Posted on 01/22/2006 1:44:52 PM PST by WKB
LET ME see if I understand.
The junior senator from New York, who many believe is the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, went to the famed Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem on Martin Luther King Day.
Standing where King stood when he preached the installation sermon for his dear friend the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, the junior senator said to the predominately black audience:
When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what Im talking about.
Beyond the GOP hyperbole that would like to place the senators comments at the intersection of George Wallace and Bull Connor, I find the remarks rather disconcerting.
There is the political aspect to consider. Who approved that line? Surely not the junior senators spouse, whose office is a mere 15 blocks from Canaan.
Given that he possesses perhaps the best political instincts within his party, I would like to believe that he would have advised against such statements.
Could you imagine the uproar had the president made a similar remark? I doubt the Rev. Al Sharpton or Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would have been so quick to provide the president with the same cover they afforded New Yorks junior senator.
When did partisanship require that one remain silent in the wake of such obvious pandering? Has our collective institutional memory already forgotten Trent Lotts infamous comments about the former segregationist the late Sen. Strom Thurman?
Then there is the statement itself:
I am not troubled by the juxtaposition between the House of Representatives and a plantation — that is the junior senators opinion. My struggle is with the second half of the statement: And you know what Im talking about.
No senator, I dont know what you are talking about!
Are you suggesting that if members of the House attempted to escape their party dogma by thinking for themselves, they would have a foot removed as lesson for anyone who considered a similar path?
How many members of the House have been publicly flogged, left lying on the ground, their skin in a bloody pulp — only then to have salt and cayenne pepper sprinkled
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in the wounds?
Are House members under the threat of death if they have the audacity to attempt to read, worship according to their native religion or speak their native dialect? How many members have had their families systematically divided and sold — never to be seen again?
Perhaps you were referring to the more genteel version — something like Margaret Mitchells beloved Tara in Gone With the Wind. I can just see former majority leader Tom DeLay on the House floor crying to Speaker Dennis Hastert: I dont know nothing about birthing no babies.
If a plantation metaphor is warranted, it is with your paternalistic attitude. The only thing missing from your statement was a magnolia tree, a rocking chair and a mint julep.
However dysfunctional the current status of the House is, I fail to see how it relates to the plantation life that those in bondage were forced to suffer.
Instead of providing the Harlem crowd with empty platitudes and haughtiness, I would have preferred that the junior senator would have used the King Day celebration to humbly apologize for her vote in support of the quagmire known as the occupation of Iraq.
In fact, the junior senator was close to the place where King gave his famous speech opposing the war in Vietnam. That seems more appropriate than providing a rudimentary lesson on the inner workings of the House.
I understand how the drug of ambition can trump common sense. But to cavalierly use a peoples suffering for political purposes not only displays arrogance, ignorance, and privilege, it demon-
strates bad political instincts. Just ask Trent Lott.
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at 208-6417. Send a letter to the editor to sound-
His taking offense at hilary's plantation comment is meaningless.
No doubt he'd much prefer to see the money spent on freeing millions of people be thrown down the rat hole of Great Society programs.
The witch did a lot of damage with that buffoonish statement. I don't care what anybody says.
I just hope it was enough
Actually they don't know!
Here's the facts......
Most of Hillary's audience had no idea what she was talking about.
The current black population has has very little education about slavery and most don't give a damn!!
It's all about sports and music and victims in the hood!!
and did my check come in today
And a white pants suit.
It wasn't a deathblow but give her time in the spotlight and they will start adding up.
We need black republicans to come forth and decry this statement for the racial comment she made and for the racist that IS Hillary Clinton and YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!
Yes, she did. She certainly did and it is NOT going away. I said she couldn't speak or respond to questions unless they were scripted and rehearsed. Serves her right for always trying to attack President Bush. This time she put her big fat foot in her bigger, fatter mouth. Congratulations hilllereeee...
Exactly and that's why I always said she would not be President. She isn't smart enough. She'll blow it before she ever even gets the nomination.
A beautiful example of this:
"Reminds me of a fascinating quote from a Chinese Com government during the "International Woman's Conference" held in China during the Clinton administration. The government official said that they studied Hillary's speechmaking method to understand her power and success. They concluded: her trick was never actually to make any arguments -- just state conclusions that were all already accepted as self-evident by her audience. (They found that interesting and perhaps admirable, and to be emulated).
The thing is I'm serious. I don't know what she's talking about, and to make it crystal clear, I wish she would tell us.
All the speculation in the world won't do.
I don't know what she's talking about, and to make it crystal clear, I wish she would tell us.
Maybe she would if she COULD.
Stupid racist comeback. I am weary of having to answer racism with a specific skintone.
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