Uses of the past
Power Line
Lionel Chetwynd, the writer/director of "Hanoi Hilton" and other films, wrote this open letter to Barack Obama in response to the Senator's speech about race relations and Rev. Wright. Invoking his experience in moving beyond hatred towards Germans over the Holocaust, Chetwynd argues that "contextualizing" Rev. Wright's hatred was a misuse of a "teaching moment." The teaching opportunity consisted of "not explaining Wright's outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him." That's because "we'll reach the post-racial era. . .by no longer justifying ourselves with what was, instead speaking to what now exists. Not deny the past, but recognize that's what it is: past."
Obama, of course, took the opposite view, citing Faulkner's quote that "the past isn't dead and buried; in fact, it isn't even past." Obama/Faulkner may be correct at some level; more likely there is no correct answer, it's just a matter of outlook. But I think Chetwynd has the better of the argument when it comes to which outlook is more likely to yield a post-racial future. He may also have the better case when it comes to which outlook Americans are looking for in an African-American presidential candidate.
Chetwynd concludes his message to Obama this way:
<<< You say you are devoted to Reverend Wright because he brought you to Christ. I can only imagine how powerful a relationship that forges. But, my imperfect understanding of the Christian Faith tells me you can do him an equally magnificent service: You can help bring him back to Christ. Show him redemption and salvation lie not in the satisfaction of doing little dances in a pulpit while you slander good and decent people. Teach him that great leadership and Christian love abjures the very filth - and I pick that word deliberately - that he spews on an apparently regular basis. After all, Senator, you know our government did not invent the HIV virus to kill African-Americans. You know, Senator, this is not the United States of KKK America. You know the truth of 9/11. At least you should. Both you and Michelle have benefited mightily from the new spirit that has come to America in the last two generations. I thought you were part of that. I thought you were post-racial.
But in your silence, in your justifications, in your facile instruction to contextualize, you seem just a more presentable version of those dreary self-promoters, Sharpton, Jackson, Bakewell and the rest. Surely this is not you. Please, Senator, be brave. Lead. From a position of honesty where context is our daily reality, not drawn from bitter memories, no matter how justified they once might have been. Deny Jeremiah Wright your comfort of "context". Be Presidential. To all Americans. >>>
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