Many of you may have seen the following photo posted somewhere on Facebook:

I have grown tired of the conservative right pursuing this campaign of pictorial slander, but complaining about it is not enough! Instead, I did some research into the claims stated in the photo posting above. My goal was to look at what G.W. Bush inherited from President Clinton and compare that to what Bush passed on to President Obama. The old saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”, unfortunately, the picture above doesn’t nearly tell the whole story. Read on Divided Fans and see the WHOLE TRUTH!

AAA Credit Rating: Bush did indeed inherit from President Clinton the nations AAA Credit Rating. In fact, until the aftermath of the economic crisis that occurred in the last year of Bush’s presidency, the nation has always maintained a AAA credit rating. This fact is amazing when you consider the fact that Congress has spent more money that it has taken in every year since the 1969 (look here: http://www.federalbudget.com/) So how can we maintain a high credit rating while spending more than we make? Two reasons: 1. We borrow from other countries and 2. We have the ability to print more money which is just another form of borrowing. Unfortunately, the more we borrow the more we owe until at some point, all we can do is make interest payments on the debt and NEVER touch the principle balance owed.

7.8% Unemployment: When Bush took office in 2000, the national unemployment rate was 4.0%. During the 8 years of his presidency, the rate virtually doubled to 7.8%. This increase can be directly attributed to the financial crisis of 2008, which occurred BEFORE President Obama took office.

$1.84 Gas per Gallon: Again, another misdirected statistic. While it is true that when President Obama actually took office, the price of gas was indeed $1.84 per gallon. Looking deeper into the issue, we find that the price of gas plummeted in direct proportion to the stock market during the financial crisis of 2008. What is not reported by the conservatives that propagated this useless bit of drivel is the fact that in July 2008, during Bush’s last year of presidency, the price of gas per gallon reached $4.12 per gallon. (go here for the chart: http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24)

$10 Trillion Debt: What the conservatives failed to note on this line is the fact that Bush inherited a national debt of $5.6 Trillion from President Clinton. During the 8 years of the Bush presidency, he managed to nearly DOUBLE the national debt. How? By involving the country in 2 unnecessary wars that cost more to fight than we could honestly afford. And please keep in mind, The Guide is a veteran of 2 tours in the Persian Gulf. I earned 2 Meritorious Unit Citations and 2 Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals during those 2 tours. I am a staunch supporter of our troops. I just don’t think they should remain deployed as they are.

Annual Budget: This one is, well, PRICELESS! The President of The United States is bound by THE CONSTITUTION to present a budget to Congress each and every year, without fail. It then falls to Congress to pass or not pass the budget. In years past, Congress would make the tweaks they thought were necessary to the budget, and then debate it on the floor of the House and Senate. Eventually, some compromise would emerge and a budget would be signed into law. However, in 2011 AND 2012, Congress rejected the Presidents budgets. YES! You read that correctly! Congress rejected the President’s budget 2 years in a row! So, the statement is partially correct in the picture above…Facts do not lie…CONSERVATIVES do! Unlike my conservative counterparts, I have included links below that detail all of the information I included in this post. Please read and understand, good people, that therein lies…”The Great Divide!”

For More Info, see below:

http://www.davemanuel.com/charts2/gas_prices_1949-2009.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm

http://www.federalbudget.com/

http://www.federalbudget.com/HistoricalTables.pdf

http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

The Guide wants to thank you all for your patience. About a year ago, my blog was hijacked, hoodwinked and a victim of sabotage (or sabotagee as Bugs Bunny would say!) None the less, it was completely out of control and it has taken me this long to get BACK in control of my content. To that end I just want to say Thanks for hanging in there with me. I know there was a lot of cyber junk posted here. I apologize and hope that going forward, you will be treated to the best that I can find in the way of highlighting what divides this country and way that we might overcome it. Be blessed!

Quoted from the ABCNews Website: “Trayvon Martin Family Seeks FBI Investigation of Killing by Neighborhood Watchman.” I read this and I have to wonder…If Trayvon Martin had been a gun carrying, malicious minded criminal that shot a white man in a gated community instead of the harmless Skittles and tea carrying youth he was, would ANYONE have to ask for an investigation? ABC News reports that the police accepted the claim of self-defense from the shooter, George Zimmerman, at face value and did not investigate further. In fact, Zimmerman was not tested for drugs or alcohol on the night of the shooting (which is apparently standard procedure in homicide investigations.) Zimmerman’s statements on the tape of his call to the non-emergency police dispatch number state that Trayvon “…looks like he is up to no good, on drugs or something.”

The sensible person in me says that we should review all available facts of this situation before passing judgment. Unfortunately, it seems as if the Sanford, FL police department has already taken that step for us. ABC News reported that law enforcement expert Rod Wheeler, after listening to the police dispatch tapes, states that it is actually Zimmerman that sounds intoxicated. His rationale for this statement is his numerous years in law enforcement and the fact that law enforcement officials are trained to look for and listen for signs such as this. So, it appears that it is perfectly satisfactory for an intoxicated white man to brutally gun down an unarmed black youth in the state of Florida without fear of prosecution.

Again, my mind tells me we must look at both sides of the proverbial coin: Has there EVER been a situation where a person of color (don’t want to exclude my brown and yellow brothers and sisters!) has shot, killed, harmed or maimed a white person and NOT been at least immediately arrested and later convicted. I dare say “NO!” Let’s consider the case of the Jena Six from Jena, LA. In what can honestly be described as a schoolyard dispute (although I think the nooses that were hung from trees definitely serves to escalate the situation,) six black youths from Jena that ended up in a schoolyard brawl with their white classmates where initially charged with…wait for it…ATTEMPTED SECOND DEGREE MURDER! Really? Attempted Second Degree Murder! It boggles the mind!

I have to say that had Trayvon shot the self-appointed neighborhood watch man, the nation wouldn’t have had to wait a full three weeks to hear of it on the national news. The story would have gotten as much press and commentary as the average missing white girl does. I mean after some six years, they are still talking about Natalie Holloway and we are all quite sure that Joran Vandersloot was responsible for her death. Balance that against the fact that Mitrice Richardson went missing after leaving a police station on September 17, 2009 and hasn’t been seen since. Of course her case NEVER garnered the kind of press coverage of Natalie Holloway or even the Indiana girl Lauren Spierer who went missing after a night of underage drinking with friends. As a father, I can only imagine the hurt their parents feel yet I feel more for the parents of those that get no press coverage whatsoever.

This digression only leads to my actual point: There is a real and ever widening racial divide in our country. Those that don’t believe it exists need only to look at the events unfolding in Sanford, FL and think “What if Trayvon had shot Zimmerman? Would the events be unfolding in the same manner? The answer is no and that, good people, is “The Great Divide”

For more info:

http://blackandmissing.org/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/trayvon-martin-family-seeks-fbi-investigation-killing/story?id=15949879#.T2i9PhEvSNo

Welcome! Allow me the opportunity to thank you for visiting The Great Divide, a new blog dedicated to identifying and bridging the gaps that exist in our society that help create what we commonly refer to as “the racial divide.” As we go forward, the content you see posted here will typically be written from the black perspective. That is not to say that all content will be written by black people, just that the content will be of particular interest to black society.

As The Guide, I will look for, identify and hopefully bridge the gaps in society that present disparities in the perception of black society. For example, we often see  reports about missing, abducted, or abused children in the news and it seems the stories that get the MOST coverage are those involving white children. While I am sure that black children go missing as well, their abductions or abuses rarely garner the same type of coverage in the media that is afforded white children. That is not intended as a divisive statement, it is simply the truth.

As you peruse the blog, you will see there are several categories. As the site grows, content will be added to those categories that we think will benefit our readership. Readers are encouraged to join the blog and to comment on the timeliness of the information and any benefit they get, real or perceived. My hope is that the information presented here will help and not hinder our society.