WELCOME TO SANITY – AT 8:26 A.M. ET:   We've never quoted Bob Herbert of The New York Times, the reliably left-wing African American op-ed columnist.  But today Herbert writes a satisfying column that squarely tells the truth about the tragedy of black America.  He sounds like a...a...I'm choking....a conservative:

The first and most important step would be a major effort to begin knitting the black family back together. There is no way to overstate the myriad risks faced by children whose parents have effectively abandoned them. It’s the family that protects the child against ignorance and physical harm, that offers emotional security and the foundation for a strong sense of self, that enables a child to believe — truly — that wonderful things are possible.

All of that is missing in the lives of too many black children...

...Black men need to be in the home, providing for their children. The community at large — including the many who have done well, who have secured a place in the middle or upper classes — needs to coalesce to provide support and assistance to those still struggling.

Dorothy Height, the longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women, who died in April at the age of 98, always insisted that blacks “have survived because of family.” And she counseled: “No one will do for you what you need to do for yourself.”

And...

Black children can’t wait for Washington to get its act together. They don’t have time to wait for the economy to improve. They need mom and dad and the larger community to act now, to do the right thing without delay.

This is not a fight only for blacks. All allies are welcome. But the cultural imperative lies overwhelmingly with the black community itself.

Thank you, Mr. Herbert.  Now if you can only get white liberals, safe in their homes and universities, to agree, maybe we'll make some progress.

And, by the way, maybe you should now go on to confront frankly and honestly the subject of crime, and ask readers, "Why is it that New York has substantially solved its crime problem, but Chicago hasn't?"  A tale of two cities, one that threw the libs out of City Hall many years ago, and Chicago, which didn't.

November 16, 2010