Barack Obama has run from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, from his own church, from Louis Farrakhan and from the Palestinians. He has allowed the Rulers of the Politically Correct to dictate his own thinking. I suggest that he join the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church.
The rulers of the PC Gospel — mostly members of the media — have decreed that anyone with whom they disagree on certain topics must be banished from the public realm.
Not everyone is as cowardly as Sen. Obama. When the American media tried to get Archbishop Desmond Tutu to denounce Fidel Castro, Rev. Tutu told them quite quickly and bluntly that they do not get to choose his enemies or his friends. He refused to criticize Castro because Cuba had assisted in the overthrow of South Africa’s apartheid government.
The fly in the thinking of the rulers of political correctness is that they ignore the basic truth that in a free society, people may disagree.
I like Reverend Wright, and I respect Louis Farrakhan. Some things they say I agree with. Some things they say I disagree with. That puts them on a par with my late wife. We didn’t always agree with each other, but that didn’t stop us from caring for each other.
Where in the Bill of Rights does it say that some ideas cannot be spoken or believed? Where does it say that people who speak certain thoughts are to be condemned and shunned? PC is BS. The PC rulers are little fascists who think they can browbeat everyone into conforming to their own narrow view of the world. And they don’t use reason. They name-call and play the guilt-by-association game. What they’d like to do is get the government to put people who disagree with them in prison.
Don’t scoff. In some European countries, if you express doubt about some detail of the official Holocaust story, you can be charged with a crime and sent to prison. That is a shameful situation, for the truth doesn’t need to be guarded by the police. It’s a warning that the right of free speech is always in danger from those who believe they have a monopoly on the truth and who prefer character assassination to reason and debate.
Obama has succumbed to the poison that infects all ambitious politicians. He tells himself he can’t do all the good things he wants to do unless he first gets elected. Then he starts compromising and pandering. By the time he gets elected — if he does — he won’t be the same man who started out.
Obama should have said: (1) "I’m not responsible for anything somebody else says"; (2) "I don’t agree with everything Reverend Wright says"; and (3) "But I still respect him and consider him a friend. If that doesn’t suit you, then get out of my face and vote for someone else." Then he should have refused to ever again answer any questions about Reverend Wright.
Farrakhan deserves respect because the Nation of Islam’s message is as sound as a $20 gold piece: Get off drugs and alcohol, respect and take care of your wife and children, and get a job. The Million Man March that he organized did more to reduce crime during the crack wars than anything the Justice Department has done. He is, by the way, the only man in America who can get a million people to turn out for an event.
If he wishes to think that I’m a devil because of the color of my skin, it’s OK with me. I don’t want to be his buddy. I just want to give him credit for the good that he does.
As for Obama, he will learn the hard way that pressure never lets up, and the more he caves in, the more those who want to control his mind will be encouraged to try even harder. I’m reminded of the Biblical saying, "What good does it do to gain the whole world if you lose your soul?"
Charley Reese [send him mail] has been a journalist for 49 years.
