Posted by
impact on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 4:12:39 AM
I just finished the book. I couldn't put it down. It should go down in history as a classic.
One would be hard-pressed to find a more honest and self-revealing book by anyone. His life story is remarkable. Anyone who reads it with even a minimum of open-mindedness will come away with the conclusion that this man traveled a hard road of not only physical hardship, but enormous spiritual agony in his self-discovery.
As usual, there are those on here already who regurgitate the old line; "he climbed the ladder and pulled it up after him." This is right in line with the liberal swill and the plantation mentality Thomas fought against all his life except for a brief and youthful anger.
When I read his story, I become ashamed. So much of his early life parallels mine, yet in spite of having even more strikes against him, he far surpassed anything I have accomplished. At the same time, we both arrived at nearly the same conclusions the hard way when it comes to personal responsibility.
I sat through those hearings and watched almost every minute of them. I think the only thing that has outraged me more than how he was treated over the years is the attack on 9/11. Back then, I stayed up until three AM to watch the witnesses who spoke on his behalf and it was clear that they were stalled off to keep most of the public from seeing them. There must have been ten of them, and a more articulate and passionate group in his defense is hard to imagine. These people all worked for him over the years and knew the man...and they knew Anita Hill. I read David Brock's "The Real Anita Hill" and then saw his turnaround. What is clear is that those hearings were a high tech lynching.
Around the same time, I started reading Thomas Sowell's books. I had read many of his columns before that. I came to admire TS geatly as well. There are many other wonderful, insightful, black conservatives. I won't try to list them. Others already have listed some. I admire those people for their strength of character in going against the plantation mentality and becoming independent thinkers. If their voice was heard more and the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton less, race relations in this country would be much improved.
Finally, after watching the dishonesty and outright evil by those Democratic Senators and the Left Wing screamers, I don't think I could ever vote for a Democrat again, especially since they have gotten only worse since those hearings. They are living proof that there is EVIL out there.