The Good Reverend

Reverend Jeremiah Wright has become the latest distraction technique in this increasingly chaotic election season. Why?

Because he is black?
Because he is the opposition's clearest shot at the squeaky-clean Senator from Illinois?
Because he is divisive?
Because he is un-American?
Because he is an agent of hatred?
Because he disrespected the memory of those who died on and because of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks?

Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different answer.

Me? I think it's a combination of several things. One, he's black. And if you take issue with that--why have we never gone after the Billy Grahams and the Jerry Falwells with the same intensity and scrutiny? Americans--especially the generations of whites who came of age after World War II--are relative strangers to notions of oppression and struggle. A gross over-generalization, to be sure. But really, is it not odd to condemn one man's indiscretions (if they are that) while virtually ignoring similar sins perpetrated by a whole group of guys?

Today, on my favorite show, The View, Elizabeth Hasselback started in on the Rev. Wright nonsense again. Frankly, I find her to be a willful racist, which, yes, is worse than an ignorant one. Sure, the effect is the same, but there's something to be said for intention intensifying action. Her unrelenting criticism of Obama's relationship to the reverend is laughable, considering Hasselback remains one of the Bush Administration's perkiest apologists. She offends me on every level, and I don't understand how the other women on the panel can stand sitting next to her day after day. She should be fired and replaced with an educated conservative. Someone like Laura Ingraham springs to mind immediately. Sure, I agree with pretty much none of what Ingraham says, but at least she gets her information from, say, books and newspapers rather than quick surfs to Fox News Channel during American Idol or Dancing with the Stars commercials.

So now, to conclude this bitch session, allow me to go on the record as supporting some of Rev. Wright's most controversial statements. As for the famous "chickens coming home to roost" comment--that's already been attributed to the great Edward Peck, a white diplomat worthy of at least 10 minutes of your time on Youtube. And bringing it back to schoolyard politics, consider the following hypothetical: A bully punches a different kid in the playground every day, until one day, the kids get together and fight the bully as one.

And some of his other statements--goddamn America, the United States of White America, white people intentionally inflicted AIDS on the black community--may seem far fetched or more intense than my own beliefs, but I understand and respect his anger. It's important to be angry about the right things. Do I think that Rev. Wright properly expresses his anger? Absolutely not. But I do not judge him, and I think that, if we all listened a little more closely to what he has said in the past--and not just the nonsense he spewed at the National Press Club yesterday (which was surely an ego defense strategy)--we would see more truth than insubstantial sound bytes looped on shoddy cable networks allow.