Lucky for me, I have not been the recipient of many of the negative emails that have been circulating about Obama. However, I couldn't sleep this morning, headed to the computer, and received an email that took "racial" quotes from Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope out of context, and began with concern,
This man might just be our president!!!
I pray that he is!!! And of course as gullible as I can be, I initially had hopes this would be a pro-Obama email. Ah, well...
I was delighted to see the long list of cc's so that my reply would reach as many Americans as possible.
I don't suggest that I am the best writer in the world, but I will not sit idly by while someone is so uninformed. I am finally reading The Audacity of Hope, and recently recognized in myself my own partisanship. In my own conversations with Republican members of my family, I have found myself to be more derogatory than necessary about the Repub. ticket, and in hindsight, it has not been very effective with my audience. As I have been reading Barack's words, I have decided I no longer want to be part of the problem - I want to stay cool and calm like Barack!
So, my reply:
While I appreciate your passion for your political views, taking these quotes out of context has little meaning. "Dreams From My Father" goes into many personal experiences where he recognized his own racial issues earlier in his life, to provide the reader with an understanding of why we sometimes react the way we do towards other races, so that we can get past the racism in our history, and move forward together, as Americans. "The Audacity of Hope" also describes the political history of our nation and events that occurred over the past 2 centuries that have shaped the government into the partisan creature it is now, and then goes on to suggest that there was a time when politics was not so partisan, and the hopes that we once again will have a government that is respectful of different parties, and works together to solve problems for all Americans.
While it would be easy for me to fill this reply with negative facts about the other candidate, I have chosen to not be part of the divisive forces in our Nation. I hope that no matter who is elected, we can all come together to support our next President. Our country has too many real issues to solve, and we are all in this American Journey together.
I am offended by this negative email, and request that you remove me from your list.
I wonder if anyone will reply... I will gladly respond in a calm, educated manner if they do. But I will not stand idly by if I receive more negative emails. Our future is at stake.
Update: At your Request, the email was:
This man might just be our president!!!
From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'
From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names..'
From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'
And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!
From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.
Not by any means the worst email we've seen, but I won't tolerate this kind of ignorance. :)
Update2: My first reply:
i bet you are good at translating the bible also....how about the koran...bet you can do that too......
And my response:
Actually, I am a white Christian. I'm surprised you find it necessary to respond in such a negative manner. My point is that this negativity is doing nothing to help our country move forward. It is only making people more divided, solving nothing.