Anyway, I think fair is the wrong word. Everyone has their own set of experiences that lead to how they feel about other races. I think your comment draws a link where there may be none.

Obama was on a radio show today and said in order to get to the issues that affect us on a day to day basis, we need to have these frank discussions about race. The stereotypes, misconceptions, and biases are there in everyone. It’s not about fair – it’s about moving past.

howard (with the lower cased “h”)
I think I disagree. If I understand your last comment, I think because of our experiences in this country, we are understandably a bit paranoid.

I do think blacks have it easier living with whites than the other way around, because they have to. I have friends that grew up without knowing a black person. Nothing specifically wrong with that, it just is what it is.

The question at the end of your comment is an interesting one, if not impossible to answer. I suspect the answer would change depending on an endless list of individual situations.

But the other issue (of whether an elderly white person would get the same slack) is also interesting. Just as it’s clear some people have taken issue with Rev. Wright’s statements, the flip-side statements of an old white person are likely to garner opposition as well.

For the record though, as someone who has been exposed to a wide range of ethnic and cultural idiosyncrasies, I’ve noticed far more sensitive white people than I have sensitive minorities.

My question is, do old whites get the same quality of “pass” that old blacks get? Can my grandparents say “colored” in mixed company and have everyone think it’s ok because they are old?

Right here and now, in 2008, who would get a fairer deal? A black man with a broken down car asking my grandfather for a ride, or a white man with a broken down car asking Rev. Wright for a ride?

I do believe that the terms liberal and conservative have been twisted by the opposing sides of each movement. The media has done their share in making sure that fire burns brightly, too. The reality is that people shouldn’t assign themselves such extreme names to make sure they are “separated” from the “other” guy.

At the end of the day, we are all in the same boat. Most of us are just people trying to make a living and provide a good life for our families. We don’t have the time to debate issues of race or even consider the impact of those issues on the people around us.

That’s a pity, actually.

However…

All of this nonsense over which flag someone plants on the political landscape is bullshit.

I don’t care about Pastor Wright. There have been plenty of people I have heard speak where I find myself not agreeing with ALL of what they say. It just so happens that this person has presented himself as an extremist. To think Obama falls in line with this because he was an audience member/congregation member is silly.

You can appreciate part of a man’s message without buying into the entire thing.

Aside from that, extremist conservatives have ruled this country for the last 8 years. Look at where we are, at this point.

If truly compassionate people, who want to call themselves conservative, are smart….they will distance themselves from this kind of politics for good.

The modern-era….the 2000-2008 version of the Republican party needs to grow up and stop taking the low-road to the White House by slandering the other guy and scaring the general public with boogey-man stories like this one.

This is why Republicans are seriously lacking in credibility. I mean, look at who you have running your party. Look at “your” president.

Bravo to Huckabee for trying address a problem like this one to a base (the fringe-whacko-religious-conservatives) who are largely uncaring and too dim-witted to be compassionate.

Its not about being an extremist, anymore. Try standing somewhere closer to the middle when you pick a side. You can see everyone and hear everyone a little more clearly that way.

Remaining open to opinions not your own is one of those “struts in the bridge” that needs to be built.

Right now, Obama seems to be the man, no matter what the nature of the attack–able to touch the minds and hearts of the broadest numbers of people in all three camps: His own, traditional dems, and moderate republicans. It’s not a finish–it’s simply a start.

I think one of the big reasons I’ve decided to support Obama is because he talks of reaching out to the other side. It may be rhetoric, but at least he talks of it. HRC talks about bringing the White House back to the democrats – and it just makes me think she’s no different than Bush; that she will rule based on her own agenda without taking into the consideration the ideas of the other side.

That didn’t work for the past 8 years, for us to move down that path again is a mistake.

I haven’t been paying as much explicit attention to political news the past few days, but I wanted to point out that the Huckabee paradox is one I’ve noticed before. I think when you hear Mike Huckabee say something that few other conservatives would say it’s attributable to the fact he isn’t without a soul or conscience, regardless of political affiliation.

It’s about the difference between being misguided and being evil, or something like that. Which brings to mind the ideas some people have been brave enough to articulate; namely, that our political discourse would be greatly improved if we didn’t always assume evil intent in those with whom we disagree. I’m starting to think that might be one of the lessons from this whole Jeremiah Wright chapter in American electoral politics. I’m quite afraid it’s a lesson that will be largely missed, but I hope not.

A friend of mine sent me the link to this blog–and it’s pretty clear that the battle lines have been drawn here.

The point of what’s going on in the Obama campaign right now…the point that so many people seem to fear at a visceral level…is that these battle lines must be–at the very least–BLURRED…if not erased completely…if we are EVER to be a United country again.

Political battle lines, people!

Jeremiah Wright is not a reason to abandon Barack Obama’s vision. Rush Limbaugh is not a reason to abandon the McCain campaign (or support the McCain campaign, depending on what day it is). Geraldine Ferraro is not a reason to abandon the Clinton campaign.

What is being lost in the noise (and boy isn’t there a lot of it), is that the divisions of PARTY have, in effect, formed their OWN form of racism. We’ve developed stereotypes and assumptions, trot out the most extreme members of the opposition to prove our own points, even AGREE with our own party decisions EVEN if the best interest of America is lost in the fray.

My party WINS is often more important than, my party is RIGHT for winning.

As a dem? I disagree that universal health care is possible without a direct and all out assault on the Insurance Companies…100 million or so pissed off and united Americans clamoring for REAL and substantive change. One politician is not going to remove that boot from our ass, and I think it’s a lie to make this a campaign promise if you’re not going to ATTACK the issue itself.

I am not republican. But I think you’d have to at least be at a point where you are QUESTIONING the Iraq strategy, knowing now that the administration’s “case” was so much smoke and mirrors–a strategy that has an open and willing (some would dare say EAGER) supporter as its next Presidential nominee.

This is part of the point–if we, as somewhat informed Americans can’t seem to overcome our political differences…if we forget that the party that rules today is in the minority tomorrow…we are forever going to be drawing battle lines BEYOND race, class and gender that can only get more POLARIZED with time.

NOTHING WILL GET DONE.

What we need right now is to adopt a square one policy: one that agrees to forget who did what in the past. It’s time to stop PAYING for democratic AND republican mistakes of the past and move toward a centrist philosophy that benefits ALL Americans.

It may NEVER benefit all Americans EQUALLY…but admitting that we are trying allows “me firsters” to have an opportunity to BE just that…and “left-behinders” a fair shake at overcoming their station in life.

“We are the people we’ve been waiting for” ISN’T a democratic mantra, or republican appeal, or a reach to independents.

It’s a challenge to all of us to look anew at the person across the aisle or across the street and FORGET everything you ever assumed about that person.

It ain’t easy. But it’s a start. So do so here, now, in this forum by admitting that some republicans have done good, some democrats have done good, but as a collective body charged as stewards of America, there’s FAR more work to be done. Better work to be done.

And it starts by trying less hard to WIN, and much harder to LEAD.