Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Bye Bye Mr. Powell

I'll tell you this, I was not shocked or dismayed when word got to me that Powel was fired...I mean..was giving his resignation speech. Anyone who had been keeping up with the goings on of Powel know that he was a lame duck Secretary of State who was repeatedly at odds with Bush over his policy and was repeatedly and publicly embarrassed by Bush when he would reverse Powells statements on Israel and North Korea.

As my mother and many mothers have said to thier children as they marry the wrong people, or get involved with the wrong crowd, "you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas." Powells lasting impression from his stint as Secretary of State will be his outright lies and exagerations to the UN about Iraqs Nuclear weapons and his many trucks scattered all over Iraq that have HUGE cauldrons of biological and chemical weapons just waiting to be unleashed on "coalition" forces. All of which were IMHO, known to be wrong. The allegations were supported by some satelite photos showing nothing in particular and the words of a few Iraqi exiles looking for a quick buck.

Then we watched in recent interviews as Powell said he was wrong. How he was mistaken. Oh well.

70% of Americans who were asked approved of Powells performance. Many white Americans like that he 'speaks so well." To some African Americans he is an icon of the American dream. Not to me.

Mr. Powell was born of Jamaican parents. The man had so little pride in his home culture that he refused to correct people when they mispronounced his name (The manner in which it is said in the press is not the manner in which his parents or parents people pronounced it.) Powell latched onto the Military as his means to get ahead, attracted by the "level field" that he percieved there, and ran up the ranks. Powell, the good soldier was involved in the shamefull invasion of Grenada and has been quite mum on social topics even though rumor has it that he is more socially liberal than his republican peers. Would I place Powell in the same category as Justice Thom(ass) and Condeleeza Rice? Not at this time. I think those individuals are far worse than Powell, Yet and still General Powell needs to be examined for not only his personal accomplishments but for what he stood for and what he didn't stand for. Ultimately to me, he was "the good soldier" for an Imperial country. he did as he was told whether he agreed with it or not and today we are in need of consciencious soldiers who ask why and stand true to conviction and justice.