My children go to a Catholic parochial school and every Good Friday the children put on a living stations of the cross to reinact the the steps to calvary and the crucifixtion.
Every year one of the eigth grade boys is Jesus and it is the honor. Today when it started I saw a boy whom I have known for years playing Jesus.
He is a handsome young man adopted by two physicians and is of mixed race. I was for a moment almost overcome as he carried the cross with the crown of thorns on his head. He had the color of Barack and I thought of his parents both black and white who gave him up for adoption. If they could see him now I wonder what they would think? It was moved to tear up a bit as I am now writing this story.
Then as we went through the 14 enactments we had a reading for each. I will share one with you as they sripped his cloak off to nail him to the cross.
"Lord, in my own way I too have stripped you. I have taken away the good name of another by foolish talk and have stripped people of human dignity by my prejudice. Jesus, there are so many ways I have offended you through the hurt I have caused others. Help me to see you in all people."
I just thought of the last week in this country and all the cruel things that have been done to good people.
I am a over 50 white male who has listened to Rev. Wright's sound bites. I was at first taken back by the videos, but one was taken out of context from a sermon about 911. Then I happened to hear sound bites from some of the far left preachers who were also talking about 911 and Katrina as Gods retribution on our sinfull society. I don't see anyone taking them to task as preaching outrageous divisiveness. The anti -Catholic, anti- gay , or anti-semetic comments are monstrously vile.
I actually agreed with the jist of Rev Wright's comments. Our foreign policy has nade us less safe. My sister was in the first World trade center bombing. We have been the worlds policemen for our own self interests for years while supporting puppet dictators against their own poor peoples.
I am a Catholic and Lord knows we have priest problems, yet I would never think of leaving the church if my priest was removed for sexual offenses. My religion is much deeper than any one man.
It seems so hypocritical to single out Barack for guilt by association. It is almost a crusade for some people in the media. They are never talking issues only his personal character as if the other candidates had passed some pure moral test. I have thought about this for several days trying to explain it to my self.
I can only conclude that a mixed race person in this country is held to a standard that is over and above our white on white standard. Barack is breaking the glass ceiling of a insular political bureauracy. It was ok for him to run for President as long as he was not going to win. The unexpected happened and it has been delt with harshly. You see, where a white person could have a Jerry Falwell, a Pat Robertson or a Rev Haimes and be just fine, a mixed race person in this situation is, I believe really only a rumor, whisper or innuendo away from being defenseless.
I have read his Baracks book Dreams from my father and was moved to tears. This man does not have a mean bone in his body. I ask myself are we as a country so polarized that so many cant contemplate genetically a man of the world?
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
I voted Democratic the first time when I was 18. Over time I thought the Democratic party had deserted me as I worked hard to make a sucessful life for myself and my family. I became a registered Republican when Ronald Reagan became president. I had hope after Watergate and the Vietman War. We had opened the doors to Russia and China and many things seemed possible.
I have become very distressed in recent years with the Congress and the current President and feel the country is in a malaise. There is gridlock in Washington, the country is hated abroad and the infrastructure is falling down around us because no one is held accountable. Greed and power not kindness, respect, truth and civility are reigning.
As pertains to the present election, I have lived through the Clinton Presidency and I know that a great deal of the terrorist activity occured during his term as stated in the 911 report. There is plenty of blame to go around from several administrations concerning our foreign policy and the Middle East. Barak Obama's statement in 2002 concerning Iraq and was so profound and insightful.
Hillary Clinton constantly says she is the one with the experience and Barak Obama is not. Indeed in the Meet the Press interview she said she was a work horse not a show horse. Of course she would not acknowledge that she considered Barak a show horse.
Hillary Clinton over the years has worked as a lawyer for the Rose Law firm in Little Rock and was First Lady of Arkansas and of the United States for 8 years before moving to New York to become a US senator. Did not Barak Obama work as a neighborhood organizer after law school and work in a firm that specialized in descrimination cases? Did he not give up a lucrative career to serve the poor and disadvantaged? Was he not in the Illinois legislature to see how the federal mandates impacted upon the states? Is he not a US senator too? Has he not experienced the common man and women in their struggles?
I heard John Kennedy speak to the nation on television during the Cuban Missle crisis as a grade schooler. He told us of the national threat, showed us with satellite maps of all the missle sites and the ships on route. He used strength and diplomacy and the crisis was averted. The whole nation was part of it and was informed. I remember listening to Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" Speech from the Lincoln Memorial and later stood on that spot. I remember Bobby Kennedy and the vision he tried to give the country of a fairer and humaine society.
Barak Obama reminds me so much of them in his outlook and the way he brings us along on the journey. He is a role model not only for the African American Community, but for all Americans who hope for a better life through education and hard work. That is the eithic that made this country and has been lost for so many Americans.
I am putting my faith in him to mobilize the nation to self sacrifice, national service and to start to heal the country.
Just a few thoughts.
