Re: Are You Read to Barack'n'Roll?!
MR. GREEN wrote:
It would take a scandal of momumental proportions for Obama to not win this election at this point and even then, the people who'll vote for him will shrug it off and ignore it if it occurred.. I don't get it?? I don't get how all of you can have so much faith in a guy to protect our country who associates or has associated with a former Terrorist in the past, much less attend a church where this Rev Wright says "God Damned America".. Explain this to me Dolcevita?? How do you feel about this before the rest of the herd gallop in here and accuse me of being racist?? This guy attends this church for what?? 20 years?? And is clueless about anything this guy has said in his sermons??
Aww geesh, how'd I get pulled into this. I will say this:
My Rabbi back in Framingham used to make baseball analogies. What the hell where those? I dunno, but I very well may have been listening to some conservative stuff that I don't believe in which was cloaked in language I wasn't working hard to decode. Something about Israel and home runs...I mean...baseball....
Second of all, I have been through a lot of neighborhoods and also gone through periods where I have read a lot of 'activist' literature that was very confrontational. I think its a good thing to have. In retrospect, I really don't believe everything I used to guzzle up when I was 20 that Vine Deloria and Ward Churchill wrote, but it still opened my mind up to alternative histories and ways of thinking. It exposed me to ideas and resentments and many other things I would otherwise not have known. And I did love reading them for awhile. I supported them as writers and thinkers until a later point in my life, and to this day I have certainly still taken something from all their essays I read. I find them simple now is all.
As far as Wright goes, it was a lived environment and he may have been a big motivational force for many years (and still today). He certainly does reflect a lot of opinions that would have built up resentment to the US establishment. And he probably saw a lot of people go through his church that were genuinely screwed over by our government.
Do I think there are better ways of achieving change than his tactics? Yes of course I do. For one, I would never do it through religion. I believe in creating alternative non-denominational governmental support structures. This is because a lot of things I believe in (Gay Rights, Pro-Choice, no belief as strict doctrine) are not supported by most conservative religious institutions. For another thing, I don't think everything can be reduced to race, which can itself lead to some very conservative discourses unless addressed comprehensively. And even if it where, we need to get beyond fault and come up with solutions.
So, I guess in short, I really have no problem with Wright as long as what Obama says is more in line with how I view things. So far it has been so, and associations are just that...associations. They do not a man's political policy make alone.
You have to understand BKB, I've joked about this from day one, but I am more frightened of the fact Obama attended church regularly than which church he attended. For a voter who has never really had a candidate run who I could identify with on paper (same religion, sex [until my true love Hillary], ethnicity, etc.) I have always said it was more about the plan than the man. It is very different for someone like you who is used to voting for someone who matches your demographic. You can identify, hence discussions of "genuineness" and "sincerity." I never could. I'm used to it.
I've never identified with a candidate personally, and have always voted on what they say they will bring to the national table. If they don't, I won't vote for them again. But until then, I highly encourage you not to just vote on if you relate to Obama's Church in the South Side (hey, I don't relate to church at all!) and just vote on the proposals for your top concerns. These could range on anything from the economy, to the war, to (my number one no-budger) women's reproduction health rights. Look up the candidate's positions and just decide who sounds better. Don't worry about relating to their pasts. They're both tame, rich, guys.
