April 28, 2008
I want to say something about life in regard indirectly to the issue of Barak Obama’s former preacher, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who seems to be more important to our media than any other issue in the decision as to who is best qualified to be the next president.
From what I’ve heard, most of what Wright has said about our nation’s history is true. I can testify to it, as I grew up in Louisiana. It is not relevant if Wright himself did not suffer in such segregation or poverty, although most people in the depression era did.
What Obama is saying, correctly, is that while that was the past, and the present is different. Again, I as a homosexual citizen can testify to that, partly because I have worked to make the change happen, and the progress has been made with little support from the majority of homosexuals (in fact with opposition from many closeted queers) and under all presidents, governors, etc.
And this is true for black Americans, again, with not much help from a lot of black citizens, many of whom did NOT support Dr. King, et al.
The current media frenzy over elites calling people bitter is important for a reason most people do not understand. If the right-wingers are sure our nation needs to stop the spread of Islam, because of the fanaticism of the Taliban types, they should, as Wright suggests, seek to know where this fanaticism comes from. And ironically last week’s Newsweek discusses just this topic. It asks if a small town in Africa, Libya I think, has sent at least 10 men to die for the Islamists. Why? Is it religion? Poverty? Lack of hope for the future?
That may be what Obama suggests is the question we must ask about Americans in small town which have lost their main source of income, as factories and jobs move to other countries. Have they sought refuge in religion? Do they see any future for their families? Whom do they blame for their situation? Immigrants? Blacks? Homosexuals? Democrats?
Who do they think will help them if they become president? They will get no answers from the media.
What they get from the media is talking heads, with no more information or knowledge than the viewer, and with agendas, such as seeking more viewers to make more money from advertisers. So they play up irrelevant issues such as asking religious questions from politicians instead of what things they will do to make our nation better for us all.
If the average American voter thinks it is more important to know what Barak Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John McCain believe about some religious doctrines, then our nation is lost, and all the sacrifices, from the founding through world wars on, has been wasted by this generation, which lives better than any generation in history, because of what previous generations of Americans did.
And the worst part is that such attitudes make these Americans exactly like the poor Africans who supply the Taliban with suicide bombers. And perhaps for the same reasons, religious beliefs and lack of knowledge of the real world.
