Some of you may have seen the great western movie classic, High Noon, which starred Gary Cooper as a town marshal forced to face a band of outlaws alone because the local town folks were too afraid to help him fight for a just cause.  The movie's screenwriter Carl Foreman, said  "the film was intended as an allegory of the contemporary failure of intellectuals to combat the rise of McCarthyism, as well as how people in Hollywood had remained silent while their peers were blacklisted".  Sound familiar?

Barack Obama, the candidate of change and the candidate who wants America to have an adult discussion about race relations, now faces a challenge similar to the marshal in High Noon.  Like it or not, there exist some deep-rooted racial prejudices, racial insensitivities, and racial distrust that prevent the U.S. from achieving greater success even as the rest of the world look to us as utopia. We still have some self-improvement to perform around our own front doors.

Last week, when Obama spoke in Charlotte, his acknowledgment that "[change will be difficult...that the challenge will come from the power brokers... and he couldn't make change happen alone]" has not escaped me. I guess that's why I thought about the movie, High Noon.  At that hypothetical place in time, when faced with a daunting task, the good upstanding citizens refused to muster up the courage to stand up for righteousness when it mattered most.  They refused a call to action even when their well-being and self-respect were on the line.  Instead they took the easy out or unprincipled exit.

I have watched with amazement and great frustration while some members of the traditional mainstream media have acted like a gang of outlaws by serving as the chief barrier to Barack Obama being able to engage his fellow Americans in a serious and adult discussion about race. This media has bombarded us with sensationalized YouTube snippets of Rev. Jeremiah Wright sermons taken out of context. They have insisted on being chief antagonists when the country could benefit, for example from a comprehensive examination of the Black church and the racial and cultural differences that influence Black ministers to preach sermons in a manner that some White people in particular might regard as offensive.

My request for the media is to conduct comprehensive reporting and trust the people to be able make up their own minds devoid of media advocacy for one position over another. That has not happened with any degree of consistency.  Instead the media have collectively acted like political combatants with a singular goal of defeating Obama is his stated quest to bring real change to America. I earlier wrote that the mainstream media need to revisit their own journalistic code of ethics because they are doing the public such a great disservice.

High noon is approaching and I want to round up a posse to help Obama face the gang of outlaws.  Going forward, when members of the mainstream media refuse to engage in objective discourse about race and instead deliberately seek to discredit Obama or any other candidate with innuendo or unnecessary badgering, that we make note of their advertisers during that portion of the "news" and formally contact the advertisers and media CEOs to voice our displeasure. I encourage you to also enlist like-minded friends, bloggers and members of your social networks to help you get your point across.  Let the advertisers know that you mean business and plan to cease use of their products.

Since I called this a posse and we may need to head the 'em off at the pass, if you need assistance in composing a note or letter to get the CEO's attention, contact me at Leadership Cultivation.com or at busstabrown@gmail.com.

Well, in recognition of Easter, here's my paraphrased version of the Thomas Shepherd Hymn, "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone". 

                                            "[Must Obama bear the racial                                              problem alone,                                                                    And all of America go free?
                                             No, there's a role in this                                                      discussion for everyone,
                                             And there's a role for you and                                              me.]''