Yet, the radio comment was live, unrehersed, appeared ‘off the cuff’….and was filled with so much bitterness and – yes – hatred, it made me cringe….

In Canada, we are extremely proud to have been the end of the ‘underground railway’ – it is part of what makes us ‘us’. The home and refuge of those who are persecuted for who they are….whether this persecution is due to their skin colour or religion or order of birth…. So, when somebody says – in a venomous voice – that ‘the average white person is a racist’ – well, it makes a little part of me weep, and another little part of me very, very angry.

I know a lot of white people. And most of them are NOT racist. To write off the whole race of ‘whites’ as ‘racists’ – well, that IS a racist statement it itself. Because it is not a true statement: as a ‘race’, ‘whites’ are not really all that different from any other ‘race’!

Perhaps there is a sub-group of ‘whites’ who ARE racist. But that does not make this true about the whole ‘race’. Saying so is hatefull and hurtful.

So, yes, Mr. Obama -through what he has said – has convinced me that he IS a racist. And I have zero tolerance for racism!

I think he can see the love his grandmother has for him. In his speech on race and Rev. Wright, he said “I can no more disown him [Rev. Wright] than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” He seems to understand that she can both love him and exhibit certain forms of racism. I feel like you’re jumping from “he said something negative about her on the radio” to “he must not love her,” and from “he thinks she’s racist” to “he thinks she doesn’t love him.” When you start talking about his baggage and resentment and whether or not he’s grown up and what must have made him convert to Christianity, I get the feeling you’re assuming way too much about his psychology. He’s a politician, it’s not like he’s telling us the whole truth anyway. When Obama says his grandmother is racist, I bet he’s not saying it just because he’s really bitter towards her. I bet he’s saying it by way of talking about how race is still an issue in the US, and to explain how even people who you wouldn’t think would be racist, often are, and so on. In other words, to make a point about politics, not just to take the opportunity of having a microphone in his face to trash this woman because he’s still so mad at her. For all you know, she may have given him permission to use her as an example.

I don’t think saying that the average white person is racist is a racial slur. Especially not if it’s true. You’re coming off as if you don’t grasp what a serious problem racism against black people continues to be; maybe things are better in Canada, I don’t know, but I bet if I’d been treated the way black people have been treated here, I’d be pissed too. And I’d have every right to be, and every right to point out how unjust it was, and keep on doing it until somebody finally stopped the injustice. Which hasn’t happened yet. It’s not baggage in someone’s childhood, it’s a constant problem that any president needs to be aware of. If he foams at the mouth and throws stuff when he talks about, I’ll start to worry, but as long as he’s just acknowledging it, I don’t see a problem; I have more of a problem with politicians who are “colorblind,” which is more about ignoring racism than about ignoring race.

There are many people who are racists. I know it. You know it. Racism is an ugly expression of tribalism, and each and every one of us must learn to recognize it for what it is so that we can fight it within ourselves and our societies. I have zero tolerance for racism.

What I was TRYING to say (obviously, not clearly) is something very different.

Each and every one of us has ‘stuff’ to overcome. I do not know a single person who did not have something ‘difficult’ to overcome from their childhood. Some kids were abused: emotionally, physically or sexually. Some kids grow up in alcoholic homes. Some kids live through wars. And, some kids live through racism.

Some people get minor ‘stuff’, others get way too much to live through. But, somewhere along the line, when they grow into adults, they must deal with this. Inside themselves, they need to become whole. They need to acknowledge the horrible things they lived through – and draw strength from the knowledge they surved it. If they cannot do that, if they cannot heal themselves on the inside – and that DOES happen – if they are irrevocably scarred and damaged, they do not make good leaders.

As for Mr. Obama and his attitude toward his grandmother: here was a woman who, for whatever reasons, was a racist. Mr. Obama said she was AFRAID of blacks. Yet, when her black grandson needed her, SHE OVERCAME her fear and took him into her home and into her heart. Perhaps she was not the best grandma, but at least she cared about HIM – and took care of him.

It must have been hard on Mr. Obama. I do not deny that – and as a kid and a teenager, I would have been surprised if he would not have been greatly resentful. But, at some point in his adult life, he SHOULD HAVE realized that her love of HIM was greater than her fear of his skin colour – or she would have sent him to an orphanage or into foster care. If his resentment, even now, is so great that he cannot see this love because he is so focused on the hate, then he has not yet grown up.

Fact: his grandmother overcame her ‘baggage’ enought to feed and clothe and shelter him. Fact: Mr. Obama did not overcome his own ‘baggage’ enough to not air her shortcomings on national radio. Did he not feel any gratitude towards this very flawed woman who cared for him? Could he not learn to love an imperfect person who sacrificed for him?

Mr. Obama’s grandmother is not hoping to be the next US president. Her human flaws are her own – she has to live with them. On the other hand, Mr. Obama IS hoping to be the next president. If he succeeds, HIS his inability to overcome the baggage from his childhood, HIS flaws are something ALL OF US will have to live with.

Do you see the difference?

The messages Mr. Wright preached for decades were filled with hate – I don’t know the causes of it, but I have heard him speak. Hate wrapped up in the cloak of righteous indignation is just as venomous as racism and other forms of tribalism. Yet, it was THIS MESSAGE – or, rather, the perusasiveness of THIS MAN, filled with ‘righteous hate’, which impressed Mr. Obama so deeply he changed his deepest beliefs – his religion.

In my experience, people do not convert from one religion to another unless the person converting them really touches them in their heart AND their soul. Mr. Wright’s message is what moved Mr. Obama…

Do you see the emerging pattern in the formative influences on Mr. Obama?

Having suffered injustice as a child, he did not overcome it -rather, he was attracted by a message that fed it. Instead of healing from his childhood ‘wounds’ this message kept them raw and festering… and he kept coming for more. That is not healthy.

Then, he says that ‘the typical white person is a racist’!

That, in itself, is aracial slur!!!! And as I said earlier, I have zero tolerance for racism!

Perhaps Mr. Obama can do great things to improve the USA. I just think he has shown himself too deeply flawed to be good leader. I hope I am wrong.

Why do you think that calling someone racist is such a terrible smear? Where did you get the idea that it was about “rough and gruff mannerisms”? Why would you think that a black person can’t form social attachments with or care about a white person who he thinks is racist? A lot of white Americans, myself included, are racist. That doesn’t mean we’re pure unadulterated evil. It means we’re human, and were raised in a place that is saturated with stereotypes and with inequality in circumstances that are attributed to inequality in character. We can change, but shutting down the conversation anytime anyone has the gall to utter the word racist, which is an accurate term for someone who discriminates on people based on their race rather than a gratuitous insult, is not going to help the process. Here’s an article about how we all have implicit prejudices, and how there’s some hope for changing ourselves.

I wonder what the men who took Vimey Ridge would think of Canada today; worth their blood?

Oh, sorry for the screwed up sentences but I was working on my 2nd bottle of wine last night when I posted here.
Some how a good bottle of wine brings out the writer ( such as he is) in me.

Having said that, even here in my ‘isolated north’, I have heard Mr. Obama say some things that truly frighten me. During an open-line radio show, he said that ‘his grandmother was a typical white person – a racist!’ Now, that does worry me.

I do not doubt that Mr. Obama had experienced prejudice against him, perhaps even at the hands of the woman who took him in and raised him as her own, while his mother (her daughter) did other ‘stuff’. I can understand this is not pleasant. However, I do object most vehemently to the characterization of ‘typical white person’ as a ‘racist’. It does not suggest that his judgement is unaffected by his suffering…yet, if he cannot learn from, and then raise himself above his personal experiences, above his own suffering, he will not be able to approach race-related issues objectively. That would be very bad indeed.

Another point about that statement: his grandmother is still alive. Whatever her own blinders may have been, however prejudiced she may have been, she loved him more by taking him in and raising him than she was prejudiced against his ‘race’. Actions speak louder than words.

Yet, he was callous enough to smear her so badly….is this man incapable of caring, even a little bit, about the woman who raised him??? Can he really not see through rough and grouff mannerisms to the loving core inside??? Has he not been able to form any social attachments to those whose actions demonstrated love for him, despite their tragically human flaws???

That does not speak well of him as a well-balanced human being, does not make him suitable as a potential leader….

Then, there is the question of his religious conversion….

It takes a LOT to change a man’s religious beliefs. The person who converted him must have impressed him on many levels – spiritual, emotional and intellectual are high among these….

Yet, who was the person who reached Mr. Obama’s inner soul? What was the message that made him realize his whole world view is in error and should be displaced by this new one, one preached by the man who converted him? What was it that touched Mr. Obama’s heart and soul?

Well, the man who converted him was Mr. Jeremiah Wright. His message? Well, to sum it up in one sentence (and paraphrase it), Jeremiah Wright’s message is that ‘the average white person is a racist’….

At least Mr. Obama is consistent… We need people like Mr. Obama to hold up a mirror, so we can see our society’s shortcomings. Yet, these very same qualities make him highly unsuitable as a potenital leader of the ‘free world’.

Do you have thoughts as to what is happening in the USA? Do you feel at a democratic houses of Congress and gaining the White House will bring the USA closer to the Canadian “model?”
And Obama?

MP Pierre Poilievre
Dear Sir,

My understanding is via the blogs, that you have been asked to investigate whether laws have been broken by some HRC staff by one of your constituents.
Included in that request, a partial quote is included.

“There is a widespread perception among the citizens of Canada that employees of these commissions may have broken criminal laws of Canada while performing investigations on behalf of the HRCs. This perception is largely based on the information in legal documents, transcripts of hearings from the HRCs themselves. These statements were given under oath, and in them an employee of the Canadian Human Rights Commission describes actions he took while acting on behalf of the HRC which appear to be a clear and direct breech of the criminal laws of Canada, as well as a blatant breech of the very ‘hate speech’ laws the CHRC was created to uphold.”

I concur with your earlier petitioner in regard to the question of the legality of the staffer’s action and the position of the HRC as well in that HRC case.

Please use your position as an elected member to make this a point of discussion in your next caucus meeting and with the Speaker and the Justice Minister as well.

Please not I have also CC’d Kate McMillan SDA blog as well Lorne Gunter, Mark Steyn and ( Mike Duffy, for all that’s worth!)

Sincerely,
Joseph (Joe) Molnar,
Woodstock, ontario.