There is nothing new under the sun...

Brothers and all,

It appears that our brother Boyce has informed us that O'Reilly is on the war path against us and he is making YBW a major point of attack on his show. His show may attack the point of YBW this evening or it may be over a period of evenings. I cannot say I watch his show, I have seen it on t.v. a few times. I have seen his rants on more than a few occasions toward a variety of people and I always thought of his show, like many of the Fox shows as humanistically pointless, but in the market culture profitable. Why else would it still be on the air? But since Mr. O'Reilly wants to target us, let me move myself into the line of fire.

Mr. O'Reilly needs to know who he may be throwing stones at so let us begin with me. I am Dr. Cyrus Marcellus Ellis a PhD holder in Counselor Education from Mr. Jefferson's University, The University of Virginia. I am an American patriot, serving in the United States Army, United States Army Reserve and the New Jersey National Guard for 20 years of my life as an enlisted man and an Army Officer. I retired from service in 2004. I am drug free and crime free although I have my vices. I spend my days and nights trying to figure out ways to help humankind recover from drugs and alcohol as well as a host of mental health disorders. I earned my right to be tenured and I earned my right to speak to the glory and the sadness of my nation. I earned that right by maintaining the responsibilities of citizenship and through my military service. In other words, I have the right to gripe because of my adherence to the contradictory ecological reality of the U.S. and my capability as a United States soldier. Many people on the "Factor" do not have the ability to state their background in this fashion and the host may be one of them.

Why does Mr. O'Reilly want to target the letters posted here? Is it because he likes to engage in this kind of behavior for ratings, to show he is "tough", because he is bored at this point in time? I don't know. I offer this thought about this show, the time African Americans are spending on it and what is most important.

First, Mr. O'Reilly's show is like many shows on t.v. that I think ought to say goodbye from poisoning the minds of many people with quick sound bytes and skewed views. I dislike the show, The O'Reilly Factor or whatever it is called as much as I dislike the show, The Flava of love. We ought to be equally angry and dismayed that
VH1 would air shows like this showing our men and women as a bunch of loose moralled individuals. This "O'Reilly Show" does not help the struggling masses of our poor white brothers and sisters as well. White brothers and sisters work hard and are struggling and what relief, but does the O'Reilly show do anything about that, not at all. Rather it gives them a false sense of "relief" because they can point to an issue that is tangible while they are continuing to be robbed of their pensions, gas money, and grocery bills by individuals who will shake their hands and promise relief then go behind doors and make deals that undermine hard work and fairness.

Second, in my opinion, African Americans ought to spend their time on relieving the oppression in the market place, eroding the barriers to formal and higher education, and spending a great deal of time on getting young folk re-interested in the life of the mind and filling the ranks of all the available spots in education. We ought to spending our time teaching our young men to be fathers and providers and teaching our young ladies increase their ability to recognize that their bodies are not tools of a trade but the vessel that will deliver the human capital of a new generation. We already know that VH1, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and others do not seek to improve the race. We need to recognize that grass roots activity, especially if coordinated, forces the hand of the idiotic and oppressive conditions of our world to change.

Third, what is most important is that we have a nation of fractured communities. We have lost a lot of how hard working, God fearing, moral, just people (whatever one you are) get together and live in a high degree of harmony. The working poor, the hard hit middle class still carry the burden of taxation that fuels the nation's policy without any relief in sight. How do we spend our time worrying about one man, or a number of mixed up t.v. execs who exploit every cultural thing that exist so that "green" money can be made no matter the color of those who are exploited, ask Miley Cyrus.

All news programs need to move in a direction that asks a nation how is it that the lives of my brethren, U.S. soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen are paying for two countries with their lives, the American taxpayers are paying for the 95% (+) of the financial bill all the while we are paying the cost at our gas pumps and in our grocery stores. We know Al Qaeda is stronger in Afghanistan, our own intel people say they have the ability to strike us again-if they want to, yet we are five years into a war that was supposed to stop the very thing that has happened, but yet O'Reilly and others want to spend time on YBW. This is why I say there is nothing new under the sun.

I believe Washington, D.C. folk call it "wag the dog". When real issues are in your face, wag the dog, bomb another country, travel to Israel, don't talk to your conservative friends and hold them accountable, attack negroes, women, feminists, gay people because you have the pulpit to do so. Preachers do it, politicians do it, talk show hosts do it, many people do it...nothing new under the sun.

Y'all think about it...

Peace
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Dr. Cyrus Marcellus Ellis is an associate, tenured professor of Counselor Education at Governors State University. Dr. Ellis holds a PhD in Counselor Education from The University of Virginia. He is the author of the new book It's All Gumbo to Me: Examining our world through the metaphor of Gumbo available on Amazon.com or at www.lulu.com/content/1906060.