Reader Responses

I have been deeply dismayed by Rev. Jeremiah Wright's outlandish behavior. What could cause a man of God to behave in such an angry, unchristian manner?

Who is this man? Is he the kind grandfatherly man some say, a gentle Teddy Bear whose benevolence and faithful service to God, country and community are well documented, or a demented old windbag without enough sense to come in out of the rain? What gave him the right to curse America with such nonsensical blather? He appeared to be an enigma wrapped in a contradiction with a pinch of wisdom here and a dash of stupidity there!

I wondered if he was so out of touch with mainstream thinking he actually believed Louis Farrakhan was an American hero, that America was really to blame for Sept. 11, and the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus to eradicate his race. Since I prefer conciliatory reasoning to condemnatory judgment I did something radical the past few days. Figuratively I made a concerted effort to walk a mile in Rev. Wright's shoes to better understand his mindset, and I must admit it has been eye opening, uncomfortable and surprisingly emotional. I still do not agree with all his outrageous comments but have gained insight into what makes him so angry.

Disregarding as hearsay stories, my grandmother told me of trips to town on certain Saturdays to watch a "Colored" person hanged or burned, I've reached my own conclusions based solely on events during my lifetime I know to be factual.

I remember as a child not being allowed to associate with "those kind." I remember water fountains and public restrooms marked "White Only." I recall going to movie theaters where "Coloreds" weren't allowed. And if they were, it was in the balcony. I remember reading that black members of my favorite baseball team were not allowed to stay in the team's hotel or eat in the same restaurant as white teammates. I recall black people not being allowed to sit at a lunch counter and having to ride in the back of a bus. I remember a time when his people faithfully served our country in time of war but could not vote and a time when the National Guard had to be called in to ensure the safety of black children as they attempted to enter desegregated public schools. I recall police dogs and fire hoses turned on his people as they peacefully demonstrated and the brutality of Rodney King's arrest. I remember reading about the medical experiments at Tuskegee Institute involving black men with syphilis and how it reminded me of experiments on Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Etched in my memory are the horrific pictures of Emmitt Till, a young man from the North who made the tragic mistake of being too friendly to a white woman in the south. The images of his battered and broken body along with images of those pretty little black girls wearing soiled white dresses being pulled from the rubble of their bombed Sunday school class in Alabama will be with me forever.

Therefore, with these facts fresh in memory, I feel Rev. Wright's pain and have a new appreciation for the raw emotions that drive his speech. But it's time to move on. It's time for him to realize his remarks are not only unacceptable but divisive, destructive and counter-productive to better race relations.

I close this retrospective with a passage of scripture we would all do well to practice: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."

Can we, as a united nation, step into the light of a new day, or will be stumble back into the darkness of midnight's past?

Windel B. Marshall
Tyler