Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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Obama's More Perfect Union Speech
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
10:57 AM
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Text, here.
Update: Allahpundit is the greatest headline writer evah.
Update: Deflect, deflect, deflect. It's not Rev. Wright's fault for saying horrible, hateful things, nor my fault for having the bad judgment to associate with him for 20 years. Nope, it's the fault of the media for presenting Wright as a hateful caricature, despite the fact that Wright is a hateful caricature.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way. Update: He cannot disown Wright? Really? This rationale makes no sense to me, and sounds weaselly:
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. There are plenty of people I know who are part of America, this country that I love, with whom I would never choose to associate myself closely for 20 years.
Update: The anger is justified!
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. Update: White people are angry, too! White anger formed the Reagan Coalition, don'tcha know?
Update: Ed Morrissey: "Hey, let's focus on the real bad guys -- corporations!!"
Update:
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that
breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as
spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as
we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news.
We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and
talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question
in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I
somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can
pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s
playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
As I just did in the most-watched speech of the week, on national television.
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...three months and 12 days ago, Mitt Romney gave a landmark speech of his own. Today, it was Obama's turn. |
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I just got up, didn't see the speech, don't plan on watching it or reading the transcript of it. "The Radio Factor" will sum it up nice for me one hour from now. |
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...is what Obama is doing today.
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...until Denver for the wicked. All is going according to plan. |
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I see that like most conservatives, you only want your news nicely spun and filtered. You don't have to read or watch anything yourself--just wait for someone from the right-wing to tell you what you need to think about it. |
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Am I the only one who thinks that the speech
was basically a class warfare speech masquerading as racial healing. He wants whites and blacks to come together and focus on the real enemy.
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That was pretty much the consensus on the Hot Air live thread. |
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Had to get that out of the way. Anyway... |
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The speech was fairly good. I don't mean I agree with everything, but as a speech, it was good. |
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Unlike Ronaldus Magnus, the ultimate communicator, Barry Obama has NOT backed-up his "talk" with action. Sure, he talks a pretty good game. But has he accomplished ANYTHING? Anything at all?
This Wright flap only supports the view that Obama is a man of gross INACTION. For all his talk about racial unison and hope, he has sat on his hands for 20 years while Wright continually spewed racist propaganda. What kind of "leader" does that? The only logical conclusions are that Obama (1) tacitly agreed with Wright or (2) was too limp-wristed to do anything about it.
ANY person who sits idly by while others spout lies and hate CANNOT be trusted to lead. That is true for ANY organization. |
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I supported Duncan Hunter....
Now I wish I was a foreigner so I could laugh. |
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I thought it was a good speech. Way to call out your racist Grandma. Makes us all fondly remember our own racist Grandparents.
Did anyone else notice how fast his head was darting from one teleprompter to the other, it started to make me nauseous.
I'm still not convinced that those are his thoughts. |
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A wonderful speech just like all his speeches it sounded good but actually said nothing. Total bunch of garbage. I agree with LeeLee he is a man off talk but no action. All he does is tell nauseating stories about old women and young out of hope women. Does anybody really believe this junk?
I think he and his wife believed what Wright says until the news media found out! |
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... means focusing on America's failures, not its successes.
You can quote me on that, if you like. :O)
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...I retract my good review of the speech. It's going to be a long eight years of Obama. :'( |
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Typical Dem/lib playbook material. If you say it enough (whatever it is) then it will become truth. Bottom Line - Obama sat in a church for 20 years that bad-mouthed his mama. |
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I agree....
regarding the part about him not being able to disown Rev. Wright. It's equating my best friend having an illicit, steamy affair with my Mother for twenty years. "Sure, I heard the rumors and some rhetoric, but he's my best friend, after all. How could I ever abandon him???"
Wheres the character??? Where's the good judgement??
Had he stood up and been a man about it, he would have stood for all Americans.
No Sale!!!!! |
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Barack tried to seperate himself from the Words of Wright but NOT the Man Wright.
BHO is overlooking the hate filled words of Wright because of the works he has done for the community!
Obama is willing to accept an America/White/Rich Hater of a man as long as he does some community works for his own race. Where is the Hope/Change in that?
Obama is willing to accept a man who hates everything Not black, even Barack's own mom and grandmother, because of his community work. That is sound Judgement?
We know where you stand Barack and that is a position that is not acceptable. When will your wife be Proud of America-when blacks are the only race in America? That is the way is sounds! |
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I am a white, 57 year old woman who was reared in Tioga County, PA. The same Tioga County that made the front page of the Wall Street Journal in the mid 80's for racial and bias acts. It is the same TIoga County that in the 70's ran a black man out of town for dating a white girl. It is a sportsman's paradise and with that it has roots with the KLAN. Residents are much less likely to be members, but faces of lawyers, doctors, accountants and businessmen from Philly or Jersey who have "clubs" in the region, are currently faces of this antiquated organization. They fly their helicopters or bring their Hummers to the region and exchange their angry rhetoric of race, religion and even education bias. They call the residents cattle who are just a breed to serve their needs. The KLAN is no longer an organization against the blacks, it has grown to include all poverty dwellers. It is now a class system. We need to start addressing the "truths" of our nation if ever we are going to overcome our weaknesses. I believe Obama sees this nation with a good heart and a gift of unity and hope. I was reared by a father who uttered the bitterness of a different era. If you walk into an elder care home, you can hear the bias of that generation. I know I hold far different views. I believe many of us have evolved. We can no longer close our eyes. We need to speak about the wrongs, bring them out into the open arena and find a cure for them. Our past does include secret laboratories and tainted history. But those tests were not limited to the blacks. They include Indians, poor whites and orientals. We can utilize this information to create a better tomorrow.
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I am a 56 year old white male and I don't see the America you see. I see a country where every person has a right and an opprtunity to become successful in life, no matter the race, gender, religion, etc. Obviously there are some who get a better start than others because of the situation they were born into, but every person can be successful if they work hard for it.
Have we had difficulties and have there been unjustices in the past? Certainly, and there will always be reasons people can use as excuses to be victims, but I see no excuses for someone failing in this country.
I was raised without indoor plumbing and central heating in our home. No one gave me anything but an opportunity to work and succeed. I have been downsized in jobs 3 times and been unemployed but now own my own successful company. If I can do it anyone can do it because I'm not that smart or talented. I just work hard and didn't sit around feeling sorry for myself.
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Had Obama not spent 20 years either asleep in the pew (so soundly asleep that he not only did not hear the vitriol spewing from his pastor's mouth, but did not hear the fooot stomping, hand clapping and Hallelujahs that greeted it from people younger than himself), and more time with his Bible, he might have been alerted by Luke 4:1-8. Had he read Verse 6, he would have recognized the Puppeteer; had he repeated his [purported] Savior's words in Verse 8, he would not be balanced on a knife edge now trying not to repudiate the Puppeteer and at the same time to save his soul.
If he really never did spend any time in that church over the past 20 years, maybe he could get out his Lord of the Rings Concordance and check out how a partnership with Sauron worked for Saruman. |
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Listen, people, it's time to stop being afraid of this man. Your strenuously lame efforts to discredit Obama are transparently illogical. The negative comments about his speech are not just petty vindictive bull, but also emblematic of the typical conservative response to events that don't fit your narrow world view- to wit, you try to change the rules to fit your losing game. All your sound-bites won't change the fact that the only real leader in this race is Barack. |
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If Reverend Wright was like a character in a Hollywood movie - simple, one-dimensional, easy to label - then I too would condemn Obama for refusing to renounce him.
But I suspect that Reverend Wright - the man, not the YouTube video - is more complex than that, and has more to offer his parish than racist hate.
Mainstream media has a tendency to reduce human beings to caricatures, one-dimensional characters that can fit in a 15-second video clip, or a text crawler at the bottom of the screen, or in the clever but not always intelligent words of pundits seeking ratings more than truth.
This reductive, simplistic analysis is pervasive, and crosses party lines quite readily. Wright is a victim of it, but so is McCain, and so is Clinton, and so is Romney, and so is Ron Paul, and so is Obama.
Don't fall for it. The Internet offers many opportunities to read deeper into public figures and to let people form their own intelligent opinions.
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So from your commentary on Senator Obama's lack of total denunciation I should assume that every person who has ever said anything that personally offended you is no longer an acquaintance of yours? You have always unequivocally agreed with every statement that your pastor has said? You never have a dissenting opinion from your friends and colleagues?
This analysis is asinine in its simplification and characterization of reverend wright and how the media has portrayed him. By the illogical logic represented here Jerry Falwell should not have a friend in the world, remember when he blamed 9/11 on all of the homosexuals and people who have had abortions? I'm sure you do, but that isn't as offensive as saying all of the dictatorships we support around the world in the name of democracy are viewed as such by the global community?
I think you might want to give up your job as a "reporter" of the news if you think it is wise to distill the entire career of an extremely accomplished and renowned preacher to three 30 second sound bites. I hope the public will hold you to the same standard and reduce you in their memory to this column. In all of its inane generalizations and false claims, I hope you realize how lucky you are the the majority of the American public does not follow the same thought patterns that you have laid out here.
By the way I plan on voting for McCain, just thought I would let you know, incase you would attempt to reduce and characterize my comments here in the same way that you have treated the statements of Rev. Wright and Senator Obama.
You should be ashamed. |
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