This is my first diary ever, so I may not do everything correctly, but I want to say a few things. I am, first of all, a non-religious, Jewish, white lawyer in California who is a hopeful supporter of Obama. I had never seen Reverend Wright speak before, but my instinct told me that the hype around him was unfair. I watched the Bill Moyers interview and I was incredibly impressed with this man. He came across to me as extremely intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, good-humored, savvy, and at the same time he maintained a soft air of universal spiritual love that I thought would be well appreciated by any viewer. I agreed with 100% of what he said. I was fascinated with this man who seemed to be a great spiritual leader whose message was being totally perverted by soundbite news media.
Again, I watched Reverend Wright's speech to the NAACP. I thought it was brilliant and truer than anything I'd heard anyone, including Obama say in a long time. It was certainly a great deal more fiery than the Moyers interview, but I felt that it demonstrated nothing but this man's great intelligence, learnedness, insight and ability to articulate truths about race that most white people never get the opportunity to hear. He was showing the world that the style of the Black Church may be different than what most Americans are used to, comfortable, and familiar with, but it is just as valid as any other style of any other spiritual community and there is nothing un-American or un-Christian about it.
Then, I watched his Press Club speech. Again, I agreed with every word that he said. I felt he again demonstrated his incredible intelligence and incisive analysis of common American attitudes. This time, however, his mood was different. He had more of an edge to him, less of that soft kindness. He spoke with a lot of hyperbole and didn't pull any punches. I knew that this speech would not go over well with those who weren't able to grasp the intellectual accuracy of everything he was saying. Especially those, who would only watch the soundbites and never hear them in the context of the wholes speech. I knew that he was providing abundant ammunition for the soundbite media to do their thing. Yet, I still have to admit that this guy is speaking the absolute truth as I understand it.
Obama has been the mainstream politician that has come the closest to really telling it like it is, but Wright goes into that area of truth that, while absolutely based in a reality that we all need to come to terms with, most politicians would never venture. I understand Obama's need to distance himself, but to it still makes me sad to see the politician that I so admire have to cave in and throw this great preacher under the bus. It is a sign to me that, although we are making great strides in bringing more worthwhile dialog into politics with Obama, we are far away from having the political reality come to terms with the reality that the people of this country are living.
I think Obama already won the nomination and that Reverend Wright will not have a big influence on people's voting choices in November. So, we'll see what kind of potential for change we have when Obama is president and congress is dominated by the Democratic party. In the meantime, Reverend Wright picked up one new fan with me and I look forward to the day when words like his get taken seriously in this country.