cascadian telegrams: Obama and Race

Wow. The best speech in a generation on race in America. Excerpt:

"We can accept the politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism," he said. "We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the OJ trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina -- or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies."
Obama said we can move in that divisive and tired direction as a nation and as a people, or we can choose a new path that seeks out wherever possible our common interests and our common fate. "I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election."

You can see it here and read some reviews here. The NYT called it his 'Profile in Courage', harkening directly back to Kennedy.

There are moments — increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns — when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with.
Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better.

It may be hard for people outside of the US (or people who didn't grow up in a racially-mixed area) to understand how emotional the issue of race is for many in this country. It is hard to have a discussion of race without surfacing some of that emotion. And especially for politicians, it is the "third rail": the electrified topic that no one, usually, dares to touch.

But not only did Obama 'go there', he did it with grace, clarity and wisdom. I'm so proud to be a supporter of his candidacy. He has the potential to be one of the finest presidents in our history.

Andrew Sullivan, as usual, puts it best:

I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

I'm not a Christian (wrt the metaphysics at least) but I have to say: Right on. Run, Barack, Run!

Comments

I've been out of town and mostly offline all weekend and hadn't heard about this speech. All the Brisbane newspapers were reporting on was Hillary's over-stating of the sniper fire. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy hearing about that!

But I didn't know about the speech, so thanks for the link. What an amazing speech. I'm too tired to sit through the video of it, so I just read the transcript. But I'll watch the delivery because he's such an incredible speaker.

Thanks again!

Posted by: Trish | March 25, 2008 at 05:53 AM