Obama’s (And Our) Moment of Truth
Posted on 19 March 2008 by Gary Karbon
I started this week with the peculiar taste that a visit to the Trinity United Church of Christ web site left in my mouth.
Anybody can worship the way they like. This is America. But if someone is going to represent me, I need to understand the way my Potential Chief Representative worships every Sunday since that will inevitably influence the way he's going to represent me as a voter.
Some of the things that I saw among the "10 Points of Vision" that the Church has listed (http://www.tucc.org/about.htm) gave me reason to ponder:
Point 4: A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA. (Will my President be more committed to Africa than to the United States of America?)
Point 7: A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA. (Will my President believe that millions of American citizens are here temporarily until they return to their "true homeland", since that's what "Diaspora" means?)
Then came the Shelby Steele Op-Ed yesterday in the Wall Street Journal ("The Obama Bargain") which basically said that Obama is where he is today because of a "bargain" he struck with the white folks: he won't bring up the injustices of the past and in return the whites will enjoy a sense of "racial innocence" by electing the first African American President in U.S. history.
Ouch!
In between TUCC's "Points of Vision" and the bitter skepticism of Steele I felt like reaching out for either the Prozac or the Jack Daniel's. Depressing.
Then it was Obama's turn, delivering that shimmering speech yesterday in PA on the still festering racial tensions.
It was a speech delivered a bit late. It should've been delivered a week ago.
But it still is arguably the finest ever delivered in a long while in American politics; a watershed address despite its glitches.
This morning I heard it being compared to Lincoln's Cooper Union Address of February 27, 1860 which addressed the slavery issue. No wonder.
Basically Obama said: "Look, as Faulkner said 'The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past.' Let's understand and accept that. But we have a choice to make here – either we will move forward White and Black and Asians and Latinos and Native Americans all together to solve the issues that really matter like education, health care, equal opportunity, housing, jobs, war, and whathaveyou... or we'll go back to the old knee-jerk reflex of sticking labels on each other's foreheads and continue to simmer in our own juices in our own isolated corners. The choice is ours."
I paraphrased it but that's what I heard him saying.
I also heard him acknowledging the ANGER not only in the Black community but White community as well. That kind of peripheral vision is a true sign of leadership in my book.
This is a speech that will discussed, analyzed, and dissected in the days to come. It was Obama's moment of truth. His moment of facing and embracing his own past and identity with warts and all.
None of us have the luxury of being surrounded by perfect role models, perfect friends and family members who are all paragons of moral rectitude and intellectual honesty.
And none of us also have the luxury of refusing to believe that America cannot change. That was the core of Obama's message.
Let the past gyrate in its own labyrinth. But we are a new generation here in America. This IS a new day if we say it is.
I still can't get over a man of God like Rev. Jeremiah Wright condemning America from the pulpit. I still can't imagine belonging to a church that delivers that kind of hateful rhetoric, even if occasionally. I can't imagine Jesus, the very embodiment of Unconditional Love, approving of that.
But, again, what are we going to do today and tomorrow? Which fork in the road are we going to take?
Are we going to work to make our Union a little better than it was yesterday or not? That's the existential question Hamlet might have asked had he lived in America today.
That's the real moment of civic courage, compassion and truth awaiting us, no matter to which church, synagogue or mosque we belong (or even if we do not belong to any).
And that's why Obama's moment of truth is ours as well.
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March 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Although I’m not an Obama fan in the least bit, I actually enjoyed your take on his speech and agree with you on many points. Good article.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Obama presents quite the conundrum. The quotes coming out of his church are enough to make me cringe. As much as anyone out there, I want to like Obama. And I do, but not as wholeheartedly as I did a few months ago.
My wife, Heather, brought up a point I hated to concede, but couldn’t avoid: if he chooses to attend a church led by a man with those ideals, how can you respect him? Because honestly, we go to a church specifically for what they teach and believe and live out in daily life.
Obama has the charisma. He has the underdog factor. He has the support of the creative media. He looked right and sounded right.
The truth is, from a substantive point of view, we don’t know enough about Obama. We know enough about Hillary to not like her (at least I don’t like her). We know enough about McCain to love or loathe (I’m more of the latter).
Many of us like Obama for superficial reasons, and those reasons may not hold up to whatever else Hillary has up her tricky little sleeve. She’s going to keep releasing info on him until she either runs out or wins.
Here’s hoping she’s out already.