.cuz i got wheels.

(from Off the Wahl)

There is political chit chatter that the fact that Barack Obama failure to denounce his Chicago pastor will ultimately "kill his campaign".
Would you? Would you denounce someone who is like family to you? Who baptized your children and stood by you for years?
I wouldn't (okay, so I don't have a pastor and I haven't been baptized).

I don't agree with Rev. Wright but the moment someone says they think America is sinning and/or heading to hell the country goes in arms. Or do they? No one I know really cared about these remarks. Everyone I know was glad that Michelle Obama (side note: secret service codename is Renaissance...sweeeeet) said that she was for once proud of her country when remarking about her husband.

Have you been proud of your country lately? I haven't.

I've seen the bodies of innocent Iraqis killed by American troops and American bombs. A country that was attacked 5 years ago for having terrorist connection that didn't exist. The administration acting like a stubborn child who is too old to still believe in Santa Claus.
I've seen the video of American troops laughing at the carred bodies of Iraqis, admiting to killing women and children, and yes, throwing a puppy over a cliff.
I have cried with the children of the troopswho learn that they will never seen their fathers or mothers again.
I am not proud of my country.

We have sinned.
(I'm not talking about any sort of Biblical sense of sinning, I'm talking about being a good human being no matter race, religion or creed)

We have fought at no cost to be the most powerful; the omnipresent power in the world. We have bought in excess while others have fought, even harder than the troops overseas to live. We have sinned. We are Rome and our collapse will be grand (and you thought Spitzer was good!). We have launched wars against ideas and attacked knowledge. We are corrupting children and profiting from it at the same time. We have sinned. We are sinners.
Our country is flawed and anyone who disagrees is drifting awake with their eyes wide shut.
I have never been someone to blindly smile and say how proud I am as an American. I never said the Pledge of Alligence in school at the beginning of the day (I always thought it seemed so communist Russia, even at 8). Has anyone been "proud" since Bush took office? Really? Are we so proud of this flaw that we critize anyone who disagrees? Castrate their thoughts.

Barack Obama gave the most important speech not only about race, but about our country since Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, he is running for president but that gives him a national platform to speak as an American and a black man.
He is not preaching. He is not accusing. He is not pointing fingers and making irrational claims like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton (don't get me wrong, not everything they say is irrational/insane, most of it is not but the words they want to be remembered for as usually accusatory or filled with hatred and bitterness).
Will the most important speech that this country has heard in generations be overshadowed because he won't refuse that there are angry people out there.
Angry at the country. Angry at their god. Angry at the world.
Addressing the world in a cool, collected and always moving manner, Obama showed that he can unite (although not without controversy). You will hear that speech quoted and requoted and printed in text books. I don't doubt it.

The average American isn't saying, "Well, he won't denounce his pastor, that's all I got from that".
That is the press.
As Americans we have the freedom of press but more importantly we have the freedom of speech. Our speech. Our words. I refuse to let the media speak for me. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of speculation used to only fill airtime. Put some real people on TV. Ask them if they care. Ask them what they care about at all.

Keith Olbermann doesn't speak for me.
Joe Scarborough doesn't speak for me.
Hannity nor Colmes speak for me.
Brian Williams doesn't speak for me.
Tim Russert doesn't speak for me.
Rev. Wright doesn't speak for me.
Matt Frei doesn't speak for me.
Maureen Dowd doesn't speak for me.
Television doesn't speak for me.
The New York Times doesn't speak for me.
The BBC doesn't speak for me.

I speak for me. I decide things. I am my own fact checker. I am my own researcher. I am taking back my thoughts and refusing to give in to television rating and spring sweeps.

To miscontextualize Descarte: "I think therefore I am"