I heard Mike Matthews going off today on Charlie Copeland’s purchase of votes from the Black Community. Essentially the point he was making was that black votes were for sale, and by donating money to certain black pastors in Wilmington, Charlie Copeland could guarantee that the black vote will turn out for him…

Charlie Copeland $200.00 Canaan Baptist Church 9/9/08
Charlie Copeland $250.00 Delaware State University 9/15/08
Charlie Copeland $ 75.00 Ezion-Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church 9/09/08
Charlie Copeland $ 48.00 Newark NAACP 9/11/08
Charlie Copeland $100.00 Newark NAACP 9/16/08
Charlie Copeland $ 96.00 Newark NAACP 9/24/08
Charlie Copeland $ 30.00 Wilmington NAACP 5/28/08
Charlie Copeland $355.00 Wilmington NAACP 9/24/08
Charlie Copeland $ 60.00 Wilmington NAACP 10/21/08
Charlie Copeland $1019.00 Walt’s Flavor Crisp Fried Chicken 10/09/08

Obviously the Black Vote is up for sale…

Now I certainly do not want to begrudge Charlie Copeland for trying to buy the black vote… It’s legal. Nor can he decry my pointing it out to everyone… That is legal as well.. In fact … that is why we mandate the publishing of campaign finance reports to bring into the open all that which goes on…

But only because I was curious, and since no one ever asked me how much I would charge to have my vote bought, I couldn’t help but wonder the dollar figure that a black person’s vote is worth….

If you take the 200 members who regularly attend Caanan Baptist Church as a rough guide, that amounts to roughly one dollar per vote… Both electronic and print advertising are far more expensive….

Now of course Charlie won’t say anything but expect his ring wraiths to swarm in and say that those were not direct purchases of votes but were instead just him…(oh I love this) “spreading the wealth around”. You know… just a “little bit of socialism.” But whatever you want to call it, even if it is totally innocent (socialism), it sure is reminiscent of the “old days” when the big Lincoln drove up the dirty streets, you know, in the section of town that had no plumbing…. and money changed hands….

But back to the 21st Century…those days are gone… Lynchings don’t occur these day…. One never takes a black person and puts them up on a stand, and brutalizes them in public, so no other black person will get uppity and try to buck the system…. you know…. just keepin’ ’em in their place…. Those days are gone… Good riddance…

Yep, times are tight, and money is hard to come by….. And it’s silly to look a gift horse in the mouth… especially a stupid gift horse…..

But understanding the grace of God, I am sure we, including Mike Matthews, can relax and count on our black preachers to do the right thing..

Trust me. It is God’s Will which is important… By His grace, they WILL do the right thing….