Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : The Next President 2008 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2469)	3/19/2008 4:06:16 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3215

Unanswered Questions By Dan Schnur From the beginning, the rationale for Barack Obama’s campaign has been his call for Americans to transcend their differences — both ideological and demographic. But Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments would seem to have forced Senator Obama to choose sides — to either stand with Reverend Wright and others who support his condemnations of the United States, or with those who think they should be rejected out of hand. But Senator Obama didn’t choose: he criticized Reverend Wright’s statements as wrong and divisive without being willing to distance himself from the pastor who has been so instrumental in the development of his religious faith. That’s certainly Senator Obama’s prerogative, but it doesn’t answer a number of questions that he will continue to face in the days ahead. The questions that interest me have nothing to do with Reverend Wright and everything to do with Barack Obama. Did the senator ever criticize his pastor’s incendiary remarks — publicly or privately — or attempt to convince his pastor that past racial injustices did not necessarily mean that this country and its people were fundamentally and irrevocably racist? How did Senator Obama separate out the inspirational from the inexcusable in Reverend Wright’s sermons and teachings? How did he choose what to accept and what to reject from his spiritual mentor’s belief structure? As additional examples of Reverend Wright’s intolerance become public, will Senator Obama make it clear which beliefs he supports and which he opposes?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2469)	3/20/2008 11:52:28 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 3215

the furor over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory sermons shows that Mr. Obama erred in an earlier speech — the 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention that catapulted him to fame. In that speech, Mr. Obama declared that “there is not a black America and a white America... . There’s the United States of America.” That’s a beautiful aspiration, and we’re making progress toward it. But this last week has underscored that we’re not nearly there yet. The outrage over sermons by Mr. Wright demonstrates how desperately we as a nation need the dialogue about race that Mr. Obama tried to start with his speech on Tuesday. Many well-meaning Americans perceive Mr. Wright as fundamentally a hate-monger who preaches antagonism toward whites. But those who know his church say that is an unrecognizable caricature: He is a complex figure and sometimes a reckless speaker, but one of his central messages is not anti-white hostility but black self-reliance.