Obama and his minister
I'm going to issue this statement before I proceed. I am not attacking Barack Obama on his religion. I'm not going to scream that he is a racist or a bigot. This is about his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. See, yesterday talk radio got a hold of a sermon he gave. Hot Air even has some video of it. In today's Wall Street Journal, Ronald Kessler has a piece about Wright and the fact he has largely been ignored by the media:
In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama's longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president.
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."
Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."
His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."
Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."
Considering this view of America, it's not surprising that in December Mr. Wright's church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. "His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening," Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest."
After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright's church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.
Instead, Mr. Obama said, "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree." Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright's church out of the church's offices, and Mr. Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
This goes beyond radical. It very nearly crosses the threshold into conspiratorial. Barack Obama has said that Wright can sound pretty radical, but that he is more akin to the crazy uncle at family get-togethers. That's cute, and it's a nice attempt to side-step the issue, but it's not going to work. Yesterday's sound bites on the radio had him blaming the US for the attacks on 11 September, accusing us of of murdering innocent civilians in Iraq -- by the thousands, mind you -- and stating that only Obama can understand the plight of the black man because he was raised poor. Here is some of what I heard yesterday:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." ...
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
This man is called a mentor by Barack Obama. He has had a great deal of influence in his life. Given this rhetoric, and given his beliefs about this nation, is it any wonder why Barack Obama won't salute the flag, stand and sing the Star-Spangled Banner, or even display his patriotism by wearing a flag pic on his lapel? He's gone to this man's church for twenty years. It's quite clear that the sermons have jaded his view of this nation.
This, to say the least, is bad for Obama. For the last couple of weeks, he's stumbled against Hillary. He's made mistakes, the Rezko trial is beginning to crack the facade he wears, and now these sermons are getting out into the media's limelight. It's going to open up a few of those dazzled eyes that are at his campaign stops. And people will begin to say "I'm not voting for a man who is connected to such bigoted, prejudiced, ignorant people." I know I couldn't do it, and we're betting that neither could a lot of our readers.
If Obama wants to keep being around this person, and his radically-idiotic views, then so be it. Personally, I'd disassociate myself from him, and even though his role is mostly ceremonial, Wright does have a role in the Obama campaign. It makes us wonder openly why Geraldine Ferraro had to be gotten rid of from the Clinton campaign while Wright is still on Obama's. These remarks are beyond firebrand, bomb-throwing. These are deeply racist and bigoted statements. And as long as Obama has ties to him, the heat will increase over this issue. You can't choose your uncle, but you can choose your church.
Publius II
In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama's longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president.
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006.
"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."
Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers . . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."
His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."
Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."
Considering this view of America, it's not surprising that in December Mr. Wright's church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. In the church magazine, Trumpet, Mr. Wright spoke glowingly of the Nation of Islam leader. "His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening," Mr. Wright said of Mr. Farrakhan. "He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest."
After Newsmax broke the story of the award to Farrakhan on Jan. 14, Mr. Obama issued a statement. However, Mr. Obama ignored the main point: that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Mr. Farrakhan, and that Mr. Wright's church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader.
Instead, Mr. Obama said, "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree." Trumpet is owned and produced by Mr. Wright's church out of the church's offices, and Mr. Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
This goes beyond radical. It very nearly crosses the threshold into conspiratorial. Barack Obama has said that Wright can sound pretty radical, but that he is more akin to the crazy uncle at family get-togethers. That's cute, and it's a nice attempt to side-step the issue, but it's not going to work. Yesterday's sound bites on the radio had him blaming the US for the attacks on 11 September, accusing us of of murdering innocent civilians in Iraq -- by the thousands, mind you -- and stating that only Obama can understand the plight of the black man because he was raised poor. Here is some of what I heard yesterday:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." ...
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
This man is called a mentor by Barack Obama. He has had a great deal of influence in his life. Given this rhetoric, and given his beliefs about this nation, is it any wonder why Barack Obama won't salute the flag, stand and sing the Star-Spangled Banner, or even display his patriotism by wearing a flag pic on his lapel? He's gone to this man's church for twenty years. It's quite clear that the sermons have jaded his view of this nation.
This, to say the least, is bad for Obama. For the last couple of weeks, he's stumbled against Hillary. He's made mistakes, the Rezko trial is beginning to crack the facade he wears, and now these sermons are getting out into the media's limelight. It's going to open up a few of those dazzled eyes that are at his campaign stops. And people will begin to say "I'm not voting for a man who is connected to such bigoted, prejudiced, ignorant people." I know I couldn't do it, and we're betting that neither could a lot of our readers.
If Obama wants to keep being around this person, and his radically-idiotic views, then so be it. Personally, I'd disassociate myself from him, and even though his role is mostly ceremonial, Wright does have a role in the Obama campaign. It makes us wonder openly why Geraldine Ferraro had to be gotten rid of from the Clinton campaign while Wright is still on Obama's. These remarks are beyond firebrand, bomb-throwing. These are deeply racist and bigoted statements. And as long as Obama has ties to him, the heat will increase over this issue. You can't choose your uncle, but you can choose your church.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 3:54 PM
1 Comments:
Might I suggest that you not take the bait of the media and the Clinton campaign. The media wants this type of garbage sensationalized to sell advertise and the Clinton campaign is using it as the center piece of devide and conqueror.
Reverend Wright has his opinion and you have yours. Let's come together and find common ground to solve the problems of militarism,immigration reform, drug use, the destruction of our urban centers, energy and many other problems. rather than destoy one another.
Obama has had the courage to run on a platform of hope and unity. He points out that he is running for the office of President of the UNITED States.If he is successful, the country will return to the path of world leadership. If he fails, we will continue down the road of cynicism and towards the self -destruction that ended the Roman Empire.
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