• Latasha Williams

“Budget cuts are traditionally presented from a coldly fiscal point of view, with little if any attention paid to the burden they actually create for people who depend on the affected services,” said Ward Cox, administrator of For the Family, of the meeting. “The town hall meetings are intended to change that by personalizing the impact in a way that helps people realize that "There but for the Grace of God go I." The fact that our ongoing economic slump puts more people in need of services must also be taken into account. As people understand these dual considerations, it is our hope that a more balanced approach will be taken in determining future budget cuts, though the process of reaching policymakers is made more difficult by the lack of sufficient lobbying resources.”

President Obama is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing to Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People's Party, or as he describes him “White power in black face.”

Yeshitela, along with other members of the African Socialist Party, also known as the Uhuru Movement, discussed their stances on President Obama’s second term as a part of their “Black Resistance, White Solidarity” conference being held at the Party’s longtime headquarters, the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg on Monday night. The Party has a long history of activism ranging internationally to locally, with Yeshitela starting the movement following the Civil Rights movement.

Obama’s quick ascension to power and connection to corporate and political interests is highly suspicious to Yeshitela, who says it seems strange that the first black president is named Barack Hussein Obama as opposed to a common African-American name. He also feels the problem isn’t so much racism as it is Western style capitalism, that one factor in Obama’s rise and subsequent popularity is that he represents that “everybody can make it” idea purported mainly by the Democratic Party.

While Obama had solid connections in the Democratic Party, especially the Chicago machine, Omali is critical of his lack of connections to any key players in the black community. Obama instilled a sense of pride in most African-Americans simply because of his race, all while being un-beholden to black interests Yeshiteli says.

“The thing that he had going for him was that he did not have any connections to the African community, no base in the African community to be accountable to. He didn’t have to make any promises to Africans; all he had to do was be black and show up. Then this uninformed, underdeveloped nationalism took over from there. We were so proud of him because he looked just like us.”

With the approaching “fiscal cliff” less than a month away, there’s been a large amount of controversy over tax cuts and the perceived economic fallout for many Americans. Local constituents and representatives of Bay area liberal groups and unions gathered Monday in the office of Representative Bill Young in Seminole to argue against increased tax cuts for the top two percent, leading to the Congressman getting into a confrontation with a protester — more on that later.

The protestors set up inside the floor of the office, passing around pizza and singing the usual staples as well as “fiscal cliff carols,” Christmas songs modified to reference the crisis in Washington. In keeping with the season, one man was dressed in a full Santa Claus outfit, and after a rousing speech on elves’ rights in the North Pole attempted to have one of the staff members pass on a gift-wrapped piece of coal to the 21-term Representative.

Kofi Hunt, a community organizer with Awake Pinellas, hopes that the event Monday raises awareness about the hard times facing middle class Americans and the economic impact these cuts would have.

“We think the importance is that the middle class right now is being squeezed, they don’t have the money to pay their basic bills. For the wealthy they've done better than they've ever done, there’s record numbers in terms of profits. They don’t need tax cuts like the middle class does.”

• St. Petersburg resident Chuck Terizan asks "Santa" for tax relief on the floor of Young's office