Righting Wright's Wrongs
No longer looking for Mr. Wright? -- Picture courtesy of FNC
by blogSpotter
It's a testament to Obama's charm and aura that yesterday's apologetic "race awareness" speech was so well received. The speech was to allay doubts generated by the extremist views of Obama's long-time minister, Jeremiah Wright. The Dallas Morning News hyperbolized that Obama's message was the best speech since MLK was alive. Others in the Obama swoon club are columnists James Mitchell and Shawn Williams. Both hailed Obama has "tough, instructive and statesmanlike". Others were not so impressed. Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institute says that Obama needs to show some consistency -- his words and deeds are contradictory. Columnist Mark Davis (a Bush fan I frequently diss) also says that no Obama speech can excuse Minister Wright's hate speech. I have to agree with Sowell and Davis on this one -- there's no proper context for saying "God Damn America!”
Who is this Jeremiah Wright? He's a prominent, 66 year old author and ex-minister. He has a Master of Divinity degree from University of Chicago Divinity School and is well-respected by his parishioners. He was Obama's minister and mentor at Trinity United Church of Christ the last 20 years; he actually officiated at Barack and Michelle's wedding ceremony. Barack was so enamored of him in 2007 that he was going to have him be his introducer for his Presidential announcement. Wright was already controversial enough at that point that Obama disinvited him.
Why is Jeremiah Wright controversial? Well let's see ...in the 80's he traveled on a church mission to Libya with Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam's leader. His church later gave an award to Farrakhan. Wright has been filmed sermonizing these types of ideas...
- 9/11 is a consequence of America's attitudes towards people of color
- The US government is responsible for the 9/11 attacks
- HIV was invented by the government to infect blacks
- Zionism is white racism
Some of these assertions bring Jerry Falwell to mind -- he blamed 9/11 on gays and feminists. I myself can understand righteous indignation, and 'rage against the machine' -- have experienced those feelings myself even as a white person. But Wright's tirades look more like undirected lashing-out and even paranoid thinking. They don't serve any constructive purpose. Several Obama apologists say that you have to put it all in "historical context". There is no place or placement of Wright's sermons that would be appropriate. Obama saying he "didn't hear those sermons" sounds incredible; maybe Jay Leno is right and he was sleeping in church. Or maybe, just maybe, Obama is doing political damage control. I already had misgivings about Obama (just search "Obama" in this blog and see my prior articles). This uproar won't change my mind since I was already in the Hillary camp -- it might change some other minds though.
© 2008 blogSpotter
Labels: Elections, Politics, Society
posted by blogspotter @ 8:40 AM
2 Comments:
I saw this after I had responded to your email on the same subject, so sorry for the duplication here, but....
In Obama's speech he did condemn Wright's hate speech. He simply said he wasn't going to use it as a reason to reject a man who has also done good things:
"Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
[...]
[T]hey expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
[...]
But the truth is, [...] I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love. [...]"
As a Republican conservative, I was impressed by Obama's speech. It was much more plausible than "I never heard those statements in 20 years of attending Trinity United Church of Christ."
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