I have seen some blogs on the left side of town defend Mr. Wright on the basis of other leaders whose critical approach to the USA one might argue is a path to the improvement of America.
Foremost among these has been Frederick Douglass.
The usual defense runs around this very famous speech. Worth reading. Very worth reading.
In it Douglass properly rants :
Since that speech, the great sin was washed away, as John Brown put it minutes before he was hung, by the blood of 800,000 americans, most of whom died for the purpose of the slaves' freedom, like it or not.
Since that sin, good men and women like Goodman and Schwerner have died just to get equality at the voting booth FOR OTHERS of a different color.
Since that sin affirmative action has been so effective that successful products of it (such as Michelle Obama), feel their accomplishments TAINTED by it (as any professionally excellent person ought)
Jeremiah Wright, in his disgusting, and historically stupid words about the tiniest and most oppressed people in the HISTORY of the planet makes plain his vast difference from a truly great human and leader like Douglass.
Jeremiah Wright, in his historically and factually IGNORANT words about Hiroshima and Nagasaki makes plain his distaste for the sacrifice of those American families of the QUARTER MILLION KILLED IN THE SERVICE at that time.
Jeremiah Wright displays for all his hatred, not for the sins of the few ..but the other groups he has contempt for.
It is this which makes Obama's personal defense of him, a critical reminder of his GALACTICALLY INCREDIBLE LACK of judgment.
And it is this which makes any comparison between the great Douglass and needlessly hateful and frankly racist Wright a farce.
Fredrick Douglass today might well find himself beside men like Bill Cosby.
I find it very hard to envision him next to those who purvey hate of other races, and religions as a means to ANY END worthy of reaching.
Whatever spiritual gain Sen Obama benefited from at the Trinity United Church, both he and now this nation have lost far more
Foremost among these has been Frederick Douglass.
The usual defense runs around this very famous speech. Worth reading. Very worth reading.
In it Douglass properly rants :
The comparison is to Wright's preached comment"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour."
That speech was in 1852, the same year Uncle Tom's Cabin was released, while american men and women were slaves.Government "wants us to sing 'God Bless America' " despite treating black people as second-class citizens. "No, no, no," Mr Wright said, "God damn America!"
Since that speech, the great sin was washed away, as John Brown put it minutes before he was hung, by the blood of 800,000 americans, most of whom died for the purpose of the slaves' freedom, like it or not.
Since that sin, good men and women like Goodman and Schwerner have died just to get equality at the voting booth FOR OTHERS of a different color.
Since that sin affirmative action has been so effective that successful products of it (such as Michelle Obama), feel their accomplishments TAINTED by it (as any professionally excellent person ought)
Jeremiah Wright, in his disgusting, and historically stupid words about the tiniest and most oppressed people in the HISTORY of the planet makes plain his vast difference from a truly great human and leader like Douglass.
Jeremiah Wright, in his historically and factually IGNORANT words about Hiroshima and Nagasaki makes plain his distaste for the sacrifice of those American families of the QUARTER MILLION KILLED IN THE SERVICE at that time.
Jeremiah Wright displays for all his hatred, not for the sins of the few ..but the other groups he has contempt for.
It is this which makes Obama's personal defense of him, a critical reminder of his GALACTICALLY INCREDIBLE LACK of judgment.
And it is this which makes any comparison between the great Douglass and needlessly hateful and frankly racist Wright a farce.
Fredrick Douglass today might well find himself beside men like Bill Cosby.
I find it very hard to envision him next to those who purvey hate of other races, and religions as a means to ANY END worthy of reaching.
Whatever spiritual gain Sen Obama benefited from at the Trinity United Church, both he and now this nation have lost far more
14 comments:
wright/cone and the entire black lib theology call the white church satanic for having supported slavery.
BUT
it was the white church which led the abolition movement.
so they (the left/the "progressives") are wrong on the facts.
as they are on so much else: agw; iraq/unscr#1441; niger-yellowcake; armitage-libby; swift-boating; etc etc and so on...
-------
FYI: I find it interesting that we Jews have a very different understanding and use for OUR heritage as slaves than do these black-lib theologists.
Passover details this. It is fitting and proper we think about this at this time of year.
-------
link split to fit
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/
daily_life/Tzedakah/TO_Tzedakah_H_and_D/Tzedakah_in_Bible.htm
By Rabbi Jonathan Spira-Savett
The Bible backed up its exhortations to assist the poor with laws and practices that gave poor people a claim to a share of society’s wealth.
In the Torah’s detailed code of law in Exodus, the very first law describes the case of the “Hebrew slave”—a man who has to sell himself into indentured servitude because of poverty or debt.
The focal provision of the law is the obligation of the owner to release the slave at the end of six years. In Deuteronomy, the law is elaborated and revised--the owner must “pile him up” with food and flocks as he goes free. Together, the two statements of the law of the Hebrew slave set up a parallel between God’s treatment of Israel and Israel’s treatment of those in the community who are poor.
God, who is identified at the beginning of the Ten Commandments as the One “Who brought you out... from the house of slaves,” defines Israel as the people who liberate their own debt-slaves and sustain them in their freedom.
Indeed, the Torah’s framework of assistance for the poor is built almost entirely on a series of imitations of God, in accord with the command “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
Life on the land God has given is a covenantal partnership between Israel and God.
God and Israel each participate in making the land productive and prosperous.
Israel is expected to acknowledge God’s faithfulness by reserving a portion of that prosperity for the most vulnerable.
The widow, the orphan, the temporary sojourner, the landless, the poor—they command God’s special attention and concern, according to the Torah, just as the people as a whole did in Egypt.
Sustaining them is in some sense the only way the community of Israel can repay God for the blessing of bounty.
In its details, biblical law concerning assistance for the poor deals primarily with four situations: the harvest in the field, the threshing floor, loans, and indentured servitude.
The laws reflect a tension between dealing with immediate need—“for the poor shall never cease from the land”—and the ideal of “there shall no needy among you.” Both statements, in fact, appear in the same chapter, Deuteronomy 15.
In the field.
The Torah requires farmers to leave the corners (pe’ah) of their fields unharvested, left to be picked by “the poor and the stranger.” Similarly, any grain that falls to the ground as it is picked (leket) was also to be left; so too any grapes that would fall from or be left on the vine (olalot). If a farmer or his workers missed a section of the field during harvesting, they could not go back and pick it (the rabbis later termed this obligation shikh’chah, “forgetting”).
In addition to these rules, which applied to every year’s harvest, every seventh year the entire Land of Israel was to be left fallow. This shabbaton (sabbatical year) not only would allow the earth to regenerate itself, but would, to a degree, put the entire community on an equal footing. Everyone would depend for food on gleaning from the land.
In that sense everyone would live as the most vulnerable or marginal would in a typical year—although the more fortunate might have stored crops from the previous year.
Threshing floor.
When grain and fruit were brought in from the harvest, various tithes and offerings were mandated. Most of these tithes went to support the priests and Levites, who owned no land of their own. In the rabbinic interpretation of the biblical rules, ten percent of each harvest was to be given to the Levites (ma’aser, the original tithe), and five percent to the priests (t’rumah). Normally, a second tithe was reserved to be brought to Jerusalem and eaten during a pilgrimage celebration. During years three and six of the seven-year sabbatical cycle, this tithe was to be put to use locally, set aside for Levites, strangers, widows and orphans.
Loans.
The Torah recognizes loans not for commercial development but to support those in need.
The basic mandate was to lend someone dai machsoro, “sufficient for his lack.” The purpose of the loan was to help restore someone to his former situation, not simply to prevent starvation. Lending is strictly regulated in the Torah. Interest could not be charged on loans of money or food. A creditor was forbidden from seizing as collateral tools necessary for the debtor’s livelihood. A garment pledged against a loan was to be returned for the night. A creditor was forbidden to enter a debtor’s home to take a pledge.
Among the Torah’s most radical innovations is the shemitah, the cancellation of all debts every seven years. This practice parallels the sabbatical of the land, as well as the jubilee year, during which almost all land was returned to its original family owners if they had sold it (presumably to stave off poverty). The Torah specifically warns against using the approaching shemitah as an excuse not to lend money to a person in need.
Indentured servitude.
As noted above, the Torah recognizes slavery as a last resort—after a person has sold his family land holdings or his labor.
The texts that lay out the laws of slavery are not entirely consistent.
Scholars debate whether the “Hebrew slave” in Exodus 22 is an Israelite or not; in Deuteronomy 15 the slave is referred to as “your brother,” while in Leviticus 25 the Torah instructs that “your brother” not be enslaved but employed as a wage laborer.
In all cases, the law requires that the servant be freed eventually--after six years (Exodus and Deuteronomy), at the jubilee (Leviticus), or when a family “redeemer” can pay off the slave’s debt.
Running through many aspects of these laws is a fundamental egalitarianism.
Leviticus expresses it in the statement that all Israelites are “slaves” to God.
This egalitarianism was concretized by the periodic cancellation of debts, the freeing of those who have sold themselves into servitude, and the restoration of land sold to pay off debts.
While equality was not preserved at all times, conditions would be reset periodically. The purpose (and the condition) of what the Torah calls beracha (prosperity from God; literally “blessing”) is that beracha be shared widely.
Even when the Torah recognizes the reality of their being rich and poor, it insists that each person be treated with dignity and justice - especially in moments when a person’s poverty is most evident.
-------
there is slavery in the bible and in the constitution.
that's the way the world was.
we are perfectible. the world is.
that why we have free will and the Bible.
that's why we are here.
we may never get to the "promised land" of personal or mass perfection - but we try, and that's the point.
the black lib theologists and the islamothug imams exhort their followers to hate, rqacism and genocide - ultimately.
they are not helping us perfect ourselves; they seek to blame others.
bill cosby's highly critical outlook is both more religious and more practical than the black lib theology and marxism.
obama is clearly in the black lib/marxist camp.
I have some sympathy for Obama's argument, but very little.
Wright, and many "intellectuals" like him, live in world's of their own construction. Their power of rhetoric makes it appear as if they actually have a point. It is only when one compares their point to the facts on the ground that their rhetoric is shown to be the sham it is.
Problem is, lefties are idealists rather than pragmatists, and as idealists, they are more likely to be taken in by rhetoric. They are mesmerized by the well-spoken, or well-written word. I understand that. I am a writr. I am impressed by Wright, and I am impressed by Obama.
But, the thing is, black Americans and liberals need to ask themselves some questions before they commit themselves to action based upon the rhetoric of Obama and Wright,
1) where else on Earth do Africans live so well as they do here in America?
2) Is it not true that white Americans have been active in the growth of freedom for black Americans?
3) Are the assertions Wright made in his attack on America true?
There are still inequities in this country. The most disgusting of which is the fact that schools are funded by property taxes in local areas. This creates a situation in which generationally poor black people do, in fact, get a worse education than the average white person.
That is a fact. What are we going to do as conservatives, lie to ourselves about it?
That is a true inequity, and that is the kind of inequity that we all ought to be reachiing across the aisle to fix, along with men like Obama.
But, that is not what Wright is about. He is about hatred and Obama claims him as a mentor.
Betsy,
I took down your post, because it is an advertisement, not a blog comment.
You don't read our blog. You don't care about our "context".
If you want to arrange to pay me for the ad space, then you can email me at
cuanasblog@yahoo.com
Until then, may your vagina always smell like Obama's ass.
relia ..I had no idea, you don't look druish
Really mean on your part to remove a comment that does not agree with your views.
I think it's mean of you to put up ads for Obama without asking the going rate. You big meany.
You're a meany. And, I'm telling.
Epam, are you still in Marblehead? I had to drag my computer over to Best Buy yesterday so they could teach it to play DVDs so I was out of touch for 24 hours. How long are you going to be here?
Betsy.. I didn't see your ad, but why not present a reasoned defense of Obama's actions which attempts via demonstrable facts and logic to show why Obama being in that congregation for so long, and personally defending Wright is a good thing, instead of a campaign ad?
Surely you can reason?
RRA - we're leaving this AM - but we're back fairly often -daughter and new grandson. Use my icon for email address and let me know yours and I'll email you next time we are coming in.
I hope this is what you meant by "use my icon". After 48 hours of Vista warfare with Best Buy I can barely think. My email is oceanfloor1@msn.com. I'm really sorry I missed you folks yesterday. It was so nice out I goofed off on a lot of the stuff I had to do and didn't even hook the computer back up until evening, just hung around Downtown. Hope to catch you next time.
Put an ad on your blog, which is read by 10 people a day. I am not crazy.
As of your character I saw that in your reply to me. I am quoting you
"Until then, may your vagina always smell like Obama's ass."
Shame on you. How can any decent person read your blog.
Betsy,
Our blog is not one of the bigger counter-Jihadi blogs, but it is read by about 900 people a day with over 600,000 unique visits so far.
You are a meaney putting those ads up like you do. You don't read our blog. You aren't familiar with the content. You probably didn't even know it was a counter-Jihad blog.
You are a meaney who doesn't play fair. You hurt me with your behavior.
I wish we could have better communication, you and I, but you aren't playing fair.
Wow, 900 regular readers out of 600,000 unique visitors ... it must be your engaging personality and incisive wit that that keeps so many people coming back for more.
Jeremiad,
Yes, I lack wit and intelligence. You hit it spot on there. Thanks.
What do you do that 900 people a day take notice of? Clock in late? Forget to put the name tag on your uniform? Or, are you one of the preferred boys at buttplugs.com?
Post a Comment