It’s time for a national discussion on race

By JOHN M. FISHER
Published: April 29, 2008

I want you to do me a favor. If you go to church on a regular basis, ask your pastor this question: Can you define a pastor’s entire body of work by taking one single three-word phrase — out of context — from the rest of the sermon, and then play it over and over again?
I would love to hear the answers that some of you get.
That is exactly what Sen. Barack Obama’s enemies — and there are a lot of them these days — want you to do.
This is a page straight out of the Jesse Helms playbook, or one reminiscent of the now infamous “Willie Horton” ad of days gone by. But this time, instead of linking a candidate to a murderous criminal, they are linking Obama to an outspoken preacher who has always spoken of things “most of us would rather not discuss.”
If all you know about Rev. Wright is the three-second sound bite that is being played over and over again by the likes of Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, then you really don’t know much.
For example, did you know that Wright was a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam? Probably not. Did you know that he was a guest at the White House during the Clinton administration? I doubt it. Did you know that he actually treated President Lyndon Johnson while he was a medical tech at the Bethesda Naval Hospital?
Politics aside, Wright has an impressive track record.
In 1976, he took over a poor, 87-member church on the South side of Chicago, a church that today has more than 8,000 members.
In explaining his controversial “God d—- America” comment, he said that throughout history God has condemned nations that oppressed the weak, the poor and the powerless. Wright insists that it is dangerous to equate nations with God because, as he says, “nations kill, nations lie and nations fail.”
He also insists that he never discussed politics with Obama.
To understand Wright, one has to go beyond purposely selected sound bites. Go to C-Span or PBS and watch the sermon in its entirety. If you disagree with him, fine. But don’t judge him just based on carefully selected television sound bites. You might be surprised — if you take the time to listen to the whole discussion.
Still, those “uncomfortable” with Wright’s subject matter insist that Obama condemn and disassociate himself from his friend of 20 years. But be honest, no matter what Obama says now, to some of you he will always be guilty by association. The sad fact is that most of you have not taken the time to know for yourselves who he is actually associated with, have you?
Should Obama have walked out of church because he disagreed with something Wright said? That is not for me to judge, nor you. If you think that he should, then maybe all of the Catholic politicians should have walked out when some of their priests were molesting young children. How many of them did?
Actually, none of this is new. The folks at the very top profit greatly by keeping us distracted by things such as this. These people are well aware that some of you don’t like to think so they tell you what to think — and you think it.
What is actually being attacked here is not Jeremiah Wright, or even Barack Obama. What is actually being assailed here is the notion that all of us could prosper if we did a better job of treating one another as equals while embracing our diversity — not perceived deficiencies.
The folks who threw some of you off the economic bus fear that more than they fear anything else. What they don’t want you to realize is that in our great America, a land where everyone is supposed to be equal, there are always some who are more equal then the rest of us.
In their zeal to win at any cost, the masters of political trickery have thrown open the doors to a public discussion of equality for minorities and the poor. That was not their intent. They just wanted to scare those of you who still feel superior to those different from themselves. In point of fact, they opened a Pandora’s box.
As a result, in the days and weeks to come, we will all have to come to terms with issues that some of us will find uncomfortable. Yet it is a conversation that is long overdue —  and a conversation that we all must take part in.
John M. Fisher of Danville is a businessman, documentary filmmaker and freelance writer, and is the former bureau chief for KDFW, a CBS affiliate in Fort Worth, Texas. You may contact him at .