Obama and "Racism Is On The Table!"

Somewhat mindlessly, after yesterday’s actions on the streets of Washington DC, watching the trees sway in the heavy winds of today and the birds feeding on the balcony floor, (I might as well have put their morning feed there to begin with today), (Sadie, my cat, busy in her fantasy stalking on the window sill);

I prepare to face today.

But not before coffee! I cranked up, literally, my oldest and refurbished Philadelphia Coffee grinder. It’s not a thing of beauty; it is after all an antique, but like many things of a bye gone era it performs flawlessly…you know that era where a person’s work ethic was respected, craftsmanship was a matter of course and pride, and no one much used the word “ethics”; they spoke only of simple “right and wrong”.

In days long gone in Philadelphia men dreamt, debated, reasoned together to fashion the foundation of a new nation, a thing called the Constitution of the United States, let alone my “American Beacon”, The Declaration of Independence”. They suffered no illusions that all men were not inherently, or would ever be, good and decent, respectful of law and accordingly fashioned safe guards and measures of correction, including, but not limited to the removal, the impeachment of the nation’s leaders, Executive and Judicial.

They had after all taken the law into their own hands in a Revolution to rid themselves of the oppressive rule of “Mother England”. They were guilty of advocating the violent over throw of the existing government, know then and now as treason, and had they failed in their venture; they would surely have ended their lives on a British scaffold, executed as traitors.

As I began slowly grinding away at first some medium/dark roast sumatra mandheling beans, elegant, rich, a massive bodied coffee aged to almost no acidity and a body so thick to be almost syrupy with hints of earthiness and smoke, (royal-cup-of-coffee, Villa Rey café de Sumatra), for a wondrous base, mixed with a equal quality of caribou coffee’s “mahogany blend, adding notes of bold molasses, spice, semi-sweet chocolate, a touch of aromatic woods and leather, (all-in-all a rather rugged, robust dark roast mix), and Starbuck’s best Guatemalan offering “Casi Cielo”, a medium roast elegant dark cacao back ground with a bit of berry acidity to add a touch of brightness and well-rounded balance to the brew…my thoughts wandered to considering all the brew-ha-ha surrounding obama and now “on-the-table” racial issues.

There is much to consider this day….but first a couple of cups of my coffee aficionado/snob brew. It is good. Now after a clearing of the morning fog and a review of my notes, it is now time for the obama furor.

The church at the center of a controversy over race, politics and the viability of Democrat Barack Obama's presidential hopes is a congregation besieged.

With incendiary clips from their retiring pastor's sermons playing around the clock on national news and pundits attacking the church motto of "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" as racist, members have been urged to fast and find strength in their faith.

Obama denounced but refused to disown his long-time pastor and mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and used the controversy to make a major speech aimed at breaking "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years."

It is no secret that the church in the middle of a low-income predominantly black neighborhood on the south side of Chicago has worked for years to rectify the social ills that plague its community, and has preached black liberation theology as a means of empowering parishioners. It is not alone in that orientation.

A number of church members showed up for services Wednesday wearing Obama buttons as they prayed for the man who built Trinity United Church of Christ into one of the largest and most influential black churches in the nation.

"Our church is under attack and your pastor is under attack," Reverend Barbara Heard said during the morning service.

"We're going through a trying time. But we have been through some trying times in the 60s with Jim Crow and segregation and we got through. We will come through this, though we're going through the storm now."

The sprawling church sits across a railroad track from a dilapidated public housing complex on a busy road whose storefronts are darkened by bars and grates.

Even in the middle of the afternoon many doors are unlocked only after the owner takes a good look at the potential customer standing in the cold.

A lot of people in the neighborhood don't want to talk to outsiders about Trinity, and church officials have banned reporters from interviewing parishioners on church grounds.

But the three white reporters who came for Trinity's midweek service were welcomed by a small group of congregants and invited to join in on the hymns and prayers. This sounds rather open and civil to me.

But let me digress for a moment. First there was the flap over Nation of Islam anti-Semitic leader Farrakhan unsolicited backing and the very disingenuous campaign political opportunistic diversionary spin of the Clinton Campaign over the difference between “denouncing and rejecting."

Obama's Farrakhan denunciation was definitely a hedge; I admit that. It may be true that Obama can't tell Farrakhan "that he can't say that he thinks I'm a good guy," but the media “would-be-campaign-directors” were quick to suggest/demand that he say that Farrakhan is not a good guy. The hell with how many potential voters that might alienate; Damn Hillary would have loved that!

It may be true that he did not "solicit" that support--but the pundits offer he could have also said (and did not say) that he did not welcome that support, that he did not appreciate that support, or that he is embarrassed by that support... something like what “Hillary” said.

Let us not kid ourselves. We all know what that skirmish was all about; Louie is Black, Islam, radical and out spoken. He irritates and scares white folk! But this is all so ridiculous to even argue that anyone is going to stop Farrakhan from saying and doing any damn thing he pleases, and the entire point is ridiculous!

Being endorsed by an organization is totally different than an individual saying that he supports someone. If the nation of Islam endorsed Obama it would be a fair comparison. But for a candidate to say to someone "I don't what you to like me" is silly.

Barack made it clear from the beginning that he had no interest in Farrakhan's support but the Clintonistas” had to start splitting hairs like the desperate candidate she is! Personally, I think denouncing someone is much stronger than just rejecting their support. But I guess we shouldn't be surprised with this coming from someone whose husband tried to defend himself by arguing the meaning of the word "is"....

And here I was worrying about such minor mundane things as Universal Health Care, people in the Middle East, ours and theirs, getting killed daily for no damn good legitimate reason, an economy racing to depression, attempts to steal the nomination in a brokered delegate scheme that would have had more “recreate 68” types in the streets of Denver than delegates in the hall, gas prices rising to the select list of food (vs) medicine or gas, airline fares flying higher than the aircraft, war criminals escaping justice, a Congress of collaborators, a Presidential domestic spy ring and a media that clearly does not report the news or truth preferring to be a fourth branch of government….silly misguided me. Why it’s all about race stupid!

Reverend Jeremiah Wright, now here is a dangerous man who is going to bring Obama down. How dare this man express the frustrations of millions of Afro-Americans in this nation. How dare he speak the truth? How dare he express his Black opinion? How dare he be critical of anything “White”?

Doesn’t he know that Obama is acceptable because he’s charismatic, hopeful and coco?

Damn it folks there is a racial divide in this nation and it’s not just black and white…though that’s the name of the game at the moment. There are those who think everyone who prays to Allah ought to be either deported or imprisoned. There are those who every time they hear the words” Mazal Tov” conjure up images of Molotov Cocktails and mutter under their breath that “Hitler was right”. And some even consider themselves to be devout good Christians.

There are Hispanics who don’t like the blacks, Christians who label Mormonism “a cult”. It goes on and on and you know it!

Has Reverend Jeremiah Wright said things that many have a right to take exception to? Yes, but then we have the right to take exception to anything anyone says. Let me ask you this. Do you have a friend(s) who hold beliefs that you do not agree with, ideas that you totally reject, that you find anathema, and with whom you still associate, folks that despite those things, that you still hold as friends? Tell me no and I will call you a liar to your face! Hell our party is full of folks we should be screaming at the top of our lungs to repudiate, castigate, demonize and destroy, but we don’t…we campaign for them, because they are ours!

Are these current flaps putting Obama’s chances in jeopardy? I don’t think so despite all the media chest pounding and hand wringing. The racist bigots were their before any of this. They were just pretty much keeping their mouths shut and doing their thing…whispering in barber shop, car repair shops, etc. and “closet voting their hate! What’s different now is that it is OK now to speak of all the stuff in the media so they can come out of their closets and at least stir the pot with sort of innocent questions as they go about town.

Are they going to create racist converts? I doubt that. We have already discerned the racial component in the voting public already in the primary results. It is there; it is going to stay there. You do not convert bigots. The only way 99% of them ever go away is when there is six feet of dirt piled on top of them!

Oh, and what is that folks really want Obama to do? They want him to repudiate his black heritage. They want to make sure that his mind has been bleached white as Michael Jackson’s skin and then he is in like Flynn….that’s all…surrender to the right, see the light…the white light!

What a crock; what a pack of hypocrites! I’m going to go have another cup of strong Black Coffee so I can calm down. Does that confuse you? I hope so.

I would not have Obama repudiate or abandon his heritage. After all it's a part of The American Heritage.

Racism is off my coffee table; how about yours?