"Obama's Hurt And Bitter Friend?"

 

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, speaks during a town hall-style meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., Tuesday, April 29, 2008.

Barack Obama is looking to get his campaign back on track today after making a strong effort to distance himself from his controversial former pastor.

An angry Obama told reporters yesterday he was "outraged" by what he called a "performance" by Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday and added that he was "saddened by the spectacle."

Wright used the forum to reiterate some of his charges against the U.S. government, including his suggestion that the government invented the AIDS virus to destroy "people of color."

Obama calls the comments "divisive and destructive" and says "they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

Rev. Wright smugly answering questions

The Illinois senator summoned reporters Tuesday to say he was outraged by the Rev. Wright's "divisive and destructive" remarks, scrambling to contain the flare-up in a controversy that has dogged him since clips of some of Wright's most objectionable remarks began circulating on TV and the Internet.

Wright's comments — including the suggestion that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus to destroy "people of color" — "end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate," Obama told reporters, "and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."

Black voters, in particular, urge Obama to rise above campaign attacks and dustups, saying he is not responsible for what Wright says. Many white voters say they were deeply troubled and baffled by Obama's association with Wright, even before the preacher reiterated some of his most incendiary comments on Monday.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

      The recent ill timed speeches and comments of Barack Obama's long time pastor, friend and spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in my ears, are the words of a hurt and bitter friend. Though Obama was praised by many for his speech on race in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008, something in the words and tone of that speech hurt Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Perhaps it was Obama condescendingly putting Rev. Wright on the same level with Obama's racist white grandmother. Perhaps it was Obama characterizing the views of Rev. Wright as racially divisive in his Presidential run, but saying "Amen" and "you ain't never lied" in church or in private conversations between the two. (Barack Obama has shown an inclination to say one thing behind closed doors and another in public, such as exemplified in his "bittergate" statements before the Pennsylvania primary) 

    From what I can discern from video clips, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a proud man for sure, maybe smug and self righteous as well. Has Obama had a heart to heart talk with Rev. Wright since his "race speech"? Did Obama talk with Rev. Wright before his "race speech"? Perhaps Rev. Wright was bothered by the same thing that bothered me in Senator Obama's much acclaimed "race speech". I wanted Barack Obama to "fess up" that he too has been angry and bitter at times in his life within the black American experience, that Rev. Wright wasn't just speaking from his generation only. Though I refuse to let bitterness and cynicism about race relations in America dominate me, I would be lying if I said I have never been bitter or cynical about race relations in America. The Bible says faith, confession of sin and repentance lead to "salvation". Maybe Senator Obama should have talked more about his own sins and repentance in his race speech. Maybe Rev. Wright wouldn't now be so bitter against his former friend and parishioner, Barack Obama.

tags: barack obama  jeremiah wright  2008  politics  democrats  bittergate  us  takebackamerica  president  power  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit