“Take the best and trash the rest”.
In the 1990’s, a significant extension of “best practices” corporately were National Business meetings. Once or twice a year you would travel to an offsite location- places where the organizers, somehow happened to find a golf course, warm temperatures and in some cases a beach. While there you would meet your peers from around the country, who had similar positions and responsibilities.
| Upon entering discussions, presentations, green light thinking sessions at these meetings, you are encouraged to “take the best and trash the rest”. Common sense advice that most of us use even when we are at church.
An argument can be made that, - the majority in any ethic group in North America would at best, been “mildly” uncomfortable and at worse offended, based on the snippets we have seen recently of sermons by Jeremiah Wright. |
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The national discussion has become race and patriotism. Race was bound to make a splash in this election, if for no other reason than breaking the “glass ceiling” of the presidency of the United States, a position that has been, until now possibly, reserved for rich white men.
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It’s nothing new for some in many ethnicities and nationalities to say the “bad things” that happen to the US, is directly related to our foreign policy. Whether you subscribe to the theory or not, for some to say that the US condones Israel as a “state sponsor of terrorism” isn’t novel, ask the Palestinians and many in the Arab world.
For Example, many in the African American community, understand the atrocities of the holocaust and ensuing hardships of the Jewish people, and would be willing to overlook, the protection and friendship that the |
modern world offers Israel, if it were not frowned upon to include the atrocities that were committed against Blacks in the slave trade and ensuing years in the US. That position adds to the level of distrust of whites in the African American community – The attempt that Senator Obama made to neutralize the uproar over Wright’s comments were valiant; it would have been a homerun had it also focused on patriotism.
To be sure some in Wright’s congregation –wrongly- I think-believe “god damn America”. However, those who do aren’t the majority in the congregation of a Church on the near south-side of Chicago where the then State Senator, now Junior U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate attended regularly.
One could imagine the make up of the congregation on Chicago’s south side that chooses to attend the same church of the Junior Senator from Illinois. Many professional people; Upwardly mobile people; Doctors, Actors, Nurses, Attorneys, School Teachers, Entrepreneurs, Accountants- some of them millionaires.
Not many successful people, educated people, people with any modicum of reason- well at least the reasonableness of understanding their status in this city- Are saying “god damn” America. They’ll probably say “please lower my taxes”, “help me keep more of what I earn” or “show me ways that I can make more”…..
Saying and meaning “god damn” America, is a shortsighted view for many, especially those who have children or grandchildren that they love, those who have built successful businesses from the ground up, those who have worked hard and smart to own a piece of the “American dream” and those who do not have a back up plan of what country they would take up domicile.
Most Americans, especially those who migrated here, wake up everyday to go to work or school, to make ends meet, better themselves and their families. They value what America is, and are constantly trying to help in “perfecting” the union. Why not? Even in its imperfection, it’s a great country to call home. Ask anyone who migrated here or has spent any amount of time overseas.
In an editorial recently commenting on the backlash of Jeremiah Wright’s comments and Mr. Obama’s response to it, the Washington Post said, “Mr. Obama's speech was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling. He coupled it with an appeal that this year's campaign not be dominated by distorted and polarizing debates about whether he or his opponents agree with extreme statements by supporters -- or other attempts to divide the electorate along racial lines. Far better, he argued, that Americans of all races recognize they face common economic, social and security problems. We don't agree with the way Mr. Obama described some of those problems yesterday or with some of his solutions for them. But he was right to condemn the Rev. Wright's words, was eloquent in describing the persistent challenge of race and racism in American society -- and was right in proposing that this year's campaign rise above "a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism.".
Yes, even with things we don’t agree with, we must “take the best and trash the rest”.