I recently saw the ignominious sermon of Reverend (Rev.) Jeremiah Wright. Living in South Korea I am pretty much out of the loop as to what is going on with our political process in America. I do find this both beneficial and detrimental; It is beneficial because I feel like I am not being brain washed by the media but it is also a detriment because I have to go dissect what is fact and what is fiction.

As far as Rev. Wright's sermon is concern and the delirium that came with it has truly amazed me. Why you ask? Well let me tell you why, Patrick Buchanan just days later penned his own missive in response to Senator (Sen.) Obama's reaction to Rev. Wright's Sermon. I will take this time to cut and pasted Mr. Buchanan's correspondence to Rev. Wright, Sen. Obama and Black America as a whole.

From Buchanan's March 21 column:

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

Now if you would look at every channel on television, listen to the radio or read a news paper, I think White America is heard loud and clear every day of our lives.

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

The effrontery of Mr Buchanan to say that we should be thankful and on our knees for two hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of Jim Crow Laws (segregationist laws.) I know that Mr. Buchanan is not alone in this thought process, which in my opinion is very disheartening. The next time I am in America I will be sure to thank Mr. Buchanan and those who think like for what they have done for me and people. The perturbing reality is Black Americans have reach the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity, but we still are not on the same plateau as our White counter parts.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

What Mr. Buchanan fails to realize is that the people who have benefited the most have been those who look like him. I am not saying that Black people have not benefited from these social programs but let us not forget even when we were treated as second class citizens we paid taxes and fought in wars defending this country and spreading it's brand democracy around the world. All of that to a country that treated us as if we were sub-human.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks - with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

I love when individuals like Mr Buchanan will use Affirmative Action programs to make a point when in reality the people that benefited the most was his equally annoying sister Bay Buchanan, his daughters and all those White women who where treated just a little bit better than the Black people. The idea of Affirmative Action Programs was to give minority groups an equally footing in admissions to colleges and universities., it was also to help get these same minorities into the Government buildings as well as into the private sector that at one point would not allow us in the building other than to clean it!

What got me with his missive was that the mainstream media did not report this story and demonize Mr. Buchanan who at one time or another has run for the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States. What this has shown me was the double standard that we live with in this country. I don't know if this is the main streams way of deflecting from the sins of the past by saying that Black people are racist also, but what we must remember for Black people to be racist it has to flow from the top down; That means racism is institutionalized.

The problem I think that has America up in arms is that Rev. Wright stood up and spoke the truth and America does not want to hear the truth. America lives in a black and white, good versus evil world and America is always good. What Rev. Wright preached about is no different than what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached about some forty years ago when he spoke against the Vietnam war. Dr. King is given a holiday and is constantly quoted by all sections of American society. America is to quick to attack those Americans who question our motives and will call us out on our errors in judgment. Abolitionist Fredrick Douglass once said, "A true patriot is a lover of his country. Rebukes and does not excuse it's sins." What we need to ask ourself and Mr. Buchanan needs to ask himself, are we and is he a true patriot?

I was reading some blog a while ago and the individual who will remain nameless was discussing how they are tired of being hurt by individuals. This person went on to say that they would not trust another person again because of this hurt and betrayal. I started thinking to myself how many times I felt the same way this individual felt when people are constantly hurting me or you or whomever. Then I realized the operative word is people, that's what they are and because of that neither they or I am perfect. People will let us down and we will let them down but at the end of the day we have see people for who they are and respect and forgive them. I am a firm believer that most people don't go out and hurt you intentionally. I was on a train with another person just yesterday as I took a tour of Korea and the person who was on the train with me started talking about how people that she has met in the last six months here have let her down. As I was sitting there listening to her I realized that what do expect for others to be what we want them to be and to act the way we would like for them to act. We must realized that in life situations are not going to go the way we would want but that does not mean that the situation did not go the way it should have gone. Both of these individuals made comments to the point that they were tired of people and that they wanted to be left alone. I have had many of days like that and at one point in my life that was my golden rule because all people where going to do was hurt you and some times they might but not taking a chance to get to know people and yes get to love people not for what you want them to be but for who they are... I am constantly telling my friends here in Korea that everything is a mind frame... so if you say that your life sucks well guess what it will... not trusting and not giving people a chance to hurt you can be a lonely place to be and I know that might sound strange but think about it... if you cut yourself off from people what happens then when you miss that one person who was meant to be there in your life. I commented on the former person that I discussed in this piece blog and I told them that I felt it was worth getting hurt a 100 times if I met that one person who was a true friend on that 101st time then all the other times hurt and pain would have been worth that one time of great joy. The only way in life to fail is not to try....

As I watch the election from the other side of the world, I personally cannot believe how so many people have begun to take this so personally. I have watched the media play favorites and the people follow like mindless sheep. What happened to the audacity of thinking for yourself and doing your own research of the candidates and what they stand for... Now to be honest with you Obama and Clinton are politicians and when this is all said and done they are going to be alright and will be friends. I find it funny how all of the political pundits where all saying that Clinton was going to have to drop out after she lost both Texas and Ohio. Once again she proved them all wrong, not only did she win Texas and Ohio but she took Rhode Island too. I am glad that this election has taken all of the twist and turns that it has taken. I believe it is good for our democracy that this election has gone on as long as it has... This is making both Clinton and Obama appreciate the American electoral process all that much more and also people who would normally not be involved in this right that our nation provides us are now involved. In February which was Black History Month Obama took all the contest and now it is March which is Women's History Month and now Clinton has won. I guess we are just trying to honor these two in their respective months.

As a card carrying Democrat I am just glad to see history being made. I also realize that it is important to make sure that John McCain is defeated in November. We cannot have four more years of Bush policies. They have endangered the safety and the reputation of America. McCain if need be will have us in Iraq for 100 years. This is a dangerous mentality! Oil is costing $104 a barrel while prior to Bush being in office it cost $24 a barrel. So in the span of seven years oil has jumped over 400 percent. This is amazing that Bush's friends in the oil industry have been getting richer and richer (while paying more taxes) and the middle class has shrunk. America is in the mist of a recession and it will only get worse. The best thing for the United States is to elect someone who will change direction of our nation and I personally believe that either Clinton or Obama is that person or they on a joint ticket are those people.