Obama delivers speech on race and politics!

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Senator Clinton tries to change the subject from dodging bullets in Bosnia back to Dr. Wright:

“You know, we don’t have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend,” she said. “Everyone will have to decide these matters for themselves. They are obviously very personal matters … I think the choice would be clear for me.”

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/25/clinton-rev-wright-would-not-have-been-my-pastor/
 
i don't know what to think.

it seems almost impossible for her to win the nomination, unless (and i read this phrase today, and i think it's great) they get all Tonya Harding on Obama.

no matter what, we're going to get a bruised and battered candidate for the fall.

but then, it seems to me that she's a tougher opponent than McCain could ever be.

and, damn, but his economy speech fell as flat as a fart in church today.
 
slate.com

Blind Faith

The statements of clergymen like Jeremiah Wright aren't controversial and incendiary; they're wicked and stupid.

By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, March 24, 2008, at 12:09 PM ET

It's been more than a month since I began warning Sen. Barack Obama that he would become answerable for his revolting choice of a family priest. But never mind that; the astonishing thing is that it's at least 11 months since he himself has known precisely the same thing. "If Barack gets past the primary," said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to the New York Times in April of last year, "he might have to publicly distance himself from me. I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen." Pause just for a moment, if only to admire the sheer calculating self-confidence of this. Sen. Obama has long known perfectly well, in other words, that he'd one day have to put some daylight between himself and a bigmouth Farrakhan fan. But he felt he needed his South Side Chicago "base" in the meantime. So he coldly decided to double-cross that bridge when he came to it. And now we are all supposed to marvel at the silky success of the maneuver.

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed, which is why I am slightly surprised that Obama got away with it so easily. (Yet why do I say I am surprised? He still gets away with absolutely everything.)

Looking for a moral equivalent to a professional demagogue who thinks that AIDS and drugs are the result of a conspiracy by the white man, Obama settled on an 85-year-old lady named Madelyn Dunham, who spent a good deal of her youth helping to raise him and who now lives alone and unwell in a condo in Honolulu. It would be interesting to know whether her charismatic grandson made her aware that he was about to touch her with his grace and make her famous in this way. By sheer good fortune, she, too, could be a part of it all and serve her turn in the great enhancement.

This flabbergasting process, made up of glibness and ruthlessness in equal proportions, rolls on unstoppably with a phalanx of reporters and men of the cloth as its accomplices. Look at the accepted choice of words for the ravings of Jeremiah Wright: controversial, incendiary, inflammatory. These are adjectives that might have been—and were—applied to many eloquent speakers of the early civil rights movement. (In the Washington Post, for Good Friday last, the liberal Catholic apologist E.J. Dionne lamely attempted to stretch this very comparison.) But is it "inflammatory" to say that AIDS and drugs are wrecking the black community because the white power structure wishes it? No. Nor is it "controversial." It is wicked and stupid and false to say such a thing. And it not unimportantly negates everything that Obama says he stands for by way of advocating dignity and responsibility over the sick cults of paranoia and victimhood.

That same supposed message of his is also contradicted in a different way by trying to put Geraldine Ferraro on all fours with a thug like Obama's family "pastor." Ferraro may have sounded sour when she asserted that there can be political advantages to being black in the United States—and she said the selfsame thing about Jesse Jackson in 1984—but it's perfectly arguable that what she said is, in fact, true, and even if it isn't true, it's absurd to try and classify it as a racist remark. No doubt Obama's slick people were looking for a revenge for Samantha Power (who, incidentally, ought never to have been let go for the useful and indeed audacious truths that she uttered in Britain), but their news-cycle solution was to cover their own queasy cowardice in that case by feigning outrage in the Ferraro matter. The consequence, which you can already feel, is an inchoate resentment among many white voters who are damned if they will be called bigots by a man who associates with Jeremiah Wright. So here we go with all that again. And this is the fresh, clean, new post-racial politics?

Now, by way of which vent or orifice is this venom creeping back into our national bloodstream? Where is hatred and tribalism and ignorance most commonly incubated, and from which platform is it most commonly yelled? If you answered "the churches" and "the pulpits," you got both answers right. The Ku Klux Klan (originally a Protestant identity movement, as many people prefer to forget) and the Nation of Islam (a black sectarian mutation of Quranic teaching) may be weak these days, but bigotry of all sorts is freely available, and openly inculcated into children, by any otherwise unemployable dirtbag who can perform the easy feat of putting Reverend in front of his name. And this clerical vileness has now reached the point of disfiguring the campaigns of both leading candidates for our presidency. If you think Jeremiah Wright is gruesome, wait until you get a load of the next Chicago "Reverend," one James Meeks, another South Side horror show with a special sideline in the baiting of homosexuals. He, too, has been an Obama supporter, and his church has been an occasional recipient of Obama's patronage. And perhaps he, too, can hope to be called "controversial" for his use of the term house ****** to describe those he doesn't like and for his view that it was "the Hollywood Jews" who brought us Brokeback Mountain. Meanwhile, the Republican nominee adorns himself with two further reverends: one named John Hagee, who thinks that the pope is the Antichrist, and another named Rod Parsley, who has declared that the United States has a mission to obliterate Islam. Is it conceivable that such repellent dolts would be allowed into public life if they were not in tax-free clerical garb? How true it is that religion poisons everything.

And what a shame. I assume you all have your copies of The Audacity of Hope in paperback breviary form. If you turn to the chapter entitled "Faith," beginning on Page 195, and read as far as Page 208, I think that even if you don't concur with my reading, you may suspect that I am onto something. In these pages, Sen. Obama is telling us that he doesn't really have any profound religious belief, but that in his early Chicago days he felt he needed to acquire some spiritual "street cred." The most excruciatingly embarrassing endorsement of this same viewpoint came last week from Abigail Thernstrom at National Review Online. Overcome by "the speech" that the divine one had given in Philadelphia, she urged us to be understanding. "Obama's description of the parishioners in his church gave white listeners a glimpse of a world of faith (with 'raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor … dancing, clapping, screaming, and shouting') that has been the primary means of black survival and uplift." A glimpse, huh? What the hell next? A tribute to the African-American sense of rhythm?

To have accepted Obama's smooth apologetics is to have lowered one's own pre-existing standards for what might constitute a post-racial or a post-racist future. It is to have put that quite sober and realistic hope, meanwhile, into untrustworthy and unscrupulous hands. And it is to have done this, furthermore, in the service of blind faith. Mark my words: This disappointment is only the first of many that are still to come.
 
This man is said to be Senator Clinton's pastor, I know nothing about that or about what church she attends. Sounds like a wise man.



"The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a critical time in America's history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another's truth," - Dean J. Snyder, Foundry United Methodist Church, March 19, 2008
 
It's very sad that he fears for his safety and his family's safety

Obama's Ex-Pastor Cancels Speeches
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Cancels Houston Appearances, Citing Security; Dallas Events in Question

By CHARLES BABINGTON
The Associated Press

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, presidential candidate Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, has canceled plans to speak at three services at a Houston church on Sunday, the church's pastor said.

The Rev. Marcus Cosby, pastor at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, told Houston television station KTRK and the Houston Chronicle that safety concerns had prompted Wright's decision.

Cosby told the Chronicle that Wright cited three reasons for canceling: "the safety of the institution to which he has been invited; the safety of his family, which has been placed in harm's way; and for his own safety."

Wright also canceled his appearance Tuesday in Florida at a Tampa-area church. The hosting church said it asked Wright to cancel his scheduled three-day appearance because of security questions.

Wright had been expected to be in North Texas over the weekend to be honored by the Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, but it was unclear whether he would still be attending.

"His schedule is pending," Joan Harrell, minister of communications for Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Wright was pastor for nearly four decades, told The Dallas Morning News for its Tuesday online editions. The newspaper said that she wouldn't elaborate.

A call to the church placed before business hours by The Associated Press was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Videos of remarks Wright has made have been circulating widely on the Internet and news programs. Wright's sermons to his predominantly black congregation have included him shouting "God damn America" for its treatment of minorities. He has said the U.S. government invented AIDS to destroy "people of color" and has also suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East and elsewhere were partly responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"I think we have taken Dr. Wright out of context with sound bites," Cosby said. "After all these years, I am not going to kick him to the curb over sound bites."

In a speech last week, Obama sharply condemned Wright's remarks and the preacher's refusal to acknowledge progress in race relations. But the Illinois senator refused to repudiate Wright.

In North Texas over the weekend, Wright is supposed to speak at a Saturday luncheon at Paul Quinn College in Oak Cliff and be honored that night at Friendship-West Baptist Church in the Red Bird area.

Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist, said Tuesday night that the Dallas events are "all systems go," but he acknowledged that security issues could keep Wright away.

"We're going to honor him," he said. "The question is, basically, regarding his presence."
 
Huffington Post

The man who inspired Reverend Jeremiah Wright's controversial "America's chicken coming home to roost" remarks says that, like Sen. Hillary Clinton, he would have left the church had he been sitting in on that particular sermon.

Ambassador Ed Peck, a retired 32-year diplomat, served as the intellectual basis of a segment of Wright's post 9/11 sermon. (Wright said he saw Peck discussing the backlash of U.S. foreign policy during a Fox News segment.)

But while Peck acknowledges that he still believes that U.S. foreign policy was in many ways responsible for triggering the terrorist attacks, he also insists that he would not have tolerated the incendiary language that Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor employed.

"I probably would have walked out, because you cannot, to me, paint my nation as nothing more than a needless mindless monster. I would say, yes, we have made mistakes. Other nations make mistakes as well, and they haven't been as involved in Middle East," said Peck. "But Reverend Wright was drastically overstating the case... I would not sign on to that procedure and I would never have returned to a place where a man spouted such language, because my perception is that that is not the way to do it. My perception is that you do it my way, with thoughtful efforts to get people to understand what you are talking about."

Peck said that he had not had the chance to view Wright's clips in their entirety. He just returned from a long break only to find out that he had become something of a mini-political celebrity due to his connection to the sermon. He also said that it was unfair to truly judge Wright strictly on these five-second clips, that there were "seeds of truth" to what the Reverend had to say, "but he blasted them out of proportion."

Peck, who has offered controversial criticism of Israeli policy in the West Bank but also warned early against the Iraq Wwar, pointed to several U.S. foreign policy anecdotes that he believed validated his and Wright's premise. Those included testimony, overseen by former Sen. Lee Hamilton, in which intelligence agents testified that the Israel-Palestine conflict had been a main contributor to the proliferation of radical Islamic terrorism. In addition, there was a 60 Minutes interview of Madeline Albright, in which the former Secretary of State said U.S. sanctions on Iraq were worth it despite the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children.

"This is not in any way intended to be a denigration of Dr. Albright, she had a job in explaining and defending American policies," said Peck. "[But] it was probably the coldest thing you will ever see on television. It was run once on 60 Minutes, but it was shown a thousand times overseas."

In his now notorious sermon, Wright highlighted issues analogous to these, as evidence that America had helped aggravate the very terrorists who were striking out. "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye," he said.

What has not been shown in those clips is that Wright prefaced and concluded that remark by saying he was paraphrasing Peck.

"A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant," he said, "not a reverend who preaches about racism, an ambassador whose eyes are wide open and is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice..."

Peck said that while he never utter the phrase "chickens coming home to roost," he was aware that Wright had taken his words and ideas for his own sermon. Nevertheless, he didn't think the right message had been preached.

"I would not endorse it and I wouldn't sign on to it," he said. "There were seeds of truth to what he said but he blasted them out of proportion from the clips I have seen."
 
So much for everyone saying how much they respect Obama for not throwing Reverend Wright under the bus


Obama Would Have Left if Wright Stayed


Mar 27, 9:51 PM (ET)


WASHINGTON (AP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama's campaign, not stepped down.

"Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying at the church," Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View." The interview will be broadcast Friday.


So he would have thrown him

under the bus

if he stayed on the bus. :shrug:
 
^

You certainly interpreted it the way you wanted to.

Last year, I went to buy a bagel. I asked them for a 12 grain, toasted, buttered, but if they could put on half the butter they usually do (I find it too oily). She said to me "so you want butter on only one half?" And I said to her "if that's how you understood it, then sure."

That's how I feel about your response.

BTW, I'll be living and working in your fine country for a few months this summer - really looking forward to it! :)
 
anitram said:
^

BTW, I'll be living and working in your fine country for a few months this summer - really looking forward to it! :)

Let me be the first to say

"welcome neighbor"

I am genuinely happy to hear this

I hope you have a wonderful experience.

I would love to visit and stay in your great Country some day.

you are obviously coming here to take advantage of our superior health system
 
anitram said:
I will be in NYC (the great lawyer pie in the sky).

Yes,
that is where they have some of the best doctors for disparate Canadians suffering under the socialized medicine.

smb
seriously, NYC is fabulous! I know you will have a wonderful time.
 
I've been before, but never in the summer time, which is probably strange. I did love it at Christmas, though. I am mostly glad that they will finance everything so I can enjoy it like the upper tax bracket American that Bush loves. Capitalism, you gotta love it.
 
don't worry
some day you may grow up into being a
clueless bucket of glue
screaming at your pet dog
bangin on a keyboard with one hand
 
I wish Senator Obama would have addressed the plight of Native Americans in his speech.

Too bad that wasn't politically advantageous.

Maybe I missed something.
 
Obama Fails to Assuage White Indiana Voters With Speech on Race

Heidi PrzybylaTue Apr 1, 12:01 AM ET

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Andrea Helmer was interested in Barack Obama until she heard sound bites of his fiery pastor's sermons. Last week, she volunteered for Hillary Clinton's campaign in Indiana.

``As things came out regarding some of the things his pastor has said, I got concerned,'' said Helmer, a 36-year-old respiratory therapist and mother of two in Evansville, Indiana.

Interviews with dozens of Democrats in this overwhelmingly white region -- where voters will go to the polls in the May 20 primary -- suggest residual concerns over the controversy involving Obama's former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

To be sure, this flies in the face of most polls taken after Obama's widely praised March 18 speech on race and the Wright controversy. In a March 30 Gallup survey, he had widened his lead over Clinton among Democratic voters to 10 points. A week earlier, he was also up 10 points in a Pew Research poll.

In an NBC/Wall Street Journal national survey last week, he ran slightly ahead of Republican John McCain in a general- election match-up, while Clinton ran slightly behind.

The polls are ``good news'' for Obama, said Jenny Backus, an unaligned Democratic strategist. ``He was able to use what was a pretty potentially dangerous issue for his campaign as a way to reinforce his campaign message.''

Unease Among Whites

Still, there are stirrings of unease among white voters, including those who fear the issue will hurt Obama in a general election. Pew also found that 39 percent of all white voters said the controversy made them less favorable toward Obama.

John Friend, an uncommitted Democrat and Evansville city councilman, said Republicans may use Obama's ties to the pastor much in the same way they attacked Democratic candidate John Kerry's patriotism in 2004.

``It's going to be like the Swift Boat thing,'' Friend said.

Last month, excerpts of sermons in which Wright is heard saying ``God damn America'' and ``U.S. of KKKA'' were broadcast on television and distributed over the Internet. In response, Obama delivered what his aides billed as a major address on race on March 18 in which he condemned the remarks.

That didn't repair the damage for some white voters, said Trent Van Haaften, an Indiana state representative from Mount Vernon who is backing Obama.

One Visit

``The 10-second sound bite'' is all that many voters know about the Illinois senator, who so far has visited Indiana just once this year, Van Haaften said.

While Obama, 46, is far behind Clinton, 60, in the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, the Indiana contest is competitive. Even if he loses in Pennsylvania, winning in Indiana and North Carolina two weeks later could allow him to wrap up the nomination.

The Obama campaign had long seen friendly territory in Indiana and Helmer's majority white and rural eighth district, which borders the candidate's home state of Illinois.

The recent intense focus on Wright is complicating Obama's efforts to appeal to some in culturally conservative southwest Indiana, which has a record of electing Republicans and conservative Democrats. Evansville is 86 percent white and 11 percent black.

For Helmer, who said she is worried about the slumping economy and rising health-care costs, Clinton, a New York senator, is a familiar figure she associates with the better times of the administration of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

More Overtime

``Back when Clinton was in office our money was more stable, jobs were coming in, my husband had a lot more overtime,'' Helmer said.

That familiarity, along with media coverage of the pastor controversy, is pushing voters toward Clinton, said Democrat Justin Jarvis, a 34-year-old Evansville health-care worker.

``I know people who were previously Obama supporters who view it as reverse racism at its worst,'' he said.

Michael Rivera, a 33-year-old computer programmer from Evansville, said he had donated to the Obama campaign and now believes his electability is damaged.

``I understood where he was coming from, but I don't think anyone else will,'' said Rivera, who currently is backing Clinton.

Obama Response

Obama has spent the past two weeks responding to questions about the issue and last week said he would have left the church if Wright hadn't announced plans to retire and acknowledged his comments were offensive.

On March 25, Clinton fanned the flames by saying Wright ``would not have been my pastor.''

Phil Hoy, a 71-year-old retired minister who represents Evansville in the General Assembly and supports Obama, said the episode is hard to overcome in his community.

``We are not the most progressive state,'' said Hoy, who belongs to the same denomination as Obama, the United Church of Christ.

In addition, Clinton visited Evansville last month.

Obama may be able to turn Indiana around. He is stepping up efforts to court white rural voters in Pennsylvania, where he is on a six-day bus tour with Senator Bob Casey.

Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, who hasn't endorsed a candidate, said he expects the picture to change if Obama makes a similar effort in his area.

``Before Senator Clinton announced her visit the only real enthusiasm I heard was for Senator Obama,'' he said.
 
I've only seen one poll here so far, which has Clinton up by 9 points; Obama hasn't really campaigned here yet; and there's more than a month still to go. But yeah, I expect fallout from the Wright newsblitz will be among his biggest obstacles with (white) voters who weren't already firm Clinton supporters from the beginning. (It may not help that we're an open-primary state, either.) It's ridiculous and thoroughly disheartening to me that a few selected fire'n'brimstone quotes from a candidate's former pastor, rather than his own voting record, platform and public statements, could be anyone's critical deciding factor, but I do think for some it will be.
 
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This is a speech from a sincere person.




McCain Remarks on Dr. King and Civil Rights

CQ Transcripts
Friday, April 4, 2008; 12:06 PM

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ: Thank you.

Alvieda King, Ralph Abernathy Jr., Dr. Montgomery, members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference: I appreciate your kind invitation, and I am honored to stand with you at this place on this day.

Martin Luther King Jr., was not a man to flinch from harsh truth, and the same is required of all who come here to see where he was in the last hours of his life. The Lorraine Motel is a civil rights museum now, but in the memory of America it will always be a crime scene as well. On the National Register of Historic Places, there are few sites remembered with more regret, or touched with so much sorrow.

If we think only of that day and that moment, there is no inspiration to be gained here. The man we remember was a believer in the power of conscience and goodness to shape events. But this place will always stand as a reminder that cowardice and malevolence lay claim to their own victories. No good cause in this world -- however right in principle or pure in heart -- was ever advanced without sacrifice. And Dr. King knew this. He knew that men with nightsticks, tear-gas, and cattle prods were not the worst of what might be lying in wait each day and night. He was a man accustomed to the nearness of danger. And when death came, it found him standing upright, in open air, unafraid.

We see him today from a distance of four decades, more time than the man himself lived on this earth. And it would not be unusual if his stature or reputation had faded with the passing of the years. It happens sometimes that the judgments of history overrule contemporary opinion, indifferent to the fame and approval of the moment. But this has not been the case with the first-born son of Alberta and Martin Luther King, Sr. He only seems a bigger man from far away. The quality of his character is only more apparent. His good name will be honored for as long as the creed of America is honored. His message will be heard and understood for as long as the message of the gospels is heard and understood.

Forty years and more after the great struggles of the civil rights movement, we marvel that such fierce passions could be aroused in defense of such petty cruelties. Separate lunch counters, the preferred seat on a bus, one restroom for whites and another for everyone else -- these were among the prerogatives fought for as if on a point of the highest principle. There is no end to human pride when it goes unchecked, no limit to arrogance and presumption when they pass uncorrected. Like every citizen he spoke for, Martin Luther King had seen the underside of life in America, where the rules of respect, and fairness, and courtesy were thought not to apply. It was a humiliating existence, unjust in matters both large and small, merciless in its routine of insult, sparing not even the elderly or little children from its crude bullying.

For black men and women, as Dr. King wrote, it was a life "plagued with inner fears and outer resentments." And yet, as he knew, fear alone would never right the offense. And resentment alone would never overcome the wrong. "Along the way of life," he said, "someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil. The greatest way to do that is through love."

Martin Luther King today is honored by the world, in such a way that it is easy to forget he once knew the scorn of the world. And it wasn't just force of personality that made him the man he was. It was the power of truth, spoken with a servant's heart and a voice like no other. He put it this way once, expressing the spirit of both the cause and its leader: "I said to myself over and over again, 'Keep Martin Luther King in the background and God in the foreground and everything will be all right. Remember you are a channel of the gospel and not the source.'"

When Dr. King and his comrades began to break that chain with their campaign of peaceful protest, there were those who said, "Wait. Just give it a little more time. Be patient. Be patient, and one day America will come around." But patience had been tried, over many generations, and still millions lived in what he called the smothering, airtight cage of injustice. For his marches in Birmingham, Montgomery, and elsewhere, for his sit-ins and his sermons, he was called an agitator, a trouble-maker, a malcontent, and a disturber of the peace. These are often the terms applied to men and women of conscience who will not endure cruelty, nor abide injustice. We hear them to this day -- in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Burma, Tibet, Iran and other lands -- directed at every brave soul who dares to disturb the peace of tyrants.

Sometimes the most radical thing is to be confronted with our own standards -- to be asked simply that we live up to the principles we profess. Even in this most idealistic of nations, we do not always take kindly to being reminded of what more we can do, or how much better we can be, or who else can be included in the promise of America. We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. But he knew as well that in the long term, confidence in the reasonability and good heart of America is always well placed. And always, that was his method in word and action -- to remind us of who we are and what we believe. His arguments were unanswerable and they were familiar, the case always resting on the writings of the Founders, the teachings of the prophets, and the Word of the Lord.

Perhaps with more charity than was always deserved, he often reminded us that there was moral badness, and there was moral blindness, and they were not the same. It was this spirit that turned hatred into forgiveness, anger into conviction, and a bitter life into a great one. He loved and honored his country even when the feeling was unreturned, and counseled others to do the same. He gave his fellow countrymen and his fellow Christians the benefit of the doubt -- believing, as he wrote, that "returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that."

I remember first learning what had happened here on the 4th of April, 1968, feeling just as everyone else did back home, only perhaps even more uncertain and alarmed for my country in the darkness that was then enclosed around me and my fellow captives. In our circumstances at the time, good news from America was hard to come by. But the bad news was a different matter, and each new report of violence, rioting, and other tribulations in America was delivered without delay. The enemy had correctly calculated that the news from Memphis would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country. Doubtless it boosted our captors' morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them.

Yet how differently it all turned out. And if they had been the more reflective kind, our enemies would have understood that the cause of Dr. King was bigger than any one man, and could not be stopped by force of violence. Struggle is rewarded, in God's own time. Wrongs are set right and evil is overcome. We know this to be true because it is the story of the man we honor today, and because it is the story of our country.

And yet for all of this, 40 years and a world away, we look up to that balcony, we remember that night, and we are still left with a feeling of loss. Here was a young man who composed one of literature's finest testimonies to the yearning for equality and justice under law -- writing on the margins of a newspaper, in the confinement of a prison cell. Here was a preacher who endured beatings, survived bombings, suffered knifings, abuse, and ridicule, and still placed his trust in the Prince of Peace. Here was a husband and father who will stand to children in every generation as a model of Christian manhood, but never got to raise his own sons and daughters, or to share in the gift of years with his good wife.

All of this was lost on the 4th of April, 1968, and there are no consolations to balance the scale. What remains, however, is the example and witness of The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and that is forever.

Thank you.
 
[q]We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. [/q]




sounds like a poster in here who uses MLK to justify every thought he has, or who takes MLK's words and think that they're evidence of what "real" Republicans think.

it's good to know that he's no longer overtly racist like he was in the 1980s. but MLK would have understood. it was only effete liberal intellectuals who went to Yale who weren't racist in the 1980s, and no one wants to have a beer with them.
 
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