The one thing that is clear to me about the issue of Jeremiah Wright is that it is far too complex for our media to accurately capture. But one other thing is clear: as much as one can argue that his words were taken out of context before, his speeches to the NAACP and National Press Club contained extremely troubling statements, in context. And Obama was right to forcefully renounce those views today.
It is clear that Wright’s assertion that AIDS was created by the U.S. government is paranoid.
It is clear that his support of Farrakhan is troubling and his implication that white people are his enemy by placing his ancestors in chains appears on its face to be opposed to the teachings of the Christ he follows.
It is clear that he simplistically morally equates U.S. and Israeli military action with terrorism.
And yet to dismiss what he says completely without listening and engaging with it is to miss an opportunity. Why does Reverend Wright believe the things he does? What has he seen in his life which has formed his opinions? And are there nuggets of truth in his message from which we can learn?
Regardless of what happens to Barack Obama’s candidacy, our country needs to deal with its racial demons. What we need is not the vilification of people who say things which are wrong or which make us uncomfortable, but true racial reconciliation. Messy, angry, forgiving, racial reconciliation. White folks are going to need to hear what the Jeremiah Wrights have to say and black folks are going to need to understand the fears (rational or irrational) which continue to drive white racism, without condemning each other. And every other ethnic group will need to join in right along with them in this conversation. We’re going to need to listen much more than we speak, and forgive much more than we condemn.
Like with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this incident is a teachable moment for our country. If we miss the opportunity, like with our failure to address issues of poverty and race after Katrina, we will continue to slog through the uneasy racial peace which defines our country today. But if we grasp it, we have a chance to start to build the beloved community that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called us to so many years ago.
I pray that it will be the latter, but unfortunately my cynicism leads me to believe it will be the former.
Last night, Jeremiah Wright, the supposedly “racist,” “anti-American” pastor of Barack Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ, was interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS.
Watch the interview. Please.
If you expected a loon, a radical leftist hate-America-firster, you will be sorely disappointed if you watch the videos.
Instead, what I saw was a man who is deeply committed to Christ and building his kingdom here on earth. A man who loves his congregation and longs to see the African American community emerge from the legacy of slavery and oppression. And a man who was quoted OUT OF CONTEXT and then vilified by the entire mainstream media apparatus.
Two examples:
The media and the right-wing noise machine have claimed that Wright was blaming the United States for the attacks on 9/11 when he stated that “the chickens have come home to roost.”
But if you watch the sermon on context, what he was saying instead was the same as what Jesus said. “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” Violence begets violence, not peace. And so, as a nation which has engaged in numerous wars in its history, it is only logical that one day war would find itself back in our nation.
Rather than the media narrative that Wright was saying America deserved 9/11, instead he was simply helping people understand why wars happen in the first place.
The second, and more widely mentioned of his two remarks, was the sermon where he stated “not God bless America, God damn America.” However, this sermon too was quoted out of context.
And here this the context: God in the old testament blesses those who do good and curses those who do evil. And it is clear that God would NOT bless the litany of wrongs our nation has committed in the past: stealing the land of native American people, slavery, Jim Crow, and so forth.
Wright was NOT saying that HE damns America or that even God damns America in general, but like when Israel disobeyed the lord and oppressed its poor, he DOES damn the evil actions of its past.
And so should we all.
The bottom line here is that like with Al Gore’s supposed claim to have “invented the internet” (which he never made), and Howard Dean’s supposed crazy scream (which in the context of a VERY noisy room wasn’t so crazy at all), the media and its right-wing echo chamber have chosen to take soundbites out of context to try to destroy the political fortunes of one man (Barack Obama) and vilify a man whose love for Christ comes through loud and clear when you actually listen to what he is saying.
I have supported Barack Obama since early in the primary season, and hearing the words of his pastor only strengthens that support in my mind. It’s time for me to write a letter of encouragement to Rev. Wright and to give some money to Barack Obama. We can’t let these thugs in the right-wing noise machine lie their way to the destruction of another good candidate. It’s time to stand up to them.
For the sake of our country AND the sake of our church.
Wow, has it really been six months since I’ve posted here?
During those six months, I’ve spent a lot of time re-evaluating my faith (for the better), re-evaluating my political engagement (I would also say for the better), and enjoying my wife and three kids. But at least for today, I’ve got something to say, so I’m back.
At least for today.
I’ve just finished Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change, where he describes the world’s current system as a “suicide machine” which is hurtling our planet toward its untimely demise. The BBC has two data points which back up his thesis:
Global trade coupled with fossil fuel use is exacerbating global warming:
Our highly consumptive lifestyle is impacting our ecosystems:Global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation, one of the maritime industry’s key bodies has said.
A report prepared by Intertanko, which represents the majority of the world’s tanker operators, says emissions have risen sharply in the past six years.
North Sea cod stocks have declined severely since the late 1990s, and in the past the scientific advice has been to stop fishing for cod entirely.
Researchers say where fisheries have been closed, there are signs of a slight recovery.
But, they say, it is not yet enough, and these young fish need the opportunity to grow and reproduce so they can contribute to the restoration of this important fish stock.
For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must find a way to grow our economies in a sustainable fashion while at the same time sharing our wealth more equally with the poorest of the world’s poor. It’s the only way we can depart from our current suicidal course.
Dennis Kucinich, of course, holds the same position, but Edwards actually has a chance of getting the nomination. He may have gotten my vote with this statement.John Edwards: “What America should do, and what I would do as president, is to actually lead an international effort to eliminate nuclear weapons from the planet. That’s the way to make the planet more secure.”
While the other candidates are talking about under what circumstances the use of nuclear weapons should be “on the table,” Edwards and Kucinich are willing to stick their necks out and confront the patent immorality of continuing to possess weapons which could annihilate the entire world in the span of an hour.
Setting aside the moral arguments (as if that could be done), the pursuit of the elimination of nuclear weapons would also set our nation on more solid ground when arguing that countries such as Iran should abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and verifiably stop development of those weapons. If we as a nation are not willing to abide by our commitments under the treaty (to disarm), then why should we expect other nations to abide by theirs?
The bottom line is that the world’s primary existential threat is not from terrorism, as bad as that is. It is from the existence of nuclear weapons which may one day lead to the destruction of human civiliation and the loss of billions of lives.
This is starting to become a pattern. The Democratic congress is showing that it is just as willing to do the administration’s bidding as the Republicans were:
First it was their caving in to continue to fund the immoral war in Iraq, and now they have basically said to any American who calls overseas: you will be monitored. Whether you are suspected of talking to terrorists or not.Bush is getting practically everything he asked for. Indeed, under Bush’s warrantless-search program launched in 2001, the administration could conduct oversight-free surveillance only if it suspected someone on the call was a terrorist. Under the bill passed by the Senate yesterday, that condition no longer exists.
And for those who would say “the only people who have to worry are those who are doing something wrong”: has this administration done anything to make us believe that it will NOT use the law in unethical ways? The same administration which has ignored the Geneva convention, implemented illegal wiretapping programs without Congressional or court authorization, and used executive privilege to obstruct Congressional oversight investigations?
These people cannot be trusted, and yet the Democrats in Congress have done just that. Yeah, that’s why we elected you.
Hillary Clinton: “I think that presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or non-use of nuclear weapons… I don’t believe that any presidents should make any blanket statements with respect to use or non-use of nuclear weapons.”
Mrs. Clinton’s comments were in response to Barak Obama’s statement that he would not use nuclear weapons to fight terrorism in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Let me be plain about this. The use of nuclear weapons is immoral in every single circumstance. Presidential candidates most certainly SHOULD make blanket statements condemning their use. The closer a candidate is to renouncing their use (I suspect that Kucinich is the only one who would actually take that position), the more likely they are to get my vote.
Hillary’s position is the same immoral position of every President since Roosevelt. She is wrong, and it is her hawkishness on this and other matters of foreign policy which leave me concerned that a Clinton II Presidency, while an improvement over the debacle that is the Bush II Presidency, would only move us slightly away from our current path.
It is far past time for us to have a Presidential candidate with a reasonable chance of victory come out in favor of fulfilling our obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty - to work with the other world powers to destroy ALL remaining nuclear weapons. Keeping them “on the table” as an option is simply not acceptable, considering the fact that they remain the primary means of wiping out all of human civilization.
UPDATE: As I expected, Kucinich has the right position on nuclear weapons. Score one for Kucinich.
Except for the fact that they AREN’T the same. The group which orchestrated 9/11 is al Qaida, the one headed by Osama bin Laden. One of the groups which is part of a multi-lateral civil war in Iraq is called al Qaida in Iraq, a homegrown terrorist group with dubious ties to al Qaida proper which only rebranded itself al Qaida after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And of course the majority of the people who are bombing innocent people in Iraq are Sunni and Shiite militias, not to mention elements of the Iraqi army who are really members of those militias.“The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September 11,” [President Bush] said. “That’s why what happens in Iraq matters to security here at home.”
In other words, this is what you would call… what is it now? Oh yes, a lie. The same kind of lie this administration trotted out to make us believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 so that they could launch an immoral preemptive war. The same kind of lie which was used to convince us that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were more menacing than they actually were (which, given that they were non-existent, weren’t very menacing at all).
And you wonder why he has a twenty-six percent approval rating?
Kevin Drum hits all the low notes of our dysfunctional health-care system:
Over the course of the past several years, and especially as my wife and I have added three children to our family, we have been subject to many of these things. The lack of choice which requires you to switch primary doctors repeatedly in order to get the right mix of specialists. The terrible lines in the emergency room when your child needs care outside of business hours. The need to switch hospitals just because your health insurance decides it’s not going to pay for the one that is closer to your home.Rather than overall cost, then, which doesn’t matter to most people anyway (as far as most employed people are concerned, healthcare is essentially free right now) the selling point of national healthcare is freedom from the endlessly gnawing problems of our current jury rigged system. For example: HMOs that make it hard to see a specialist. High and rising copayments. Fear of losing coverage if you lose your job. Long waits for non-urgent care. New (and usually worse) healthcare coverage every time your HR department is told to find a cheaper plan.
And more: Small businesses that have a hard time attracting good employees because they can’t afford to offer health coverage. Big business that are on the verge of bankruptcy because of skyrocketing health costs. Lack of choice in physicians because you’re limited to whichever medical groups have signed contracts with your company’s insurance carrier. Losing your longtime family doctor because your company switches insurance carriers and you can only see doctors on your new carrier’s approved list.
And yet more: Fear that preexisting conditions won’t be covered if you take a new job. The risk of financial ruin if someone in your family has a truly catastrophic illness. Crowded emergency rooms that have essentially become clinics of last resort for the poor. Being forced to go on strike year after year because your employer relentlessly tries to gut your healthcare benefits every time your union contract gets renegotiated. 43 million people who lack health coverage of any kind.
And we have GOOD health insurance when compared to most people.
The fact is, the system is broken beyond repair and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. The first candidate who promises to do this in a way that ensures coverage for all, improves on the dismal level of service in our healthcare industry, and allows doctors to focus on being doctors will get my vote.
Unfortunately, no one, even the Democrats, seems to be willing to step up to the plate and offer more than a band-aid approach to reforming our health care system.
Markos Kounalakis has created an amazing video which illustrates Mark Twain’s poem, The War Prayer.
I wonder, if we truly prayed and worked for peace like we pray and work for victory - or democracy - or freedom - or America - or even the safety of our soldiers, what would the world look like?
