The media and public have once again gotten sucked up by the rhetoric of Barack Obama. He made an eloquent speech on race relations in today's society and everyone seems willing and ready to let him off the hook for his relationship with Jeremiah Wright. It's a red herring, people!
The issue is not specifically what inflammatory things Wright said. I think Obama's point about a different era makes a lot of sense, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that our senator and potential President did not have the common sense and judgment to reject Wright's words the moment he heard them.
I'm a religious guy. If my priest started saying the things Wright did, I might walk out. I certainly would not go back to that church year after year. I would find another place to worship. I don't care if that priest brought me into the faith. Unless I agreed with him, or believed what he was preaching from the pulpit, there is no reason to stay.
Of course, I'm not running for elected office. I don't need the overwhelming support of a community on the South Side of Chicago. I also am not out of town enough where I can just drop in for a service here and there and not worry about it.
Who do we want answering the phone at 3am? Who do we want sitting down with Castro and Kim Jong-Il? Obama has told us time and time again that the American people need someone with sound judgment and the ability to assess situations as they present themselves. Yet he could not do that for his own church or his pastor.
Twenty years Obama belonged to that church. We know Wright's been saying these things since at least 2001 (five days after September 11th, in fact, he blamed the attack on the U.S.). And we know Obama's heard these sermons thanks to previous reports and his admission Tuesday (which, by the way, went back on what he originally said, that he had not heard anything like that. But don't expect the media to call him on these lies).
AND, Wright was a member of Obama's campaign. He was an adviser. It wasn't until the crap hit the fan that he was removed from the post.
What fantastic judgment, Barack. Way to take a stand.
3.19.2008
Here We Go Again
I'm doing it again, friends. Every now and then I decide to throw myself back into the blogging world. I started to last year, but I needed to stop soon after because WGN-TV didn't allow it. Didn't want me saying anything bad about them. And frankly, I wouldn't. It was a great experience.
Three things motivated me to update the blog.
1) I just finished college. Yup. I am officially done with classes for likely the rest of my life. I still will be on campus from time to time writing for the alumni magazine or broadcasting softball and lacrosse in the Spring, but for the most part, Northwestern and I are parting ways. And I kind of want to keep a record of the rest of my life (dull as it may turn out to be).
2) I miss blogging. Just coming on here and writing conversationally, trying to add some humor. I miss the people who used to read my blog. In some way, this connects me to my past as I trip into the future.
3) Finally, I realized I want someplace to express my views. This has never been used as a political blog, and I don't want it to be overloaded with that. But I have things I want to say and nowhere else to put it. Please stop me if I go too far. Also, I have developed a greater love of TV in college than ever before. Expect a lot about that.
I'm not going to worry about the Chatterbox anymore. Just leave me a comment if you want to say hi.
Since this is a new era of "Thinking Things Over," I need a new way to finish off my posts. So, I'm going to just keep listing some shows I really enjoy. It will never stop.
Random Enjoyable Show: 24. While other kids were foolishly reading and writing papers, I spent four glorious weeks sophomore year watching four fabulous seasons of 24, finishing just before the season five finale (which I had watched most of the year). What an addictive show. And so well made. Season Six stunk and we have to wait another 9 months for Season Seven, but it will always be one of my favorites.
Three things motivated me to update the blog.
1) I just finished college. Yup. I am officially done with classes for likely the rest of my life. I still will be on campus from time to time writing for the alumni magazine or broadcasting softball and lacrosse in the Spring, but for the most part, Northwestern and I are parting ways. And I kind of want to keep a record of the rest of my life (dull as it may turn out to be).
2) I miss blogging. Just coming on here and writing conversationally, trying to add some humor. I miss the people who used to read my blog. In some way, this connects me to my past as I trip into the future.
3) Finally, I realized I want someplace to express my views. This has never been used as a political blog, and I don't want it to be overloaded with that. But I have things I want to say and nowhere else to put it. Please stop me if I go too far. Also, I have developed a greater love of TV in college than ever before. Expect a lot about that.
I'm not going to worry about the Chatterbox anymore. Just leave me a comment if you want to say hi.
Since this is a new era of "Thinking Things Over," I need a new way to finish off my posts. So, I'm going to just keep listing some shows I really enjoy. It will never stop.
Random Enjoyable Show: 24. While other kids were foolishly reading and writing papers, I spent four glorious weeks sophomore year watching four fabulous seasons of 24, finishing just before the season five finale (which I had watched most of the year). What an addictive show. And so well made. Season Six stunk and we have to wait another 9 months for Season Seven, but it will always be one of my favorites.