Commentary
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PEAK OIL?
I remember over the past couple of years see blog posts and stories in the media about peak oil. Ever heard of that? Peak Oil is a theory that states the earth has a limited and finite supply of oil, a supposed fossil fuel, most of which we have already found and that within a few decades, we will run out of oil.
It is a very bleak theory that is full of doom and gloom taht basically says we are all going to die.
I was reminded of peak oil the other day when having a converstation with a business associate. We were talking about gas prices, the economy, etc. and he remembered reading an article recently about a new theory emerging in the geology community, that oil might be renewable? It seems there is an emerging school of thought that oils was not formed by the decaying of fossil remains, as we were taught in school, but rather that oil is a naturally occuring element formed by the earth’s natural processes.
It’s not just a a crackpot idea. The theory that oil reserves can be naturally replenished is gaining wide acceptance and there is fact to back it up. (Do a Google search on “renewable oil” or “Dr. Thomas Gold”.)
My point of all this is that we are still teaching kids that oil is created from plants and animals that died millions of years ago, when that may soon be proven as plausible as the flat earth theory. The fossil fuel “theory” was apparently the “widely held concencus” of the scientific community for decades and now it seems so contrary to the facts today that we are on the verge of throwing the theory of fossil fuels out the window.
What does that mean for global warming, uh I mean climate change?
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON OBAMA, HILLARY, OPRAH AND THE OLYMPICS
It is funny and and frightening to watch liberals embrace “spirituality” for the purpose of political gain. Hillary wants to lay claim to as much of the “church-going” vote as she can, but she says it’s irrelavant to discuss when was the last time she went to church. I guess important people are just to busy for worship.
I heard Tom Daschle say that Barak Obama has spent his entire life working with the disenfranchised. Apparently he’s done some other work too, because the disenfranchised can’t pay enough to get you the kind of multi-million dollar crib Obama lives in. They also can’t afford the type of political donations and support you need to get from the state legislature, to Washington and to the largest fundraiser in the presidential campaign. Maybe, just maybe he’s found a little time to work in a few favors for the un-disenfranchised.
My pastor gave a heck of a sermon Sunday. He was warning us about “false light”. Teaching that sounds good and reasonable but is contrary to the word of God. He even named a few big names, Oprah Winfrey being one of them. I did some follow up after his sermon and discovered what he was talking about. Have you heard? Oprah and some author named Eckhart Tolle are starting a new religion. based on Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth”. Oprah’s millions have bought her one of the biggest platforms on the planet and she is using it to foist her ideas on politics and religion upon the masses.
Isnt’ it funny how the same people who say we should “engage” and talk it out with Iran and our other terrorist enemies are the same ones saying we should boycott the Olympics in China.
You can’t have convictions based on the politics of the moment.
I’d like to buy James Carville for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth. Carville is one of the chief purveyors of hate, vitriol and dirty politics of modern times. He ushered in the politics of destruction as Bill Clinton’s hatchet man. An honest, thoughtful opinion never escapes that man’s mouth.
Another great point from my pastor, Tim Hill (www.timhill.org) Isn’t it funny how all of these cult leaders teach doctrine that feeds their perversions. Having sex with 13 year old girls, sexual promiscutiy, money, power….
BARAK OBAMA’S FAMILY TIES
Liberalswill tell you that America is hated around the world because of George Bush. They will tell you that Bush doesn’t know how to relate to foreign leaders and has, by virtue of his inability to relate, alienated us from the rest of the world.
Some of those liberals, now supporting Barak Obama, will tell you that Obama is the only candidate who can “heal these wounds” caused by Bush. Obama has campaigned on the idea that he, and he alone, will be able to mend fences and “open a dialog” with foreign leaders, even our enemies. With all that being said, it should be fair game to look at who Barak Obama calls “a friend” from a foreign land.
Meet Raila Odinga.
Who is Raila Odinga? Odinga is a major political figure in Kenya. He is a candidate for president and lays claim to having won the most recent election, even though helost the popular vote. Odinga’s claim is that the election was rife with voter fraud. Odinga is no stranger to claims of fraud and misdeeds. He has been accused of treason, voter fraud and other crimes. His supporters have burned Christians alive and murdered supporters of his political opponenets. He is also cozy with the radical muslim movement in Kenya that is hoping for Sharia Law.
Odinga is a self-described social democrat, which puts only a little distance between him and his father, an avowed socialist. His party, the LDP, is affiliated to the Liberal International group. Recently, there have been calls by the Kenyan Minister of Justice for Raila to answer allegations regarding a shady land deal involving the Kisumu Molasses Plant. But that’s not the first accusation of impropriety leveled at Odinga.
Odinga was also accused of seizing property from citizens illegally, while serving as Minister of Roads. Houses owned by people who supported Odinga’s opposition or were from different tribes, were confiscated without compensation and destroyed. Members of the Kenyan’ press
In 2007 Raila Odinga was rumoured to have signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Muslim Leaders Forum, NAMLEF. Kenyan Muslim leaders have denied that Odinga’s party had promised to introduce Sharia for Muslims if it won elections, but said its deal with the Orange Democratic Movement was to end the current discrimination against Muslims.
Raila Odinga is so commited to the idea of socialism that he named his oldest son, Fidel, after Fidel Castro. Their youngest child, Winnie, is named after Winnie Mandela.
So what’s all this got to do with Barak Obama. Well as you can see in the picture above, Obama and Odinga are fairly well acquaited. In fact, Odinga claims to be Obama’s cousin through his father, Barack Obama Sr. Odinga claims Obama Sr. was his maternal uncle. This claim has not been corroborated, but Obama Sr. did come from the same Luo tribe as Odinga.
Ugandan officials recently reported that hundreds of members of newly re-elected President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe were crossing the border from Kenya, fearing death at the hands of mobs loyal to defeated challenger Raila Odinga. Also, 35 children and adults sheltering in a church near the western town of Eldoret were burnt alive by an angry mob of Odinga supporters in one of the worst incidents since the December 27 election.
With friends like this around the world, Barak Obama is sure to do a fine job of “repairing the damage done by Bush.”
No wonder Hillary is still in the race.
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY IN OBAMA’S SPEECH ON RACE
The following was sent to me in an email. I do not know Rev. Wayne Perryman or the origin of this commentary, but I felt it was certainly worthy of posting on this web site.
A Missed Opportunity In Obama’s Speech on Race
By Rev. Wayne Perryman
March 22, 2008
I was asked to review and analyze Obama’s inspirational and fascinating speech on Race. Many believe it is one of the best speeches we have heard on the subject since the I have A Dream speech. I agree. But I have one problem - he missed the opportunity to set the record straight
on two issues that he brought up.
1. His first missed opportunity came one minute and thirty-four seconds into his speech, when he refers to the Declaration of Independence and how it was “stained by “this nation’s original sin of slavery…”
Although he follows up and talks about how slavery “divided the Colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate,” he failed to point out that as a nation we were always divided over the issue of slavery from the time the first slave ship arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, to the end of the Civil War 246 years later.
He should have told the audience, that there has never been a universal endorsement of slavery by the white citizens of this country and that white America has always been split over the issue of slavery. He could have mentioned that 175 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the Mennonite Quakers (white folks) of Germantown, Pennsylvania passed an anti-slavery resolution in 1688. It was the first formal protest against slavery in the Western Hemisphere.
Under this resolution, Quakers who participated in the slave trade were threatened with expulsion.
He should have mentioned that in 1711, 65 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, that our white founding fathers passed colonial legislation to outlaw slavery, but their law was overturned by the British Crown.
He should have said the issue of slavery was so divisive that white churches split, white families splits (some fighting for the Union and other for the Confederacy) and eventually our nation split, which resulted in the Civil War.
He should have told his audience that the greatest obstacle in finalizing our Constitution was the issue of slavery. Pro-slavery members (who eventually became the Democratic Party) wanted to count slaves as full citizens (of their state) for the sole purpose of gaining more seats in the House, but they had no interest in giving their slaves the same rights afforded their white citizens of their
(southern) states. The anti-slavery members (who eventually became the Republican Party) strongly opposed this racist proposal. To finalize the Constitution and not give in totally to the pro-slavery members, they reached a compromise with the three-fifths clause. Stating that since the pro-slavery members did not offer their slaves citizenship (under “State’s Rights”) they could only count the slaves as 3/5 of a person when determining how many seats they could have in Congress.
In proving that our “nation” (meaning all of white America) never really endorsed slavery, he should have told his listening audience that in 1835 the anti-slavery movement had over 435,000 members and these white abolitionists fought and gave their lives to express their opposition to slavery and the mistreatment of African Americans.
He should have said that Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Brown weren’t the only whites that opposed slavery, there were countless of other individuals such as Republican Senator, Charles Sumner, who was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by Democrats for his speech
opposing slavery. There was Levi Coffin, the originator or the conductor of the Underground Railroad and several thousand other whites who eventually left the Democratic Party and formed the Republican Party to put an end to slavery.
By failing to point out the massive number of whites who not only opposed slavery but literally gave their lives to end it and racism, he merely perpetuated the myth and lie that our nation (implying that
every white in America) endorsed or approved of slavery and Jim Crow. He should have made it clear, that is wasn’t every white - it was primarily the white members of the Democratic Party - the party that became known as the Party of White Supremacy.
2. His second missed opportunity came 21 minutes and 14 seconds into his speech when he made the following reference to slavery, Jim Crow and the anger of his pastor:
• ‘We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow….’
• ‘…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 exist between the races….”
In order to foster a better understanding of the roots of racism Obama should have told his audience that the roots of racism rested in the soil of the Democratic Party, not in our nation as a whole. As a Harvard law scholar, Obama should have cited Case No. 06-1107, a case that was before the United States Supreme Court in 2007 where the Plaintiffs argued that:
“It was the Supreme Court’s decisions in key Civil Rights Cases that gave the Democratic Party the legal authority to inflict the alleged injuries on those whom the Federal District Court referred to as “the entire African American community. Those cases include, but are not limited to: The Dred Scott Decision, the Slaughterhouse Cases, Plessy v. Ferguson and the Civil Rights Cases of 1881, which convinced the Court that the 1875 Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional (Civil Rights
Cases 109 U.S. 3 (1881)….’
[All of the landmark Civil Rights cases cited above were designed to deny blacks their rights as citizens and all were the legal actions of Democrats]
[The Plaintiff went on to argue] ‘In the Slaughterhouse cases and other subsequent cases including Plessy v. Ferguson, it was the court’s narrow interpretation of the 14th Amendment that allowed many racist practices to go unchallenged and unpunished under what the Democrats claimed as “States Rights,” including their right to own slaves and treat them as property and not as people….”
[The Plaintiffs cited Professor Bernard Schwartz of New York University School of Law who said] “Upon Plessy was built the whole structure of segregation that has been at the heart of the Democrat’s southern system of racial discrimination…”
[In their final arguments the Plaintiffs said]
“The court must understand that racism in America was politically driven. Without the political backing of those who made up and formed the powerful Democratic Party, a Party that gave their lives and spent billions to preserve the institution of slavery and the system of Jim Crow, slavery would have ended 100 years earlier, and Jim Crow would have died in the womb of those who conceived it. Contrary to public opinion, racism was not something that the entire white race engaged in. Racism was the political agenda of a powerful political party – made up of individuals who chose to use the deadly disease of racism to cover their own insecurities, in their relentless quest for wealth and power.’ [The entire brief of this case can be found in Rev. Perryman’s
latest book entitled: Unveiling the Whole Truth]
Had Obama seized the opportunity to emphasize that our nation as a whole never endorsed slavery and that the roots of racism rested in the soil of his party, he would have narrowed what he called: the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
It is most unfortunate that Obama took the time to publicly denounce Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “wrong” statements, but he has never taken the time to publicly denounce his party’s racist past which was far more devastating and divisive than his pastor’s sermons or his grandmother’s
fears.
Rev. Wayne Perryman
P.O. Box 256
Mercer Island, WA 98040
(206) 860-6880
Rev. Wayne Perryman is a scholar, author, historian and minister who is African American and leads an inner city ministry in Washington state
REV. WRIGHT’S MISSION STATEMENT
The Rev. Wright’s unabashed racism, delivered as a firey sermon from the pulpit were his own words. Not someone’s opinion.
Below is the Statement of Faith for the Trinity United Church of Christ. Go to their web site and see for yourself. Read On!
United Church of Christ Statement of Faith in the form of a doxology
We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain “true to our native land,” the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.
The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:
A congregation committed to ADORATION.
A congregation preaching SALVATION.
A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.
Well two of their 10 “vision points” seem to address the Christian faith. The other 8 are all about politics and blackness. You also won’t find one word about America. Of course, Rev. Wright has made it abundantly clear how he feels about America. How is congregation should feel about America…
I wonder what a 20 year member of this church would do if he were able to control the highest office in America?
BY COMPARISON, HERE IS THE STATEMENT OF FAITH FROM MY CHURCH.
Church of Acts Statement of Faith
We Believe the Holy Bible to be the infallible word of God.
We Believe there is only One True God – revealed in three persons…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (commonly known as the Trinity).
We Believe in the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As God’s son, Jesus was both human and divine.
We Believe, though originally good, man willingly fell into sin – ushering into the world- evil and death, both physical and spiritual.
We Believe every person can have restored fellowship with God through salvation by entering into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord.
We Believe and practice two ordinances – 1) Water Baptism by Immersion after repenting of one’s sins and receiving Christ’s gift of salvation, and 2) Holy Communion (the Lord’s Supper) as a symbolic remembrance of Christ’s suffering and death for our salvation.
We Believe the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a uniquely personal experience following salvation that empowers believers for witnessing, discerning and serving, just as it did in New Testament times.
We Believe in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God as recorded in the Book of Acts, following the Feast of Pentecost. We believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever; therefore the gifts of the Spirit are still available to all who believe.
We Believe “justification” occurs at salvation and is not only a declaration that a believer is holy, but also begins a progressive, lifelong process of “sanctification” (separating from evil as believers continually draw closer to God and become more Christ-like.)
We Believe the Church has a mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe the Church is the Body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God’s offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we believe that the church is responsible for looking after orphans and widows.
We Believe a divinely called and scripturally ordained leadership serves the church. The Bible teaches that each of us under leadership must commit ourselves to reach others for Christ, to worship Him with other believers, and to build up or edify the body of believers - the Church.
We Believe in the Second Coming – when Jesus will rapture His Church.
We Believe a final judgment will take place for those who do not have a personal, intimate relationship with Christ. They will be judged for their sin.
WHO ARE THE REAL RACIST IN AMERICA?
I’ve been enthralled at the comments posted about Barak Obama’s speech regarding racism in America. They’ve ranged from apathetic to complete denial of the issue at hand.
I thought the speech was profound and significant in a number of ways. First and foremost, Obama must be applauded for the truth he spoke. It’s not easy for a politician, any politician, to speak candidly about any subject, let alone one as explosive as racism and I think Obama spoke candidly about SOME of the important aspects racism in America today. The problem is the dialogue has to go much deeper and be much more honest and candid if true racial healing can begin.
Racism is perpetuated by modern society. It is learned. We are not born racist. Have you ever seen little babies play together? They might recognize that something is different, but they don’t look at each other as inherently better or worse, just different, until they are taught to do so! Until their parents or family members teaches them to hate the difference. Until they start watching TV or reading books that teach them to hate.
You see racism comes down to people. That phrase “institutional racism” is hogwash! People are the agents racial divide and only people can hate. So if you want to start having a real discussion about race in America, you’ve got to start talking about people. So who are the real racists in America? Maybe the better question to ask is, who is causing the most racial strife in America?
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The most skilled white supremist organization in America today is the Democratic party. The Democrats are run by a bunch of rich white men who have, for nearly 40 years, convinced black America that that they have their best interest at heart. And 40 years after the civil rights movement, and 40 years after Martin Luther King’s dream was voiced, and for 40 long years of bussing, affirmative action and all the social experiments, the black welfare state has grown exponetially, prisons have become overcrowded with black men, much of black America is still in poverty and the ruling elite of the Democrats are still rich white men! THE KKK SHOULD BE TAKING NOTES!
THE RACE INDUSTRY: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, NAACP, SCLC and a host of other individuals and organizations thrive on racism. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and a number of black leaders have made careers out of racism. They preach it, they teach it and they call attention to it’s most inconsequential forms because it’s good for their pocket book. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT A KKK RALLEY? CAN YOU NAME A WHITE SUPREMICST LEADER, ANYBODY, WHO HAS AS MUCH NATIONAL RECOGNITION, CLOUT AND RESPECT AS JESSE JACKSON OR AL SHARPTON? Who are they doing battle with?
THE BLACK CHURCH: White America has seen what goes on in, not all, but in many black churches all across America. Rev. Wright’s “sermon” of hate for America is not the isolated rants of one man. Recent studies show that the majority of black American’s beleive that AIDS was created by the government. A sitting, senior black elected leader, Maxine Waters, believes and tells her constituants that crack cocaine was created by the CIA and that the CIA helps distribute it and keep it flourishing in the the black community.
People, the fox is in the hen house! Racism is being perpetuated by the very people and institutions that benefit from it’s existence.
Now I am not so stupid as to think that we can wipe out racism. There will always be hate and evil in this world, but we have eliminated, ELIMINATED, institutional racism. There is no law, in existence anywhere that prevents a black man from receiving the same opportunities as a white man. Racism that does exist, exists in the hearts and minds of the haters and the hated. Barak Obama is proof. He stands a reasonable chance of becoming the most powerful leader on the planet. What else is there? Economic equality? The same opportunity is there for all. To be sure, there is some catch up that has to be made for black families who cannot benefit from generations of acquired wealth. But that is a red herring! My father left me no wealth, no home, no land, no business. Does that make me a victim? Does that prevent me from building my own wealth, owning my own home? No!
I applaude Obama for making a bold speech but he is part of the problem. As my friend Zack pointed out to me in a recent email his favorite quote from Obama recently is “My friends we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you will join with me as we try to change it.” The irony is thick enough to spread with a knife but it’s typical of the mind set of liberals like Obama, Jackson, Sharpton, Wright, Clinton, The Democrats and the liberal elite. Their power comes from the idea of oppression. If oppression is defeated, conservatism wins.
BARAK OBAMA: IN HIS OWN WORDS
I started to write a commentary about this Barak Obama/Rev. Wright controversy. After reading the transcript of Obama’s speech in response to the controversy, I’ll have to modify it somewhat.
I publish Obama’s speech on racism here in the hope that all of your, conservative and liberal, black and white, whatever….will take the time to read it. It is a profound speech. It may well be the most important speech on racism in our time. I will publish my commentary in a few days, but please, take the time to read and consider it.
A video of the speech is here.
We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America�s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part � through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together unless we perfect our union by understanding that 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.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. 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.
Its a story that hasnt made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we�ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that its based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend 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 werent simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leaders 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.
As such, Reverend Wrights 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, 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.
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
But the truth is, that isnt all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God�s work here on Earth by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverends voice up into the rafters.And in that single note hope! I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lions den, Ezekiels field of dry bones. Those stories of survival, and freedom, and hope became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didnt need to feel shame about memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild.
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. 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. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions the good and the bad of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
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.
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 Reverend 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 Reverend 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. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still havent 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.
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 todays urban and rural communities.
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. 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.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. Whats remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
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 Wrights 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 politicians 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 Wrights sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. 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. Theyve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas 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 theyre told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
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.
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, 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.
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 na�ve 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.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. 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.
Ironically, this quintessentially American and yes, conservative notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright�s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wrights sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. Its that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope � the audacity to hope � for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, 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. Not just with words, but with deeds � by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; 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 worlds great religions demand that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brothers keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister�s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
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 Wrights 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.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, well be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
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 dont look like us are somebody elses 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.
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.
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.
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, 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 would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn�t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man whos been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why hes there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, I am here because of Ashley.
Im here because of Ashley. By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
WHAT, ME WORRY?
Reading some of the headlines about the economy is enough to make you worried about the future. How will I pay my mortgage? How can I afford to buy gas? Am I going to lose my job? These are all genuine concerns for working American’s like me, but I’m not worried. Maybe I should be more concerned. Maybe I’m just an optimist. I’m just not that worried, mainly for two reasons.
The first reason. Nobody reall wants America’s economy in the tank. There are headlines and stories around the world saying this current economic crisis in America will be the end of America as we know it. Some are suggesting that drastic measures such as Marshall Law, postponement of the 2008 elections, another Great Depression and even the end of America’s sovereignty are all immenent! But nobody really wants that to happen do they?
Do the OPEC nations want their biggest customer, by far their biggest customer, to stopy buying oil? Do China, Japan, Taiwan and all the other countries that sell billions of dollars worth of consumer goods want that market to dry up? The American farmer feeds the world, literally. Does the world want to stop eating American wheat, corn, beef and other American grown food?
There are certainly a number of things that the rest of the world would like to see changed. The war in Iraq robbed a lot of European’s of Sadaam’s petro-dollars. The war against terror has interrupted billions in drug trafficking. For a long time, America’s dominance in the world marketplace has made all other countries also-rans, but the real truth, the real essence of success for all the world’s economy is the American consumer. Everybody in the world wants us for a customer. We spend, we spend big and we do it often. If we stop spending, then everybody, China, OPEC, Mexico, even Europe, everybody starts to suffer.
Nobody really wants America to fail, so I’m not worried.
The second reason I’m not worried is God’s favor. I know this country has it’s faults, but America is the nation leading the cause of freedom and Democracy. America is spreading the word of God throughout the nations. No nation is more generous in it’s giving. Nobody even comes close and now more than ever this world needs America.
So I’m not worried. I’m prayerful, prudent and concerned about a few things, but I’m not worried.
THE POLITICS OF WEATHER: How The Weather Channel Turned Forecasting Into Bush-Bashing!
I guess I should have realized it was going to happen back when liberals started blaming hurricanes on Bush foreign policy. Then when Katrina hit and the failure of a Democrat govenor and Democrat Mayor to mange the aftermath of the disaster morphed into another failed Bush policy, I should have seen it coming.
Last night, it hit me right between the eyes.
I was watching the Weather Channel for the “local on the eights” forecast. I should have changed channels before they got back into programming but the I didn’t. I got sucked right into another installment of their ongoing series, “When Weather Changed History.” Guess what I learned? I learned that Republican Herbert Hoover drove blacks away from the Republican Party after he failed to follow through on numerous promises made to black America during his campaign. This is one way that weather changed history. Oh yeah, he also ordered levee’s on the Mississippi River to be blown up, causing the flooding of poor, black parrishes north of New Orleans in order to save his rich white friends in the city. Another astounding example of weather altering the course of history! Wait there’s more! Hoover ordered those levees to be blown up with complete disregard for deaths of black American’s that would most assuredly follow…and here’s the most important thing I learned…this whole Republican conspiracy against blacks back in the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 is exactly what happened with Bush and Katrina.
Did you notice how I slipped that part in there about a flood? See, I told you this was about how weather changed history.
Why doesn’t the Weather Channel just change the name of the show? “How Republicans Use Weather to Kill Black People.” Yeah, that’s got a nice ring to it….and it’s timely too, what with the election and all happening right now. Maybe this one. “Storm Stories: Bush Lied, Crops Died!” How about just have random liberal rants 6 times an hour and call it “Crazies On The Eights.” Why hold back?
What happened to the Weather Channel? Is Dr. Heidi Cullen really a mad scientist who has replaced the brains of everyone working there? You remember her. She’s the gal that suggested any meteorologist who didn’t believe in global warming, excuse me climate change, any one of them who dared to have a differing opinion should be stripped of their American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval. Check out this quote from her weather.com blog.
” Meteorologists are among the few people trained in the sciences who are permitted regular access to our living rooms. And in that sense, they owe it to their audience to distinguish between solid, peer-reviewed science and junk political controversy. “
That’s what SHE said about scientist who DISAGREE with Al Gore’s version of climate change. You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s more.
If a meteorologist can’t speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn’t give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn’t agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns. It’s like allowing a meteorologist to go on-air and say that hurricanes rotate clockwise and tsunamis are caused by the weather. It’s not a political statement…it’s just an incorrect statement.”
Here’s the clincher.
“I agree with every meteorologist who says the topic of global warming has gotten too political. But that’s why talking about the science is so important!”
Remember that line the next time you’re watching “When Weather Changed History.”
NOW WHAT DO I DO?
Hillary and Obama are still a toss up. McCain is the defacto nominee for the Republican party and you, as a conservative, are probably asking yourself…What the heck do I do now?
The answer to that question is vote for the best person for the job. For my money, no matter how you slice it, in spite of what Ann Coulter thinks, in spite of what Rush Limbaugh says, that person is hands down, John McCain. Can he win? Who knows. One thing is certain, if conservatives sit this one out he won’t won’t win and will end up with a neophyte who looks good on camera and can make a great speech or a power obsessed elitist who’s been feeding off the government teat all of her adult life. Do we really need either one of those types of people in the White House right now?
THE CASE AGAINST OBAMA
I think it’s great that a black man has been this competitive in the presidential election. Unlike Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Alan Keyes, Barak Obama can actually win. Remember the Eddie Murphy routine about a bunch of rednecks getting drunk and voting for Jesse Jackson. Well Obama doesn’t need the accidental vote, he’s a legitimate candidate and could become president. I think that’s great, I just hope it doesn’t happen because I don’t think Obama has the chops to run the show. It takes more than a speech to move Washington and the government towards a goal. It takes more than talking to convince world leaders your way is the best way. What I’m saying is, beyond Obama’s policy positions, some of which are just the same old liberal tripe, it takes some balls to be president and McCain and Hillary both have more balls than Obama. It takes some piss and vinegar to forward America’s interest throughout the world. If I’m narrowing choices between the three, Obama is out and it’s down to Hillary and McCain.
THE CASE AGAINST HILLARY
I could make this a very short paragraph or a very long one. I’ll try to hit somewhere in between. There is just something inherently wrong about someone who graduated college with a burning desire to devote their entire life to the pursuit of political power, and did so. That is precisely what Bill and Hillary have done all their lives. There is no real world experience to call upon. With Hillary it’s just all numbers. Ones and zeros. She is a social experimenter who has never been part of the experiment. Bill Clinton told us , ” I feel your pain.” That sums Hillary up perfectly. She feels our pain because she’s never felt that pain herself. As a lifelong member of the elite ruling class of government wonks, Hillary is not qualified to lead average Americans because she’s never been one.
THE CASE FOR MCCAIN
Yes, he’s liberal. Yes he’s old but isn’t he the best person for the job, right now? He’s always been right on Iraq and was calling for more troops since before the invasion. We are a nation at war. I like the idea of having a guy who’s been there and done that at the helm. Bottom line is, nobody likes war less than a soldier. They’re the ones who get killed. No soldier wants to die for their country. They’re just willing to if that’s what it takes.
If we are to prevail in the war against terror….We need a commander in chief.
If we are to curtail the growth of Islamic Facism….We need a hard nose negotiator who is not afraid to push away from the table.
If we are to rescue our economy….We need to keep more money in the private sector and less in the hands of the government.
Start asking youself those kinds of questions and McCain stands out as the clear choice in November 2008.
