I actually believe there is a lot of good that can come of the Reverend Wright controversy. Many of us white Americans do not understand the African-American experience, including the still-present anger and resentment of America and white Americans over the issues of race and slavery. We simply have no clue. Reverend Wright’s views give us some insight into this perspective. For the first time, I think I am actually listening and empathizing with that anger because Wright expresses it so eloquently. Yes, I said eloquently. He may have gone too far, he may have said outrageous things, but he said them in a way that grabbed my attention and made me think about why he and other blacks feel as they do.

Based on his speech this morning, where Obama fits into the picture is in finding that middle road between the races and bringing reconciliation. He is clearly a peacemaker by nature, someone who, by his own words, is a uniter, not a divider. Even though he denounces Wright’s comments as too extreme, I know he understands where Wright is coming from, and he understands the white experience too.

Obama’s unique appeal to our nation at this point in our history is that he is quite literally a child of many worlds, half black, half white, with an Arabic name, raised by his white family in an asian community, and married to a black woman. He understands from his own experience the many perspectives that make up our complex nation. I believe that Obama, while not making his campaign about race, can nevertheless serve a very positive purpose in promoting greater understanding and national unity among the races as a part of his quest for the White House. In him I see not only a politician whose policies I can support but also a very genuine man who may have the capacity to bring America together in new ways that take us beyond the old paradigms.

When the people that are listening to him that are well-educated and have had many opportunities and an easy life and haven’t been subjected to drugs, absent fathers, and poverty, then the things
Rev. Wright says that are pure stupidity can be cast aside and the good things he says can be taken to heart. But a lot of the people attending his church are not always recipients of good fortune and they only hear the “hate parts” and they begin to suspicion every white person of authority that they encounter.

Rev. Wright, himself, showed a disrespect of authority when he chose the Nation of Islam to be his bodyguard. To crazy, disadvantaged white people, this makes their hate come out and nothing good can happen.

I think everyone should attend their own churches and simply just erase Rev. Wright from their memory banks. If it’s true that his congregation is giving him a multi-million dollar retirement, then he really cannot speak to the plight of the poor black man being mistreated by the whites.

My main concerns about Wright are his outright lies, such as AIDS being invented to kill blacks and his assertion that the U.S. Government knew about Pearl Harbor beforehand.

He has also made multiple dubious assertions, referring to the Supreme Court as a “closeted Klan court”, alleging as fact that Clarence Thomas is a sexual harasser and that abortion is a civil right.

And that’s just from the God D*** America sermon!

I too feel he has valid points to make and that should be heard…

With that his talk of reconciliation I cant help but think that with that healing needs to happen and his words I dont think encourage healing…Its like he his picking at wounds…very real, deep and hurtful wounds and thus prevents the healing process from moving forward….

I think back to the classic moving “Guess Who is Coming to Dinner” when John Prentense confronts his father at the end and speaks of the generational difference…

I have no doubt that even today’s young African Americans still have to face such racial bigotry but I do hope that we are moving forward ….Maybe not at the “fast-food” mentality that so many Americans have gotten used too…But I do believe it is moving forward….

God’s Blessings From Yours Truly,
Larry A.Hall Jr.

Maybe their “differences” with our European heritage are causing these terrible things to happen.

This sounds hard, but so does implying that our government created AIDS to kill Afro-AM people, and that 9/11 was our government’s fault.

In my opinion, his speech today illustrated his self serving arrogance, and HIS disdain for white people. One more thought–since when is the Christian Church “black or white?”

I can’t believe how many people think that we should just forget about this man and his teachings, when he’s mentored a potential President for over 20 years! How could Obama not share at least some of the same feelings, both good and bad, toward our country and its citizens after hearing such rhetoric for so long?

The concept of “black liberation theology” is new to many of us; most of us just thought that the Gospel alone was preached in churches. So it is imperative that the electorate know as much as possible about Obama, his mentor and their beliefs before casting our votes this year.