Comments on: Lanny Davis: Civil Dialogue on the Issue of Reverend Wright

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:03:46 +0000

I have been upset with Lanny Davis during this primary season for attacks on Barack Obama that I felt were untrue and unfair.

What Lanny did with this email was gracious. I thank him for that.

I wish this whole process could be raised to a higher level.

By: AL of Texas

AL of Texas — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:50:46 +0000

Thank you Anderson. I am an AA female who literally grew up in the black church.If you really think about it, all we have had as a people is the beauty shop, barber shop, funeral home and the church. I have been heartbroken at the way th media has described the black church. Thank you Mr Johnson for your thoughtful response to Mr Davis's op-ed.I thank him for stepping up to the plate and acknowledging his enlightment. I in no way blame Mr Obama for not leaving Trinity just as I will not leave my church even with its flaws.The church is not the pastor but the people who make up the congregati . Again, thank you Anderson.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:20:44 +0000

Reverend Wright does not preach Black Liberation Theology at TUCC. To quote Father Pfleger, a white Catholic priest, "He preaches the same gospel that I preach- the gospel of Jesus Christ."

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:23:32 +0000

Thank you, Lanny, for posting this! What a very insightful reaction to your article, it was a pleasure and an enlightenment reading it…

By: Bob Whiteman

Bob Whiteman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:33:05 +0000

I think it's good that people discuss things but -Duh Lanny! How did you live so long and never meet any black people? I mean seriously, you never knew or at least thought about the feelings expressed in Mr. Johnson's letter.Either that or your just another Clinton campaign worker trying to bolster the support Hillary enjoys with racis er' I mean people who will never vote for a Black person.Get real.

By: Celia McKoy

Celia McKoy — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:25:50 +0000

I appreciate Mr. Johnson's comments but I believe Mr. Obama had already articulated much of this in his speech. My question to Mr. Davis is why does he, and so many others in White America, need Black people to constantly explain and justify themselves. Why could you not have accepted Mr. Obama's comments after the whole Rev. Wright affair? Better yet, why couldn't you just try to LISTEN to Rev. Wright himself and get where he is coming from?

Suddenly the light bulb has gone off in your head and you now get it? Well I suppose it's better late than never.

By: Debi

Debi — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:32:14 +0000

Wow – an excellent presentation, Mr. Johnson, that really makes sense to me. My first reaction to Pastor Wright's comments was horror. Then I thought about WHY he was so angry. Here's what I came up with: I've blown up with anger and absolute disgust when someone I care deeply about betrays and abuses the morals and values and behavior that we've always shared. A stranger, who hadn't admired that person in the first place, couldn't care less. If Pastor Wright didn't care so much and expect so much from his country, he wouldn't be so violently angered by it's failures. Hopefully, he and others,who speak in public, can learn from Senator Obama that there is truly strength in speaking softly. God bless us all.

By: Warren Chopp

Warren Chopp — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:21:29 +0000

I wish CNN would get to the issues instead of religion weather it be Obama or Clinton.. Lets get back to the basics of a real campaign.

By: Aware

Aware — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:01:38 +0000

I live in Hawaii where mixed race is the norm and caucasians are in the minority. Obama would have fit in here much better than his white grandparents. Locals and those with a Hawaiian roots (even a small percentage) can be bitter and frustrated, to use Obama's latest words, with caucasians. This would be part of Obama's formation.

But, Obama became a child of priviledge who went to the best schools and nurtured his ego and his dreams of power. When he decided to pursue office/politics he needed to find a church to complete his image. Unfortunately, he chose Trinity and Jeremiah Wright. JW fosters a spirit of anger, bitterness and frustration with the white race. This was another part of Obama's formation.

Obama's latest comments in San Francisco demonstrate what has become a part of him over the years. It obviousley surfaces without premeditation.

Obama is conflicted and needs to heal before he heads for the White House.

Hillary or Mccain 08!

By: Cliff

Cliff — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:47 +0000

Lanny, Thanks for allowing this gentleman's post to become part of your blog.

As white Americans, we have no understanding of this part of American culture. Thanks to the Obama campaign, many of us are listening and understanding for the first time.

By: Kwaku Azar

Kwaku Azar — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:55:09 +0000

Pure nonsense. Was this not the same Lanny Davis who told us that it was ok for Bill Clinton to have sex with his intern in the White House?

The Clinton campaign is full of hypocrites and that is why they are losing. They have completely misconstrued americans reaction to the Lewinsky scandal as though we are gullible.

By: LPeterson

LPeterson — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:49:23 +0000

As a white male northerner that went to school in the south during the late 50s, I witnessed with cultural shock segregated buses, lunchrooms, movie houses, bathrooms, etc. and "whites only" water fountains and help wanted signs . I can understand how Dr. Wright could harbor some bitterness which is expressed from time to time. If Mr. Johnson's letter opened the eyes of Mr. Davis and others and softened their elitism because they "never walked in the shoes" of a Dr. Wright, it served a valuable end.

By: aurelia

aurelia — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:37:37 +0000

Interesting insight. Thank you.

By: B. Churchill

B. Churchill — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:36:00 +0000

Can't we please, please, please have more thoughtful insight and dialogue like this on who we are as a people in this precarious moment, and how we might yet achieve the noble aspirations we long to embody as inheritors of American ideals and citizenship? Can't we please do better by being better? If we can't do it, you and I, who ever can? If not now, when?

By: Scott Lindquist

Scott Lindquist — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:31:18 +0000

I totally agree, even though I'm a white man and have never attended a black church for more than one or two services. My wife is a Unity minister and I have learned much from her about compassion and forgiveness. We are living in a time where we pound out chests and scream about being "Christians" but have totally ignored what He tried to teach us. In our rush to jump on the next bandwagon like "What would Jesus Do?", we forget his message. He never discarded anyone for what they said or did. He would correct them in their anger and speak to them of forgiveness, but he would never cast them out, as so many "religious zealots" are screaming. Barack Obama is a good and decent man who calls us to the better angels of our nature. I pray we have the courage to understand what he's trying to teach us, or will we do what we did to Jesus, destroy him because we can't stand the message of truth.

By: TN Dave

TN Dave — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:27:39 +0000

Thank Lanny for the words of Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson just explained to you the Black Experience and I hope you stop your crusade against Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama. Please take this to your friends on Fox News, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Rielly. It is time for this country to move beyond all this racial hatred and it can start with you putting this to rest and seeking an open dialog about race and it's affects on america in the 21st century.

Note: I know you are aware of the death threats to Rev. Wright and his Trinity family, this needs to stop or their injuries or death will be on yours and your friends Sean, Bill, and Karl Rove and the likes hands.

By: Sam Johnson

Sam Johnson — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:25:38 +0000

Great blog!!

By: C.J.

C.J. — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:58:51 +0000

Lanny Davis you are so irrelivant it isnt even funny. by the way get a life.

By: Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:53:01 +0000

Thank God that there is someone with enough clairity and ability to reach out to you Mr. Davis. Hopefully be able to get you or maybe anyone else to understand what its like to be in or at Church and get the WORD, but have enough sense to know what makes COMMON sense and weed out the rhetoric that's not condusive to what we need in our society to become one as a community.

There needs to be a lot less of POLITICS on this issue and more of an understanding of what its like for people who are not like you or from where you come from to deal with the everyday life that we go through. I make no excuses for Rev.Wright or any one that would say something that's not positive, but I know that this has and will happen throughout our life here on earth, We need to deal with this kind of thing in a meaningful way instead of parsing words for political gain and divisivness to get elected to the Presidency.

Why should it be that one group of people has a RIGHT to feel that their way is RIGHT and everyone else should just deal with how that group feels things should be. I think that's why we became a Country in the beginning, To be able to freely express how WE feel and not be ridiculed and taken to task.

By: jim in pennsylvania

jim in pennsylvania — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:52:55 +0000

Excellent– i am a white man who seldom cries- i cried when i read this excellent article.............
A Pennsylvania rural American so called as the Clinton and McCain campaign would call a average middle class voter