I trust Barrack Obama's judgement. There I've admitted it. I've lost my political cynicism. Trusting him I've never felt the need to click the Youtube video's of Reverand Wright's most inspired and eloquent sermons. I know implicitly that Obama supporters are choosing beautiful works to counter "God Damn America!". I'm a white Southerner so I know where it's coming from anyway. I trust Obama in a way that I won't say I trust Hillary though I love her and forgive her as a friend and old anonymous ally who really sees her for who she is and doesn't take her as seriously as she takes herself, which is what friends are for!
Hillary has called on us to reexamine the relationship of Senator Obama and his former pastor. As someone who trusts Barrack Obama's judgement, I propose for Nightline or Charlie Rose to give a podium to the man for one half hour to explain his views. I don't say 'explain himself' because that is the implicitly disrespectful frame we are trained to view him under, outside the bizarre latitude of acceptance of our strange culture. Whether Obama would choose it, Reverand Wright is an outcast. Where is the justice for Reverand Wright himself? From outside his circle of friends, I can only tell from what Obama says and other witnesses, but it appears to me that the closer one gets to him, to the testimony of the witnesses of his life, the more you understand that Reverand Wright is a loved and valued member of a large community of diverse people.
Many white people have not attended a black church. I sometimes go to a mixed church with a white minister with my parents, but I've only been to an all black service in a small church for a funeral of a beloved sister of the church, and it was beautiful, moving and different from my unitarian Christianity I must say! Where is the respect of difference in the treatment of Reverand Wright?
Hillary Clinton pretends to judge, but what information does she have to base her judgement? Has she been sitting with the operatives obsessing over hours of videotape? I can't believe that because I know for a fact that real Christian sermons would have struck a chord with her to see that where she is going is not the way. Why make the reputation of a man we know little about except thirty seconds of a sermon the sacrifice on the altar of ambition? The only other fact we know is that he is loved within his community.
Will Reverand Wright be viewed as a tragic figure or a heroic figure in fifty years. It looks like a tragic figure despite that he mentored the greatest prospective President in many of our lifetimes? The problem I have is that the judgment of history won't depend on his character but on the character of the American people who don't seem to give a shit. If there is any decency we should at least offer him a podium for a half an hour and listen to his own explanation of himself. A half an hour for the historical image of an accidental victim of an American election. Maybe he will just take the time to testify to the character of Barrack Obama, although he will have to go deeper I think into Jesus to restore his credibility to the great horde of zombie Americans, who want to cast the stones on him. There is an unsatisfied sacrificial urgency in the air.
Accepting the sacrifice is what a Christian minister talks about, but I am not saying that his thirty minutes on national television be spent with Tim Russert trying to stab him with his steely knife. At least I know that Obama supporters would love to hear his point of view.
Let Reverand Wright talk directly to the American people about his experience, his faith, and about Barrack Obama. Talk about Jesus. It would be good for us. I like it when Obama talks about Jesus and I'm a Unitarian, so it would be cool with me to here Reverand Wright talk about Jesus. Not sure how Jewish people feel about that, so to reassure them Reverand Wright should talk about how he doesn't believe that they are all destined to die in a lake of blood like Hagee.
Any network that dares to give one half hour of free time to Reverand Wright will be making history, so of course they would cower at the risk. But if the Reverand is going to be a tragic or a heroic figure, he can always rely on me and the community of Obama supporters to hold him up as a spiritual guide and teacher for a great man, but he should have the opportunity to make the case himself.