Next message: Robert Pelton: "Re: T&T: Obama"
Obama's courageous speech
_Here_ (http://www.drudgereport.com/flashos.htm) is the text of Barack
Obama's "major address" on race relations and Pastor Wright. Obama says he can
no
more disown the White America-hating Wright than he can disown his
grandmother who, he says, occasionally uttered racial epithets [correction:
she
occasionally indulged in racial stereotyping]. "These people," he intones "are
a
part of me, and they are a part of America, this country that I love."
But there is a key difference between Obama's grandmother and Rev. Wright.
Not only is his connection with Wright voluntary, but Obama selected Wright to
be his spiritual leader. Since he still says Wright is "part of me" (and he
can longer claim that he doesn't know the full scope of Wright's hatred of
"white America"), he should be judged for containing that "part."
It will not do to say that Wright is "part of America." Lots of deplorable
people are part of America, including white racists. Political candidates are
not required to embody every strand of America, much less the most noxious
hate-filled ones. Political candidates embrace the strands that speak to them,
and we should embrace the political candidates whose strands of thinking speak
to us. No other candidate for president contains Wright's thinking as "part
of them." In all likelihood, no other remaining candidate takes Wright's
views seriously.
Obama admits the obvious -- that he does take Wright's views quite seriously.
He states:
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have
surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this
country that webve never really worked through b a part of our union that
we
have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our
respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve
challenges
like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every
American.
Here, Obama not only welcomes the comments and issues raised by Wright into
our national dialogue, but claims that we can't "solve challenges like health
or education" without working through these comments and issues. Obama should
be required to explain why he thinks, for example, we can't substantially
improve our health care system without "working through" whatever
"complexity"
is associated with such comments as Wright's claim that the U.S. brought 9/11
on itself. Part of the answer, though certainly not a sufficient one, is
that Obama takes Wright's comments seriously, even though he does not agree
with
them. They are, as he has said, provocative from his perspective.
Although Obama's speech is not without its evasions, I consider it a
courageous one by usual political standards. He has refused to walk away from
Wright's black liberation theology when it might well have been expedient to
do so.
The rest of us now should have the courage to take Obama at his word and
decide whether it is acceptable to elect as president of the United States
someone who carries Rev. Wright around as part of him, and who takes his
ranting
seriously.
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