Unity is the great need of the hour – the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we’re still sending our children down corridors of shame – schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can’t afford a doctor when their children get sick.

We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.

We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.

And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.

So we have a deficit to close. We have walls – barriers to justice and equality – that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.

fidelista wrote:Today Obama gave a speech in the church of Martin Luther King Jr.

Unity is the great need of the hour – the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we’re still sending our children down corridors of shame – schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can’t afford a doctor when their children get sick.

We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.

We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.

And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.

So we have a deficit to close. We have walls – barriers to justice and equality – that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/20 ... 343/440020

It's obvious to me what his ideals are, and considering he comes from a church that practices a form of liberation theology, I think he's sincere.

No doubt he will be dismissed by those on the left who only want a progressive candidate who will martyr themselves at the feet of our corrupt political and economic system, rather than support someone who might actually get elected and do something about it. Meanwhile, as the left eats one of their own for not being publicly radical enough, or "selling out", the pro-establishment candidate is poised to win.

Rick Reuben wrote:[( I meant my country- the US- the country you hate ).

caix wrote:The more I see Obama, the more I want Hillary to win. Fuck, what's wrong with me?

Marsupialized wrote:

caix wrote:The more I see Obama, the more I want Hillary to win. Fuck, what's wrong with me?

I have no idea, man. No idea. Obama is the only hope for anything interesting happening, things getting shaken up a bit. Hillary is a terrible, terrible idea. Just a straight faced lying, crooked ass politician like any other. The last shit we need.

Do you know how stupid we'll look in the future when they see what we did, Bush then Clinton then Bush then Clinton? They'll think we went nuts, especially after looking at these people closely, they aren't even any good or particulary well liked or anything, any of them!

It won't matter anyway, McCain is gonna be the next pres and we are all fucked, more of the same.

Marsupialized wrote:Do you know how stupid we'll look in the future when they see what we did, Bush then Clinton then Bush then Clinton? They'll think we went nuts, especially after looking at these people closely, they aren't even any good or particulary well liked or anything, any of them!

Friday January 25, 2008
The Guardian

Bonnie Greer {playwright and critic}

In 2008, America is still deeply racist. In many parts of the nation, there is still a deeply held belief that black people are not quite fully fledged and functioning human beings. And there are black people who will vote for anyone, as long as the person is black.

Forget about the African-American millionaires and billionaires; the movie stars; the rap artists. Think instead of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, and mainly black people pleading for help with the American flag spread out on the ground beside them. Think of the sub-prime catastrophe, a scam that sucked in mainly black Americans unable to get credit in any normal way and desperate to have a part of the American dream.

In a country that believes in the Dream, many Americans are dreaming now that the young black man with the powerful voice and blinding charisma, the brilliant junior senator from my home state of Illinois, will somehow take them out of the morass of our history. Many Americans are dreaming that the young man who wants to lead them is somehow not black. This may sound retrograde, old-school and just plain wrong: Barack Obama is not perceived as "black". Not in the way that Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or I am. And he knows it.

One of my brothers said the other day that if Obama and Clinton were smart, they'd flip a coin and see who should run for president and who should run for vice-president, then get together and wipe the Republicans out.

I agree. If "the Dreamer" and "the Schemer" could get together, fascism could be driven out of the White House and democracy restored to America. But we're talking about two alpha people toning down their game. Forget that.

The truth is that I can't warm to Obama. Maybe I'm just too working-class, too old-school, to trust black people who look that slick outside of showbusiness or the church. Maybe I distrust someone who allows others to compare him to JFK or even MLK. I was around when they were alive. He's not them.

There is the whiff of tragedy about the whole Obama/Clinton thing, though. Not that I think somebody will get killed, it's just that it's turning into a nasty mess, and we don't have time for that.

Obama talks dreams and I want to yell: "Stop dreaming! Wake up!" Clinton talks experience and I want to yell: "So go save Merrill Lynch! We're talking about running a country here."

There's just too much money, too much bullshit, involved in both camps. Both of them will owe too many people. And the people they owe won't be the poor, the ex-soldiers struggling to live back home; the disenfranchised; the people who will have to rent rooms because their houses are gone.

If Obama allows his wife and supporters to play the race card, he's doomed. If Clinton tries to ignore race as a pivotal factor in this contest, she's doomed.

Me? I'll vote for whoever the Democrats throw up at their convention. American presidential politics has long past stopped being for real.

fidelista wrote:No doubt he will be dismissed by those on the left who only want a progressive candidate who will martyr themselves at the feet of our corrupt political and economic system, rather than support someone who might actually get elected and do something about it. Meanwhile, as the left eats one of their own for not being publicly radical enough, or "selling out", the pro-establishment candidate is poised to win.

Cranius wrote:Bonnie Greer wrote a nice piece about her opinion on Obama in an article from today's Guardian reflecting on the thoughts of black Americans about the presidential hopeful:

Friday January 25, 2008
The Guardian

Bonnie Greer {playwright and critic}

In 2008, America is still deeply racist. In many parts of the nation, there is still a deeply held belief that black people are not quite fully fledged and functioning human beings. And there are black people who will vote for anyone, as long as the person is black.

Forget about the African-American millionaires and billionaires; the movie stars; the rap artists. Think instead of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, and mainly black people pleading for help with the American flag spread out on the ground beside them. Think of the sub-prime catastrophe, a scam that sucked in mainly black Americans unable to get credit in any normal way and desperate to have a part of the American dream.

In a country that believes in the Dream, many Americans are dreaming now that the young black man with the powerful voice and blinding charisma, the brilliant junior senator from my home state of Illinois, will somehow take them out of the morass of our history. Many Americans are dreaming that the young man who wants to lead them is somehow not black. This may sound retrograde, old-school and just plain wrong: Barack Obama is not perceived as "black". Not in the way that Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or I am. And he knows it.

One of my brothers said the other day that if Obama and Clinton were smart, they'd flip a coin and see who should run for president and who should run for vice-president, then get together and wipe the Republicans out.

I agree. If "the Dreamer" and "the Schemer" could get together, fascism could be driven out of the White House and democracy restored to America. But we're talking about two alpha people toning down their game. Forget that.

The truth is that I can't warm to Obama. Maybe I'm just too working-class, too old-school, to trust black people who look that slick outside of showbusiness or the church. Maybe I distrust someone who allows others to compare him to JFK or even MLK. I was around when they were alive. He's not them.

There is the whiff of tragedy about the whole Obama/Clinton thing, though. Not that I think somebody will get killed, it's just that it's turning into a nasty mess, and we don't have time for that.

Obama talks dreams and I want to yell: "Stop dreaming! Wake up!" Clinton talks experience and I want to yell: "So go save Merrill Lynch! We're talking about running a country here."

There's just too much money, too much bullshit, involved in both camps. Both of them will owe too many people. And the people they owe won't be the poor, the ex-soldiers struggling to live back home; the disenfranchised; the people who will have to rent rooms because their houses are gone.

If Obama allows his wife and supporters to play the race card, he's doomed. If Clinton tries to ignore race as a pivotal factor in this contest, she's doomed.

Me? I'll vote for whoever the Democrats throw up at their convention. American presidential politics has long past stopped being for real.