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This is a cross post from General Discussion.
Perhaps some of you have received an email with a string of quotes attributed to Obama. Or you may receive it in the future. The third time I got the mail it came from my niece and so I decided to research the quotes and reply to her. In the interest of saving time, I thought some of you might be interested in using some of what I found and any, all or none of my personal opinions. Keep in mind that some of the stuff sent to her comes from a Christian fundamentalist perspective and so I use that perspective in places to appeal to a higher nature.
Dear ___,
Please allow me to bring a little clarity to the quotes you sent. I'm sure you would not want to intentionally spread false or misleading statements. That is not something that Christ advocated and I think it's Number 9 of The Big Ten from Exodus 20: 1-17.
Quotes taken out of context are often used to smear or mislead, I've experienced it myself. The true context often results in a completely different conclusion.
You know, when people resort to those kind of tactics, it sometimes works on those who are easily lead, those who are already biased to that viewpoint, or those who can't or won't do the work necessary to find the truth. However, it can have the opposite effect on those who are interested in the truth. They lose trust in the ones spreading misleading information, not the one who is being smeared.
No. 1 - From Dreams from my Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.
This is an accurate quote from the introduction to Dreams from My Father. The book chronicles Obama's experience as the son of an African father and an American mother.
from Auntie Kay: This statement leads me to believe this is a person who is willing to examine his belief system. More importantly that he began this introspection at a young age.
No. 2 - From Dreams From My Father: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.
Nothing close to this quote appears in Dreams from My Father
No. 3 - From Dreams of My Father: This should be Dreams From My Father
'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.
This is from a section when Obama was a college student and wrestling with his identity including as an African-American. The quote describes his observation of what was required among his fellow students.
No. 4 - There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.
FULL QUOTE From Dreams From My Father:
This is in a section in which Obama describes a job interview with a man in Chicago. Race had been a part of their discussion.
"He offered to start me off at ten thousand dollars the first year, with a two-thousand-dollar travel allowance to buy a car; the salary would go up if things worked out. After he was gone, I took the long way home, along the East River promenade, and tried to figure out what to make of the man. He was smart, I decided. He seemed committed to his work. Still, there was something about him that made me wary. A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white--he'd said himself that that was a problem."
No. 5 - From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.
FULL QUOTE From Dreams From My Father:
"All my life, I had carried a single image of my father, one that I had sometimes rebelled against but had never questioned, one that I had later tried to take as my own. The brilliant scholar, the generous friend, the upstanding leader--my father had been all those things. All those things and more, because except for that one brief visit in Hawaii, he had never been present to foil the image, because I hadn't seen what perhaps most men see at some point in their lives: their father's body shrinking, their father's best hopes dashed, their father's face lined with grief and regret.
"Yes, I'd seen weakness in other men--Gramps and his disappointments, Lolo and his compromise. But these men had become object lessons for me, men I might love but never emulate, white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela. And if later I saw that the black men I knew--Frank or Ray or Will or Rafiq--fell short of such lofty standards; if I had learned to respect these men for the struggles they went through, recognizing them as my own--my father's voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people's struggle. Wake up, black man!
"Now, as I sat in the glow of a single light bulb, rocking slightly on a hard-backed chair, that image had suddenly vanished. Replaced by...what? A bitter drunk? An abusive husband? A defeated, lonely bureaucrat? To think that all my life I had been wrestling with nothing more than a ghost!"
Aunt Kay says: Taken in it's full context the above is truly a statement of humility. By recognizing a false illusion held of his father he showed a willingness to seek the truth, even though it shattered the image he had long carried.
No. 6 - From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.
What he really said had nothing about the Muslim religion, he was speaking to something else entirely:
From Audacity of Hope: Page 261
FULL QUOTE
"Whenever I appear before immigrant audiences, I can count on some good-natured ribbing from my staff after my speech; according to them, my remarks always follow a three-part structure: "I am your friend," " has been a cradle of civilization," and "You embody the American dream." They're right, my message is simple, for what I've come to understand is that my mere presence before these newly minted Americans serves notice that they matter, that they are voters critical to my success and full-fledged citizens deserving of respect.
"Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
from Aunt Kay:
After all the research I have done in American foreign policy and our attitudes to other races, cultures and religions, I identify with the above statement wholeheartedly. As a country we Americans hold ourselves up as the moral authority of the planet, and yet we fall way too short in human rights to claim that title; From the beginning of our history with the native Americans who we attempted to annihilate as we occupied their land, to the property theft and prison camps of Americans with Japanese heritage, to the Hispanic and Middle Eastern cultures of today. And many more in between.
In fact our willingness to allow our own government to detain and and especially torture prisoners who have not even been charged with a crime is horrendous. Torture is never warranted, under any circumstances, in fact it is a crime. We should take heed from the direction from Jesus to find the mote in our own eye before we go taking issue with others' shortcomings. The USA has much to atone for.
This type of propaganda uses fear to manipulate an ignorant population. Jesus said, "Fear not." In fact, fear is a tactic used when the truth will not uphold a political, racist or religious platform.
Men of high ideals are always a threat to the powers that be. In fact, if they cannot be smeared out of favor or power, they are almost always killed or assassinated. i.e. To name a few: Jesus, Lincoln, Gandhi, John and Robert Kennedy, and King. The last three, it's well known, were killed by their own government.
with love, aunt kay
(Kay Lucas)
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