New Haven Independent

Posted by: transit user | March 3, 2008 9:32 AM

Ha Obama supporters who won't get on local buses with his fellow low income African-Americans are along with Senator Obama disempowering such African-Americans in their clean up efforts as well.

African-Americans in such clean-up neighborhoods
similar to those in Katrina ruined neighborhoods in New Orleans need to be freed from the mentality that they need to be cared for by
others especially "the government" and well-off
white people. They need to feel sense of confidence that they can form groups to do the jobs themselves--similar to the efforts by Hartford African-American church leaders to keep suburban drug buyers out of their neighborhoods.

Also somewhere among the clean up crews is a caring smart community-service oriented young woman like Hillary Clinton who will later get her career advancement cut off by some younger guy be he white, African-American or Latino.

Posted by: Matt | March 3, 2008 11:27 AM

Transit user, are you seriously criticizing these kids for trying to do something positive? How the hell can you complain about people volunteering their own time to clean up a neighborhood?

If you want people in African-American neighborhoods to have self confidence that they can make a difference in their own community that is great! I encourage you to help organize clean ups by and for people in the community. This would be far more productive than mocking other peoples efforts to do some good.

Or are you just a negative person that is all talk? Sounds like a sad way to live your life.

Posted by: on whalley | March 3, 2008 11:58 AM

Where are all these African-American neighborhoods? In all my time in New Haven I've only met 3 or 4 residents who moved here from Africa. That hardly qualifies as a neighborhood. I know you can't mean "black" when you say African-American because two of these people I know are a white couple from Africa.

What do you geniuses call a black guy who moved here Arizona? He's suddenly African-American? What if he came up from Jamaica? He has to be African-American now? I wonder should the Jamaican guy object to being called African-American will the great P.C. machine tell him he is wrong?

-A European-American sick of semantic idiocy.

Posted by: transit user | March 3, 2008 1:34 PM

I am not putting down those young people doing work in the community, just the idea that it is such a unique valuable part of the Obama magical mystery tour that makes him worthy of being President. Not also when an upstate New Yorker commented on a NewYorkTimes.com blog that she saw a commercially made T-shirt "I voted for the "Bro", not the "Ho" on one of Senator Obama's supporters.

Also Senator Clinton would not need to put any kind of "let's do community service, gang" appeal on her website for her likely constituency of older 50+ women of all races. She would know that we have been plugging away helping inner city people as well as others in quiet every day ways for years and years. (While not all women in the organizations I mention might have voted for Senator Clinton, above-average portions would have been likely to.)

There are women in the League of Women Voters who
have lobbied for fair election laws among other things, women in a local Jewish women's group who knit hats for pre-mature babies, collect items for domestic violence shelters, tutor kids in reading and cooking, and women who schlep in from the suburbs for "Read to Grow" fund-raising luncheons.

Then there are older women who have run thrift shops, schlepped clothes to thrift shops and welfare to work office clothing drives, cooked and served at soup kitchens, volunteered at nursing homes, volunteered in churches and synagogues so they kept afloat.

No, Senator Clinton and her likely older women supporters aren't putting on such a community service show to prove her worthy of being President.

Posted by: Adam in Philly | March 3, 2008 1:38 PM

Hello from Philly, I helped organize our Obama Philly Sweep this past weekend and wanted Tranist User to know that we had a wide range of volunteers in terms of age, ethnicity, and religion. Additionally, the majority of our cleanup occurred in predominately black neighborhoods. At the end of the event we had several elderly black gentlemen who were war veterans join our wrap-up rally and speak kind words of encouragement as well as praise for our hard work and support of the Senator. They said they hadn't seen such an outpouring of political energy from young people since the 60's! SO, Transit User et all, please go to our website and check out the Philadelphia Sweep pictures as well. I think you will be pleasantly suprised that skin color is not an issue when people come together around a common purpose of helping their community and supporting a leader they believe it! Go here and check out the first photos we have up:

www.whyobamaworks.com

Together WE can!

Posted by: Public Transport | March 3, 2008 2:19 PM

Transit User, it seems like you have a giant chip on your shoulder but really picked the wrong place to air it out. I don't really care for politics or Obama or Clinton for that matter but it is most idiotic to moan and whine about some kids volunteering their time to clean up a street..

It is easy to sit on your $$$ at home and type at a keyboard. Go out and do something.

Posted by: Transit User | March 3, 2008 4:18 PM

OK for the 15 years I have lived in an apartment building with Yale students, I have collected their perfectly graduation moving out good cast-offs from our buildings' recycling areas--clothes, household goods, electronics, books, notebooks, bags, canned food. Then at least 50 times, I have schlepped them without using a car to the Salvation Army, church and synagogue tag sales,youth groups, the New Haven Free Book Bank and food collection places.

Also I was not criticizing the young people's worthy effort--similar to that by the way of an older West Haven lady who goes every day to collect trash from the Savin Rock beach. I know from my niece and nephew that young people do such good every day starting with requirements for their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and confirmations without any such great acclaim.

I just felt the unreasonable bias of this newspaper to associate these students' efforts with a campaign for Senator Obama's presidency.

Also the real big new change of the new millenium Senator Obama's message would have implemented was a new pride and empowerment in the communities the students are working in that prevent the littering of them in the first place.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | March 3, 2008 4:30 PM

On whalley you made me laugh. I have 2 Africans on my street but not Americans :)

I do have to say though, You are correct about your analogy of it but.... I know people, mostly ones over 50 that find it offensive to have a person say black.. a white person say black. I think it is more of a generational term now. So I find myself using it when I am with a group of people I don't know, so I do not get the older of the crowd angry.

With that said I am glad to see anyone out there cleaning!! I do it all the time. I brings a joy to you! So Bravo Obamakins!

Posted by: Amirah | March 3, 2008 6:58 PM

Transit User,

I am also one of the organizers of Obama Works and the Obama Philly Sweep. I am African American and female. Your grudge is misguided as race played no part in the areas that we decided to Sweep. Need did! It is a testament to all the volunteers that they didn't just want to clean their own neighborhood but were willing to help out in other neighborhoods, raise visibility for the Senator AND register voters.

We were well received in Philly by the residents of the area. Don't tell me that you are advancing the belief that only blacks should help blacks and whites should help whites? That type of thinking is outdated and has no place in the America we seek to revitalize!

wwww.whyobamaworks.com

Posted by: ImanOBAMAmama | March 3, 2008 7:28 PM

Okay, so where in the article did it even mention the color of the folks in the neighborhood? Would it be better or worse if it was an all white neighborhood? all Latino? What about a Senior Citizen community?

I happen to be a free black woman who participated in the Phila "Obama Sweep". The neighborhood we worked in had all kinds of people, young couples with babies, mature men who were proud VietNam vets, and everyone in between.

The sweep teams were just as diverse, with people of all ethnicities and all ages.

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING??? We wanted to show the spirit of Barack Obama. Not just support his candidacy, but do something positive for a neighborhood. Plus, we registered people to vote.

AND, we are doing it again this weekend!! WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE???

Peace,

I'm an OBAMA mama!!

Posted by: abg | March 4, 2008 12:46 AM

sorry to scoop the Indy here, but there was a beach clean-up at Long Wharf sponsored by Obama supporters in New Haven two months ago. i guess we were so focused on actually picking up trash that we forgot to send out press releases.

Posted by: anon | March 4, 2008 9:15 AM

ABG: wow, vindictive any? take some time out of being scornful to support an effort that it seems like you should support!

Posted by: Transit User | March 5, 2008 6:24 AM

At least one Obaman got my point, ABG, who
is mature enough to realize that not every little
thing one does for his/her community--that, if it is picking up trash, is nothing new as well-- deserves public acclaim.

Posted by: anon | March 5, 2008 5:05 PM

transit user: but do they deserve instead to be attacked? that surely doesn't follow.