Obama's speech
From SBNOW on March 18
Like him or not, Barack Obama is a truly extraordinary presidential candidate, unlike anyone since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 in terms of speaking directly to issues of race, inequality and other topics seen as too taboo or inflammatory for a major presidential candidate.
So, reeling from attacks about the demagoguery spewed by his church pastor over the years, Obama responded with an instantly historic treatise on race.
Mark this reporters words: Excerpts of this speech will be a staple in political philosophy books within a decade. Surely, this is the most complex and poignant address of race and class in America by a major 21st century American political figure. It owes lineage to RFK's famous address after MLK's death and MLK's own "I have a dream," to slavery and Jim Crow; to the combination of righteousness and ruggedness that marked the nation's birth.
Imagine, a presidential candidate with the courage to utter the words " ... stained by this nation's original sin of slavery," and then close with an example of a young white woman who exemplifies America's openmindedness and optimism that we can make tomorrow's democracy even better.
It sort of felt, in fact, like a sequel to MLK's shining moment, a more complex and somber, yet hopeful, assessment of race relations in the post Civil Rights era.
That the speech was a brilliant meditation on the condition of race relations in our time is without doubt; how it will play politically, in this election, remains to be seen. The real question is has the speech done enough to assuage the trepidation raised in the throngs of white voters unsettled by Obama's pastor's angry rhetoric.
We'll see.
Among the highlights: "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."
"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain.
Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice.
Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America, a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
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"Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork.
We can dismiss Rev. Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Rev. Wright made in his offending sermons about America -- to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
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, 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.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country."
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"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."
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"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.
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 or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor."
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"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."
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
I think this exemplifies why Obama is so extraordinary. Like Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and Robert Kennedy in 1968, he incisively cuts through the fog of the political business-as-usual. That is why he appeals so powerfully to thoughtful young people across the board. The feminists who say that he has overtaken Sen. Clinton because he is a "cute young guy" not only starkly reveal their own prejudices, they just don't get it.
The provided email doesn't exist....This was posted by the Sun on a blog I submitted...Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. If the following goes through on this old posted blog, I guess it does exist.....
An American war hero who endured the barbaric, cruel, inhumane and relentless torture of the North Vietnamese Army captors is being treated no better by the American major news media of all types. The ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC TV and radio media, the majority of newspapers, including the San Bernardino The Sun, and supermarket type sensationalist yellow rag magazines all join in a savage and relentless campaign of attacking John McCain and his Vice-Presidential running mate, Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is the American dream Mom. She embodies the values of good family Moms. She is also the heroine for many hard working, high values women in this Presidential race. Her family embraces all the things that the American family lives for in our everyday lives. She is the daughter, Mom, and wife that anyone would be proud to call theirs. She is attacked by those of her own gender when she should be celebrated by them. The unethical influence peddling of the Oprah types attempt to have women believe that Joe Biden is a better way for their feminine groups.