Inspiration Versus Degradation

Sometimes our degraded press prefers the prediction to the event itself. I'm talking about Jeremiah Wright's interview with Bill Moyers. It aired last Friday night and to my mind was one of Bill's best interviews. Rev. Wright was talking to someone in his own metier. Moyers is also ordained, is a great speaker and cares deeply about social justice. So it was an equal interviewing an equal -- so seldom the case on television.

Bill Moyers nevertheless pushed Wright hard, raised all the questions Wright's out-of-context sound bites have aroused and played lengthy excerpts from his sermons. I was inspired. This is a pastor I'd listen to on a Sunday instead of namby-pamby Tim Russert or the various screaming clubs on network TV.

Wright seems utterly sincere to me. He strikes me as having a true spiritual calling. When he says, "America's chickens have come home to roost," I can't fault his logic. Haven't we been squandering hard earned taxpayer money on overseas adventures while we starve poor children? Haven't we been supporting dictators while prating of democracy? Haven't we been enriching profiteers at the expense of health care and education? You betcha.

A week ago I told my audience in Rome that in the last several years, I've been ashamed to be an American. A cheer went up from the amphitheater. It was such a relief, audience members later told me, to hear an American speak the truth for a change.

The Italians may have voted for Silvio Berlusconi, but they don't think George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been good for America or the planet. Like most Americans, they would love to see them gone. So would Italians. Italians love American and feel pain when we slide away from the great ideals our Constitution and Bill of Rights have given the world.

Italians feel they have a stake in America. It's interesting to hear how thrilled they are by New York. When I say "sono New Yorkese" (I'm a New Yorker), they are delighted. And they also love LA and Chicago and Miami. Many Italians commute between New York and Rome, LA and Milan, Miami and Florence. They can't vote in the US but you'd never know that by how interested they are in American politics. They love our great 18th century traditions -- sometimes more than we.

So where's the discussion of Jeremiah Wright's real calling? You can't find it. Our idiotic press prefers to play orphaned excerpts and force Barack Obama to apologize for words he never spoke. What is this apology stuff? Everyone has to apologize for their pastors, their doctors, their mothers, their fathers, their churches, their social affiliations. Why? Apologies are cheap. Inspiration is hard to find.

Just because a man is inspired by his pastor doesn't mean he agrees with every word his pastor says. Duh. Even a moron knows that. But inspiration remains important. And you will never be inspired by running stuff out of context and playing gotcha.

Our press has become a sea of triviality, meanness and irrelevant chatter.

God knows inspiration is always welcome. Moyers and Wright gave us that on Friday night.

Comments

[dadumdee]

I love when people write mature, thoughful articles. Great job, and many thanks.

[Sarah76]

I also listened to the interview and found the Rvnd. Wright deeply inspiring. He seems to be a very kind man and after listening to a larger excerpt of the sermon I understood what he was saying. Not that the terrorists were right, but that terrorism breeds terrorism. For a father in Afghanistan to have his innocent wife and children killed during a war with weapons that had been provided by an American government, he will look for revenge. This doesnt make it right which is why we must look beyond to forgiveness. He was trying, on that Sunday following 9/11, to make his parishoners see that revenge is what had started us down this path and that we must forgive in order to stop the terrorism. However, his words were not heeded and now we find ourselves deep into Iraq, with thousands dead and no end in sight.

[SethBLiNK]

These are wise words, Ms. Jong, and coming from somebody who has publicly backed Hillary for President, they are brave in their honesty. Well done!

[jules135]

Completely agree w/this poster and w/Ms. Jong.

[ICUP]

He's a religious leader and thus incapable of speaking the truth on any subject. They are snake-oil slaesmen and hucksters who profit on the ignorance and misery of others. It's time we had a rational, secular President who didnt feel the need to kowtow to the Salvation Racketeers.

[Horst]

Absolutely correct...it's also tragic for the people who follow them.

[JackLivigni]

Simply ridiculous.

[JimReed]

Erica,
I think you and Rev. Wright might be mistaken in saying America's chickens have come home to roost. We started a war for greed, and our best of breed military is fighting not for defense of America, but to secure international assets for those giving the orders, and in denial of the wayward chickens. I am sure some day they will come home to roost, but right now hawks and doves are circling in the rain.

[HelpMeJebus]

Great piece.
After watching the Moyers interview, I was disgusted with how the media fed into the B.S. But, now I am really upset with how Hillary exploited it as well. "You can pick your pastor..." Wright is speaking the truth, and Obama does not need to apologize for it.
Wright should be honored as a true patriot, and a real hero...

[sittingcow]

Right Wing Patriotism:

Dr Samel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

http://www.samueljohnson.com/refuge.html

And he was being too polite. "Scoundrel" does not even begin to describe those who have hijacked this country.

Here is the full transcript of the Fox interview with Ambassador Edward Peck.
http://tinyurl.com/2wppp2

At one point he also said (not sure if it was during the same appearance) that "we can't win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis when their hearts and minds are flying in the air". Obviously he was referring to the mindless and indiscriminate bombing of Iraqi civilians and their flying body parts.

[mellene]

I listened to both speeches today and yesterday and came away with them making me think, which to me was more important than listening to the utterly disgusting media soundbites. The media must think that the public are utterly ignorant sheep that do just what the media tells them to do and think. I hope that this will make the public wake up and go after the media darlings who attempt to do nothing other than further divide the public. They (the media) have become like the paparazzi only with soundbites in addition to the video clips. Any of us in addition to minority races who are of age and lived through the 60s race riots understand exactly what Reverend Wright is speaking about. I think it's time that it gets broader coverage as it should have when King was assassinated.

[Ariadne]

Bravo Erica. I felt that there wasn't much I disagreed with in Reverend Wright's sermons since I very first heard the soundbites. He is right and America needs new leadership that respects all of humanity.

[JackLivigni]

As the New Testament says - Prophets have never been accepted at home. Wright, in his style, speaks "prophetic truth" to power. Many claim his damnation is too sweeping and Anti-American. The question being begged is: isn't Jeremiah Wright an ex-marine, and isn't his congregation American? Now if Wright is damning America as a whole, and his crowd is cheering, then the only logical conclusions are 1) that his crowd is stupid, or 2) his crowd and himself are not real Americans.

These are, in fact, the unspoken warrants of the Hannitys of America, an unsavory brand of racists and bigots that deserve a credit rating of complete bankruptcy on their intellectual credit report.

Clearly, both Wright and the African American community are just as American as Hannity's America, and some would argue much more so. Wright condemns brutality and oppression, and in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, denounces the abberration of "justifiable collateral damage" as an unholy and non Christian tenet of belief. We can be Christian and believe in justifiable collateral damage, but don't call unpatriotic those who call murdering innocents what it is. We as a nation make our choices and must live with the consequences.

[Horst]

Keep religion out of politics.......it's toxic and irrational.

[ontheroad38]

Thank you Erica. Finally, a voice of reason. Hope everyone also heard Wright's speech last night. It was absolutely inspiring, intelligent, educational, funny and entertaining. (and this from me, a jewish, new yorker!!) This year has surely given those of us who 'religiously' watch the political news reason to shut off our TV's and use our own investigative powers to find truth and reality. Watching the pundits nowadays is like watching a bunch of jabbering blobs moving chairs around in a dark closet with no exit, no logic , no consistency, and no integrity. You've articulated a point of view, very much needed.

[Boobaloo]

"When he says, "America's chickens have come home to roost," I can't fault his logic"

I agree with wholeheartedly Ms.Jong.

I would add to your list of hypocrisy: Israel.

Our entire system of government and media are manipulated by Israel,Zionists and their lobbies. The MSM is their ever present, ever willing propaganda machine and our government is Israels ATM, blood bank of American lives, military outlet and tool to kill as many and as wantonly in Arabia as the Jewish nation wants and demands of us.

As the same lies and rhetoric about non-existent WMDs and hitler and poor little Israel are in full swing, we as a nation need to snip the umbilical cord to Israel before they obliterate or wipe the US off the map.

[happytrails]

I can't believe the bigoted double standard some people are willing to display openly. They are willing to take out of context a few words which IN CONTEXT display an impassioned desire for equality for all Americans and the huge disappointment that America has not lived up to its potential.

On the other hand, I see no display of disgust for the hate-filled rantings of a Falwell who after 9/11 blamed the tragedy on the attempt of gay people to gain equal rights. I don't remember hearing anyone call for Bu$h to throw THAT godless, unchristian pig out of the WH on his fat ass. His rantings were not about equality FOR ALL Americans but rather AGAINST a segment of our population. That is someone the press should have lynched and hounded unmercifully. Thankfully, he is now dead and unable to continue spewing his divisive venom.

[NyPrincess]

Amen Erica!