35-year-old chosen to lead NAACP

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CNN

The NAACP has chosen Ben Jealous as its new president, members of its board of directors said Saturday.

Jealous, 35, will be the youngest president in the NAACP's 99-year history, The Associated Press reported.

The 34-21 vote came after a contentious debate that lasted late into the night. After the vote was announced, "no one clapped or celebrated," one board member said after the meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

Some board members had wanted to hear from two others whom the search committee identified as finalists, but Jealous' supporters prevented it, sources said.

Jealous steps into a challenging role.

"There are a small number of groups to whom all black people in this country owe a debt of gratitude, and the NAACP is one of them," Jealous told AP before the vote. "There is work that is undone ... the need continues and our children continue to be at great risk in this country."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/17/naacp.president/index.html

[marmar]

1. I bet many people were "jealous" of him after the vote....

:silly:

[KSinTX]

2. Interesting to see his plan for the organization nt

[harmonicon]

3. Wow!

Good luck to him. ... just a few years older than me, and he's the president of the NAACP. I'm just the president of frozen pizzas in my apartment.

[Runcible Spoon]

4. well hey if you can't preside over pizza how can you expect to lead a national organization?!

I am personally President of Quiescently Frozen Desserts! :evilgrin:

[bean fidhleir]

5. A little perspective: Madison was only 35 in 1787

Not that that's necessarily a recommendation, considering the constitution he foisted off on us.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Madison didn't foist anything on us. Many of his personal preferences were not implemented.

Madison's main impact was providing resources, reasoning, and compromises for the the convention delegates.

[bean fidhleir]

11. The hell he didn't!

Read his comments on diluting and filtering the popular vote to prevent democracy:

"if the first branch of the general legislature should be elected by the State Legislatures, the second branch elected by the first-the Executive by the second together with the first; and other appointments again made for subordinate purposes by the Executive, the people would be lost sight of altogether; and the necessary sympathy between them and their rulers and officers, too little felt. {Madison} was an advocate for the policy of refining the popular appointments by successive filtrations, but thought it might be pushed too far."

He's the guy who said government "ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority", because "an increase of population will of necessity increase the proportion of those who will labour under all the hardships of life, & secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings. These may in time outnumber those who are placed above the feelings of indigence. According to the equal laws of suffrage, the power will slide into the hands of the former. No agrarian attempts have yet been made in this Country, but symptoms of a leveling spirit, as we have understood, have sufficiently appeared in a certain quarters to give notice of the future danger. How is this danger to be guarded agst. on republican principles? How is the danger in all cases of interested coalitions to oppress the minority to be guarded agst.?"

He wanted to make sure the Constitution would provide the appearance of democracy without the substance. Because if it provided the substance, the rich wouldn't be rich for very long. And if it didn't even *appear* to provide democracy, "the necessary sympathy between" us peons and our "rulers and officers" would disappear and those rich "rulers and officers" would find themselves on the wrong end of another revolution.

Were you really ignorant of that?

[LiberalFighter]

12. Do you understand the process of a convention?

I have read the the debate proceedings of the convention!

Madison didn't have the lone vote or the only strong voice at the convention. If Madison foisted the Constitution on us then what was the point of having the others attend and vote on it?

I consider Madison the father of the Constitution but he accomplished that in ways that did not involve forcing others to comply with his demands which he made none.

And democracy is not an entirely good thing when a mob is in control. Would you want the majority to dictate your life? If we had a democracy we would still have slavery, only men voting. We would also have religion being taught in schools, possibly only one religion and it being mandatory.

I can only consider that you are the ignorant person to suggest that Madison all on his own forced the Constitution down the throats of everyone at that time.

[bean fidhleir]

13. You're not a democrat? Does "LiberalFighter" mean you Fight Liberals, perhaps?

Because democracy is a liberal value. Ask anyone.

I don't want to spend a whole lot of time trying to explain to you that you've either got your head on backwards or jammed firmly up where the sun doesn't shine. But if you consider yourselve liberal rather than a fighter against liberals, and you think that democracy is a bad idea, or you think that the US is already a democracy, then you're an unwitting dupe of and fellow-traveller with the GOP/DLC and you *badly* need to educate yourself. I'd suggest starting with anything by Robert Dahl or Bill Domhoff, both highly respected political scientists.

[L. Coyote]

6. Former news exec, 35, is picked to lead NAACP

Source: AP = By ERRIN HAINES and BEN NUCKOLS

Former news exec, 35, is picked to lead NAACP

BALTIMORE (AP) — The NAACP chose 35-year-old activist and former news executive Ben Jealous as its president Saturday, making him the youngest leader in the 99-year history of the nation's largest civil rights organization.

The 64-member board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People met for eight hours before selecting Jealous in the early morning. He was formally introduced Saturday afternoon and will take over as president in September.

"I'm excited," Jealous told The Associated Press. "I think that it's a real affirmation that this organization is willing to invest in the future, to invest in the ideas and the leadership of the generation that is currently raising black children in this country."

Though he is not a politician, minister or civil rights icon, Jealous provides the organization with a young but connected chief familiar with black leadership and social justice issues.

He takes the helm as the NAACP's 17th president just months before the organization's centennial anniversary and as the group looks to boost its coffers.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5it_OJetTjrEgrgvkGqIpvLGjSHjgD90NJ2M80

[onehandle]

7. Dupe.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3313478

[mac2]

8. The African-American groups failed to step up on that

horrible weekend of Katina. I asked they get a court order but none used their lawyers to do so. They sat on their hands and "hoped" Bush would do the right thing. After 911 why would they suppose that?

A media person head of a black group? The fox in the chicken coop is what it is. Seems they've been rendered useless just like our political organization in America today.

[Blaq Dem]

9. Is 'Jealous' his real last name?

[bean fidhleir]

14. "no one clapped or celebrated"

Could it be because they seem to have chosen a White man? From the look of him, Jefferson and Adams were still alive the last time this guy had an African-descended person contributing to his DNA.