Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Mar 21, 2008, at 5:05 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> > I challenge everyone who thinks Mr. Pretty Speech is the answer to  
> > America's
> > problems to do their homework!
>
> And when you do the homework, you find a lot of his own writings  
> (before and
> beyond his Audacity of Hope book [which he named after one of Wright's
> speeches]) and you look at the writings and teachings he admires,  
> you find a lot of
> 'kill the white man' rhetoric.

I'm about halfway through The Audacity of Hope. I have not found any  
"kill the white man" talk at all. Tell us whose writings and teachings  
you admire and I bet we can find some bad stuff they have done.
> But beyond that, there isn't much.  After being hypnotized by the  
> 'he' not
> Bush' mantra, people had a void of his real teachings.

I do not hypnotize easily. I am looking at him hard. So far I like him.

By the way, I did not see or hear the speech. I did read the full  
text. I am very impressed. It said things that needed to be said and  
that perhaps could only have been said by a black person. I think it  
will be quoted for a long time.

>  When the Wright thing
> surfaced, it rushed in to fill the void.  Wright's teachings then  
> BECOME his
> teachings for want of any other.

That is what his opponents want us to believe and focus on.

That attack may backfire. With only a modicum of information so far,  
it appears to me that Wright has done many good things over many  
years. His congregation includes a cross-section of Chicago, from poor  
to rich, from ignorant to highly educated, from guppies to the  
sophisticated.

Seems to me there is a lot of knee-jerking going on. A lot of people  
are using the Wright imbroglio just as it was designed by campaign  
experts and used by bloggers and reporters. We must stop allowing  
ourselves to be manipulated by those whose paycheck requires that they  
fill space with information, the more sensational the information the  
bigger the paycheck.

I'm worried for my country. Seems to me we will stay divided and weak  
until we learn enough patience, tolerance, and respect to make  
decisions based on maximal knowledge. With the Internet now providing  
almost instant information on almost every subject we are easily  
convinced that we are sophisticated about economics and politics. That  
is a personal failing multiplied large.

A final thought, folks. I, Gene GeRue, a long-time member of this  
list, have posted some pretty hateful stuff about the current occupant  
of the Oval Office. You have all read it. You continue to associate  
with me. How would you like to be judged as hateful for continuing to  
associate with me?