Rev. Jeremiah Wright

I have been watching the “Rev. Jeremiah wars”, as I have taken to calling the media coverage of this prophetic Pastor, with a growing horror. While I have been generally supportive of Rev. Wright, I must admit I was disappointed in his performance at the National Press Club dinner, it seemed like he was being deliberately belligerent, like he was “play acting” into the role that the media expected of him. Unlike the sermons and speeches that have been endlessly mined for provocative sound bites, I failed to see the point of some of the provocations he hurled at the Press Club and that saddened me. It will be a great loss if he becomes a caricature of himself, flinging outrageous statements around for the sake of saying them, rather than to make a profound point, examine historical indignities or tell a bitter truth, as he has done in the past.

That is the Jeremiah Wright that I have experienced, one who has shocked me, made me think and moved me many times towards a greater understanding of both the depth of my flaws and the amazing potential that lurks about the edges of the society in which I live, waiting to be invited in by folks like me, those of power and privilege. I will miss him if he is gone.

I am also deeply chagrined and disappointed at the media and its coverage. I’m not sure why I’m surprised, given the state of the corporate media these days, but each time I experience a more outrageous statement, or a failure to truly report on the context from which a given sound bite was taken, I sigh and shake my head, disbelieving and disheartened. I guess if my idealism is not gone at my age, I’m stuck with it.

Most of all, I am in despair over the idea that this ridiculous hyper-critical examination of what a candidate’s Pastor said when he was speaking in the pulpit, will destroy a candidacy that is, in my opinion, the greatest hope for my country, in what is possibly one of the darkest times we have faced as a nation.

That is the thing I fear the most, because I believe that the future of my country hangs in the balance, and there is no one, save Barack Obama himself, who is protesting this frivolous disregard for the truth, this blatant misuse of the precious right that is the free press. Surely Jefferson and Adams are spinning in their graves. May God help us.

Strength, Hope and Courage,

Suzanne