Janet Langhart Cohen 2013-05-22T22:33:55-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=janet-langhart-cohen Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Janet Langhart Cohen Good old fashioned elbow grease. Homeland Time in America tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2237520 2012-12-04T12:02:17-05:00 2013-02-03T05:12:01-05:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/ Lincoln -- have captured, and are consuming the core of a once-admired, moderate, political party. The racists, bigots, anti-science and anti-government zealots are like vampires. Until Republican moderates, such as Jeb Bush or Jon Huntsman, drive a stake through that place where a heart is supposed to be, the ideologues will continue to pull them into the darkness of defeat.

It's also time to turn off the television's talking heads and focus on the needs of the American people. Our roads, bridges, power grids are approaching the condition of those in the third world. They need to be repaired. The social safety net has been shredded for millions of Americans. The middle class has been hit hard by the recession, but the poor have been hit harder and neither presidential candidate ever mentioned them during the campaign.

How can we tolerate treating the poor as if they are invisible? Do we think that poverty doesn't exist if we don't speak its name? Why has the "war on poverty" been declared a failure, but after our government has spent nearly 4 trillion dollars and lost thousands of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're told that we have to wait for history to judge whether the wars have been successful?

President John F. Kennedy issued a call to action when he declared, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." Well, the many who are poor are predominately black. In virtually every economic and social category -- employment, health, housing, education, safety and judicial fairness -- the black community lags far behind the rest of American society.

For the past four years, we've been told to keep our heads and voices down, to be patient and satisfied that we've helped make history. Meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged among us is more important than one man's place in history.

President Obama has a full agenda to be sure, including preventing our country from going over the "fiscal cliff." The world will continue to demand America's attention. But something is very wrong with our priorities. When violence explodes and people die in the Middle East, members of our national security team immediately fly off to the region, anxious to stop the killing.

People die every night on the south side of Chicago, where I used to live, but there are no network anchors eager to cover the carnage or leaders pledging assistance to stop the violence and heal the broken lives.

We established no fly zones and no drive zones in Iraq and Libya, but we tolerate drive by shooting zones in our inner cities. This policy of deliberate neglect is shameful and must stop.

Protecting our national security must always remain President Obama's top priority. Securing our borders against enemies will fail, however, if we are unable or unwilling to protect the welfare and quality of life of the American people -- the ones who are dying here, and those who are going to be called upon to pay more taxes, enjoy fewer benefits and endure more hardship in order to restore our country's greatness.

Mr. President, it's Homeland time in America...]]> Can We Talk Now? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2114927 2012-11-11T18:15:11-05:00 2013-01-11T05:12:01-05:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
For the past four years, the president has been free to address issues of interest to women, gays, Latinos, Asians, Jewish-Americans and others. When it came time to talk about the issues afflicting our community -- disproportionately high unemployment; racist drug laws and their discriminatory enforcement; disproportionately high imprisonment rates and sentences that are clearly discriminatory; inadequate access to health care and health insurance; and the prevalence of AIDS that is higher in the nation's capital than in parts of Africa -- we were told to be patient, to wait, to "cut the president some slack."

Most of us understood this call for silence. President Obama may be black, but he couldn't talk about issues that are vital to our survival without scaring the white folks -- the same ones who were calling him illegitimate, a liar, a Muslim, an anti-Semite, an anti-colonial Kenyan, and doing everything in their power to denigrate and discredit him. The Klan's hoods may be gone, but the haters are still with us, still demanding that we be silent, that we stand at the back of the bus or under it.

For much of our lives, we've been told to remain quiet and to wait. Wait for a Civil War to unshackle our chains. Wait for the Supreme Court to declare us full human beings. Wait for a Civil Rights Movement to gain access to public facilities. Wait until America's first black president could be liberated by a second term of office.

While we have waited, millions of black people have slipped further into poverty and desperation. More Trayvon Martins have been murdered. More unarmed black men have been shot by police. More barriers have been conceived to deny blacks and other minorities the right to vote. More programs designed to relieve the burdens imposed by racist policies are being dismantled for being "obsolete" and unnecessary.

It is time to break our code of silence and ask that President Obama listen to the voices and needs of those who have been most loyal to him and to the democratic ideals of this nation. If we cannot speak now, then when? If he will not listen now, then why? If he does not act now, then what?]]> They Shoot Black Men, Don't They? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1502804 2012-05-09T18:22:42-04:00 2012-07-09T05:12:04-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
Consider the facts. Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old former Marine who suffered from a heart ailment, accidentally triggered a medical alert device, which resulted in sending members of the White Plains police department to his apartment. When the police arrived, Mr. Chamberlain, who was visibly upset, made it very clear that he was fine and asked that the police go away. He didn't want or need any assistance. He was afraid that the police would kill him.

The police continued to demand that he open the door. Chamberlain became agitated, and again, told them to leave. The police could see through a partially opened door that Chamberlain was standing on his feet unaided.

Over his protest, the police forced their way into his apartment. They claimed that he had a knife in his hand and they felt threatened.

No "stand your ground" for this Marine. One of the officers called him a "Nigger." How fitting an epithet for a man who had worn this country's uniform. Just another Nigger!

So terrified were the men in blue, that they allegedly tasered Chamberlain not once, but twice. A really sensitive technique to administer to a man with a heart condition. Then they turned a shotgun on him and fired beanbags at his body. Not satisfied that he was incapacitated, they turned off the taser gun and its recording camera and shot him dead. All of this happened while Chamberlain's niece was standing in the hallway and was in a position to help calm her uncle and the police. She was, however, totally ignored. They were determined to enter Chamberlain's apartment to save him, but they ended up killing him.

The local grand jury decided that the police had engaged in no wrongdoing. It was just another "tragic" case involving law enforcement and a black man. A little misunderstanding.

Perhaps the police, who were wearing body armor and were armed with taser guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, will take a page from the pathetic apology offered by Trayvon's killer: "We're sorry for your loss."

It's all reminiscent of a case that occurred in New Orleans a few years ago. Thirteen members of the police force who were armed with semi-automatic weapons, had surrounded a black man who was holding a hunting knife. The police claimed that they feared for their lives, and so, all 13 proceeded to shoot the man to death. After all, what more could they have done?

The question was answered several weeks later by an incident in a different state. A moose had gotten loose in the streets of a small town and posed something of a threat by wandering around the neighborhood. The police decided to shoot the moose, not with a bullet, but with a tranquilizing dart. Once they rendered the moose harmless, they constructed a large sling and had a helicopter airlift it safely, and humanely, back to its natural habitat.

All of which reminds me of what Dick Gregory said to me many years ago. "Animals have more rights in America than black people because there are restrictions on when and how you can kill them. But it's always open season on us."]]> Trayvon: Justice or Just Us? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1470792 2012-05-02T10:58:29-04:00 2012-07-02T05:12:13-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/ excess of $200,000 by anonymous donors) was finally arrested and charged with the murder of Trayvon Martin, the Martin family and their supporters were relieved and grateful. The rusty wheels of justice were, at last, starting to turn. One distinguished columnist, who had been waiting to exhale, suggested that whatever the outcome of a trial -- or its preemption by a "stand your ground" defense -- justice will have been served.

Au contraire.

For much of America's history, black people have been told to wait. Wait for what? For white people's humanity to evolve?

We might as well be waiting for Godot. The manner in which the Sanford, Florida police handled Trayvon's murder is evidence that we have yet to arrive in the promised land of equal treatment under the law. The Sanford police chief, who acted with indifference or incompetence, was granted a temporary suspension with pay. Trayvon is in a grave. The police chief is on vacation.

The cases of police misconduct towards, and disregard for, blacks that have resulted in suspensions with pay are too many to mention. Only those suffering from a severe case of selective amnesia can forget seeing Rodney King reeling under the savage beating by the Los Angeles police in 1991. In determining whether the police had used excessive force, what did the nearly all white jury in Simi Valley trust -- the video tapes or their lying eyes?

Is there any doubt that if Trayvon had stalked and killed a white person, he would have been immediately arrested and charged with murder? Stand your ground be damned! Only his status as a teenager might have saved him from a seat in the electric chair.

The circumstances surrounding the Martin case have received enormous -- and for some, "too much," media attention. One contributor to the FOX network declared that if Trayvon had been murdered by a black man, it would have been a non-story.

Precisely! Black on black violence. Ho hum, just another day in the ghetto and a problem we don't have to deal with. FOX's man revealed what is at the heart of this case -- the invidious persistence of racism. Society has been conditioned to conclude that black people are predisposed to engage in criminal conduct and pose an inherent threat to all. We have become disposable. Our laws have been radicalized and our people branded and criminalized. The color of our skin has become a prison from which we are not allowed to escape.

Trayvon's fate continues to be compared to that of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955. Much has changed in the intervening 57 years, but too much remains the same. Emmett was murdered for whistling at a white woman. Trayvon was allegedly murdered for walking while black and wearing a hoodie.

Emmett received a trial in a kangaroo court. His killers, after being quickly acquitted by an all white jury, confessed to the crime and laughed how they got away with it. Look Magazine paid them $4,000 for their sordid story. There's little doubt that the tabloids and magazines are hovering over Zimmerman with cash in hand.

Emmett's fate was not the exception for black victims of violence, just the rule.

Justice in this case, or the others that are sure to follow, will never be achieved until white society stops ignoring the presence of the elephant that has been sitting in our living rooms for the past three hundred years -- the persistence of race-based laws and cultural conditioning that dictate what black people can wear, when we can whistle, where we can walk, and who we can be.

Lawyers like to quip that any connection between law and justice is purely coincidental. If true, then Trayvon, like Emmett, may well receive a trail, but no justice.]]> Authentically Black tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.936216 2011-08-25T10:30:50-04:00 2011-10-25T05:12:01-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/ recent blog celebrating the unveiling of Dr. King's monument on Sunday, August 28, some readers questioned how I could express genuine concern for the interests of black people when I am married to a white man. In other words, because I jumped the broom across the color threshold, I surrendered my membership to the race. To follow this logic, Bill Cohen having fallen in love with a black woman is no longer white. But more on this in a moment.

While attending a lecture delivered at Georgetown University by Professor Michael Eric Dyson, a woman sitting directly behind me expressed, in a-not-so sotto voce her admiration for Michelle Obama because she was an authentic black woman. I too admire the First Lady for her intelligence, strength, and commitment to our servicemen and women and their families, but the implicit suggestion contained in the woman's comment raised several interesting questions.

Is Michelle Obama authentically black because:

(a) She has dark skin?

(b) She married within her race?

(c) Her life experiences as a black person in a racist society qualifies her to identify with the economically and socially disadvantaged?

If the answer is:

(a) Then untold millions of blacks have been rendered inauthentic ever since Thomas Jefferson brought Sally Hemings into his household and his bed

(b) Since Barack Obama is the product of an inter-racial marriage, he is half white, and therefore, Michelle is only half authentic

(c) Then I am a more authentic member of the race than Mrs. Obama since I was raised by a single parent mother who worked and lived as a domestic in the homes of white people before "graduating" to a small apartment in a government project.

My husband's racial identity raises some intriguing issues as well. Bill's story is well-known to many. His Jewish father married a woman of Irish Protestant descent. Although as a young boy, Bill attended and excelled in Hebrew School, he was denied entry into manhood with a bar mitzvah ceremony because his mother refused to surrender her religious convictions. Interestingly, he is usually referred to as being half Jewish rather than half Irish. In either case, having crossed the color line to marry me, he no longer is authentically white.

All of which points to the bigotry and narrow-mindedness of those, be they black or white, who take umbrage at the mixing of races-- the miscegenation that so many states fought to prohibit until the Supreme Court declared their discriminatory laws unconstitutional in the 1967 landmark case, Loving vs. Virginia.

I am a proud black woman who has championed the cause of justice and equality for all of God's children, not only in words but in deeds as well. In the 1970s, I openly challenged the Catholic Church in Boston for failing to stop its members from stoning the buses carrying black children during court ordered busing. I helped secure the passage of the United States Senate's Resolution apologizing for its failure to adopt anti-lynching legislation and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of expanding the scope of hate crimes to include orientation.

To paraphrase Dr. King, don't judge the content of my character by the color of my husband's skin. ]]> Dr. King, a Monumental Man tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.932633 2011-08-21T20:01:10-04:00 2011-10-21T05:12:01-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/ On August 28, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's monument will be officially unveiled on the Mall in Washington. This date was selected to remind the world that forty-eight years earlier, Dr. King delivered his inspirational "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.



August 28 has a special significance to black people for an additional reason. It marks the day in 1955 that fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi, for having whistled at a white woman.



The two events may be coincidental, but there is little doubt that it was Emmett's "lynching" that energized the modern Civil Rights Movement, and strengthened Dr. King's determination to change the course of American history.



I had the extraordinary privilege to know Dr. King. For the last two years of his life, he was my mentor and friend. As his "student," I was not fully convinced that his campaign of non-violence would succeed. I wanted to fight fire with fire, to secure my right to equal opportunity, protection and treatment under the law "by all means necessary."



Patiently, much like a father counseling his rebellious daughter, Dr. King persuaded me of the need to reach out and touch the hearts and minds, not just of white people or black people, but also of the good people of America. I was able to see how his raw courage and passionate voice was able to "bend the arc of history towards justice."



"Towards" is the operative word for me, because like Dr. King, we have not yet arrived in the Promised Land. Yes, there's a black man in the White House. Barack Obama is there, not as a slave or servant, but as President of the United States. But one man, however lofty his title, doesn't erase the persistence of racism in America and its grim consequences.



The unemployment and infant mortality rates for black people are nearly double that of whites. The net worth of whites is five times higher than that of blacks. While making up roughly thirteen percent of the nation's population, blacks constitute nearly fifty percent of the prison population. Blacks are arrested far more than whites for allegations of wrongdoing and receive patently more severe prison sentences for the commission of similar crimes. Our drug laws, and the penalties imposed for breaking them, are far more punitive for blacks than they are for whites. I'll pass over how many unarmed black men are shot accidentally or with intent by police compared to their white counterparts.



The notion that we have arrived at a post-racial, colorblind moment in our history is a pleasant thought, but a fictitious one. It is, in fact, a canard. As Michelle Alexander has pointed out in her brilliant book, The New Jim Crow, the mass incarceration of African-American men today is but the reinstitution of a racial caste system under the rubric of being "tough on crime." What is needed is a get-tough policy on those who promote racial and ethnic hatred, and who support policies that discriminate against the poorest and the most disadvantaged among us. If Dr. King were alive today, I'm certain this is the message that he'd deliver to the American people.



As the day of his monument's unveiling has approached, I find myself reflecting on the significance of Dr. King's presence on the historic strip of land that runs from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. I'm anxious to see and touch the sculpture that has been so controversial from its conception to completion. Looking at it from a distance, I'm not sure it truly captures the range and depth of his character and humanity. But I like the fact that the mass of stone out of which his full stature is carved conveys both a sense of motion and incompleteness.



America has moved a great distance from its wretched past of slavery, lynching and officially sanctioned policies of segregation. But the long march towards the ideals that we profess did not end with Dr. King's speech. The quest for justice and equality continues. The Dream lives on, and the legacy of the man who was determined to speak to, and call forth, the moral voice within us now occupies a hallowed place among our heroes and our history.


]]> Lift Every Voice tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.917800 2011-08-04T10:00:00-04:00 2011-10-04T05:12:02-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
After suffering through so many centuries of slavery, Jim Crow lynchings, and segregationist policies, a black man was about to enter the front door of the White House, not as a slave or servant, but as the Commander-in-Chief of our great nation.

Most Americans openly petition their elected officials to protect and promote their interests: corn in Iowa, oil in Texas, capital gains on Wall Street, salmon in Alaska, and guns, well, everywhere.

Quite reasonably, we expected that a long list of issues important to black people -- such as social and economic justice, access to a good education, adequate health care, an end to police brutality and the discriminatory prosecution and unfair incarceration of our people -- would finally be addressed by a president who many believed could personally identify and empathize with our history, struggles and aspirations.

While hopes were high, I knew that such expectations were unrealistic. Just as Icarus could not fly too close to the sun without plummeting to earth, a black president could not venture too close to the subject of race.

W.E.B. DeBois wrote that there are two warring souls in the body of every black person. For me, one soul reflects my hopes, dreams and the need to speak truth to power. The second soul counsels the need for caution, restraint, silence.

I have no doubt that President Obama feels the "twoness," of the spiritual duality that dwells in "the souls of black folk." For the moment, however, it seems that he is listening to the second soul.

I find it a supreme irony that the most powerful black man in America cannot speak to the issues of the most powerless people in the country.

I'm not unmindful of the invidious forces arrayed against the president, and the explosive impact of the tactics they employ to question his character, honor and fitness to lead the nation.

During the 2008 race for the presidency, I encountered a number of people who whispered to me that Barack Obama "scared" them. Really? Now I knew that the sight of a black man running in the neighborhood might set off a rash of 911 calls, but a black man running for the highest office in the land? It wasn't fear they felt, but the surge of racism they tried to cloak.

From the moment that Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency, extremist elements in the country initiated a campaign to discredit and delegitimize him. "He's not an American citizen! He's a Muslim, not a Christian! He's a liar! He's uppity! He's angry! He's not one of us! He's an anti-colonial Kenyan!" Aren't all Americans anti-colonial? Or did I miss the reason why we celebrate the Fourth of July? It is clear that the charges of his "otherness" are simply code words for the one epithet they dare not utter.

Regrettably, this campaign of disrespect and denigration has been successful in marginalizing issues of importance to millions of people.

But all is not lost.

Thanks to Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post, BlackVoices will provide an open forum to debate the political issues of the day. Journalists and bloggers will be free to participate not only in a national conversation, but a global one as well. Issues of inequality and intolerance cross all geographic borders and demand the attention and accountability of all leaders, be they elected or appointed.

BlackVoices presents us with an enormous opportunity and a moral obligation to speak for those who are conscious of their needs but have been denied their fair share of the American Dream.

So, lift every voice and let the conversation begin. ]]> In Defense of Dr. King tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.847199 2011-04-10T15:00:24-04:00 2011-06-10T05:12:01-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
When we erect monuments to our nation's heroes, it is to memorialize them and celebrate their contributions to our country. When standing in the shadow of their magnificent statues, I want to be inspired by their greatness, not reflect upon their character flaws or human frailties. Whenever I visit the Jefferson Memorial, I stand in awe of this true Renaissance man. Would Mr. Sides, instead, have me remember that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence with one hand while holding slaves with the other? Should I ponder Jefferson's hypocrisy rather than his contribution to history?

Or when I stare into the majestic face of the man who held our Union together and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, should I be mindful that President Lincoln once held a low opinion of black people and even thought that we should be shipped back to Africa?

No. I look with reverence and respect upon these giants who, despite their human deficiencies, helped make America a beacon of hope to people the world over.

I can attest that Dr. King never pretended to wear a halo or crown of moral purity. He was not the first man to grow weary from the cross he bore or to be abandoned by his friends in his hour of need. He had to face beatings and bullwhips, fire hoses and fierce dogs -- and an FBI director who wiretapped Dr. King's every conversation, did everything in his power to destroy his mission and morale and even urged him to commit suicide. In the face of such hatred and malice, Dr. King remained fearless and unbowed.

What made Dr. King so special was not only his courage, but also his decency and humanity. I once had asked him to visit a young, mentally troubled woman who had painted his portrait. The kindness he displayed towards that artist made both her day and mine.

He was a humble man who had a great sense of serenity about what life had in store for him. One night a group of us had dinner at Trader Vic's restaurant in the Palmer House in Chicago. We each had been given as a souvenir, an exquisite, long-stemmed glass. One of the men placed the glass in his coat pocket. As we passed through a crowded revolving door, the glass shattered, making a loud popping sound. Everyone ducked, except Dr. King who stood and just looked at us and smiled:
"You all are always saying that you want to protect me. That you're willing to take a bullet for me. You hear a little popping sound and you hit the deck. Let me assure you that you're all safe. When that bullet comes, it's coming just for me. It has my name on it."
None of us knew that night just how prophetic his words would be.

Dr. King never sought personal glory or harbored ambitions for sainthood. He had a Dream that one day America would live up to the virtues it preached, but failed to practice. He knew he was not destined to live a long life, but he was determined to dedicate whatever time was his to ensuring that one day all Americans would proudly declare: ""Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Dr. King was indeed a man. An extraordinary man. ]]> Remembering Isao tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.839801 2011-03-23T17:24:56-04:00 2011-05-25T18:40:24-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/ Operation Odyssey Dawn and the bombing of Libya, my thoughts are still with the people of Japan.

The triple tragedies there, have saddened and worried much of the world with questions of:

  • How many people are lost?


  • How many will be found?


  • How widespread is the nuclear fall out and will it affect us here in North America?



For those with family and friends in Japan the horrendous occurrences were more than just 'Breaking News'. They are heart breaking nightmares.

In 1966 as a young woman living and working in Chicago, I met a Japanese physics student who had come to America to study Nuclear Science. We became fast friends and enjoyed discussing all he knew about nuclear science. His name was Isao.

I think it was the first discussion I'd ever had on anything nuclear. Ironically, the subject would become a real part of my world years later as a journalist covering the threat at Three Mile Island.

Isao, was the same age as I. He was very young during the Second World War when America dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Harry S. Truman made the decision after Japan refused to surrender.

The president felt dropping the bombs would end the war quickly, avoid a land invasion and save American lives.

I asked Isao how he felt about the devastating bombs reigned on his country by mine, was there anger, did he hate us?

He was quiet, then answered:

'We Japanese have a saying for when things happen that are out of our control. 'Shigata Ga Nai.' It has happened, it has passed, soldier on.'

His way of moving on was to learn as much as he could about a bad situation and turn it into something positive. Isao was committed to using nuclear power for energy, not destruction.

I was never in the same league as Isao when it came to anything scientific or mathematical. However, he did teach me how to count to five in Japanese: 'Ichi, ni, san, shi, go.'

Isao also introduced me to one of my favorite delicacies: Japanese food. He taught me how to use chopsticks and he'd laugh as I fumbled to lift sushi and tempura from rice bowl to mouth. We'd both laugh!

Isao and I would share stories of our disparate histories, much of mine was angrily unfolding.
The 1960's were turbulent times in America, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement were dividing the country.

He told me about the great conflicts in ancient Japan and how much was resolved by the great courage and honor of the Samurai Warriors who existed as early as the 9th century. He spoke with pride and sadness of the selfless bravery of the young Japanese pilots sent on suicide missions during World War II to fight against a formidable enemy.

Curiously, the brave and selfless efforts of the workers toiling today at the damaged Fukushima Daiji Nuclear Power Plant have been characterized as being on suicide missions as they valiantly fight another formidable enemy, radiation.

It's been more than 40 years since I last saw or spoke to Isao but lately he and his country have been dominating my thoughts and prayers.

I worried if Isao had been shaken by the quake, hit by the Tsunami or living within a 50 mile radius of the nuclear power plants? Was he even alive?

If alive, Isao would be nearly 70 years old. He could have been one of the sorrowful elder faces I saw on television trying to make some sense of a terrible force of nature that had wrecked their lives. Leaving them homeless as they attempted to rescue and recover loved ones.

Many have been in awe watching the orderly, dignified way the Japanese people patiently stood in long lines for food, water and gas, despite the scarcity and the cold weather. However, if you've ever visited Japan or known anyone from there you'd know that politeness, respect and order are part of the Japanese custom and tradition. It is about 'Kanji', honor. It would be dishonorable to behave any other way, even in the face of adversity.

The news from Japan continues to worsen with a rising death toll. Smoke continues to billow from the nuclear plants. Now there is evidence of contaminated food and water. At times, even the winds have turned on Japan.

Despite all of this, I believe in the enduring spirit of the Japanese people, those who live in the Land of the Rising Sun.

"It has happened, it will pass, they will soldier on."]]> America's History tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.816541 2011-01-31T15:55:37-05:00 2011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
According to Representative Bachmann's televised tutorial before a group of conservatives, our Founding Fathers eliminated the scourge of slavery with the signing of the Constitution. As MSNBC's Chris Mathews was quick to point out, Rep. Bachmann appears to be unaware that several of the most prominent of the Founders were slave holders, and that the Constitution specifically declared that African-Americans were to be counted as only three-fifths of a person. In other words, to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others, blacks were considered personal property, not real people. At the very heart of our country's history has been this twisted notion that those of African descent were not fully human, and not entitled to the same rights and privileges as white people.

Most people came to America voluntarily to seek a better life. Africans were brought here in chains to make a better life for others. They were used to build the wealth of white America and the history of how they were inhumanly exploited is precisely what some Americans would like us to forget. It took a Civil War, three Constitutional Amendments, and several Supreme Court decisions to declare that black people were entitled to the same rights as every other American.

Several Southern states continue to celebrate Confederate History Month, and often relegate slavery to a footnote. To those who look back with nostalgia to the good old days when life for them was just a bowl of mint juleps, I hope they'll remember the murders of Medgar Evers and Emmett Till. Till's murder was so brutal that it energized the modern Civil Rights Movement, prompting Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, and so many countless others, black and white, to refuse to tolerate the deep seated racism that afflicted our society. More than a hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, civil rights advocates had to face the jaws of dogs, the clubs of police and the ropes of mobs to secure the full rights granted to others.

While some note wryly, that February is the shortest month of the year, I am grateful that we dedicate February to the remembrance of things past, of the horrors that black people have had to endure, of the contributions we have made to our nation's progress and prosperity, and of the strides that the American people have made in seeking to abandon what President George W. Bush called "the baggage of bigotry."

What makes America great, what makes Americans unique, is the willingness of fair-minded people to expose and openly confront our faults and seek to overcome them. Our greatness lies not in expunging words such as slavery from our textbooks or banning ethnic studies from our classrooms, or claiming that slavery ended with the signing of the Constitution.

The truth has been responsible for setting us free, and we have a moral obligation to remember that truth, to prevent it from being twisted, disfigured or simply dropped as an unpleasant and insignificant part of our history. It is in our remembrance that freedom will continue to flourish. ]]> The Dream tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.807968 2011-01-17T10:34:46-05:00 2011-05-25T18:25:24-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
I had the great and good fortune to know Dr. King. During the last two years of his life, he was my mentor and friend. He offered me lessons that helped guide me through the long, dangerous and difficult path to achieving the full equality that the Constitution declared I was entitled to as an American citizen.

I was not always an eager student. Initially, I questioned his policy of non-violence. I found the militancy of Malcolm X comported more with the rage that coursed through me over the very notions of white supremacy and white privilege. Malcolm's defiant resistance, "by all means necessary," was the call to action that stirred my soul. Yet, Dr. King, through his displays of uncommon courage in the face of racial slurs, J. Edgar Hoover's wiretaps, stonings, death threats, police harassment and imprisonment, persuaded me that fighting racism with blind rage was a prescription for defeat. After all, the white power structure had all of the guns, badges and dogs. "No," he counseled me, "we will love them into their humanity. We will shame them into decency." Indeed, he did precisely that.

Any mention of Dr. King inevitably evokes the "I Have A Dream" speech that he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28,1963. It was an inspirational appeal that touched the conscience of the American people; a call to shake off the shackles of hatred and bigotry that deprived black people of America's promise. While on that momentous occasion, he called for an end to institutionalized racism, Dr. King opposed discrimination and injustice in all of its forms.

Had Dr. King been allowed to escape his assassin's bullet, I know he would have been in the forefront of the effort to bring about the realization of another dream, one that would have extended eventual citizenship to those who live and work among us without legal certification or permission. With power and grace, he would have reminded us that it is our generosity towards the desperate and dispossessed that marks the greatness of America. He would have joined hands with religious leaders and citizens of all faiths and shouted, Tengo Un Sueño.

An honorable way to help Hispanic children realize their dream would be to pass the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) -- a proposal designed to extend to the children of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship through education or military service. While the 111th Congress passed significant legislation in its "lame duck" session, it decided this was a dream that had to be deferred. Opponents of the legislation insisted that creating an incentive to pursue education and military service was nothing more than a grant of amnesty to law breakers. Apparently, they believe that the sins of the parents must be visited upon their children.

Rounding up millions of illegal immigrants and expelling them from deportation centers is not a policy that we could trumpet with pride. Nor would the deprivation of medical care, housing, sustenance and employment opportunities for the specific purpose of driving them back to their homelands be worthy of America the beautiful.

Opponents of responsible immigration reform want to go even further to force a new Exodus of those who are undocumented. Not only have they granted to police the right to stop any person (read: Hispanic) who appears to be illegal, they have also introduced legislation that would grant states the right to determine a person's citizenship. African-Americans know what "states' rights" and "strict construction" of the Constitution have meant for us over the centuries.

We need to regain control of our borders, to be sure, and express an equal zeal to punish those who employ and exploit the vulnerabilities of undocumented workers. But we also have an obligation to treat those who came to America in a desperate search for economic opportunity with a degree of decency and humanity worthy of our professed ideals.

The most decent and humane way to treat those who have entered our country illegally is to adopt a comprehensive immigration law that requires them to work to achieve what others had waited for, and to provide their children with an opportunity to become highly educated citizens who will serve our country in and out of uniform. That would be an act of righteousness that would "roll down like water from a mighty stream."]]> Michael Vick and the Importance of Second Chances tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.803921 2011-01-03T21:00:15-05:00 2011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
President Barack Obama's phone callphone call to Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, a conversation heard around the world, changed my mind. No, my opinion about Vick's reprehensible conduct has not changed, but I realized that my passion for man's (and my) best friend had tipped the scales of justice unfairly against a man who had served his sentence, paid his penalty, a severe one involving millions of dollars, and wanted the chance to display his God-given talents before they were lost to time.

Presidents, of course, live in glass houses. They cannot throw stones, send e-mails or make phone calls and expect to enjoy any zone of privacy. Their private ruminations, once uttered, become food for thought, and grist, for all. Predictably, President Obama's critics were quick to charge that he had, once again, stumbled out of his presidential lane, and that he should have higher priorities and ethical standards than expressing support to Mr. Lurie for employing a convicted felon.

But I think that President Obama, in making that congratulatory call, was fulfilling one of his highest obligations by drawing attention to the need to give a second chance to people who run afoul of our laws. Michael Vick is more than just one man who was in need of redemption. He's a black man in America, and his incarceration and release have wider implications about our system of laws. While Vick himself was admittedly guilty of committing a crime, many men and women, especially those of color who have been sent to prison, are not.

America holds the dubious record of imprisoning a greater percentage of its population than any other nation on the planet. African-Americans, who constitute only 13% of our population make up more than 50% of the inmates in our penal institutions. Sadly, one out of every three black male babies born today can expect to experience some form of incarceration during their lifetimes. This is an alarming statistic that has serious moral implications and societal consequences.

Last year, I had the privilege to co-chair a conference examining the subject of "Justice in America." Among the many legal experts who addressed the conference, were Attorney General Eric Holder, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and co-founder of The Innocence Project, Barry Scheck. The facts discussed were not in dispute: our laws and their administration are unfair and unequal for African-Americans. Discriminatory drug laws, mandatory sentencing, police profiling and conspiracies of silence, exclusionary jury selection and the growing appetite of our prison-industrial complex all contribute to what author Michelle Alexander called, "The New Jim Crow."

The use of our laws and policies to bring about the mass incarceration of African-Americans is but a return to the pernicious practice of segregating, marginalizing and controlling millions of people who are no longer considered of value.

In short, Alexander maintains that we are witnessing the invidious creation of a new caste system where people who are not wanted or needed are removed from the presence of those deemed to be more worthy of the full benefits of American citizenship.

The future facing those who have lost virtually everything, including their right to vote, is bleak. No matter how skilled they might be or how many degrees they might collect, those whose resumes are stamped with a criminal seal have little chance of securing employment. They are thereby forced to live a life of hopelessness or one of crime.

As Americans, we can no longer passively accept the persistence of a racialized system of justice, not if we intend to continue to trumpet our dedication to due process and equal treatment under the law. President Obama has performed a much-needed public service in endorsing Michael Vick having the chance, once again, to play professional football. My hope is that his next call will be to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, urging them to review and repeal the laws that trap millions of people into penal colonies from which there is no exit nor second chances.]]> Silent Night tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.800193 2010-12-22T10:35:05-05:00 2011-05-25T18:20:30-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
Finally, those who offer their lives in service to our country can live a life without lies.

There were moments of eloquence and passion on display during the not-so "lame duck" session, but according to recent surveys, the public has given congress a big, thumbs-down in its approval ratings. Watching the song and dance displayed by some of our elected officials, one can understand why they fail to enjoy the sound of even one hand clapping.

Each year, politicians commemorate the 9/11 attack and promise to provide help to the heroic "first responders." But when it came time to provide health care and other benefits to our heroes, some sunshine patriots in the House of Representatives insisted that the potential fraud of a few required the denial of benefits for all. (Fortunately, the Senate rectified a great moral wrong.)

John Boehner, in line to be the next Speaker of the House, recently declared that he was dedicated to finding "common ground" with Democrats, but would never compromise his principles. When pressed to explain the jarring, verbal jujitsu, he simply repeated his mantra of "no compromise." George Orwell would be impressed. The control of language is the foundation for controlling thought. Apparently, the word "compromise" is perceived by ideological zealots to be a sign of impotence and cowardice, and was stricken from Mr. Boehner's personal dictionary and talking points. If this "manning up" commandment is allowed to multiply, the practice of book burning may not be far behind.

Several prominent senators have been vocal in denouncing the existence of "earmarks," a soft and fuzzy word that disguises the art of bringing pork or bacon back to their states. When it was revealed that these very same members had inserted earmarks into a major spending bill about to be voted upon, they killed the bill. Unable to explain to skeptical journalists why they had voted for earmarks before they voted against them, the senators rushed to the exit door and returned to the inner sanctum of the Senate chamber.

Politicians are expected to demonstrate some degree of rhetorical athleticism in their survival skills. But that small band of brothers who insisted that their holiday travel plans were being jeopardized, dropped the limbo bar to a new low. The imposition of such inconvenience, they complained, constituted disrespect for the Senate and trespassed upon the sanctity of Christmas itself!

The notion that our public servants, who have taken an oath to protect and defend our nation, should endure no inconvenience during the holiday season, prompted me to reflect upon the extraordinary service and sacrifice made by others who have taken the same oath. I've had the great privilege to travel the world and visit with the men and women who wear our nation's uniform. I've been with them in the desert heat, at sea, and on the cold and bleak ridges along the DMZ in Korea. I've also been with them and their families at Walter Reed Hospital as they recovered from devastating wounds. How little they ask; how much they give!

When my husband was serving as President Clinton's Secretary of Defense, we had occasion to bring celebrities and famous musicians to entertain our troops in Bosnia. One night, while the entertainment was underway, I walked out to the perimeter of the camp to offer what I had hoped would be comforting words to a soldier who was standing guard. It was a clear but very cold night. It was Christmas time and I could almost touch the sense of loneliness that hung in the darkness. As I expressed sympathy with this young soldier for being separated from his family during such a holy time, he said, "That's all right, ma'am. Somebody has to do it. And besides, I think we're making a difference here."

Maybe his stoicism was a studied reply; military standard issue. I couldn't see his face nor he mine. But in the anonymity and stillness of that moment, I felt an incredible pride in those who serve us in silence and without complaint.

That's the pride I want to feel about all who serve us.]]> Race Matters tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.157352 2009-01-12T23:18:01-05:00 2011-05-25T13:00:22-04:00 Janet Langhart Cohen http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-langhart-cohen/
Barack Obama's electoral success was said to rest, in part, on the fact that he, a first generation African-American, did not seek to exploit or campaign on the subject of America's racial history. In other words, Obama "transcended "race by ignoring the subject, and discussed it only when forced to do so by others. Ironically, he was left to lift the burden of race and racism imposed by white society upon the backs of blacks for more than three hundred years. Nonetheless, many in our country take pride that America has seemingly placed our racial history behind us, with the so-called "baggage of the civil rights movement" finally packed away in the attic of history.

Implicit in the claim of Obama's racial transcendence is the notion that racial equality has been achieved, and that black people have little, if anything, left to complain about today. After all, blacks enjoy prominence at highest levels of the corporate, entertainment, athletic, and political circles of power.

Lost in this exercise of euphoric self-congratulations and back-slapping are the reports that in the immediate aftermath of Obama's election, gun sales sky rocketed throughout the country, along with a significant increase in threats to Obama's life. A lottery was organized in one community to wager on the exact date of Obama's entry into the halls of martyrdom.

Recently, three individuals from Staten Island in New York were arrested for having planned to attack any blacks they encountered following the announcement of Obama's electoral victory. Perhaps even more ominous are the recent spate of police shootings of unarmed black men. But for the omnipresence of cell phone cameras, these assaults would have been dismissed as appropriate measures of self defense taken by law enforcement officials in the line of duty. While lying face down in a mall with a police officer's foot on his back, Oscar Grant, who was unarmed, was shot to death for allegedly resisting arrest. The police officer in question claimed that he was reaching for his taser gun and mistakenly pulled out his revolver instead.

This incident called to mind the case of Amadou Diallo, another unarmed man who was shot at 41 times while holding his wallet in the air in his outstretched hands in an effort to identify himself. The police officers claimed they thought his wallet was a gun.

Perhaps the most dramatic display of what activist Dick Gregory maintained so many years ago about it being "open season on Negroes in America" occurred several years ago in New Orleans Louisiana. A black man holding a hunting knife was surrounded by thirteen police officers armed with semi-automatic weapons. Allegedly, they felt threatened by this one man, but rather than attempt to wound or incapacitate him, they instead unleashed a volley of fire, killing him instantly.

A few weeks later, another threat was released upon a small rural community when a moose started to romp through its streets posing a potential physical threat to any people it might encounter. The local police, rather than killing the moose, fired a tranquilizer dart into the animal, and called in a helicopter to safely lift it back to its natural habitat.

Blacks who complain about police malice, misconduct or murder are said to carry a chip on their shoulders. No, it's not a chip, it's is a bullet in their backs. We are urged to stop carrying the past around like a "monstrous corpse" in the cemetery. The time has come, we are told, to bury it!

On January 20th, when the first African- American President moves into the White House, it doesn't mean that we've entered a "post-racial" society or grant impunity to those who are convinced that it's still open season on blacks and other minorities. Contrary to what passes as conventional wisdom, the conversation on race in America has not ended with the election of Barack Obama. It has just begun.

www.raceandreconciliation.com]]>