Pardon for the brevity of this diary but I just wanted to point out that over atJack and Jill Politics there is a discussion of the MSM's attempt to challenge the patriotism of Rev. Wright.

Pardon for the brevity of this diary but I just wanted to point out that over atJack and Jill Politics there is a discussion of the MSM's attempt to challenge the patriotism of Rev. Wright.

The post contains a photo of Wright assisting in the treatment of LBJ when he was hospitalized in 1966.  There is also a photo of the letter of gratitude sent by the Johnson White House.  With so much disinformation floating about the web these days, these kinds of documents can be valuable in fleshing out the complexities that a 60 second Youtube clip somehow leaves out.

[I am posting this again because I a not sure if my insomnia is shared. I just think that this needs to be shared and spread far and wide. Perhaps it would be better to let this issue die but I am also sure that we will be seeing and hearing much more about this when the swift boating of nominee Obama actually begins.We will have to hit the MSM, talk radio, and blogosphere hard. There is a lot of hand-wringing everywhere and we cannot be bullied).

Not this time.

Please forgive me if I speak in broad strokes. I do not mean to offend anyone and I apologize in advance if I do. Please forgive me also for my anger and emotionalism. I am seeking brothers and sisters who are working things through just as I am because for many of us it is clear that we are at a crossroads and, as Mahatma Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see. So I am reaching out to all of you, and that means HRC and Obama supporters, and whoever else is listening.

I just have one question to ask: Why do we like to revel in negativity so much? What happened?

Please let an old black man have his anger in the privacy of his church. After 400 years of what has been done to African-Americans, it is the least that we can do. Are our hearts so small and our need for reassurance so great that we cannot allow an old black man who dedicated his life to his community his anger? Are you honestly going to tell me that this is the first time white America has seen and heard from black folks? Have we not heard what Rabbis routinely say about Palestinians across the US? Even our military is told to call Iraqis and Afghanis “ragheads” and “Ali Baba” as a part of their training. Have we not heard what predominantly white churches say about immigrants, African-Americans, LGBTQ communities, and Islam? Jerry Falwell gets a hero’s farewell, as does Reagan, who thought gay people deserved to die of AIDS, but Wright, he must be punished severely and publicly humiliated.  

Am I missing something? Haven’t gender and race (among a myriad of other factors such as sexuality and religion) always played a role in the US election? Is that not why every US President so far has been a white, heterosexual male? Isn’t it the case that now we are simply able to talk about and imagine a different gender or a different race in the White House?

A country always witnesses the return of its past, especially if that past has not been dealt with. Supporters of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States such as Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, and Julia Ward Howe were accused of betraying women’s rights. Opponents of the Fourteenth Amendment such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were accused of betraying racial equality. Voting rights is an issue that found white women and black men at odds with one another. Suffragists, remarkable for their tenacity (they fought for 70 years to win the right to vote), were also unremarkable in their racism, classism, and imperialism. [The evidence here is overwhelming and I will gladly send interested readers a bibliography.]