I thought Sen. Obama made a speech that I would characterize as "interesting". I listened to it on C-Span, and actually read the text a couple of times.

Broad-brush,it seems to me he tries to connect ALL injustice, with the intent of the Founders, with HIMSELF as perhaps uniquely qualified to handle it all, by virtue of the universality of his background and experience. In crisis-management terms, it's what I call, "enlarging the circle." When the narrow, specific playing field (ie, the Rev. Wright) doesn't offer favorable prospects, make the argument about something much grander (even historical), and at the same time, much foggier and more nebulous.

I think your post touchs upon some of the more problematic areas: A tendency toward "straw men", as you pointed-out, and the old Nixonian trick of reducing all available options to just TWO (either/or), and then choosing the only one that makes sense under that limited construction. A tendency to render some implausible (to say the least) constructions on the known facts, and to link things together that don't seem easy to link.

I thought it was an especially CLEVER speech, which isn't to say I thought it was a great speech. It did not strike me as particularly heart-felt, being uncharacteristisicly mechanical in tone and delivery for Sen. Obama. I'm sure it helped him with those who fervently wanted him to do well, less sure about everyone else.

I know the air-waves are ALREADY full of predictions about how he did and what the likely outcome will be, but that is something we will be unlikely to know for sure prior to April 22.

"What I would like to see for once is the attitude that no matter what Washington does, no matter what corporations do, no matter how poor things may be, that people will take responsibility for their own actions, for their neighborhoods, for their schools, for their county, for their state - that they will build it up piece by piece, not blaming anyone else, not excusing lapses in moral and ethical behavior, not allowing easy excuses to distract, but just get it together. Because if there's no crime and no hate speech, it's hard for people to be fearful. If there's effort and teaching and learning and love, you can withstand a lot of poverty, and eventually the walls come down. But as long as there are crack addicts in the alley breaking into abandoned buildings, as long as there are slumlords coming to toss people out of their homes, as long as the neighborhoods are dirty and the air is full of complaints and negativeness, there will be hatred. If each neighborhood set out to make itself beautiful, a paradise on earth, there's little Washington or WalMart can do to stop it."

Here's the problem with that:
Yes, we all have to step up and take responsibility for not only our actions, but the actions of everyone. "If there's effort and teaching and learning and love, you can withstand a lot of poverty, and eventually the walls come down." Well that teaching and learning you talk of? It takes place, for most people in the public schools of the community in which they live. Without improving those schools, how is that supposed to happen? Will effort and love alone fix that? Will effort and love buy new textbooks? Buy science equipment? Educate teachers? Fix the crumbling walls? I don't think so. Fact is, it has to be an effort both of the people and of the government.

"As long as the neighborhoods are dirty and the air is full of complaints and negativeness, there will be hatred." Sure, I think the best thing to do is not make excuses, not complain, and roll up your sleeves and help out the best you can, but if for example, the government still allows the local corporations to dump their waste in that community, pollute the air, that's going to hinder our efforts. Should we all just break out the hazmats and clean up their mess?

We can plant some flowers, sweep up the mess, watch our kids, read to our kids, watch out for each other, clean up the vandalism, build up community activities, to name a few. PTAs can try to raise as much as they can to help build better schools and fill them with books, but shouldn't the government have a hand in that as well? Shouldn't the police, a government agency, help patrol the roads and neighborhoods so that we might have the security in which we can get out there and start helping? Or should we pick up guns and secure the place ourselves? I don't think so. And what should we do when the slumlords come to toss people out? Attack them? Chain ourselves to the building? Or should the government ensure that they can throw people out, or that they can't maintain a building that would be termed a "slum" in the first place?

There are barriers to anyone wanting to start a small business. If the government reduces business licensing and regulatory requirements, more low-income people would be able to do so, which would help build up the local economy. There's not much we the people can do about those restrictions without the help of our government. Of course, if they do reduce them, we have to encourage people to stand up and get out there, try to open up a business, which is a brave thing for anyone to do. If the government established certain zones in these communities as enterprise zones, where property taxes would be extremely low or even nonexistent, more businesses and corporations would invest in these areas, which would of course, create more jobs. I also might add that we might, government included, want to re-think about the so-called "war on drugs". I have not a few friends who ended up drug-dealers at one point in their lives because the capacity for income doing that was so much higher than any honest job could pay at the time.

My point is yes: we all have to stop making excuses and stand up and do something. I actually found that to be a large part of his speech. But there are boundaries to what we can do if we do not press the government to do more as well. It will be better achieved if it is a joint effort between the people and the government. A government which, I might add, is supposed to be "of the people", so I don't think it's too much to ask that they stand up as well.

I'd like to question some of your assertions.

"He equates these sermons with the clapping and dancing that might be "jarring to the untrained ear", as if most people don't appreciate the beauty of gospel singing and rousing black churches without expecting that hate speech is an integral part of *all* sermons in *all* black churches. Why throw black churches and black preachers under the bus?"

There are plenty people in America who don't have a clue about rousing black churches (or rousing white ones for that matter). And what you define as "hate" speech depends on perspective. For a Pastor to point out that this country is ruled by those of a whiter shade of pale is not hate speech, it's fact. The KKK (last time I looked)is certainly not a black fraternal organization, Jim Crow wasn't voted in by black folks...I've never been in a black church where this fact hasn't come up. We didn't get brought here in chains by Martians.

You need to research MLK Jr. much more throughly. He made similar statements frequently in sermons, as did Daddy King, Rev's Abernathy and Lowery, Adam Clayon Powell Jr...I wish you would to do more reading of history, and the evolution of the black church.

During the Civil Rights Movement I was in worship services at "white" churches and synagogues where similar statements about white racism were thundered from the pulpit by priests, or addressed by Rabbis.

Yes, Minister Malcom broke from the NOI and recognized after his Haj that white people were not all "devils" (NOI rhetoric). But that never stopped him from pointing a finger at white racism.

I do agree with Senator Obama however. Let's open a dialogue, and try to build a more perfect union. Perhaps, coming from a biracial family allowed me to share a similar perspective. I have many intellegent, well-educated "black" friends who are actually afraid of white people.
Who are uncomfortable in social situations, who opted to stay in segregated schools, and who have turned down jobs where they may have to have close contact. I was stunned when I first recognized this, many years ago. It seemed totally irrational. But I had to reflect that their life experience was very different than mine. It is changing, but slowly.

I teach at a majority "white" University. I have African-American and Latino students - today - who are afraid to sit at a lunch table with "white" kids, who won't dare to get a classmates cell phone number or to share study notes. I've addressed this in the classroom.
Opened a dialogue. I've assigned ALL my students to do ethnographic interviews with someone on campus of a different color or who is from a different ethnic group. The results have been astonishing. Most of the interviews open with "I was really afraid to approach the student I picked to interview". They have ended with many of my students learning to transcend their fears, and quite a few have become friends.

"You speak about poor communities and crack addicts and negativity as if they were produced in a vacuum."

Exactly. The USA is a perfect Disney world, with Snow White baking cookies and Bambi outside the kitchen window under the apple tree -- but watch out, here come some of those horrible Negroes to ruin everything again.

It is impossible to discuss issues without some minimal foundation of knowledge. Our schools and our media do not educate us. We must educate ourselves. We have libraries and the Internet, so there are no excuses for ignorance.

"To admit our doubt and confusion to whites, to open up our psyches to general examination by those who had caused so much of the damage in the first place, seemed ludicrous, itself an expression of self-hatred--for there seemed no reason to expect that whites would look at our private struggles as a mirror into their own souls, rather than yet more evidence of black pathology." (Dreams From my Father, p. 193)

Many are presenting Wright's sermons as evidence of black pathology, rather than trying to understand what he said and why he said it.

The lives and fates of whites and blacks are intertwined; the lives and fates of all people are intertwined. I wish I had time to dig up some James Baldwin quotes on this topic right now, but I don't.

One of the most interesting aspects of this speech and Obama's campaign is that he has continually pointed to his biology to build his experiences with racial issues. I think this is very on par with what Americans will accept as of now: that you are allowed to talk about people from a certain group in certain ways if (and sometimes only if) you are from or can include yourself in that group somehow. I think this is the stepping stone that could potentially lead others to feel more comfortable about talking about racial tensions and segregation if it is done properly. However, I really hope this step is made and that barriers are broken down, because if not, after Obama leaves office, we may lose this chance to make ground. I mean, when is the next time we'll have someone running with a chance with such a diverse biological standing? Probably more than in the past, but the point should be to make sure we do not fall into identity politics for too long, thinking Barack Obama can speak to all of these racial issues because he biologically exemplifies so many, but that he (and this is more of what I personally think he is and could speak to)does have all of this race inclusion in his genes, but that regardless, he is speaking to (and we should be able to recognize this) race because its an issue that he cares about that can be cared about and spoken on eloquently regardless of one's own. Otherwise some whites, blacks, asians, latinos, arabs, will tune out when it's not 'relevant' to them.

I'm waiting for the fact check.

There's the contradiction of his statements last week that he hadn't heard these controversial words, and now he spins them down to "snippets" as if there's a dearth of Rev. Wright's controversial statements.

Again what facts are you presenting to make your case?

He excuses Rev. Wright's anger because of when he grew up, but Wright was quite a bit younger than Martin Luther King, who had many more fights to wage against worse conditions, and who managed to keep his message of love and hope even while standing up to racism.

Hardly. He specifically does not excuse the anger. He does explain it. It's a very big difference that is also quite distinct from excusing it. What does being "quite a bit younger" than MLK have to do with anything you are arguing? Are you implying Wright was too young to have been part of the Civil Rights movement from the 50's and 60's? Wright was born in 1941. (Remember, Google is your friend when you don't have the facts.) He grew up and was a young adult during the height of the Civil Rights movement.

I'll save the remainder of my criticism, as I believe I have made my point. I would alos suggest that your title is misleading and not at all helpful to whatever argument it is you attempt to make.

Epic Fail.

Desidero

Ari Onassis didn't have Jim Crow laws or George Wallace or the KKK or an ingrained racial bias facing him when he got off the boat in Argentina. So that argument is a little weak. Better yet, myopic.

Next point. No need to use profanity in trying to tell me I should be lucky to be here. My ancestors who are at the bottom of the Atlantic because they slowed the slave ship down, weren't so lucky. My Native American ancestors who have lost so much because of "Manifest Destiny," were not so lucky.

Next. I never called Obama the "Messiah." As a Christian that would be blasphemy.

Next. When I help my child with his homework, it's not like we take a moment of silence because my great-grandfather wasn't allowed to read. (Except maybe the Bible...sometimes) We read because that's the assignment. He reads because I'm home. I'm here present in his life, much to his chagrin.

Over 75 percent of Black Male children are raised in a single parent household. They don't have what my child does. There are fewer people around to tell them how to show respect for your elders, or how to buy flowers for a girl. (The Johnny who can't read ends up cursing)

Explain me this. HIV/AIDS the number one killer Black Women in the US. (I guess we're "Lucky" because it's worst in Africa.)

One out of three Black Males are in jail, on parole, or probation. And BTW, when you send someone to prison for 2-4 years, even for a non violent offense, that person will bring back to their community, family, sphere of influence, the values of that prison.

Send a person to Stanford, USC, Harvard, or Yale for 4 years, and that same person will bring back to their community, family, sphere of influence, the values of Stanford, USC, Harvard or Yale.
Guess how much it cost to go to those schools?

And please don't think I'm simply promoting Affirmative Action. I'm not. I'm promoting an anti-bias educational and judicial system. I'm promoting teaching a true and honest history. I'm promoting the power of dreams and redemption.

And just quickly, because I want to go for a walk...

Yo Soy el Sol y La Luna. Yo soy las estrellas, el negro de la noche. Yo soy la tierra, los arboles, el rio corriendo. El viento.

I know who and what I am. I am everything that's been created.
In my blood, my bones...my biological and cultural and Spiritual DNA.

Thus, as a Veteran who's defending this Country with every ounce of my being (because I'm so "Lucky"), as a African and Native American who was forbidden to kiss the girl I loved at 14, told to get out of my best friend's pool, called a "Nigger" by my high school coach because I kept the ball and scored the winning touchdown anyway...

As someone who loves the people of this Nation, and believes in her promise...

I know who I am and where I stand.
And that is with people who want to "perfect" this Union.
those who want to go below the superficial, extend beyond their grasp.
Those who want to let love rule.
Those who believe in our common bond and respect their political other.
Those who want a cleaner world, a safer world, a more compassionate paradigm to prosperity.
Those who welcome honesty in political discourse.
Be they, Gay/Straight/Jewish/Christian/Muslim/Old/Young/Black/Brown/Red/Yellow/White/Right/Left...

I stand with Barack Obama for President (again not Messiah).

p.s. not a Clinton hater. Just when i step back and view the world in it's entirety...President Obama makes sense to me.

sorry i rambled. I'm going on my walk now. (i'm so lucky)

peace,
a