Audio clip
Payge Kizer
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Staff Photo by Shane McMillan UTC and Chattanooga police clear Obama supporters from the corner of University and 8th on the UTC campus on Tuesday night just after the announcement that Barack Obama had won the race. Over 200 students poured onto the streets to celebrate his win.
UTC students danced in the streets minutes after Sen. John McCain conceded defeat and Sen. Barack Obama’s election as president became apparent.
A crowd of nearly 300 students packed the sidewalk at the corner of 8th and University streets. Some students said the impromptu celebration resulted from overflowing emotions.
“This is history, this is something we can look back and tell our kids that we were a part of,” said Art Egbe, 20, of Memphis, who is black. “We weren’t old enough to be a part of the civil rights movement, but this is our chance to be together.”
Most of the students said this was their first time to vote and that the election and streetside celebration will be lifelong memories.
“This is the most exciting year of my life,” said Payge Kizer, 18, a black student from Memphis. “I graduated high school, I went off to college and I voted for the first black president of the United States,”
Some participating in the celebration said Tuesday’s election makes real the promises of parents and teachers who said the students could be anything if they tried.
“This marks a new beginning for me. My motto now is, ‘The sky is the limit,’ ” said Shirley Ntuk, 20, of New Jersey, who is black. “I feel like I can’t be stopped.”
Campus police and Chattanooga Police Department cruisers dispersed the crowd as some celebrants danced in front of patrol cars, chanting the president-elect’s last name.
Republicans in the crowd included Austin Staton, 18, a white student from Greenbriar, Tenn., who said he voted for Sen. McCain and came to see what the celebration was about.
“Personally, I just don’t agree with most of the taxation plans for Obama,” Mr. Staton. “To be honest, I think this is all a little bit ridiculous. This isn’t the civil rights era anymore.”
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
Some people just don't get it, and Mr. Staton is one of them. You don't have to be an African-American, or a civil rights-era supporter to understand the excitement and significance of this moment in history. I'm a white, 30-soemthing, stay-home mother, and I cried like a baby watching last night's festivities around the city, the nation, and the world. America has optimism again. Parents have hope again. Yes we can.
Yes, but "hope" and "optimism" for what? There are no details given and we all know who is in the details.
Yes, you can WHAT? That is the never-answered question.
And yes, I "get it"; everyone's money but the elite and their friends will disappear. Sure "hope" you folks are ready for the price increases coming down the line.
You don't REALLY expect business to pay taxes, do you? Business doesn't pay taxes -- people [me and thee] pay taxes for them through increased prices. They just pass it on down to us. [See EPG's increased "tax-equivalent" payments to the gov't and its subsequent increase in our rates to cover it... That's just a sample.]
I am so sick of this paper keeping the race issue alive. Is he not as much a white person as he is black? Was not one parent white and one black? I am sure I have just now made some people mad by using the word black. I did not mean anything by using the word. We are all Americans in America that have very pressing issues to correct such as economy and overseas affairs. Why do we keep talking about race? I do not go around calling myself an Irish/American? What about BET Television, if we had a WET television station that would be called racist. What is all the problems with the hangman's noose? When I was growing up we all played with a noose because we saw it used in Western movies and TV shows used on the bad guy ( stealing cattle.) I had a relative during the Civil War that was hanged from a train overpass in Bridgeport, Al. He was white. This paper is bringing race into play again. We have to work together for the good of this great nation.
To answer diamondr54's question: "Why do we talk about race? ", quite simply, because racial inequality and discrimination is still alive. Why is Tennessee among four states where McCain out-performed Bush in 2004, with the other three being southern neighboring states? Why did counties throughout the deep south with small black populations show much higher support for McCain, who received the lightest primary support in that region, than George W. Bush in 2004? Make no mistake about it, this was a trend that happened nowhere else in the nation, not even the home states of the candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Perhaps you would gain a little more perspective on racial profiling and discrimination in the south if you were to simply wear an Obama shirt in public, as I did, while being repeatedly confronted with racial slurs and hate speech from strangers. As I myself never imagined that this kind of open racism still existed, I was in for quite an awakening through this past campaign.
As for the hangman's noose, does this one really need explaining? A brutal, antiquated form of capital punishment with a clear history of wrongfully murdering thousands of innocent black people (freed slaves), in addition to unspeakable acts of domestic terror for the better part of a century, the noose has become tantamount to the burning crosses that often accompanied them through the decades of Jim Crow South oppression.
Finally, the first amendment certainly permits you to have your WET TV. Trouble is, those cable channels are funded exclusively by sponsors, who would be highly unlikely to advertise their products along-side your white supremacist programing, as this would prove rather disastrous for business. In the meantime, you have plenty of choices when it comes to channels featuring nearly all white faces, namely CMT or TNN.
Today, I am extremely proud to be an American, as we have reached this historic milestone, what a majority never imagined possible years ago. I celebrate this once in a lifetime opportunity to, at last, heal the wounds of centuries of racism. On the other hand, as native Tenneseean, I believe we have a lot of catching up to do.
-Paul Jackson
The news police, whos mission is to prohibit free spaech unless it suits their purpose pulled my last posting so now I will have to blow warm air up there pant leg to be able to post. Today, I am ashamed of the sheeple, and I do not consider tham americans have elected a black muslim to the office of president. I believe they thought it was americnan idol. Unfortunatly they do not see the long term consequences of their actions. They have all but sealed the fate of this country. I will be flying my ameican flag upside down as allowed by law when the country is in danger and it is in grave danger.
First of all, this country -- and especially Tennessee -- owes nothing whatsoever to any descendant of a freed slave once owned by an American. If their descendants haven't, by THIS time, pulled themselves out of the muck those slaves were unwillingly forced into 160 years ago, then they do not want any help other than a free handout, special privileges, or preferential treatment. They don't want equality they demand elitism. [Other than racism, why do you suppose they voted in a 95% bloc for a Marxist black man? Clue: Freebies promised.]
Interesting that some find BET to be honorable TV programing but call a hypothetical WET TV "white supremacist" programing. Double standard there...so much for tolerance and equal rights, huh? OK for them but not us.
The rope was the preferred method of execution for decades if not centuries; it was chosen out of expediency. Lincoln's killers were hung, for example. Outlaws in the movies [and sometimes the good guys] were hung, if not shot out of hand. The noose as an symbol is ALL in the minds of the intolerant, free-speech forbidding leftists.
In closing, it is good that we now have at least two people in this country who are finally proud of America for the first time in their lives. Welcome to our world. Maybe you will awaken further one day and see what Democrats have done to the black race and especially the black core-family. Note I said, "to" them and not "for" them.
Why don't we just give Obama a chance. He does not take office until another two months. There are only two types of people in this world....Those who judge, and those who lie about it.
Check this out...unbelievable: http://kbb2.com/2008/11/05/bridging-the-racial-divide-or-not/
We are waiting to see how he handles the Russian missiles along Poland's border, the Afghan and Pakistan issues, our economy and the other messes, Martini. If he mentions them at all, that is.
Maybe the MSM will give him another free ride on this along with their lower and slowly lowering expectations... One must laugh at how his supporters are already making excuses for him and withdrawing from the promises he made. Still think those $1,000 checks will be mailed?
As President-Elect, Obama is now receiving the same morning briefings on foreign and domestic hotspots given to President Bush. His vast experience as a community organizer aka rabble rouser should be worth something. Think he will actually say something beyond "Hope for change"? My hope is that he does something...anything...he is now our leader. Unlike his campaign staff and others formerly touting his fine attributes, my expectations have not been lowered.
It isn't as if he didn't want the job.
Yes, kevinburke, racism is alive and well here in ObamaLand. Long simmering on a back burner it is now front and center, bubbling madly like the witch's cauldron it is.
Pity, that. So soon it is forgotten it is the white vote that put Obama in office.
I love Chattanooga. But right now, people like "rolando", "enufisenuf" and "Kevinburke" are making it embarrasing to be from here. Please, anyone from out of town who is reading this: The vast majority of people who live in Chattanooga and/or attend UTC are not hateful or unkind. People from Chattanooga are generally good, peaceful and friendly. We can share common ground and work with- not against- those with different viewpoints. We can show compassion to others whether we win or lose. Chattanooga is a place where people care about their neighbors and their country -- not just their race or political party. The Chattanooga that you see on this page is not a true reflection of the place I love. Let's please all put our differences, our anger and our grudges aside and work together to make our country a better place to live for EVERYONE.
So now those of us posting and speaking the truth are now hateful and unkind. Humph.
What is really meant by Keith is we should just take our truth and go elsewhere, preferably Canada or something. No free expression allowed here, especially on the sacred grounds of the UTC and essentially 90% of all campuses nationwide. With few notable exceptions, they are all hotbeds of Bush Hatefulness Syndrome, preferential treatment supporters, homophiles who would destroy marriage, and the rest of the mean and hateful things best known to the liberal side of politics. These are also places where only THEIR opinions and THEIR arguments are worth considering. Typical of the selfish, the young and the callow.
In closing, Keith obviously didn't watch the distaff side's little remarks as he made no comment about HER. As I said, racism is alive and well.
It is so pathetic that hate, division, and racism is all that some people have to hold on to. I can tell by the verbage that many of those commenting are intelligent with that said, any adult who has grown up in the south or even in this country at all for that matter with HALF a brain knows it's history and why it is so significant for all Americans especially black people to witness this occassion. It is perfectly fine for people to disagree with the views of the president elect, but don't tear down the rest of us because we want to move forward and we feel we are supporting the best person to do it considering the choices we were given. Maybe if people weren't so bitter about things turning away from the "good ole days" they would see that maybe this election will inspire people in this country who have given up hope of aspiring to anything for generations because they have been made to feel like they are nothing, especially those suffering from the legacy of slavery. Some of the negative people commenting on this blog know more than anyone how the hatred born through slavery still lingers on and continues to sqelch opportunity. Many people have been afraid of running into the type of hate and resentment that I have encountered on this blog, maybe some of those people will gain a little pride and believe they can achieve more and not have to wait around for "freebies". Our new president is highly intelligent and highly capable...the majority of the WORLD agrees. You can say whatever you want really, because just like he said...he will be your president too!!
A simple discourse of two differing viewpoints is not possible here or most anywhere, certainly not on campus. They end with the usual namecalling.
Facts are not hateful, they are not mean, they are not divisive [although they can cause dissention], and, most of all, they are not racist. They are merely the truth and "the truth shall make you free".
I have watched this country change from a "great melting pot" into a hodge-podge of hyphenated Americans, each group in its own little enclave, some of them fortified and all xenophobic. I have seen a seachange of once stable core-families into fatherless socially dependent and helpless single-parent-with-a-livein-boyfriend todo. [Blacks are really hard hit by this one yet their own leaders do nothing about it -- just the opposite.] I have watched healthy discussion change into one-sided, politically correct "Here's how it will be."
Today, for the Good Lord's sake, anything involving a problem of predominantly or statistically high involvement of blacks simply cannot and will not be discussed. Period. Next problem. Now who is overly sensitive, racist, etc., even to the point of hurting themselves and their group? No other racial group votes en masse for one political party, regardless of the candidate. Furthermore, it is that party keeping them downtrodden and helplessly dependent on government to show them the way; their independence in thought and deed is simply gone.
Unfortunately, I was not born a Southerner; God saw fit to place me in Los Angeles for my first 20 years -- which is why I am here. This is indeed God's country.
In closing, my anger is not with our new president; I sincerely wish him the best. No, my anger is with the media that does things like cover up or ignore a presidential candidate's dallying with his shack-job and his love-child while his wife is dying of cancer. My anger is with a campaign that, shortly after the Edwards scandal, sends hordes of lawyers to dig up dirt on the opposition's Vice-Presidential candidate and then the media blasts the slightest innuendo against her "above the fold". My anger is with a media so obviously "in the tank" for Obama they are a laughing stock worldwide...and losing subscribers and advertisers hand over fist.
Lastly, I am disappointed with the lackluster campaign run by McCain...I sometimes wondered just whose side he was on.
Palin [a true conservative in the old sense] in 2012.
I agree that anything involving a problem of predominantly or statistically high involvement of blacks simply cannot and will not be discussed...(fairly and intelligently.) Some who want to speak so eloquently about the plight of blacks in America need to do a little more research before speaking. Some of us need to take pause and consider that maybe the reason blacks vote so overwhelmingly democratic is because that in recent times that is the only party who has attempted to reach out to blacks regarding the issues blacks uniquely face.
Please remember or research the fact that Jim Crow laws which restricted the civil rights and the civil liberties of blacks were in place all the way up through 1965 and moreover, it wasn't until 1964 that the discriminating voting practices responsible for the disenfranchisement of blacks was outlawed. Let's not even speak about unequal pay or even being allowed a job.
It is the God given right of those of us who want to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the effects of these things, which actually were not that long ago at all, has had and is still having a devasting effect economically, mentally, and disproportionately on blacks. Poverty has been passed on from generation to generation the same way prosperity and opportunity has been passed on through generations in a country which many have been very opposed to sharing. It is very hard to pull your self up by your boot scraps
One last topic, a noose and a lasso for roping cattle are two different things. It is understood that hanging by noose had been a form an execution for criminals through out this country and the world but hanging became the main form of murdering innocent black children, women, and men in this country. Nooses, not lassos left laying around or thrown over trees, is a threat and racial intimidation and most everyone knows it, especially the well educated. Anyway, sincerely, God Bless America.
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