The dust is settling over the flap involving Barack Obama and his pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The presidential hopeful delivered a rather stirring and generally well-received speech last week in response to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s rather intriguing comments about race relations made during a sermon. Most of you should know the story by now: Of course, mainstream (er, conservative corporate media whore) press outlets salivated over what they considered the most incendiary of remarks:
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost," Wright said, implying that the United States was partially at fault for Sept. 11. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ’God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme," he added.
Surely it’s not the first time we’ve heard such angry remarks from any community leader in America, one who denounces his own country in what really should be seen as a "call to arms" instead of a simple anti-America rant. Obama went on to repudiate his pastor’s comments, saying he’s heard Wright say many things with which he disagreed, but not to this degree. Wow, do any of us who attend worship – no matter your religion – ever completely 100 percent agree with service celebrant when he/she says something that might just be opposite of our true religious or political beliefs? Not that religion should ever delve into politics, especially at the pulpit, but that’s another story.
In fact, Faux, er, Fox News went out of its way to only air those particular "incendiary" remarks without ever really referring to the larger context of that specific sermon, where he discusses slavery and politics. If one were to see the full video, you’ll see Wright suggest how African-Americans have gone from having an "intelligent friend" in the Clinton administration to a "dumb Dixiecrat, a rich Republican who has never held a job in his life." Wright also, among other things, addresses how powerful nations overextend themselves fail at attempts at imperialism.
In his speech, Obama emphasized to criticize Wright’s comments here (the incendiary ones) as a distorted view of America, that the pastor was mistaken. Mistaken not about addressing racism and hypocrisy in our society, but addressing such issues in a tone as if no social progress has been made over the past 50 to 100 years. But Obama also strived to not distance himself from his pastor, which he widely praised in one of his books and continues to highly regard. Thing is, Wright may have simply used the wrong terminology. He loves America. Patriotism includes – yes folks – a daring to criticize your own nation. Not out of spite, but because you love this nation so much there must be courage to point out our horrible faults in order to find ways toward solutions. Is it not right that we have supported state-sponsored warfare and apartheid against Palestinians and South Africans, respectively?
Is it not right that our hypocritical failures at Middle East diplomacy (i.e. supporting Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, blindly supporting the Afghans against the Soviets, using bin Laden as a de facto CIA operative) have cumulated in radical Islamic hatred for the West? Is it not right that the so-called War on Drugs is disproportionate on many levels? Is it not right that building prisons is a major industry in America? These aren’t fairy tales.
Obama said this in his speech: "Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, ’The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.’ We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
Obama also acknowledged a similar anger and feeling of resentment reside in parts of the white community. Ultimately, there are many terrible things all sorts of Americans have done in the past (and recently) all in the name of God, justice, race and "spreading democracy." It’s up to all of us to fess up to these things, take responsibility in our own communities, talk about these issues openly, to acknowledge others’ anger and then to move past such hatred, distortion and ignorance together.
Other observations"
* Hell must be freezing over. Open insurrection on Fox News. On one recent segment of Fox and Friends, hosts Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Gretchen Carlson (she who gleefully criticizes flood victims) spent multiple segments sensationalizing a comment Obama made, in which he referred to his grandmother as "a typical white person" in some of her racial reactions. Obama made the comment on a talk radio show while discussing that Wright response speech. When the trio welcomed Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace onto the show, instead of previewing his show this weekend, Wallace announced that he was going to take his fellow Fox hosts "to task" for their "excessive" and "somewhat distorting" coverage of what Obama said. Needless to say, the hosts looked a little uncomfortable, seeing one of their Fox compatriots turn on them on air. BUT THAT WASN’T ALL! During the same Fox and Friends show, Kilmeade seemingly felt a bit disgusted by Carlson and Doocy’s antics to the extent that he walked off the set. Slowly yet surely, the GOP’s world is crumbling. And all I can do is laugh hysterically.
* Farewell to Jericho. After one and a half seasons, we hardly knew ye. And CBS executives don’t know daring plot-driven drama if it came up and bit them on their asses.
* Yay to the UT Longhorns for making it to the Sweet 16 of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. You have a chance to advance to the Final Four (yet again) in S.A. We wanna see you here and actually try to win. Don’t screw it up. You’ve had national titles in baseball and football in the last few years. Let’s get one in hoops.
* Hope you all a good Easter weekend. Or as some of you’d rather see it as that spring holiday weekend or Jesus Zombie weekend. Whatever. (And nowhere in the Bible is stated that Christ arose after the crucifixion to feast on human brains. Either that or I completely slept through a theology lesson.)
