Monday, March 17, 2008

Obama, the Preacher, and the Man

Okay, enough is enough.

I've had it up to here (the top of my head – for those of you not watching me) with this tempest in a teapot about Barack Obama and his church. Basically what people are shouting is that a preacher said something stupid, perhaps more than once, and his parishioner is thereafter not to be trusted. Talk about saying stupid things!

Let's get this part straight: America is basically run by rich white men. That's just the way it has been. And disputing that is foolish. So, if this is what the preacher said then it's not really so stupid after all. Of course what the predominantly conservative people creating this fuss don't like is that the preacher wasn't a nice calm white man like myself making the observation. No, this preacher was damned angry and black when he said it.

Of course he was angry. He's been putting up with the hypocrisy of our rich white male dominated culture for all his life. A black man near the end of his life must be feed up with it, and rightly so. I can afford to be calm about my observation because I'm so close to the rich white male power structure I can barely wash off the stink of it.

Do you think that Bush's preacher has ever said something stupid? I bet he has. I'll even bet that from time to time he's been angry in the pulpit.

I do not trust Bush.

But it has nothing to do with any stupid or angry statements from his pastor.