Grandma now has company under the Bus

I have not been writing about the US democratic race because, well, for me it blows. Two deeply flawed candidates running for the party leadership. Wow. Mediocrity in action and I should be so impressed?

First there is Hillary. I would have more respect for her and a belief in her integrity if she had kicked Bill to the curbed but the fact she keeps him around and sends him to work on her campaign just reinforces my belief she’s in this for personal power, and therefore, there is very little she wouldn't do. Then there is Obama, the change candidate. I am truly unsure of what he stands for but whatever it is - change is an integral part of it.

A prime example of what I mean, is this speech Obama gave in March, defending his long relationship with Reverend Wright:

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

That was March and this is April:

WASHINGTON–Barack Obama, facing the biggest crisis of his 16-month campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, forcefully and angrily repudiated his former pastor yesterday, saying he was appalled and outraged by a performance by Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Monday.

This is ‘change’ in action. By my count, Obama has thrown grandma under the bus, and now Wright. How long before the black community get tossed to the curb too? Personally, I am not so much for ‘change’ as much as I would like to see some real integrity and that’s all the change I need.