Stand Up Mr. President

When a Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer, in the proper enactment of his duties, asked a African American college professor for identification, and asked him to leave his house so the officer could check for intruders by police protocol, you were quick to shout racism and castigate this officer. This, even though the professor was un-cooperative and throwing a screaming fit. You, sir, were wrong. To save face you had the famous beer summit. I can assure you that to most Americans your image was not enhanced.

When Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida under strange circumstances, you were quick to label it racist and even tried to spiritually adopt the dead young man. I think any reasonable person would say that the President of the United States should keep his nose out of what may or may not be a possible criminal investigation. You had no business there.

But you are remarkably silent on two important issues. Black on white crimes of violence and black on black crimes in general. I do not refer to making comments about a specific case that is open without an arrest. I am speaking of the unhealthy climate that exists in large segments of the black community.

Mr. President, you seem to think that only white people can be racist. That is patently untrue. There seems to be a growing anger among many blacks today that is greater than at any time that I can remember. I lay a large part of the responsibility for this at the feet of people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, you and AG Holder.

Your words and actions have provoked a sense of entitlement that the young people brood on. They feel that they have been cheated. I believe that many of them have been. But it is not the white people in the community that have done the cheating.

If these young people listened to folks like Bill Cosby rather than Harry Belafonte and Thomas Sowell rather than Al Sharpton, they would understand the way to success is an education not a gun. I have heard that there is a feeling among young people in the inner city that getting an education is a white thing. You don't want  to be doing that you gotta keep it real.

This is an opportunity for you Mr. President, to actually lead. Sit in that beautiful Oval Office. Look into the TV camera. And as a black man give the kind of impassioned speech that you can give. Tell these black kids the truth. Most of them are not going to be great athletes or entertainers. Tell them that education, ambition, responsibility, and work is the ticket out of the ghetto. They've been lied to for a long time. Maybe it is time for you to stand up Mr. President.