Wright or Wrong?

Jeremiah Wright has made some very Anti American statements on the pulpit, as we have all seen.  How many times, from how many different sources, have we seen and heard those infamous 4 or 5 clips?  Too many times, but that should not be a surprise.  What impact will these clips have on Obama’s candidacy seems to be the question of the hour, but that is really for each and every one of us to decide when we are casting our votes. 

 The standard defense, the one used by Obama himself, is that these clips were not the norm at the church, only happened occasionally, and that we should not leap to the conclusion that this was the daily fare of that church which Obama sat through frequently during his 20 years at the church. 

 At this point in time, that is a bit hard to swallow.  I have yet to see any transcripts or video’s of a sermon of Wright’s in which I do not see something objectionable.  That is not to say that I find everything he says objectionable, but I do see some objectionable material in every clip/text I have seen of his, or of his replacement at that same church for that matter.  If he is so good most of the time, why is it so hard to find the good parts after all the publicity (notoriety) given the bad stuff?  The preceeding sentences in this paragraph were written before the most recent clip of his Italian comments was released.  That recent clip changes nothing in my opinion, simply adds a bit more fuel to the fire, and a bit more evidence of his overall set of values. 

 Obama gave a speech, a rather eloquent speech at that, to attempt to put out the firestorm in progress over Wright’s comments.  Contrary to his intial comments denying ever hearing anything like that from Wright, he now admits that yes, he has head them, but they weren’t too often, they were mixed in with a bunch of good stuff, and he didn’t buy into the bad stuff anyway.  I see this as a significant credibility strike against him. 

 He offers nothing but his words to back up his claims that he does not, has not, accepted Wrights values on these important matters.  And he only went that far when denial did not make the firestorm go away.  He attempts to imply that these incendiary words/topics are only occasional occurrences, but yet no evidence supporting that claim is offered.  How about some snippets where all red blooded Americans can cheer him along? 

 He says “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,” again implying that it is an infrequent or rare occurance, and now adding the idea that it is the same as all of us have heard from time to time from our spiritual leaders. 

 At least he is not admitting that he has heard “many” of Wright’s political views he disagree’s with.  But this new assertion that his disagreement with Wright’s view is similar to experiences many or most of us have had, well, sorry, this one is even tougher to accept.  The selection of one’s spiritual leader, pastor, rabbi, mentor, whatever, should be a very serious issue involving an in depth review of the person’s/church’s doctrine, philosophy, views. 

 Have I ever heard objectionable views said at the various Churches I have belonged to over the years?  Well, no, I have not.  I have heard views expressed that I did not agree with, such as the death penalty (no comment whether I am pro or con, that is irrelevant), but never anything anywhere close to GD America, or the government created Aids as a way to eliminate people of color from the planet.  Had I heard them uttered at a church I belonged to, or heard about them later, no doubt whatsoever what my reaction would have been.  I would have immediately become a former member. 

 He wants us to believe him when he says “Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms…”  Does he really expect me to believe that even in private discussions Wright has never uttered a derogatory word about whites to him?  Now that, IMHO, is a HUGE stretch, a far far greater stretch than it would be for me to excuse some of the comments Wright has made, write them off as just getting carried away, as we all do from time to time. 

 Still not enough?  OK, have a look at his own Church’s website http://www.tucc.org/black_value_system.html.  I started this paragraph with the intent of picking a couple of juicy pieces from that page to blast, and leaving the rest alone, my thinking being that I didn’t want to be nit picking.  But darn it, there too many serious issues to do that.  Go have a read yourself, read it closely.  Number 11 is especially troubling to me, more by what it does not say than what it does.  Neither there nor anywhere do I pick up even a hint of allegiance for the United States of America.  Yes, the very same United States of America who’s constitution guarantees their Wright the right to say the hateful things he has said.  Nope, nothing at all in there about allegiance to the country, flawed as it is, that has provided Obama the opportunity to succeed as he has in his life. 

 This IS the doctrine Obama has subscribed to by becoming a member and remaining so for 20 odd years.  And he really wants us to believe that in those many years, through those many sermons, and many private conversations with Wright, he never heard a derogatory word toward whites? 

 Why are the videos of his sermons no longer available on the Church website?  Why is Wright canceling speaking engagements?  Why has no evidence other than Obama’s own words been made available?  I would sooner believe that one magic bullet was able to change course and do it’s damage, fatally wounding President Kennedy during it’s travels. 

 Remember, it was and is Obama who chose to publicly display his close relationship with Wright, more than simply his Pastor, his mentor.  To his credit, he was honest when he could have lied about the depth of his relationship with Wright.  But by not taking on the issue up front, not until after the poop hit the fan, he has put himself in a defensive position, and provided his opponents with a very well stocked supply of ammunition. 

 Sorry, Obama, you obviously now recognize that this is a very significant issue, one that will not just go away.  Your speech says the right words, you do know just why those statements are provoking so much outrage, you imply you share some of the outrage.  The problem is that it is too late now to for you to jump on the ‘outraged’ bandwagon.  If the outrage you imply over the “incendiary” and “devisive” comments Wright made were genuine, we would have heard about it long ago, or you would have made it a non-issue by moving to another Church.

 I do believe this issue has rendered Obama unelectable this time.  And I guess that is appropriate, it was an incredible blunder to not deal with the issue before it hit the fan.  But we cannot change the past.  I have absolutely no idea what will happen between Hillary and Obama, who will finally face McCain. 

 

The real irony of this situation is that had he dealt with it openly, before it hit the fan, he would have had a real possibility of making it go away with very little damage, if any.  Could the reason he did not bring it up earlier have been that he did not believe electorate would be able to accept his explanation, and vote for him in spite of his association with Wright?  We are the bad guys, we are the ones who are continuing to oppress him even today.  Well, I bet that is the idea Wright has conveyed to him.  Just for the record, to me personally this episode does not mean I could never vote for him.  It has made the challenge of making me a supporter more difficult, but not impossible.  Let’s see what happens between now and next time. 

Rick