The tradition of chronicling an American president’s first 100 days began in the depths of the Depression, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the nation that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” In his first 100 days, which went from March 4 through June 12, President Roosevelt proposed a raft of legislation to deal with the Depression, which Congress, which was overwhelmingly Democratic, passed.
Since Roosevelt, it’s become the game of the American media to use a president’s first 100 days to take the measure of a new chief executive. And while not as whirlwind as Roosevelt’s, President Barack Obama’s first 100 days has been jam packed and historically significant.
President Roosevelt never traveled overseas in his first 100 days. But President Obama wowed them in Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Iraq and Trinidad.
At the G-20, NATO and Summit of the Americas, President Obama took steps to improve America’s image among the world’s leaders and peoples.
President Obama agreed with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to work on a new treaty to reduce nuclear weapons. With Chinese President Hu Jintao, the president was intent on improving communications with the nation holdings trillions in American debt and is our biggest trading partner and rival.
With NATO, the president received new commitments to work with a new American strategy in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile the president fulfilled his campaign promises to begin a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, close the Guantanamo Bay prison, eliminate torture as an instrument of national policy, try and jump start the Mideast peace process and look at improving stability in a deteriorating Pakistan.
In his first 100 days, President Obama had to deal with the worst economic crisis since FDR, passing a nearly $1 trillion stimulus plan to jump start the economy and reorient American domestic policy.
From advocating a more coherent environmental policy, to beefing up science instead of ideology, the president has in some ways set a new tone here at home.
But, all hasn’t been rosy.
The president’s first 100 days unleashed a whirlwind of bigotry and vile hatred. Strong presidents have always unleashed strong negative feelings among some Americans. Except for Gerald Ford and the first George Bush, presidents from FDR have unleashed such hate.
But not since FDR have we seen the depths of hatred directed against a president of the Untied States, from within his own country, as we’ve seen directed at President Barack Obama.
Fueled by the racist oratory of Rush Limbaugh, the right wing Fox News echo chamber and other rabid, racist talkshow hosts, including Indy’s Limbaugh, the garrulous Greg Garrison, this president has been called a socialist and a fascist (which is an oxymoron) and worse.
One of Indiana’s representatives on the Republican National Committee, a right-winger named James Bopp, is leading a movement to formally have the GOP openly refer to the Democratic Party and the president as members of the Democratic Socialist Party. An example of the depraved hate Bopp and other Obama haters employ.
There are bigger challenges coming – health care, energy policy, nagging joblessness, improving a rickety education system, dealing with the huge deficits – but in tone, this president and his first lady have done not just our nation proud, but our people proud.
He’s got a long, long way to go. But if the next 185 days are like the first 100 days; President Obama will be on track to be considered in the same breath as FDR.
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
I thought the purpose of any summer employment program for disadvantaged young adults, was to maximize the number participating and their earnings?
So why did the Indianapolis Private Industry Council (IPIC) in cahoots with the Ballard Administration create a young adult summer employment program, paid for with federal stimulus cash, that provides far less opportunity and earning potential than the program unveiled by Governor Mitch Daniels a month ago?
Governor Daniels’ program employs 2,000 16 to 24 year-olds for four months working in state parks and recreational areas, each earning a maximum of $5,440.
By contrast, the Ballard/IPIC program combines 20 hours of employment and classroom instruction weekly for six weeks.
Those currently in school would take remediation summer school courses, while those not in school would work towards their GED or other certifications.
A smaller group of high school students, interested in medical careers, would get practical work and classroom experience in a slimmed down four-week program.
Overall, 575 young adults will be employed in a program that seemingly will concentrate more on those 18 and under.
Under the IPIC plan, the maximum a participant would earn is $1,020 in earnings and $1,500 in stipends; a total of $2,520. That’s less than half the $5,440 young adults will earn in the state’s program.
But that’s not the biggest insult. The city gets $3.2 million in stimulus cash for this program. But the maximum amount of wages and stipends to be spent is $1,407,000. The remaining 1,793,000, or 56 percent would be spent on program costs, overhead and administrative fees.
That’s an obscene amount of program costs and overhead for a program designed to help individuals in these rough economic times.
By contrast, the overhead in the state’s employment program was made minimal to give a maximum amount to participants. And the state’s program is two years, where the city’s program is one year.
Marion County’s 16 to 24 year olds, who are disproportionately Black, are being shortchanged financially in the Ballard/IPIC effort. This is a poorly thought-out program. (Think you can get a GED or a serious skills certification in just six weeks?) IPIC’s effort seems to have been planned by folks clueless at how to create a program for disadvantaged young adults.
Our community would have been better off with Mitch’s program, instead of Ballard’s!
The news that God called Home Jimmy McDaniels was a sad surprise. Jimmy McDaniels was a fixture in Indianapolis and worldwide during his distinguished musical career playing with the greats like Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton and many more.
My deepest sympathies to Jimmy McDaniels’ family and the many, many here that loved and enjoyed him.
Jimmy McDaniels has left us, but God’s Jazz Band has another great player.
See ’ya next week!
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
