Why It Is Freezing Outside

I know why it is so cold tonight. It’s because hell has actually frozen. Truly. For what else could occur other than hell freezing over after my realizing that I agreed with Reverend Al Sharpton not once but throughout most of his interview? I was watching a program on CNN called DL Hughley Breaks the News. I had seen DL Hughley, a young black comedian before and found him to be quite funny and even fair in his political humor. He now has this show on CNN during which he interviewed Sharpton.

I had to rewind the show a couple of times because I was completely shocked at what I heard and didn’t believe it until I listened to it again and again. My first shock was to hear Sharpton argue for school choice and charter schools. And not only was he in favor of it but he also said he thought teachers should be held accountable and the best ones should be given incentives if they do a good job. Oh my. But it became even better as he talked about personal responsibility and parenting.

During his interview he touched on a number of valid points which I found to be surprisingly thoughtful and even bordering on conservative! Basically he said the time was past for blacks to be blaming the system for their failures. He stated that they needed to stop making excuses. Things may not be perfect but they are better than they ever have been. And even when they weren’t great, people were still succeeding. But the first step is for parents to understand the value of education and then to get involved. They can’t lay the entire burden on the teachers. They need to take responsibility for their children and to be there making sure their kids do their homework and even get to school.

He said that a parent’s lack of education is no excuse either. In fact it should be just the opposite – they should be encouraging their children to do better than themselves. More importantly they need to stop denigrating themselves and especially stop telling the kids things like their fathers were no good SOBs and the kids were no good too and weren’t ever going to succeed. Instead they need to encourage their children and to set the bar of expectations higher than ever, to CEO, even President. For with Barack and Michelle Obama before us there is no excuse that blacks can’t go far.

Wow. Now can you see why it is so cold because hell has frozen over? Obama is not even in office yet, but maybe, just maybe if liberal African Americans like Sharpton are already talking about things like school choice and personal responsibility in the affirmative then perhaps some good just might come from Obama’s presidency after all.