Obama's speech

I know that this video's probably been seen by just about everyone and their grandparents by now, but I provide it here as a courtesy:



Full transcript of video courtesy of Juan Cole.

Now, I want to share my own special experience with racism and religious fundamentalism. This is an event that happened back in 1998, at the church I was attending at the time, back in the days before conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, before 9/11, before the Supreme Court selected a chimp to be our President, before shit went attempted genocide in Kosovo, before I'd finished pharmacy school, long before I'd gotten it into my head that being a nurse would be more fulfilling. Long before I deconverted into atheism.

It is that last point I want to focus on. I didn't officially declare my atheism until the end of January of this year, but I've felt disconnected and disenfranchised from Christianity for some time now. In fact, it was listening to the Reverend Moses Yang preach about the curse of Ham, and how black people are inferior as a result that started me down this path. I'd been sort of committed to Christianity at the time, having asked Jesus to come into my heart and forgive my sins in Sunday School class when I was eight years old because, like that kid in Jesus Camp, I was bored. I suppose my attitude towards religion at the time was like that of lots of other people's; I'd go with my family to church every Sunday, but just lived my life as my own the rest of the week. Still, it was a part of my identity, and I didn't dare think different for fear of going to Hell after I died.

So, this Sunday in the long-ago summer of 1998, I went to church as usual, expecting to be bored out of my ming like I usually was, expecting to be playing a mental game of Goldeneye to pass the time. I thought it was just going to be another Sunday - sit for an hour to listen to Rev. Moses rant about sin, or the End-of-the-World and his interpretation of eschatology, or maybe some combination of both - and then go home and play some Goldeneye for real. I wasn't expecting a small, but fundamental, change in my world view to happen that day.

One of the church members was an older gentleman who'd suffered a stroke not too long ago that rendered him unable to ambulate and dependent on a private-duty nurse for much of his activities of daily living. His private duty nurse, who was the only black person in the room, accompanied his patient to the service. So far, so good - a hard-working man just doing his job, and getting his weekly dose of religion to boot. A win-win situation, right?

We sang hymns, prayed some prayers, and then the world changed. Then Moses starts going all Bob Jones and starts in about the Curse of Ham (relevant bible passage here, or check out the lolcat version), and how black people and Africans are inferior to everyone else because of this. Through it all, I'm sneaking glances over at the nurse, wondering why he doesn't just get up and walk out. I mean, holy shit, he's the only black person in the room surrounded by Chinese people who are, for the most part, listening raptly to this hate speech. Why doesn't he realize that's he's no longer wanted here, and just get up and leave?

I'm no saint. I remember my sophomore year of college, the year before, when I'd had black roommates, who I avoided as much as possible because I couldn't stand rap, I couldn't stand their being so loud, because I just plain couldn't stand them. Still, I know this about myself: I never believed that all blacks were ghetto blacks, like these guys were (they were from Newark, NJ). The nurse was a professional, as far from ghetto as it was possible to get, and the fact that he sat there, throughout the entire fucking sermon, and did not abandon his patient taught me more about professionalism than I'd learned, up until that point, in pharmacy school. He sat in his seat next to his charge, stock still, expressionless, and did not make a move to get up until after the service was over. Needless, to say, I never saw him at this church again. Still, I'd like to thank him for showing me what true professionalism is, for not abandoning his patient (huge no-no for nurses), and for helping me get over my prejudices against folk of different races. I don't know his name, but I hope he's fine and is happy doing whatever it is he's doing now. Sorry you had to go through that, man.

I started to question my Christian beliefs then. I started to ask myself why, if God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to die for all of out sins, that he would play favorites and set aside a race of people to be the slaves of another. Then, news of Christian Serbians slaughtering Muslim Albanians made me question these beliefs more, 9/11 brought me back to the faith, and long story short, a combination of Bush, holier-than-thou Christian fundamentalism, and Richard Dawkins brought me to my present atheism.

Anyway, I know now who I'd want for President of the United States. Sure, he's not perfect, and he's no Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney, but I think he's got it. Go Obama!

Clinton's Ace in the Hole

Here's an interesting read: "Hillary Clinton's Superdelegate 'Firewall'" courtesy of Sean Gonsalves at Alternet. In short, don't think that just because Barack Obama is ahead in the primaries that he will necessarily win the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Hillary Clinton might get the nomination, partly through the efforts of superdelegates voting for her at the party convention at the end of August this year, and the irony here is how essentially undemocratic the idea really is. Normal delegates are supposed to be locked into their votes - there isn't really anything stopping them from being able to vote for whoever they want to, but the whole point of primary elections is to get a certain number of pledged votes at the convention (through the delegates) for the presidential contender. It is very bad form for normal delegates to vote for anyone other than who they are pledged to, which is why most delegates don't do that. Superdelegates, on the other hand, are officially unpledged; that is, they can vote any damn way they please. Essentially, this is a political machine; this encourages candidates to kiss the asses of those prominent Democrats whose support they need, and ensures that nobody gets nominated that the elite party leadership does not approve of (as happened with Jimmy Carter in 1976). This is where Clinton has the advantage; many superdelegates are politicians (including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and former President Jimmy Carter) with some of whom she has established relationships. So, Hillary Clinton has a major advantage because of her political experience at the federal level. Obama unfortunately does not have this advantage, being a first term senator who has been involved in politics at the federal level for many less years than Clinton has.

I'm not saying that I buy into the idea of a Clinton nomination as inevitable, which I'm sure the mainstream media is going to start hyping up again, once the superdelegate issue really starts to take off in the nightly televised newscasts. Still, Obama is going to have to win really big in the upcoming primaries to have a true advantage at the convention. Those of you supporting Obama are going to have to step it up to counter the Clinton advantage with the superdelegates.