Another Angry Black Preacher (1 Viewer)

[SoonerJim]

There was a growing split between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by King, and the Black Moslem Brotherhood, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and the black Panthers. King was becoming outdated, and co-opted some of their approach, not only to remain relevent, but to retain Johnson's attention which was diverted fulltime to Vietnam. There was subsequently a rift between the two men. That's the backdrop to the statement above. Of course, without a context, it becomes Dionne's equivalent of Obama's grandmother, a rhetorical device to foist equivalence upon a non-suspecting and uncritical public.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Rev. Wright was born in the 1940's before the civil rights era. In his own lifetime he saw black americans denied their rights on a wide scale, probably listened to tales of his relatives who witnessed lynchings etc. He also grew up with the experiments conducted on the Tuskagee airmen, the overthrow of the elected government of Iran, Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc. None of those were disclosed willingly by the acting parties.

I don't find it hard to believe that such a man who grew up with that to believe in conspiracies, etc... it's still wrong, but not that hard to believe.

 

[bsmooth25]

Rev. Wright was born in the 1940's before the civil rights era. In his own lifetime he saw black americans denied their rights on a wide scale, probably listened to tales of his relatives who witnessed lynchings etc. He also grew up with the experiments conducted on the Tuskagee airmen, the overthrow of the elected government of Iran, Watergate, Iran-Contra, etc. None of those were disclosed willingly by the acting parties.

I don't find it hard to believe that such a man who grew up with that to believe in conspiracies, etc... it's still wrong, but not that hard to believe.

Exactly! I'm not sure that racism is so miniscule. It's just perpetrated in different ways today. I personally don't think it's constructive to pretend it doesn't happen now. Just because a civil rights law is passed, doesn't mean racism disappears. I don't believe there has been enough passage of time for the effects to just go away. They feelings may just be repressed.

 

[Webmeistro]

When it comes to war crimes, Dr. King had not a single freakin clue what he was talking about.

Sorry, but I don't believe in canonization or infallibility. He was right when it came to civil rights and wrong about most of the other things in his life.

 

[Det. Brees]

100's or millions.. thats funny... im native american and i find that funny......

 

[Det. Brees]

curious does the roman empire inslaving the entire known world considered just 1 crime of humanity or 100's of millions..

 

[RABDOG]

and nobody cares what you are..the entire known world was europe and a little of the middle east to the romans...there are 5 other continents in the real world.... let me ask you and everybody else to do one thing.....think about all the things america has ever done wrong, then think about all the things that america has ever done right...compare the two...does the good out weight the bad?

 

[SaintMeaux]

Yes, the good outweighs the bad.

Advancements and discoveries in medicine
Advancements and discoveries in technology
Advancements and discoveries in agriculture
One hell of a democratic process
The industrial age
etc. etc.


Wow, I don't think it's even close.

 

[RSF]

think about all the things america has ever done wrong, then think about all the things that america has ever done right...compare the two...does the good out weight the bad?

yes

 

[Mr. Littlejeans]

think about all the things america has ever done wrong, then think about all the things that america has ever done right...compare the two...does the good out weight the bad?

yes

Is that our standard for behavior as a country? As long as the good outweighs the bad, then we shouldn't criticize the country? Would you accept those parameters from a co-worker? A spouse? The repair guy fixing your washing machine?

Let's try it on a preacher:Think about all the things REV. WRIGHT has ever done wrong, then think about all the things that REV WRIGHT has ever done right...compare the two...does the good outweigh the bad? (This means you'll have to do some research besides watching sound bites on the news)

 

[RSF]

Is that our standard for behavior as a country? As long as the good outweighs the bad, then we shouldn't criticize the country? Would you accept those parameters from a co-worker? A spouse? The repair guy fixing your washing machine?

Yes.

 

[Big_L]

You must be joking. Do you have any idea the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army? The Khmer Rouge? You do a little research.

If you know any Native Americans, ask them.

 

[Big_L]

Does good ever outweigh the bad? As the old saying goes it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. I think being critical of our country's flaws in a constructive manner is good. We all have done bad things and sure our country has done some pretty bad things. But that was all in the past. I really hope that we as a country would not do that these days, but judging from some of the intellectual posts on this thread, I am not so sure.

 

[Det. Brees]

and nobody cares what you are..the entire known world was europe and a little of the middle east to the romans...there are 5 other continents in the real world.... let me ask you and everybody else to do one thing.....think about all the things america has ever done wrong, then think about all the things that america has ever done right...compare the two...does the good out weight the bad?

trying to make since of you statement 100's of millions... the number is not even close....
i doubt there were ever a 100 million indians let alone 100's of millions... where do you get this stuff..
glad to know race doesnt mater to you any more....

 

[thewyrm]

America responsible for the most war crimes in history? Both a rediculous and irresponsible statement.

Does the good of America outweigh the bad? Of course. To think otherwise is just blind hatred fueled ignorance.

The world would be a dark, twisted, tyranical place without this Declaration:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.