More on Huckabee & Wright March 26, 2008
Posted by Zack in , trackbackLeonard Pitts says “Thank you, Mike Huckabee.”
It was getting to be a bit much, the marathon denunciations of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright by the professional chatterers of FOX News, MSNBC and the like. Their screams of high dudgeon had grown shrill, their show of moral affront was wearing thin. And then Huckabee, invited by MSNBC last week to condemn Wright’s bitter words, invoked instead the era of racial segregation that shaped Barack Obama’s former pastor.
”And you know what?” he said. ‘Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment, and you have to just say, `I probably would, too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder, had it been me.’ ”
It bears repeating: a black Mike Huckabee would be more angry than Jeremiah Wright, not less. It was an admission of startling, unexpected insight and, dare I say, Christian generosity. A conservative white man invited white men and women to project themselves into dark skin, to imagine how bitter they might be, had they come of age in an era where law, religion, media and custom said they were less than truly human beings.
Hat tip to Faith in Public Life’s awesome Daily News.
Comments»
Thanks, Zack. That was a great column, wasn’t it? I wrote Leonard a thank you note for it.
This is the kind of leadership we need in this country right now. Obama showed it with a his speech on race. Huckabee has done it with these comments. Pushing people to get past the spin, partisanship and hype and talk about the real issues with compassion and passion. Going deeper.
Thank you Huckabee! What a blessing, for a conservative Christian politician to actually model empathy and leadership! And Leonard Pitts too!
I agree. It was amazing. My respect for Huckabee shot up immensely. Still not enough to have voted for him, but y’know…