The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

At first I found this headline shocking, seeing as it sounded like we needed a conservation effort lest homosexual people went extinct. I didn’t think the Pope would be advancing that idea at all..

Of course, the headline was a little misleading. Here’s the article:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

Yeah. That sounds more like Catholic doctrine. I’m not mad at the Pope for his statement, but I do see how homosexuals can be a little alarmed at the sentiment – I think, on a global scale, saving the rainforest deserves quite a lot more consideration than saving homosexuals specifically, or in isolation from all of the other things humanity has on its plate (war, hatred, racism, sexism, materialism, godlessness…), and being singled out like that can seem a bit… unfair.

But of course, the Pope’s position isn’t tremendously different from Rick Warren’s (or the Baha’i view, come to think of it). Because of his global stature, President Obama (when he actually becomes that) will welcome an opportunity to meet with the Pope. Will stand on the stage and shake his hand. Will not turn down a blessing if one is offered. Millions of Catholics in the United States would approve. As it turns out, because of Obama’s stand not on abortion, but more saliantly on birth control and conception, I don’t think that blessing is coming.

Similarly, and in fact, even more pertinently, Rick Warren could bring with him the approbation of millions of evangelicals who are ready to think more like Rick Warren, and less like some of the evangelicals who can’t think of anything else but the culture war that has engulfed the nation for decades. Unlike the Pope’s unlikely blessing, however, Obama has already earned, through character and friendship, though not through shared idealogy, the blessing of Rick Warren.

I say score one for Obama.

QT

Here’s a nice slideshow: http://newsone.blackplanet.com/nation/gallery-from-the-slavehouse-to-the-whitehouse/

One slide is not captioned well – I think it’s inaccurate to claim that Harriet Tubman started the Underground Railroad. But in all, it’s a nice pictorial stroll through African-American history.

Here too is a National Geographic “Trip on the Underground Railroad.”

QT

Today I got redirected around the block and into the back way of the building where I work, because of a “suspicious package.” I work in downtown Manhattan, and was pretty close to ground zero when 9/11 happened, so this was a little bit scary. (Fortunately, the package was deemed to be harmless.)

Today Politico reports that President Elect Obama will swear in using all three of his names. Excellent. Because it really IS his name (and that really shouldn’t be an issue), because it really does give credence to the fact that a Barack Hussein Obama CAN be elected President of the United States, because it really does speak to America’s resurgent moral authority, and because it lays aside the ridiculous fear of anything even remotely Islamic – I’ll be very happy if the President-Elect does this.

Yesterday’s news was pretty momentous, and I’ve been struggling to weigh it all. I thought I would post yesterday, but I wasn’t quite ready.

Yesterday, OJ Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery and whatever else he was charged with.
Yesterday research into Michelle Obama’s family history traced back to slavery.
Yesterday, Lee Stranahan made a joke about reparations.

Yesterday I found myself feeling really overwhelmed with racial stuff – including how comfortable some white people are with talking flippantly about stuff like this. Maybe that’s not really fair. No – it’s definitely not fair. But it’s how I really feel.

Anyway – Lee’s invocation of the term “reparations” in conjunction with the rest made me think about the idea, and reflect again on what kind of reparations would really be meaningful. I honestly don’t care about or want any more congressional apologies. And – I don’t want any money from the government. All that looks like is economic stimulus in blackface. But Obama’s efforts on behalf of his wife point in the right direction of what I’d really like to see.

It would be meaningful, and genuinely reparative, if the government paid for secured, single-purpose (no using it for anything else) dna tracing of every black person who is not an immigrant from Africa, back to Africa. That is – the US, coupled with various European nations, should team up to pay for the testing of African Americans and Afro Carribeans, to restore some little bit of what so many Europeans take for granted – a deep sense of lineage. The loss of that sense is a direct result of slavery, and it is within the power of these governments to take reparative action in this regard.

I haven’t much wanted Barack Obama to be a “black president” – other than to have the confidence to simply show up and be – the consequence of which is to make being black just as normal and mainstream as anything else. But this is something that it would be very meaningful for him to do – something FOR black people that doesn’t lay guilt at the feet of whites who may not have had anything to do (even ancestrally) with slavery, but which genuinely repays us for some of the harms done.

QT

Update @ 12/16/2008: Obama names Wizipan Garriott of the Rosebud Sioux to the transition team in the role of First Nations Liaison.

Here, an Ex Isler named Joe D’Monix, himself of the First Nations, mentions that Sioux is not actually the preferred term – rather, that Wizipan is from the Lakota tribe. Thanks, Joe!

————————————-

I haven’t had much criticism for President Elect Obama. I, like most Americans, think he’s doing a great job. BUT – I am worried that a particular promise is not being kept – and I’m going to keep this issue alive on this blog until it’s addressed. I would hate to think that the nation’s first black president would keep a tradition of breaking promises to the native americans (or, First Peoples, as he called them during the campaign).

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/19/obama_adopted_into_crow_nation.html

Hat Tip to Jason Linkins on Huffington Post for highlighting this video:

By all means, circulate – and get the word out. Let’s see if we can get President-Elect Obama to grant this interview!