Robin’s blog

So, this my first entry on Vox! It's very exciting, finding a decent blogging site. YAY.  I'm just going to jump in and say what's on my mind.

So...if you know me, you know that I am a huge fan of Barack Obama. I believe that he COULD in fact be a candidate that brings real change, something that this country desperately, desperately needs.  I agree with almost all aspects of his platform, including universal health care, social issues and his stance on military action. That being said, allow me to say...WHAT THE FUCK IS Rev. Jeremiah Wright doing???? 

If anyone has access to a television, I am sure that you world has been bombarded with the clips of Reverend Wright giving his hellfire-damnation sermons. "Goddamn America." "The American government created Aids to kill off people of color!" These are just two of the inflammatory remarks that he has made that have surfaced in the last month or so.  If you are an angry and disenchanted American like I am, these remarks would not have offended you all that much.  When I saw the snippets, I chalked it up to dirty politics and someone finally bringing the dirt out on Obama, trying to categorize him with someone with those same ideas. A smear campaign if you will.  After watching Reverend Wright's speech yesterday on YouTube, I may not be so sure.

Wright started his speech off with a brief history of the Black Church. He went in depth into Black Liberation Theology and how the media frenzy centered on him is not about him per se, but an all out attack on the Black Church as a whole. That is when my eyebrows cocked, my ears opened, and I turned my attention as whole to my t.v.

Several words that kept popping up in his speech were: reconciliation, forgiveness, separateness.  Wright kept saying, over and over, that he preaches hope, love and reconciliation.  He said that he wants Oneness with all of the different races.  Please, sir, explain this....

The first thing he did was talk about the Trinity Church, the church where he has served as the head pastor for twenty some odd years.  He then went through all of their good works; giving food to the homeless, supporting and giving money to United Negro College Fund, cleaned up neighborhoods, etc.  He went on and on about his own Church, clearly separating it from others, exalting it.  That's great that your Church does so much good for your area. Incredible, really. But why "separate" it into a racial issue. Why can't you put poor STUDENTS into college. Why only African Americans? Why are you separating yourself while preaching Oneness?

If you are preaching "Oneness" then why did you say that Blacks pray to a different God than white people do? The last time I checked, most Christians worship the same God. If you want "Oneness" then how can you separate yourself like that?  The thing that irks me about organized religion (which will be a more in-depth separate post as a whole at some point in the near future) is that there are so many different denominations.  Each denomination may differ on one or two issues. "You want to accept and allow gay people to worship at your Church? Okay, you're with us."  "You think that women should be subservient to men, and that dancing is evil? Okay, you're with us."  There are so many different denominations that hinge on ONE or TWO different issues that truly are six and one.  Christianity can't even get its shit together enough to come together as One.  But, I digress.

Reverend Wright immediately started pulling the race card. He then gave examples of other countries that gave formal, public apologies for slavery and how the United States has failed to do so. OK. If you know me, I am one of the biggest supporters of ANY kind of civil rights ever. I get ANGRY seeing people discriminated against because of anything, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, whatever. What is a formal apology going to do? Bill Clinton came close but was shunned by America.  Bush sure as Hell isn't going to apologize. What if Obama gets elected? Do you think that he will apologize? That would kind of be oxy-moronic, wouldn't it? A black man apologizing to the his own people for slavery.  My question is...what about Native Americans? My girlfriend is LARGELY Native American and she isn't demanding an apology. She won't even put down "Native American" on her college application because she doesn't feel "owed." She doesn't feel OWED for something that happened to her ancestors. She thinks that people who cry out for help and say that they are owed because of past injustices...are just lazy. There's the key word, "owed."  Native Americans suffered a horrible tragedy and they were one of the first peoples here. They were killed off by war, pillaging, smallpox and other diseases. What about women? Women were given the right to vote AFTER black citizens were. We still are, in a LOT of ways, still second class citizens. We don't make as much as a man on each dollar. Some live in fear of sexual, physical and mental abuse at the hands of men. As far as I'm concerned, take a ticket and stand in line. I am SO sorry that slavery happened. I grew up in the SOUTH. There are historic plantations everywhere that leave the ugly mark of that time, with the small, dank slave quarters.  There is still a vast amount of racism there, which is absolutely disgusting. I understand why Wright is angry, especially his generation, which grew up in the Civil Rights era of the 1960's.  Look at Martin Luther King. My favorite quote from him is:

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true." 

That is simply beautiful. Simply beautiful.  Hate does corrode.  Martin Luther King did not play the eye for an eye game like Wright is trying to play. Wright said "If you think that I am going to apologize for stepping on your foot, after you stepped on mine for so long...you have another thing coming."  What did Gandhi say? "An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind."  Hate speech is not going to "bring together" the races as long as you do your best to separate it.  He kept saying that the "Black Church is the unseen gem of Christianity." Why is it an unseen gem? Isn't  the use of the word "gem" placing your church on a higher pedestal than others? My favorite part was when the moderator, a white woman not much older than I am, asked him a question. He turned to her and said "What did your pastor say last Sunday? Oh, you don't know? HA" and then stepped aside with the most assured degree of condescension.  Right there...that's separating yourself.  Did you treat her like that because she is white and you don't think she understands? Or did you treat her that way because she is a woman? Either way, you are exalting yourself above her...something that you are saying you are SO against.

In any case...this is seriously making me question Barack Obama. Why would he sit on a pew in Trinity Church...for over 21 years. Why would he let this man be his "spiritual mentor," baptize his children...marry he and Michelle Obama....if this man was so extreme? Wright also commented that Obama is just saying what he has to say (in other words, saying he distances himself from Wright) in order to get elected? I just don't get it. It would be no different than if I went to a church that was preaching hate against blacks or any other minority. Would I sit in the pews and stay? No, I stand UP, get up and leave. I just don't understand. It's making me question Barack Obama so much now.  Hillary Clinton, who I wanted to support SO BADLY...is tied at the wallet to major corporations and special interests. What do we do? Go with the candidate that has the extremist pastor, or vote for the candidate that embellishes on the past (the supposed sniper fire) and most likely owes a LOT in favors to special interest groups?

I don't know...I don't know what to think at this point. All I know is that America can NOT afford another Republican in the White House. McCain is way off touch with the American people. He thinks we may be in Iraq for the next 100 years, and more importantly, he is the worlds biggest hypocrite. He tried to pass through a law that would crack down on corrupt campaign contributions, yet CAMPAIGNED and SUPPORTED George W. Bush...the biggest corporate/political criminal in American history!  He's far too old for the job. If you hear him speak you can almost hear the plaque buildup in his brain. *sigh*  

Anyway! Those are my thoughts for the day