Posted on 04/01/08 in Communication, Politics

Changes

JACK
It’s interesting, Hillary, that we discussed changing the domain name of our blog at the same time that the national debate was going on. First, on the actual excerptions of Rev. Wright’s sermon and then Barack Obama’s speech explaining his position. We have used the expression “Communication is Inspiration” a number of times in the past, but this speech by Senator Obama hit home and fulfilled that premise. I do not think that everyone in the world was convinced that Senator Obama is or said the right thing, but he did make a magnificent attempt to communicate his feelings to the nation. This drives home the importance of being able to communicate, and if it did not totally satisfy everybody, at least we were all made aware of the positions that were being taken. To me, the speech was an illustration of the dialogue that we are trying to encourage. I, as an older person, was brought to a point of contemplation on the polarity that the nation is experiencing and how I realized that racial tensions is not something that just happened, it has been building over many years and needs desperately to be addressed by all of us.

HILLARY
It is amazing to me the different ways that people responded to Senator Obama’s speech. I even heard one person refer to the content as “smoke and mirrors” and that he threw his grandmother under the bus in an attempt to distract from his association with
Rev. Wright. On the other end, myself included, I found the speech (which I read, not watched) to be incredibly moving, honest and hopeful. I think it’s exactly what we are looking for in a leader and what you and I are looking for people to do in our daily lives. To take an honest look at an issue and discuss it candidly. If we can talk about an issue we dramatically improve our chances to resolve it. What could be better than that? It fills me with a great deal of hope and it inspires me to be more active in my community relations. The only thing that brought me down a bit was that the speech made me think of Robert Kennedy, which made me afraid for Barack Obama. I just hope that the Secret Service has improved since then.

JACK
It is not without that I put aside the danger. All great men involved in controversy are exposed and must take the proper precautions. I personally was very much affected by Robert Kennedy’s assassination. I had been very active in his campaign, and actually had breakfast with him (and a dozen other people,) three days earlier.

HILLARY
Are you serious? That’s crazy. Three days before?

JACK
That’s right. It changed my life. To me, Bobby Kennedy represented the only person that related to all facets of the population. I had personally witnessed his feeling and relationship to African-Americans (in fact Rafer Johnson, the Olympic great, was one of his best friends,) Hispanics, and truly to all facets of our society. I now believe that Barack Obama has the potential to foment the same type of “reaching out” personal relationship, and this ideal was presented by Governor Richardson in his endorsement. The speech was an intelligent answer to those that condemned him for not totally disowning Rev. Wright. It forced me to reach back into my memory, and to realize the prejudice that was expressed by people of my generation and those before me. I thought of the many times I had been exposed to racial humor, and how many times I did not feel insulted by the slur. We cannot deny the past, and we can only speak to our present and future thoughts. But even George Wallace, the most blatant segregationist, in later years recanted. Now,Senator Obama has communicated with the American people and did not represent himself as a saint, but as a person with humanity and did, in no uncertain terms, reject the ideas of the Rev. Wright without trivializing 20 years of personal experience. This is truly a time for change, and the debate that is continuing is healthy for America.

HILLARY
Another change that will be occurring is the way to reach our blog. Our domain will now be www.communicationisinspiration.com. Those of you who have www.whatsitallaboutjack.com bookmarked, it will still lead you here. Thank for your continued readership.

JACK
In our own small way, we are more than ever aware of the necessity to communicate with each other. It is important whether we do it across generations, or to bridge the racial divide.

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10 Comments

I heard Obama’s speech, but I still don’t understand why for 20 years he has belonged to a racist, anti-Semitic, paranoia-mongering, and America-hating church. What’s with the anti-Semitism? What did Jews ever do to blacks?
Curious George 04/1/08 @ 3:42 pm
And what kind of person would expose their children to that kind of racist filth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-1-g90bW0&eurl=http://americandigest.org/index.php
Curious George 04/1/08 @ 3:46 pm
First of all, the video that you linked is filled with repetitive sound bytes, taken out of context. Here is a contextual video of Rev. Wright’s speech:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ

Furthermore, the video that you have linked has interlaced disturbing images of 9/11. Are you actually comparing the violence of that tragic day to the words spoken by Rev. Wright and Michelle Obama? Why are you so intent on spreading that type of fear?

Lastly, nothing that I have seen or read has shown Rev. Wright to be an anti-Semite. Let’s say that he is anti-Israel, which I believe is questionable, one can be anti-Israel and not be an anti-Semite. In fact, one can be Jewish and be anti-Israel. What source do you reference for this claim.
Naomi 04/1/08 @ 7:29 pm
The point of the video eluded you. It is not I who compared Reverend Wright’s words to 9-11, but Reverend Wright who said that the United States was to blame for the attacks, which makes about as much sense as blaming blacks for their own lynching. It wasn’t a “tragic” day, it was an evil day, and Rev. Wright clearly sides with the evil-doers, which is certainly his right, but don’t blame others for disagreeing with him. I am not spreading fear; rather, Rev. Wright sells the DVD of this disgusting “sermon” in his church. Should we be fearful that a candidate for the US Presidency has a spiritual mentor who preaches racial superiority?

As for your second concern, you “haven’t seen” the anti-Semitic material because you haven’t looked. For example, Reverend Wright featured a pro-Hamas manifesto on the “Pastor’s Page” of his church newsletter in July 2007. This anti-Israel diatribe was written by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook, an indicted terrorist conspirator. Reverend Wright labeled Marzook’s column “A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle,” and used quotation marks around “the ‘state’ of Israel.”

Like his friends Qadafi and Farakhan, Wright loves Jews as long as they’re pushed into the sea by Islamic terrorists.
Curious George 04/2/08 @ 12:25 pm
There’s a wealth of information about Obama’s numerous connections to unsavory individuals and organizations that espouse and promote hatred of Jews, Catholics, white people, Israel, and/or the United States.

http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=300

The bottom line: Obama either does not understand or just doesn’t care that his promotion and solicitation of bigots empowers and enables their bigotry against Jews, white people in general, and/or Catholics.
Curious George 04/2/08 @ 12:30 pm
So, is Obama the anti-christ? Is he is a total hypocrite, and if elected intended on creating some kind of new apartheid? Is this really the picture you have in your mind?

And, if you’re going to quote someone (as it seems that you pulled your “bottom line” from Bill Levinson) you should acknowledge it.

Personally, I don’t see anything here that points to Obama. The worst quotes from your link were by Farakkan, and Obama rejected him and his views.

Furthermore, I don’t think it’s unpatriotic to criticize our country. You don’t have to be a raging anti-semite/america-hater/bigot to think that our foreign policy created the climate that produced 9/11.
Naomi 04/2/08 @ 1:52 pm
“Is he is a total hypocrite, and if elected intended on creating some kind of new apartheid? Is this really the picture you have in your mind?”

Yes, he is a total hypocrite, being that he claimed to be a “post-racial” candidate until it was discovered that he belonged to a racist, black supremacist church. Only after being busted did he suddenly want to have a “conversation about race.” What a sham.

“Furthermore, I don’t think it’s unpatriotic to criticize our country.”

Who said it was unpatriotic? But if one believes that the United States created AIDS in order to commit genocide against blacks, one is beyond unpatriotic, one is psychotic.

“You don’t have to be a raging anti-semite/america-hater/bigot to think that our foreign policy created the climate that produced 9/11.”

So do you also believe that racism against blacks is justified” After, all, perhaps the disproportionate number of black criminals creates the context that produces animus toward them? Or how about Nazis. After all, Jews did own a lot of banks in pre-war Germany. Does this excuse the genocide?

Anyway, you need to be more specific about which Clinton policies you believe made us worthy of being attacked by genocidal fanatics, being that the plans for the attack were drawn up long before President Bush took office.
Curious George 04/2/08 @ 3:46 pm
Deeply held prejudices are very hard to erase. Communication and observation are two good ways to reduce the impact of these prejudices. But merely discussing the issue by itself will not do the trick. For some people being locked into their prejudices is a comfort zone that confirms their sense of superiority to the object of their prejudices. We all know knee jerk Isreal supporters who will not acknowledge that some of the tactics of the Isrealies are indefensible much the way our actions in Guantanamo are indefensible. Both can be rationalized as necessary to maintain control but no one doubts that these activities would not be tolerated if waged against white europeans. I am embarrassed and ashamed when I see videos of torture whether by our soldiers or the Israeli military.
An Obama has many meanings. He is a living example of the human potential regardless of race or heritage. The more of minorities like Obama that we see the less likely our prejudices are likely to dictate our basest motives and actions. So prejudice removal is a two way street. Both the oppressors and the oppressees have to change their behavior regardless of their group prejudices.
Added to the mix of antidotes must be laws that punish offendors-not for speaking but for actions that are harmful. No one doubts that Lyndon Johnson was most iikely a prejudiced man given his background but he also regarded the Civil Rights Act as an important weapon in the war against the effects of prejudice on the body politic.
David Braun 04/2/08 @ 9:53 pm
cont’d. Bobbi Kennedy was a complicated man. He was mean and vengeful against his enemies but surprisingly kind to the underclass. He understood that voting rights were more important and easier to achieve than changing years of generational prejudice. My point is that our faith in a person is not nearly as important as the laws he supports. Obama is obviously a magnificent candidate who says the right things but his real value is the example he represents of the successful civil rights struggles and the laws that resulted from those struggles. Ironically Hillary also benefitted from the same laws. However her modus operandi is not that of an emancipated minority but that of an old time politician using whatever mean tactic she can conceive to wrest the nomination from Obama. Nominating her would not have the same salutary effect as nominating Obama
Jack and Hillary please leave a little more space for those of us who cannot express ourselves in the available space.
David Braun 04/2/08 @ 10:05 pm
Brilliant essay at American Thinker on Doublethink and the Liberal Mind. In short, how can the left, which obsessively divides Americans along lines of race, class, gender, and “sexual orientation,” ever unite us?

Liberals would never would never forgive a white politician who belonged to the KKK. Wait, yes they would. Robert Byrd. So I guess it makes sense for liberals to overlook the fact that Obama is a member of a church whose “black liberation theology” teaches the destruction of whites by blacks.

Speaking of liberal doublethink, never forget that Bobby Kennedy authorized the deplorable illegal wiretapping of MLK.
Curious George 04/5/08 @ 9:28 am