Well Said... With a SNAP!!!

[furrbear]

Washington Post's Cohen to Obama: The Party's Off

Richard Cohen's editorial in the Washington Post ("Warren On? Party Off.) gets to the point, quite well, I think, attacking Obama's failings as a moral leader. Here's the end of it:

"I can understand Obama's desire to embrace constituencies that have rejected him. Evangelicals are in that category and Warren is an important evangelical leader with whom, Obama said, 'we're not going to agree on every single issue.' He went on to say, 'We can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans.' Sounds nice.

But what we do not 'hold in common' is the dehumanization of homosexuals. What we do not hold in common is the belief that gays are perverts who have chosen their sexual orientation on some sort of whim. What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence.

Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue -- the rights of gays to be treated equally -- as some sort of cranky cultural difference. For that we need moral leadership, which, on this occasion, Obama has failed to provide. For some people, that's nothing to celebrate.

The party's off."

Well said.

Warren On? Party Off. [washington post]

Comments

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

I understand and appreciate Richard Cohen's point ... AND YET, I'm not sure we are really doing ourselves any favors (from a public relations standpoint) by being too petulant over this. It's not like Obama picked Rick Warren to be a member of his cabinet. Who does the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration does not concern me as what Obama says during his first State of the Union Address.

[mondragon.livejournal.com]

Petulant?

One of the most troublesome things about all this is the language used by people like you to dismiss and diminish the very real and justified anger that a lot of people are feeling.

It often seems to come from gays who are worry a lot about straight people's approval and all this angry, not acting like we know our place stuff really upsets them

Personally I'm not in the mood to toady to anyone. Time for a change.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Doing ourselves any good? Funny, they're moving quickly to spin things positively again. Here's John Aravosis' report on AMERICAblog: You have Rick Warren officially spooked.

Mr Obama's first State of the Union Address is some time away. Until then, we have to deal with what decisions such as this are telling us about the approaching administration.

That last full paragraph above is, I think, the crux of the matter, and the reason the Rick Warren issue has touched off such a firestorm in the gay community. Obama is essentially asking us to acknowledge that our humanity is negotiable. That our view of ourselves as full members of American society, as equal members of the human race, is somehow "just our opinion," no more and no less valid than those who compare us to pedophiles. He wants us to acknowledge that there are two sides to every issue, even our very existence. He wants us to tolerate intolerance, as he is about to do from the highest office in the land.

That is, in essence, Fox's "Fair & Balanced" approach applied to human rights.

[shuntphl.livejournal.com]

The real problem for me is the need to have a preacher (ANY clergy) at the inauguration. It seems that separation of church and state is pretty much just a wishful concept.

[bookish-cub.livejournal.com]

Well said, indeed.