Thursday, June 27, 2013

Clarence Thomas: Not Big Enough for the Job

by Ron Powell
 
In joining with the majority in the striking down of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, Clarence Thomas has shown, once again, that he simply is not big enough for the job.....
Rather than exercise a modicum of independent thought and expression, Thomas chooses to be the shadow and apparent puppet of his idol Antonin Scalia, with whom he has rarely disagreed, during his tenure on the Court....
Thomas is markedly unlike an earlier Republican appointee, Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was a model of political reversal after receiving his appointment to the Court:

In 1952, Warren stood as a "favorite son" candidate of California for the Republican nomination for President, hoping to be a power broker in a convention that might be deadlocked. But Warren had to head off a revolt by Senator Richard Nixon, who supported General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower and Nixon were elected, and the bad blood between Warren and Nixon was apparent. Eisenhower offered, and Warren accepted, the post of solicitor general, with the promise of a seat on the Supreme Court. But before it was announced, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson died suddenly in September 1953 and Eisenhower picked Warren to replace him as Chief Justice of the United States. 
The president wanted what he felt was an experienced jurist who could appeal to liberals in the party as well as law-and-order conservatives, noting privately that Warren "represents the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court.... He has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court".
                                                                                                                                                               
In the next few years, Warren led the Court in a series of liberal decisions that revolutionized the role of the Court. He is known both for his efforts on behalf of Japanese internment during World War II as well as the decisions of the "Warren Court", which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring "one-man-one vote" rules of apportionment.
                                                                                                                                                
He made the Court a power center on a more even base with Congress and the presidency especially through four landmark decisions: Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Eisenhower is often said to have remarked that his appointment was "the biggest fool mistake I ever made.".........Wikipedia
                                                                                                                                                           
Clarence Thomas was born in 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia, a small, predominantly black community founded by freedmen after the American Civil War. When he was a child, the town lacked a sewage system and paved roads. He was the second of three children born to M.C. Thomas, a farm worker, and Leola Williams, a domestic worker. They were descendants of American slaves, and the family spoke Gullah as a first language.  Thomas's first-known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy who were born around the end of the 18th century and owned by wealthy Liberty County, Georgia planter Josiah Wilson.  M.C. Thomas left his family when Thomas was two years old. Thomas's mother worked hard but was sometimes paid only pennies per day. She had difficulty putting food on the table and was forced to rely on charity.  After a house fire left them homeless, Thomas and his younger brother Myers were taken to live with his mother's parents in Savannah, Georgia. Thomas was seven when the family moved in with his maternal grandfather, Myers Anderson, and Anderson's wife, Christine (née Hargrove), in Savannah.
                                                                                                                                                      
Living with his grandparents, Thomas enjoyed amenities such as indoor and regular meals for the first time in his life.  His grandfather Myers Anderson had little formal education, but had built a thriving fuel oil business that also sold ice. Thomas calls his grandfather "the greatest man I have ever known."  When Thomas was 10, Anderson started taking the family to help at a farm every day from sunrise to sunset.  His grandfather believed in hard work and self-reliance; he would counsel Thomas to "never let the sun catch you in bed." Thomas's grandfather also impressed upon his grandsons the importance of getting a good education.
                                                                                                                                                      
Thomas was the only black person at his high school in Savannah, where he was an honor student.
He was the only member of his family to have attended college.....
.....Wikipedia
                                                                                                                                                           
How is it possible for a person with such a background to behave and vote as he has as an associate justice on the highest court in the land?
                                                                                                                                                            
Come on Clarence, couldn't you have, just this once, voted the facts and the truth of your life and upbringing?
                                                                                                                                                                 
You were born and raised in Georgia during the 50's and 60's, for God's sake!!!

Do you hate being black and black people that much?
                                                                                                                                                             
I can't help but think that your grandfather is shouting from his grave:  "the biggest fool mistake I ever made"!!!