Charlotte to New Orleans

A couple months ago, I was flying from Charlotte to New Orleans. On the plane, I sat next to a black man who was flying down to his boyhood home, to spend a weekend fishing with his brothers. He had recently taken a beating in the real estate market, where he had previously been working on buying, renovating, and selling houses. He said he had been pretty successful until the past year or so, now he was getting killed with properties he couldn't sell and mortgages he couldn't pay.

We got to talking about Barack Obama and his run for president, as alot of this guys views were pretty conservative, and I wondered what his view would be, as another black woman I had recently talked to in Tampa, who was working a parking lot where Barack had just held a rally, said that she could not stand him at all, wanted nothing to do with him, and had such vehement hatred of him.

Anyway, the guy on the plane told me that he is a huge Obama supporter. I asked him why, and he said that when he was a small boy, if anyone would have said that a black man could be president, he never would have believed it. The fact that there was now a chance for a black man to become president meant that he had to do all he could to see it come to pass. I told him, I understand that point of view, but I don't think Barack Obama is qualified to run the government, has no foreign policy experience, and is not respected at all by the military. (I will have to continue on about my time in Tampa with Obama on another post....)

He then said to me, that it didn't matter what his experience in any other aspect of the job, the most important thing for Black America was that a black man would be president. That alone would be worth any cost as it would inspire more people to achieve their goals and excel beyond what they currently believed. As I heard Hugh Hewitt say the other day on the radio, I can respect a man for voting for Obama for that reason. I can understand the value that one can place on inspiration, and if that can make a difference, then I get it. However, I still had another question for him.

A woman who works with me is white and married to a black man. She heard about Jeremiah Wright, and wanted to see just what all the fuss was about, so she logged onto the church website. There she saw the philosophy of the church, the anti-white, anti-American sentiments, and she was sickened. This was just a Jeremiah Wright as an issue for Obama was coming up, and within an hour after having read this inflamatory and racist remarks, the site was changed and all of the mission and vision for the church had been removed. I asked my new associate on the plane, how can Obama get away with this? I don't understand why he gets a pass, when anyone else, especially a Republican would never have a shot, never be seriously considered, and probably be removed from the public eye altogether...

His reply was enlightening and I appreciate the candor. He said to me, "Obama is a black man in America. There are things that a black man can get away with that a white man will never get away with, and vice versa. Just like there are things that you can do that I cannot, and thing that I can do that you cannot. It is just the way America is." This conversation occurred in June, and I think he was probably correct in his statement, but his statement is so wrong. This really should not be the case, there should be a standard that we all live up to as Americans. I don't think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would like it, I don't think Jesus would like it, and I hope to see this go away. Maybe Obama being elected will help it, and at this point, that may be the only positive thing about him getting elected that I can see.

Because the other thing that we didn't get around to talking about was what happens when a minority demographic is elected President, but then does not perform well, or makes the country worse off than it was? Does that then set the whole demographic back? Will people be less inclined to vote for a person of that demographic in the future? I would hope not, because in the world I envision, and the way I vote, is who is best suited to do the job from the available candidates? Just as when I hire someone, it doesn't matter their sex, the color of their skin, their religion, it matters if they can do the job.