Beating a guy to death in the shower only happens OCCASIONALLY in college hazing.

Do we have documentation about Al Queada and the hot spoons?

Not to make light of this. As one of the writers noted, torture and murder were an accepted part of American life against American citizens during the lynching times. And we all are capable of doing horrible things or, at least, standing by when others do horrible things. Point is, we're TRYING to try to be better than that...

as I see it (and perhaps some earlier poster also said - I just got up and can't face hundreds of letters - is not what Wright said, and is not what the situation in America was (and is), but what Obama's political enemies (and opponents) will make of it. They don't care about the history of blacks (and other mistreated peoples), they don't care that Wright was hurt and explaining himself - they only care that they can take snippets and use them as weapons against Obama that will be effective with the kind of dim-witted voter that thinks lapel pins are meaningful...

(responding to J.C. Miller) ...people didn't have methamphetamine (or crack) or Prozac and television, but alcohol, domestic violence and child abuse were big problems (and often ignored, as "private matters" - now that our viewpoint has changed, it SEEMS to us that there's a lot more of it). And Religion was a lot bigger then than now (opium of the masses and all that).

I think Mr. C. Smurf has a good point. I keep hearing about how bad things are, and I live in an officially poor district, but I see people with new vehicles and off-road-vehicles and satellite dishes... There ARE very poor people who are suffering, but the proportion is smaller now, and the middle class is only feeling a few pinches - so far - not the kind of battering that was 24/7 lifelong for workers at one time... (The Daily Show bit about Americans only being able to buy 80 lbs of rice at a time due to world shortages was right on the mark...)

Saintzak, perhaps your church (and mine too, come to think of it) were boring, but it looks like black churches of the Wright variety (I hear tell blacks have some boring churches too, just to be fair here) are extremely lively, call and response, colorful (sorry) sermons about current injustices - sitting in a stupor and daydreaming doesn't seem like an option.

The whole Wright thing doesn't seem important to *us* enlightened beings who talk here (well, there are a few troglodytes), but I don't think it will play well Out There. Obama was making us feel all warm and cozy and post-racial. Wright is reminding us that (many? all? certainly I'd be in that number if I were one) blacks harbor, um, some resentment, and that realization rouses up all sorts of guilt - which is denied by calling Wright racist. (He is, I suppose, but he has reason, whereas the anti-black racism of whites does not. His racism is righteous - and must be denounced lest we whites face up to some horrible history...)

Let's just hope that (a) somebody can get through to Wright, or (b) Obama thinks up some good way to deal with it, or (c) it's just one of those 15-minute things. Or (d) McCain and Clinton's religious connections get investigated and yield up some goodies.

Allie has the best advice so far, I think. And Cary's out to lunch. (This guy ain't gonna budge...)

Got me to thinking about myself. Due to never having much money most of my life, I practiced frugality. Now, due to an inheritance, I could buy new clothes - but the prices appall me (even in Walmart!), so thrift stores are still my source. I get a kick out of checking out the marked-down food at the supermarket. I still drag home things from our country dump. But this is fun - sort of satisfying the hunter-gatherer instinct. At the same time, I eat out frequently and have started doing some travelling, even treating my friends to same. Miserly AND extravagant - best of both worlds!

(But this only works within one individual - an alliance of a thrifty person with a spendthrift person doesn't work, and people seldom change these basic traits.)(And dirty too? I'm really surprised that he's generous enough that the sex is good.)

...was funny and very good. A mite *cute* perhaps, with all the bussing thing, but I enjoyed it. I think I might get his book.

I hope his conclusion, that Wright has irradicably (word?) marked Obama's campaign is wrong. But I am afraid that the kind of people who were obsessing about lapel pins have now got "real" "reason" to be afraid, very afraid. Sigh. (What have we got brains for anyway? Evidently to articulate our stupidest emotions.)

My goodness. I'm just now starting to read the letters. All these people screaming at Salon. "I'M CANCELLING MY SUBSCRIPTION!" As if Salon orchestrated the Wright fiasco and, if they only ignored it, it wouldn't be a problem. But it IS a problem out there, and it seems like a good idea to talk about what we people of good intentions can do about it.