If we're speaking factually, it's an 1990 sermon by Reverend Wright, full text at this link, in which this now controversial figure shows what may be more typical of his preaching style, his more typical message, as opposed to the fire and brimstone anger of the excerpts of his more controversial sermons.
In Reverend Wright's sermon the subject is a painting, where an injured woman with torn clothes plays a harp with all the strings broken but one, while around her all matter of calamity is ongoing. Wright uses this imagery to talk about availing ourselves of God's help, of praying for his intervention, of worshiping Him, even when the chips are down. Especially when the chips are down.
If we're speaking in terms of Barack Obama, it's a sermon he found particularly inspiring, near the beginning of his long association with Reverend Wright, one which eventually became the title of his second book, whose themes inform his Campaign. For Obama, this becomes a worldly, political notion of motivating ourselves to fight back against an unjust order in Washington, and politics in general.
If we're speaking in terms of our current efforts to deal with Republican Talking Points concerning Barack's continued association with Reverend Wright, it is a gift. Read the text, quote from it, familiarize yourself with it, because it presents Obama mentor at his best, illustrates his appeal, and provides a beautiful starting point for any discussion of the troubles this nation faces right now.
This is a nation that needs hope, that needs something to give it back the transcedant unity it once knew. In our ordeal over the last several years, our divisions have gone from troublesome to painful, from inconvenient to traumatizing. Meanwhile, the political order that once dominated, in both parties, has failed in its promise to improve things for the average person.
Americans are angry, and this time, their anger is not misplaced. The question will be this: which is stronger? Their discontent with the current order? Or with each other?
As Barack Obama said in his speech, race has become a distraction from common problems. If we address race in this campaign, I think we on the Democratic side should address it so that we can get past it, even if we have to do this a thousand times in a million places. But first, we have to get past it, a thousand times in a million places. This, and other brushstrokes of meaningful information concerning the Reverend Wright, and what Barack Obama took away from their relationship should be front and center in that approach. Yes, it will help to put his angrier, more bitter sermons in their full context, to make people better aware of how and why he said what he said, what it related to, but it is also necessary for us to paint a picture of Reverend Wright beyond this controversy, show others, rather than merely tell them, the reasons he sustained a long term relationship with the man.
With these facts and others, we should show, not merely tell people, why we continue to stand by Barack Obama, and why they should support him as well for President. Healing divisions is not merely good rhetoric for Barack Obama, it's good politics for the rest of us; we need as many people as possible open to voting for this man, despite all that has been done to divide us.
Part of Obama's appeal has been to circumvent the status-quo mired party machinery, to more freely engage the voters. The attacks based on this controversy have been key components of an effort to paint him as a closet racist and disciple of an angry black man that whites should be hesitant to put in a place of authority. This emotional appeal survives as long as ignorance of the pastor's full career persists, as long as we don't answer the critical question of why he did not disown his pastor.
To change the political realities in Washington, we need a candidate who is not beholden to the machinery and it's so-called political realities. Part of the help he needs to fight back against the political establishment of both sides is our informing, by the quick and broad distribution medium of the internet and our word of mouth, of the public concerning this and other matters. These talking points are strongly dependent for their traction on arguments made from ignorance and selective attention to the facts. The better informed the public is, the less hold these unfounded charges retain.
Crossposted at Watchblog.