Submitted by Tom, Mar 22, 2008 04:51

Mr. Myers-Your observations are crystalline regarding the broadly praised yet substantively disappointing speech given by Senator Obama. No better than David Duke, the Senator's spiritual leader should not be given a verbal pass by saying his Grandmother was no better. What an outrage. His Grandmother was open minded enough to raise a daughter who thought marrying and having a child with a black man was alright. Racist? I sincerely doubt it. Clever doublespeak? Of this, I am sure.

Senator Obama selectively referenced America's past, and history is important, but only if we learn from it. We where taught that basing discrimination on race was wrong. A civil war was fought over it. Providing advantage on discrimination's terms is wrong too. Making all white people complicit in racism is as evil as any stereotype ever hoisted on any minority. Jessie Jackson himself has stated his concerns about walking through black neighborhoods. Is Jessie a racist? Did his ancestors own slaves? No. He was simply aware of the prevalence of crime within the black community. To call a white person a racist for doing the same is absurd. Where does the Senator get this from, doesn't he think white folk can read crime statistics? If they found out that one-legged Eskimos where committing violent crime at an equivalent rate, they'd avoid them on the street too. What a shock, to learn one can't mend the entirety of societies ills by ignoring facts while on a stroll down urban byways.

So here's an FYI for Mr. Obama. I think a frank discussion of race was long overdue. Sadly, the Philadelphia speech on race, once examined says far more about your candidacy and possible presidency than the racial bromide you thought it to be. Rev. Wright earned and deserves derision. His words are poison, his ministry is one of hate. Rev. Wright's inability to be self observing, to understand how brutally wrong he has been is staggering. Your defense of him doubly so. I do however feel a little sad. Sad for the speech you could and should have made. The one that, with open eyes, honestly framed Wright's rhetoric for what it was-racism. You couldn't be straight shooting, you had to equivocate-what a let down.

Senator Obama is facile on the stump, but not so much that he couldn't obscure his ideological Achilles heel. An Obama presidency would be, if this episode is any indication, one sidelined by it's own ideological myopia. If there is something this country could desperately use, is a president who will see the world and it's people for what they are, not for what he hopes/excuses them to be.

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