (and Trump looks like a cracker who would have said it), or if he didn’t say it, or said it long before becoming President, it matters that it was said, period.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Omarosa Stuck in the Craw of Trump

18/08/14 at 4.32pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Omarosa pointing to Trump’s craw where she is apparently stuck since publication of her book Unhinged, Photo of book cover from the collection of Harold Michael Harvey

Try as hard as he might, Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States can’t dislodge a 44 year-old ordained Baptist Preacher from his craw.

Trump was enjoying his summer vacation playing golf at one of his resorts in Jersey when Omarosa Manigault Newman got stuck in his craw with the publication of her book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.

Trump attempted to clear his craw of Omarosa’s unflattering account of her former boss by calling her “a lowlife.”

What a topsy turvy turn of events, an alleged whore-monger calling a Black woman of the cloth, “a lowlife.”

Omarosa, a graduate of Central State University with an earned Masters in Journalism from Howard University, flipped the script and produced a very clear audio-tape of her firing by Chief of Staff General Kelly in the White House Situation Room.

Bam, a rather heady move by a lowlife, I’ll say.

Trump, choking all the way back from Jersey to the White House without clearing his craw, devoted over 1900 characters on Twitter Tuesday, August 14, to belittling and dehumanizing the author of three books.

Again, he punctuated his disdain for Omarosa by calling her “a lowlife,” then went deep to unhinge her from his craw once and for all by referring to her as “that dog.”

So what are the odds that a white man who calls a Black woman a dog does not have the “N” word in his vocabulary?

In the cultural degenerate world Trump frequents, we all know the slang“that dog” is a metaphor for a dog with pups, i. e., “a bitch.”

Another odd juxtaposition given Trump’s close similarity with that of a wretched cur.

While castigating another Black woman may bolster Trump among his conservative white base, it does little to quiet the racists accusations hurled at him in Omarosa’s book.

Moreover, any credibility issues Trump raises are made moot as Omorosa has audio-tape recordings of the events she depicts in Unhinged.

I suspect Trump will become unhinged before he can rid his craw of a pretty smart Black woman, as sagacious as he and set on revenge.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Family Ask Prayers for Arthea Franklin

18/08/13 at 2.04pm   /   by Michael   /   2 Comments
Praying hands
Photo by Chris Liverani on Upsplash

Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul is said to be gravely ill in her beloved Detroit, Michigan. Franklin, 76 years of age announced last year that she was retiring from touring and recording music.

In recent years Franklin has had several undisclosed medical conditions that have caused her to cancel public performances. She has always been a very private person and never revealed the nature of her medical problems.

She is the daughter of the legendary gospel singer, Rev. C. L. Franklin. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but moved to Detroit at age two. During the height of her early singing career she lived in Los Angeles, but moved back to Detroit in the 1980s.

In the 1960s, it was said of Franklin that everything she touched turned to gold, as she had one hit record after another. Her soulful voice on such renditions as I Never Love A Man (the Way I loved You), R–E–S–P–E–C–T, Chain of Fools and later, Love in a Pink Cadillac put her in a musical class all by herself.

Evrod Cassimy, a personal friend of Ms. Franklin and a television news anchor in Detroit reported earlier today that he had actually spoke with her. He tweeted the following around 11:04 am:

“Just got a chance to speak to Aretha Franklin. She is resting and surrounded by close friends and family. More details ahead on Local 4 News at 12pm.”

In recent years, there have been other rumors that the Queen of Soul was in ill health. She has always pulled through those episodes and has come back strong.

Although Franklin has not performed professionally this year she was planning a concert in her home church, New Bethel Baptist, where she grew up and first sang publically.

“Prayers of the righteous,” the scriptures state, “availeth much.”

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

If Omarosa Has The Smoking Gun Should She Be Heard

18/08/13 at 12.08am   /   by Michael   /   2 Comments
smoking gun
Photo by Daniel van den Berg on Upsplash

If Omarosa Manigault Newman has the smoking gun which would bring an end to the Trump presidency should she be heard?

I pose this question because on Sunday’s Meet The Press with Chuck Todd, Omarosa said her third book, Unhinged: An Inside Account of the Trump White House (Galley Books, 330 pages, 2018), reveals she witnessed Trump place a sheet of paper in his mouth and chew on it after receiving it from his then fix it attorney Michael Cohen.

Todd did not follow up to find out what information was contained on this sheet of paper, nor why Trump felt the need to ensure that the contents of that paper did not fall in the wrong hands.

Todd had prearranged questions he wanted to ask which were designed to slant his program in the direction of why should anyone care that Manigault Newman had written a tell all book on the Trump White House.

The Meet The Press query seems to be the conventional wisdom as both the White House and an overwhelming majority of the Black community find Omarosa’s credibility lacking “bigly.”

But what if she holds the smoking gun that proves Trump violated campaign finance regulations in paying off porn stars for sexual favors? What then?

What if her account of this meeting between Trump and Cohen corroborates evidence that Cohen has provided or will provide to special Investigator Robert Mueller? So what?

Should this evidence be overlooked by Mueller simply because the smoking gun is attested to by Omarosa whose community does not want to hear anything she has to say?

“Bye Felicia!”

I’m asking for a friend.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Medium and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

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