Letters to the Editor
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@RealityCounts
Responding to the Reverend is complex for me. There are definitely things in the video that I can understand and agree with and others that I would repudiate. I think Uncle Fester is right that the Reverend is "old school," that is, what he is expressing is a generational divide as much as it is a racial one (see below). Barack will undoubtedly have to deal with the Reverend's words, but given how he handled Farrakahan (sp?) (who is also old school), I expect he will also repudiate what is hateful in the Reverend's speech as well. It will definitely be a test of Obama's character.
Forgive me if you already know all this, it's just that I'm 50 and may have memories of the 60s and 70s that are not points of reference for you. In the wake of the civil rights movement but continued racism and poverty, for a segment of the black population there was great anger that, while destructive, I could understand. What I hear in the Reverend's words and tone is that same anger. And I do think he makes a mistake in thinking Hillary can't relate to what Obama has experienced as a black man. The sexism directed at Hillary has often been just as crude and vituperative.
Nonetheless, I don't see the Reverend's failings in Obama. Obama seems to be on the other side of the generational divide. That is, he seems to be past the anger of the injustices done to him personally and collectively to black people and is working toward a better way for all in a post-civil-rights America where he is taken seriously as a candidate. I hope he is part of the generational shift many have been hoping for, having come of age post-civil-rights. I think there may, in fact, be a large enough proportion of Americans who are ready to judge him in the content of his character and not the color of his skin.
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True feminist icon: Marha "The Mouth" Mitchell who tried to alert the press to Nixon's trickery
Martha probably had her own reasons for whistle-blowing on her husband, John Mitchell, Nixon's Attorney General. She rang reporters to claim that the Attorney General was involved in Watergate (which he was) and also claimed that she was being kept a political prisoner - which probably meant she was under informal house arrest. A whispering campaign was started against her, insinuating that she was 0ff-her-rocker but though she was volatile, Martha Mitchell was telling the truth. She did not play the part of the submissive wife and I'm sure she would have loved the Internet, considering her propensity to use the phone. If Martha is still alive,Id hope that she 'd be as rebellious as she was then. Never a feminist in the accepted sense of the word, Martha "The Mouth" Mitchell certainly shook things up and a lot of the people in modern America's political life seem very insipid in contrast to her. You don't have to be an Ivy Leaguer, a lawyer (is everybody a lawyer in the US) or a columnist to have a vibrant personality and Marha Mitchell definitely had that.
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@CRL well said
Thanks CRL
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Thank you Uncle Fester
I've very much enjoyed your posts for their clarity, patience, and reasonableness. Too often, the letters sections become unbearable shout-fests, so it's wonderful when folks can have a decent discussion, even if they eventually agree to disagree.
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Blondeone: You're too taken over with the psychobabble - passive-aggressive and all that
I'm sorry for treading on your toes but I find your attitude just plain aggressive. JFK was in Ireland in June l963, shot the following November and maybe MY relatives' memories are as viable as those of YOUR relatives. Maybe his cousins in Co. Wexford would also like to give their opinions as Salon is a site which invites opinions, although you believe that I have NUN. Where are you getting your prejudices from? Talk about condescension.....You have a few pots on the boil so I'll let you stir away. I hope you're not getting too hot under the collar and that your reading of Freud, Jung or whoever it might be goes well for you. It's evening here now and it's time for me to take out the rosary beads and say my prayers.
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@CRL
You force me to admit, much as I don't like to, that I have strong memories of the 60's and 70's as well. I remember quite vividly both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. I remember the emergence of the Black Panther movement. I agree that the Reverend reflects, to a large extent, the anger of those times. I also understand that Reverend Wright is a preacher and Barack Obama is a politician (and a very smart one). Clearly Obama knows he would not be able to get elected dog catcher if he promoted the same views as Wright, whether he believes them or not. You say: "he seems to be past the anger of the injustices done to him personally and collectively to black people and is working toward a better way for all in a post-civil-rights America where he is taken seriously as a candidate " I don't know his heart. I hope you are right. What I find troubling, and I suspect I am not alone, is that he has chosen to stay with this church and listen to these sermons for 20 years. Something about them must appeal to him on some level. Farrakhan was an indirect relationship. But Obama has declared that Reverend Wright is and has been his "mentor". I think Obama is going to be called upon to really clarify exactly what it is about this church and this preacher that has attracted him. This video has just begun to be circulated I think. Maybe it will blow over. We'll see.
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Ireland's "neutrality" in WWII
You asked for it, Maureen.
Yes, during the most desperate and dangerous time in 20th century history, Prime Minister (later President) Eamonn de Valera of Ireland, born in New York City (which had saved him from being shot by the British as a traitor after the 1916 Easter Rising), declared that "his" country would remain neutral, making it the only predominantly English-speaking country not to side with the Allies. Indeed, throughout a war in which the Allies would incur millions of dead and even more wounded in a fundamental fight to stop Fascism and preserve Democracy, on the streets of Dublin freely walked German and Japanese ministers, dignitaries, and soldiers. German and Japanese soldiers could find asylum in Ireland, a point that maddened the United States, France, and Britain.
Some Irish, notably in the IRA, even attempted to join the Germans in waging war against the British, in surely one of the most short-sighted actions in 20th century history.
Indeed, De Valera himself, an almost certain accomplice in the murder of Ireland's first democratic leader, Michael Collins, delivered his condolences to the German Embassy in Dublin on the occasion of Adolph Hitler's death and the Reich's loss to the Allies in 1945.
As Samuel Beckett said, after the fall of France, "You simply couldn't stand by with your arms folded." The tragedy of Ireland in World War II is that it did just that.
Wow... doesn't feel so good does it, Mo, to realize that the USA isn't the home of all stupid political blunders? Damn!