I was reading Sean Wilentz piece in the Daily Beast and got pissed off readin him defend Andy Young and Bob Johnson for the dumb shit they said during the primaries. Wilentz actually called Johnson "one of the most respected deacons of the African-American community." But I decided I wasn't going to be pissed. In fact, it was actually quite small of me to be pissed. Instead I'd remember that the best meditation on Barack Obama I've heard--bar none--was delivered, freestyle, by a disciple of Martin Luther King. The fact is that Barack Obama would not have been elected, not just without the past struggles of our greatest generation, but without their current support. They don't want to all be Bob Johnson. We don't want to all be Pacman Jones. Don't believe what they tell you about a "generational struggle." Even when the "they" is me.
Get used to this clip. I may post it ten times tomorrow--though I wish I had better video. Who can tell, indeed.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I prefer Charlie Rangel's meditation on Obama (like how I framed that to make it sound like it wasn't a threadjack? Well I guess it really isn't):
"Who is going to lead us out of poverty?"
"Barack Obama!"
"Who is going to save the United States of America?"
"Barack Obama!"
"Who is going to save the entire world?"
"Barack Obama!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRZz_HQ5Mw
Right on. We've seen a lot of bad crazies during this election, but oh man, there's a lot of good crazies out there right now. In particular, I like watching the crazies waiting in line for 8 hours to vote.
GObama!
Damn, have you been saving this up? This should be as famous, wel, more famous, then some of the other crazy preacher vids we've been seeing for the last twelve months.
Made me happy.
Down here in the ATL - just saw a Wright commercial during a local news commercial break.
To: TNC
Re: "Generational Struggle."
Don't get mad because Wilentz's article was more about himself, rather than Jackson, Johnson, Young, et al., and where he now fits in this realignment. It's gonna be a struggle for a lot of folks.
Expect to see more of these kinds of articles, especially from older, white liberal type people. What kept Wilentz, Judis, Blumenthal, Lanny Davis, and Bill himself in a lather about Obama's electability was the fact that their political souls were seared in 1968. Whatever else this election is about, one of them will be the realization from many elder-statesman progressives (as well as many older journalist types) that an Obama election means the County has finally moved past 1968.
I... really can't read anyone say good things bout Bob Johnson and take them seriously after that. Jesse 'n em- ok, but not Bob "tits n ass" Johnson.
Ugh. I'm with McGruder on that one.
"Expect to see more of these kinds of articles, especially from older, white liberal type people. What kept Wilentz, Judis, Blumenthal, Lanny Davis, and Bill himself in a lather about Obama's electability was the fact that their political souls were seared in 1968."
I'd take it one step further: Many of these guys are worried about their own irrelevancy. Especially Bob Johnson.
MSNBC has announced that Obama's grandmother has died.
What a shame about Barack Obama's grandmother. Death be not proud, especially of your cruel-as-shit sense of timing.
Who in the hell respects Bob Johnson? Certainly no one who's spent any time watching BET.
bob johnson is a clown. period. but the cat i want to see interviewed a nanosecond after they call it for Obama is Shelby Steele.
I talked to a woman today, works for a VIP. I laughed with her, cuz it's hard to get VIPs on the phone this week. She laughed back -- gee, I wonder what's the big deal this week? So I said it's been hard to get my 15 year old to appreciate it -- I mean, he thinks he knows it's a big deal, but well... I'm old, and I doubt he really quite gets it.
She told me she's had the same experience with her grand-daughter, who was watching the news on the couch with her and asked: Why are you going to vote? It's going to be cold, and there will be a long line, and you're always telling us that you've got a bad back. Why vote? It won't change anything.
So she said she tried to explain about growing up long ago in North Carolina to her granddaughter, and then later on she planned ahead, went to a store this weekend to get one of those folding chairs that people use for outdoor concerts. When the clerk was ringing it up, she said what it was for.
And the owner of the store came over, to stop the clerk. I won't take your money for that, ma'am.
Mark my words: there will be people singing in those lines tomorrow.
That warmed the cockles of this agnostic's heart.
I love how you can hear Obama laughing along at various points. He has a fantastic laugh. It's a striking contrast to McCain's high pitched whine.
I voted by mail in CA. We're going blue for Obama, no question, no problem. I don't know if there will be lines at my polling place, but I'm planning to swing by during the day a bunch of times with sandwiches and drinks for the poll workers and, if there is a line, donuts and stuff for folks in line.
I was in Chicago in 1968. I voted for President for the first time in 1968. This is the first election I've really cared about -- although I always vote, always -- since Bobby Kennedy was shot. I'll never forget, but I'm ready to move on. We're going to do this thing.
Is that your lovely laugh in the background near the end? Made me smile just listening to it. Well, made me smile more than I already was.
There was an article by Wilentz on TNR back during the primary basically asserting that it was really the Obama campaign that was racist and the Clintons (and supporters like Johnson) were completely innocent. It reads like a Marvel "No-Prize" explanation.
His line about Pfleger/St. Sabina made me giggle. He was one of those people who had a lot of crazy aimed at him for no reason during the primary.
TNC, as a history prof, I can only say that Wilentz has really been a disappointment during this election season. His pronouncements on race have been jejune at best, and more often just deeply offensive in their cluelessness.
He offers a cautionary tale to any academic who gains proximity to power: check yourself, lest you embarrass yourself.
Wilentz is a HATER.
Plain and simple.
A clowning HATER.
Thank you for the video!
I love that man Joe Lowery. I mean really. I love that man. I know this video by heart. I must have watched it 30 times during the primaries. Godless atheist that I am, by the end of it, I'm on my feet "Praise God! PRAISE GOD!!!"
I was lucky enough to hear him preach 15 years ago and the combination of his story, his courage, and his good good nature just bowl you over.
Good Crazy!!!
The CSPAN video of the entire event is copyrighted and not available for free download, but you can watch it here. The piece in the Youtube video starts at about 32 minutes into the event.
I'm not a believer anymore, to say the least, but I can still be moved by a good preacher, and he was preaching righteously. And he's right about the good crazy and the bad crazy, and I have never in my life felt the good crazy like I've felt it for the last five years years, from the moment I saw Howard Dean challenge Democrats to be Democrats in California to when I discovered the blogosphere and started blogging myself, to the victories in 2006 to where we stand at this moment, on the doorstep of unprecedented victory.
At first it was only a little of the good crazy--a voice in the wilderness that called some people together and helped us understand that we weren't alone--and now it's a full-throated roar of good crazy that we need to keep going for as long as we can sustain it, because we have a lot of work to do in this country. Tomorrow is the first step on a long, long path.
I love that good crazy.
When people say, "Freedom isn't free," I think of people like Rev. Lowry. He's one of many (but not many enough!) who've kept paying and paying and paying for all of us to be free.
I've read two or three jaw-droppingly idiotic pieces from Wilenz at TNR, so this doesn't surprise me one bit. He's been a totally consistent, braying jackass since the start of this campaign season.
Today I feel anxious and excited... I feel like the the Texans are going to the Superbowl... I feel like I felt when I got my 1st copies of the book I wrote... I feel like I felt when I got a phone call and a voice on the phone said, "You have a Son" (I know I should have been there)... Why, maybe because I drank a Redbull and some tea today...
Not sure but it may also have to do with Tuesday, Nov. 4th 2008... today.
Are the polls correct... will I get a chance to cry because I am so happy for one man and so proud of a country that is really trying to get beyond race and prejudice?
I am anxious and excited and I hope you are too and that ain't no bull.
Romans 8:24-25 (New International Version)
... But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
This country has hoped and waited a long time for a highlighted point in history where we as a nation can say that this day was the day a new hope was born for true equality of all men.--SB Ryan