thanks for posting the Greenwald article. I wrote a letter that I just accidentally deleted, but I mentioned Greenwald too. That very column.

* * *

I feel frustrated watching Rev Wright being attacked from two angles...by left wing people (myself included) who are uncomfortable around brimstone preachers (I grew up in a church that bordered on that kind of preaching) and the far right who oh so ironically now believe that they understand what is "un-American" about Wright. It is too easy to ghettoize Wright. Pat Buchanan made the same comments about 9-11 being America's own fault, and who accused him of being un-American?

I feel sorry for white people right now. Because so many of us don't seem to see the forest for the trees. We're in the middle of a very important election, with so much on the line, and some of us don't seem to want to get up to speed. So here's the long and the short of it. Wright is no more un-American than any other American who has criticised this country with words....he earned the right to critique America by his military service, and by his citizenship. He is an American. Calling him un-American reeks of the McCarthy era seen through a racial lens.

If Joan is right, that this is about radicalism and not race, then why not start a conversation about radicalism? Why is the radicalism of the far religious right & Bush cabal not been labelled unpatriotic or UnAmerican? Who has questioned Bush's patriotism at this very deep level that people are going after Wright?

How about this. Which white people, raise your hands if I'm talking about you, have had your ancestors enslaved? Your parents live through the shadow-side of segregation? How many of you went to public schools with one half or less of the public funding for your school than the school across town that only enrolled people of another race? And how many of you continue to face institutionalized discimination in your job opportunities, your educational options, your personal relationships, and your rights under the law? Okay, all of you, and I mean each and every one, has a perfect right to stand up to Wright and to criticize his view of America as being crazy, unpatriotic, absurdly bleak, etc. etc. If you've walked a mile in his shoes...as they say.

To the rest of us. This is a crash course. We have to open our hearts. We have to acknowledge the shortcomings of the country that we live in and commit ourselves to making it better. None of us is racially superior to Wright or to Obama. We never were. We don't have to agree with or like what Wright says...but we have to defend his right to say it just like WE have the right to say, under the law, things other people don't like or agree with. Free speech and the freedom of religion are part and parcel of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Very important to our citizenship as (patriotic) Americans.

* * *

A few months ago I wouldn't have quite imagined that the election was going to be shaped like this. That for some white women they would object to any man "stepping in front" of Senator Clinton, but for others there is a distinct and specific racial tenor to their objection. How dare he! Hence an extra ire about sexism coming from HIM.

Voters, like it or not, have put Obama in the front of this race. And now voters are going to have to decide what to do with him. We can dwell and obsess over Wright. Even though McCain's spiritual leader, without anything like four hundred years of discimination to excuse him, has said that New Orleans deserved its flood....McCain when asked to distance himself from this man only laughed. And laughed and laughed, and said he was proud of the endorsement. But why should we?

I feel really sorry for white people if we can't get past the idea that anything approaching racial justice is radical in 2008.

And please, let's not forget that: in the middle of Bill Clintons darkest hour of impeachment he called on Reverend Wright among others spiritual advisors to come to the white house and to PRAY with him. No one ever suggested that Wright was too radical to PRAY with Bill Clinton, or that Bill Clinton needed to renounce Wright's most radical statements in order to PRAY with him in the most painful personal crisis of his life. Years later Senator Clinton would self-righteously claim that Wright would not be HER pastor. Like Senator McCain, Senator Clinton could afford to smile while she said it.

I feel pity for white liberals if we can't get past our hypocrisy and our self-delusions about ourselves, our pseudo-patriotism, our ignorance, to do what is best for the country. I feel sorry for Democrats if we can't do the right thing even so many years after Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed that people would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

I'm not much of a prayer, but if I was I would pray that Senator Obama's optimism about this country is justified, and that Reverend Wright's (and mine too) worst fears don't hold water. That we're better than that now.

peace.

If you are going to judge Obama and his candidacy according to his pastor/worship environment, then you should do so equally. (But then, that would be journalism, something you are increasingly making clear is NOT what you practice.)

In a world where Salon WAS actually balanced (and not your dream world where you think this sort of heavily biased/uninformed op-ed blogging is "balanced") the piece SHOULD have been about Obama/Wright, Hillary/The Fellowship/Her Pastor, and McCain/Hagee and his flipflopping to Baptist from other Protestant groups, and what it all means for the campaign.

But of course, we know why that WASN'T the piece you wrote.

You did your typical, predictable, shallowly analyzed and hastily written hatchet job on Obama, disguised as usual as "concern trolling."

Clearly, despite the great "success" you boast about in previous posts, your success hasn't included grasping the basic premise that Obama's views are not Wright's views.

This article is yet another frightening glimpse into the dark recesses of your mind, and the shallow depths of your thought processes.

It's a truly sad and sorry day for Salon.