(NNPA)—Time has passed since the Super Bowl and the glorious victory of the New Orleans Saints, but I find that I keep coming back to that game, and not for the reasons that you might think. The Indianapolis Colts were supposed to win that game. They are an outstanding team with an outstanding quarterback and head coach. Everyone knew that it would be uphill for the Saints.

But the Saints won. And in many respects they won through an interesting combination of incredible team work, leadership and audacity. Although Indianapolis took the lead in the first quarter, it was apparent by the end of the second quarter that something was changing. And then it happened. An on-side kick which took everyone—including but not limited to the Colts—by complete surprise. It is one thing to use such a kick in the fourth quarter, but in the third? After half-time?

On Jan. 5, I was in attendance at a breakfast fundraiser in the behalf of Allegheny County Councilman William “Bill” Robinson. As we were sitting around just talking, a former resident of the Hill District, who resided on Whiteside Road, stated that it was a disgrace that the new development did not carry the same name Whiteside Road.

I then asked, “Did you or anyone else make that suggestion?” His response was no, my response was that is what we excel at—never saying anything. If we do it’s usually after the fact.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s show of partisanship during President Obama’s State of the Union address stands as one more piece of evidence that conservatives believe the American government belongs to them, not the people of the United States. With the echoes of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” barely still, Alito’s head-wagging, lip-mouthing “Not true” in response to Obama’s claim that a recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend on political campaign ads overturned a century of precedents and opened the floodgates to special interests went way past poor decorum.

(NNPA)—Following the Tea Party phenomenon and watching its recent convention, it was interesting to see media folks and Tea Party representatives struggle with the question of why so few Blacks were there. This is not a new thing, since the philosophical base of the Republican Party has been the Conservative movement for some time and their conventions have also been lily White. But the emergence of the Tea Party phenomenon should cause us to ask how far it is from bonafide anti-Black White nationalist politics striving to enhance its role in the political system.