We just need to be willing to talk about the questions.
Newt Gingrich has made an outstanding presentation at the American Enterprise Institute on March 27, 2008, in response to Senator Obama’s speech on race in America. It is not a refutation – but an extension. Speaker Gingrich follows his familiar format describing what works and what doesn’t and calls for continued dialog with state, local and federal policy makers to bring about substantive change. He focuses on Detroit as a case study (and other urban and ethnic areas) and describes the changes that could bring back the greatness that was Detroit in past years. Newt is not speaking to race – he is speaking to poverty and he offers real solutions for our consideration.
The speech runs more than an hour, so will not be featured here – but a transcript is available at :
http://newt.org/tabid/102/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3284/Default.aspx
The video is available at : http://newt.org/MediaCenter/tabid/61/Default.aspx
Speaker Gingrich is always a remarkable orator. He is well though out, articulate and, lately, bi-partisan. Please listen to the video in full if you can find the time. It is worth it.
Quoting John Kennedy, Gingrich says “Our task is not to fix the blame for the past but to fix the course for the future.” Senator Obama expressed a similar sentiment. We cannot advance the state of race relations in this country by focusing on the oppression and victimization of yesterday. The only progressive course will be to focus on the improvements that can be made tomorrow. That is the only course that can replace hate and anger with hope and progress.
Decades of abuse and neglect of cities and our education system is the direct result of specific cultural and governmental actions. The trend is now a clear and present danger to our society which is equal to a conventional war as a threat to us today.
I commend Speaker Gingrich for his progressive, strategic thinking and I hope we as a society will listen to him.
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