Andanh.com

As a loyal Democrat and a person of color, I am completely disgusted by what the Clintons have done and are attempting to do to ensure that Hillary Clinton wins this election.

As the race for the presidency began, it was a given that Clinton would be the front-runner. No others in the field of Democratic contenders were even perceived to be a threat to her. Barack Obama arguably "just wasn't black enough" to challenge Bill Clinton's previous anointment as the "nation's first black president." Surely Clinton would travel an uninhibited course to the nomination, would best serve the needs of our society in general and give the necessary lip service to ensure the continued support of "those colored peoples."

As the course of this election has taken a turn for the worse for the Clintons, it has brought out the worst in them. Suddenly, Obama became too black for his own good. Open-minded white folks -- who, to their credit, have looked beyond race as a criteria for holding public office -- are being challenged and criticized for even considering voting for Obama, as if they were in some way abandoning their race.

The once-proud Democratic Party, which was built on the principle of inclusion, is on the verge of imploding as a result of the Clintons' recent actions. The party was predicated on social and racial justice, but its principles are being systematically disassembled by those who feel that they are being challenged for leadership by those from whom only votes were necessary.

As people of color, we have been told over and over that if we want to succeed in life, we must emulate, assimilate and participate as members of our respective communities. Once this was accomplished, we would also be entitled to our part of the American dream. Never once were we told that if we did all that, we would not also be entitled to the same rights as other citizens.

Barack Obama's youthfulness, soaring rhetoric and style make comparisons with John F. Kennedy inevitable. Sometimes, however, the Illinois Democrat invites the comparisons.

He has invoked Kennedy in several instances to defend his policy of meeting with the leaders of enemy nations without preconditions. In a recent example at a campaign event in Oregon, he said, "Strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev."

If Lloyd Bentsen were alive, he'd be able to say it best: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

If Obama goes to the White House in January, he will do so with four years of national service. By the time Kennedy took the presidential oath in 1961, he already had served six years in the House and eight years in the Senate.

For most of 1939, Kennedy traveled in Europe, the Soviet Union and the Middle East, conducting research for his college senior thesis. Its title, conceived without the influence of George W. Bush, was "Appeasement in Munich," later published as the best-selling book "Why England Slept." In it, he argued that the democracies' slow response to Nazi militarization encouraged Hitler's aggression and made conflict inevitable.

Bastian helped define Wichita

H. Marvin Bastian didn't just build a defining regional financial institution out of a local mortgage banking firm, as the longtime chairman of Fidelity Bank and Fidelity Financial Corp. He did so while helping define Wichita and epitomizing civic responsibility -- fighting to revive downtown, championing the arts and quietly serving on what seemed like countless boards. Bastian, who died May 24 at age 87, will be remembered at a memorial service at 2 p.m. today at College Hill United Methodist Church. "I feel a debt to Wichita because I've prospered and been happy here," he told The Eagle in 1985. Now that he's gone, it seems like the debt is all Wichita's -- for his inspiring, lasting contribution to the community.