A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on January 20th, 2008 in Ridin' Herd

You can read the text of Barack Obama’s speech/sermon given at Ebenezer Baptist today:

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.

snip

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.

It’s good stuff. This is why I have slowly shifted towards supporting Barack Obama. John Edwards has always been right about having two Americas, but his vision seems to fall short of unifying those disparate halves.

And it is necessary to at least envision a united America, because the reality is that we just fall short in that area:

As I pondered the fact that African American voters broke overwhelmingly for Senator Obama and Hispanic voters chose Senator Clinton by wide margins, I couldn’t help but consider the heinous nature of ethnic immobility and its propensity to divide rather than unite those who fight each day for a tiny share of a shrinking pie.

snip

These simmering conflicts need not be evidence of the Democratic Party’s or this country’s inability to coalesce around one candidate. Rather, it should be fair notice that the Democratic Party will no longer accept the premise that the least of us need not be relevant or respected. I believe the voices of dissention are simply the sounds of destiny calling us to a new awareness.

Instead of silencing the voices of those who have yearned for change…and may now have the courage to demand it…we must add our voices to their clamor and grasp this opportunity to signal that we will no longer turn our heads to the plight of the have nots.

This is a moment that can either transform us or further fragment us. Instead of giving lip service to America’s greatness, it is time we once again demonstrate it. If we love this country we will. If we continue the trend of simply loving ourselves at the expense of the underrepresented, I suspect we’ll continue down the path of carelessly severing what’s left of the threads that so carefully created the cloth we call these United States.

Isn’t it time we put down our cynical and self-serving scissors and begin the hard work of stitching together a tapestry big enough to bring shelter and solace to all?

Obama’s evenhandedness and willingness to speak the truth to his own constituencies about their failures as well as their successes has won some grudging support. That doesn’t mean such people will vote for him, but it does mean that they might – might – give him the benefit of the doubt for at least wanting what is best for all involved. No one is going to cut Hillary Clinton that slack – not even the people that vote for her.

But don’t expect Paul Rosenberg to buy it. This guy would cross the Jersey Turnpike on foot to spit on an Obama picture. To the point where he’s ready to declare Obama “the enemy”. Oddly enough, this is on a website that castigates “Bush Dog” Democrats for not supporting the other Democrats in Congress. I guess so long as Obama was a good boy and took orders he was fine. Or maybe he doesn’t want Bill Clinton to have all the fun.

If there is anything that would make me sit out the campaign, it has been the behavior of Clinton and her surrogates. There is no need – and no benefit – in questioning the integrity and character of Barack Obama. This campaign is Clinton’s to lose – she’s ninety delegates ahead and able to compete anywhere she pleases. But rather than inspire, she wants to tell us “Don’t listen to him! I’m the one ready to go! I deserve this! Look at what I did/had happen to me!”

I may have to write-in a vote for myself this November.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Ebenezer Baptist, Unity

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