In Defense of Rev. Wright

Rev. Wright? Personally, I think he's a whole lot more right than wrong, misguided or goofy. I've been to Trinity, was warmly welcomed, met the good reverend and heard him preach on more than one occasion. I have wonderful, long-time friends who are members of Trinity. There are few people I respect more than Father Pfleger, who is one of Rev. Wright's dearest friends and most ardent supporters and who, by the way, is an angry little white man in his own right. From the beginning of this disastrous event, I believed that Rev. Wright was taken out of context and spun and snippeted and looped and over-exposed, all in an attempt to discredit Barack Obama. I still believe that.

I watched the Moyers interview, the NAACP speech and the National Press Club appearance. While the Moyers interview was fairly mild, there were moments, if you were watching closely, that hinted at what was coming. I watched the NAACP speech and enjoyed its absolutely hilarious tone. One of my Chicago friends called me early Monday morning and insisted that I turn on the TV to watch the NPC appearance and, yes, I admit to cheering out loud as I watched -- even while I knew he was playing into the media's greedy, grubby, guilty hands and feared what the consequences would be. Here was a bright, bold, bodacious black man who had just had it. Just had it with all of the nonsense. Just had it with all of the BS. Just had it. There wasn't a question for which he didn't have a response, short and to the point. Answers that gave lie to our assumption that the questioners were serious journalists. Not comforting or comfortable answers, but he did have answers. You may not like what he said, or how he said it -- that's your call. I suspect a huge part of the problem is that Rev. Wright is ummm, shall we say, a Negro who doesn't know his place.

Jeremiah Wright remembers having to move off the sidewalk when a white man approached and having to lower his eyes when a white woman passed by. He remembers that it didn't matter that he cared for President Johnson during surgery, there were still jobs and positions to which he could never aspire. He remembers lynchings and Jim Crow and actual, factual, life-threatening discrimination. My husband's father, also an angry man, remembered as well; my husband does not -- he just remembers the stories. Obama is another generation removed, a man whose main connection to those the age of Wright is the benefits he reaped from the suffering and struggling of those of his grandfather's generation.

The saddest and most god-awful part of this whole episode was not the angry words and demeanor of Rev. Wright. It was the total and absolute agony on Barack Obama's face as he distanced himself from Rev. Wright after the disastrous weekend. I can only pray that someday they'll be able to experience reconciliation and a renewed and redeemed relationship.