Letters to the Editor
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A teachable moment about the limits of identification w/ our own sub-cultures
Senator Obama's speech cracks the door open into the unexamined world of America's sub-cultures and the ways in which they collide in the political arena.
He now has a huge opportunity to encourage us all to inquire into each others' identifications -- and also the ways in which we are more than who we take ourselves to be.
Massive cultural traumas such as slavery (among Black Americans) and the Holocaust (for American Jews), to name but two, are the food of the American cultural experience. But that food is not to be merely clung to and preserved -- it needs to be digested and metabolized by each successive generation, one day at a time.
America is not a mere forum for competitive victimhood.
Senator Obama is right: the white sub-cultures in America do *not* "get" the American sub-culture of the black churches.
But there is a way for us to work our way out of this deep hole we have dug for ourselves -- not by continuing to dig, but by compassionately helping each other to understand our experience. Every sub-culture in our country needs to make positive effort to teach outside our own walls about our collective experiences inside those walls.
Senator Obama's speech is an unexpected opening into how we can go about doing this. We will do it awkwardly and imperfectly. But to begin is better than not to do it at all.
The antidote to fear is not only hope -- it is also courage.
May we each find our own courage in his example to step out of the bunkers of our own individual sub-cultures so that we can embrace the hope -- and the courage -- he demonstrated today.
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Another Obama Hit Piece
This is getting tiresome, Salon.
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AND NOW WE KNOW...
...how the campaign has been to hood-wink itself into this Primary campaign, don't we? Those white, liberal leftists are the reason the word "liberal" became so dirty that we had to get another word, "progressive."
These people are so far left they are coming back around to the right. They do NOT represent the mainstream Democratic party. Obama walks a tight rope trying to sound mainstream, but he isn't. Can you imagine what an Obama Presidential Cabinet would look like? Well, I can, and as a Democat I'm not interested in what Obama and his lefties are selling.
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Uh oh.
I hope this "uncle" stuff doesn't stick around long enough to haunt Obama, but I'm afraid it's already in the Republican scripts for the fall (or Fall). Worse than Pastor Wright, who is not so off base in many of his sermons, is the presence of Ayers and Dohrn.
I was in SDS in the late sixties and had a fair amount of contact with some Weatherman before they went, uh, ballistic. At the time, they seemed romantic outlaws, privileged (*way* privileged, naive about who Americans are, obnoxious, ideological, and...did I say privileged?
I mean, they didn't do any time, did they? Nor did most of the Weathermen who turned themselves in. They had rich parents and trust funds that protected them from prison. But, bombings were so stupid and so unrealistic. Nobody but this self-declared "vanguard" was going to get behind them. No one was "educated" by these condescending thugs. They were heroes only in their own minds.
So, this letter is more about Weatherman than Obama, but I don't like the connection and he should have been a little more selective about some of his supporters. It makes him look naive.
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Reparations Are Extremist?
Edward McClelland writes: Khalidi has gone so far as to say "we owe reparations to the Iraqi people."
Is that going far? How so? Did we not invade a country that did not attack us and did not threaten us and without the approval of the United Nations? Does that not make this an illegal, unjustified, and immoral war? Have we not utterly destroyed a country with our invasion and occupation? Have we not created 4 million refugees and killed perhaps as many as 650,000 Iraqis? Have we not created conditions for a civil war and an ongoing humanitarian crisis in which Iraqis lack access to clean water and reliable electricity? And it's considered "extreme" to think that we might owe this country some reparations for the incredible suffering we have caused?
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Too many Religious freaks in politics
The New York Times points out “Mr. Wright’s characterizations of the United States as fundamentally racist and the government as corrupt and murderous;” this is what is at issue? My God! How are these arguable points any longer? --John Mead
I agree yours and Wrights hyperbole contain nuggets of truth. But as Obama likes to point out words do matter, especially for candidates for president. A president cannot proclaim as their spiritual mentor or partake in a church whose leader spouts this type of hyperbole. "God-damn America!" is fine for critics hurt by national policies to yell in pain and rage from the roof-tops, it is not acceptable for a presidential candidate to associate with them.
As pointed out in these posts, since plenty of Republican politicians have used and pandered to religious right freak shows, so should Obama be cut slack also. Unfortunately arguing that because McCain associates with a religious freak, Obama should be able to do as well, is a lose lose argument.
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Glenn Greenwald answered this rather nicely
So I will just refer people to his column: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/17/wright/index.html
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@ sajwan
So as I understand it, you aren't just policing Obama's message. You're not even just policing the message of people with whom he is associated. You are assessing the tone of the messages of those with whom he is associated. Hope you're consistent about that with all other politicians.
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Glenn Greenwald answered this rather nicely
so by equating Pastor Wright's hate with Right Wing Evangelicals this absolves Obama how? Glenn's basically saying "they have racist preachers so we can have them too"...Ridiculous...
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There are too many blacks who hate Jews
The vile anti-semitism among American Blacks is equal to and sometimes worse than the hatred of Jews in Arab countries. Jews account for less than 2% of the population in America. They are teachers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, salesman, computer programmers, etc., etc. Jews do not head the oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, automobile companies, or major manufacturers and are normal, every day citizens in normal every day jobs. The President and Vice President are not Jews, neither is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. There is no candidate running for President who is Jewish, but yet Blacks intensely hate Jews FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. When Tim Russert asked Obama about Farrakhan Obama did respond correctly about healing the breach between Blacks and Jews but how can you heal the breach when you sat there for twenty years hearing your pastor attack Jews and you kept silent? If Hillary Clinton or John McCain were enthusiastic members of a church for twenty years that constantly and openly demeaned and debased Blacks with vile hateful rhetoric do you really believe the Democratic and Republican parties would allow them to be their nominee? There is a double standard and Obama is getting away with something no white politician who sat idly by while their pastor`s anti-semitic or anti-black rantings continued without end would ever be granted a pass on.