The Obama campaign notwithstanding, we should all be saddened by Wright's

[question everything]

continuing suggestions that the government "invented AIDS to infect black people."

We know that when AIDS first struck, it attacked the homosexual community, with prominent whites like Rock Hudson and "anti Communist" Roy Cohn and others. At least, I hope that there isn't any DUer who believe this stuff.

But the comment show how deeply our racial divide still is, how mistrusting blacks, and other groups, are of our government on domestic issues.

And I think that this is something that Obama alluded to in his Philadelphia speech, that many whites, too, feel disenfranchised.

I think that for Wright and, perhaps other black ministers, to propagate such myths is the same as white talk show hosts talking about Obama's "going to handcuff all the whites" if elected President. (Yes, a co-worker of my spouse, an Evangelical but with a very dimmed bulb in his brain made that comment).

We have looked at Karl Rove and company as propagating campaigns of divisiveness and it is sad that some black leaders contribute.

In his commentary yesterday on NPR, Daniel Schorr said that Rev. Wright put Obama on notice; that once he is the President, he becomes the hated government and he will go after him.

A major difference between Democrats and Republicans, of course, is that we believe in the good that a government can do for the people.

Yes, blacks till comprise the majority of people in jail and of people living in poverty, but to throw a blank blame on "the government" is not going to help.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Meh.

I'm not nearly as concerned about loony conspiracy theories from people I shouldn't even know, as I am about people like George Bush actively conspiring to spread HIV/AIDS by preventing the distribution and use of condoms, sex education, etc.

[nomorenomore08]

8. I agree. I think the potential harm done by Rev. Wright's paranoia is miniscule compared

to a government so lacking in common sense that it thinks "abstinence-only" programs will stop people from fornicating, instead of simply inducing them to have riskier (i.e. unprotected) sex.

[Mojambo]

2. He's certainly wrong about Aids, but...

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762136.html

[question everything]

9. Again on NPR yesterday, Schorr mentioned that for many young voters

who went in droves to Obama, the Tuskegee story is an unknown.

[patrice]

3. Everyone needs to honestly ask themselves why they believe what they believe.

And they need to try to identify the answers to those questions with as little outside influence as possible.

[earth mom]

4. I thought the idea was loony tunes when I first heard it...

but I'm a :tinfoilhat: wearer about many things I believe the g'ment to be part of.

911, protecting the pharma giants regarding their role in causing the Autism epidemic, etc.

So, I just can't say that Wright is wrong about this. Look what the powers that be did during Katrina to the black community there.

Frankly, it seems like the g'ment is trying to kill ALL of us peons off! :grr:

[haymakeragain]

5. Ever seen "And the Band Played On"?

They might not have created and planted it, but they most certainly used it for political purposes at the expense, or I should say, at the cost of thousands of lives.

Wright might have leaped a little too far, but not by much and because of our history and especially his, I don't hold it too much against him.

Why dwell on just that claim?

[wtmusic]

6. The claim is poorly stated and inflammatory.

If he had used your words:

"They might not have created and planted it, but they most certainly used it for political purposes at the expense, or I should say, at the cost of thousands of lives."

he wouldn't risk alienating anyone and would have been correct.

[maxsolomon]

7. yeah, that's sad, but what's sadder

is that his assertion that 9/11 was blowback for US government "terrorist" policies is lumped in with farrakan & AIDS-was-created as :tinfoilhat:. hell, OBL said that was his reason!

who else said that?
Chalmers Johnson
Noam Chomsky
Ward Churchill
Max Solomon
Mrs. Max Solomon
everyone who knows the actual history of this country & its government.

[nomorenomore08]

10. Yeah, the "blowback" theory is another thing that always gets misinterpreted.

Either people dismiss it as craziness, or they become understandably outraged thinking that it translates as "Those 3,000 Americans deserved to die." And Ward Churchill certainly didn't help matters with his "little Eichmanns" comment. But in reality, it was more a matter of 3,000 people dying for their government's sins.

[gatorboy]

11. And you say you question everything...

Time for a name change, pal!

[Lady-Damai]

12. I don't blame the government. I blame white supremacy. n/t