BLACK AVENGER: `I AM AN AMERICAN HERO'

Any place where determination and ambition are killed is truly a lonely place, Ken Hamblin, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, said Saturday.

Hamblin was the speaker for the 26th annual Lincoln Day dinner in Cape Girardeau. More than 1,200 people attended the event, sponsored by the Republican Women's organization. It was held at the A.C. Brase Arena Building, where banners touting Republican candidates for local, state and national offices lined the railings.

"I am an American hero," he said. "I am proof that America works. I came from a place where there were no dreams."

Hamblin, 55, grew up poor in Brooklyn, N.Y. But as the Black Avenger, he tries to remove the stereotype that every black person must remain poor and unsuccessful.

Yet Hamblin has had a successful career. His radio show airs on KZIM-AM 960 from 2-4 p.m. weekdays. And he has written a column for the Denver Post newspaper and worked as a journalist for the Detroit Free Press during the 1960s.

Since the 1960s, liberals in America have tried to breed a class of people to be peasants, Hamblin said.

"But you can't encourage a peasant class if they believe tomorrow will be a better day," he said.

During the 1980s when the economy atrophied, many of the displaced workers moved to the Southwest U.S. in search of work. People didn't riot or pillage or burn their cities, he said. "There had to be a reason for that. Those people had hope that it would be better when they got there."

Hamblin said he's often called a race traitor because of his conservative views. But the true reason is because he still holds the tail of that dream America was founded on, he said.

"There's a greatness inherent in this country," Hamblin said, adding that his grandfather emigrated from Barbados, West Indies, to make a better life for himself and his family.

And that hope for a better life is what makes America such a great nation. "People outside our borders know something we don't," he said. "They want a better life for their children. But I'm going to fight the battle and stay the course."

Following his speech, Hamblin was given a stuffed elephant made from red-white-and-blue material. "You don't know what just happened," he told the cheering audience. "But I've just been made an honorary member of the Republican Women's club."