Man has the ability to change if he allows the positive spirit to dwell within him; even an evil heart can be changed. It is the spirit of man that defines the heart, and the heart dictates our action. These are lessons we must bear in mind as we learn more about the people who we elect for public office. They should be scrutinized when they head in the wrong direction and held to a higher standard of behavior than the ordinary citizen. They must lead us in a positive direction, and we must demand that their actions and deeds uplift people. These officials have a responsibility to put their best effort forward; they need to show everyone how good citizens should live and act within their communities, acting as role models. The Long Journey Continues aims to open the eyes of Americans citizens, tell us that we hold the key to our politicians’ positions. We should never condone negativity in any form; we should expect more from the ones that seek our approval.

The Long Journey Continues

By James L. Bryant Jr.

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 James L. Bryant Jr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-8253-6

Chapter One

BORN: WESSON, MISSISSIPPI

AUTHOR: JAMES L. BRYANT, JR.

FIRST BOOK: THE LONG JOURNEY, PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 22, 20009

THE LONG JOURNEY CONTINUES: A SECOND EDITION OF THE JOURNEY.

CHARACTERS; POLITICS AND CANDIDATES, BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS, NEW WAY OF COMMUNICATION AND WORKING WITH OTHER NATIONS

The Long Journey told of "my youth, and living on the farm in a Southern Mississippi County, it told of the hardship and the school/ church that we attended and the move from the farm to Jackson, the capitol. The Long Journey told how I, the Author, had to fight three wars to overcome obstacles along the journey. A psychological, Spiritual and a physical war" had to be fought to overcome "demonic forces that were against progress".

The hardest enemy to fight was "the psychological war that was being waged deep within me" a transformation was needed in my life. A new way of thinking and doing had to be accepted. Making new friends and adjusting to integration after moving to Portland, Oregon, having to choose which school to attend. The reasons for leaving Mississippi and settling in Portland, Oregon, attending the schools of my choice and the first full-time job that I ever held and a job that paid more then I had ever earned. This is where I had become a real man, physically, psychologically and spiritually. The work was hard, hot and dusty.

Joining the Army Oregon National Guard to beat the draft, and taking basic training at an infantry training post, I met soldiers from all over the U.S. and the territories for training. My experiences with other peoples from other different places, gave me the assurance that all peoples are not the same. My reformation had been re-enforced and now I felt more at ease in my surroundings and my integration into a new society. There were strict laws and regulations that governed the actions of the soldiers. Before I had joined the National Guard, I had already met a young lady, who would later, become my wife.

Enjoying all of the natural surroundings, my love for the out doors grew and my love for fishing, hunting and camping grew also. Enjoying the sure beauty of the landscape and the many lakes and rivers, the beautiful snow capped mountains, the high desert and the beautiful Pacific Ocean, the tall trees in the forest and the history of the native people. This gave me a feeling of belonging to the human race. There is no way that men can deny the power of the Almighty, after seeing all of the beauty and the majestic towering mountains, this solidified my beliefs in the higher power. Men cannot create things of this magnitude.

After many years of dating the lady of my dreams, we decided to become husband and wife, a date was set! and the families of both were notified. Like all parents, none of them wanted their children to leave home, although they knew that it would happen someday. Parents had traveled this same path to independence, and they knew the move to independence would not be easy. Parents want to know if we truly love each other, this is the only sustaining power that we will have, the power of love will help us through all times. Through our sickness, through prosperity, through disagreement and agreement

The Long Journey, the story of my life, tell of living in a plantation house on a plantation farm, father working for very little or nothing at all, giving half of what ever he raised on the farm to the plantation owner. When I look back over the past, I can truly see the long journey that I have traveled. None of this could have been possible, if it had not been for a God fearing people. They prayed to God for a way out of this no win life style. God answered their prayers and placed us here. This is where I prospered, raised my family.

I had begun to be interested in the candidates that were running for public offices.

Presidential Candidates, for the office of the highest position in our country, I watched and listened to all the candidates and found all had a story to tell, if the public would listen, then they would tell them what they wanted to hear, whether it be true or false. Truth on just what length the candidates would go to get their messages across to the public. There were many lies, exaggerations, falsifications and other dirty politics being played out. How could the public allow this type of campaigning to continue?, this type of campaigning has gone on for hundreds of years and the public seems to like what they hear and what they see, it seems to be no objections to this type of campaigning for our public offices. It is my belief, that "laws and strict policies be adopted" to govern anyone that is seeking public office. Candidates should live a life that is beneficial to the public to whom they are sworn to serve. Accountability for what they say and what they do.

Keeping abreast of the Presidential Candidates; during the time of campaigning for the office of the President of the U.S., I watched television, listened to radio, and talked to many peoples about the historical election. I became very much interested in this election because History was being made and I had lived to see this Historical occasion, never in our History have so much attention been upon the Candidates for this office. Every speech that was made by the Candidates was scrutinized and analyzed by the news media. They helped to persuade public opinions on what was said and who had said it, never has a Candidate gone through so much scrutiny and lies as the first "Black Presidential" threat to this office, the war was on to derail him at any cost, including misleading the public about his religion. It was not until we had a Black Candidate that offered a real threat to status quo did his opposition increase their verbal attacks upon the young Black Candidate.

The opposition party worked the base of the voters, the older, mostly White and Republican voters to lie and twist the truth. In this base, the opposition party could spread lies and try to defame the "Black Candidate" in anyway that they could, and to get away with dirty tactics. How could a Christian Nation that love God and speak of his laws and justice for man kind, allow these practices to take place or a case of talking the talk, but not walking the walk? We expect our children to grow up and have respect for others and to respect the laws that we are told to live by. We were told that the Christian faith is the only true faith to believe in, but how can our children understand what we are trying to tell them to do? "There is definitely something wrong with this type of teaching and living". How can we win people over to Christianity? We put ourselves in a position to show others how they should live. The public should expect more accountability from candidates and what they do to gain our vote and trust for the office they seek. Not only were there back stabbings in the opposition party, but the back stabbings goes on within the same party. Many people feed on this kind of campaigning. They will attend as many campaign rallies as they can, just to be part of the negativity that would exist. However, there are many people with good intentions that would like to see these tactics stopped and to be more civil in their search for the public votes. It is hard to change the minds and the hearts of some of our older citizens, they have been taught to believe that they are the only people that God has placed all of his trust in to rule the world and this Great Nation. As time goes on, many other races will have the opportunity to lead this Great Nation of ours. This is the one thing that these older citizens are not ready for. The campaigning continued, the more that this young Black Man spoke and became known, the more followers he received. The opposition party became nervous, and the dirty work became even more nasty and distasteful. The more negativity that the opposition threw at him, the stronger his campaign became. The opposition even accused him of "not being an American and he was of the Muslim Faith". None of these charges were ever proven true.

The longer the young Black Man stayed in the race, the stronger he became. He gained more followers everywhere he spoke, he had a tremendous following. People would glue themselves to the television set or listen to the radio to hear and see him speak. He was an eloquent speaker and very knowledgeable of the world's problems. He wanted to bring a new way of leading our Government, but this would take knocking down old barriers and using diplomacy instead of using bullets and our military might. His speaking and new thoughts on what the Country needed to be competitive in a Global Economy and to regain the respect of the rest of the world, his messages were well received by the people that followed him through out his bid for the Oval Office. This was a new strategy, by a new face to such a high position. None of this would have been possible, if the hearts of men had not been changed. This truly was the right time for a young "Black Man, or any other minority" to bid for this office. The economic situation was so bad, and the situation was becoming worse by each passing day, the citizens were ready for a change in our leadership! The new Candidate had told the people what was the truth and what they needed to hear.

As the campaign heated up, the opposition knew time was coming upon each candidate to hold nothing back in reserve, and to put their very best effort out to try to win as many voters to their side as possible. Time was closing in and candidates from both parties began to see the signs of no winning situations, so many began to drop out of the running. It was not known if they were asked to drop out of the running or if they chose to do it themselves. The remaining candidates in both parties would become even stronger, voters for the candidates that had dropped out of the running, went to those that still remained in the race. Only three in each party remain in the running. On the one side were the young Black Man and a very Popular White Woman that were still in the top running position. The other party had a war hero and two more less known White Men in the running. The whole world took notice of this History making event, the first Black to ever come this far in the bid for the Oval Office, and the only White Woman that had ever come this far in the bid for the Oval Office. To that date, none other than a White male had ever come anywhere close to being the President of these United States.

The battle for the nomination of representative for the Democratic Party was heating up. The battle was a see-saw one, each candidate had their ups and downs, neither one had the nomination all to themselves. Unlike in the Republican Party, only one person left to run against the Democratic Candidates, the Republican nominee had been chosen, the Republican nominee had much time to rest and relax before taking on the Democratic nominee. Now this is an internal battle, a battle between two popular Democratic candidates. Even this battle within the ranks became nasty, there were signs of racial slandering, defamation, accusations and anything else that could be used to defame the young Black Candidate. In each case of negativity, the young candidate became stronger. This negativity back fired on the opposing candidate. This Candidate was well known and well liked by many around the world and around the Nation. The moment of truth finally came and the young Black won the hearts and the votes! of the masses. He and his staff had fought a good fight. He had intelligent peoples on his staff that directed him in the right direction. Although he had won the right to represent the Democratic Party for the bid to the Oval Office, the battle for the President's Position had just begun.

Lies, defamation, accusations, exaggerations and anything else that the opposition could throw at him was used. The opposing candidate did not say negative things about the young Black Candidate himself, but his staff and their party did. The candidate is, to some extent, responsible for what his staff say. The campaigning continued the opposition also. They could not find anything that would de-rail or slow down his progress. They even made a mockery out of his name, although his father was from Kenya, Africa and his mother was from the U.S.A., the opposition insisted on him being a Muslim, they even said that he was "not born in the U.S.A." this man was calm and under control at all times. He never let the opposition un-ravel his attitude, his mission, or distraction from where his sights had been set. I believe that the "young Black Man was on a mission from God" and nothing will de-rail him from his appointed destiny and his mission. In my life-time, I have never believed that a person was placed in a position of authority as I do this young man. It was the Prayers from the "Real Christians" that put him in this position. The Truth is that who so ever God places in a position, there is none that can stop that which is sat forth for them to accomplish. Barrack Obama, is the true name of the young man. This is not a common name for Americans, but the younger people have changed their names to something more foreign and exotic! However, he is just as American as those who wish to discredit him. The fight for the Oval Office continues.

Approval from the world for the seemingly next President of the U.S.A., the world was ready for someone with a new direction, diplomacy instead of war, and love instead of hate. Each candidate relied heavy upon their base support to push them over the top, were times when racial tactics were used to gain support from their Audiences. It seemed if though everything were legal in this highly contested race. There were many that liked this type of contest. Those that are, and were for this kind of campaigning, solidified their way of thinking, it supported their thoughts and their actions in this race for the Oval Office. These people didn't care about right or wrong, all they were interested in was not to have anyone in the Oval Office, but a person of their own race and to keep the leader-ship in the same hands that got this Country in the situation that we are in today. The Citizens of this Country were about to have the last word. Most people saw what the opposition was trying to do, they saw the bad tactics, lies, defamation and exaggerations that were being used against the young Black Candidate. He remained strong, receiving even more support. The opposition begun to see their chances of winning dwindle away and there were many angry supporters for the opposition. This race was supposed to be a cake walk. The Citizens had spoken, it is "time for a change" was the call of the young Black Candidate. Citizens rallied behind the young Candidate and followed him to the voting booth. It had been a long, hard campaign, but he finished the campaign in a joyful ending!

He had received the approval of the voters, now he was crowned the winner of his party. He would be the one to represent the "Democratic Party" for the run to the White House. There were celebrations! around the world for his achievement. This probably was the most Ccelebrated Candidate! in modern times. There were parties and celebrations that went on for nearly a week. He had an intelligent staff and the financial backings of many millionaires, Celebrities, Leaders of other Nations, Religious Organizations and many more.

After the celebration! deserved winner, the time was nearing for him to go back on the campaign trail. This time he would compete with the winner of the opposition party, the Republican Nominee. This would not be an easy path to the Oval Office. This campaign would be uglier than the campaign against his fellow Democrat the opposition had his usual type of base to appeal to. These were the people that were racist and did not want change they didn't want to see a person of another race occupy the Oval Office. They wanted to keep things the way that it had been for hundreds of years. When things began to get tough for the opposition, the opposition party resorted to racial and religious tactics, they knew that they could increase their followings by using race and religion in their campaign, this kind of tactic seem to be getting notice, and the base of the opposition stayed on what they thought would work for them. This was only a matter of time.

The tactic would back- fire and it would be counter- productive. These were some of the tactics that were used through out his campaign, choosing areas of the Country that would listen to their rhetoric. They said that he was "not a citizen and that he was a Muslim and was not born in U.S.A., he was a terrorist, and he was not like them" he wanted to take their guns away. The opposition knew what to say to the masses, he knew the things that would turn many in his favor. Those States that he knew were racist and didn't want a change, nor did they want to see anyone other than a White Man in this High Position.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Long Journey Continuesby James L. Bryant Jr. Copyright © 2010 by James L. Bryant Jr.. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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