Bobby, -- Your words from the publisher editorial in last week's issue is something that most in the music industry and music lovers at large need to take heed of.  It is a joke that we have come to a place that the value has come to be based solely on the basis of soundscan sales.  Given this criteria historic vintage artists such as Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Earth Wind and Fire, as well as more recent artists such as Lauryn Hill (Fugees first album only about 150,000), Sean Paul and others  would never have gotten a chance to develop some of the most important voices of  our times.
 

In case you don't know by now, I'm not a fan of 'Reality' TV, the latest gimmick in trying to bring viewers back into 'The Vast Wasteland' best described by Newton R. Minnow so many years ago.

So, don't send your 'howls' of protest to me about who did what on which show. I don't really care, as there is 'real' Reality--and there is the Hollywood 'Reality'.

After reading so many headlines, and being in the crossfire of so many office gossip sessions/arguments/firefights of Black folks 'almost' making it into the spotlight of being 'discovered' by someone, I have been vindicated in my resolve not to get 'sucked in' to discussions on these shows.

Besides, in 'real' Reality, Black men have been making great strides in the last few years in my home state of Indiana in spite of the fact that there have been efforts to downplay our successes, and magnify our faults.

Here is an interesting bit of trivia.  On the same day that a few people sat around the tube to see who would get 'hired' by one of the rich and famous, Indiana University installed its first Black president in its 180-plus year history.  Dr. Adam Herbert had been on the job for some nine months--according to published reports--but was officially installed, amid much pomp and circumstance.

That's the kind of 'reality' that gets my coffee brewing.

By the way, Dr. Herbert's accomplishments and background would make a great book--if not a great television show.

America is pumped up for a rough 2004 election and African Americans in several key states will play a major role in tilting the electoral vote in November.

Already, there's a significant passion among American voters.  Driving voters to the polls is anger about the arrogance of a president who rushed the country to war, oversaw the loss of millions of jobs while also passing out huge tax cuts, massive subsidies and damaging tariffs to buy support of the nation's wealthy and business interests.  The Democrat's candidate is Senator John Kerry, who is  labeled as "a war hero and anti-war activist".  For what it's worth, current polls show that Kerry could defeat Bush in a snap election. That's because Bush has established new records for anti-incumbent sentiment.  His disapproval rating is the highest in presidential polling history for an incumbent this close to a re-election challenge.  A larger share of voters views him as a failure more than they did Richard Nixon at the end of the Vietnam War, when Watergate was unraveling all around him.

The truth is: Either way, African Americans will be no more empowered in American society after November 2004 than we were after say, the 1992 elections.  Think about it.  There's not a dimes worth of difference between the candidates when it comes to issues that affect African American life and lifestyles.  Unless African American voters are also campaign contributors they have absolutely no choice in matters of "who" or "what".  Special interests pre-select the candidates for president before a single primary vote is recorded, and they influence the policies and platforms of the candidates. Political establishment-oriented African Americans try to point us to one or the other, but, in essence, America's electoral process is broken, with only four percent of the population contributing to campaigns and over half of eligible voters not voting in every federal election cycle.  In the primaries, conventions and general election, African American oriented issues will be cast aside in the Tweedle-dum verses Tweedle-dee personality contest between the two corporate-backed parties.

Anyone telling you African Americans has any influence in choosing the president is a day late and dollars short.  It's special interest money that manipulates campaigns and leave African American interests on the sidelines.   The process of choosing a president has moved from the voting booth to the auction block.  The real powers in this country are not on any ballot; and are accountable to no one.  The campaign process has become so expensive that it limits the talent pool available today to only millionaires or those willing and able to raise substantial sums of cash from wealthy and powerful interests with business before the government.  Case in point, President George W. Bush collects more than half a million dollars a day, much of it from companies currently feeding at the Iraq trough of "reconstruction".

Forty members of the current U.S. Senate (including Kerry) are millionaires - less than one percent of American people are millionaires.  And big money mixed with irregular and high-tech redistricting help explain why the incumbent reelection rate in the House of Representatives the past three elections has been more than 98 percent.

African American "pundits" will never tell you, but Ralph Nader has a message worth noting - America's corporate excess threatens the democratic process.  He is the only candidate left standing that speaks out for all the people and depicts who really are the investors and guiding forces of American politics.  He's the only one not afraid to confront political and corporate institutions that do not act or perform in the best interests of all the people.  Though we are among the most disenfranchised of Americans, Blacks still buy into Democratic and Republican rhetoric that may sometimes sound like they truly have the interests of the people as a priority.  However, when Black Americans look at their most pressing issues - unemployment, the War on Drugs, criminal justice, racial profiling etc., we find that both of the major political parties are talking loud, but are saying nothing we can take to the bank.   # # #(William Reed - http://www.BlackPressInternational.com )