Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

I have been listening to Meet the Press this week. Dr Dyson -- for whom I have the greatest respect -- and I have been listening to Andrew Young on Russert, for whom I have very little respect. (And frankly, if Andrew Young thinks Condi is doing a great job, he is either an idiot, or a hypocrite. I prefer to think of him as the former.)

I can't help but think about my Congressman. The Hon. John Lewis is, frankly, an American Hero. He is, in an exactly opposite way, a hero as John McCain is a hero. He is a patriot *because* he was injured standing with more courage than I have against his own government.

I disagree with Dr King, that 11 AM on Sunday is the most segregated hour in American life is a blight on our nation. The fact of the matter is, if we are going to move beyond not just race, but all superstition and fanaticism that the American public has been subject too, we need to transcend the idea that *truth* is what is dealt from the pulpit on Sunday Morning. Whether it is the African American community accepting that the gay movement is their progenitors or the simple fact that we need to accept that a checking account and phone number is critical to solving our problems with poverty. Dr. King was a prisoner to his own superstitions, but Dr Dyson is correct in saying that "race" is about what people take you to be.

I can't stress enough the idea that Senator Obama isn't about "post-whatever". Senator Obama is the Gen-X candidate and, simply, post-60s. He understands both race and poverty(and frankly bitterness) that Americans feel isn't about white and black and brown. And I think this "bitter" crap will roll like water off a ducks back in the same way the Rev. Wright issue did. Americans who are grown ups understand that fear of the "other" is of the old generation in all the same ways. Whether it is the antiquated views of Rev Wright, or the fear of "other" that the rural white population feels. We can't simply deny that it exists, but rather, we need to accept that these people are part of the American experience. The people in Pennsylvania who still say "Colored" in an offhanded way, or the racist Honorable fuck-head from Kentucky who calls a US Senator "boy" are all part of this experience. If we, the "grown ups" are going to transcend this, it is time. It is time to stop looking to the leftover boomers to tell us who the adults are and to redefine what this country is on our own terms.