Jackson Free Press

Smokey Robinson McBride: "While the presidential candidates garner votes by using common folk as metaphors to make a political statement, I want to introduce to the public an invisible man from the funky ghetto named Rufus Hardaway, the lowly, licensed master plumber and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Cootie Creek Vocational School. You probably know him as the darker brother they sent to the kitchen when company came.

"As a young child, the profound and soul stirring words of Dr. Martin Luther King inspired him to do plumbing work the way Michelangelo painted paintings.

"Despite what the other people believe and think about common folk and minorities (who have recently been blamed for America's financial meltdown), thousands of outstanding citizens like Rufus the plumber struggle to keep their heads above water and make a way when they can. The brother spent eight years in trade school to become a master plumber. And like the financial institutions, he's currently knee-deep in debt and trapped in the ghetto like a fish in a net because of a recessive economy and housing crisis.

"His son, who also wants to be a plumber, cannot afford to attend trade school. Rufus said to me, 'If this country is about every citizen pursuing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then it needs to show brothers and sisters like me some love, instead of persecuting us for wanting to live good and productive lives.'

"And I replied, 'Deep, my brother; I hope someone heard you.Ҕ