|
|
So first stuff about SXSW, and then all kinds of Obama news, including crazy pastors and one of the best speeches I've ever read in my life.
SXSW wrapped up on Saturday, but I'm still trying to recover from it. Over 2,000 bands descended onto Austin to play at over 50 different venues downtown for the weekend, and I tried to see as many as I could, although it really is quite impossible to see even a small sampling of them.
There is also a lot of strategy involved, since with a wristband I place second in priority to people with badges, and for a "popular" band (popular being a relative term for SXSW, since 99% of the bands are pretty much unknown to the general public) the venue they're playing in can get full fast. So it's a game to figure out which bands you can just show up for right as they start, and which ones (like Vampire Weekend) you have to show up 2 hours before just to make sure you can get in, and then sit through the two bands that play before them. While also weighing in on the bands you're missing by getting to the other venue early, and then of course the problem of what to do when there are 4 bands you want to see, all playing at the same time. And then having to stand up for basically 7 straight hours every night.
But it's still totally worth it and I loved every second of it. So here's the photos from all the bands I saw. My picks of the festival? Vampire Weekend, The Headlights, Meiko, The Hush Sound, and special awards for best live performances for Rocco Deluca (just look at him play guitar) and British Sea Power (which according to wikipedia the trumpet player for that group was knocked unconscious during a show in January after doing a stage dive, but went ahead and played a show the next night)
And speaking of music, here's a list of the weirdest musical instruments ever created, including a subterranean cave.
So in case you've been living under a rock the last week, a few snippets of video from Obama's longtime pastor have been playing on TV basically non-stop over the weekend, which has caused all sorts of uproar, and rightfully so, among lots of people.
But take a step back and actually think about it for a second. First, most of the sermons in his 35 year career are available on the church's website, and out of 35 years of sermons, we get a little over 2 minutes of inflammatory speech of railing against the injustices of black people and how the government has treated them historically. When actually put into context of a full sermon, it doesn't come off as "An hour full of hate speech" like so many of the comment posts on news stories would have you believe, but as part of making a point related to the bible. This is kind of the same attack a lot of evangelical churches take when decrying America for allowing abortion, gays, and immorality. Of course the normal Sunday sermons of loving your neighbor, loving Jesus, and trying to finding hope in God doesn't get any airplay. Or this one explaining why this women chose the church. Or any discussion on the everyday facts about the church.
Not to mention the fact that Obama has has denounced those statements .
Also Rev Wright is a spiritual adviser, not a political one. And as this piece points out, "Such views are supposed to be troublesome because they signal that Obama agrees with them. But if no one believes that Obama agrees with them, then they’re just the views of some dude who knows Obama, and talks to him about spirituality." Because anyone who listens, reads, or looks up anything at all about Obama clearly sees that the comments in that video do not reflect his views at all. We all have our crazy friends or people we know who might expose certain viewpoints we strongly disagree with, but also have their positive attributes too, and no one demands we denounce our friendships.
But then why go to a church that would ever express speech like that? Even Obama realizes it sounds crazy if all you knew the church by was that 2 minute video clip. But as he pointed out in his extraordinary speech this morning (more on that in a second):
The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
....
Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
Because when you get involved in a church, and become friends with the members and have a relationship with the pastor, it becomes important in your life. People often disagree with certain aspects of a church or a particular sermon, but still stick with their spiritual family because of the bonds grown over time.
But all of this is complicated, nuanced, and still probably doesn't placate everyone. It's far easier to show someone this clip, claim this is what Obama believes and has been supporting for 20 years, and leave it at that. It wouldn't be honest or true, but it would be an easy hit job and require a nuanced rebuttal that people wouldn't pay attention to, because of the gotcha politics of today. And that was my first thought when I heard this story broke, of these clips getting sent out on email and unlike the "Obama is a secret terrorist Muslim who wants to eat your babies!" emails, this one cannot be dismissed by pointing out it's made up, but must actually be discussed and put into context.
Which then leads in to today, when Barack gave one of the best speeches I've ever read in my life, not only tackling the Rev Wright issue head on, but also expanding to scope to explore the role of race in America today. I implore you to read the speech in it's entirety (or watch it on Youtube), don't let some news organization parse it down to a few sound bites, but really look at what he's saying. And it is his words, he wrote it over the weekend himself. This is exactly the kind of thing I try to convey when I say "He gets it". That is one of the most nuanced, true, and intellectually honest speeches I've ever heard a politician make. And while it might not satisfy everyone in getting past this issue, at the very least it will hopefully have touched people to look at race in a new way, and what we really need to focus on in politics. Again, the "change" he harps on is the change in the way politics is discussed, the way issues are solved, the way policies are debated. Not in sound bytes, hit-jobs, and distortions, but in actual discussions on the issues and in a nuanced light, not the "You're 100% with us or against us" divisive politics of the last 8 years. Or well, Obama says it far better:
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
And for those who wonder why the youth are overwhelmingly for Obama, this is why:
And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
Needless to say it's gone over quite well with commentators. Or as John Stewart put it: "And so, at 11 AM on a Tuesday, an American politician talked about race like we're adults."
Of course no one ever said Obama's campaign would be easy. From the smear campaigns that Fox helps set-up to the amazing fact that 13% of voters (bottom of page 26) still think he is a Muslim. I suppose that is one of the good things to come out of the whole Rev Wright controversy, you can't have a crazy preacher and be a Muslim at the same time.
Why can't stuff like this get mass forwarded by everyone? Emails with actual sources instead of going "Trust me, I'm an anonymous email so I must be right!"
Subject: The Real Truth About Barack Obama!
Did you know that Barack Obama is a devout Christian? He has been a member of the same United Church of Christ congregation for 20 years, and was married there to his wife Michelle in 1992.
Did you know that Barack Obama often leads the US Senate in the Pledge of Allegiance?
Did you know that Barack Obama is a strong friend of Israel and has spoken out strongly against anti-Semitism?
Did you know his grandparents from Kansas were part of the "Greatest Generation?. His grandfather served with Patton's Army during World War II, and his grandmother, a real "Rosie the Riveter", worked in a bomber assembly plant back home.
Did you know that Barack Obama was opposed to the war in Iraq from day one, before we invaded, even while he was running for the Senate, and knowing his opposition might be politically unpopular?
"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars." --Barack Obama, 2002
Also now that the Republican race is wrapped up, there's been a marked shift in support for Hillary from Republicans even though that never occurred while the Republicans were still trying to figure out their nominee. Instead a vast majority of crossover Republicans voted for Obama. And in a state like Texas, where Hillary won the primary section of the vote by 101k votes, that makes a difference when she got 119k previously registered Republicans to vote for her. My own Dad uses this same tactic actually, to vote for the weakest candidate to try to prop them up and give the Republicans the best chance in November.
On a lighter note, I found this hillarious.
|
