During a conversation with oakesspalding, and after reading a post written by Arctic Stranger in another thread, it ocurred to me that my behavior in the Obama Watch thread was reprehensible. I submitted four "posts," which instead of openning up the dialogue (my original intention) had the effect of shutting down the discourse. In retrospect my anger, at both liberals and conservatives, for refusing to have a genuine dialogue about racial issues in this country got the better of me. I apologize.

However, what I would now like to do is try again. I want this to be a genuine discussion about how the media "creates" news and distorts the image of people by taking their words out of context (this goes for conservative as well as liberal media news sources). In particular I want to discuss how the media distorted the image of Jeremiah Wright and effectively smeared him. Above all, what I do not want, as some people seem to think about Obama, is a sitution in which we strip ourselves of our liberalism and/or conservatism, but rather a discussion in which are not so bound to our ideologies that we cannot acknowledge when we are wrong and the other side is right.

1. "God damn America": In this video we supposedly saw Jeremiah Wright using religion to damn America. However, his statement was completely taken out of context. Watch this video here, http://youtube.com/watch?v=rbEzHdV24AU, and see for yourselves. What he was actually saying was God damn the American government, not the country, for the injustices it has perpetrated against its citizens. Beforehand, however, he prefaced this by saying that governments can change.

2. "Chickens coming home to roost": In this video we supposedly saw Jeremiah Wright saying that America caused 9/11. However, what is shown here, http://youtube.com/watch?v=4x279GNMwvY&f..., shows again, how his statements (which weren't even his) were taken out of context. When he said that, he was actually quoting someone else. What becomes obvious is that the video was edited to make it seem like he was actually saying something when in reality he was quoting someone else. Watch further and see how he places that "faith footnote", as he calls it, into the larger context of his sermon.

3. "Hillary's never been called a nigger": In this video we supposedly see Jeremiah right turning his pulpit into a political platform to demagogue a situation. However, what is shown here:

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=...

where you will see 4 parts to the entire sermon. His sermon was actually about Christman (go figure!), but you would never know that from what the media shows.

After this, it should be quite obvious that Jeremiah Wright is not a radical, racist, anti-American, but rather he was the victim of a political hit job carried out by the mainstream media.

I was unhappy to read that the Reverend has had to cancel some recent speaking engagements at various churches "for security reasons". Hope situation is not that bad?

Lord knows, my RC pastors have said things on occasion that should have had me bolting out of my pew. (At a binational environmental conference that I helped organize, a Native American leader led us in prayer--except that only the men could respond, "Ho!" Later I suggested we not do the males-only thing again--heck, if I want to be discriminated against, I can go to my OWN church! {;>)

Re Senator Obama in Chicago, my impression is that he was searching for roots and a home, and he found it in part in a very community-minded church. That was a large part of what kept me in my pew, also.

Message edited by its author, Mar 26, 2008, 1:11pm.