Retired National Football League star Burgess Owens is urging African-Americans not to vote for Barack Obama simply on the basis of race.
In a newly published e-book “It’s All About Team: Exposing the Black Talented Tenth” Owens recounts how he grew up as a liberal Democrat and supported Jimmy Carter. Even though he suffered financial setbacks during the 1980s he said he still believed “that my worth is not measured by what I do, by the honors that are bestowed upon me or by material wealth that I might obtain. Instead, I am measured by the courage I show while standing for my beliefs, by the dedication I exhibit to ensure my word is good and the resolve I undertake to establish my actions and deeds as honorable.”
“It is no accident that this country has been blessed with its abundance and its history as the freest and most productive in the world. As its citizens humbly recommit to an acceptance of guidance from the God of our fathers, our nation will once again see the miraculous resurrection of the proud, responsible, visionary black father. And with him, his family and community will be lifted.”
During the GOP Convention, Owens expressed his faith in God as inspiration for his life. “We are going to have to have black ministers stand up once again. Unfortunately, I have been a little disappointed that we have issues out there like traditional marriage, abortion, school education, and we have so much silence from the black community, from black preachers, because they understand first hand the impact of all that. We can no longer support those who are against the faith.”
Owens said that the social welfare programs promoted by the Democratic Party have created a government dependency within black communities to the detriment of the family and economic progress. Progressive policies have created a culture of “defeat, breakdown, failure and collapse” in the African-American community, where abortion has taken the lives of 13 million black babies since 1973, an average of 325,000 deaths each year.
For the black community to change, the formula begins with belief in God, the restoration of the black family and the encouragement of black children to get an education to prepare them to compete economically. “It is not going to be white Americans who are going to do it. It’s going to be black Americans who have turned within themselves, and they go out and build great businesses, and they build communities.”
“There is still a desire, by most within the black community to recapture for their children the ideals of a traditional family where moms and dads commit to each other and to their children through the lifelong bonds of marriage. We can be the kind of example as the black middle class was for decades to give encouragement to others who follow.”
