Letters to the Editor
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Wrong about Wright.
No, Wright is not the problem, Obama is. And this is not about the war; it is about unfulfilled expectations. Wright did not grow up the segregated souh, but in Philadelphia. So he might well have more in common with Bill Cosby than with Farrakan. Things are still very racial in Philadelphia, but it's like the racism of any multicultural city, say. ancient Alexandria where Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians clashed all the time. Someone has to be on top in such situations, and Wright is obviously angry that it is not rhe blacks. Let's face it: its always hell to be in the minority: just ask a Republican in the House under Nancy Pelosi. But on may ask: what purpose is served by using a pulpitt to scream epethets at one's racial enemies? Sould the Pubbies be holding rallies to denounce Italians? And getting back to the point, why has a "cool" cat like Obama hung around with this bitter, bitter man for so long? Could it be that he himself is represssing some bitter. bitter feelings arising from growing up as a black boy in a white family? Birght as he is. that has not kept him from rising in the world with very little resistance from the oppressive white society that Wright decries so loudly. Could it be that here we have another victim of affirmative action?
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Kamiya: Al-Qaeda is Still Recruiting, Sign Up Guy!
1. If the Obama campaign has not used his Church affiliation in any manner whatsoever to enhance his image, Wright's hate-filled rhetoric is completely irrelevant to the presidential race.
2. If Barack has run as a "good god-fearing Church member, then Wright's ramblings deserve scrutiny.
Let us assume point number 2 reflects the reality. I personally don't know if it does, but am sure many of Salon's readers will be able to set the record straight if it is not.
The President of the United States should not be a person who accepts the view that the 9/11 attacks were a case of "chicken's coming home to roost."
Such an individual should enlist in the Al-Qaeda movement forthwith and begin chopping thieves hands off, stoning women to death who associated with a man without the explicit permission of her brother or father, slice the heads off adulterers and generally get with the program espoused and implemented by the Taliban during their wonderful reign in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden's beef with the US (and Western Democracy, in general) is the hegemonic success of our politico-socio-economic system throughout the world, most of which has occurred without a shot being fired, and certainly without a head being sawed off a living human being.
Under an Al-Qaeda-ruled government, Wrights tongue would be pulled from his mouth with a set of pliers.
The cruelty and injustice of US society to African-Americans is beyond dispute and will forever be a blot on the nation's history...and that racism continues to this very day, minus the unspeakable physical violence committed against African-Americans in the US's past. The racism today is non-violent and much more subtle.
But has remarkable progress been made by the African-American community? Ever hear of people like Cosby, Oprah, Powell, Rice (some of the most influential citizens in the country), and finally one other African-American name some readers may be familiar with: a man standing on the verge of becoming President of the United States, Barack Obama himself.
Kamiya's equating the mindless, demagogic and simplistic ramblings of Wright (and implicitly of Bin Laden) with words uttered by Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln demeans the latter two, and displays the ignorant, self-loathing America-hating of Kamiya and other knee-jerk liberals.
Finally, The Iraq "War" is an unmitigated catastrophe, as is the entire approach by this administration to the very real threat posed to the West by Islamic fundamentalists "who love dying more than Westerners love living."
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@ Valkyrie
It's enough to make you want to cash in your chips, isn't it?
That's what this is all about. Despair, hope, and cynicism.
I incline towards despair. Having watched this country re-elect George Bush despite a mountain of evidence supporting not just not voting for him, but impeaching him, I despaired.
I felt (and often continue to feel) like that king in Lord of the Rings, paralyzed by the enormity of it all: "What can men do against such hate?"
And then comes Obama, and, despite my lukewarm initial reaction to him (he seemed decent enough, but nowhere near radical or progressive enough for me), I warmed up to him and started to appreciate just how radical he really is, not in terms of policy, but in terms of ethos. Not the perfect candidate, but one I could vote for in good conscience, albeit with sobriety and reservations (he is a politician, after all, and contrary to the talking points, I don't consider him a savior). Anyway, I was feeling optimistic.
Not just for Obama, but that there was a wave of Democrats that seemed sure to guarantee victory in the fall, whichever candidate was chosen.
Then comes Clinton at the eleventh hour to poison the well with cynicism.
Suddenly, it's no longer about "two terrific candidates" or "one thing's for sure, the Democratic party is poised to win big, to judge from turnout."
It's cynical garbage about fear and race and patriotism.
More Republican light from the Clintons.
The good old Clintons.
Bill Clinton was actually the thing that made me renounce the Democratic party in the first place.
I was indignant that they could sell out liberalism so blithely.
I don't know what the point of all this is, other than to say that I know, or feel I do, something of what you're feeling.
Ah, yes, the point, finally, is that it does no one any good to give into despair.
As I've heard, that's the Republicans' strategy, right?
So poison the well with negativity that people are disgusted and stay home, which benefits the Republican party.
Clinton's well on her way (so it seems to me) from achieving the same result.
I, for one, will never vote for her. I came into the election believing I'd not vote for her, but then she lulled me into complacency for a little while, as her greatest crime was she was running a campaign of entitlement, but she was benign enough that I actually considered maybe I could vote for her afterall.
No more.
I can not, in good conscience, endorse these people.
I just find their way of doing business reprehensible.
But I won't despair, and nor should you.
We'll all come through this somehow.