March 16, 2008
"The Audacity
Of Hopelessness"
Vol. 3 Issue 6
As a Jew, growing up in New York, I
participated in religious studies no
different from my Christian friends.
Although the books we read may have been
different in context, the message was the
same. Be
a good person, believe in God, honor thy
mother and father and cherish this great
nation. Like most of my friends, as I got
older, in my case after my Bar Mitzvah, I
drifted away from religious studies. Even
though the message from my youth was still
with me, I did not practice my religion by
partaking in weekly services, nor did I
belong to any organized congregation.
Years later, after my marriage and the
birth of our two daughters, both my wife and
I, like many young couples in our position,
found a need to return and search for a
spiritual and religious leader whose views
reflected our beliefs about life, religion
and family values. We attended services at
several synagogues listening to the sermons
of different Rabbis. We made our decision
and chose a congregation we believed would
develop our daughters' spiritual beliefs
based on the values with which we were
raised.
This is usually the method most couples
use to choose a house of worship. If we
witnessed a clergyman sermonizing
divisiveness or hatred, we would have left
that congregation before the Amen. This
would not be a message I would want my
children to hear.
I can only believe that Senator Barrack
Hussein Obama and his wife Michele would
choose a congregation that reflected their
views of religion and spirituality—a place
where they would want their daughters to
develop their spiritual beliefs and family
values.
In reviewing what Reverend Jeremiah
Wright has been preaching, I can only wonder
why anyone would want their children exposed
to the hateful rhetoric that spews from Rev.
Wright's lips? The vile vitriolic statements
about America, the hateful screams during
his sermons about white Christians and Jews
is something that anyone with any sense of
values would disavow, especially a
Presidential candidate.
Sen. Obama stated that he had been a
member of the Trinity Church since 1991.
Rev. Wright married him and his wife and he
baptized their daughters. Obama also stated
that although he was an active member of the
church and attended services frequently, he
did miss many Sunday services. Simple
mathematics would tell you that if he missed
30-percent of his Sunday obligations he
would still have been present for over 600
sermons. He was also a member of the
church's advisory committee until March 14,
2008, when he stated he discontinued his
affiliation with the church. Would he have
resigned had he not been a candidate for
President? Who was advising whom? [My
questions]
It is difficult for me to comprehend when
he stated, "I have never heard any hateful
or anti-American statements while I was
present in church." If his statement is
true, I can only think of two things that
could have prevented him from hearing any
vicious anti-American, anti-Semitic, or
anti-white Christian statements. First, as
some of us have been guilty of, sleeping
during services or secondly he is deaf. You
decide!
Obama’s Church awarded the Minister
Farrakhan a "Lifetime Achievement Award."
Obama did not know?
Rev. Wright traveled to Libya with
Farrakhan to meet with Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi.
Obama did not know?
In the November/December issue of his
church’s magazine, Trumpet, Wright heaped
praise on Farrakhan,
whom he helped in organizing the Million Man
March in Washington in 1995. Wright lauded
Farrakhan as one of the giants of the
African-American religious experience in the
20th and 21st centuries. Obama did not read
it?
Obama said, he found religion through
Wright in the 1980s and consulted him before
deciding to run for President. He prayed
privately with Wright before announcing his
candidacy last year. Will he confer with him
if he is elected President? That is a
frightening thought.
In any event, why would someone, who is
shouting in all of his speeches that we must
come together for the sake of our children,
want to subject his own daughters to Rev.
Wright’s vitriolic sermons? He should have
denounced his pastor's vitriol years ago. It
may have been good for America, Obama and
his campaign. This may be the straw that
breaks the back of Obama's campaign.
However, there may be another straw to
consider. It is the title of Barack Hussein
Obama’s book, "Audacity Of Hope"—
the title, which he claims, Reverend Wright
helped him write. Have you looked up the
word "audacity" in the dictionary?
"Audacity (n) Boldness
or daring with confident or arrogant
disregard for personal safety, conventional
thought, or other restrictions."
To be Audacious (adj.)
means "extremely bold or daring; recklessly
brave; fearless: an audacious explorer.
2. Extremely original; without restriction
to prior ideas; highly inventive: an
audacious vision of the future 3.
Recklessly bold in defiance of convention,
propriety, law, or the like insolent;
brazen. 4. Lively; unrestrained;
uninhibited: an audacious interpretation
of role."
Will he be bold or daring with confident
or arrogant disregard for our personal
safety, conventional thought, or other
restrictions? Is not the U.S. Constitution
the foundation for conventional thought and
does it not set down certain restrictions?
Will he disregard it?
Will his disregard for our personal
safety mean that, if elected, under his
Presidency we will be fearful of additional
terrorist attacks? Notice, I did not use the word
leadership. [My italics] He has lead nothing
in the past, why should I believe he could
lead now.
All Obama keeps telling us is it is time
for "hope and change." Do we want to change
the fact that there have not been any
terrorist attacks in America since 9/11? Do
we want to change the fact that despite a
setback, the economic growth in America has
been strong? One-hundred-ten dollar oil
certainly has had a great effect on the
economy’s strength. We should be drilling
our own. (Let us not go there now.) Raising
taxes and making it worse will certainly be
change.
The hope should be that he does not
achieve the American dream. For if he does
it may be the audacity of hopelessness.
Harold Stassen once said, "Whoever
kindles the flames of intolerance is
lighting a fire under his own home."
And, that is my opinion.
Michael Solomon
If you want to
help restore sanity to America, join the
Flag Day campaign.
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