A Small Rant
We’ve become an MTV culture. We aren’t taking the time to get the full story about anything, and when the problems that face us are vast and complex it would be behoove us to make a deeper study of issues. As evidence of that I’m posting a couple of links that Daniel Abraham has posted on his blog. You’ll find them interesting, and a clear example that things are rarely just black and white. (A phrase that can be viewed as unfortunate or right on the money, depending.) ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-rev-jeremiah-wrights-911-sermon/ And here is the second link ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-wright’s-“god-damn-america”-sermon/
I’m not posting these because I’m an apologist for the Reverend Wright, but so people can see the full context of what was said rather than an endless loop on the Fox network to push their agenda. Some of the more heated remarks, were deplorable, but far less deplorable when read in the context of the entire sermon. And Obama was right — context is everything. The context of a life spent first under Jim Crow and then the fury and violence that followed integration.
Also, as I’ve posted elsewhere. There have been times when I have been so deeply ashamed of my country, and wanted to curse it too. Watching film of policemen in the South loosing dogs on peaceful protesters, and blasting them with water cannons, the McCarthy hearings, Chicago in ‘68, the bombing of Cambodia, Abu Ghraib, the My Lai massacre. The reason these events infuriate me and break my heart are because I know the promise and greatness of this country. I want to see us match our ideals. But I will not just blindly support my country. I’m going to challenge myself and my leaders to live up to our those ideals.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I need to note that those links aren’t working. Both of them produce a message about “can’t locate the server ‘http’.” Perhaps your code has a syntax error of some kind?
I’ve been a bit perplexed by the whole Wright firestorm. Yes, he appears to have said some very negative things about the United States. But, you know, the Old Testament claims that the Jews are God’s chosen people—but it’s full of passages of his prophets saying utterly condemnatory things about Israel, far angrier and more abusive than anything Wright is quoted as saying. And yet most of the people who are eager to condemn Wright likely consider themselves to be Christians. Don’t they read their own scriptures? I’m sure Wright’s rhetoric has been shaped by reading his Bible thoroughly.
Then, of course, there’s the often remarked tendency of the same critics to give a pass to, say, the claim that 9/11 is the fault of gays and lesbians, or of the United States for not treating them as criminals. Double standards much?
Much too much of this whole discussion has been people reacting emotionally to a phrase or two, and not getting the whole context.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
As an afterthought, I was posting to livejournal just a few minutes ago, about the newly announced Prometheus Award finalists. One of the Hall of Fame finalists is Rudyard Kipling’s science fiction story “As Easy as A.B.C.” I first read this in eighth grade, and it made a strong impression on me, which has only grown more powerful over the years, now that I know enough history to understand the point Kipling was making with the statue of “The Nigger in Flames,” inscribed “To the eternal memory of the justice of the people.” It’s quite a powerfully written story, especially in the repeated use of the phrase “and all that that implies,” which starts out as a routine legalistic formula and builds up to a compelling emotional statement.
And it struck me as I was writing that it’s all too grimly relevant to this current controversy. Writing in 1912, Kipling envisioned someone a century and a half in the future still remembering the old evil of lynching, and willing to die, or kill, to keep it from coming back.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Thanks, William for the heads up on the links. They don’t work for me either though they worked fine when I linked to them through Daniel Abraham’s site. I’ll edit and see if I can get it to work.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
The links are fixed. Ian helped me. Now folks can check them out.
Yeah, the double standard was just disgusting. When Falwell and Robertson made those incredible hateful remarks they seemed to get a pass except from folks like Keith Olbermann. I think the problem is that Wright spoke about the country, and not unpopular minorities within the country ie gays, feminists, the ACLU, etc. etc.
Oh, and since Hillary was caught in a blatant lie about being “under fire” in Bosnia she is bringing up the Wright controversy again to try and put the focus back on Obama. *sigh*