God Damn America

Sounds inflammatory, doesn't it? If I were to say "God Damn America," would that mean that I hate my country? That I'm un-American? Un-Patriotic? A Nazi appeaser? A terrorist sympathizer? A potential terrorist myself? I'm sure to some of the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing cretins on the right it means all of that and probably even more. Of course, some of us prefer that our arguments are a little more nuanced than that.

I'd hoped that the whole flap of Jeremiah Wright was going to just go away. But our YouTube, sound-byte, gotcha political culture, I should have known it wouldn't just go away. It's become entirely too easy to take small clips and sound-bytes completely out of context and make somebody look entirely crazy or radical. And the Republicans have absolutely played this manufactured controversy over Jeremiah Wright to the hilt. They've framed it as the "radical black pastor" casting aspersions upon our pristine and entirely noble country and have painted Obama with the same brush. And sadly, it's resonating with some people. The exit polling after the West Virginia primary showed that Jeremiah Wright and his connection to Obama was still very much on the minds of the voting public. Not that I'd ever call West Virginia a bastion of enlightened thinking, but it was still very sad to see.

Yeah, I guess it's kind of shocking at first to see somebody in front of their congregation screaming "God Damn America." But if you actually look at Wright's full comments and not just the "God Damn America" portion, you might take away an entirely different impression of those "controversial sermons." The right though, doesn't want you to look at Wright's comments in their full context. They want the American electorate to simply focus on the "radical black pastor" screaming "God Damn America" because it's such an inflammatory image.

So what is it that Wright said that was so egregious and wrong? I've looked at his comments and quite honestly, though I'll nitpick a few things here and there, I don't think he was entirely that far off the mark with some of his comments. Let me give you a couple of examples...

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and The Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Well, we did in fact, drop nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Mostly civilians. And we were the ones that trained and equipped Osama bin Laden and the mujahadeen when we wanted them to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. In the wake of 9/11, bin Laden said that our foreign policy, more specifically the fact that we were keeping bases in Saudi Arabia, led to him attacking our nation. Our foreign policy under George W. Bush, spreading democracy at the barrel of a gun, has created a generation of people that are willing to kill and die for their cause. Isn't that a case of our own chickens coming home to roost? Sounds like it to me.

“The government lied about Pearl Harbor too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. Governments lie. The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin. They wanted that resolution to get us in the Vietnam War. Governments lie. The government lied about Nelson Mandela and our CIA helped put him in prison and keep him there for 27 years. The South African government lied on Nelson Mandela. Governments lie."

Well, whether or not the government knew about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor remains a point of controversy among some people. But the government did in fact, lie about the events in the Gulf of Tonkin as a means of prying a resolution out of Congress. That's entirely true. Members of our government, including Vice President Dick Cheney, did in fact support the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the Apartheid government. That's also fact. Governments... even our very own government do lie. So where is Jeremiah Wright wrong?

"The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment. They purposely infected African American men with syphilis. Governments lie. The government lied about bombing Cambodia and Richard Nixon stood in front of the camera, ‘Let me make myself perfectly clear…’ Governments lie. The government lied about the drugs for arms Contra scheme orchestrated by Oliver North, and then the government pardoned all the perpetrators so they could get better jobs in the government. Governments lie.... The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. Governments lie. The government lied about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and a connection between 9.11.01 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Governments lie.”

Well, the government did in fact lie about the Tuskegee experiment. What Wright said about the governmental experiment which infected African-American men with syphillis is entirely true. The governent did lie about bombing Cambodia and the government lied about the drugs for arms scheme. Where is Wright wrong? Okay, here is where I take issue with some of Wright's comments... I don't believe that government is responsible for "inventing" the HIV virus, though in the wake of the Tuskegee experiments, the flooding of inner-cities with drugs to fund their wars in Central and South America, the embracing by some leading figures in this country of the Eugenics movement, is it really so hard to understand why he might be a little skeptical? And on his last comment... well... the Bush Administration did in fact, lie about a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. That's right on the money.

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness....

Again... where is Jeremiah Wright wrong? In any of those comments?

Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons."

Is any of that untrue? I'm quite sure that nobody has ever called her by the "n" word, nor do I think that Hillary could ever truly know and understand what it's like to be a black man living in a country that for many, many, many years did define African-Americans as non-persons... or 3/5 of a person anyway. Where is Jeremiah Wright wrong?

I could go on and on and on... I probably have already gone on more than long enough as it is. But can you see how easy it is to take things out of context and with a little political spin, make somebody out to be a stark raving loon? Obviously, the people in West Virginia, to the tune of about 75% of those answering the exit polls, have bought into this manufactured controversy, have labeled Jeremiah Wright as un-patriotic and un-American and viewed Barack Obama through the same lens.

Our government is not perfect. Not by a loooooong stretch. And it's not un-American, it doesn't mean you hate this country to point that fact out. Yes, God Damn our government for some of the things we have done and continue to do. We are directly responsible for some of the most evil acts in the world. Our government removed a democratically elected government in Chile back in the early 70's, replacing it with the brutal military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's government, if you remember, is responsible for the disappearance and murder of thousands of its citizens. That was entirely the doing of our government... represented by one John Negroponte who helped train the government's death squads. And Negroponte, if you're scoring at home, is currently our Deputy Secretary of State after serving as our Director of National Intelligence.

Our government is directly responsible for atrocities such as that and more. And despite what those on the right will tell you, it's not un-American to point that out. Idealized or not, some of us believe that our country was founded upon and holds certain ideals and principles dear. And we desperately want to see this country live up to those principles. We want our country to live up to the promise we all believe it has. It's not un-patriotic to want desperately for our country to be a shining example in this world, to truly be the beacon of hope we once were.

Despite what the right has said and continues to say, despite the anti-American brush they paint Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama by proxy with, nothing Wright said makes him un-American or un-patriotic. Certainly no more than those of us that truly love our country... love it so much that we can step back and objectively see the things we do in the world and say, "yeah, God Damn us" for this or for that.

Our government, our country will never be perfect. We are led by people who will make mistakes, make bad decisions and who will do bad things from time to time. To believe otherwise is pure folly. Blindly obeying, believing in the infallability of America and never questioning our government is also pure folly. It is up to us to steer this country in the direction we want it to go. It is up to us to make this country live up to its promise. It's up to us to cut through the spin, look past the YouTube clips and selectively edited sound-bytes and get to the truth. There is nothing wrong with, nothing un-patriotic about being critical of our government and our country. There is nothing wrong with saying "God Damn Us" from time to time. Because sometimes, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, we really deserve it.

~Kevin S.