Poisonous preaching
Wright's latest performance full of paranoia, delusion -- and the controversy could be toxic to Obama's White House hopes
According to the standard political script, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, having burst into the national consciousness in a manner not particularly flattering to him or the black church, would then quickly repair to a secluded bower somewhere to read the Bible and pray that his church member, Barack Obama, might yet become president.
But this is not a standard election.
Thus we have Wright pouring gasoline on the embers of the controversy. He lashed out at the media, repeated the paranoid fantasy that HIV was invented as a weapon against minorities and reiterated his beliefs that the United States deserved to be attacked on 9/11.
"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you," he said.
That might be lapped up Sundays on West 95th Street. But it's political poison in much of the country. Self-justification is a drug, and Wright, high on the attention, doesn't realize that the historic wrongs that push a certain segment of the black community into a permanent loop of grievance, bitterness and complaint are of little interest to other Americans, who, believe it or not, face troubles of their own, despite being white, and have no desire to be stuck for the next four years with a minister preaching delusion and near-treason (a strong but apt term -- if the attacks against America are indeed the work of a just God repaying us for our evil acts, then we thwart his will by defending ourselves at all, and every airport checkpoint should be shut down as we await our divine punishment).
Obama courageously stood by his pastor, at first, and when the issue was sound bites of Wright's past rhetorical excesses, he was correct to do so. Now that Wright has changed the equation, restated his views in present tense and performed his giddy self-immolation, Obama is doing his best to spit his poison out. He'll have to spit harder, because every percentage of the vote counts, and Wright's loopy swan song need only hurt Obama a little to hurt him a lot.
No, in fact, it doesn't. Though it is common for anyone who ever served in the military to use that service as a shield and an excuse for the rest of his life.
Regular readers know that I support our veterans. But the mere fact of having served in the military does not automatically make one patriotic, nor does it make one right. Timothy McVeigh earned the Bronze Star in the Army, but that does not turn blowing up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City into a patriotic act. Julius Rosenberg volunteered for the Army Signal Corps, but that does not make the Russian spy a patriot. Benedict Arnold was a general, if you recall, that's what put him in a position to betray his country and try to surrender West Point to the British.
Having served the nation is a great honor but, alas, not one unsusceptible to being tarnished by subsequent words and deeds. Nor does it vindicate any nonsense a vet later chooses to embrace. Someone should tell the Rev. Wright.
But no. I had to be Mr. Involved. So much so that when my wife asked me if I wanted to go to Villa Park to watch the 12-year-old play viola in the Illinois Grade School Music Association Northern Division's State Orchestra Concert, it was more of a rhetorical question, and so I had to bite back my natural answer --"Villa Park? At 9 a.m. on a Saturday? Are you crazy?" -- and murmur a halfhearted, "Why sure honey."
But sacrifice is sometimes rewarded by the random fate that rules our lives. The group playing before us, Huntley Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Orchestra, was very good, ably performing the lovely First Movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.
So good, in fact, that it made me concerned for the home team, the Northbrook District 28 Chamber Orchestra. How could we follow that? In we marched, in our snazzy white tuxedo shirts, and launched into Haydn's "Allegro Giocoso." It, too, was beautiful, and at one point I actually sat forward and strained to see if my kid's bow was touching the strings, because I couldn't understand how the same boy sawing away at a viola in our living room for the last three years was now part of this melodious performance. But he was, apparently.
Afterward, we gathered in the cafeteria, waiting for the scores. At one end was a display of violins, some cool electric ones, some in dramatic four-instrument cases, set out by K.R. Bachelder & Co. of Naperville. I got talking to Ken Bachelder.
Something about violinists puzzles me, I told him. Why are they always leaving their priceless Stradivarius violins in taxicabs? It happened again just a few days ago.
"I always check the seat of the cab before I slam the door," I said. "How come these guys with these expensive instruments can't do the same?"
I expected him to say something about the hectic nature of concert tours. But Bachelder, obviously reflecting years of accumulated wisdom, offered up an answer that promptly and forever solved the mystery for me.
"Remember," he said, "you're dealing with musicians."
How do you keep your violin from getting stolen?
Put it in a viola case.
