Obama '08?

One wonders which speech Mr. Myers was listening to.

FD wrote

Quote:

One wonders what speech Myers was listening to

The same one a lot of conservatives, including black conservatives like Armstrong Williams, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, etc. were listening to. Myers is spot on. You don't eliminate racism by emphasizing racism and focusing on past and present injustices instead of emphasizing the great civil rights strides we have made as a nation.

You don't achieve a color blind society by forcing people to focus on skin color and requiring 'sensitivity' to one race that is not afforded to another.

As I've said before, I think most Americans don't want a "black" President. They want somebody who sees us all in this boat together and who can inspire us all to work together for common goals that we believe in. It is absolutely fine and okay if that President happens to be black.

I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

It is absolutely fine and okay if that President happens to be black.

Foxfyre wrote:

It is absolutely fine and okay if that President happens to be black.

How generous.

It is a valid argument, I think, but it isn't the only valid argument on the speech and not the only way to think about it.

I waited in vain for our hybrid presidential candidate to speak the simple truth that there is no such thing as "race," that we all belong to the same race -- the human race. I waited for him to mesmerize us with a singular and focused appeal to hold all candidates to the same standards no matter their race or their sex or their age.

Instead of giving us a polarizing treatise on the "black experience," Obama should have reiterated the theme that has brought so many to his campaign: That race ain't what it used to be in America.

He should have presented us a pathway out of our racial boxes and a road map for new thinking about race. He should have depicted his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as a symbol of the dysfunctional angry men who are stuck in the past and who must yield to a new generation of color-blind, hopeful Americans and to a new global economy in which we will look on our neighbors' skin color no differently than how we look on their eye color.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

...

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

kickycan wrote:

nimh wrote:

Again, it seems to be Foxfyre's posts in particular that make me want to respond... there's no "hunting" involved, just those are apparently the ones that I feel need to be responded to.

That's because Foxfyre consistently spreads lies and half-truths that fit her side and then when she gets called on it, she's oh so civil as she pretends that oops, she didn't mean it that way, or oops, she didn't see that new information...oops, oops, oops. It's all such a crock of ****.

But you pretty much know how she operates. I'm just saying this to bring it to the attention of others who may not know her slimy tactics.

Translation: Foxfyre is a Conservative, and therefore I don't like her.

Ticomaya wrote:

kickycan wrote:

nimh wrote:

Again, it seems to be Foxfyre's posts in particular that make me want to respond... there's no "hunting" involved, just those are apparently the ones that I feel need to be responded to.

That's because Foxfyre consistently spreads lies and half-truths that fit her side and then when she gets called on it, she's oh so civil as she pretends that oops, she didn't mean it that way, or oops, she didn't see that new information...oops, oops, oops. It's all such a crock of ****.

But you pretty much know how she operates. I'm just saying this to bring it to the attention of others who may not know her slimy tactics.

Translation: Foxfyre is a Conservative, and therefore I don't like her.

No, actually Kicky has this thing going about me you know? This is the way he shows affection.

Quote:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

And for 20 years Obama has known Wright's warped views that no progress has been made. Did he ever consider pointing this out to his mentor and close friend as he's now pointing it out to us?

blatham wrote:

It is a valid argument, I think, but it isn't the only valid argument on the speech and not the only way to think about it.

I really only see one valid argument here:

.

nappyheadedhohoho wrote:

Quote:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

And for 20 years Obama has known Wright's warped views that no progress has been made. Did he ever consider pointing this out to his mentor and close friend as he's now pointing it out to us?

No idea. I never tried explaining to my grandmother that "nigras" were just as good as white people either. She got as far as she could get for her time, then she passed on and left it to the rest of us to keep moving.

An outstanding part of what Obama did in that speech, to my thinking, is to very properly and bravely hold that position in the middle and say HERE is where we really are.

FreeDuck wrote:

nappyheadedhohoho wrote:

Quote:

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

And for 20 years Obama has known Wright's warped views that no progress has been made. Did he ever consider pointing this out to his mentor and close friend as he's now pointing it out to us?

No idea. I never tried explaining to my grandmother that "nigras" were just as good as white people either. She got as far as she could get for her time, then she passed on and left it to the rest of us to keep moving.

And Obama was just as willing to ignore Wright's 'profound mistake' and go with the status quo. For years. Now he wants to lecture us on it.

An outstanding part of what Obama did in that speech, to my thinking, is to very properly and bravely hold that position in the middle and say HERE is where we really are.

Does that make more sense?

You don't achieve a color blind society by forcing people to focus on skin color and requiring 'sensitivity' to one race that is not afforded to another.