[Note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author alone. --TWS]
Rev. Al Sharpton just released a brief political ad which cuts to the heart of the issues in the pesidential election. With his typical flourish, the Rev. Al did a quick summary of the policies he says Romeny-Ryan would enact and concluded with an expression that speaks to the heart of the differences between the two campaigns.
“This is not about Obama. It’s about your mama,” Sharpton said to laughter and applause. “Social Security is about our mamas. And if Obama is a way to protect our mamas then I’m not ashamed to stand with Obama.”
http://thegrio.com/2011/07/28/sharpton-debt-fight-about-your-mama-not-obama/
According to the "Wise Geek" website, Sharpton's language is nothing short of fighting words:
"What started out as playground insults in primarily urban and inner city neighborhoods has evolved into an entire humor category known as yo mama jokes. Yo mama jokes are targeted at a challenger's mother because family insults are widely considered to be the most offensive in urban culture....The term 'Yo mama' itself is short for 'your mama,' and is considered to be an example of urban slang known as Ebonics or Black English. Although the deliberate use of black slang may seem racist, many humor collections refer specifically to Yo mama jokes as a recognized category. Part of the humor behind yo mama jokes is the delivery of the punchline in an urban or Ebonic dialect."
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-yo-mama-jokes.htm)
Sharpton's point is that the policies of Romney-Ryan will force seniors to pay more for health care, end Medicare as we know it, convert Social Security to a private savings plan, and give massive tax cuts for the wealthy while abandoning or drastically reducing programs designed to help the elderly, children, women, and the poor. If government is the Big Bad Wolf there can be no alternative but to starve the beast until in desperation it falls down the chimney.
The punchline sounds crude, but only to people who don't have elderly parents on Social Security and Medicare. In 1992 when I learned I was going to meet candidate Bill Clinton face-to-face, I asked my mother what she would like me to say to him on her behalf. She said, "Tell him to protect Social Security." Mom was a factory worker all her life who raised six children. Many nights she would be up until midnight doing laundry and household chores, only to rise in the dark before dawn and head to the factory again. She earned that monthly Social Security check by forty-plus years packing candy for Ludens-Hershey. If you have ever eaten 5th Avenue miniatures from a plastic bag, you've probably held my mother's handiwork.
When I was a teenager, I read Ayn Rand and flirted with her philosophy of Objectivism. Let everyone make it or break it without governmental involvement. Every day when I walked down the block past row houses on my way home from school, I would pass a large window where an elderly lady named Daisy sat in her rocking chair. She lived on Social Security. One day as I stroled by, I asked myself, "What would she do without that little check every month?" Abstract theory became living reality right before my eyes. Governments should do things for its citizens which they cannot do alone. Like build bridges, repair roads, hire police and teachers and firefighters, and send stipends to poor old ladies who have no other means of support.
Rev. Al may have invoked languistic idioms that a middle-class white guy like me has no right to employ, but he was spot on. Regardless of your political affiliation, this election isn't about Obama--who is struggling to help the nation climb out of an enormous economic sinkhole he inherited. It's about Daisy. It's about the auto-deposited checks which keep our elderly from abject poverty. "...it's about 'yo momma."
