Blog Archive » 2008 » March

Following-up on my earlier blog "Race Matters," I urge everyone to read the transcript or view the online video of the speech that Barack Obama delivered today in Philadelphia on the issues of race in the presidential campaign and American life.   Whatever your political point of view, this speech now becomes  a critical milestone not only in this campaign but also in the ongoing American dialogue and debate on race.

Readers are welcome to send me your reflections for posting on this blog…. email me at president@trinitydc.edu or click on the envelope icon below…

You can find links to the speech and video at:

cnn.com

washingtonpost.com

abcnews.com 

No, this blog isn't about basketball.

It is about a form of sheer madness that began in March 2003, five years ago. That ugly moment of March Madness began with a bang — "shock and awe" they called it.

Shocking brutality, awesome hubris. Full Article

On the abcnews.com website tonight, an article about former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro's resignation from Hillary Clinton's campaign has already garnered 1680 comments, while New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation after revelations about his involvement with prostitutes has only snaged 280 comments.

What's up with that? Why are more people commenting on the departure of a somewhat venerable icon of feminism rather than the fatal attraction problem of yet another powerful man?

Quite simply, Ferraro's resignation came on the heels of remarks she made about race and gender (not sex), specifically, remarks about Barack Obama's dominance in the Democratic campaign for the presidential nomination. You can read and hear what Ferraro said on the cbsnews.com website.

The comment volume numbers may be superficial, but they illustrate something important: race trumps sex (sex, not gender!) in the public forum these days.

Race matters in America, profoundly. Efforts to shunt-aside the meaning of race in politics or other endeavors almost always fail because of the great shame of the racism that is still rampant in too many places in this nation, and the ongoing political, social, economic and spiritual consequences of racism. Full Article

There she is again.

That woman of a certain style, graceful hair sweeping around her face with the downcast eyes.

That woman standing in sorrow and pain next to the powerful man who juts out his jaw and spits out an apology and then strides away in angry remorse.

The woman he spurned for the pleasure of someone else, something else, something illicit, illegal, ill.

The powerful man who has just lost everything because he cannot control himself.

The sorrowful woman who stands by her man.

Silda Wall Spitzer

Suzanne Craig

Dina Matos McGreevey

Marianne Gingrich

Donna Hanover Giuliani

Hillary Rodham Clinton Full Article

Watching the waning days of a troubled presidency is like being at a movie that you can't stand to keep watching but you can't leave the theater, either. In the last week President Bush has said some truly head-scratching things — like his quizzical response to a reporter's question about the rising price of gasoline; the president had not apparently heard what every commentator has been saying for a while, that we're likely to see $4-a-gallon gas this summer. Here is the exact transcript of this part of his February 28 news conference: Full Article