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Obama speech with color commentary-no pun intended This is Barack's speech, in its entirety. The first blogger to reply and call me a racist, wins! Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. But everytime Barack and Hillary talk about Iraq, they say that they should already be well on the way to governing without our help. Sure it took more than a decade to get us off the ground and running, which Barack states here, but to hell with giving Iraq some time to do the same. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. It also left women as second class citizens, i.e. chattel. I guess though, its all about race. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. I'll agree in principle to that, although, the actual Constitution itself made racial equations which were definetly wrong. And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. Yes, Barack, it took people with courage to stand up for their convictions. To lay it out there. Brother against brother fought a war in which more Americans died than in any other war. Standing up and being counted over an injustice is something America has done countless times. Maybe you should give it a try sometimes. You know standing up against hatred and bigotry. This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren. The same hopes? Have you ever read what the charter of your own church espouses? It racism, its hatred, its bigotry, its prejudice, its anti-american rhetoric with charges that we created HIV to kill the blacks. That we push crack cocaine into our ghettos to keep the black man down. How can we come together, when you, Barack Obama, have done all you can to make the divide that much wider? This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story. Decency and generosity of the American people, true. But if you really believe this, then why haven't you at least influenced your own wife to be proud of that fact? I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. Okay, Barack, you've got the big melting pot of America in your blood. So why then attend a strictly black church? Why not mix with other people of the different "hues". Why choose a racist like Wright as your mentor. Why not a Billy Graham, or a Bill Cosby. If America is the only country on Earth that this story is possible, why go to a church that says GOD DAMN AMERICA. If we are the best of the best, then what does that say about every other place on earth. Oh, I forgot, Africa is a homeland that your church says is more important than America. It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one. Symbolism over substance. If we are truly one, then how can you decry IMUS for making a digusting comment about nappy headed ho's, but call a man like Wright your mentor? Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans. Unity, thats what you think the people are asking for? Again, this is political doublespeak. Liberals want unity, which is defined as being that they control the House, Senate and White House. Playing to the ignorant masses, like Rev. Wright does, might inspire some people with hate, but being a true leader requires that you exhibit ethics, morality and judgment. Three things that your unity cries ignores. Plus how does UNITY translate when 90% of blacks vote for you? Are you sure they are not voting their race, rather than for unity? Yeah sure. This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well. Again, they bubbled up, because we can't talk about race openly in America without a race baiter like Wright and Sharpton and Jessie, screaming racism. We have held up the black race as being immune from criticism. We can say God Damn America openly, but dare say the "N" word. and you are guilty of an unpardonable sin. YES, a single WORD, has so much control over us that we cringe if we hear it being spoken, such that even the media bleeps it out and even I have to call it the "N" word. If you want to end the polarization, then what we need is to lay everything out on the table and have an honest discussion on the CULTURE OF RACE, and not on the Physical characterizations of RACE. There is a difference, a big difference. And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. Yeah, and the reason is, because you are a democrat. Because you are black. Because the Media wants a democrat to win, and liberals are scared of race. They are too scared to call you and your supporters what they are, out of fear that they might be called racist. Thats why it took so long. If not for Youtube and talk shows, this would never have made a difference. The media certainly didn't want to talk about it. On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike. "the potential" of widening the gap? For God's sake, its a huge chasm. And you "enabled" the chasm to get bigger and wider, by your silence, but also now, when you compare his racism to your own grandmother's understandable fear of blacks who commit a disproporation amount of the crime. I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. Yeah, you condemned them only after you had no other option. Barack now even "downplays" Wright's comments by describing them merely as CONTROVERSIAL. Hate and bigotry are not Controversial, they are plain evil. But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam. A distorted view? Well this distorted view, is part and parcel shared by liberals across the nation. Blame America First, is a bumper sticker that every democrat should have on their bumper. A distorted view, well who is pushing Affirmative Action on us, which is legalized discrimination. A Distorted View? You say the hateful ideologies of radical Islam is wrong, but these same Islamists SHARE your own church's hatred for the JEWS. As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way If all Barack knew of Wright were the snippets of these sermons, then he would be concerned too? So, this means that the outrage that we feel is understandable? But the bigger question is, what more do you need to know about Wright, then what you learned in these sermons, that command standing ovations, and that the church sells on DVD's? What more do you need to know before you would denounce him? The answer is, you would need to know that America has discovered Wright's hatred, and that a fire storm did erupt over it, before you would object to him. But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. Yeah and he did all of these things in Sheep's Clothing. Doing good things to garner the ignorant masses support, only to then spew the violent hatred of acceptable bigotry. Even Hitler made the trains run on time. In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild." HUH? these stories became OUR stories? I thought you weren't being racial? "Of a PEOPLE' again, do you mean black people? "Our Trials and triumphs" again, seperating yourself into a seperate and distinct culture which hated AMERICA. And what memories needed to be reclaimed? What memories brought you shame? I'd be worrying about being ashamed of what the pastor is doing in dividing the American PEOPLE, instead of thinking he is helping to rebuild YOUR people's memories. This is pathetic double speak. That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. Bawdy humor in a church, yeah, your right, this isn't a part of white America. Commenting from the pulpit about Clinton doing to blacks what he did to Lewinsky is lewd and disgusting. The bitterness and bias of the black experience? GET OVER IT! You cry babies, need to have you a big cry and quit blaming your drug and crime ridden culture on White America and place the blame where it belongs, in a culture of victimization and no responsibility. That would be a liberal theology for those that are "ignorant" as Barack says. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he 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. Yeah, your grandmother makes a comment about being afraid about black criminals and your memory is forever scarred, but somebody like Wright who can comfortably and publically make these racists statements, supposedly never made them in private. You're right, your church does have a bunch of ignorant people in it, if you expect us to believe that. 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. Shameful, plain shameful. These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love. Yeah, I love America, but my church of 20 years hates it, and prefers Africa, as the mother land. Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. The politically safe thing was to hope the media would keep this under the rug, but youtube and the talk shows dragged it out. You could have addressed this hatred 20 years ago, but you waited until your hand was clearly in the cookie jar, and not you think its courageous to now apologize for being caught. Good Grief. But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality. The only thing he said that I agree with, I just don't believe he means it. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. Filler, political talk. Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Many of the disparites did come from Jim Crow, but MOST of the disparities is from living a life of victimization and always having an excuse for failure. Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students. Segregated schools are not "per se" inferior. But schools filled with single parent families, whose families attend churches that blames whites for their problems is a bigger problem. A culture that glorifies people like Michael Jordan, instead of people like Condolezza Rice and Colin Powell causes more problems than any poll tax paid 40 years ago in Alabama. Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities. True, but every race, every group, even the sexes, have excuses for failure. Quit making excuses for failure. My momma told me along time ago, whoever told me life was supposed to be fair, lied to me. A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. Again, blaming their problems on whites. Who prevented the opportunites? Whites. This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them. They grew up in the 50's and 60's and saw a distorted view of our world. You, Barack, grew up seeing it a different way. So, why did you allow a man with a distorted view become YOUR mentor, and not the other way around? But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings. I can understand why many of Wright's generation felt this way, but why you Barack allowed him to continue to poison THIS generation with this hatred, is still the question. When you had a chance to stand up and be counted, you instead, brought your children with you to merely listen to this racism. And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. Apparently, this isn't as occaisional as you try to diminish it. A recent survey of 24 predominent African American churches have come out and stated that this church and its message is not unusual. Thats what really scares me. This stuff is out there. In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. Hell yes, it builds when reverse racism is given the authority of the law. When discrimination is condoned, when people are given preferential treatment merely because their skin reflects light differently than whites, we get a bit bent out of shape. Two wrongs do not make a right, Mr. Obama. Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. The Reagn Coaltion? You mean Revolution, and race has little to do with it. It was a revolution against blaming America for being in a malaise. A revolution that believed in the heart and soul of America's goodness, not in America's faults. Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. LIBERALISM talking points. Corporations bad. This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. Stalemate? Yeah, because black leaders like you have not taken the lead by standing up against racism of any and every kind. But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. This all well and good, but why does it take you so long to say these things? Is it because you are only saying these things to get elected? One has to really wonder if you really believe this. Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. Whats wrong with his sermons is that it was HATRED personafied and uplifted by the silence of those that believe they are true leaders. In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well. Again, why did he wait so long to make this statement? Not much to say for someone that wants to be the leader of the greatest nation in the free world. For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies. Huh? O.J. a spectacle? He was guilty. Black jurors let him go for no other reason. Katrina? How is a hurricane racist? We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change. A distraction? This is not a distraction, this is part and parcel of what character flaws that Barack has. This is not a distraction, its extremely important for us to understand what his foundation of beliefs are. To call it a distraction is to diminish again the severity of what hatred was preached. That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. Again, the racists undertones reek through his words. The pronouns he now uses references America. These kids of all races are "OUR" children. But when he references his church, the pronoun references blacks in general. Excuse me for being cynical, but its politicians like Barack, that gives me pause as to their true agenda. I wasn't cynical until I heard all of this hatred being excused by black leaders all over America. Now, I'm very cynical. Thanks Barack for showing us that you are race neutral, NOT. This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit. Okay let me see if I get this. Corporations are bad and are racists because they are stealing their jobs away to foreign lands? I thought you weren't opposed to NAFTA, or were you. Again, double speak. This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned. The same proud flag that your pastor DAMNS and for which you have a unique way of not saluting, and for which your wife has only now shown some pride in, is that the flag you refer to. I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election. The vast majority of American's have just come out with a poll putting John McCain in double digits over you right now, so I wonder how your math figures that you represent the vast majority of Americans. As to the generations that will follow, well, you Barack Obama, have soiled it for them. You've damaged it by your silence, and now by your left handed disnunciation of this hatred. You could have stood tall and truly made a difference with the racial divide that we have in this country, and you failed. There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta. There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. You mean, she didn't believe that she was a victim of a perceived injustice, and she decided that she was responsible, herself, in making her life better. Gees, why do I find that hard to believe? Because this is the antithesis of liberalism. Liberals no more want individuals to make it on their own, than Rev. Wright wants racial harmony. Liberals need division, they need anger and resentment. If we all are victims, then no one can be blamed for our plight, and we would therefore need the goverment to make it all right. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley." What? Did Ashley come and drive him to the event? Did Ashley inspire him to think for himself and to not be a victim for the rest of his life? If so, then why did he come to a Democratic Primary? "I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. Again, explaining how government will give us jobs, education, healthcare, nothing about what we can do for ourselves. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins. No, where we start is to immediately stop accepting racial bigotry and hatred from any group about any group or race. To not excuse it, to instead stand up to it and say, that we are Americans and we can do it, YES WE CAN, without being told that we can't do it because of our race, because of our sex, because of past racial discriminations, but because we are Americans. Richard Hobbs's blog | login to post comments
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