The outrage is the ignorance

I've been nauseated by the recent spate of pundit eruptions in full righteous indignation over the fact that Rev. Jerimiah Wright actually had the NERVE, the GALL to actually accept an interview request from one of the few "real" journalists left in existence.

Chris Matthews, Pat Buchannon, and Tucker Carlson were apoplectic with sputtering disbelief that someone such as Wright, who's had his words and his message utterly twisted beyond recognition by the likes of these people, would DARE to even remind us that he still exists.

They spluttered and fell over themselves in sheer amazement that Wright would do such a thing as answer questions in his own words. Why it was nearly fatal to Obama, was a horrible thing for him to do to Obama, really, really bad. How dare he? How dare someone that folks like Carlson have decreed to be a completely insane lunatic have the nerve to come on TV and actually show people what he's really like? Why who does he think he IS??!!!

These morons in the press, content to utter their condemnations and judgements based on absolutely ZERO knowledge about Wright, his life, his ministry, his church, or most importantly, without ANY context whatsoever, have taken 10 second sound bites of what the Republicans felt would be the most incendiary bits of sermons, and pronounced him to be some crazy radical or worse, certifiably insane and worthy of being shoved into obscurity forever branded as such.

Why are they now so furious at the good Reverend? Well, they didn't like the short SOUND BITES of the Moyer's interview. They listened for all of a few seconds, then Matthews pronounced that he was trying to blame Obama for the mess, blah, blah, blah.

They were outraged. Why? Because they'd buried Rev. Wright, tarred him as some boogie-man evil-doer, and Wright didn't have the decency to STAY BURIED. The NERVE!!

They'd all piled on to shame him, and the guy didn't stay shamed. This drives them nuts when someone doesn't play their game.

I watched the entire interview last night and if any of these boobs would have bothered to do so themselves, I'm not sure they could sit there and continually demean and dismiss this guy. (well, Carlson probably could. Facts or simple honesty has never been an impediment to him in the past.)

If you didn't see the interview, you owe yourself to watch it. Particularly those out there who are prone to try to pretend that Wright is a huge issue in the election.

Watch the interview, then judge whether Obama should be branded as some sort of dangerous radical because of his association with Wright.

The entire Wright episode is disgusting in it's attempt to ignore reality, it's blatant appeal to dumb racial fear, it's playing Americans as idiots, and the willingness of so many in the press to do their best to perpetuate it.

The outrage expended on trying to paint Wright as some radical loon is wasted when it should be more properly directed towards those on the right and those in the press who gleefully abandon any pretense of actually helping the public sort out the issue, and only help spread such non-sense. Once you really look into it, it's high school level stuff at best. But that's what the press does best.

To believe that Wright is some dangerous kook, and that Obama must be suspect too by association, is to willfully agree to be an idiot.

Wright is by no means a radical. He's by no means that outside anyone's idea of conventional Christianity, unless by Christianity you mean the type practiced by most Republicans and others who go to church, think that makes them fine Christian types, and then go out and act like jackals for the rest of the week, supporting policies that kill innocent people and deny help to those in need.

Wright made the point that, to him, he believed that the church was divorced from reality in the sense that people go to church and it's a fantasy world where none of the unpleasant topics, the REAL world, in other words, every intrudes. You read the bulletin and it's all sweetness and light. Unpleasant topics are taboo.

He believes that the mission of a church is to bring the word of God and make it relevant to the people who attend, people who happen to live in the real world and deal with very unpleasant realities every day.

So yes he brings up topics that others find controversial. He doesn't think that holding our common government to task for past sins or attempting to prevent further sins is somehow worthy of condemnation. And neither do I.

He mentioned repeatedly that governments change, governments lie, and governments kill innocent people. He beleives that's why it's a very dangerous situation when people seem to think the government is infallable and that anyone who dares criticize them or speak the truth about them should be attacked and denigrated and destroyed.

Yet that's the entire premise of this campaign by the right to attempt to smear by association Barack Obama.

To fall for it means that you have to make your decisions and form your opinions out of near total ignorance and fear, period.

Ignorance of who Rev. Wright is and what he actually stands for and is attempting to accomplish, ignorance of what the black church is all about, where they come from and why they focus on black issues, and fear.... fear of black people in general, that allows people to somehow consider any black preacher a threat simply by hearing him raise his voice.

An absurdity illustrated when John Stewart on his show asked Obama a question revealing the irrational fear the right gleefully exploits, "If you're elected president Sen. Obama, are you planning to enslave the white race?"

Those Republicans trying to exploit the sound bites of Wright and from them spinning a tale worlds away from reality, and those who willfully pretend as if it's a valid issue, including those in the press who should know better, are all treating us, all of us, as if we are IDIOTS.

It's not worth their time apparently to bother to look into something that's been hyped beyond measure. Not worth any investigation. Reporters actually looked through Wright's church bulletin and called names from the list of ill and shut-ins, including a woman in a hospice, and harrassed them for stories. There have also been multiple death threats made against Wright, the current pastor of the church, and threats to fire-bomb the church. Nice people those Republicans.

All of this based on sheer ignorance and a few sound clips taken out of context.

And no one in the press apparently thinks it's worth looking further. The reason is that Wright talks about things that the major press have studiously avoided.

America never does any wrong. Never does anything for other than the purest of motives. Our leaders never lie, and we should never mention the slaughter of indians, interment of Japanese during WWII, slaughter of innocent Japanese, Germans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Philipinos, and innocents in Granada and Panama, and certainly not the hundreds of thousands of INNOCENT men, women, and children slaughtered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And worse yet, more insane, is the fact that anyone such as Wright who actually speaks about these things is immediately smeared and condemened as some loon.

Why are we so terrified of facing up to what our government has done in our names, and with our money? Are we a nation in the throes of deep, pathological denial?

(The government recently prevented the press from covering a funeral at Arlington Cemetary of a decorated war hero, even when the family requested that the press be there, demanding that the press stay so far away from the services that it was impossible to hear anything. Of course it's also forbidden to photograph any flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base as well.)

All Wright is saying to his flock is that we should not ignore the immoral actions of our own government. Wright wants our government to act in a moral way in keeping with Christianity. Apparently this notion is far too "radical" and is clearly the dangerous agenda of a madman, as many in the press have openly called Wright.

But Wright speaks better for himself. Go watch the interview here. You'll actually be able to listen to the sermons from which the infamous tiny sound bites were taken, (out of context), and get to see what he was actually talking about, what his message actually WAS. (what a radical concept.) Go on, it won't take that long, and it won't kill you.

And it will make you better informed, (that is unless you're the type who really WANTS to stay ignorant for political purposes).

Maybe it won't change your impression of Wright, who knows? But at least you'll know more about what you're talking about. It might even make you realize that this entire right wing smear effort is nothing but an effort to fan a big nothing into a big something with a ju-jitsu move thrown in to the middle where you're supposed to somehow believe Wright and Obama are the same person, all designed to prey on ignorant people's fears. Don't be ignorant. Watch, and more importantly, listen.