Don’t Make No Difference What Nobody Says
And what shall we talk about today, my friends? Because unless you are new to these pages and perhaps even now considering whether to pass over this too large block of pictureless text, you are to at least a degree some sort of friend of mine. And two weeks, several adventures, minor advances and predictable setbacks having intervened since last we met, this is surely another and a new day, a fresh tide we ride.
There are not choices, only positions. Where shall we land in the spectrum? Sometimes I come before you to tell how miserably I have been misunderstood, mischaracterized or misled by my cruel wife and selfish children, my corrupt business partner or the amalgamation of customers whose desires for home repair and augmentation finance the parts of my life not wholly accommodated by the generous salary and benefit package provided by this journal. And other columns I must give over to weighing the bitter question and unsatisfying possibilities of whether the Democratic party has lost its backbone or vacated its very soul. We are beyond wondering if our country, our people, will turn away from self-indulgence and aggression. That George Bush is confirmed the worst president in our history is settled beyond debate.
But these are not different subjects. Personal, local, political, natural or man-made, all questions that trouble, enrich or excite the mind and the heart are connected, intertwined, grafted to one root. All experience bleeds together. What I may think or feel and what I might choose to do cannot be broken away clean and sharp from either the pus and sulfur of Dick Cheney’s rotten heart or the radiant unconflicted delight of my grandson, his maculate origin, his manifold possible futures or these brilliant days we lurch through now together. I am, I guess, you and you are me and we are all together. We don’t have to like it.
Wednesday a week ago I took an oath (what a ridiculous, pointless, medieval artifact) to uphold the Constitution and fulfill to the best of my ability the duties incumbent on me as Treasurer of the Town of Alna. I did not ask the help of God.
Why do such a thing? The week previous I, together with two other members of the Alna College Of Greatest Living First Selectmen, wasted an evening threatening and cajoling and begging another man to take the task. He declined; he did not want the nuisance nor probably did he need the money. But we had fired one treasurer, a replacement had resigned after a few months, and vendors and employees would be paid and tax liens needed tending. For three reasons I sold myself the job: I can well apply the thirty-five hundred dollars for which I agreed to serve until next March; I have held one town job or another since 1977 and do not any longer know how to separate my personal life from the affairs of my neighbors; and we need a treasurer, however uncertain unwilling or unlikely this new one may be, to quiet the concerns of residents who, though few rise up to assume these burdens themselves, nevertheless become unsettled when they detect holes or lapses in our corporate function.
Yes, all that, and to quiet Selectman Willard’s continuing calls demanding new candidates as I tried to fill the last few fly-free days of spring alone in my woodlot. And, as I think about it after the fact, because every so often and again one should just jump into a job without prior experience, the better to test what abilities may lie dormant or what faculties may yet function though a degree of decrepitude is already evident. And I can add and subtract as well as anybody I know.
That’s it, mostly. You take the money on hand on February first, add to it everything collected by the clerk and tax collector or sent down from Augusta or Washington D.C. (less of the latter two now than when I was selectman), subtract the amount of the checks you write because the selectmen tell you to write them, and draw a line at the end of January. There you have one fiscal year of the Town of Alna, Maine. The term of office itself runs from March to March, meeting to meeting. You take your salary when you like.
A man or woman of average intelligence and ordinary education can do any municipal job. Some ambition is required. An appreciation of the privilege of participation in this sole remaining mostly uncorrupted effort at self-government will make the salary secondary, and will minimize the annoyances attending. Forget your purple-fingered Iraq fiasco, or the illusion that by joining a caucus or voting in a primary election your choice will matter or improve our lot or straighten our course. Pray to your God or tremble and cry when a flag waves by, your best and only hope for helping yourself and your neighbors and your heirs and assigns will be found by putting on the robe and raising the scepter of local municipal service.
I like the reverend Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama used to like him, but the more forcefully and clearly his pastor told several obvious and painful truths about our land of the free, the more sad and sullen the candidate became. Reverend Wright, it develops, is divisive. Pretty much every politician and pundit says so.
Now, the whole damned yammering crew of reactionary know-nothing loud-mouth dim-wit fools on talk radio is divisive, and that whining toad of a preacher James “Praying For Armageddon” Hagee John McCain sucked up to is divisive, and the God-soaked, death-loving nuts running the Supreme Court are divisive, and if you call Dick Cheney divisive he’ll probably shoot your face off. But it’s Jeremiah Wright who has Newsweek and NBC and even old dour, sluggish, liberal-to-a-degree Dan Shore on Public Radio agreeing that his ideas are so “extreme” that would-be president Obama “had no choice” but to “distance himself” from the man.
He said, “God damn America!” Now, you can disagree with that. You can (and probably do) think God has singled out the U.S. of A. for specific and special blessing. But is it not possible that God (if there is a God), having seen every sparrow fall, every head of state we’ve overthrown or assassinated, all the unnecessary wars and all the devious foreign policy we’ve practiced for two centuries, the near-extinction of the people who owned this land when the English and French and Spanish landed, the institutionalization (and for years Supreme Court approval) of the abhorrent practice of slavery and its aftermath of segregation and lynching, our tolerance of poverty and starvation among our own citizens while our wealthiest dine with politicians, our uncontrolled consumption of planetary resources and pollution of the biosphere — is it not even conceivable in the face of the facts of all this and more that a sane and sensible God might just decide to damn America?
Well, but Wright said the government sent AIDS into the black communities to reduce their populations. Impossible? Or merely unlikely? Or only not yet proven? Did the United States Army trade smallpox-infected blankets to American Indians in a deliberate attempt to kill them more comprehensively and easily than shooting them and burning their villages? Did we give, sell, bargain and convey biological and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein so he could poison his citizens? Do you think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? Who killed Martin Luther King — one or many? Do we know all that our government has done? Do we want to know?
I watched Jeremiah Wright on the Bill Moyers Show and I listened to his conversation at the National Press Club. He’s smarter than President Bush, more decent than Vice President Cheney, has more integrity than Senator Lieberman, more courage than Senator Reed or Representative Pelosi. If I believed in God and went to church and he was my minister, I might argue with him about this or that, but I’d listen to him and I’d think about what he said and I’d for damned sure not disown him.
Because for all the thrill that the idea of an Obama candidacy and possible presidency raises in the hearts of most of my liberal friends, it is just this sort of calculation and compromise that makes him insufficiently distinguished from all that his party has become. You want to be president? There are things you cannot say, must not do, opinions that are forbidden. I’ll say that I think much, if not most of what reverend Wright says is obvious and true and that his ministry is an asset to our nation and to the families he has served. But I’m only keeping the books and running the town meetings for the town of Alna. If I wanted to be president I’d strap on the flag pin and stop thinking about things that don’t make us proud and satisfied. And I’d sell out the memory of my own mom, if Katie Couric and Brian Williams thought I ought to to pick up a few score votes or turn a superdelegate.
He didn’t do so formerly, but I hear him do it now, since Reverend Wright stood up and said the unsayable: Barack Obama has taken to ending his speeches with the satisfying, soothing, “God Bless America,” required form for every candidate since Ronald Reagan.
God may watch over me as I dribble the town’s cursor through the various many fields of QuickBooks late at night. I’ll need the help, if he wants to intervene; this system is a mess compared to the simple beauty of the old black cloth-bound ledgers I remember from that ancient era of the nineteen-seventies. Some things get better. Some don’t. But we’re all in this together, one way or another. As the second line of the Springsteen couplet we’ve adopted for our title tells us, “Ain’t nobody likes to be alone.”
You wouldn’t think a quiet little town would have much use for a coarse lout like Cooper, but such is the nature of our twisted times that he has been allowed to hold the high office of first selectman for a dozen years, he has been moderator for as many, and now has accrued a fortnight’s experience as treasurer. And he was even emergency management director for a few years and distinguished himself there by grievously annoying a fulsome suit from FEMA at a photo opportunity arranged for that gentleman bureaucrat’s glorification. God, Reverend Wright detestors and other aggrieved parties may send their objections to ckc2@prexar.com.
© 2008 The Wiscasset Newspaper
Better a coarse lout like Christopher than Cooper Melville’s Bartleby and his “I would prefer not to.”
An very appreciative thanks, as always, Chris Cooper; keep writing to us and for us.
Christopher Cooper up in Maine is not the only person disappointed that Barack Obama concluded he had no choice but to throw Reverend Jeremiah Wright under the bus - this being the same idiosyncratic pastor that the good Senator from Illinois declared scarcely a month ago he could no more disown than he could disown his own grandmother, or disown the black community.
Even the damage control was damaging.
Bill from Saginaw
This article demonstrates a clear progressive view. The fact that most people are now flocking to Obama suggests (at least to me) that most people who subscribe to comment of CD are not really progressive in deed and action. They enjoy the melody - or perhaps it represents nothing more than a cacphony of voices paying lip service to one thing while doing another, much like their hero, mr. Obama: (small mr. intentional by the way.) I agree with and understand the paradigm from which the GOOD Rev. speaks. A view know as Black Liberation Theology. Obama is a plastic man owned by corporations. His environmental plan is backwards and will contribute to the disenfranchisement of the natural world. Obama, like Clinton, and McCain, have the corporate world giddy with anticipation that they WIN, and John Q Public will continue to get the shaft.
Chris Cooper, I’m surprised at you. (Still love your writing, though.) Obama didn’t throw Rev. Wright under the bus — Rev. Wright threw OBAMA under, by dismissing him as just another politician.
When I listened to the Reverend on Bill Moyers’ program a few nights earlier, I found him interesting, informed and (of course) right — there are many accusations that can be flung at the U.S.A. if one is inclined ONLY to see the worst in our country. And unlike Obama, Rev. Wright finds nothing worthy to see here. So be it.
But I could hardly believe my eyes and ears two nights later, watching his embarrassing minstrel show at the National Press Club. Just as our country has two sides, so does Jeremiah Wright — and I wish I’d never seen this second side. I squirmed when he declared that blacks learn differently because they’re RIGHT brained (the night before on C-Span I had listened to the stunningly brilliant Michael Eric Dyson, so I wondered what HE made of Wright’s dismissal of his left brain!), and — well, most of you probably watched, right? I came away with the sense that Wright’s getting old, he’s retiring, and he’s envious of Obama at this point. It’s sad, but what he said about Barack was infuriating nonetheless. That Chris Cooper blames Obama for their parting is absolutely unfair.
It is time to change . . .chnage everything if the USA and the world are to survive!
The public rarely enjoins the true issues or the politicians the reasons are clear. Special interests and “free enterprise” capitalism it is what this country has devised as worth living and dying for. The basis for the consumer ideology is energy and its association with an auto centered economy closes the circle. It uses the media to direct the public flow of the so-called truth and we have a perfect example of it in this political campaign. It is why Exxon Mobile is out of control and the public is given platitudes rather than help.
The media is out of control this election has shown us just how far it has gone to dumb-down the public. The recent move by ABC to remove candidates from the debates was outrageous. They are trying to determine the fate of the country and the world being mouthpiece for special interests and the government and to silence dissent.
Media censure is unheard, the FCC should rule for the public but like the EPA its teeth are continually drawn. The media has no right to exclude any politician who is running for office as happened recently with the ABC debate. The only exclusion under the rules used by ABC should apply to a candidate not sitting in public office. The license of ABC would be lifted if the rules were changed but the congress, with the exception of a few pushes for more media conglomeration supported by special interests. I hope that someone picks up on this thought. We have seen the obsession by FOX and CNN, particularly in the form of Wolf Blitzer, and the FOX rabid journalists constantly referring to the Rev. Wright controversy.
Blitzer’s bias is clear. He is quick to use every possible negative he can against Obama from the Flag Pin to anything else he could get his mouth around. His support for Clinton has been clear and inappropriate, for CNN to call itself a “fair and balanced” news network. I quote Mr. Nichols: ” The media pretense of being a fly on the wall has often been preposterous. In the real world of politics — where power brokers and manipulators proceed with the cynical axiom that perception is reality — the fly on the wall is the wall. The political press corps is not observing reality as much as redefining it while obstructing outlooks and constraining public perceptions.”
As usual, few are able to see the stampede of the public sheep created by media. I support the change that Obama represents! He is intelligent and wants America once again to be looked upon as a great nation that it could still be and once was. The present “lack of experience” cry of Clinton is preposterous. Could anyone having been near the White house as long as Bush done as badly for the USA? There is experience! However, the discovery of a job approval rating for him at about 28% of the American people speaks volumes about experience. No one could have been as bad as the Bush team! There is experience!
A flight from entrenched American politics is necessary . . .it has ruined this country and made greed the single value of importance. The young people once again embrace hope as a result of the Obama campaign. The Hillary political group and entrenched politics have virtually destroyed America with its policies and exclusive power clubs. She has believed this form government is America.
Clinton recently morphed to the Obama populist message, it was called, “finding her voice” while at the beginning of her stump showing her Madeline Albright, bomb the children image. Can anyone truly think that change is unnecessary? I guess not since all the politicos have adopted his message including McCain? The mistakes that Obama may make as president cannot be greater than those of the past seven years. It is also necessary to give him a democratic congress to make certain that the programs that Americans want can be enacted.
Mr. Gore Vidal, has pointedly criticized mainstream media as one of the major problems, and what is wrong with the USA. The corporate media conglomerates control the message and that message is perversely distorted and panders to its advertising portfolio! Wolf Blitzer one of the glaring examples of this criticism and shows clearly those distorted ideas with his reporting, which is nothing more than partially factual opinion dictated by his bosses.
He is a person who has no right to shape public opinion far from being the “fly on the wall” he espouses to be. We must remember flies morph from maggots. He displays ignorance as a virtue for the entire world to see, an example of what is considered, by many in America to be news reporting. If Blitzer were billed as a CNN commentator, at least the public would not be hoodwinked to believe his reporting to be the truth, while it is lack of concern for accuracy, rectitude and fairness to be considered to be news rather than opinion.
The people of the USA have been so ill informed as to what a change would really do and mean to this country and the change in leadership that is necessary, they have forgotten that no one could be worse than George Bush . . . No one, not even a dogcatcher, at least the dog catcher has compassion for
Animals!
The future leaders, Obama or McCain, should discuss the problems America and the world faces. The problem of public ignorance of the issues caused by the media is serious. In the heat of elections the media panders to voter ignorance. The emphasis, as we see on nightly, so-called news, is constant repetition of candidate’s miscues. The result of the media sensationalism becomes, the wrong problem and the wrong message at a crucial time in world history. The emphasis on having the politicians address a credible platform of ideas based on an American and global interaction in the world is critical.
There is not enough time left for civilization to focus on rubbish. The energy and environmental issues for example or food and health care are the problems the media should be focusing upon. But to use the Rev, Wright issue for one week, to try and hurt the candidacy of Obama is a travesty. The issues most pressing are once again avoided, those really important issues that must be put before the congress; the environment, continued funding of Iraq, energy issues, education, health care and so many others not dealt with, all impacting upon the economy, the failure of public dialog is outrageous!
The issue of this election will impact on the environment, economy and the future of the USA as no others. Still, if more than 50% of eligible voters cast their votes it will be a miracle, as a result of regressive US election laws and media obfuscation. It is compulsory for everyone to vote in Australia it should be so in the USA as well. Few of the candidates are really talking about the major points, even those who are the most erudite. The environment in association with the economy or health care and elections reform, to name some, are kept out of public dialog as a result of the nonsense punditry hours on end. The world looks at America and its “star struck reality” in wonder.
The political discussion rests on the complete lack of talking points in isolation, such as, Clinton’s health package or the nonsense gasoline tax rebate and it’s cost, rather than what is really at stake with energy issues, human survival. The candidates for the US presidency rarely talk about the complete interrelated package of the issues combined. Obama alludes to this deficiency in the media and public issues. When he asks for this to occur it lands on deaf ears because the media and special interests do not want this to occur.
The media reduces the public debate to its most simplistic level with pundits arguing about one inconsequential issue or another rather than the truly important issues of our time. The American people are kept from hearing and understanding the relationship of the entire package of issues, which a true leader must address and deal with for the very survival of America in the world within a global economy. The costs for the war would pay for every single need from health care to American infrastructure repair and education, as well as the alleviation of world hunger and energy research this is what is what is at stake.
The media deals with Rev. Wright and American Flag lapel pins instead.
The media keeps the public dumbed down for obvious reasons they represent the moneyed people. As a result the public becomes unable to talk about moving radically toward change and the related issues affecting their very life and the future. The issues of climate change, energy issues and the global economy not only American economy is the part of the mortgage crisis created by the “free market” system. All the other issues like people losing their homes as a result of Wall Street manipulation are tied to these fundamental problems. These is the first and major issue which affects all other issues and is completely related to the economic changes which must take place.
The media board rooms instruct their so-called journalists (news/opinion readers) to stay clear of those subjects that would attack advertising, consumption, tied together in the media collusion with special interests to maintain the consumer system killing the world. Media in collusion with government does not want the change that would result in the decline of their hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
All environmental problems are in one way or another associated with the Western world’s consumption based lifestyle led by the USA. These issues are affected by consumer advertising much of it coming from the millions spent on advertising of irrelevant product and campaign advertising. The media should be dealing with true American and global issues in this campaign affecting the very basis of the so-called American Dream, fast becoming the global nightmare. This is what the next president of the USA must address!
The result of Wright’s show at the press club was an avenue for Obama to cleanly split with the reverend. It was the best escape hatch for Obama, and I wouldn’t be suprised if it was of deliberate intention. I suspect Wright is clever as a cat and the looney show was just that, a show.
C’mon, people. What did you expect Obama to do, say, “ya know, he’s mostly right, guys. We as the United States need to take responsibility for our actions and realize that those actions have consequences.” You seriously think he could have gotten away with something even remotely like that. If you do, you’re in a la la land of wishful thinking. If he had tried, he might as well have followed it up with, “And by the way, I hereby endorse Hillary Clinton for president.” Wright called him a pandering politician, and he was right. Ok, so the guy’s a politician. He did something to save his own political skin. Probably won’t be the last time, I’m sure. Save your whining for if and when he drops the ball as president.
I’m a complete anti-capitalist. However, I am also a person with a family, very little in the way of job prospects, and my family has to live day-by-day.
So, within the allowable range of corporate-sponsered Presidential candidates, I must vote for Obama.
For people in my circumstances, his presindency will most likely better as compared McCain or Clinton.
If one doesn’t find themselves in uncertain circumstances, than that person can bellyache about the basic lack of difference between one candidate or the other.
I would think living under the Reagan, Clinton, and Bush I & II regimes (many times in power concurrently with Republican majorities in Congress), one could discern some differences posed by someone like Obama.
Anyway, he is stuck with Homeland Security, massive war expenditures, a tanking economy, large numbers of un- and underemployed and uninsured and badly insured citizens. Last, but not least, there is always the crumbling US infrastructure.
Any President that actually attempts to solve these problems will soon find him- or herself in physical danger while facing constant Rightwing media assaults. The media would simply ramp up the atmosphere of crisis and raise the level of hate-mongering (fear and smear) -as was done with Allende.
Thank you, Christopher Cooper.
Your words are beautifully written, poignant, and right on target.
I write representing the forces of good - just to add a bright spot in all this darkness.
(For thos3e of you who be inclined to see this entry as self-serving - my motivation first is to show that beneath most of the radar the forces of good are growing!)
There are 2 spots of brightness highlighted in this nomination DoughNation has received as SOLV’s Outstanding Business of 2008:
Four days ago I met Kim Breas, founder of
DoughNation^Services LLC, and told her of my bicycle
Ride Across America - which starts 16 days from today
- to raise awareness of canine cancer and to raise
money for that cause. (See www.dogcancerride.com for
more details).
In the past four days, Kim has:
1) Crafted several fundraising programs to help
support this ride.
2) Connected me with – and taken the initiative to
post about this ride herself - various local email
groups that will reach thousands of Oregonians.
4) Helped me write a story for HappyNews.com which
will reach thousands more across the nation.
3) Pledged DoughNation Services LLC as a corporate
sponsor, and helped connect me with - and personally
continues to make efforts to recruit - other corporate
sponsorships.
Kim describes herself as being ‘on the lunatic-fringe
of do-goodiness’, but personally, I think the world
could use more people like Kim.
Recognizing her work as founder of DoughNation them
for SOLV’s Outstanding Business of 2008 would do a
great deal to encourage others to take a step or two
in her direction.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
And if any others of you are out there with me on the lunatic-fringe of do-goodiness, please do get in touch.
Kim Breas
www.doughnationservices.com
“And other columns I must give over to weighing the bitter question and unsatisfying possibilities of whether the Democratic party has lost its backbone or vacated its very soul.”
May as well ask if there is water in the ocean and sand in the shore.
“He’s smarter than President Bush, more decent than Vice President Cheney, has more integrity than Senator Lieberman, more courage than Senator Reed or Representative Pelosi.”
…More ethical than Rove, better with Powerpoint than Powell…these aren’t exactly the highest standards.
“Wright said the government sent AIDS into the black communities to reduce their populations. Impossible? Or merely unlikely? Or only not yet proven?”
Mr. Cooper: People who repeat such ludicrious conspiracy theories do not deserve to be taken seriously. You, sir, are a fool. The idea that the government created AIDS to kill blacks is nothing but victimology 101. The Black community–especially the clergy–has turned a blind eye to the growing HIV epidemic in its community, and now they want to blame it on the government. The blame for not addressing it openly, and thereby letting it spread lays at the feet of pastors such a Jeremiah Wright who are too homophobic to deal with the problem forthrightly.
Thank you Christopher Cooper, well said.
Yup- and anthrax wasn’t made at Ft. Detrick Md.
Thank you, genicon!!!!
I listened to the whole of Reverend Wright’s speech after 9/11 on line. There was also another one where he g-damned America. Neither are there anymore and I can’t find the transcripts of the speeches and when I called the Unity Trinity Church, they didn’t have them. My original assessment is there were some things I disagreed with (while it is feasible, I doubt it introduced AIDS, e.g.), there was much truth in it.
While it would have been a tremendous political risk, there was a part of me that hoped Obama would have addressed the substance. Perhaps, in a less dramatic tone, by pointing to our governments, and not the people, as the perpetrators, explaining how these actions could cause anger and hatred, but not jusifying the 9/11 attacks against innocent people or other acts of violence and that there is plenty of good this nation has done. However, if we want to be even better, we have to look at the bad things we have done. God (if you choose to believe)may not damn America, but America has to earn his (her) blessings.
To me, Hillary is a known corporatist; McCain is a closet corporatist and Obama is an unknown. He can’t be any worse and maybe he will be “The Great Black Hope”.
Obama is only an unknown to those who refuse to believe the statements he himself makes. “I will send troops into Pakistan if necessary” He is owned lock stock and barrel by the corporate criminals that have nearly destroyed our Democratic republic. And they have succeeded by buying the media. there are so called news people we see every night on the boob tube but few real unbought journalists left.
Do you really believe that one man will change your life? Do you believe that a man who answered a hypothetical question with bombing the shyt outta Pakistan is that man? C’mon peoplez wake up. Just cause hez cooler about how he panders is no reason to vote for him. America is like a snowball going down hill. If Obama gets in the way, the only thing that will change is that a snowball with a black man wrapped around it will be heading downhill. If you keep looking to Washington for change you too will be wrapped around that snowball. Change happens first within you. As the snowball nears the bottom change happens much faster in other people too. Then just before it hits bottom there’s an ohno second where everybody changes. Then it hits. Them that survives lives on in an enlightened state. That’s how shyt works.
“if one is inclined ONLY to see the worst in our country.”
OK Adele , you’re on : make a list for us of all the best in our country.
Aaah, chris cooper, you are one of the main reasons i continue to explore commondreams.
Intelligent discourse is not censored here like it is on the rest of the media. My democracy and
republic are being destroyed without any dialogue on our main stream media. When i first heard
the words of the rev. Wright, i was pretty astonished. My own repressed, angry thoughts, were being
broadcast nationally thru a black preacher who just happened to be Barack Obama’s former minister.
Selfishly, i loved it that someone of prominence was echoing my own inner anger at the absurdity
of the current times. I agreed with mr. Wright, that our “chickens had come home to roost” on 9/11.
Afterall, our country had become rich off the rape and plunder of “others.” Did “we” think we were
above the law of “what goes around, comes around?”
Our chickens have come home to roost and it’s damn well time we chickens took the henhouse back
from the foxes who have overrun it.
Like the thesis of the Israeli lobby influence on US government, the Reverend Wright has received far more publicity for his words from the vociferous media than he could ever have dreamed of. Their is only one thing worse being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A negative harping campaign by the media is almost a guarantee that that the subject is on to something, has touched a festering sore of a no go zone. The protests are the best means necessary to bring the topic out to far and wide, and media disapproval is a sign that some one really cares.
What the media really cares about should nearly always be understood by the opposite of their presentation, since its controlled by the veiled interests of the media owners, the most marvelous and miraculous news spinners. Media spin is a mirror of what corporate US fears most, that is threats to the stupendous and stupid amounts of control, wealth and power, and civilization destruction being exercised to control oil and politics in the Middle East, and that the US people are becoming very tired of it all, even though it is presented as being paramount to their security.
No one is safe from the ever-growing consequences of human technocratic-energy bondage. I might as well as complain about the laws of Thermodynamics, that the entropy mess always increases. Only the natural world through blind evolution and millions of years has solved the longevity question, through the ceaseless turnover of species. If only I could point to some trend that would show the human or natural world is getting better at something meaningful. The only good thing is the oil is running out, and we are running the civilization on uncontrolled carbon burning that is ultimately suicidal. Everything else is a but a short term power and survival game, at the expense of ruining the Arena, the world we live in. Afterwards, survival and continuation may be question of local biological adaptation again, and not possession of unlimited means of destruction and instinctual drives to apply it.
The good things are, we could control population growth if we tried really hard. We could reduce carbon burning, and live a minimum frugal lifestyle if we tried really hard. The consuming drive to use the natural wealth of the world all up at once, and kill everyone else who would stop us, is killing us too.
A May Primary Election still looming to make history
Why Democracy Still Matters in West Virginia (even when the media isn’t watching)
The mysterious gifting of the executive MBA to West Virginia Governor Manchin’s daughter more than represents the corruption of government by special interests. Persistent evidence of routine government corruption also raises the very interesting prospect of a political upset in, of all places, the state Democratic Party Primary Election this May 13. At a time when most people have given up hope in the democratic process in America, those wild and wonderful hillbillies stand ready to lead a nation out of a political dark age. With many states disenfranchised by unequal primary election dates and with such a late primary date compared to the other states, rational West Virginia citizens have naturally lost faith in their vote ever counting. Except now, with little more than but a nod for one of the remaining war light candidates, Democrats have a real process on their hands. All eyes are on current freshman Delegate, Mel Kessler, having challenged the sitting Governor of his own party, while a large insider scandal involving Governor Manchin unfolds and with two Supreme Court seats up for grabs also under a cloud of scandal, election history is certainly about to be made in West “by God” Virginia.
The WVU scandal resembles the all too familiar pattern of government officials getting off the hook while a few underlings get demoted. This brewing election scandal in West Virginia, then, represents a whiff of the stench and arrogance of corruption. A scandal growing far worse than simply leaving the “Open for Business” signs up until the primary election. This corruption is the same as the political firing of Archives Director, Fred Armstrong. Armstrong refused to bend the rules for political favoritism and was retaliated against. Forget about Senator Rockefellers millions and Representative Capito’s infamous one of the most expensive congressional races in history. Mysterious tents of money, a compliant media and undisclosed campaign contributions in West Virginia politics are solid examples of why the state needs public financing laws for clean elections. Without clean elections, West Virginia can still turn to the voting booth. When faced with widespread corruption democracy may be the last chance to save one state in a nation drowning in corruption.
West Virginia has a case to make in favor of a national primary date. Disenfranchising the people from the political process is not just unequal voter treatment or red baiting being conducted by a simple liberal free press. A large party tent in the yard of the Governor’s Mansion was funded by an unaccountable group of contributors, currying favors no doubt. But this style of secret squirrel isn’t new to this Governor. In 2004 Manchin refused to debate then gubernatorial candidate, Jesse Johnson, of the WV Mountain Party, while Republican candidate, Monty Warner debated Johnson several times. Manchin may be Open for Business, but he isn’t an open government kind of guy.
Even more interesting in 2008, if Governor Manchin should limp away with a primary win, former Senator Russ Weeks, who wrote a tell all book about political cronyism in the state and once again Mountain Party gubernatorial candidate Johnson, are both poised to give Manchin a formidable run for his $2 million dollars in campaign contribution money. This scandal has so tarnished the Governor that even with the media blackout in effect, as no third party candidate has gotten fair media coverage in over a decade, Johnson now a successful Presidential hopeful nominee to the Green Party, will certainly be able to beat Manchin come November, even if the voters don’t privatize him on May 13.
So why are clean elections and this scandal so relevant? Democracy is, after all, about more than money. But, money matters. Looking back at 2004 while Mylan Pharmaceuticals had been gifting WVU with the tens of millions of dollars, they also gifted gubernatorial candidate, then Secretary of State, Manchin with free campaign helicopter rides. This same official was responsible to investigate campaign finance violations. Connections to Manchin and Mylan funny money are not the only problem in the mountain state this spring.
Another incident of corruption has West Virginians upset this year. The Supreme Court story of Justice, Elliot “Spike” Maynard, is nothing compared to the one that started a few years ago, when candidate for Supreme Court, now Justice Brent Benjamin, made his bed with king coal. A. T. Massy CEO Don Blankenship, king coal reincarnated, is not just a friend of Maynard, he gifted Mr. Benjamin with over 3 million dollars in direct campaign advertising for his Supreme Court race. Justice Benjamin has now voted in favor of Massey in a multimillion dollar case, with a larger case pending and Benjamin refuses to step aside, as the ethics laws require. Like Benjamin voting in favor of his benefactor once in office, Manchin smiled when he gutted the Pharmaceutical Cost Management Review recommendation for industry financial disclosure of gifts to doctors and hospitals. An eMBA for his daughter seems an appropriate reward for his corporate loyalty.
However, corruption relates directly to a variety of health problems when government regulators are in collusion with the regulated industry. Not to mention 2.4 billion dollars in uncollected fines and penalties in Clean Water Act violations by an industry responsible for also bankrupting the state workers’ compensation system. You didn’t know about the WV Department of Environmental Protection failing to enforce the Clean Water Act for over 5 years? Alarm bells are sounding. Voting booths are calling.
Our nation now has a taste of the over prescribed pharmaceuticals in the nation’s drinking water. Not because pharmaceutical pollution was detected by any state agencies designated as industry watch dogs and assigned to protect our environment. Disclosure of this water pollution is exempt and enforcement is not required. Pharmaceutical water pollution was identified instead by an alert Associated Press, who also found, with equally professional investigative journalism, industry air reporting exemptions are indeed bad for air quality too. An alert Pittsburgh Post Gazette also reported the mysterious MBA. Thank god for a free press. Most people are upset about the status of fear, poverty and endless occupation. People are ready to vote for a change from corrupt business influences to a sustainable stewardship and honesty in leadership. A state known by her motto “Mountaineers are always free” and at this point in history is certainly worth watching closely.
In West Virginia on May 13 is where a nation will see the return of Government of the people, for the people and by the people. If the elections are not completely rigged, and with 33 of West Virginia’s 55 counties using electronic voting machines rigged elections are a legitimate concern, but if all the votes count, Governor Manchin will be privatized in 2008. All of the eyes of the nation are watching West Virginia as a wild and wonderful state is about to smile on democracy. I know West Virginia, and with the elephant sized donkey in the room, she is about to deliver.
“He’s smarter than President Bush, more decent than Vice President Cheney, has more integrity than Senator Lieberman, more courage than Senator Reed or Representative Pelosi.”
Talk about damning with faint praise! More decent than Cheney, who has no decency whatsoever!
Jeremiah Wright is also more of a racist than Hillary Clinton, who isn’t a racist at all, however much Obama and his thugs play the race card against her.
Jeremiah Wright is also more of a fool than his disciple Barack Obama, who never believed any of Wright’s bullshit about the federal government inventing AIDS to exterminate black people, and…
Barack Obama is more of a hypocrite than anybody you care to name, because he went along with Wright’s bullshit for no other reason than the political advantage of belonging to the most powerful black congregation in Chicago.
Vote for third party progressives and you will have feast because you will continue to act in your own interest to vindicate your vote.
Vote for elite/corporatocracy candidates and you will have famine because you will continues to act in the elite/corporatocracy’s interest to vindicate your vote.
I am having trouble. Can someone help me? What are the great things the US has done for the world?
I liked the part where Cooper talked about community involvment and how it matters. Maybe the point is that we don’t have any control at the national level. And maybe it doesn’t really matter anymore.
Boy oh boy— many posters here seem quite comfortable criticizing their government for any number of hideous crimes agasint humanity and mother earth, but then get all hot under the collar if a black man does. All you self righteous Wright bashers remind me of kids who bad mouth their own mother, but turn around and beat up anyone else who repeats theior insults.
Has it ever occurred to you that this is the good Rev Wright’s country too? And if he wants to accuse it of anything, that is his 1st Amendment right?
How easy it is for all of us to inadvertantly reveal our own racist tendencies. I am really begining to doubt that many Common Dreams readers are progressives at all. What progress are you working currently for? What progress in your own personal growth can you claim? In what areas do we move together in a forward direction????
Rebel Farmer—-I agree—we need to stop looking to Washington for answers. They aren’t listening anyway. The sooner we get that, the sooner we realize that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we’d better get to work locally connecting with those around us, building up real support systems that practice interdependence and interconnectedness. That is where real change takes place and where we can feel the benefits of those changes.
“A person never exposes their own personal character as clearly to the world , as when they are defining the character of another”
Heard that somewhere, and from the judgmental responses to Rev.Wright’s,first amendment protected right to say non criminal stupid things, and not just truths and beliefs we agree with, The old saw is still true as ever.
Not looking at the world through the narcissistic distortion prism of the MIC/MSM/ZEOCON ruling elite , IS VERBOTEN
“Do we know all that our government has done? Do we want to know?”
No, and..well, yes at least, I do. Though, I have a suspicion.
As for Wright vs. Obama:
“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me.”
G. Orwell
starofthesea May 9th, 2008 10:27 pm
“Rebel Farmer—-I agree—we need to stop looking to Washington for answers. They aren’t listening anyway. The sooner we get that, the sooner we realize that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we’d better get to work locally connecting with those around us, building up real support systems that practice interdependence and interconnectedness. That is where real change takes place and where we can feel the benefits of those changes.”
Right on!
I wish CD had a better board system so that we could develop some threads that would last more than a day. It would really help us jaded progressives and progressive wannabes to write about what it is we’re each doing. I think we’d be blown away by the amount of experience and outside the box work that’s being done by many of us. As it is, this format encourages little snippets filled with cynical bile.
What am I doing? Working to make my life and household as sustainable as I can. Learning about permaculture and incorporating it in my life. Sharing what I have with friends. And more…
Among all the disempowering things that are going on “out there”, there is a lot of empowering stuff going on “in here.” Actually, all the good work starts “in here.”
Thanks starofthesea.
Interesting. A short vicarious tour of black churches and black historical attitude, represented well by Rev. Wright kind of thinking. Chris Cooper is excellent in this essay.
Well spoken Mr. Cooper
In support of Wright’s AIDS statements:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8674401787208020885
ike kay,
“The mistakes that Obama may make as president cannot be greater than those of the past seven years.”
I look forward to having a president who makes mistakes rather than purposely leading us into an occupation of a foreign country at great human expense to its citizens and those of our own nation, who purposely rigs things to benefit less than 1% of the population while trying to convince the rest of us the economy is just in a rough patch, who purposely assumes new powers for the executive branch that our not outlined in the Constitution and openly violates our own laws with impunity. Even if our next President turns out to bungle things completely it still couldn’t be as bad because it would take some pretty big mistakes to even equal the harm imposed on us by Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the neocons. And if this new President actually acknowledges that he or she sometimes makes mistakes, by golly, I’ll fall right out of my chair!
Monday morning after seeing the Moyers interview and the end of the Press Club Q and A ,I told my father that I’ve finally seen something that gave me reason to believe that Obama might actually have the peoples best interest at heart.
He (my father) had been parroting this “CHANGE” bullshit for months. He seemed so happy that I finally saw ( in Wright) something I might be able to trust in Obama.
By the end of a week of MSM my fathers opinion of Wrihgt was that he was some kind of nut and that Obama had to distance himself.
Now I’m back where I was 2 weeks ago .Frightened to think of my sons future in the hands of ANY of the top three candidates.
I gotta tell you that my opinion of Moyers has also sunk a little in the past week also.
http://www.wolvesbook.com/
Some fun stuff about Obama
If God has blessed America she’s done it in a very sneaky way. I mean it seems to be sinking into multiple quagmires much to the cheers of most of the world’s people.
‘Cause they say that god works in mysterious ways but how can she bless so destructively. I mean there’s Bush and Cheney and the subprime mortgage catastrophe and then there’s Afghanistan and Iraq and Israel. Then there’s tornadoes and Rupert Murdoch and American Idol and B. O’Rielly and Billary.
It’s to be hoped that god never damns America, eh?
P.S. Help may be at hand! D.Duck may takeover the White House in November. Check my blog for details.
Rev Wright was merely being candid, in his playfully serious way. He didn’t throw Obama under any bus, and neither did Obama throw Wright under any bus.
Anyone running for president has to be, in many ways, a stealth candidate. None of them can come (w)right out and say what they really think or feel. It has to be calculated to minimize unintended adverse reactions. After all, you can’t please all the people all the time, but you can try to look like you are.
Obama is acting just like a candidate, and Wright is acting just like Wright. Nothing outrageous about either one, really. Don’t forget, Obama, like any candidate, has to walk on eggs around the media, who will latch onto any stupid little thing (e.g., an irrelevant-to-the-campaign remark like Wright’s) and beat it to death. It’s the media, stupid.
Get a grip, everyone. Look at Obama’s voting record. It’s as liberal as they get. More liberal than Hillary’s, which places her closer on the political spectrum to the neocons than to the progressives. Obama is much closer to the progressives than to the neocons. That’s what everyone needs to recognize.
cyon:
Get your bigot ass off this website!
Jakob Freeze:
Just who the hell are you to villify/condemn Wright?
Such smuggery, pettiness, and repulsive SOPswill from a covert neocon…
lizard:
The answer is: the US gave the world
a)Trouble,
b) mass production,
c) sleazy entertainent,
d) Military Armaments,
e) Wars-By-Proxy,
f) The World Bank,
g) IMF,
h) Dictators,
i) Juntas,
j) Banana Republics,
k) New World Order,
l) GM Crops
Rev. Wright should fall down on his knees and thank God for being born in US of A and not in Africa, as Pat Buchanan has suggested recently.
In the old days he would have at least been horse whipped publicly for making such pronouncements.
Anyone who quotes Pat Buchanan as an authority on anything should be publicly horse whipped for making such a pronouncement.
Then John Hagee’s comments warrant what? Public execution?
Wright will fade away as his usefulness to certain vested interests wanes. (Of course the Repubs will give him another hour or two of fame before discarding him.)
Wright’s Press Club and, more importantly, NAACP presentations effectively told everyone that his ego is bigger than Obama’s candidacy. At that point, Obama could have done two things:
1) continue to “support his pastor,” become a political footnote and hand Clinton the nomination or
2) distance himself from that ego and continue his political career
Perhaps he did compromise his principles by pushing Wright out the door. It was that or fall on his sword.
That would have benefited who?
The opening paragraph in the above mentioned link:
“There has been a lot of discussion within progressive circles recently about whether Barack Obama’s candidacy poses a real threat to the political establishment. Of course, he has won the hearts and minds of the grass roots liberal and progressive communities, but can a person who has advisers like former national security advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Anthony Lake, former assistant secretary of state Susan Rice, and former navy secretary Richard Danzig really be that much of a revolutionary? I use this excerpt from Wolves, to remind us that the threat isn’t necessarily the candidate, but the flow of political reformist insurgents they bring into the party apparatus.”
Talk about Neo-cons and NWO connections
Cyon, you’re partly right–the HIV conspiracy theory is stupid, and Cooper shouldn’t take it seriously, but there is a background of our government acting like Nazis in doing medical experiments on blacks.
As for Wright being a homophobic black preacher who is part of the problem on AIDS, don’t speak when you don’t know what you’re talking about. Wright is pro-gay and had a ministry for AIDS victims back in the 80’s when the government was doing nothing. You have the gall to criticize him when you don’t bother to learn the first thing about the man, and make up stories that are the exact opposite of the truth.
And Adele–”minstrel show”? Any reason why that particular insult popped into your head? Maybe you ought to take a good look at yourself before you do any further posting.
Could CD please re-print critical_wisdom’s comments as an article? Many of us know nothing of West Virginia politics and these comments were most enlightening.
Kudos to Chris Cooper- for both his insightful,reasoned, beautifully written article….. AND for his public service to the town of Alna.
I like Chris Cooper’s writing, but there are too many lines that get blurred in pieces like this, and by all those who use metaphors like “Obama throwing Wright from the train” or “Under his wheels.” What a bunch of baloney.
It’s certainly helpful for Wright to explain that remarks were taken out of context, and that God, in fact, does condemn many things US leaders have done; while God does not condemn much of the good work of the “Little People” who live their daily lives and love their families and neighbors and even strangers, God condems our tendency to sit by passively, addicted to TV and love songs on the radio, while our leaders and our military and economic machines commit terrible acts. Certainly, God condemns many acts, if there is a God, as Cooper indicates.
But for prayerful folks who belive there is a god — either as a literal/anthropomorphism who sat for portraits by Michelangelo, or as a metaphor for mystery and transcendence and a quest for an ethical backbone — for these people, the point of prayers (including “God Bless America”) is both to ask for God’s help, and to commit ourselves to the work of being a blessing, living as a blessing.
So sure, Wright got it part right. Obama got it part right in distancing himself from Wright as Wright became more stuborn about the very things people might take exception to. Obama got it right in asking for blessing, which is not the same as asking for more stuff, or more power.
I don’t say this as a partisan Democrat or Republican or Socialist. I say this as a person who looks at world trade, where capitalists are always looking for cheaper labor to exploit and discard, where capitalists claim that greed is good and that by this means, we shall lift up the poor of the world. I doubt it. It seems a grand pyramid scheme that depends on having new pockets of poverty for capitalists to exploit. I believe with all my heart that, if there is a God, God condemns this sort of thing, and that’s one of the reasons why a rich moment in the Christian Gospels contains that story about the rich and self-righteous man coming to Jesus, Jesus telling him to sell all he has and give it to the poor, the man going away sad, and Jesus saying that it’s easier for a camel to pass through they eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s Kingdom.
Of course God condems.
But then the goods are shipped home, and the single parent goes to WAL*MART or to the second-hand store where all the WAL*Mart goods get recyled and resold, and although she’s living on welfare, or making minimum wage and visiting the food shelf regularly, she still has to buy the stuff that was made in the little countries our economic leaders saw fit to exploit.
Does God (if there is one) condemn her for being a part of this system?
She’s just as much an American as Dick Cheney, and in spite of her economic struggles, she may find more fulfillment, spiritual peace and happiness than here’s-a-shotgun-in-your-face Cheney.
God bless her. God bless all the poor-in-spirit to whom the kingdom belongs, and the meek who will inherit the earth, and those who hunger for justice. God bless and bend America till it serves their interests and agenda, and not the path of greed and materialism it usually finds itself upon. God bless and bend us till we’re not ashamed to bow and bend and delight in turning, as the Shaker song says — in our own turning from the paths we’ve been on, toward far better paths.
I LOVE the Rev. Wright and, I, too, was disappointed with Barak’s abandoning him. I saw the Bill Moyers, then the NAACP in Detroit that CNN ran constantly and I really didn’t hear anything shocking. So it was with real interest that NPR finally reran the National Press Club and I was prepared to be shocked. I was working in the back yard as I listened. And each time that he said something that NOBODY HAD EVER SAID IN AMERICAN PUBLIC BEFORE, I would gasp along with the black people who were so authentic in their shock, disbelief, then joyful laughter that couldn’t be contained and I felt great regard for such a truth-teller. At last. I live in Maine, but somehow I’m going to support Trinity Church in Chicago. Rev. Wright’s description of black liberation theology was helpful to me, a white woman. The forgiveness aspect was truly liberating and he said it all succinctly. Yeah, maybe he’s a jerk and he was unhelpful to Obama. But I really appreciate his courage to say things no one else will ever say. This man was excoriated by the jackals of 24/7 Entertainment News. I don’t blame him for saying “I’m a man, and I’m pushing back”.
Perhaps the progressive blogs are missing the point with the reverend B.S., etc? In the past 8 weeks there have been massive storms, tornadoes, floods, etc. that have hit the U.S. Bible Belt. In Texas, Bush’s bastion of devotion to the Lord and capital punishment, a giant sink hole continues to gobble up the oil-based turf in Houston. Hurricane season is about to hit the chapter and verse territories and more “acts of God” calamity are on the way. In the southwest where there is more than the fair share of Bible thumping, forest fires rampage. And let’s not forget about the earthquakes and tremors and the impending blowup in Yellowstone from an ever increasing caldera. Yet, in the two most progressive states in the nation, Massachusetts and Vermont, there is nothing but beautiful green landscape, clean air, gay marriage, civil unions, and, oh my gosh, secular humanism. Ah then, what is one to conclude? How about that God is PO’d at the folks proclaiming to be Bible thumpers who profess to practice the Ten Commandments, like “thou shall not kill”, and then do just that vis-a-vis “shock and awe” and the Iraq occupation. That God is angry that “thou shalt not steal”, though coveted by the self-righteous, mocks him when the same people, his supposed flock, support the theft of Iraqi oil? That God is jealous that his followers who “shall have no false gods before me” do just that when they worship at the alter of the “free market”. But wait, there may be a far simpler explanation. That is, that God is gay and is rewarding Massachusetts and Vermont. No, God is no more rewarding Vermont and Massachusetts than God is punishing New Orleans for putting together a gay parade. God exists in the egos of those who are deluded into believing. They, who invent God in their own image and likeness. As a consequence, what the revs have to say is of no value, except for that which is self-serving. Therein, lies the danger.
Wright is right and wrong. Nobody deserves to die like those people did in the twin towers even if it was the result of bad karma on the part of their leaders. While terrorism can be expected when corporate “people” are rampaging under the protection of the United States government, the individual victims of the inside deals are innocent. All of them. It’s hard to convince people that killing is wrong, a last option. We have such a deep history of killing in America. It is the one glorious thing that we can do for our country. But it also seems like killing is something that needs to be fomented by our leaders. This is why we need leaders with intelligence and compassion, ones who are not tied into the corporate world where conscience has far less clout than the bottom line.
Jacob Freeze wrote: “Barack Obama is more of a hypocrite than anybody you care to name, because he went along with Wright’s bullshit for no other reason than the political advantage of belonging to the most powerful black congregation in Chicago.”
—–
He took his “civil rights” attorney job because the law firm was the firm of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.
He *found Jesus* because he knew if he didn’t he would not win the votes he needs to become President.
He turns on the black when he’s in front of black audiences and suppresses when he’s in front of (predominantly or wholly) white audiences. He dumped Wright because Wright dared to express his blackness to a predominantly white audience.
He became a pal, and technically a financial partner, of Tony Rezko because Rezko had political connections and dumped lots of money into his campaign accounts (despite the fact that reputable Illinois politicians recognized Rezko as corrupt and stayed away from him).
Everything this man does is carefully calculated to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States. Why should anyone think that he would exhibit any less self-serving behavior once in office ?
One thing about it, there is never going to be a consensus among progressives. Maybe that is a good thing.
There was no consensus among the anarchists in 1936 Spain .
Turned out to be not such a good thing.
Obama didn’t disavow Rev. Wrights comments about America, after all they were true, but rev. Wright tryed to redefine Barack in a very ugly and untrue way.
I think JW blamed Barack for misrepreseting his sermons, and tryed to kill his chances of getting elected.
I heard the “.. tit for tat ..” it was clearly a get even, but JW picked on the most innocent Barack who had nothing but praise for him, till he was forced to disavow him.
Jozef… lol I notice that since DisneyWorld has a gay pride parade day, seems all the hurricanes skirt around the east coast, and enter texas or the gulf side of Florida.
I’m not gay but I believe all love is love.
MR. Obama is now the number one recipient of health insurance corporate donations, surpassing the recent first place recipient, Ms. Rodham-Clinton. This is change??? Neither will bite the hands that feed them, and it is not us, my friends - but we will continue to be chewed up and spat out by these creatures.
My partner and I have a basic disagreement over Obama’s choice to disown the Rev. Wright. Regardless of how you view his words and opinions - and I personally agree with him, 100% - for Obama to turn around a scant few days after saying he could never disavow his friedship and relationshop with him, and publicly denounce him, proves just what our treasured Chris Cooper has written: he’s just another politician, doing what is expedient to get elected. Don’t you suppose that Rev. Wright’s comments to that effect is what really pushed Obama to prove him right?
I like reverend wright myself,he reminds me of several characters from “the invisible man by ralph ellison-he also evokes the ancient admonition from lao tze that “he who justifies himself is not prominent.” lets face it the rev has been vetted or over thirty years by a predominantly white denomination,as well as by all those mildly liberal foundations which support his social works and activism.obviously he is no anarchist,militant,or guerilla-unless he joined up as a way of spicing up his golden years.i think his off the script comments to the press club amounted to a ploy to give the young senator room to sever ties until after the election.is it not instructive that the old preacher introduces that old,basically undocumented chestnut about the feds and aids,while ignoring the demonstrable evidence linking the cia with the crack epidemic in urban ghettoes during the 1980’s? if you doubt that the cia was not at least indirectly involved ask sen kerry,or former cia inspector general hitz.remember that old “dateline” show with the patient cia rep assuring all those angry,stereotypically “irrational ” ghetto dwellers,that once the feds had “direct evidence”,the gov would arrest the evildoers.in the meantime,the residents could rest assured that the feds would give the appropriate disproportionate sentence for crack possession,as opposed to coke.i believe that the rev was using the old “reverse” on “whitey almighty” at that press club meltdown.in any event,somewhere in the great beyond the basically conservative ralph ellison must be chuckling softly.”yessir,i yam what i yam.”chalk one up for brer fox as well.
“Do you really believe that one man will change your life?” Obama does not say that he alone will change our lives, he says,
“I am asking you to believe not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington . . . I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
I wrote recently to the uncommitted superdelegates:
“What Senator Obama has that Senator Clinton does not are the New Activists, new voters and people like me, who are committed not only to getting our candidate elected, but to STAYING INVOLVED AS ACTIVE CITIZENS TO ACHIEVE CHANGE. There are tens of thousands, if not millions, of us. New activists. Energized, excited, committed.
Rather than the ‘let me fix it for you, all you have to do is get me elected’ message; the message is, we all have to work together, the citizens and voters are not off the hook for their participation in making change happen.
My expertise and national connections are in the field of employment, jobs and careers, 30 years worth. These past several years, I have had the opportunity to help workers from all over the country who needed to re-career and find new jobs. As a new activist, I am committed to being part of the change we need, on a volunteer basis even after the January inauguration.”
Much like John Kennedy who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” and started the Peace Corps, Obama is putting us all on notice that this is a collaborative effort to achieve change.
When you consider the 1,000,000+ individual citizens who have donated small amounts to the Obama campaign, you don’t want to lose that group’s involvement. The online organization created by the Obama campaign is brilliant; that organization could be leveraged for political/social action after the Presidential election.
Donald May,
I stand by what I say. Tuskegee doesn’t excuse stupidity. Blaming the goverment for the spread of HIV in the African American community is beyond nonsense, its a convenient way to avoid blame for one’s own failures. The black clergy have failed to deal forthrightly with HIV–Reverend Wright included. A ministry for the “victims of AIDS” is the easy part. The hard part–and the only part that will make a differece–is nonjudgemental outreach to young black gay men to assist them with risk reduction. Where is that part of Wright’s ministry? Our any other ministry on the South Side?
Diablo Rojo? What, exactly, makes me a bigot? Am I not allowed to criticize any people of color, not matter the stupidity of what they say?
Chris, Thanks!! Truth always hurts, especially deep down, gut level truth. Americans have to be the most vain populaltion on earth. We are obviously holier than thou on every level, bar none!! Just don’t peek under the covers and actually discover that we happen to be pretty darn self centered and mean spirited and have done some pretty disgusting things to muddy up our history and our beloved reputation. Pointing out just a smattering of our faults is enough to enrage a few, but also enlightens a host of good folks along the way. Rev. Wright is Mr. Right on most counts and I, too, appreciate the fact that he has probably done a heck of a lot more for his flock in the last few years that the bunch in Washington has done for the whole country, baring themselves, that is. I don’t see Rev. Wright in a feeding frenzy at the cost of his congregation, whereas our good leaders in Washington appear to have their greedy little fingers in the pockets of every hard working taxpayer. Thanks again for a great article.