Posted on 03/20/2008 5:18:01 AM PDT by grey_whiskers
The latest news in the world of politics (overshadowing even the Eliot Spitzer (John – NY) scandal) is the flap over Barack Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Trinity United Church of Christ. In case you have been too busy downloading pictures of Eliot Spitzer’s hired help, here’s what happened. Obama has been a member of this church for over twenty years, donating some $22,000 to the coffers; Wright has performed Obama’s marriage ceremony, and baptized his daughters. All good so far, and it bolsters Obama’s claim that he is not a Muslim. However, given some of the beliefs of the Rev. Wright, maybe that isn’t such an advantage. The quotes below are all quotes from the good Reverend’s sermons, and all of which are on tape:
“"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
“"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
“"Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a n*****."
“"We started the AIDS virus. … We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty..."
“"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied."
“"We cannot see how what we are doing is the same thing al-Qaida is doing under a different color flag ... And guess what else. If they don’t find them some weapons of mass destruction, they going to do just like the LAPD and plant them some weapons of mass destruction."
The tapes were not made by one of Hillary’s opposition researchers, but by the church itself, and have been for sale.
Predictably, there has been a firestorm over these comments. Barack Obama first backpedaled, looking (for the first time since the campaign began) like a deer in the headlights. And his first explanations have been unconvincing – ‘I barely know the guy’ (but he performed my wedding) – ‘I missed that sermon’ (but you’ve been going for twenty years). Until he made his speech, in which he condemned Wright’s remarks, but refused to disown the Reverend, even throwing his own grandmother under the bus:
“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.”
Now it is true that Obama picks up the speech from this point – and in fact, he correctly hits the nail on the head concerning many of the societal and cultural factors leading to the state of race relations in the United States today:
” 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.
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. What’s 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….
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. 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.
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.”
I applaud Barack Obama for coming out and saying these things instead of resorting to the knee jerk “Racist, bigot, homophobe” chant we hear too often from the left. But there are three things he has left out.
1) If he really believes this, why doesn’t he excoriate Rev. Wright for holding on to racial hatred?
2) Does he really feel that the educational bureaucracies of the inner cities, the welfare state, and the affirmative action regime – all controlled by Democrats – have helped Black Americans? Does he have any suggestions for their improvement?
3) The achievement gap between black and white Americans are not all based on innate “racism” or “prejudice”, nor (as he implies later) by a lack of funding. There is also the matter of education, and social norms. Let me borrow an example from another field entirely. Bill Gates and others often complain that they must go overseas to find qualified scientists and engineers. The accompanying observation is usually that “America is falling behind, most of the engineering majors in Universities are Indian or Asian.” Let’s accept that at face value for the moment, and then turn it around. How many Chinese or Indian immigrants do you see emulating gang bangers or listening to “Gangsta Rap”? How many young black men are studying math and science concentrations in high school, or learning how to script in Perl?
Finally, a note of a missed opportunity on Barack Obama’s part, and a great opportunity on the part of the Republicans.
Senator Obama, why in HELL didn’t you contrast Rev. Wright’s “God Damn America” attitude with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and “I have a Dream”…why did it take a greying conservative computer geek to think of it before you did?
And to the GOP. By refusing to denounce his own race-hating pastor, Senator Obama has made it possible for us to criticize him as a candidate, and on the issues, without being beat down immediately by the race card. And in discussing the historical underpinnings of the race problems in this country, he has invited a real examination of the welfare state and the role of government in the destruction of the black family structure in the United States (think Daniel Patrick Moynihan). Let’s not miss this chance.
What Obama is trying unsuccessfully to do is actually to distance himself from himself...and that will not wash.
This preacher is not only disgusting in his rhetoric and hate, he is a studied and ardent teacher of black liberation theology, which, IMHO, is a perversion of christianity, far removed from the gospel of love and peace that Jesus Chrisat taught.
It is one thing for a professed christian to do bad things and act in a way that is not in conformance with Christ's teachings. Such a person should repent and reform themselves through the blood and atonement of Jesus Christ.
It is quite another thing when the very gospel Christ taught is twisted and manipulated into a thing of hate and then spewed from the pulpit, infecting the minds and lives of thousands and influencing them to then act in ways not in conformance with Christ's teachings...and having them do so with no feeling or thought of repenting from acting worng because they have been taught that it is right.
Thus Obama's wife's comments about her lack of pride in America and America being a mean place. Thus Obama's own feelings about the flag, patriotism, and the national anthem. All of it begins to fall into place.
That is what this hate whitey, hate America, theology does and is all about...and Obama wants to take it right into the White House.
The destruction of the black america started with the Great Society,and somehow its’ still White America’s fault that
caused this destruction.
Obama, himself may or may not agree with Rev. Wright, but he knows that a large part of his base does.
Who, who in the black community is young enough and hip enough to bring about the positive change needed in the way blacks approach race? Obama coulda been a contender. Instead he took a dive.
"The first time I've been proud of America" and all that...
Cheers!
$22,000 over 22 years is only $1,000 a year. Unless this is above and beyond his tithe he is stiffing his church.
Wright has a dream of GD white AmeriKKKa beaten in the world and blacks finally getting revenge on the rich white folks.
MLK identified strongly with Israel, saying “peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
Wright condemns America for helping the "Zionists" and says Israel is a dirty word. He would help the Palestinians drive the Jews into the sea.
The contrasts are so large, I don't blame Obama for not pointing attention to them. Wright is the anti-MLK.
BO (middle initial deleted) contributed $ 22,000 over a period of 20 years. That means he drops a $20 dollar bill into the plate each Sunday. Meanwhile, BO got over $ 250,000 from Rezko, not to mention the discount on a $1.5 million mansion, and Michele makes $ 300,000 per annum for performing “community outreach.” Oh, and I forgot, the BO tome, “The Audacity of Hoax,” has made him a millionaire. Surely, the Rev. Wright’s performance should have been worth more than $ 20 a week.
So, why didn't he?
Cheers!
1- Obama believes in the message, and harbors great resentment toward white people and Jews, and is comfortable in supporting it.
2- Obama doesn't necessarily believe in the message, but he calculates that he can leverage great power over the black community by supporting it.
The MSM will try and sweep this away, but you and I won't forget it. I think there will be more revelations of associations with radicals before November.
It's interesting that (reportedly) Oprah used to attend Rev. Wright's church, but left.
Now how do we foment a schism between the Oprah-ites and Obama-ites?
Cheers!
I think this presents an opportunity for conservatives to demonstrate just how far left the Democrat base is. Of course the GOP will be too craven to do so.
...and it's not "whitey" supplying the hood with drugs; it's South America, Afghanistan, and China.
Cheers!
Here’s what a conversation about race sounds like, and they are all Democrats. http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_8645136
Obama’s Problem with White Voters
American Thinker | 3-21-08 | James Pennington
Posted on 03/21/2008 7:32:04 AM EDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989290/posts
Parade-goers in Scranton Adore Hillary:
“Girls Screamed like when the Beatles Arrived”
The Times-Tribune | 3/16/08 | BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
Posted on 03/21/2008 9:04:04 AM EDT by Dr. Scarpetta
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989330/posts
BILL O’REILLY GETS IT EXACTLY RIGHT!
NEALZ NUZE | Thursday, March 20, 2008 | NEAL BOORTZ
Posted on 03/20/2008 10:38:07 AM EDT by Turret Gunner A20
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988768/posts
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