Important Speech

Obama recently delivered a speech in Philadelphia about race. It is a speech that only a person with acknowledged black heredity could deliver and not be ridiculed. The sentiments in the speech are commonly felt among many people I know, but rarely receive widespread coverage as they do not give a simple victim/villain/hero scenario that the press likes to report. I will not dispute some of the facts and portrayals in the speech which are meant to evoke emotion and are not entirely true to fact.

DocBrain agrees that it is time to move beyond Rev. Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the KKK, skinheads, white supremists, reparations, affirmative action, subtle segregation, and the like. It is time to put race in its place. Each of us can derive pride from our race, religion, or other inherent characteristic, but true pride can only come from accomplishment towards a goal that will enlighten, ennoble, inform and perhaps entertain others. Through making this world a better place and the human condition a little better can we make ourselves happy. Society and civilization have the duty to make this service rewarding, placing value on such activities, but not so much as to make the decision to act this way economic only. There needs to remain a moral-ethical imperitive that leads people to act in goodness for its own sake.

Whether or not the details of Obama's leadership will reflect a goal of unity or not, only time will tell. The question as to whether or not this is a ploy or a passion will be left to the future.