Tue, Aug 5th - 12:50AM
Two things to note:
A man was on a train. He wore a hat with a big letter "D" on it. It was for a fairly well known team and another asked him: "Are you a fan?" The reply was simple: "No, my children gave it to me. The big letter "D" is for Dad, you see." The reply was a derisive "That's Stupid!", with an obvious disdain for his and his childrens' lack of understanding. What he missed though, was the honor and love reflected in the giving of the gift and the using of the silly little gift. Who really then is the childish one? Wise Fools!!!
This is the way the world sees a lot of things. There are preconceptions, and we as Christians are accused of this as well. Sadly, sometimes that may be deserved. You see, because of the buzz caused by Obama's obtuse comments lately, a lot has been said about racism. Two people who got on the train at the Colorado University, (which makes me think they might be students) were discussing this. The general thrust, which they seemed to agree upon, is that Barack Obama cannot be a racist, and his comments cannot be racist, because he is black. Now, I should have held my tongue, but I jumped in and asked them if they saw the gross logical error there. They sort of gave that dumb cow look at me like they didn't follow. I explained. The circular argument that using race as a defining factor of whether someone is racist or not is, in and of itself racist, ergo, anyone who would rely upon that argument is by definintion, a racist. Put another way, in order to be color blind -- you have to be color blind. As soon as you percieve the difference in color, you are no longer color blind. This concrete metaphor was not enough to get through to them! They offered lame arguements to that, mostly relying upon the "fact" that a black man could not be a racist to "prove" the point that Barack Obama could not be a racist. I told them they were "begging the question", but these mighty enlightened modern day Aristotle wannabes had no clue what I was talking about. A high school student should understand this, but I guess we have been dumbed down to this level. Yikes! What sheep we truely are! Since I could not get through with any logic or basic philosophy that was not part of the their sophistry based biases, I flat out asked them: "So, since I am white, I must be a bigot?" They immediately responded "yes" in unison! "So, since you are white, too, you are bigots who are not qualified to judge me for that, right?" That got some confused muttering and I added the coup de grace: "And I am quarter blooded Indian, so you are twice the bigots for trying to judge me!" I don't think they got the double entendre that there were two of them, and this, of course, amused me. I laughed. They scowled. The thing that bugs me the most is the assumption that Barack is not racist. He might not be! That is true and fair. However, if his comment is a parapraxis, and it seems likely that it is, the truth is not something he can easily deny. If this is indeed a Freudian slip, then this is a semi-conscious thing on his part. That means that there is some way in which these thoughts are consciously repressed and then unconsciously released. The thing being repressed is bias, bigotry and racism, more likely than not. Rather than admit some bias (that few of us are lacking, BTW) and trying to deal with it, Barry seems to want to just flat out deny it and hope it goes away. Well, our attention on it probabaly will, but if he has an underlying problem, it can only get worse. Try reading up on this in psychology texts. Hopefully, we can still read... There is, in this, a Christian message. If Barack is truely a child of the light, he will step into the light. If he loves the darkness, that is where he belongs. Read the words of Christ on this. I won't even give you a reference, because this is so central, you will find it everywhere. Shalom, Mel
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