A Presidential Mindset (Barack Obama)

The above web link takes you directly to the "About Us" page at the church formerly attended by President Obama for an extended period of time, commonly cited during the 2008 election as 20 years or more. Obama credits Rev. Wright with leading him to Christ.

My specific concern here is the description of the church, written by the church itself. I believe this to be a crucial insight into the mindset of our current President, and indeed the controlling Democratic party at large. The critical issue here is one of labels. How do you view yourself? What are the first adjectives that come to mind if I asked you to describe yourself? Your church? Your specific social circle?

As a white male in modern American society, I am endlessly confronted with the "fact" that I am inherently racist, inherently biased. In no possible way can I understand the experience of a minority in this country, since I am of the majority. But in answering for myself the questions I posed above, my first descriptive word is not "white." As I work through my mental list, I can think of dozens of words and never come to any that describe the color of my skin (unless you include sunburned, which is me every summer). My point here is that I do not think of myself-or others-in terms of color.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/05/state/n111547S31.DTL

This article is very telling of the election situation in California. Obama has stated clearly that he is in support of homosexual marriage. Looking specifically at black voters, you had an overwhelming majority vote for President Obama, and yet vote in support of a measure - Prop 8 - that is in direct opposition to his stance on the issue (one of the most significant issues of our time, far outweighing the economy in my opinion). A question, then: if I vote for a President who I don't agree with on crucial issues, merely because his skin color matches my own, how then must I label my behavior?

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2710

I picked one short article out of many on the subject, but according to exit polling data, Obama gathered 95% of the black vote. The media labeled this "historic" and it seems everyone was quick to point out how we have overcome another barrier in our quest for a racism-free society. But again, I pose a question: if reports after the election had indicated that 95% of white people had voted for McCain, and he won because of it, what would have been the media response? Would the solidarity of race that black voters showed on election night been applauded if it had been white Americans instead?

I will not answer the above questions myself, I am probably in enough hot water already for even asking them :). But I will say this: the color of my skin has nothing to do with the content of my character. Dr. King was not trying to get to a point where a black man would be the President of the United States; he was trying to get to a point where we (as a nation) looked past skin color to matters of true importance. Skin color is a matter of style, as it were, and not of substance. And that becomes the point of my argument in regards to both how President Obama his administration view our nation. In dealing specifically with the racial issue, we will be past our racial problems when we no longer notice the skin color of a candidate, but instead examine his (or her) stance on the issues. I don't want a white President, or a black President, I want a President of sound judgment and strong, positive character. As we applaud the fact that we now have a black President, are we inferring that the particular pigmentation of his epidermis makes him qualified to run the most powerful nation on Earth? I ask this question honestly, without malice and assuming the best intentions on the part of President Obama.

If I were laying on the operating table waiting for a life-saving surgery, I don't want to hear about how hard my doctor is going to try, or that he's the first great doctor of his ethnicity to perform this procedure. I want to hear that he knows what the heck he is doing, and that he is respected in his industry as one of the best around.

Our country - our basic freedoms - are undergoing life-altering surgery at this point. Consider the surgeon, and let me know what you think.