Since this is my first "official" blog, I thought this would be a good place to start:
Barack Obama delivered one of the best political speeches I’ve ever seen, on a topic that rarely gets more than lip service by most politicians. The last time I heard a presidential candidate speak coherently about race in America was when Bill Bradley talked about white skin privilege in the 2000 race.
The unpleasant truth is that we’ve never had an honest conversation about race and class in America or reconciled with the darkest moments of our past. Given how our nation is becoming more diverse (that means less white), its a fair question to ask how we can move forward as a nation until we’ve excavated some of these issues and looked honestly at them. Race and class are unpleasant issues to talk about and many people are uncomfortable with the idea but talk about them we must. After last night, I’m convinced that the only person who can lead that national conversation is Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton can’t do it and I doubt John McCain even views this as an important issue.
The story of America isn’t just the mythology we’re spoon fed in grade school or the (slightly) deeper understanding we gain from the all-too-superficial lessons of high school or the polemic “peoples history” many of us learn in college. America’s story is embodied in the ever present tension between what we SAY America stands for and what we actually do, the tension between the PROMISE of America and the reality of everyday life for most Americans. What I saw last night was, finally, a politician who doesn’t just understand that, but can speak to those truths with clarity and eloquence. For the first time in my adult life, I have heard a candidate who can win, who doesn’t talk down to me or spew fluffy patriotism. True patriots don’t just love their country, they are loyal to what their country is supposed to stand for. Someone once said a patriot must always be ready to defend their country against their government.
We ask for a president who will stand up for the essential goodness of America and Americans. How can anyone unwilling to honestly see our faults and admit our wrongs claim essential goodness? Can a president who ignores, justifies or trivializes our greatest wrongs, now or in the past, be taken seriously? How can eloquent, passionate praise of America be seen as anything but empty rhetoric if they are mouthed by a president who does not deal honestly and forthrightly with the darker side of our national nature?
America is not perfect.We have sins to atone for and wrongs to make right. All of the greatness we embody, all of the good we do, all of the evil we have stood against, cannot pay off the innocents we’ve killed, the thugs we have aided or the injustices we turn a blind eye to in our own backyard. That our good far outweighs our bad, that we’ve done the right thing more often than not, doesn’t absolve us, as a nation or a people, of our collective obligation to take responsibility for ALL that we do, and do not do, both good and bad.
Only a man like Barack Obama, a true patriot, who knows well, our shortcomings and our sins yet still loves America dearly, can do that.
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