I've Come to the Conclusion that Rev. Wright is Brilliant.

redstate_democrat

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Mon Apr-28-08 01:00 AM
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I've Come to the Conclusion that Rev. Wright is Brilliant.

I thought so before, but now I am dumbfounded by this man's sheer brilliance. He is very wise, prophetic, and learned.

His sermon following September 9, 2001, is absolutely breathtaking. If our "leaders" had heard this sermon, perhaps we would be in a different place today.

His sermon, talking about how the United States should be careful in its response, was sort of a warning, perhaps from on high, to our leaders. "Violence begets violence" "Hatred begets hatred". All of us, in our daily lives, could also apply these creeds when dealing with others. How we view others. Different is not deficient. This is all what it boils down to. America's insistence that all things American are superior to every one else's culture, is what is tearing this country down and apart. Our wars, most of the time, are premised on going in to some other country and delivering Grade A Americanism to them. "Liberating" them from whatever it is that is inconsistent with Americanism. Telling Muslim women in predominately Muslim countries that their head coverings aren't "natural" or they are somehow "oppressed" because their religion suggests they wear these head coverings. Do we have these views towards Christians? Christianity has some of the most oppressive tenets in all religions. Look at Catholicism. Women can't be ordained priests in Catholic churches. Will there ever be a woman Pope? Nuns wear head coverings. Women can't even teach Canon law in Vatican approved universities. Look at other denominations in the Christian church. Some churches, old style, Southern churches, still are uncomfortable with women in leadership roles, especially as pastors. Christians are taught that gays are abominations. They are taught that abortion is an abomination, although totally legal in the United States. They are taught that women must be subserviant to their husbands. They are taught that fornication is an abomination. All of these things are accepted in society, even though they are not aligned with Christian faith. But, here in the US, Christianity is THE religion that all must recognize and bow down to, albeit an unwritten understanding here. There won't be a Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, or Atheist President anytime soon.

So, we, as Americans, go around the world trying to Americanize and Christinize others because we have this superiority complex that we are different and successful, so therefore better. Different is not deficient OR superior. This is our problem.

In his post 9/11 sermon, Rev. Wright quotes Psalms 137 in trying to explain how we must be careful not to react out of revenge. This is precisely what George Bush and most lawmakers did in response. We killed innocents, bashing their babies against the rocks. Not against just the military, armed soldiers, but against innocents. Al Quada was NOT an army of ANY country. They were a rouge terrorist organization which happened to be in Afghanistan. We declared war on Afghanistan in response to the Taliban asking for further proof that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. Instead of providing this proof, we declared war. Part of our decision to declare war was based on the deplorable conditions in which the Afghani people lived under Taliban. We had problems with them already. When the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan, at first Bill Clinton, SOS Albright, had no problem with them, but as soon as it appeared that we could not control things to the extent we wanted to control things, the relationship died. We isolated them and in return, they grew more defiant and Bin Laden saw this and moved in. When bin Laden and his group saw how isolated the Taliban had become, they moved from Somalia to Afghanistan and teamed up with the Taliban. Not much later, we have the attacks on 9/11.

We do this. Sometimes we prop up these oppressive governments and when our relationship with them sours, we then declare war on them, forgetting that it was US that created the situation in the first place.

But now we are there and many innocents have died. Some people might say, well, that is the cost of war and innocents might die. Well, if you were the innocents involved, you would probably have a different view. Most Americans have never experienced being on the other end of oppression, violence from the government, war on your own land, having something taken from you by the government without due process, etc. So the understanding it takes to understand the anger that comes from people who have is not there. Things tend to be either black or white, no in between.

Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred.

Iraq is the same way. We invaded that country with absolutely NO PROOF of anything. The government said there was WMD but knew all along it was all a lie. And we wonder why they HATE US? We went in there and hundreds of thousands of innocents were killed...POST the removal of Saddam Hussein. We went in there and destroyed the infrastructure, but before we would even make sure the people had basic necessities like a water filration system and electricity, we protected the oil and began building permanent bases. And we wonder why they hate us.

We protect countries like Israel that have perpetrated nothing less than what can be described as CRIMES against the Palistineans, and support countries like China, Saudi Arabia who do the same, but focus our attentions on the acts of other governments like Iraq (one of the more secular countries in the Middle East under Saddam) and Iran (also one of the more secular countries in the Middle East) and also IGNORE genocide in Darfur and Rwanda. Look back at the Taliban's regime in Afghanistan during the Clinton administration.

In the world's view, there does seem to be a double standard. Does any country still respect America as much as we would like to think they do? The United States sought to eliminate Communism around the world, but at the same time, this country lived under the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, JIM CROW thrived, black people were lynched regularly, black people could not vote on equal footing with white Americans, Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps, black and white children segregated in schools, no equal protection under the law DESPITE it being the 14th amendment to the Constitution. We tell other countries to DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO. This country has YET to even apologize for slavery, even though, under the Constitution, blacks (slaves) were considered just 3/5ths of a HUMAN, and slavery was thus impliedly included under the Constitution. Laws were set up by this government to allow people to recapture fleeing slaves and to drag them back to their slave masters. This country collected TAXES on slaves to fund the building of its infrastructure, its White House, pay its judges that issued rulings like Dred Scott. This country used slaves to build the White House. But yet it has not apologized for that. Nor has it apologized for JIM CROW. Some may think that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 settled all of that, but not true. That Act did not GIVE blacks their rights, it merely made it illegal to deny the civil rights that blacks already had. No one gave blacks their rights, we already had these rights...human rights endowed by our creator. What man has the right to deny or give a human right to another man? Besides, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not a BLACK law, it is a law that protects whites as well. It is a law that protects gender (women and men), religion, national origin, color. It is a law that covers everyone. What makes America the "greatest nation in the world" when just 40 years ago, we had to enact such a law? What gives us the right to tell any country how to treat its citizens? Today, even today in America, we still grapple with these problems. How do we rectify warrantless wire taps, when the 4th amendment clearly means that a warrant must be secured when searching (or tapping) or at least be reasonable under the circumstances? What is reasonable about a blanket authorization to wiretap and then seek a warrant if need be? What is American about holding prisoners in Gitmo, torturing in the name of security, and having judges decide who the President of the United States will be?

We must take this country into a new direction. Change must come. We cannot continue to live in this small-minded vacuum to where we believe we are superior to all, when we don't even follow our own Constitution. We must stop this imperialist mindset that others around the world are increasingly growing hostile to. We have to or else we will cease to be America. Our government will continue to take away our rights while simultaneously trying to dominate the world. And the world will not respond kindly. We are at breaking point.