Posted on 05/07/2008 8:34:28 PM PDT by Lloyd Marcus
I was shocked and saddened to hear my 80 year old black father say he thought Rev. Jeremiah Wright spoke the truth about America. My dad is a great man. He was one of the first blacks to break the color barrier in the Baltimore Fire Department where he suffered segregation and humiliating treatment. He won Firefighter of the Year two times. Married with four children, he worked full time and attended college. He is a doctor of theology. He authored a book and still pastors numerous churches. He truly believes in love and faith in God. My dad would never use Wright's hate filled rhetoric.
So how could my hero say he agreed with this nut case? It defies logic. Then it dawned on me. Logic, reason or truth did not enter into the equation. Dad's response to Wright was purely emotional. It is all about his deep hurt feelings.
I remembered dad telling me about an incident while serving in the Merchant Marines. Whites in Florida tried to hang him simply for getting off of the ship. His fellow white seamen rescued him.
Racial progress in 2008 America makes Wright's rant absurd. Dad's response to his remarks is in essence a racial persecution flashback; similar to a hippie having an LSD flashback or a vet suffering a war flashback. I suspect there are many black seniors, though loving and kind to all, still carry deep emotional scares from a long since by gone era.
So, while I am a proud black conservative Republican who loves his country and dad, I will give him a pass. I respectfully forgive my dad for being wrong about Wright.
Lloyd Marcus
So how could my hero say he agreed with this nut case? It defies logic. Then it dawned on me. Logic, reason or truth did not enter into the equation. Dad's response to Wright was purely emotional. It is all about his deep hurt feelings.
I remembered dad telling me about an incident while serving in the Merchant Marines. Whites in Florida tried to hang him simply for getting off of the ship. His fellow white seamen rescued him.
Racial progress in 2008 America makes Wright's rant absurd. Dad's response to his remarks is in essence a racial persecution flashback; similar to a hippie having an LSD flashback or a vet suffering a war flashback. I suspect there are many black seniors, though loving and kind to all, still carry deep emotional scares from a long since by gone era.
So, while I am a proud black conservative Republican who loves his country and dad, I will give him a pass. I respectfully forgive my dad for being wrong about Wright.
Lloyd Marcus
You were fortunate to have such a good father, anyone can be wrong sometimes.
Dad mistakes race for Judeo-Christian values. It’s a real shame.
Lloyd, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. And it’s not just blacks, but most people who support liberals, regretfully, do the same thing.
I’m sure your Dad is a fine man and it’s obvious that he’s been a great father to you - so you did the right thing to forgive him.
Let’s hope though, that the younger generations can “wake up” before it’s too late.
Bless you, Lloyd. Lots of water under that bridge. Lots of healing yet to do. BTT.
man that age is long gone.
Your Dad has a good excuse. Few of the members of Wright’s church do, and especially not Obama. Tell your Dad thanks for fighting a hard fight that he shouldn’t have to fight. It’s because of people like him that the nation changed, and rendered Wright’s hate-filled rants just a pack of lies.
My nephew’s other aunt was, as a young teenager, serially raped, beaten, and left for dead by a gang of black men in Oklahoma many years ago. To this day she is not trusting of black folk.
An elderly friend of my father’s was a POW of the Japanese during WWII. A merchant marine who was caught on the China Sea the day after Pearl Harbor, he was severely abused in Korea for the duration of the war until liberated. Not surprisingly, he detests all Asians.
Our expectations and attitudes are often cast by our life experiences. It takes exceptional people to realize that it is individuals, not an entire race or ethnic group, who commit crimes and vicious acts. You sound like that kind of exceptional person, Lloyd.
The current presidential campaign is shining light into places we normally avoid talking about. Yhere's a lot going on at the personal level in the camps of all three candidates.
We can all learn from our fathers and those who have come before us, Lloyd. Your father is a great teacher because he created a son who is a great learner. Thanks for teaching us, Lloyd, how to be a great son.
Wright, Farakan, Jackson and Sharpton have set race relations back fifty years.
More interesting question to me is:
What does your father think of you being a conservative republican or does he know?
personally if he doesn't know at this point I wouldn't tell him.
Absolutely. How can they maintain their power if things progress.
It’s still not perfect..but things are progressing..if they are allowed to.
I won’t say I can understand your father’s feelings because I have never been in his shoes. I will say that I am old enough to have seen people act very ugly out of racism, and can only imagine what that does to you when you are the target.
I know there is still racism in this country and likely there will always be. I do know it is not tolerated like it was when I was a child and for that I am greatful. I feel terrible that your father went through what he did, and I won’t question his feelings about Wright- he surely earned his right to an opinion. I hope at some point he realizes that racism is born of ignorance, and I believe most Americans are not racist. I hope he will also realize that people like Wright do not have the answers to these issues.
I admire your father for what he was able to achieve, and I know he struggled greatly in order to do so. I’m glad you are giving your father a pass- enjoy your time with him and I think you are wise to not let this come between you.
I do believe you are right about that.
Virtually all of the other ethnic minorities that have come to the U.S. can share stories of persecution and the shame of being treated as someone who didn’t belong.
All but the African Americans have overcome those issues and have done pretty darn well in the U.S.
Blacks got stuck in LBJ’s and the Dimocratz’ poverty trap and now feel this massive sense of entitlement. Until they make a clean break with that thought pattern, they’ll never make any meaningful progress.
Lloyd, you could just as well be talking about the difference between myself and my 78 year old black father. In my case, dad is a retired Army Lt. Col. who did a couple of tours in Vietnam as a Green Beret.
Back in those days, he voted Republican, but some years after retirement, his liberal wife finally turned him to the dark side. I chalk it up to dad not being all that politically savvy, due to a lifetime of watching the alphabet MSM news.
Dad entered the military just as it was being desegregated. That change in policy made it possible for him to advance in his career, but it was never easy for him. Still, he was able to set aside his own hurt and find real kinship with his military brothers, and a deep love of country. This is what sustained him, and gave him the inner fortitude to give his very best to his country.
Unlike your dad, I doubt that my father agrees with Jeremiah Wright, but at the same time Wright stirs a deep and terrible hurt within him. My dad just responds to it differently than your dad does, apparently. In his case, he simply doesn’t speak on it.
Like you, I’m a staunch conservative and very much the odd man out in my liberal family. In time, I hope to see many more like us in the black community.
May your tribe increase!!!!!!!
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