I’ve been really concerned about Wright from the beginning. He was a hard pill for me to swallow. He makes me think twice about Obama.
And this is mostly because my father is a Methodist minister, I grew up around and attended many black churches, and my family even traveled to Israel with our African-American Bishop. Not one of the black preachers or churches I had contact with or attended as a youth preached Black Liberation Theology, no pulpit expressed anti-American notions or radical conspiracy theories. And most don’t! Wright is a fringe preacher. An extreme fringe.
(But, not on the South Side of Chicago.) … (And I didn’t grow up on the South Side of Chicago.)
And I know what it means to be a member of a church and sit Sunday after Sunday through sermon after sermon. I know that if you don’t agree with the sermon or the preacher then you move on and try the church next door (or try to get the preacher moved or fired). That is simply how it works.
And if you feel a certain connection to the congregation, but not to the preacher, then you continue on with the congregation and put distance between yourself and the preacher. This is just how it works.
(But, Obama is a politician first.)
However, after watching Wright on television yesterday and over the weekend on Bill Moyers, I have to say that he ain’t so bad.
This isn’t to say that he isn’t overly-suspicious of government and the democratic process. He is. You could even argue that he is hostile to democracy. But, his is a dissent which has been dissented since the formation of our country. And does not every man have a right to his opinion and to speak his mind? Of course.
But, the argument goes: “Do we want a man hostile to democracy counseling the future president of our nation?” Probably not.
But, if you actually take the time to listen to an entire sermon or speech or have Wright express his views in full, the anti-democracy quips are taken out of context. Not way out of context, but out of context all the same. Wright is merely trying to make a point with a couple too many ill-thought metaphors.
Wright waxes long and hard about the injustices done to African Americans - trying to make sense of it through sometimes far-fetched conspiracies. But again, he is simply trying to understand the pain and suffering of his congregation. He is not forward thinking, but backward thinking. Mining the past to make sense of the present. And the present state of many African-Americans makes his blood boil. And many times, instead of turning to God, Wright prefers to point the finger.
Wright comes from a specific generation of Black Liberation Theologians. It was a short burst of radical thought in the overall history of the African-American Christian Church in the early 1970s. Wright’s is such a fringe sect at this point that I would argue he is completely irrelevant in the broader context of the African-American church.
But, I’ve buried my lead: Wright is not a bad man. He is a passionate preacher with very specific views and a very distinct world view - which his congregation shares. Wright makes sense in his church in his neighborhood in Chicago. Full stop. And if you don’t live in the South Side of Chicago, and if you aren’t open to Black Liberation Theology then you aren’t going to “get it”.
I would argue that Wright is in no way anti-American. No way. If you listen to his sermons, read his speeches, then it is plain and clear that Wright is fully aware that he has the right to speak his mind and preach his preach because he is American. He cherishes America. He believes in freedom. He believes in justice. And many of his sermons seem angry because he doesn’t think that America is living up to its full potential - that our constitution has been trampled on throughout our history.
Americans should not be concerned that Obama attended his church or had Wright conduct his marriage ceremony or baptize his children.
I think that Obama was simply trying to get to know the people he hoped to represent in the South Side of Chicago. And in the process Obama was introduced to Christianity. That’s the story. It’s plain and it’s simple. And something that Americans should not be afraid of.
Hillary was expected to win Pennsylvania and she did. No surprise there. But, is this prolonged battle between Clinton and Obama going to benefit the Democrats’ chance of getting back into the White House?
I stand by my previous assertion: No.
It’s my opinion that the Democratic primary has further divided a deeply divided society. Hope has been smashed on the backs of hard-working Americans across the socio-political spectrum. I think people feel lied-to, betrayed and mislead by all of the candidates. And I feel that cynicism about our government has not been defeated. In fact, cynicism reigns supreme.
So, why do I feel that McCain will be stepping into the Oval Office come November?
Because the Democrats are simply circus clowns and Republicans the ring masters (and the concessions cart and ticket takers).
And also, people have a long and nuanced memory of McCain’s career. He’s been up, he’s been down, he’s been all around in the public’s conscience. They may dislike him. They may not agree with him or trust him or think he is the best man for the job. But, no one can argue that McCain hasn’t been serving our country his whole life in good ways and bad.
Things could change. And I hope they do. The Republicans need the boot!!! McCain is NOT the best man for the job. But, Hillary and Obama have got to stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about the common good. And Pennsylvania’s results have just added more fuel to the fire. Sigh.
Church leaders in Zimbabwe are now airing fears that the current unrest may devolve into outright genocide. This is going from bad to worse to worse-than-worse-than-worse. Unfortunately, the country is a ticking time bomb.
PS: there are still conflicting reports out there regarding the destination of the Chinese arms shipment (Angola or Beijing).
I’m calling bullshit on all this press about McCain visiting “poor areas“. As if “poor areas” were dead zones on a map where you can’t get a cell phone signal. As if “poor areas” were uncharted regions of Mars thought to be inhabited by savage life forms. As if McCain were fucking diving in to a black hole tethered to one of his wife’s diamond-studded panties. As if we should give McCain a medal of honor for doing his so-called job.
How brave. How noble. How exemplary for this privileged white man to dirty his shoes in “poor areas”.
McCain might as well come out and say: “Let them eat cake.” Or he could just fly over them in one of his private jets. He is so fucking out of touch.
The poor are not aliens. The poor are not foreign. The poor are our friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters.
And the poor don’t live in one “poor area”. The poor live right next door, down the street, above and below us. Has McCain never taken a stroll around the block in DC (one of the most impoverished cities in America!)??? What a load of horse shit, McCain.
Call me a cynic. Call me jaded. But, I don’t buy for a second that McCain gives a damn about “poor people”. I don’t think that McCain cares or empathizes with those less fortunate. This is nothing but a media blitz in hopes of inaccurately painting McCain a “compassionate” Republican.
Again: bullshit. It’s all politics, baby. If he really cared about the poor he would have taken the silver spoon out of his mouth and done something to ease their burden during his 26 years in public office.