tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post4175269514653097194..comments2024-02-26T09:30:54.111-06:00Comments on Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!: Coffee Bowl BrowsingFr. Philip Powell, OPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-63645301754258154942010-11-13T04:24:39.071-06:002010-11-13T04:24:39.071-06:00I sometimes lose my breath over how shallow our na...I sometimes lose my breath over how shallow our national understanding can be. You know, as I reflect over it deeply, I believe that truly there is very little racism in America. I am the third generation offspring of white, penniless European (Slavic) immigrants. Mine is the first generation of my family to be university educated. We enjoy the small number of black and other non-white friends we have and we truly rejoice when we see evidence of success with blacks. With our general Democratic-Catholic background until the abortion issue split our party, most of us slipped back to the old party two years ago just long enough to finally get a black man in the Oval Office to put an end to racism. We didn't pay the least attention to his ideas, promises, campaign slogans, platforms, etc.; we just wanted a black president. We are not racist. What we DO NOT WANT by any standard, however, is to be living in a neighborhood with high unemployment, drugs, crime, violence, shootings, and schools that are violent zoos rather than safe learning environments. That means that we avoid certain neighborhoods. These are often black. We do not avoid them because they are black, we avoid them because of the problems I listed off three sentences ago. We have got to learn to name our fears and reservations accurately and openly without worry that we'll be labeled racist or any other ugly thing. There is a huge difference between a racist and a racial comment. I want to live in a middle class neighorhood of any color combination, and the more, the merrier. I do not want to live in a slum, even if it were to be all white. An all-white slum would scare me to death. Our issues are related to class, not race. Yes, they are interwoven, but the starting point is class and until that is acknowledged, none of our discussions or projects to eliminate racism can bear fruit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-35929613898080313932010-11-10T01:18:43.948-06:002010-11-10T01:18:43.948-06:00You are correct in both comments, Father Philip.You are correct in both comments, Father Philip.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-52670636975523671522010-11-07T04:49:19.762-06:002010-11-07T04:49:19.762-06:00Anon., maybe so. . .if the media had done their jo...Anon., maybe so. . .if the media had done their job and vetted BO the way they have every other candidate in US history, he would have never been elected. They let their guilty white liberalism rule them and gave him a pass. He will have no such luck in 2012.<br /><br />I am confident, however, that the GOP will nominate someone completely unpalatable and unelectable.Fr. Philip Powell, OPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14970857401221305221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18842286.post-62704931267077648092010-11-07T04:18:49.411-06:002010-11-07T04:18:49.411-06:00I suspect that many of the middle-class, white vot...I suspect that many of the middle-class, white voters who supported Obama in 2008 did so for one reason only: we were sick to death of the effects of the sickness of racism in our country, and we hoped that the election of a black president would mark the end of it once and for all (just as the election of Catholic Kennedy in 1960 marked the end of OVERT anti-Catholicism until the sexual abuse scandal allowed anti-Catholicism to re-emerge from its slumber). Now that we have seen that the topic of racism has only received new steam with this black president and that he has shown nothing but contempt for the American Dream, I'd say the experiment has failed and it will be back to business as usual from now on: voting for the candidate who says, believes, acts and thinks what the voters want to say, believe acts and thinks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com