I watched the speech, read the transcript and listened to the pundits, both left and right. I must concede that it was a good speech. But to compare to to MLK's "I have a dream"(Andrew Sullivan), or comparing the Senator to Abraham Lincoln (Chris Matthews) is just wrong on so may levels.
I can't imagine Mr. Lincoln trying to compare his grandmother's fear of black men (of which even the "great" Jesse Jackson seemed to understand and relate to) and Pastor Wright's anti-white/anti-Semitic rantings to a 8,000 member congregation.
To Obama I say, nice throwing Grandma under the bus. She must be so proud. Obama wants badly for America to ignore how he lives and how he raises his children (they have been attending that church for 20 years). He wants America to set aside the fact that the pastor he chooses to worship with and the church he belongs to preaches African heritage and customs and African culture above American. Forget above, his church blames all of the world's ills on the white man. His church preaches that they do not believe in a G-d who isn't African-centric. Yet he wants us to believe he has risen above the "blame whitey" language of his church and now has the tools to transcend race in America.
I heard one radio show make the following comment, which I thought was very accurate:
What Senator Obama must realize, is he is not the agent of racial healing. He is the product of it.
America of 2008 is not the America of 1856, or even of 1968.
What I have come to learn about the liberal mind is that in their warped view of things, because America isn't perfect, it can never serve as a guiding light for the rest of the world. We must constantly flail at what we took long to overcome, instead of delighting in what we have overcome.
Jeremiah Wright can not get past the wrongs made against his ancestors, so instead of trying to make peace with a country that has worked tirelessly at healing (now THAT's an Abraham Lincoln moment), he continues to wallow in the mire of victimhood. Instead of understanding that the very reason Obama is where he is today is exactly because of the great strides this country has made at race relations.
Instead, he blames and blames. He blames the "G-d damn America." He does not preach peace and love thy neighbor. He preaches hate thy neighbor if he's white.
For Obama to stay in that church, considering that that very platform is praised on their own website, and then to tell us that he "transcends" racial divide is just plain drivel and an outright lie.
To make this even more surreal, Obama considers Wright's comments just a “fierce criticism of US policy.” That's like calling Ahmadinejad's calling for Israel to be wiped off the map "fierce criticism of Israel's policy." Sorry, but "fierce criticism" is saying you don't agree and maybe protesting. Saying your country is purposely infecting the African-American community with AIDS is a little more that "fierce criticism."
And speaking of the pastor's comments, how exactly does such a caring and committed Christian feel about the only free country in the Middle east?
With a sermon called, "Israel, that dirty word."
Pitiful.
Watching American Idol tonight, I concluded that two weeks of butchering the Beatles was one week too many.
As far as performances are concerned, little David Archuleta bounced back with "The Long and Winding Road". However, it seemed to me no different that when he did "Imagine" a few weeks ago. It was well done, but it was pretty much the same thing.
I liked David Cook's rendition of "Daytripper" (decoder/voicebox included) and I was moved by Syesha Mercado's "Yesterday." Otherwise, nothing else really got me to say "wow." I believe that Amanda Overmeyer should thank her lucky stars that Kristy Lee Cook is still around to be voted off. While "Little Miss Country Girl" wasn't nearly as bad as the "Rocker Chick" (who was horrible), being in the final three week after week is gonna catch up with her.
Overall, the show was weak compared to last week and I think all of the contestants seemed burned out by the genre.
For those of you who have been following along with my latest health concerns, I figure now is as good a time to come forward with what's been going on. For the last 4 years, I've known that - due to a major humeral rejection I suffered a year after my heart transplant - my kidneys have slowly (although not slowly enough) been shutting down.
I attended a class at the University of Chicago Hospital recently which dealt with "end term renal failure" (which is my diagnosis) and it taught me the different choices I have to control the disease. Of course, unless I get another transplant, that means dialysis. Although I have to say, the different options available today makes dialysis not as horrible as it once was.
Still, it will require me to be hooked up to a machine for about 8 hours each night. Not exactly a fun prospect. As far as the timing is concerned, I am becoming more and more symptomatic. My blood result numbers are a nightmare and because I'm also dealing with an auto-immune disease (ankylosing spondylitis) which - because of my renal disease can not be treated with anti-inflammatorys (they're too toxic) - I'm usually in a lot of pain or hyped up on Vicodin (not always a bad thing).
I have been told that after I begin dialysis (no longer an "if"), I should begin to feel more energetic. But I remember when I went through plasmapheresis a few years back (similar concept) and all I remember feeling was low level nausea, which never subsided. But I'll keep looking at the positive side while waiting for one of my many, many, many (that means YOU) donate a kidney to me.
Nah, I'm just kidding. I don't have any friends.
Seriously though, it is why I'm somewhat erratic at following a writing schedule and some days, it takes an awful lot just to get out of bed in the morning. I'm not looking for sympathy (although I couldn't hurt). But it is what it is and I have no real issue facing it.
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