VAN JONES RESIGNS

Van Jones has resigned from his post as Green Jobs Czar. The Huffington Post is reporting the following story:
The Huffington Post
Sunday September 6, 2009
Glen Beck Gets His First Scalp
Ryan Grim
Glenn Beck has his first scalp. Van Jones, under fire from the extremist television show host for his background in radical activism, has resigned from the administration.

Jones was Special Adviser for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality - the so-called 'Green Jobs' Czar. Jones' 2008 book, The Green Collar Economy, was a New York Times best-seller. Beck is a talk show host for Fox News.
Jones never denied his past affiliation with the radical left. In the '90s, he was involved with the group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which sympathized with Maoist-inspired peasant movements throughout the world and was organized to protest police brutality.

Jones, however, left radical politics and made the decision to work within the system, rather than try to overthrow it. For Beck, however, Jones' past statements were evidence that Obama is secretly marshaling a cadre of lieutenants pushing an agenda that is "radical, revolutionary and in some cases Marxist." (Meanwhile, in reality, Obama is backing away from even including a public health insurance option as part of health care reform. How that squares with Obama's Marxist agenda Beck has yet to explain.)

Before Beck mentioned Jones in the last few weeks on his Fox News television show, Jones remained an obscure figure in the administration. After Beck mentioned him, protesters at town hall meetings made Jones a staple of their complaints.
Jones, in a statement, said he no longer wanted to be a distraction.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide. I have been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future." (read the entire article here)

I understand why Van took this position. While he could of rode out the current storm, his ability to work effectively would of taken a major hit. I am not liking the fact that the Obama Administration did not stand up and defend Van. Perhaps this is an unreasonable expectation on my part, since Obama doesn't really riff with the conservative base in this nation.

I am also sure that the campaign waged by The Color of Change to have sponsor remove their support from Beck's show outraged him. After all, we-the people of color are not suppose to be outraged enough to fight him back. I suspect that Beck was/is stunned by the blacklash of his current racially aroused campaign. The member of The Color of Change were successful in getting sponsors of his show to pull their ads. That is not supposed to happen. After all, we are not capable of being effective organizers in his mind.

I am pretty put off by the progressive base in this nation too. It is way past due time for us to start openly battling back. This whole campaign of fear and loathing has gone to damn far. I know that people want things to remain cool. However, there comes a time when we have to consider what our silence is producing. There is a level of comfort that the extreme right is enjoying because there is no open or well organized faction to fight them back. This idea is not one that any political party can hold down. This is on us to handle.

At what point in time do we start demanding that THE WAR AGAINST BLACK AMERICA be stopped? Do we continue to sit back and watch until something horrible happens? I am pretty tired of reacting after their actions. It is time to become a progressive force on the move. We have to begin becoming a visible force that is supporting our desires and political agenda. Obama cannot do this with just the help of the members of Congress. It appears that there are members of the Democratic Party that need to grow a set of mental balls and do their job. Or they will be getting a pink slip in the 2010 elections.

We are not going to be able to continue to sit back and do nothing. Nor will we have the luxury of sitting at our keyboards writing opinions. We are going to have to get up and get out in our communities. We are going to have to start talking on the subject of race the way we need to-and that is not all about us. We need to expose their ugliness and their desire to have violence to regain power. Because that is what they are trying to whip up-it is not about re-taking the White House back. It is about trying to roll the nation back to the days when only a specific group of people were in power and we were their crumb snatchers.

The extreme conservative base in this nation is short sighted. They still believe that they are the only people who have the right to be Americans. The America that they love and want to return to is the one that I hate and want to see purged. It not a place where everyone can grown or thrive. It is a nation that believes no one except a select few have rights. They don't mind us being the low people on the spectrum.

I mind being there. It makes no sense to me to have waged a victorious fight from battle to battle to loose this particular one. We've come to far to be turned around. Especially by a little man who has small ideas and a media gig.

I hope that Van goes on to do good work. This is a set back. But it is one that can and should be overcome by doing what he set out to do. Which is providing a way for our community to become self-reliant and productive.