From the: I Wish I Had Said It Column

Calibrate This, Mr. President
By Nancy Morgan Friday, July 31, 2009



I’m one of those Americans that lives in flyover country. I was treated to your much publicized ‘teaching moment’ last night and felt a response was warranted.

I’d like to say, with all respect, that this American resents the patronizing arrogance you exhibited as you deigned to ‘teach America’ about race. First off, I don’t need lessons on race from you. I take my teachings from the Bible, not a man who sat through 20 years of ‘hate whitey’ sermons. I’d much prefer you bestow your teachable moments on, oh, say terrorists, or enemies of democracy.

Secondly, if you were genuinely interested in promoting racial healing, you might have used that teachable moment last night to address the third rail of race relations: namely, the reluctance of many blacks to look at whites without automatically assuming they are racists.

Last night, you had the perfect teachable moment, but, alas, you let it slip through your grasp. You had a wealthy, influential black man who continues to insist he is still oppressed. Then you had the white police officer who was merely doing his job in the correct manner. And then, we had you, Mr. President, a prime example of the problem. Said problem being the automatic assumption of racism without any facts to back it up.

You might have touched on the fact that many blacks of your generation have been taught that anything bad that happens in their life is a result of white oppression. You could have extrapolated or calibrated the fact that attitudes like that are extremely counterproductive and keep many blacks mired in the false comfort of victimization.

You might have addressed the fact that the only oppression happening these days is by your buddies Castro, Chavez and all the other third world dictators you seem to think are misunderstood men of good will.

Hey, you actually could have lectured your buddy Gates on the proper etiquette when dealing with law enforcement officers. Think of the great message that would have sent to young Americans. Respect for the law. That would have been a good thing to teach. But you let the opportunity pass with nary a word.

I’m sorry you didn’t get a good soundbite or photo op out of this unrelenting media saga. I know you were envisioning a hearty three way handshake that could be flashed around the world, signifying absolutely nothing. But the evening wasn’t a total waste. I actually did learn something.

I learned that you, and Henry Gates and other black men continue to believe that America is a racist country. I learned that you, Mr. President, will never solve any problems of race until you acknowledge your own racism against whites. I don’t think that will happen in my lifetime but I will continue to ‘hope’ for ‘change’.

And just out of curiosity, I was wondering what in the world you, the President of the greatest country in the world, is doing mediating the equivalent of a traffic ticket when our young men are dying in Afghanistan, our economy is in meltdown and Iran is on the brink of nuking Israel. Do you really think that was the best use of your time and political capital?

A New Direction for America In "The Anointed One's" Own Words

"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join me as we try to change it."

"I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."

"I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race."

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists."

"I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds. One of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied; they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."

"I had learned not to care. I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though. ..."

"...I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

"I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown the black community." --UPDATE: Barack Obama decides to "disown" him on Tuesday, April 29th after he realized his campaign was in severe turmoil due to his association with Mr. Wright.

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person..."

"That’s just how white folks will do you."

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges."

Call to Islamic prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Barack Hussein Obama



You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

58,343,671 people weren't fooled.