ROCKSTARBAUN

Got back from LA last night, woke up at 7a, worked for a couple hours, napped and woke up in time for Obama’s speech in Philadelphia. Using the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s fiery sermon snippets, Obama addressed America’s complicated racial relations honestly and straight-on. What really resonated with me was his discussing his white grandmother,

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.

Growing up in the South, I’ve heard my parents say many simplistic and deragatory comments about African-Americans. What boggled me, outside of the naive comments themselves, was that they had a few black friends, so did I, so did my brother. In my parents minds, they were able to separate their friends and ours as “different from the rest of the blacks.” I totally disagreed with them and even today, point out their gaffes, and hate that my parents, who grew up in the Philippines, never meeting a black person until coming to the States, had been filled with American racial stereotypes. What do I do? Disown them for that? With everything else they’ve taught me? Some would say, and the talking heads on CNN discussed it, well, you can’t get away from family, but you sure can choose your Church. Obama’s condemned the Rev. Wright’s statements, but explained his relationship with him.

Why associate myself with Rev. Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?

And I confess that if all that I knew of Rev. Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor.

He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine, who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth — by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The path is to understand the many shades of not only a person, but this country and to work together to better the situation for all.

Here’s the full transcript.