Initially, I (like most of you) followed the media’s vitriol and righteous indignation against comments linked to Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (TUCC). However, I did so only with a healthy dose of whimsical deja vu fortified by decades of observing how the media and politics work. Since I am getting a little long in the tooth, I have seen much the same thing happen before. These sorts of witch hunts are particularly noticeable during two particular periods of our history: in an election year and during times of impending or actual war (maybe there is a connection there, somewhere). It seems that when people begin to take sides and polarize (in the spirit of "you are either for us or against us"), there is a palpable up-tick in the flow of information (often, inaccurate or, at best, incomplete) which serves a purpose other than simply educating the public. That purpose, of course, is to "mold" opinion in a particular direction. Another name for this type of information is "propaganda."

We are being manipulated all the time by the media (and the government), sometimes for good (e.g. reducing panic in a financial crisis, lessening consumer fears about the spread of "mad cow" disease to American livestock) but, also, sometimes for less than honest reasons. I recall the disinformation widely broadcast by the media in the early days (March, 2003) of the Iraq War about "The Jessica Lynch Story." Remember how that story was spun? How she was injured when her supply truck was attacked by Iraqi soldiers, how she gallantly fought until she ran out of ammunition and, then, fought hand to hand until she was overwhelmed. The media (and the government) needed a hero (better still, a heroine) in the early days of the war and here was the petit, white, blond, West Virginia country girl fighting almost to the death for her country. Then she was pronounced missing and presumed captured by the ruthless Iraqi republican Guard. What better story could there have been?

Well, after the yellow ribbons were dutifully tied around the old oak trees and the vigils were well attended to pray for Specialist Lynch, we heard of her "miraculous" rescue by Delta Force’s commandos. The raid managed to surprise Lynch’s captors because of a tip from a benevolent Iraqi citizen, one Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief, who was later granted asylum and a permanent U.S. visa for himself and his family. This little back story served the ancillary goal of assuring Americans that most Iraqis were "for us, not against us." The heart-wrenching photo or Specialist Lynch on the rescue helicopter, clutching an American flag to her bosom, was a wonderful spectacle of the "Theater For the Folks At Home." Only later did we learn that young Lynch was a pawn of military propaganda: she never fired her rifle much less fought hand to hand, was completely incapacitated by her initial injuries and remembered nothing about the entire episode. But, as disinformation goes, this little snippet, early on in the Iraq invasion, had served its purpose. It galvanized American support, peaked patriotic fervor and solidified public support for the first year of the campaign. To borrow a phrase from the current POTUS, "Mission Accomplished!" Cue book deal for Specialist Lynch, scholarship to U. Of West Virginia, speaking engagements, etc. Even Larry Flint refused to publish nude pictures of our heroine he paid $750,000 for (taken by one of her fellow soldiers) because he thought she "was a good girl." (You can’t make this stuff up, folks). The made-for-television movie, "Saving Jessica Lynch" (NBC, November, 2003) didn’t bother to include the facts as they were already known by then but, then, in this instance, one can always blame "dramatic license."

We now return to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Reverend Wright has been the pastor of TUCC for 32 years. He has shepherded the Church’s growth from 84 member to, currently, 6000 or so members. He has always preached black empowerment, black pride and black community because, simply speaking, that is what sells on the southside of Chi-Town. Under his leadership, TUCC established several outreach programs that brought its impact out of the Sunday service and into the community, primarily a lower-middle class, predominantly black section of the Windy City.

To his credit, he preached against Apartheid in South Africa when it wasn’t the issue it became later in America. To his discredit, in my opinion, he has also made some ill-advised comments such as bamawright_N.htm">claiming the U.S. government "started the AIDS virus." More egregiously, he preached to his congregation on September 26, 2001 (the Sunday after 9/11) that America’s history of "terrorism" (as examples, he listed the treatment of Native Americans, dragging native Africans from their homelands to be slaves in America, aggressions against Granada (1983), against Lybia (1986), against Panama (December, 1989), and said, for his big finish, "we bombed Hiroshima and bombed Nagasaki and never blinked an eye." He then put the cherry on top: quoting Malcolm X, originally, but attributing it to a white U.S. Ambassador’s (Edward Peck) comments on a Fox News interview, "and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost. Violence begets violence and terrorism begets terrorism." [Emphasis mine]

Finally, the most incendiary of all Reverend Wright’s sermons brought lately to public view: in 2003 he said these words: "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America. "No! No! No! God damn America for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating citizens as less than humans. God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme."

Before I continue, let me make a few things very clear. I do not feel that religious leaders like Reverend Wright (and many others like him) who blame all that is wrong in the neighborhoods or in the lives of their black parishioners is all the "legacy" (there’s that word again) of white suppression and racism in American society. In my opinion, this theology does little to foster anything within their congregations other than a perpetual sense of blame of others and unending anger and racial animosity in generation after generation of church members. But, then, I am white and have (nor claim) absolutely no insights into the mind of black Americans. This is, after all, just the opinion of a naive white American.

The bigger issue, though, is clearly not what Reverend Wright believes or what he chooses to preach. He is, after all, an American citizen who honorably served in his country’s military and is a beneficiary of all the rights and privileges of our nation. He, obviously, has freedom of speech and may voice any sentiments he cares to in his church, on the street corner or on the Capital steps. We may or may not agree with his views but they are his views and he has every right to say whatever he wishes. I may personally find his comments hateful and offensive, but I will not deny his liberty to say them.

What the press and factions of both political parties are perpetrating by suddenly - years after Wright actually said these things - bringing them into public view is to link, in whatever way they can, Wright’s sermons to the personal politics of his most prominent parishioner: Senator Barack Obama. And this, gentle reader, is clearly another tawdry bit of disinformation. To suggest that someone of the intelligence of Senator Obama believes - unquestioning and blindly - all that comes out of the mouth of his preacher is an insult to us, the American electorate. But political parties, the press and the government has effectively insulted the American public to good effect so many times before, why should we expect it to be any different today? Disinformation and innuendo have been the modus operandi for those institutions since James Callender did a hatchet job ("The Prospect Before Us") on John Adams in the election of 1800 and when his employer, Thomas Jefferson, welched on a government job, promptly trashed Jefferson with "revelation" of the Sally Hemmings affair.

I think it is high time the American electorate saw this sort of chicanery for what it really is: an insult to our intelligence, an affront to our common sense and an offense to our once cherished belief in fairness and honesty. I will not vote for Senator Obama for the simple reason that I disagree with his policies. I think that is the yardstick we should all use to decide, personally, who we will support in November, 2008.

The decision is absolutely too urgent a matter for us to be distracted by the machinations of those who would have us decide with our emotions rather than our minds. Don’t you agree?

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Update - 04/29/2008): For updated medica commentary on Reverend Wright and his subsequent appearance before the National Press Association, click here. The beat, needless to say, goes on.