I am amazed ...

... at how well the Republican presidential hopefuls skirt questions.

Against my better judgement, I watched CNN's YouTube Debate last night to see what was up because I didn't have a candidate yet. Let's just say that I still don't have one.

Because of the nature of my profession, I refuse to publicly identify myself as Republican or Democrat. But like other red-blooded and connected Americans, I have certain issues that I would like the government to address.

Sadly, last night, none of them were addressed. There was no talk of health care - universal or otherwise - and no one discussed education. I know the candidates could only answer the questions that were asked so that's why I fault CNN.

I hardly believe that with more than 5,000 questions posted that no one asked about health care or education. It seems to me that the biggest issue on the Republican agenda is cutting taxes, abolishing abortion, sending all the brown immigrants back to their countries and continuing the "war on terror."

What's even more disturbing is the answers to the question asked by an African American father and his son about what the candidates planned to do to stop black on black crime. Mitt Romney gets the award for the Vaguest Answer of the Night because that dude started talking about how fortunate the boy was because his father was there and how "Bill Cosby got it right."

Romney brought up a statistic that stated 69 percent of all African American children are born out of wedlock and we need to start getting back to family values.

***This is the part where I cock my head to the left and turn up my lips***

So you mean to tell me that if my parents would have been married when I was born, that would stop some random black boy from killing another? You'll have to excuse me if I am a little skeptical.

The reality of it is none of the candidates can do anything about black on black crime or any other issue that the minority folks who were born here face. They are ill-equipped - always have been and always will be. To paraphrase Kanye West and Michael Jackson, they don't care about us!

Maybe it is just me, but I would think that the whole black on black crime issue would be in the forefront right now - especially with the untimely death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor. That man was 24 years old and was shot by an intruder while in his home.

I'm not implying that the intruder/murder/thief was black, but according to Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, the statistics say the odds are great.

Here's the column: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7499442

Either way, this is a tragic situation. With that said, I'm a little irritated by Whitlock's column - even though he spoke the truth. A lot of what Whitlock wrote is speculation, nothing more, nothing less.

I'm not saying that his checkered past should be overlooked or unaddressed. I'm not saying that we don't have our fair share of self-hatred.

I am saying that his speculation and ASS-umption that Taylor's murderer is black is premature.

He even went so far as to go on a five-graf tirade about how hip hop is to blame for black on black crime. Don't know how we got here? I don't either. I hardly see what any of this has to do with hip hop. As far as I'm concerned, Whitlock is no different from the white folks and the old folks who sit up and talk about how "they're doing it to themselves."

I will be the first to admit that the music has gotten out of hand, but make it the cause of all that is wrong in the black community. The real problem is those of us who are educated, who can put a face on what it looks like to be educated and do fairly well don't go back to our own neighborhoods enough to show these kids the truth.

We're too busy filling their heads with all this nonsense about being whatever they want to be if they put their minds to it. What if I want to be a coat rack? Or a park bench? What about race car? Can I be a race car?

To answer those questions, not just no. HELL NO!!! I can't be coat rack, a park bench or a freakin' race car because I am not made of the stuff needed to be any of that. What's the moral of the story kids? Everybody is not made of the same stuff as these professional athletes and entertainers. DANG!

***And for the record, I think Whitlock is referring to rap music, not hip hop. He's using the two interchangeably and he shouldn't be. That's like using woman and bitch interchangeably. The two are similar in nature but they are not synonyms. ***