Politics

Today (June 11), the Associated Press reported that President Obama’s former minister blamed “[t]hem Jews” for preventing the President from speaking with him. In an interview, the Reverend [I use the term loosely] Jeremiah Wright said, “Them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me.”  Here’s a link to the article. The AP, however, omitted some other choice remarks that Reverend Wright managed to squeeze into the one minute forty-five second interview.

Wright went on to say, “the Jewish vote — the AIPAC vote — is controlling [Obama]; it will not let him send a representation to [the] Darfur review conference . . . . They will not let him talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is.”  You can hear the interview in the entirety of its loveliness here.

Reverend Wright’s comments are, shall we say, unfortunate.  Quite apart from Reverend Wright’s portrayal of the President as his staff’s, and the “Jewish” vote’s, poodle, to be leashed or let out as they please, Wright’s timing could not be worse.

The report of his statements comes a day after a White supremacist, James von Brunn, shot and killed a guard, Stephen T.  Johns, who was African- American, in an attack on the Holocaust Museum here in Washington.  The attack on the museum is just the latest act of terrorism by so-called “lone wolves” of the far right. Two weeks ago, it was the murder of Dr. George Tiller.

Now, I guess I should acknowledge that Reverend Wright “issued a statement . . . that he was ‘disturbed and deeply saddened’ that his comments were stirring discussion again.”  He  apologized “‘for the way I framed my comments. I mis-spoke and I sincerely meant no harm or ill-will to the American Jewish community or the Obama administration.’”

Maybe the realization that the forces of evil are on the march again has put me in a bad frame of mind, but I’m not buying it. Reverend Wright is an anti-semite, and his rhetoric resembles that of von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum murderer.  Here’s a tidbit from a note found in von Brunn’s car, as reported by ABC News: “Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jewish owners tell him to do.”  Sound familiar?

So, Reverend Wright, I am one Jew who is not inclined to accept your apology. And although I can’t speak for him, I suspect that your old friend, the President, wouldn’t mind me telling you to just shut the fuck up.