“Don’t tell me words don’t matter.” … Barak Obama
Context… “the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning” or “the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs.” At least this is what Webster seems to think.
A more cynical view, a’la Ambrose Bierce, might suggest a more literal meaning these days could be… “Those interrelated elements and facets of verbal or textual discourse typically omitted or included as necessary to convey a thought, meaning or intent grossly divergent from that actually spoken or written.”
“….. taken out of context.”, has now become so common a political refrain that one begins to question whether we are any longer capable of meaning what we say or saying what we mean. Mustering all the sincerity possible into a straight face, looking eye to eye and guilelessly mouthing the words, “You took my words out of context.”, will likely not get you out of a traffic ticket, or save a failing career… or even repair a troubled relationship. But, it sure seems to be the favored choice of excusing spoken ignorance and textual insanity these days.
Presidential hopeful Barak Obama has now made what appears to be a sincere, noble and, certainly, a very well spoken attempt to reset the context of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s impassioned stupidity. In disavowing the divisive and ignorant remarks of his longtime pastor, friend and confidant, Mr. Obama has included many idealistic truths, personal and family confessions and has even reached out to white America in acknowledging the evils inherent to the failures of affirmative action. Candidate Obama has now publicly condemned the raging insanity and ignorant hate speech of his good friend, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but has declined to cut him loose to the whims of history. But not before attempting to excuse this man’s perfidious, divisive and hateful hyperbole by suggesting the genesis of this stupidity was the context of an America in the fifties and sixties.
There are millions of us living today that were children of the fifties and sixties and shared the good and the bad of those times with the good Reverend Wright. In the fifties, along with four siblings, I was raised an Army brat on a military post in west central Georgia along the Chattahoochee River. We attended Don C Faith Elementary school on post and I cannot recall a single class where black children were absent or a little league ball game where the prowess of my team mates, black and white and Hispanic and Asian and even East Indian… ever failed to inspire me to greater efforts. Regardless, I will concede there are other millions that did not share the wonderful bounty I enjoyed as a child of the time.
It is not Candidate Obama’s choice to remain tethered to the stupid ignorance of his Pastor that troubles me as a voting American. It is the deafening silence from his congregation and a responsible American media that troubles me most. It is the revelation that twenty years has passed and it is only now that Candidate Obama feels a compulsion to speak out for reason, understanding and change. And I feel some regret that his speech merely raises more questions. The picture of Candidate Obama standing idle before the National Anthem, sans salute, is now seen in an all new context. An even more curious question is whether the foolish ignorance of the good Reverend Wright might provide a more revealing context for Michele Obama’s remark that, “… for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” Who’s brand of hope is that, Barak’s… or the good Reverend Wright’s?
Well… as a Caucasian American centrist, I am offended. While I cannot help but agree that we need change, this is not the change for which I had hoped. Perhaps we need to distance ourselves from the persistent stupidity, rank ignorance of hate speech and cut it loose forever to the file cabinets of history.
Perhaps we need to stand together as Americans and point in raucous laughter and ridicule in the strongest, broadest context possible, all those impassioned fools who would abandon hope and positive change; who would summarily discard common sense, common decency and the common good; and embrace and perpetuate the same tired old raw hatreds, prejudice and bigotry we heard so loud and clear in Wright’s impassioned sermons. It is not the context of the sermon that’s troublesome, it is the unambiguous clarity of the message.
This is not the time and there is no excuse for it!
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