Obama and the Minister

In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama's longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."

Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world....We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers...We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi...We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic....We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means...."

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "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...."

Let me help you understand a little more about me. I am the son of a career AF officer who worked deep in intelligence. I was in my “terrible twos” when I met my dad for the first time. He had been recalled to service after WWII for the Berlin Airlift. After that, he was in Korea and God knows where until he got sent to Germany in the mid-50s (we went with him wherever he was stationed except for the war zones)). By the time I enlisted in the Navy, in many respects, I had already served over 16 years in the military as a dependent. As an intelligence operative, my father was considered dangerous enough to the USSR that they tried on several occasions to murder him.

My brother, my sister and I, as well as my grandfathers (career) and great grandfathers (also career) all served in the military. My mother’s dad was my dad’s CO in the Coast Artillery in the early part of WWII. That’s where my mom and dad met.

And (says he, piling on), lest you think I was just a crappy sailor with a bad attitude, I thoroughly appreciated the training I received, loved the jobs I had, truly liked the people I worked with and enjoyed the places I went while I was in the Navy. But, a life in the Navy wasn’t for me OR my sister (a Navy nurse), nor was life in the Army for my brother. We all made different choices.

That doesn’t mean that military life is bad, it just wasn’t for us. You liked it enough to make (I guess) a career of it and I say more power to you. It’s people like you and my dad and my grandfathers and great grandfathers that make it possible for people like me and my brother and sister to pursue other options. For that, I say to you, as I say to those currently serving in the military, “thank you for your service”. Your service and your sacrifice are above and beyond the call.

When I enlisted in the Navy, I did so to avoid the draft and, because of Vietnam, I was never going to be able to get a job with any career potential because I hadn’t served my country, nor had I been declared 4F. When I completed my first enlistment in 1971, I couldn’t get a job with any career potential (even with an avionics background) because I HAD served my country . . . . . . . and John Kerry, Jane Fonda, Walter Cronkite and the rest of the DBM had changed the public’s opinion not only of the progress of the Vietnam War, but had smeared the characters of those of us serving at the time.

When I was in-country, even as a member of a flight crew, I wasn’t issued a weapon and never fired a shot at any time. Still, I was treated as a doper and baby killer by those in private industry when the only thing I wanted to do was get a good job, finish college and mind my own business. But, society’s attitude towards Vietnam era veterans made that goal impossible which is why I went back after 15 months.

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