Lionel Chetwynd, the writer/director of "Hanoi Hilton" and other films, wrote this open letter to Barack Obama in response to the Senator's speech about race relations and Rev. Wright. Invoking his experience in moving beyond hatred towards Germans over the Holocaust, Chetwynd argues that "contextualizing" Rev. Wright's hatred was a misuse of a "teaching moment." The teaching opportunity consisted of "not explaining Wright’s outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him." That's because "we’ll reach the post-racial era. . .by no longer justifying ourselves with what was, instead speaking to what now exists. Not deny the past, but recognize...
