I have spent a lot of time and attention on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright over the last few days. I suppose this requires an apology, in the Greek sense. One obvious reason for this concern is that Jeremiah Wright is a powerful personality, and he has an obvious connection to the presidential ambitions of Barack Obama. Another is that I am getting a lot of feedback on this issue, from my Keloland comrade Cory Heidelberger, and others. Such conversations are what the blogosphere should be all about.
I received a thoughtful and very respectful note from Mondak on this topic. Here is the heart of it:
I say this with the most deep down respect and sincerety. I think you got caught up the past few weeks in all the quick judgemental quips made about Reverand Jeremiah Wright. We all do it from time to time. I watched a clip of his interview and his speech to the NAACP last evening. For far too long, we have been given one side of the story from many people who appear to hate the Reverend Wright for reasons that make no sense to me and other people that I know. The man is very intellegent and from what I witnessed, he is not the hateful and divisive man he has been made out to be by you. Now, I'm willing to forgive you for being so quick to judge. I am a Christian and I realize we all make mistakes, including yourself in the latest judgement calls you have made about Mr. Wright. Ken, I've done it myself in the past and I'm not proud of it. But, it takes a big man to admit his mistakes and make an honest effort to not repeat them in the future. I pray that you will see the errors of your ways in this matter and I remain very much hopeful that you will. Ken, please do not take this personally because you do a great job on your blog. It's just sometimes, you get ahead of yourself and make mistakes like the rest of us. I know that Reverend Wright's words were taken out of context by your network and others. Tonight's speech proves that he really does not harbor hate in his heart and that you probably mistook his words on that videotape that was not entirely shown on some networks.
I appreciate the comment, and I feel very responsible in light of the grace that is offered to me here. But when all is said and done, I have to call 'em like I sees 'em. Here is a bit from Wright's interview with the National Press Club.
MODERATOR: In your sermon, you said the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. So I ask you: Do you honestly believe your statement and those words?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Have you read Horowitz's book, "Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola," whoever wrote that question? Have you read "Medical Apartheid"? You've read it?
(UNKNOWN): Do you honestly believe that (OFF-MIKE)
REVEREND WRIGHT: Oh, are you -- is that one of the reporters?
MODERATOR: No questions...
(CROSSTALK)
REVEREND WRIGHT: No questions from the floor. I read different things. As I said to my members, if you haven't read things, then you can't -- based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything.
In fact, in fact, in fact, one of the -- one of the responses to what Saddam Hussein had in terms of biological warfare was a non- question, because all we had to do was check the sales records. We sold him those biological weapons that he was using against his own people.
So any time a government can put together biological warfare to kill people, and then get angry when those people use what we sold them, yes, I believe we are capable.
Now Wright's defenders will respond to any treatment of such a passage by saying it is taken out of context. But the context here is this: he was asked a question, and this is his answer. This is no long sermon. I do not think that there is anything wrong with paying attention to what he says and taking him at his word. He mixes a lot of legitimate arguments in here, without ever quite answering the question. But I think that the answer to the question is quite clear.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright really does believe that "the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color," and so, that the government did invent the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. This is both loony and atrocious. If it were true, then we are Nazis. And that is what Reverend Wright clearly thinks about the United States of America. But it is a damnable lie. Reverend Wright discredits himself, and all his intelligence and his prophetic sermons. He didn't merely say this, he preached it! You can't speak truth to power if what you are speaking is full of tin foil hat conspiracy theories.
This kind of thing poisons politics. I'm sorry, Mondak, but if this isn't hateful, what could hateful possibly look like?
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