Reverend Wright’s Comments

I’ve read the comments by Barack Obama’s pastor Reverend Wright that have raised such a furor and I’m not all that sure why they have.

The three you run into most often are as follows:

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright made statements that have been interpreted as saying that the U.S. brought on the terrorist attacks.

"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. 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."

I don’t know how to break this to you folks, but this statement is essentially accurate. While I doubt that the bombing of Hiroshima was much of a factor in September 11th, the American support for Israel and, what the Arab World considers, terrorist acts against the Palestinian people certainly was. I don’t have any doubt in my mind that if the Palestinian crises had been resolved the twin towers would still be standing.

There is a difference between a cause and a justification however. I don’t think Wright is putting these events on the table as “justifications,” he’s putting them forward as potential causes. In other words you can’t run roughshod through the world and not expect anyone to fight back. And when they decide to fight back, don’t be surprised if they chose not to play by your rules.

I might also point out that we’re building up a continuing debt in Iraq that one of these days I’m certain some crazies will attempt to collect on.

In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

"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. 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."

This is a little stronger than we’re used to hearing from black leaders and clearly saying that the government gives blacks drugs is wide eyed paranoia at its best but again, if you kind of ignore the heated language and the drug thing, the content advocates a not totally unreasonable outlook from the perspective of a people that, for the most part, have been locked out of the so-called American dream.

Only a fool would conclude that racism in America is dead and buried. Jim Crow lies just under the surface in many areas. Could the pastor have been a bit more diplomatic in his language? Sure, but I doubt he thought at that time that his words would ever go beyond his congregation. Think about some of the things you’ve said when you thought it would go no further than some trusted circle.

He also gave a sermon last December comparing Obama to Jesus and promoting his candidacy while criticizing his rival, Hillary Clinton.

"Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger."

If there is a problem with this statement it’s that Pastor Wright is perilously close to politicking from a tax exempt pulpit if he’s not over that line. I really can’t argue with his point that Hillary Clinton can’t know what it means to be a black man in a country controlled by rich white folks because she can’t. Hell, I was raised in a housing project in the Bronx and I can’t either.

As for his playing politics from his pulpit, I doubt this is much worse than what all the Evangelical Christian pastors did for Mike Huckabee from their pulpits. How come I didn’t hear the right wing moaning about that? Still, two wrongs don’t make a right and Reverend Wright may have been over the line here, over the line legally, but not morally.

I think we’ve gotten way too sensitive in this country. We get all phony indignant over the least little thing. I say “phony indignant” because it’s mostly a lot of bull intended to stir up some under educated segment of the electorate. God forbid we should decide our elections on real issues.