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Robert Kennedy, in this video clip, speaks with great compassion and empathy on the day of Martin Luther King being killed. After all, his own brother was also killed because of his politics.
Compassion. Empathy. Eloquence. Simplicity. Wisdom.
No soap-box rhetoric.
Like Barack Obama, most of us would probably choose or use or like to hear such talk, more polite words than Rev. Wright used in those ten seconds selected out of the thirty years of his life... but that should not blind us to the realities behind such words, the reality that: an evil often waves a flag in our face to hide it's bad deeds and stomps
out all talk that questions it's lies.
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Whenever I get to that line in the Pledge of Allegiance -- "One Nation Under God" -- I add one word: hopefully.
One nation hopefully under God, because we can not claim to be perfect, without sin or to naively think God is always on our side as if we have done no wrong when there has been wrong in America from Day One, from policies of genocide of Native American Indians, from centuries of brutal slavery,
to the killing of millions in false, pre-emptive, unjust wars.
The truth is there and plain to see. We've just allowed ourselves to become a bit deaf, dumb, and blind.
The mainstream media and White House warmongers want to "kill" Rev. Wright as surely as they wanted to stop Martin Luther King. Kill him. Demonize him. Marginalize him. Mock him. Everything but consider one whole paragraph of his ideas.
Note: There has also been great things done in America. Now we're at another critical turning point. Which way do we go?
One thing, for sure, let's not go blind or naive, or forbidden free speech, forbidden to have "the wrong ideas," forbidden to even hint at a fact -- as Rev. Wright points out -- there is quite a difference in how a slave would see the world as compared to the slave master, forbidden to see and acknowledge the horror and damage being done in the Gaza Strip, forbidden
to see or speak of the millions of lives killed, wounded or missing in Iraq.
For what? For freedom and democracy? For non-existent weapons of mass destruction? For non-existent nuclear weapons programs?
Rev. Wright is one of those people who's not buying the comic strip and cartoon show of American history and current policies.
Demonize him? No, we should consider what he has to say. It may not be in the words we'd like but maybe it was the words we needed to cut through our bland complicity and complacency.
"America's chickens are coming home to roost," the Rev. Wright said in his infamous viral video. Maybe the real problem is we just can't handle the truth or even acknowledge the real issues.
A transcript of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's first interview after his now infamous 'viral video fame,' can be found at this link:
Moyers interview with Jeremiah Wright.
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Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a man of God. Not a Pharisee pretending to be better than others but more in the Biblical tradition of a prophet challenging the behavior of his homeland, questioning the policies of his nation.
Rev. Wright is a black preacher who sees his people still discriminated against, still handicapped, an American preacher who sees his own country killing many innocents at home at abroad. He loves America ok, but also sees it's flaws.
""God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human."" is what Rev. Wright was said, and also makes it clear: God condemn America for it killing of innocents; God condemn America for it's false wars.
Maybe, though, the Rev. Wright might listen again to the words, tone and spirit of Martin Luther King's famous: I Have A Dream," speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Maybe Rev. Wright's words aren't pallative enough to swallow but his words are not "hate speech," against
anyone and he certainly is not advocating violence; although some 'street talk,' can sound insulting enough.
But maybe we too, maybe when we have17-minutes to focus we all should listen again to that MLK speech,, because there there is truth and wisdom there we need right here and now! And the issues are hauntingly the same.
We need to see some of the truths at the core of these issues because the Rev. Wright's now infamous video clip has lit a fuse to a real-world time bomb.
It would be a profound and dangerous mistake for Americans to start slamming and trash-talking the Rev. Wright without first seriously and honestly looking at his ideas. This is not the time to put someone in a box and then starting beating them up.
It's a big mistake to ignore what Rev. Wright is saying because we may not like the way it's said.
It's an
even bigger mistake to think he can be shouted down to shut him up. He's not a sitting duck scapegoat that can be easily demonized. He's advocated for rights in this country and the world much more than most of us.
It's a disservice to ourselves and our country to start inflaming racism with blind prejudices that don't even look at the facts or arguments.
And that, my friends, is the real deep volcanic core or criticism and insight that have burned many hearts and minds before the truth could even be touched, or discussed.
We might not be able to reach out with the spirit of compassion, understanding, reconciliation and redemption that were touches of a finer humanity noted in the work and ideas of Martin Luther King and the words of RFK in the video clip on this page, but we don't have to start there. We start simply by listening to the ideas and maybe, BTW, 10 or 15-minutes
of ideas and not just 10-second soundbites.
Kennedy's words and the audience's reactions on that night are most amazing, and more amazing to think how his own brother, President John Kennedy was killed a few years before and now he's speaking about another leader's assassination on the tragic day of the even, and more amazing still in how just in a few months Robert Kennedy will be assassinated
himself.
If that is not enough for an American Tragedy, I don't know what is. We would be well served to listen again to Robert Kennedy's words on that night.
Robert Kennedy, in this brief speech, was not out to "demonize," anyone.
Our past killings and assassinations of such leaders, BTW, leaders who had struggled for social justice, who opposed false wars based on lies, who valued life and disdained violence, the murder of such men like this clearly show that not all is always well in America, neither then or now.
As Rev. Wright points out in the interview with Bill Moyers, "The God of the people who riding on the decks of the slave ship is not the God of the people who are riding underneath the decks as slaves in chains. Those people who are carried away into slavery have a very different concept of what it means to be the people of God than the ones who carried
them away."
So the Palestinians being starved to death in Gaza and who are victims of air strikes and murder every other week have a different idea of "terrorism," than our one-sided propaganda. In all the years sine 9/11 Rev. Wright is the first person to bring that uncomfortable truth front and center on our national and world stage.
There has been blood on our hands, as clearly as the evils of the old slave masters. Now it's time we get real, get serious, and see the evils of today.
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