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Archive for April 15th, 2008

After reading about Barack Obama’s speech to a group of fund-raisers in San Francisco, I wasn’t quite sure what to say about it, so I forwarded the information to one of the fairest men I know, David, who has been a commenter and, what’s more, a great friend to me for several years.

I asked for his thoughts and they follow: ~J~

As a American of African descent, I understand that Americans are bitter over lost jobs. I, too, am frustrated after a phone conversation with “Jason” in Bangladesh over a problem with my computer. “Jason”, incidentally, is normally courteous and helpful.

These workers of out-sourced jobs are allowed to choose an “American-sounding” name. I know because I asked one of these workers recently.

The problem with the remarks made by Senator Obama is not that they are elitist, but rather that they simply are without substance and make no sense.

Believe me, I would love to see America join the 21st century and elect a leader without regard to race or gender. I hope we are at that point as a nation and I believe we are—just not with these candidates.

The bitterness of Americans over out-sourcing of jobs is real. Where, however, is the failure? Is it not in our failure to prepare our own children for these jobs? Is it not in the parents who allow their children to acquire material possession instead of spiritual and moral values? It’s not in “small-town” America and it has no relationship to religion or gun control.

I am not a party-line Republican on several issues. I am not against all forms of gun control. I grew up on a farm and have shot guns all my life. The guns in my family had a purpose. They were to protect our livestock and our crops from four-legged predators. I do not own a handgun, but I own a .22 rifle. The likelihood that I will go hunting again is slim at this time, but if I do I will prepare and eat the game I kill. I will not own an assault rifle and see no need for most Americans to do so. However, I do not live in the inner city and my life is not in danger from gangs or criminals.

As an American of Irish,German,Native and African heritage, it is frustrating to generally see myself labeled African-American, so I do understand why frustration exists when an American of African heritage sees the African placed as the more important label placed on us by society. It is also within my realm of understanding why religion is seen as an element of racial misunderstanding. The slaves were promised a better life after death than they could ever expect during life. So, yes, the churches bare some responsibility for institutionalizing racism.

There should never have been a need for the American Baptist convention, or the African-Episcopal or African-Methodist churches, but they were formed to provide a welcoming atmosphere to those of us of African heritage. They saw a need and it was met.

This is a long discourse to introduce my thoughts on Obama’s remarks, but I believe some historical perspective is helpful to those who are not of African descent. Racism did not arise overnight and will not disappear with the act of electing a president of mixed race.

The problem, therefore in the remarks of Senator Obama, is simply that the remarks have no basis in fact. Those of us who cling to religion do so because of faith. It is because there exists in some of us a deep and abiding faith that the words of Christ are as relevant today as they were when segregation and racism were blatant and pervasive.

So why do some Americans cling to religion and guns? I have no doubt we do, but not because of bitterness. We cling to religion because we BELIEVE there is a power in this universe that is greater than ourselves and that power is God. I cling to God because he represents the truth of the present and the hope for the future. I do not cling to God out of frustration with my life in the world today or my hope to be rewarded after death. That just happens to be the “fringe benefit” for embracing the Truth that is the word of God brought to me by his Son.

Obama said, in part, “Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives.”

Yes, we do need to give Americans hope. But hope is not the rejection of religion; it is the embracing of religion as the manner in which we can make our lives today better than our life was yesterday. Hope is the use of religious believes to govern our daily lives.
Hope is living our religion seven days a week. It is compassion, not charity. It is giving without expecting anything in return. In fact, the greatest gift we can give is that which we give anonymously.

It is not in following one denomination and rejecting the others. It is the sense of finding a home that is greater than our nuclear family. That home is a church. My church is not better than the church you may have chosen, but it is better than the rejection of all religion. Karl Marx said: “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Yes, it can be used as such for those truly oppressed and it is used in that fashion in some nations today. It was certainly true for the serfs of Russia and it was true for the African slaves of America. The use of religion as a tool of oppression has been real and the hope of heaven for the hopeless is a powerful tool indeed.

The analogy to “clinging to guns” is absolutely an example of the words of a man who has no idea of what it is like to live in a rural culture. We do not “cling” to guns. Guns are simply part of the rural American heritage to those of us who grew up on ranches, farms or small towns. They are not symbolic of anything. They are part of our freedom and our culture.

Has the NRA become too immersed in the necessity of protecting all gun ownership? Of course they have. However, freedom is not taken from us in one massive act. It is eroded in small bits and pieces like the banks of a river in the springtime until suddenly it is is a chasm so wide that we dare not cross it. The culture of guns in America is not a problem in the small towns. That culture of guns are a problem for the inner cities of America and particularly for the gang culture that is pervasive there. One would think a Senator from Illinois or New York would recognize that guns are not a problem for “small-town America.” Guns are a problem for the urban areas of America where they have no purpose except for the taking of human life.

Is there an antipathy of white Americans to people who are “not like them?” Perhaps so, but where does that antipathy arise? It arises from lack of parental guidance and failure of education. It arises from lack of moral leadership of parents and teachers and politicians. It arises from parents who teach their children that cheating on taxes is acceptable. It arises from teachers who shade history into only the positive aspects and fail to teach us what we did to other cultures who came to our shores like the Irish and the Africans, and more importantly, what we did to the real Americans who were here when the Pilgrims arrived.

Do I believe that Senator Obama’s remarks show elitism and condescension as Senators McClain and Clinton have said? No, that would be easier to deal with than what it truly reflects. Ignorance of the people he wants to represent as president of a nation that is in grave peril from economic forces such as China and from societal forces such as the Islamic fundamentalists who are watching with glee as we out-source our money and our jobs, but not our democracy.

I end this with my thanks to J, who invited these remarks. Respectfully submitted by David–just an
American.

Thank you, David, for this beautiful and wise post. I, too, am “Just an American” ~J~

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