Black Men, Project 2025 & Erie, PA: Key Players In The Presidential Election

By Betty Jean Grant

Betty Jean Grant

The road to President Of The United States begins and ends in Erie, PA. That is because, for the past 40 years, with the exception of the Bush/ Gore campaign, whomever won the city of Erie, has gone on to win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Presidency of the United States. But also remember, that election, where George Bush, Jr. was certified the winner, had to be decided by a flawed Recount Vote in Florida and the final determination was done by the United States Supreme Court.

This is one of the reasons why, every Saturday since the 1st of September, a group of us from Buffalo, has gathered in vans and cars and traveled the 90 West down to Erie. We do this because we have read some of the pages of a Trump endorsed document named Project 2025, and what we have read, leaves us very concerned for our civil and human rights and for the continuation of our form of a free and democratic government.

The Heritage Foundation, the Proud Boys , KKK and other Nazi-leaning organizations are sitting there laughing at those Black men, whose grandfathers, some of their ancestors lynched, chucking and jiving and talking about voting against the interests of their wives, children and parents. Project 2025 talks about getting rid of the United States Department Education, Federal Civil Service, the Center For Disease Control (CDC), and the Federal Head Start Program that has given many of our poverty-stricken children of all races a fighting chance and a head start in their challenging path toward literacy and educational success. And just think how many more of us would have died had the CDC had not been there to ensure that poor or minority people had access to the Covid 19 vaccines.

If Donald Trump wins the election and the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 document is adopted by him, our male children and grandchildren are in a world of trouble. That document calls for the mililitarization of the police which would give them to stop or arrest without cause or reason. Project 2025 will also give the police immunity from prosecution. Laws like ‘Duty To Intervene’ would disappear and no cop would have the authority or protection to stop another cop from abusing or harming an innocent person they have stopped or arrested.

And, I have not even mentioned the 34 felonies, the many lawsuits and the outright lies the Republican candidate has told, straight to our faces, when both he and we, knew the truth.

Black Men and mainly their male sons or grandsons, would have the most to lose, under a Trump Administration. That is, for the life of me, is why I don’t understand how Black men are supporting a man who paid thousands of dollars to a New York City newspaper, calling for the execution of 5 innocent Black teenagers, even after they were found to be innocent of the crime they were arrested for. And yet, here he is, in his insincere voice, telling Black men how much he loves them! What he loves is not their Black butts but their Black votes!

This Election is too close to call, especially in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia. That is why it is extremely important for us that can, to do all that we can, to secure our future. With the push of the Trump agenda, to remove all immigrants, including the ones who are here legally, we are treading on dangerous water. First ‘they’ are coming after the immigrants. How far behind will the agenda include the rest of us?