Why We Are Talking About the Rebuttal and Not the Actual Speech

 

Photo from AJC.com

I never listen to opposing party rebuttals after major political speeches.  

They are pretty much exactly what you expect them to be, and after years of hearing them, you know pretty much what they'll say to the word. It's usually the party's platform, shrouded in facts of vague connection to truth. 

So I didn't listen to Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) speak after President Joe Biden spoke to the nation (honestly, I only listened to the first few minutes of that too). 

But I've heard and read snippets of Scott's rebuttal, which I think did what it was intended to do. 

Here is why. 

Joe Biden should have been in his second term as president right now.  Tragic personal issues and needed time to heal didn't allow that to happen.  But Biden would have been a shoo-in to become president after President Obama. 

Biden has pretty much been seen as pretty moderate, although a true Democrat.  He is old guard political acceptable to the other side of the aisle, even through these most highly-charged partisan times since the 1990s.   

But, that didn't happen. 

Hillary Clinton ran, and though I think would have been a good president, she was what I was afraid she would become - a lightning rod.  A prod.  She is a Clinton, the entire reason the Republican Party has been strategizing and restrategizing on how to beat Clintons.  Since 1992, the GOP has worked tirelessly to paint the Clintons as the Devils of America. And we all know that if you stamp labels on things hard and repitively, people start believing it, even if there is no really solid merit or reason. (Donald Trump was GREAT at this tactic.)

So Hillary losing to Trump wasn't as surprising to me.  He said what everyday angry voters want to hear and she was a Clinton.  The only prods needed.  

Four years later, most Americans see that the presidency wasn't a place for Trump as the person.  He was there for what he represented to people, mainly as he said what they wanted to hear and continues to do so.  But most of the nation was ready to return to some simile of normalcy in politics, whatever that may be in these polarized times.   Immature Twitter rants and raves just got exhausting for everyone, even Twitter. 

So what Biden now represents is a political time when some old white guy is president and most of us are paying less attention daily to what is happening at 1600.  Oh, we care way more than we used to.  Way more, and are more attentive.  But our everyday lives aren't shrouded with what the president has said or done or wondering why he wondered if drinking bleach would help. 

Biden has also talked of things that people want to hear, not too much controversial stuff.  So there isn't too much to wonder in why his approval ratings are pretty good now.  We've taken a big American breath so far and turned on to another channel. 

Which brings us back to Tim Scott. 

Why did he stand there last night and offer the rebuttal to the President's address? 

I think for two reasons. 

One, the GOP hasn't got too much to say about Biden's proposals.  They aren't fired up mad about any of it, except for their usual "oh, it costs too much" argument that only comes about when Democrats are in power, even though Republicans have been horrible stewards of our money.   People just aren't upset at what Biden has pushed so far.   

So what do you say to oppose?  Pretty much anything to distract from the actual speech that you are offering rebuttal.  It can be as nonsensical as saying that racism doesn't exist in America.  Even most Republicans will tell you that it does and many would even say it needs eradication.  But, to counter sense, you offer a loud brand of nonsense, taking attention away from the original message you are refuting. 

Scott has done that.  Everyone is talking more about what he said versus what Biden said.  Mission accomplished there. 

Two, there is a world of Trumpian voters who don't want to hear anything about racism in America.  Nothing.  The only race problem to them is either a made up one by black people or a rain out of a NASCAR race.   

Republicans these days rarely speak to the entire country or try to sway someone like me to their side. They spend it trying to fire up their base of angry folks who like storming buildings.  Scott followed the Republican playbook, as if anyone should be surprised. The fact that Scott is black - in their eyes - gives some legitimacy to what he said last night.  So again, he did what he was supposed to do. 

So, yeah, I'm not surprised at what Scott said last night.  I do think he was played by his own party and put in a position where not even real Republicans will believe him.  Even they know racism has been part of the American fabric and you can't just talk it away.  He sounds out-of-touch and like a race panderer, something that will forever maginalize him in his own party.  Scott allowed himself to be sacrificed when Republicans knew they would win nothing last night.  

Scott just was there to accomplish two things.  Job well done, sir. 

Our Community Needs Community, Not More Cliches

Photo by Saul Young/Knoxville News Sentinel

This won't take long. 

An Austin-East High School student was shot and killed by police at 3:15 p.m. the afternoon of Monday, April 12 inside a bathroom at the school.  For whatever reason, he was in the bathroom with a gun and refused to surrender.  He shot an officer and was killed when the officer returned fire. 

I worked in Knoxville in a couple of stints as a reporter.  I also was twice a student at the University of Tennessee - my first year out of college in 1984 and again when I returned to school in 1992 before graduating in 1995.  Besides being here in Atlanta and growing up in Nashville, Knoxville was the place I spent the most time in my life.   I have many friends there, memories there (good and bad) and it is a place that is close to my heart.  

But aspects of the Knoxville I know haven't changed much since 1984.  

For those who don't know much about Knoxville, it's a sort of sleepy small city in East Tennessee.  It's kind of isolated from the rest of the major cities in Tennessee as Nashville in comparison is a major growing metropolis while Memphis is as far away in distance as it is in politics and racial make-up.  Knoxville sits in the middle of very conservative East Tennessee.   

For a while, I lived not far from Austin-East High School.  It sits inside of East Knoxville, which is seen to be the heart of black Knoxville. It's a very proud, close knit area that truly supports this predominantly black school.  Basketball games and football games (Austin-East homecoming games are as big as some HBCU homecomings) are like one of the main things to do in East Knoxville.  

East Knoxville still struggles with it's identity and influence though.  The huge development boom in West Knoxville - which is predominantly white - is completely opposite of what has happened for decades on the Eastside.  Affluence is still an unattainable hurdle for many in East Knoxville. 

Unfortunately - and this isn't even an East Knoxville-centric thing as this is true all over our nation - where there is struggle, there are overly negative reaction on how to achieve affluence, or even what affluence even is. 

In our nation, we have a young black culture who has grown up seeking the spoils of life through violence.  Anger.  Dispair. Espeically those who have little compared to others.  Guns are the means to quelling that dispair and getting what you want, unfortunately mostly from those around you who dont have very much either. 

Hell, it doesn't even matter how much they have.  Guns are supposedly the answer to whatever the question or desire is for many of our young people. 

Austin-East has seen this issue bubble up too many times among its students.  Too many times in just the past few months:

- While in a car, a 17-year old boy accidentally shot a 15-year old A-E student, killing him on Jan. 27. 

- Two boys - one 14 and the other 16 - were charged with fatally shooting a 16-year old A-E student who was driving home from school on Feb. 12.

- A 15-year old A-E student was found shot to death in her home, not far from the school on Feb. 16.

- And a 15-year old A-E student and aspiring rapper was killed on March 9.  No one has been arrested in that shooting. 

Why are all these young people seeing guns as the way?  Why? 

Yes, it's in their music.  All over it, to be honest.  None of it is really based on reality. It's more like life imitating art that glorifies, overly simplifies, overstates and exaggerates this life that kids again imitate. It's all in every phase of their pop culture. Hell, it has been since the 1990s.  But it's a stupid cycle.

Yeah, white kids have the same issues.  But I ain't white and my issue and my focus are on my family, my people.  Someone else can work on white folks issues.

Here is my nut graf (journalism speak for my point).  What the hell are we doing about it?  Seriously, what are we doing to stop this?  

I'm completely over and tired of the cliched "So-So Strong" social media memes or adding the "I Am Whoever Suffered the Latest Tragedy" addition to profile pics.  It is way past time for people, for us, to REALLY deal with the issues that keep causing these tragedies over and over again. 

Many of these kids, who are running around with guns they don't need, aren't being raised anymore.  They are being fed and housed, and that's it.  No discipline. No parenting worth a damn.  Too much buying them expensive cute clothes as babies, not enough forcus on talking and teaching them the right way as children who quickly grow into teens with their own minds.  

But, they are smart.  Smart enough to make their own good decisions if they are armed with reason to make those decisions.  Yes, life is hard. Harder than hard for some people. Trust me, I know. I watched this all play out when I was a young in the projects and saw friends shoot each other, kill each other, go to prison or just die inside themselves too young.  

But life is truly what you make it, and that's what these kids need to understand.  It's not Boyz in the Hood if you dont try to live Boyz in the Hood.  

We also have to parent better and community better. We have to actually talk to those who aren't great at parenting.  We have to actually reach out to them.  We have to go into these neighborhoods, these homes, these apartments and see them eye-to-eye and talk to them.  We have to claim our community by being community.  Talk to these kids, especially when they are young. Positively influence them and their parents who often need it themselves.  

We have to reach people in these communities.  We must. They need to learn early, and I mean EARLY in life that a gun doesn't arm you to solve an issue.  That's not real life, despite what some Lil whoever tells you. 

As David Gillette, an older cousin of the young rapper who was killed said to The Knoxville News Sentnel "These kids are trying to survive.  I'm not making excueses for them but our community is giving them nothing else they can look forward to."

Until we do any of this, we are just talking until we are light blue in our social media profile faces.  And nothing, I mean NOTHING will change.