8:10: The Fourth of July Celebration Entertainment and Fireworks at the White House
Posts Tagged ‘fourth
04
Jul
13
Light the Skies
04
Jul
13
Fireworks Time
6:0: President Obama Speaks at the Fourth of July Celebration
8:10: The Fourth of July Celebration Entertainment and Fireworks at the White House
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The President in Pink – rockin’! pic.twitter.com/VOE87q6go1
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) July 4, 2013
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04
Jul
13
What Kind Of Free Is This?
On a day like today, the realities of this country’s past, who we are, and where we are headed must not be forgotten. This is a powerful piece. I encourage you take the time to read it, in its entirety.
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Goldie Taylor: Growing up in East St. Louis, the Fourth of July holidays hold some of my fondest memories. My cousin Booky and I woke at daybreak to help my Uncle Ross clean the grill and get a first crack at the box of fireworks. When Aunt Gerry wasn’t looking, he’d sneak us a few boxes of sparklers and a book of matches he knew we weren’t supposed to have. Booky, a crafty Svengali, always managed to come up with a cache of forbidden bottle rockets.
Uncle Ross placed the large American flag into a metal bracket affixed to a freshly-painted white column on our front porch. He was proud of that flag, proud of his Army, proud to have served his country in the Korean War. Back in 1976, we were brown, small and indifferent to the world swirling around us. Unbeknownst to us, we were living history too, the children of the Great Migration. Our grandparents had joined the movement of six million African-Americans out of the rural South, in search of good paying jobs, housing and a basic fairness they had never known. My mother’s family had come north from Tunica, Mississippi, my father’s family from tiny Spadra, Arkansas. Some took jobs in factories, others as domestic workers. But that was everybody’s story. It wasn’t unusual for somebody’s cousin to be visiting from “down South.”
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/352798528176795649
We were 134 years beyond the Declaration of Independence when the migration began around 1910. However, it had to be abundantly clear to my grandparents that despite the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, rights on paper did not always equate to rights in practice. Today, East St. Louis is nearly 98 percent black, largely impoverished and mostly forgotten. It is no longer useful to measure how many students don’t graduate from high school. Many do not reach the 9th grade. The cycle of poverty begins and is perpetuated in the halls of a junior high school. That Fourth of July night in 1976, Grandma Alice and I sat at the windowsill in her upper room, listening to the Cardinal game on a transistor radio, then watching the fireworks over Busch Stadium. “What kind of free is this?” she said, stroking my head. “What kind of free is this, child?”
More of this emotionally riveting piece here
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“I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.” – Abraham Lincoln, July 1858 in Chicago, IL
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04
Jul
12
July 4 at the White House
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President Obama speaks with wounded veterans during an Independence Day celebration for military members and their families and members of the administration
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Next:
(Thanks ChristiMtl)
ABC: If his campaign for a second term is like a basketball game, President Obama says it’s nearing halftime, he’s down on the scoreboard, and facing a full court press.
Obama told a crowd of campaign donors, including a mix of past and present NBA stars, in Florida tonight that “this is like the second quarter, maybe the third. And we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
“But I want everyone to know I’m a fourth-quarter player,” he said. “I don’t miss my shots in the fourth quarter.”
Obama spoke at the glitzy Lake Mary, Fla., home of attorney John Morgan, one of his top volunteer fundraisers, or bundlers, where around 100 guests paid at least $1,500 to see the president speak. Proceeds flowed to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint account between the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
NBA all-star Grant Hill, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and Phoenix Suns guard Vince Carter were among the pro basketball players in attendance, according to press pool reports. The official invitation for the event also listed ex-NBA great Patrick Ewing as a co-host.
“So as long as we’ve got a strong team and everybody’s engaged and involved, we’re not just going to win this election,” Obama said. “We are going to win this election and then we are going to make sure that we rebuild this country.”
Full article here
Thank you Loriah
30
Oct
10
double-take
President Barack Obama with customers at the Famous 4th Street Deli in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama gives his order to waitress Jayme Stern while visiting the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen in Philadelphia, October 30
The Obama Diary 
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