1912 OVERTURE - Women march in NYC to win the right to vote.
WHAT IS THE name of that little stick men use to stop the bleeding when they nick themselves shaving?
Barack Obama’s speech yesterday on race relations in America was memorable, perhaps one of the most memorable speeches of our time, but will it be a catalyst that will stop the hemorrhaging of his campaign and bring about a healing of prejudiced hearts, or is it like that little stick, merely staunching, for the moment, a flesh wound?
If you missed the speech, by all means view the video or read the transcript HERE.
Soundbites won’t work, because Obama built his speech point upon point.
His words were brilliant in linking bygone wounds to the anger they’ve produced among all races in this country. He is right that if we don’t start now to concede the scars of our own history, confront our differences and coalesce around our common needs, these problems will exist in perpetuity.
I could not see Obama or the setting where he spoke, but in better times I stood in the same spot in Philadelphia and walked the streets where this country took form.
Obama is correct in pointing out that the men who created this Republic made concessions on slavery. Better, they thought, to break the ties of English tyranny than to risk not doing so by excluding the Southern colonies.
Benjamin Franklin told his peers (I could make the argument Ben had no peers): “We will hear of this (slavery) problem 100 years hence.” Indeed, we heard it loudly on the battlefields of the War between the States.
A half-century later, on 6 May 1912, the tramp, tramp, tramp of tens of thousands of high-buttoned shoes marching through New York City was heard loud and clear. In 1920, the suffragettes who marched so bravely that day were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment.
It got louder in WWII as we fought to stop a racist lunatic whose armies were conquering Europe.
Over another two decades, the cries for equality and justice grew louder and louder until, on 28 August 1963, loudspeakers blared out the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., across our nation’s capital and into our collective conscience:
“Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
(Click HERE for video and transcript of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.)
Prejudices and “man’s inhumanity towards man” will not cease to exist. These human failures have been around since Cain slew Abel. They will be around when, as William Faulkner put it, “the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded.”
Years ago, I read this quote and can’t recall who said it, “Tyranny is the natural form of government. Freedom must be won with each new generation.”
The long struggle for civil rights and civil liberties is being reversed in the name of security.
It’s our turn.
***
For those of you who heard Sen. Obama’s speech or have viewed it online, I would like your comments, pro or con, on these questions posed on cable news networks, in newspapers and by blogs:
· Reportedly, Obama’s team was onstage before the speech, which began some 30 minutes behind schedule, trying to decide how many flags to display behind him. Do you think the flags, the setting and the evocation of our Founding Fathers were a skillful propaganda device to draw ALL Americans into the speech? Was Obama’s subdued delivery aimed at contrasting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s fiery speech?
· Do you believe Obama’s words were heartfelt or were they simply an attempt to “cover his ass” in the wake of devastating publicity?
· Do you agree that some “knuckleheads,” as Newsweek’s Howard Fineman put it, are unable to grasp the meaning and complexity of Obama’s brilliantly crafted call for racial harmony? (Certainly, a case in point is Sean Hannity’s performan on last night’s edition of “Hannity and Colmes.”)
· Finally, as inspiring as I found Obama’s speech and as deeply as I desire the fruition of his thesis, is it not true that the hateful words of a Rev. Wright, a Rev. Hagee, a Rev. Parsley remain an echo long after the flags were folded in Philadelphia?
***
The “comments” link below is your portal to a fair and open discussion. If you do not have a log-in, simply select “name/URL,” and when the new screen comes up, scroll UP until you see a window on the right to type in your name. Or, you may select “anonymous.” Then, click “publish.”
Barack Obama’s speech yesterday on race relations in America was memorable, perhaps one of the most memorable speeches of our time, but will it be a catalyst that will stop the hemorrhaging of his campaign and bring about a healing of prejudiced hearts, or is it like that little stick, merely staunching, for the moment, a flesh wound?
If you missed the speech, by all means view the video or read the transcript HERE.
Soundbites won’t work, because Obama built his speech point upon point.
His words were brilliant in linking bygone wounds to the anger they’ve produced among all races in this country. He is right that if we don’t start now to concede the scars of our own history, confront our differences and coalesce around our common needs, these problems will exist in perpetuity.
I could not see Obama or the setting where he spoke, but in better times I stood in the same spot in Philadelphia and walked the streets where this country took form.
Obama is correct in pointing out that the men who created this Republic made concessions on slavery. Better, they thought, to break the ties of English tyranny than to risk not doing so by excluding the Southern colonies.
Benjamin Franklin told his peers (I could make the argument Ben had no peers): “We will hear of this (slavery) problem 100 years hence.” Indeed, we heard it loudly on the battlefields of the War between the States.
A half-century later, on 6 May 1912, the tramp, tramp, tramp of tens of thousands of high-buttoned shoes marching through New York City was heard loud and clear. In 1920, the suffragettes who marched so bravely that day were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment.
It got louder in WWII as we fought to stop a racist lunatic whose armies were conquering Europe.
Over another two decades, the cries for equality and justice grew louder and louder until, on 28 August 1963, loudspeakers blared out the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., across our nation’s capital and into our collective conscience:
“Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
(Click HERE for video and transcript of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.)
Prejudices and “man’s inhumanity towards man” will not cease to exist. These human failures have been around since Cain slew Abel. They will be around when, as William Faulkner put it, “the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded.”
Years ago, I read this quote and can’t recall who said it, “Tyranny is the natural form of government. Freedom must be won with each new generation.”
The long struggle for civil rights and civil liberties is being reversed in the name of security.
It’s our turn.
***
For those of you who heard Sen. Obama’s speech or have viewed it online, I would like your comments, pro or con, on these questions posed on cable news networks, in newspapers and by blogs:
· Reportedly, Obama’s team was onstage before the speech, which began some 30 minutes behind schedule, trying to decide how many flags to display behind him. Do you think the flags, the setting and the evocation of our Founding Fathers were a skillful propaganda device to draw ALL Americans into the speech? Was Obama’s subdued delivery aimed at contrasting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s fiery speech?
· Do you believe Obama’s words were heartfelt or were they simply an attempt to “cover his ass” in the wake of devastating publicity?
· Do you agree that some “knuckleheads,” as Newsweek’s Howard Fineman put it, are unable to grasp the meaning and complexity of Obama’s brilliantly crafted call for racial harmony? (Certainly, a case in point is Sean Hannity’s performan on last night’s edition of “Hannity and Colmes.”)
· Finally, as inspiring as I found Obama’s speech and as deeply as I desire the fruition of his thesis, is it not true that the hateful words of a Rev. Wright, a Rev. Hagee, a Rev. Parsley remain an echo long after the flags were folded in Philadelphia?
***
The “comments” link below is your portal to a fair and open discussion. If you do not have a log-in, simply select “name/URL,” and when the new screen comes up, scroll UP until you see a window on the right to type in your name. Or, you may select “anonymous.” Then, click “publish.”
5 comments:
In his most cynical manner, Frodo notes that yesterday's speech was only Part One. Parts Two and Three, so it seems to Frodo, which follow in daily succession, address the cost, financially as well as morally, of this horrid debacle in the lands some call Iraq. It can be viewed, as a cynic, that the speeches are all timed to fall right amidst the five-year anniversary of the debacle. Three days, in a row, to take the podium back. Barack confronts Bush in direct response to his speechifyin' allegation that it "has been worth it." Mrs. Senator Clinton, on the other hand, might as well join Bill for a donut; she has to watch Barack get a direct shot at the Incomparable Moron. The news clips will be of Obama in response.
Now that the cynical spasm has passed, Frodo believes, as does his-beloved Maureen Dowd, that Obama can step off the cloud and prove himself to be a substantial mortal man. Yesterday he proved that he would not do or say anything, just to get elected. In the public mind, he now stands alone in that category.
The questions he addresses in the next few days will obfuscate the next set of poll numbers you hear. In Frodo's opinion, Obama has the opportunity to take the high ground, and to hold it.
He did make a great speech, but still didn't distance himself far enough away from Rev. Wright as far as I'm concerned. Plus, he could left out his self-serving statement about his grandmother.
Delta Judge
I thought it was a beautiful speech, as honest and human as we may ever get. Thank you for providing that link.
You don't distance yourself from your life because in one moment a facet of that life may not please people who are looking for a fault.
I really admired the clarity he maintained in talking about the endless racial tension or downright division.
My feeling is that it is simply time for people who want to be done with that to take that next step--trust that all will go well if we join together and put racism aside as best as we possibly can. We don't check with our doctors to make sure it wasn't a Black that invented the medicine that's keeping us alive.
I really do find myself falling more and more solidly behind him as a candidate because the very idea of level-headed statesmanship and diplomacy would be a life-saver and absolutely wonderful. I think Obama will garner a great respect in dealing with the huge problems left behind by the outrageous steps Bush has taken in our world.
Jan both heard and read Obama's speech. He was concise and on the mark concerning racism. However it isn't just between the blacks and whites; it spans racial divisions in religions too.
There will always be racial and religious disharmony as long as there are people who continue to teach and implement such. Moses was condemned for marrying an Ethiopian woman. He felt he had to prove his God was more powerful than Pharaoh's God. Do people in the USA do the same thing? Absolutely! Isn't there only one God?
Are Jeremiah Wright's words any more derogatory than those of John Hagee and Ron Parsley when they damn the Islamic people? They believe the Islamic people have to be wiped off the face of the earth. Why isn't the media also playing those snippets 24/7? Could it be because Hagee and Parsley are Radical Religious Right Republicans? Obama's speech has normally seemed heartfelt and subdued in contrast to Wright's angry and fiery speech.
As for the flags, it seems all politicians use those for props. They raise hell if someone burns a flag, but have no qualms about pissing all over them for self-serving purposes. "God Bless America!" Isn't it rather arrogant to think God would bless America more than God would bless the rest of God's Creation? All countries have a flag. Flags are mere symbols. They can neither help or hurt other human beings. Words and actions can.
Those flags did look to much like a prop, used to stop the hemorrhaging. They were in a sense Obama's styptic pencil.
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