Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Julian Bond. My Hero. Obama. The Flag Bearer.



When I was about to graduate from The Evergreen State College in 2003, I pulled my app to graduate mainly for one reason. Amy Goodman and the lily-livered student body that did not vote for Julian Bond to come and speak at MY graduation.
Therefore, I chose to wait another year and we got Derrick Jensen as our speaker in 2005.
Also Joe Carr and many other smart folks were in the 2004 graduating class
Going to college was a hard road for me. It wasn't easy for me at all. It was easy for you. You had support. I didn't. I built that path, by myself, stone by stone.
And since Julian Bond is one the worlds greatest treasures and I was soooo disappointed in the white myopic bubble-dwellers that make up the majority of the Evergreeners, I refused to graduate until 2005, and there were other reasons, but this is all you get. Today.

So Julian Bond was there from the beginning. He is a nearly flawless person. And since I have said since Day One.......and Obama is walking in the path of the Great Ones....that moves the American culture forward against their will........
NO NO NO Hillary......Her Hates Are Too High..........she's a classic backroom politician.
I am an Obama Girl for the same reason I was a Kennedy Girl (all of 'em).

Are you old enough to have really marched in the Vietnam era anti-war protests? Did you politic to get the correct people elected? I did. Sadly I don't control the world!
The fathers of all my kids are Vietnam Vets. I am old enough to have been there.

From my lofty perspective, as an elder, I had a very disturbing deja vu !
I grew up in Cali and I knew what Reagan would do to the country, .......the same as what he did to Cali. Bad.
And George Bush. (All of them)
Saw. It. Coming.

This is why I write. Because I am not In the Mix, or In the Middle, I see things from a diff perspective. I'm not middle class and I don't want to be. I'm not as white as you think I am. And aint that a Good Thing !!!
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And I have a great Bullshit Detector. This is why I am always in trouble. Oh well.
Yes, I'll go see OBAMA Friday in Tacoma. Yes, I will close the shop. Hooray. OBAMA !

OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA !
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Julian Bond

In 1960, Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia.

Bond left Morehouse in 1961, returning to complete his degree, a BA in English, in 1971. He helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a public interest law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama, along with Morris Dees. He was that organization's president from 1971 to 1979. Bond remains a member of the board of directors of the SPLC.

In 1965, Bond was one of 8 African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. On January 10, 1966, however, the Georgia state representatives voted 184-12 not to seat him because he publicly endorsed the SNCC's statement of opposition to U.S. policy in the Vietnam War and his sympathy for persons who were "unwilling to respond to a military draft," [1]. A U.S. District Court panel ruled 2-1 that the Georgia House had not violated any federal rights. In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 9-0, in the case of Bond v. Floyd (385 U.S. 116), that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and that it was required to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served as a Democratic member in the Georgia House for four terms. He went on to serve six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975-1986.

During the 1968 Presidential election, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Here, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African-American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.
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Bond is at present Chairman of the NAACP while continuing to write and lecture about the history of the civil rights movement and the condition of African Americans and the poor. He is President Emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He hosted America's Black Forum from 1980 until 1997. He remains a commentator for the Forum, for radio's Byline, and for NBC's The Today Show. He authored the nationally-syndicated newspaper column Viewpoint. He narrated the critically-acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize in 1987 and 1990.

He has published A Time To Speak, A Time To Act, a collection of his essays, as well as Black Candidates Southern Campaign Experiences. His poems and articles have appeared in a Who’s Who list of magazines and newspapers.

Bond is a supporter of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered rights and marriage equality.

from wikipedia.


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Civil rights activist and politician Julian Bond was born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father, Horace Mann Bond, was appointed president of Lincoln University.

In 1960, Bond was one of several hundred students who helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He was barred from taking his seat due to his outspoken statements against the Vietnam War. In December 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor and he served four terms as a state representative and six terms in the Georgia State Senate. During the 1968 presidential election, he was the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot, however, because he was too young to serve. Later, Bond hosted America's Black Forum.

Bond continues his tradition of activism as chairman of the NAACP. He also serves as president emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bond is a distinguished scholar in residence at American University in Washington, D.C., and a faculty member in the History Department at the University of Virginia.

Bond was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 21, 2000.


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