Maine Owl

Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. remarks set off jingoist reaction

That jingoist reaction cuts all the way from the usual haunts of wingnuttia like NewsMax and Townhall to the liberals of Countdown. Obama had no choice other than to "denounce" Wright's remarks captured in a fair amount of video footage as "inflammatory and appalling."

I won't say that my style is the same as Rev. Wright. But, do not the underlying concepts in the "incendiary" remarks merit some consideration? From my point of view, that Obama would take spiritual guidance from Rev. Wright is positive. It shows me that Obama, who must have been familiar with the social and political critiques Wright has preached over the years, did not prior to running for the presidency turn away from criticism of injustice in American society and it's militarism around the world. It's negative that Obama now fails to raise any of the issues of the effect of militarism and imperialism raised by Wright.

Wright (as reported in the same NY Times article linked above) certainly treads on the third rail of American jingoism. To wit:

We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards, America's chickens are coming home to roost.

The Times then ran a graph where Wright explains the remark in an interview:

Asked in an interview last March to explain the sermon, Mr. Wright said he had been questioning the country?s desire for vengeance against the perpetrators, counseling his congregants to look inward instead.

Immediately after the attacks, the country?s response was "to pay back and kill," he said. But before it got "holier than thou," he said, the nation should have considered how its own policies had led to the events of that day. (Last year, Mr. Obama said, "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification," and added that he and his wife were at home on the day of the sermon, tending to their new baby.)

This is exactly my own point. America reserves the right to kill and kill and kill and kill and kill for years after the colossal, but only two-hour-long transgression of 9/11. And we can't have discussion of causes?that could be revealed with a long, hard look in the mirror?lest we be accused of thinking that America "deserved" 9/11. This I most clearly and unequivocally do NOT think. (Read my immediate post-9/11 column that ran in the Askov American in Askov, Minnesota in September of 2001. That other piece linked to from the same page, "They can't see why they are hated" is helpful too.)

I do think the Countdown analyst Jonathan Alter (on Friday's show after the Obama interview), although loathe to give the slightest credence to Wright, is correct to say "[Obama] hasn't heard the end of this."

Good, I say. Let's bring out a good, deep discussion of Wright's point of view. At some point we'll have to get beyond gross jingoism and start talking about militarism and imperialism.