Fired Up - Ready To Go

If this is not indeed, the pot calling the kettle black - then im really not sure what is.

“Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics,” she said, calling the mailings “tactics that are right out of Karl Rove’s playbook.” - Hillary Clinton

 This uttered by HRC at a rally in OH  on Saturday. I am seriously beginning to wonder if she will ever "get it".

You play dirty pool and then turn around and accuse your opponent of using your tactics. Who in the world are this woman's advisors?  You spend the last few weeks, no months slinging mud like you are trying out for the Mud Wrestling Olympics(gosh i hope there is no such thing),  but its not you its someone else thats doing it. Poor, Innocent Hillary being beset by Dick Dastardly aka Senator Obama.  This would actually be quite funny if  so much were not at stake.

Someone needs to tell her advisors that the "Jedi Mind - Trick" thing only works in the movies. Perhaps since Camp Hillary is into creative expenditures with regards to her campaign funds, they might consider  buying copies of  the Star Wars Saga to help her put things into perspective, since nothing else seems to be working.

You go from being honored to be in the presence of Senator Obama one day  in to ripping into him and accusing him of your own dirty tactics the next day.  You forget people are watching and are PAYING ATTENTION.

Maybe she doesn't care anymore - although she still shows no signs of realizing that her campaign is in serious Jeopardy or that she has any  understanding that the nice today nasty tomorrow stuff pretty much disgusts potential voters.

Hillary Clinton's moment of truth came yesterday for me. During an interview with KTVT, Mrs. Clinton was asked about comments made by one of her supporters, a Hispanic lawyer named Adelfa Callejo a prominent leader in the North Texas Latino commuity.

Here's a clip from the interview in question:
Adelfa Callejo - Hillary Clinton's Reaction

Here was an opportunity for Mrs. Clinton to set a clear signal to those who would utilize her campaign or any other public forum to foster racist notions and ideas. It was an opportunity for her to take a hard line on something that she attempted to take a hard line with Senator Obama on at the Ohio debates where she clearly went on the attack about Senator Obama not repudiating the endorsement of Minister Louis Farrakhan. She went on to pick and pick about this and I find it unconscionable that even when faced with video tape evidence of one of her supporters making racially insensitive and inflammatory statements, that the best she was able to do was brush it of f in person and eventually much later that evening issue a statement through a spokesperson.

As an African American woman I of all people hold no illusions about racism in this country. Having been exposed to it in one form or another most of my life I know all too well that its there and is an undercurrent to many things. I knew for example that it would only be a matter of time during this campaign that somehow race would be injected into things. Sorry to say I didn't have to wait long.

Ask any African American in this country today they will probably tell you the same thing. Racism is alive and flourishes well in this country today. As much as it is frowned on in the public eye  - what goes on behind the scenes is arguably generally different. There is a misapprehension that just because you do not advocate lynching or cross burning that you are automatically excused from being prejudiced or biased.  In fact most people who would fit the criteria for being racist will tell you that they don't think they are reasoning that they have "black friends", or at least they think they do. That they can calmly and rationally explain their reasoning to them mitigates them from being labeled racist.

Is generational racism still an issue in America though? The answer when considering the facts is a resounding yes. Although, many White Americans would like to feel racism doesn't exist or that African Americans like to play the race card, and sometimes there are instances where one does play the race card but that is not always the case. The fact of the matter is that racism does, and unfortunately due to generational racism, will continue to exist in America.(read entire article here)

Counting as part of her "35 years of experience" im sure is her term as wife of the Governor of Arkansas, which was actually at one time a confederate state. Harrison, Arkansas was featured recently in a documentary called "Banished" that debuted in 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and is currently being broadcast on PBS stations across the country.

A hundred years ago, in communities across the U.S., white residents forced thousands of black families to flee their homes. Even a century later, these towns remain almost entirely white. BANISHED tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn their shocking histories.

Harrison Arkansas is one of those communities mentioned in this film. AT the date the movie was filmed (2006), they were still flying the confederate flag  outside the Chamber of Commerce Building. Harrison also is purported to be the headquarters of the Klu Klux Klan.  Of all people that should have been quick to respond to racist comments with a strong and clear rejection - Hillary Clinton, former First Lady of Arkansas - should have done so without hesitation. It's what great leaders do - lead by example. Right now the only example she's leading this party and unfortunately this country to is divisive, racially inflammatory behavior that for her part she did not create but - not speaking out forcefully against it is the same as cultivating it.

And here the final proof that Hillary Clinton is indeed shameless and will stop at nothing  in her ill-fated quest for the office of President of the United States.

For someone who has been in the public eye for over 35 years (or as she claims it has over 35 years of experience), Mrs. Clinton above all others knew what the appropriate answer to the line of questioning she was being subjected to during her interview. This is not a case where she can claim ignorance - she's out campaigning and she is aware of at least two incidents where her staffers were accused of fostering clearly inaccurate racial overtones into the current campaign. By not definitively shutting down that line of questioning, she leaves the door open to those on the fringe and others who need actually no motivation for their un-abiding hatred for anyone who is "different" or not "like them".

All that could have been alleviated by an appropriate answer. It is telling how quickly during the last debate that she emphatically insisted that Senator Obama repudiate Minister Louis Farrakhan. She made a point of making him publicly reject and denounce (double negative - anyone?) the minister on live television.  

John McClain   for all his issues IMMEDIATELY rejected comments made by a  radio talk show host - Bill Cunningham

 This coming from the "terribly bad and horrible republican candidate - one for whom we all should be shuddering in terror of the "vetting" that he will aim directly at Senator Obama come this fall - he had the understanding to know that he needed to outright  reject the overtly racist behavior of someone seeking to perpetuate and encourage fears of Barack "Hussein" Obama as being some sort of secret terrorist by virtue of his middle name being Obama.

How then is it, that Mrs. Clinton could be unaware the ramifications of her responses to the questions posed to her. More importantly - an opportunity for her to display some of the "leadership skills" she is trying to lay claim to by setting an example of how that kind of questioning is not and will not be tolerated and instead she half answered her way out of it.

People it is not cool to do whatever it takes to advance yourself. This is one of the concepts that is destroying this country. That and racism. Hillary Clinton displayed complete irresponsibility in  answering those questions in the manner in which she did. So reprehensible is the idea that she of all people knows all too well the truth of Senator Obama's religious beliefs and chose NOT to emphatically deny rumors, but signaled by the way she answered that it was ok for those kinds of questions to be asked in the first place.

ON SNL one night, on 60 minutes the next night feeding into rumors about Senator Obama's religious beliefs and or the possibility that he might be Muslim and  therefore not elect able based on that?

Not a day goes by that I don't lose more and more respect for this woman and the kind of campaign that she is running.  I have already lost all respect for her husband Bill but that was lost long ago when he was impeached for lying to congress about having  a sexual affair with an intern. I think I and most women can stop feeling sorry for Hillary right now as being the "wronged woman."  In this case the two of them deserve each other.

Birds of a feather definitely do flock together.

For those confused minds  out there:

The TRUTH about Senator Obama and the American Flag Issue

THE TRUTH ABOUT SENATOR OBAMA'S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

BARACK OBAMA and FAITH

Barack Obama is a committed and active Christian. He has been a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for 20 years, where he continues to attend services with his family. Barack has never been a Muslim or practiced any other faith besides Christianity, and in January 2005 he was sworn into the U.S. Senate on his family Bible. - from barackobama.com

African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The AMEC grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When officials at St. George's MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George's made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although most wanted to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794 Bethel AME was dedicated with Allen as pastor. To establish Bethel's independence from interfering white Methodists, Allen, a former Delaware slave, successfully sued in the Pennsylvania courts in 1807 and 1815 for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination,

The following is a statement issued by the AME Church

PRESS RELEASE: March 22, 2008
For Immediate Release

SOCIAL ACTION Commission
African Methodist Episcopal Church
1968 W. Adams Blvd. Suite 314
Los Angeles, CA 90018


IN DEFENSE OF THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND THE BEST OF PROPHETIC TRADITION IN THE BLACK CHURCH :

Several months ago, early in the Democratic race for the nomination to run for president, conservative radio pundits began attacking Senator Barak Obama by playing a small snippet of a sound bite from one of the sermons delivered by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright who was the spiritual leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Some of Dr. Wright's critics loudly declared that his prophetic preaching style of denouncing white racism was in fact, "reverse racism."

By repeatedly broadcasting 20 second sound bites from some of the powerful sermons delivered by Rev. Wright, media pundits from all of the major media, right wing, moderates and left-wing broadcasters have repeatedly shaped a distorted view of Rev. Wright and as a result, the news coverage has reflected negatively upon Senator Barack Obama.

On March 18, 2008, Senator Obama made a brilliant defense of himself and his membership at Trinity Church , as well as, his personal relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He disavowed and denounced the "words" of Rev. Wright in the video-sound bite that was played over and over in broadcasts in the United States and perhaps, all over the world. Senator Obama also addressed the destructive nature of racial oppression and the resultant anger and resentment left in its wake. For many, Mr. Obama's speech was on-target, for others it was not enough. Senator Obama needs no one to defend him; however, beyond the attacks on Senator Obama, there is a greater concern.

The attacks of the media; the so-called conservative, and liberal or "moderate" critics have not only attacked Senator Obama, but much more significantly, have attacked the traditions of preaching, the black religious traditions; the cultural and spiritual traditions that have encouraged and helped black Americans to persevere for over 375 years of racial and economic oppression.

White and some black commentators have expressed shock and dismay because of a few brief video sound-bites. Newscasters are critical of Dr. Wright, express dismay that a pastor would condemn the United States , even though the U.S. supported racist policies of apartheid in South Africa that kept Nelson Mandela imprisoned. Those in the media express shock that a black pastor would question whether we should sing "God Bless America," while remembering the injustices against people of color, the lynching of black men for decades without serious intervention by the government, and using black Americans as medical guinea pigs as the government did with its syphilis program in Tuskegee.

Many broadcasters and whites fail to understand that black pastors are expected to question the moral authority of the U.S. government in a world in which the wealthy are allowed to benefit because their wealth and political connections. Black preachers are expected to vehemently speak out when America allows genocide to be perpetrated by dictators who support U.S. policies.

Like the so-called liberal ministers in Alabama who chastised Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he sat imprisoned in a Birmingham Jail, these news pundits charge Rev. Wright, and by extension the black church, with "mixing politics with religion" and misleading "ignorant black people" into an adversarial relationship with "their government." And like those so-called "liberal" white preachers in Alabama who attacked Dr. King, several have even quoted various biblical texts as evidence that Rev. Wright, and Trinity United Church of Christ are not following Christian biblical principles.

It is our responsibility to understand that God does not sit outside the walls of human history and it is our responsibility to stand up in defense of, not only Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but also in defense of the best prophetic biblical traditions.

The words and actions of some media pundits seem to imply that Senator Obama and black people should renounce our historical and religious heritage, our culture and our faith before we can be accepted into the American "mainstream." Those who criticize appear willing to accept black Americans, only if we do not remind America of the struggles we, as black people, have had to overcome.

To ask black clergy, and laity, to remain silent in the face of a continuing racist reality is no different than Pharaoh demanding that Moses and Aaron be quiet in the face of Egyptian cruelty. It is no different than the Old Testament elite demanding that Isaiah remain silent about the treatment of widows and orphans; and no different than Jesus remaining silent at the exploitation of the poor.

The black preacher and black Christians, in the prophetic tradition of Black Liberation Theology, from Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Morris Brown, Bishop Paul Quinn, Bishop Daniel Payne, and Bishop Henry McNeil Turner to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, walk in a proud tradition.

In the past, as well as now, we sit surrounded by great men and women who have refused to bend down to a "state religion."

The so-called conservatives who demand that we separate ourselves from our prophetic tradition are doing nothing less than calling on us to deny our God.

This is a time of testing, not only for America, but for us, as black and white Americans, and many of us have decided that we will not bow down to the God of an American "state religion."

We have the biblical lessons of Daniel; of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We have the lessons of John, the Revelator, on the Isle of Patmos, and we have the example of Jesus.

We, the members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church proudly embrace the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ as walking well within the best biblical traditions and the best traditions of black prophetic preaching and a faith that has brought us, "This Far by Faith," because we have come too far to turn around now.

Editor's Note: The Press Advisory appended below is released on behalf of the AME Church by the Social Action Commission Chair - Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry reference our denomination's position in the dialogue about the coverage of one of the prophetic voices in religion and a champion of the Black Church, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, D. Min.


Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry, Social Action Commission Chair

The AMEC Website