Thanks: MLK, Jr. said in his “Drum Major Instinct” speech that “praise is the Vitamin A of the ego.” He said that people love to be praised, even when they don’t deserve it or believe it. On behalf of our organization, thanks to the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists and to the Florida Press Association for recognizing the excellent work our Florida Courier staff does. We’ll humbly accept those doses of “Vitamin A”…

What would ‘Mama Emma’ do?
I’m smart. I’ve got two graduate degrees to prove it. But Momma ’nem will tell you that I don’t have half the common sense that my grandmother, “Mama Emma” Troutman, and Daddy had. One of Daddy’s classmates told me one time that Daddy left more common sense in the toilet every morning than I’ll ever have. (Comments like that will keep you humble, no matter how smart you think you are.) So I’ve learned that common sense (and honesty) are much more important than being smart.

Mama Emma was born in south-central Georgia about 25 years after the end of slavery in America. She married my grandfather, a general contractor who built houses. She never got past the fifth grade, and was widowed with two young children at age 30. But she worked hard, ran a couple of home businesses, sent one of her girls to a private boarding school and both girls to college, and was always debt-free.

She was Zion Hope Baptist Church’s “mother”, and served as its clerk for 40 years. She always slept with a rusty gun and a knife under her pillow. She lived alone (and well) until she died at age 101.

My point: Barack Obama has appointed a bunch of “smart” people to his economic team. “Smart” people on Wall Street designed and sold financial schemes to greedy or gullible investors that caused worldwide financial chaos. “Smart” people designed a trillion-dollar bailout that isn’t fixing the financial problem.

To hell with “smart’ people. We need to get some folks like Mama Em

ma and Barack’s own grandmother, the late Madelyn Dunham, nicknamed “Toot” – honest people with common sense – to get America on the right track.

Common sense at work
What would Mama Emma do? She’d say, “Men need a chance to work. Help the women and the children. Stay out of other folks’ business. Say ‘no’ if you don’t understand something. Don’t spend more than you make. No dogs in the chicken coop. If you steal from me and mine, you owe me.”

She’d focus on jobs and make sure even Black men with criminal records could get honest work. She’d make sure kids got good educations, parents could get help raising their kids, and everyone could see a doctor without going broke. She’d get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan – that’s other folks’ business. She’d cut the bloated government budget, included billions wasted on defense and homeland security.

‘No’ works well
She didn’t invest money in anything she didn’t understand – she just said “no.” She wouldn’t ask people who benefited from or assisted Wall Street’s armed robbery of Main Street to now fix the problem. She’d bring in new, honest folks with common sense to find the solutions rather than letting dogs loose in the financial chicken coop. She’d make the “smart” Wall Street thieves pay restitution then send them to jail.

She wouldn’t make commitments to spend more money than America brings in in taxes. She lived on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, not on credit, for her entire life. She didn’t believe in sharecropping, so she wouldn’t borrow money from the Chinese or the Saudis to keep her lights on or to buy a flatscreen TV.

Mama Emma could help solve America’s problems. Unfortunately for us, she’s in the cloud of ancestors watching us run this race. If she were here now, she’d be praying – with her eyes open – that Barack Obama’s new team would be successful. She’d trust them to do their jobs, but she would damn sure verify their actions and hold them accountable every step of the way.

Perhaps Barack should ask himself: What would “Toot” do”?

Contact Charles W. Cherry II at ccherry2@gmail.com.