I was hoping for another speech in American history along the lines of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream". Admitedly, there were moments of greatness in Obama's race-speech followed by sudden surges of socialist ideas. I determined not to listen to talk-radio today so that I could read the speech and give it my own evaluation before my opinion became tainted with the likes of Dennis Miller and Glenn Beck. Yes, even a conservative can think critically on his own accord. So here it goes...a majority of the speech...parts with less substance deleted...with my remarks added mid-stream:
“…we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren. (Classic “together we can do it” rhetoric and I’m okay with that. I believe that we all do want a better future for our posterity.) This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. (Amen Brother Obama)
But it also comes from my own American story. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. (Interesting perspective you must be able to provide)
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy (I’m with ya here Bro. Obama, but oh wait …Socialism Warning!) a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. (So…rowdy behavior as you worship God is acceptable and you will realize that once you have been “trained”. Make a note of that.)
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 we’ve never really worked through – 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, ( I agree whole heartedly with this paragraph…but oh darn, here it comes again…Socialism Warning!) 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. Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students. (Ok, government run education is an issue that I struggle with. John Adams clearly advocated education provided through the means of government for the entire public. We have been able to see all the advantages and disadvantages of this and I agree that there is huge education inequality across the country. There’s education inequality from one school to the next in my own community, even from one teacher to the next. I just don’t think government agencies are good at running things.)
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities. (I understand, Brother Obama) A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. (Wow! A powerful admission from a liberal senator. So, Mr. Obama, what are you going to do about a bad welfare system?...sadly he never answers that question.) (Socialism Warning) And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. (Is it really a lack of basic services? I admit that external causes have been a stumbling block for a black person’s progress, but internal weaknesses are also to blame. The basic services comment implies a socialist view that government should be the provider.)
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 (nice sound bite here) 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.
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 (Amen Bro. Obama).In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas (See my blog entry “Made in USA”) or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. (Bro. Obama, Good job seeking to understand both sides of the issue.) Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. (As a regular conservative-talk listener, there is some truth to Obama’s statement here. Radio is still considered entertainment and legitimate discussions of racial injustice doesn’t regularly hit the airwaves. Would any one listen? We should, but since we don’t the evil corporations won’t pay for it with their sponsorship. Maybe we could pass laws that require stations to dedicate equal time to both sides of every issue. Oh wait, they tried that and it didn’t work!)
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices (Op! Here are those evil business people again! They don’t care about anyone or anything but makin’ a buck. Just ignore the point the corporations and their employees are the biggest charitable contributors in our country), and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding (Amen to this last sentence). This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union (Amen Bro. Obama).
For the African-American community (notice who he is speaking to here), that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. (Right on point…but wait….) It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. (It sounds good on the surface, but what is really meant by this statement? Should African-Americans go around demanding that all of the ills they face be resolved by the government, which brings us to yet another Socialism Warning…) But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. (Amen to this last sentence)
In the white community (audience change!), the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed (True). Not just with words, but with deeds (Socialism Warning) – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; (Double Socialism Warning and a “philosophies of men mingled with scripture” Warning) by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. (Oh, and then a cowering to political correctness for women. Weak!)
Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well. That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. (I reject your premise that the system is the sole fault. Where is your encouragement of the importance of family? You started to go there earlier, but then cut off. Satan’s attack on the family and our submission to him is what is “stealing the future” of our children.)(Socialism Warning) This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. (Obama has just destroyed the very precepts of his own speech. Here is assigns people to a state of no-hope, to a “can’t” do it attitude. You poor helpless people need the leadership of Uncle Obama to pull you up from your lowly state.)This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit (What about jobs going overseas so that businesses here in America can compete and keep their doors open on our soil? And what about the good that those businesses do to enhance the way of life in those impoverished countries?) This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged (oh, brother! Don’t even go there with me.) , and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned (I agree with this last clause though).
This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. (Amen Brother Obama)
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