My personal hero.

And you wonder why Congress never lets DC run its own government.

Nathan Hale, just prior to being hanged by the British after they discovered him spying for the revolutionary government:
"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

Admiral David Farragut, upon encountering a command detonated mine in Mobile Bay during the Civil War:
"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

President John Kennedy, in his inaugural speech in 1961:
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."

Neil Armstrong, upon setting foot on the moon in 1969:
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

Washington DC Mayor Mayor Marion Barry, upon being arrested for crack cocaine possession in 1990:
"The biatch set me up! The biatch set me up!"

/oblig

Sometimes I think people in DC just think to themselves: "Why not keep this farce going?"

"That's what frustrates some of these white people out here. They get frustrated, all worked up. They can't do a damn thing to me or about me. Isn't that funny?"

No, it's not. But I'm glad you can add 'racist' to your otherwise impeccable record of being a total douche.

I wonder if he knows Dallas Commish John Wiley Price?

People will elect a dipshiat just to stick it to the man. It's a little funny.

Did it really take 24 posts before someone points out that he's not the mayor? Not that the current one is any better, really...

Sweet! Beat that guy to it by 8 seconds! ^

Satanic_Hamster: Shooting a silence. What's next, attacking the darkness and then a gazebo?

Don't fark with that gazebo. I'm warning you.

randomjsa: No but we can continue to watch you be a cancer that drags your people down, while black people with sense, and white people with hearts try to limit the damage you're doing to your people.

Be a liberal, be a Democrat, but don't be like that guy.

Yeah. I don't get the MB worship at all, but most of what goes on in D.C. makes me shiat fire.

randomjsa: No but we can continue to watch you be a cancer that drags your people down, while black people with sense, and white people with hearts try to limit the damage you're doing to your people.

Be a liberal, be a Democrat, but don't be like that guy.

The damage he's doing to "his people"??

Please explain.

Mister Pleco: At least he represents his constituency. He's a man of the people.

It's refreshing to see how today's youth have such positive role models.

Aphoticamy: randomjsa: No but we can continue to watch you be a cancer that drags your people down, while black people with sense, and white people with hearts try to limit the damage you're doing to your people.

Be a liberal, be a Democrat, but don't be like that guy.

Yeah. I don't get the MB worship at all, but most of what goes on in D.C. makes me shiat fire.


Allow me to try and explain. In the 80's and 90's, during the worst part of the country's crack epidemic, lightyears before anyone could imagine a black President, Marion Barry sold himself as a man who would speak truth to power and help the inner city black people get a piece of the action. He made sure DC had a robust summer jobs program that fed A LOT of families during very hard times. There is are a couple of generations of people in the District who could look past his flaws because in a world where everyone was corrupt, why not vote for the corrupt guy who was smart enough to throw you a bone?

This is in no way an endorsement of Marion Barry or those who chose to re-elect him after his arrest for crack. But, to explain why he was re-elected, many DC blacks are people who migrated from the conservative south where religion governed everything they did. After his arrest, Barry sold himself as a redemtion story. He said that he had found GOD and he was ready to help the city to right itself. He had made mistakes and he was trying to make things right. There were very few residents in the District who had not been touched in some way by the drug culture. To put it simply, he was one of them.

DROxINxTHExWIND: Aphoticamy: randomjsa: No but we can continue to watch you be a cancer that drags your people down, while black people with sense, and white people with hearts try to limit the damage you're doing to your people.

Be a liberal, be a Democrat, but don't be like that guy.

Yeah. I don't get the MB worship at all, but most of what goes on in D.C. makes me shiat fire.


Allow me to try and explain. In the 80's and 90's, during the worst part of the country's crack epidemic, lightyears before anyone could imagine a black President, Marion Barry sold himself as a man who would speak truth to power and help the inner city black people get a piece of the action. He made sure DC had a robust summer jobs program that fed A LOT of families during very hard times. There is are a couple of generations of people in the District who could look past his flaws because in a world where everyone was corrupt, why not vote for the corrupt guy who was smart enough to throw you a bone?

This is in no way an endorsement of Marion Barry or those who chose to re-elect him after his arrest for crack. But, to explain why he was re-elected, many DC blacks are people who migrated from the conservative south where religion governed everything they did. After his arrest, Barry sold himself as a redemtion story. He said that he had found GOD and he was ready to help the city to right itself. He had made mistakes and he was trying to make things right. There were very few residents in the District who had not been touched in some way by the drug culture. To put it simply, he was one of them.

So in other words, he was just a typical politican who tells the people whatever they want to hear, to get their votes.

accelerus: To any half intelligent black person that might be reading this.

Black people like this with a loud mouth and a crack problem are a big part of the reason "white folk" like myself don't want be around blacks that have this attitude.

While the current members of government are all selfish pigs who need to be tossed to the street... do you really think throwing a loud mouth crack smoking black guy in the boss chair is going to make things better? While I don't doubt his grasp on the economics concerning the price of a rock or a pipe, bigger issues like the city budget are probably beyond him and would result in a few of these happening right as the place goes bankrupt:


To any white person who agrees with this and believes it is an intelligent statement:

With all due respect...lick balls. I'm not interested in being around a person who does not want to be around me because I have skin which is a similar shade as someone who they deem undesireable. I like to be around smart people. The fact that you believe your presence should be rationed only to the deserving is a window into your arrogance. I don't like snobs, either. So, on behalf of the intelligent black people, we're good.

Personally, i find Marion Barry and the spectacle around him not only unthreatening, but hilarious.
People get the leadership they want and deserve - and given time, they will figure out if they are being ill-served. In the meantime, there's no point in wringing ones hands about it.
People need to learn how to use the double-edged sword of self-determination, and there is no substitute from learning by experience - there are things you just can't instruct people in from the vantage point of an outsider - they have to figure it out themselves.
And they do - but it's a slow process. The average individual is uninformed or misinformed, apathetic, and above all, deeply resistant to change.
It takes time and experience - and in the meantime, folks have to reap what they sow.