If judgment is what counts, Obama is lacking

To the editor:

Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent speaker. His Tuesday speech on race relations was a beautiful example of his style. But despite Review-Journal columnist Erin Neff’s hyperbole (Thursday), it was not a “speech for the ages.” Rather, it was a politically expedient attempt to divert attention from the real issue, which is not race relations at all, but rather Sen. Obama’s judgment, or the lack thereof, with respect to the inflammatory and polemical views expressed by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Sen. Obama has made a touchstone of his campaign for the presidency that it is not so much experience that counts, but rather judgment. While experience is much more important than he would have the electorate believe, he is right to focus on judgment as a critical factor in the determination as to whom should be our next president.

If Sen. Obama is the Democratic nominee, as he very well may be, then voters in November should ask themselves not how good his speech was, but rather what kind of judgment has he actually exhibited with respect to the deeply divisive views of the Rev. Wright.

E.C. Walterscheid

LAS VEGAS

Tax-exempt treason

To the editor:

What do the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racist, anti-American and pro-terrorist harangues have to do with religion? How come such activities are tax-free? What kind of a church is this?

Let the IRS investigate his church’s tax-free status. Let the courts investigate such activities in a time of war to see if they are treason.

Marc Jeric

LAS VEGAS

Wright’s racism

To the editor:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright seems to take great joy in his sermon, dancing and yelling as he accuses the United States government of formerly conspiring to introduce the AIDS virus into the African-American community. Then he says the United States deserved 9-11.

He rails against the “white man” for a host of wrongs. Well, on that he has a point. It was the white man who enslaved Africans and brought them here. But it was also white men who freed the slaves, who fought and died to make it so.

It was also white men and women, in part, who raised their voices in the ’60s against discrimination against blacks and those of all colors. We marched in Selma, we spoke out. There were those whites who were killed by other evil whites to advance freedom and liberty for all, especially black Americans.

It was the minority of white people who tried to keep the black race down. Those people slowly died off, to be replaced by their more enlightened offspring.

Are there those who would still like to see blacks subservient? Of course. Probably always will be the few, the scurrilous, the indecent of all races who diminish others merely for the color of their skin.

The Rev. Wright would rather concentrate on the wrongs of our forefathers and the complete fabrication of today’s reality. Has he congratulated those who bled for “his people?” Those whites who risked their lives along with the likes of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the hero who begged us all to remove skin color from any consideration, positive or negative?

What’s sad is that the Rev. Wright is able to sway a small group to his way of thinking. Just as there are whites who will always be racist, we must acknowledge that racism is not relegated to one race.

Is it really comprehensible that Sen. Barack Obama can skate past his relationship with the Rev. Wright on any level now? Is it possible that his wife’s statement of only now being proud of America doesn’t reflect on her husband, especially considering they have gathered together for so many years with this small group of the Rev. Wright’s followers?

Is it possible for us to believe his rhetoric now? Sadly, yes, it’s possible. The voters who gave us Clinton, Bush, Gibbons, the Clark County criminals, er, former commissioners, current felons, are those who will also cast a blind eye to the multiple transgressions of their party.

We’d better pay attention now or pay dearly later.

TOM JUSTIN

LAS VEGAS