Good Tuesday Evening, MyBloggerstown:


I watched Sen. Barack Obama give a speech today and I was quite moved. While it wasn't on the plateau of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, which makes my heart want to leap out of my chest every, single time I hear it, it was close. Sen. Obama (Jackass-Illinois)attempted to lance the boil that is race relations in America and let in the healing air of diaglog between blacks, whites, latinos, and Asians. He began by reminding us that our founding fathers drafted the Constitution "stained by this nation's original sin of slavery". He went on to remind us of his mixed racial heritage "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas." This is a heritage that I share being the biological daughter of a black man from Alabama and a white woman from West By God. He adressed the comments of his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be concidered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutlely-just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagree." He called Rev. Wright's comments, the ones that have been played ad nauseum on every major news outlet, "a profoundly distorted veiw of this country". and that these comments "were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity". But then he addressed those critics who say he should distance himself from the man who was his spriritual mentor, who married him and his wife, Michelle, and baptised their two children. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother-a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me and they are a part of America, this country that I love." I have been there, too. Many members of my family are grossly intolerant, not only of race but gender and sexual orientation. (Most people have family or friends who harbor these feelings) But I will not disavow them because I disagree. He offered that statements such as those made my Rev Wright are made from feeling and resentments that were born "in the late fifties and early sixies when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted" and "the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away." He also adressed and acknowledged white resentment " So when they are told to bus their children acreoss town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they;re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time." He went on to re-iterate the predomininate theme of his campaign which is that we must put all this racial mess behind us and come together to address the real problems that effect us all....health care, jobs, the economy, global warming.

It was a magnificant speech and the thing that impresed me most was that he did not throw Rev. Wright under the bus. He stood up. Now I see on the boob tube however, some conservative butt wipes (i.e. Limbaugh, Beck, and the like) are still harping. I almost jumped through the television at Beck a while ago. There is nothing that a black man can do to satisfy these bigots but go back to the cotton fields. Unfortunately, they have the ears of many Americans and that's just sad.

These are just some of the bits of the speech that impressed me most and I hope that each one of you, my dear blog pals, will listen to and/or read this speech in its entirity and not just count on sound bites from the news media. I think it will put this whole mess into a proper perspective.




Then go out and vote for the real change candidate....Yer Own Bugg!!


reguards
yer he can write my speeches any day pal
bugg