Race to the Future

The upcoming American presidential election is probably the most exciting and challenging since the days of Kennedy. And, that still accounts for the horrors of Nixon, Bush I, and Jelly Bean Reagan---- those projections of greed, pathology and criminal perfidy at its finest.

What makes this election interesting is Obama’s rising star, Hillary’s stubborn devisive attempt at establishment ascendancy, and of course , John McCain. McCain, befuddled dim-wit, whose performance in Baghdad as Liberman’s leaden dummy, reminded me of that scene of May West in Myra Breckenridge when she fumbled her lines as her hearing aid malfunctioned. Remember when the Little Boots Bush had to hump his suit in the debates with wired intelligence and got caught with a “Huh? I’m not ready"? Is it even conceivable that somebody even more disconnected and absurd than Bush is running as the Republican avatar again? As our 'credit masters', the Chinese might opine, “We live in interesting times.”

E.Pluribus Unum: Out of Many We Are One. *

When it comes to daily life and human interest, we are usually gentler and kinder than our political brawling might indicate. But we know from decades of civil rights struggles and battles, that racism, sexism, classism, ageism, homophobia, and misogyny are the same war----a war that fed, and continues to feed, America’s roots with blood, slavery, genocide, discrimination, prejudice and the deliberate calculated harm of exploitation and exclusion.

Scots/Irish don’t consider street fights to be tea parties and genteel politesse. Thus, unpleasantness is often a screed here at the Diaries. It is never a matter of realizing the win, but of principle recognized and defended. In your face here, if you have never had to defend the integrity of your basic authentic identity, and dare to whine about discrimination. Win or lose, battles or wars in these matters of the soul: honor demands, response, action, truth and sacrifice.

And that brings up the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., pastor emeritus of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and Barack Obama’s spiritual mentor. Whatever else one may carry away from Wright’s crucifixion by his inferiors, know that he is a patriotic ex-marine, and semper fi is always faithful. The Reverend has always lived a life faithful to liberation theology and American democracy, on the battlefield and off. Wright’s entire life is one of courageous dedication to the God to whom he prays, the people he defends, and the country to which he expects the full promise of democracy.

Under Wright’s leadership, Trinity became one of the largest and most influential black churches in America. Wright, a frontline warrior of the civil rights revolution, is a passionate advocate of Black Liberation Theology, as was his peer, Martin Luther King. Trinity is a welcoming haven for diversity, and proclaiming the liberating gospel of Christianity's Jesus.

Right-wing slanderers and gossip mongers, in an attempt to smear Obama, set out to destroy, by proxy, the good Reverend, whose few missteps in a long and distinguished career in service to the public good are minor in comparison to his lifetime accomplishments----accomplishments which, when compared to the self centered twisted alcoholic/drug histories of pseudo-journalists like Bucky Beaver Glenn Beck, Oxycontin Limbaugh, Letch O’Rielly and others of their ilk, are as is the sun to those low creatures who hide beneath rocks and bite in the dark.

Preaching to a predominantly black congregation, the Wright Reverend has risen on countless occasions to shout righteous indignation for centuries of institutional abuse of discounted American people. Admittedly, some of his missteps are doozies, especially those peculiar theories on AIDS or 9/11, as Republican slander tapes playing on the internet and right-wing biased media constantly remind us.

As for racism, Jeremiah Wright is unequivocally right on, and any black congregation worth its soul is not going to deny in-house outrage that rolls as waves over American centuries drowning in injustice. Calling forth the ghosts of countless generations, Wright demands righteous liberation justice.   Obama says of Wright’s remarks: But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

I am of a generation that believes Jeremiah Wright is absolutely correct about systemic racism and the other hate-isms that perpetually undermine America's highest ideals and subvert it’s legal framework of equality for all citizens. While the Reverend’s comments were taken out of context to feed the devils clustered on a pin head of radical conservatism, it is clear that he is a powerful Cassandra of moral outrage, and brings to fore the voices of America’s victims in an inflammatory cry of j’accuse totally appropriate to a prophet's mission. Accusing this preacher of anti-Americanism is like silencing Holocaust survivors for being unpleasant about the deaths of nearly six million innocent Jews.

For anyone who has never experienced the painful identity trauma of discrimination, to wail about reverse prejudice is ridiculous, outrageous, and a blasphemy. The manipulations of conservative trolls to label Wright anti-American are disgraceful, and we say, "what America are you talking about?"---the America of rich white male corporate politicos; or perhaps race deniers like Condeleessa Rice, Sheldon Steele of the Hoover Institute, and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, who have used affirmative action to rise to power and shut the door after them---even worse, became activists for reversing civil rights gains that brought them opportunity in the first place. In a Republican world view,  class, wealth and power trumps race. Isn’t that very 'big tent and rainbow' of them?  True America citizenship trumps race, class, wealth, and that is the way it should be.

Amen, Brother Jeremiah! In this Easter Week, it is not a far stretch for anyone to realize that, in this contretemps, a rock has been rolled away from the tomb of racism. Conservative bigots are their own worst enemies. Attacking the messenger, the message is trumpeted to the world. Its clarion voice is now Obama’s, who in response gave what is without doubt the most brilliant speech since Martin Luther King's, “I Have a Dream” at the Mall in Washington DC. All Americans should read his message and take hope. Change will come, and Obama is the one to do it.

What was unique about Obama’s speech was its clarity, purposeful vision, inclusiveness, plain-speaking with sophisticated reasoning, truthfulness, and a substance of honor, ethics, and morality not seen on the stage of American politics in decades. In the words of Deborah Minor Harvey, “he made everything personal,” and further did not deny his mentor Jeremiah Wright, but honored him in a manner that can only be called the Poetry of Greatness.

Great advances have been in the past forty years and integration is healing the wounds of history, but for many of us, it is a glacial process in which the enemies of freedom and equality continue unrelentingly to advocate for institutional exclusion at all levels of American life, from Congress, the Supreme Court, to the local level where police brutality focuses on stereotyping.

Like many, we had given up hope that in our lifetime a genuine leader would emerge to lead us out of darkness. Nothing can describe the past decade or so under Bush/Cheney as anything but one of the darkest passages in American history. It is as if a Jungian parody of The Lord of the Rings and the reign of Mordor had captured the light of democracy and quelled it, withering all within its sight, destroying all connections to decency, spreading its killing fields and monstrous grasp to the far corners of the earth and poisoning the very fountains of ordinary life.

If we represent the past generation in our grief, disappointment and despair, Obama represents the future. It is bright in his vision and includes us all. Obama’s inherent greatness can be seen in no uncertain terms when he defended his old mentor against hyenas in attack, while honoring his teaching with a vision beyond the bitterness of the battle:

“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.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.”

Americans, our hero is here at last. He brings not just a dream, but the conviction and intent of action. He is one who represents us, speaks to our hearts about ordinary life, and to our minds about the quality a government that must effect the promises and intentions of our founding principles. This no uncertain revolution is in keeping with America’s highest ideals and the sacrifices of its past. It is time for reform, and time to drive criminals out of power. It may be our last chance. Obama sees beyond the battles and has his eye on the war, one that we all must win.

(* thanks to Allie at http://watergatesummer.blogspot.com/ for inspiration)