I admit: this has been an exhaustive campaign, even for one that claims to be a "political agnostic" (or, at least I did) because I didn't want to be bothered with office debates and vitriol. So, the following email posted below was my "fresh breath of political air."
However, the comments below are not mine: Reverend Frank Garrett, Jr. runs http://www.garrettradio.net/, which evolved from a local Austin, Texas talk show "The Wake Up Call" that still plays in the city.
So, he has the perspective of being a political and social rights activist as well as a commentator on the body politic.
The Kerner Commission said we were becoming two Americas: Black and White, separate and unequal http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6545/. Recent data suggests in our school systems, we are no more integrated now than we were back then and/or resegregating by dropping court-ordered mandate http://theintegrationreport.wordpress.com/2008/01/.
Restrictive covenants have been removed and some of us rise to the middle and upper classes due to education. So, we can hide a problem behind class and preparation now, make those lucky enough to have prepared to feel "special," significant "the one."
Go to a school on the east side or the south side of any major city: go to the computer room, the locker room, the library. Then go to the same facilities in the suburbs to complete the experiment.
Then, go to a gas pump for $4 a gallon, a grocery store for $80 worth of food in fewer bags than you remember it covering. Call your loved one in the Iraq War we should not now or ever be fighting. Ask someone who's lost their job and has to file for bankruptcy. As someone whose house hasn't sold in over a year and their carrying two notes. If one thing has unified us now, is the boat we find ourselves in together...
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The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is enjoying a second helping of 15 minutes of fame, and many Americans are seeing it as detrimental to Barack Obama's race for the presidential nomination. The Internet is loaded down with posts by blacks online lamenting the preacher's effort to defend himself against a barrage of media coverage very negative and racist. Rather than wring our hands and wish he would shut up and sit down, I feel invigorated by his candor, intellect, and yes, showmanship. Of course we all know white folk looking for a reason to not vote for Barack will use this as an excuse, but they never intended to give him their vote in the first place. Let's at least be honest about one major thing here - America is still a very racist nation.
Senator Obama is smart enough, ready enough, and organized enough to ride this tide to a conclusion in about a week or ten days when escalating gasoline prices will replace Rev. Wright as America's biggest problem. All you have to do is listen to right-wing talk radio to know who is most affected by the reverends dialog - rednecks and intellectually challenged white Americans too stupid to determine for themselves what truth is. Those are the useful idiots listening to the likes of Rush, Sean, Laura, Mike, Bill, and the troglodytes on the FOX News network. Intelligent white people don't take their cues from bombastic racist, sexist, homophobic draft dodgers on talk radio - only the brain dead gun loving, Bible thumping redneck hicks do that. Unfortunately, they all have voters registration cards too so it poses a problem.
Mainstream media is now fully engaged in the "beat back Obama" movement so you can expect them to keep Rev. Wright front and center long after he goes home satisfied with his effort to exonerate himself. Dogs that they are, mainstream media has become nothing more than electronic tabloids more interested in sensationalism than national security, health care, housing, and education. Sick puppies that a lot of us are, we wring our hands and watch the boob tube religiously. Now is the time for we the people to do the smart thing and keep up with the issues that impact our pocket books, homes, and employment, rather than what a retired preacher said about America in one of his sermons. What is America saying to us is the question of today - do we matter or has Iraq replaced our nation as the governments responsibility?
I personally have no problem with what Rev. Wright is doing now. I agree with him - preachers must do what God wants done regardless of the impact it has on those running for office, or trying to win the Super Bowl, or the Lotto, or the Masters. The Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, and our thoughts seem to border on what others think rather than what God thinks. That is why pundits and dunderheads are saying Rev. Wright is hurting Barack Obama's campaign. If our nation is stupid enough to not elect a man because of his skin color, or former pastors rhetoric so be it. Barack Obama's biggest liability is not really Rev. Wright - it is instead his honesty and lack of baggage. He is not a phony. In a nation of phony patriots, phony Christians, phony politicians, and phony citizens - he is odd and hard to compromise. That is why guilt by association is being used against him - if you can't pin something on the man you want to beat down, blame it on his former pastor.
Peace - RevG
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