President Obama with Stephanie and Allie in Aurora

President Obama Flies Over Colorado Speaks at Hospital without Prepared Text, Visits Victims and Families

Conservatives are in a rage this morning that the White House released a photo of President Obama visiting with heroine Stephanie Davies and shooting victim Allie Young at the University of Colorado Hospital.

Although the media was barred from the visit, this morning the White House released one photo, in order to inspire Americans. After all, 21-year-old Stephanie saved her friend Allie’s life. A grieving nation needs to hear about brave acts like Stephanie’s; it reminds us of what is best in us as we struggle to make sense with the monsters among us.

Naturally, this means the President is being “tacky” and politicizing a tragedy, also known as actually showing up (instead of peering out of the window of Air Force One like conservatives favored leader, President Bush).

The President spoke at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colorado last night, after visiting victims and their families without media.

Have they no shame? Must they carry their hatred into every single moment of our national debate? I could say that conservatives are “politicizing” Stephanie’s story by hating it because they hate this President, but perhaps it’s just that conservatives find compassion icky and gross. One thing is certain; water seeks its own level.

Expect conservatives to continue raining on this small saving grace – this moment of Stephanie’s love for her friend saving her life. We are not allowed to even have a moment of warmth. If it were up to conservatives, we would live in the dregs of hatred and rage, swimming in heightened fear and anticipation of what they view as inevitable, assuming that all people are the worst among us and arming ourselves with nuclear weapons and automatics in a terror-filled race to the bottom.

But we can ignore the joy trolls among us, and take a moment to appreciate this story – the inherent love for humanity and bravery of Stephanie’s actions and the swell of relief that she saved her friend’s life, in the wake of such tragedy. And we can take the President’s message to heart, “Out of this darkness, a brighter day is going to come.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what conservatives hate about this President. He is, in fact, an example of what is best in us. He not only showed up, he spoke to the victims and their families and as a leader, he found a way to relate to them as a human being while also offering us a glimpse of light out of the dark despair.

It’s sort of like flying over the post-Katrina devastation of New Orleans in Air Force One, peering out of the window removed and ensconced in awkward, bumbling, blue-blooded privilege, only not. And yes, it matters. It matters that our President has the ability to lead us in dark times, that he can step in and fill the void with something that reminds us of who we can be, who we are at our best. It’s a course he’s setting us on: Don’t be the worst of us, be the best of us. Be someone like Stephanie.

It must sincerely hurt the psyche of Conservative Racists to see a Black President show compassion and a warm regard for those in need…and visiting victims in a hospital. Anyone would consider the story of Stephanie Davies and Allie Young truly INSPIRATIONAL. And they howl and whine and complain!!!

George Bush "FLEW" over New Orleans during Katrina 5 DAYS LATER showing as much sensitivity and compassion as waiting for a tooth to be pulled …and certainly did not make an attempt to interview the victims …and because of a miserable lack of governmental response and leadership did not make FEMA resources available to the victims of Katrina as should have happened when people were dying …and that was a good thing? This is the kind of Infrastructure Racism no one wants to deal with…and Republicants hide behind their commentary and complaints as constitutionally protected Freedom of Speech -when it is convenient- because you can criticize the President as a Political Person.

Those who could understand and would understand , should understand.

The Struggle Continues…RLHSR.

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Du Bois was named general secretary and the group split into various committees. The founders agreed to divide the work at hand among state chapters. At the end of the first year, the organizations had only 170 members and were poorly funded. Nevertheless they pursued their activities, distributing pamphlets, lobbying against Jim Crow, and sending circulars and protest letters to President Theodore Roosevelt after the Brownsville Incident in 1906. In the summer of 1906 the Niagara Movement held their second conference at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

This movement will be a forerunner of the NAACP.

Despite the establishment of 30 branches and the achievement of a few scattered civil-rights victories at the local level, the group suffered from organizational weakness and lack of funds as well as a permanent headquarters or staff, and it never was able to attract mass support. After the Springfield (Ill.) Race Riot of 1908, Du Bois had invited Mary White Ovington, a settlement worker, and socialist to be the movement's first white member. Soon other white liberals joined with the nucleus of Niagara "militants" and with Du Bois and Trotter, founded the NAACP the next year.