No, No, No, Don’t Tell Me to G-- D--- America

By Peter J. Wirs
Monday, May 5, 2008

Although the Civil War’s individual military records were never known for their accuracy, my fifth-great grandfather, John Arms, was apparently in the 72nd Pennsylvania regiment, stationed in reserve behind the 69th (the "Fighting Irish") and 71st Pennsylvania regiments of the Philadelphia Brigade, responsible for manning the "Angle," the turn in the stonewall that took the brunt of Pickett’s charge on the afternoon of July 3rd in Gettysburg. What is certain is that my fifth-great grandfather was shot in the leg by a Confederate bullet, taken to the rear, bit on a bullet to offset the pain while the surgeons sawed off his leg (amputation was the only reasonable surgical procedure since musket rounds splattered upon impact), given a shot of whiskey and sent home.

Accordingly, I take great umbrage when Senator Barak Obama’s preacher/mentor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright lumps me under the Malcolm X/ James Hal Cone belief that all white people are devils.

To set aside the media rhetoric for the moment, Rev. Wright of is the Black Liberation school of theology, although initiated by Malcolm X, was academically fined tuned by Rev. Dr. James Hal Cone of Union Theological Seminary. Under Cone, Black Christianity is required to retreat from the universality of Christianity. "Black theology," argues Cone, "refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him." Cone advocates: "Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy." This theology is based on the New Testament, in that according to Cone, "Jesus is not for all, but for the oppressed, the poor and unwanted of society, and against oppressors."

Cone asserts that "Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man ‘the devil.’ The white structure of this American society, personified in every racist, must be at least part of what the New Testament meant by demonic forces. . . About [sixty] years ago it was acceptable to lynch a black man by hanging him from a tree; but today whites destroy him by crowding him into a ghetto and letting filth and despair put the final touches on death." On a PBS interview with Bill Moyers, Cone argues and Moyer, the quintessential Southern Democratic apologist, readily agrees, that lynching is in "America’s DNA."

Well excuse me, lynching is not in my DNA. Taking his Philadelphia speech at his word, if Obama wants to get into a serious discussion about racism, let’s get the facts straight. Stop acting as if American history began with the advent of television. Racism is not, and never has been, a mere black-white issue. Racism has, is, and probably always will be a North-South issue (and to an equally rich-poor divide). There is no such thing, as per Rev. Wright’s dictum, a U.S. of KKK A.

May I remind Sen. Obama, Rev. Wright and Dr Cone, that 110,000 Americans died in battle (and other 250,000 succumbed to disease) as Union soldiers, fighting to preserve the Union and free the Black Man. May I also remind Sen. Obama, Rev. Wright and Dr. Cone that it was the Republican Party who prosecuted the Civil War, a Republican Congress that funded the Union Army, Republican governors who raised the regiments (U.S. Army was still state-based during the Civil War), and a Republican President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It was Republicans who wore the Blue, Democrats wore the Gray.

And after the Civil War, it was a Republican Congress that passed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was a Republican Congress that passed all major civil rights acts of 1870 and 1871. Even when the Democrats controlled the Congress, it was Republicans who broke the filibusters and provided the necessary votes to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Indeed, the very reason for the existence of the Republican Party was the Abolitionist Movement, which began in 1688 not more than a couple blocks from my office in Germantown.

If Obama wants to have a serious discussion about Race, then perhaps he should return to Philadelphia this week. As I was working on this column, a Philadelphia Police sergeant was gunned down Saturday morning by either two or three black males, with a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle, capable of holding 30 rounds. A military assault rifle, for crying out loud. The hail of bullets ripped through the police car’s door as if it was Swiss cheese.

If Obama wants to have a serious discussion about Race, then perhaps he can accompany me on Town Watch and persuade the adolescent and young adult black males to do something other than sell dope. Let the Senator stand at Chelten and Chew to stop the heroin trafficking.

If Obama wants to have a serious discussion about Race, then perhaps we should listen to Bill Cosby and not Rev. Wright. Where in Black Culture is it required for adolescent black punks to put down a kid whose buried himself in books, and not B-Ball.

If Obama wants to have a serious discussion about Race, then explain why over half of the Black population in inner-urban Philadelphia walks around without a high school degree.

If Obama wants to have a serious discussion about Race, then perhaps he should stop stereotyping Republicans as racists, and remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (as well as his father) were life-long registered Republicans.

Yes, we should have the political courage to have a candid discussion on Race, and the economic and educational constraints that cobble all ethnic minorities (and not just Blacks). But calling me a devil is no way to start. No one in my family tree, which goes back to the Mayflower, is a racist. And I will not let Senator Obama and his mentor, Rev. Wright tell me to God Damn America. If the Senator wants, I will be more than happy to show him the spot where my fifth-great Grandfather was shot. In a town called Gettysburg.