A Skewed Perspective

A recent New York Times Editorial really captivated me. It deals mostly with the recent Obama/Wright controversy which I feel has been blown way out of proportion.

I like Reverend Wright, quite frankly. Sure he's boisterous and loud and said, "God Fucking Damn America" or something. But he's right about a lot of what he says. It is a country run largely by white men who have an active and long-standing interest in keeping down minorities of all stripes and enforcing the status quo.

But his distrust stems from a solid two hundred year heritage of abuse. There certainly are problems with America and Reverend Wright happens to see (some of) them with alarming clarity.

On the other side, though, we have people like this Hagee fellow, or Pat Robertson or any other religious, right-wing evangelical. These guys are hateful and have no good reason to be after a lifetime of privilege and power. The American system works for them and they still want to crush gays, jews, blacks, catholics, atheists, sodomists, abortionists, leprechauns, anteaters and apple pie. These guys are awful, despicable human beings.

And it's OK that they endorse John McCain. It must be OK. It has gone unsaid, unchallenged and unrecognized for months. Say what you will about the relationship between Reverend Wright and Obama (and I'll say this: I like that we've got a candidate who was angry at some point. Maybe he'll get something done), it's nowhere near as ill-boding and insidious as this nasty McCain/Hagee business.

And in the end, the Obama/Wright thing really doesn't influence my opinion on Obama or Hillary. I'm still on the fence. I still can't decide. I'll be more than happy with either candidate and I hope that enough Democrats aren't childish enough to completely screw the pooch here and vote Nader and give us another four years of economic slipping and another 100 years in Iraq and war in Iran and the slow chipping away of our rights.