I believe that I belong to a generation of Americans ("Generation X") who have moved beyond the race issue that has consumed this nation from its inception to the present. I, and those I associate with, embrace and live the ideals of racial equality; indeed, I personally have never known any other way. I grew up in a mixed-race neighborhood in New Jersey before moving to West Virginia 15 years ago.
The embrace of the Obama campaign by a large and deep cross-section of Americans indicates that there are many, especially among the young, who feel--as I do--that race is a non-issue in the selection of a President.
That is why Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's spiritual mentor and adviser, matters.
Wright, to get to the point, is a racist. For kickers, he's also a loon, believing as he does that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus. And as West Virginia Democrats and independents consider their primary election options, consider whether you would vote for someone who joined, as an adult, Fred Phelps' "World Church of the Creator", and made annual contributions that exceed West Virginia's average annual income. Phelps' great contributions to society include protesting Iraq war funerals, in addition to his protest at the Sago Mine memorial a couple of years ago, as a messenger of "God's wrath" against the decadence of America.
And that's the problem with Obama and Wright. Obama put his money where Wright's mouth was. And, in the great scheme of things, Wright is no different that Phelps. Would you vote for a member of Phelps' church for President? Or would you consider it a sufficient lapse in judgment as to lose your vote? To ask the question is to answer it.
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