The Audacity of Friends
Jesse Walker | March 18, 2008, 11:20am
Am I out of step with the country or just out of step with the pundit class? The things I'm told to like about Barack Obama's persona turn me off, and the things that are supposed to be disturbing seem appealing.
I got my first inkling of this during the debate season, when the conventional wisdom had it that Obama was at his best when giving a speech and that he suffered when he had to share a stage with someone else. Whereas I always thought his speeches were platitudinous
mush but enjoyed his debate performances, where he proved himself able to think quickly on his feet and crack a few unscripted jokes. The Obama of the speeches is a bore; the Obama of the debates seems like a man with whom I'd enjoy a friendly political argument over lunch.
Now we have the Jeremiah Wright "scandal," which frankly makes me like Obama more. If you don't have a friend -- a
real friend, someone who means something to you and sometimes influences your decisions -- who occasionally expresses a nutty opinion ("The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color") or an impolitic truth ("a country and a culture controlled by rich white people"), then you really, really need to get out more. Obama's connection to Wright is like his cigarette habit, his willingness to talk about his past drug use, his fondness for gritty TV shows -- it's a sign that there's an actual human being in that suit after all, no matter how empty it may seem when he's blathering about "an insistence on small miracles" and the like. It's a sign he might know a thing or two about the real America after all.
This morning Obama delivered a
speech on the subject. It goes on endlessly, as his speeches often do, but it makes the essential, obvious point:
As imperfect as he may be, [Wright] has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
I guess you either understand this instinctively or you don't. And then, of course, there are the people who understand it but will continue to pretend they don't, the better to smear Obama as a secret jihadist, Weatherman, or Farrakhanite.
Sambeaux | March 18, 2008, 1:23pm | #
"As imperfect as he may be, [Wright] has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect."
Chris Rock on old black men:
Whenever an old black man sees an old white man...the old black man always kisses the old white man's ass.
"How you doing, sir? Pleased to meet you. Whatever l can get you, you let me know."
As soon as the white man get out of sight, he's like: "Cracker-ass cracker! l'll put my foot in the crack of your ass, cracker-ass cracker! l wish that cracker would've said some shit to me, saltine-assed, motherfucking cracker! Cracker, kiss my ass, you fucking cracker!"
The white man come back. "Howdy, sir?"
I got an uncle real crazy. My uncle B., years old, hates the white people, married to a white lady. And he sits around going, "These crackers ain't shit, except for Susie."
He tried to explain the whole thing to me one day. He said, "Yeah, l got a white wife. l love her, she love me. That's all that matters. But l'll tell you this: if the revolution ever come, l'll kill her first...just to show these crackers I mean business! Motherfucker, cracker-ass, motherfucker cracker! Shit, cracker, motherfucker! Hi, honey. Motherfucker cracker. l'll kill my cracker kids, too!"
Gabe Harris | March 18, 2008, 1:38pm | #
I've heard this guy Dr Graves speak and he seems more credible than the MSM on the topic of AIDS. He went to the Naval Acadamey and has HIV. He has done a fair amount of research on the topic.
http://www.eaec.org/expose/KateMcClureExcllusive.htm
http://www.boydgraves.com/
Maybe Rev. Dr. Wright is wrong about some things. Again, so what? maybe, the US government didn't invent AIDS to kill black people. But the US government does maintain a vast etablishment at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, dedicated to making every manner of plague and other biological weapon to sicken and kill its enemies. To mention, let alone criticize, that hellish establishment is also "anti-American." "
Dr Graves points to some government programs that did put out some pretty scary descriptions. The government says it is all secret and won't release any details…so if the accusations aren't tru then it is possible the turth is even worse for all we can tell…at a minimum it is a waste of tax dollars and I don't think people should be banned from office for talking about it.
"...advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."
Who wrote these words in their own strategy document? The Nazis? The regime of Pol Pot?
No, it was Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol and the rest of the Neo-Fascist collaborators that formed the Project For a New American Century - the ideological framework of the Bush administration.
Quote from Page 72 where they talk about how great it is too have race specific bioweapons.
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
Here is a interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIeYfuviq8&feature=related
Vin | March 18, 2008, 6:36pm | #
Wow, this is really fun—liberation theology, conspiracies, racist fringe groups, and fidelity to goofy friends. I’m sorry I didn’t get into this earlier. My post isn’t nearly as exciting, but here it is anyway.
1) I belong to a particular large, organized, Christian denomination, but I have to do plenty of mental gymnastics to remain one. I'm ok with that, since I've always believed that most of us are members of a church for reasons other than a rational evaluation of the totality of our particular church's teachings. (Social and cultural reasons come to mind first.)
2) Therefore, I accept Sen. Obama's explanation of his position as, in fact, an explanation of his position. He contrived this explanation, as a candidate for political office, in response to questions which he probably hoped not to have to answer. With a few others of you, I find certain aspects of this position refreshing and insightful. It matters little to me whether or not he believes it to the depths of his soul or whether he has always believed it. It is now part of his platform, and he and his bureaucracy should be held accountable, if he's elected president.
3) This one element of his candidacy-- essentially positive, in my view-- probably does not override all the other reasons not to support him, especially for folks like us who think government cannot and should not try to fix everything. I am still somewhat undecided, because...
4) ... our choices are, as others have pointed out, rather poor once again. We will not achieve any of our objectives with any of the candidates. And here's another blinding flash of the obvious: it appears, fellow lunatics, that we are sadly out of step with the overwhelming majority of American voters who expect our government to deliver a risk-free society, with certain civil liberties held to be expendable for the "greater good."
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