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Friday, November 7, 2008



Home > Opinion


I'll never fully understand ...

Binge Thinking

Mark PowellIssue date: 11/6/08 Section: Opinion


Barack Obama will be our next commander-in-chief. And I'll never fully understand.

I'll never fully understand why hundreds of people congregated at the John Carlos and Tommie Smith Statue on Tuesday night, just a few moments after Sen. Obama secured his spot as this country's 44th president.

I'll never fully understand the absolute, unadulterated joy that beamed from the faces of the SJSU African-American students who made the impromptu trek from the dorms to the symbolic statue.

They were in Heaven.

I'll never fully understand their angelic singing, their strong "O-ba-ma!" chants or the palpable buzz that their presence created.

I'll never fully understand because I'll never really know what black people have been through - no matter how many History Channel programs I've viewed or how many black friends I have.

Honestly, I only have a couple.

I'll never fully understand because I'll never be told by my parents that they faced racism, that they had basic opportunities taken away from them because they couldn't control the color of their skin - that they prayed the U.S. would someday have a president that shared their ethnicity.

I'll never fully understand because I'll never look back through my family's history and see photos of "Whites Only" bathrooms or read accounts of expulsions from restaurants.

I was born and raised in a city in California's central valley. I'm half white, half whiter.

I'm not ashamed of my background, but I'm aware that I've had less to fight for than people of color. I'm aware that friends from back home would probably never vote for a black man. Any black man.

I'll never fully understand why those teens from Jena, La., sought vengeance after six nooses were hung in their 21st-century neighborhood.......
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Ted Rudow III,MA

Bush and others will be judged accordingly for the darkness that they are spreading. The poor of the world who are being ravaged by the violence and the destruction and the sectarian hatred, those whose lives and happiness are being stolen from them by the selfishness of others, will be rewarded accordingly in the next life. As sad and heartbreaking a time as it will be, it must come so that it can pass.
If he pushes for war and special executive police powers before the end of his term, it'll be a very difficult time for people everywhere, but especially for the poor people in the Mideast. It's beyond words, beyond description. But it has to get worse before it can get better. The world has to fall into gross darkness before the coming of the light.
Bush and his so-called Christianity is as far from Christ and real Christianity as darkness is from the light. Bush's testimony is so contrary to real Christian values that he is working against them, and by doing so is hastening the advance of an anti-Christ world and solidifying anti-Christ sentiment within the world. May Obama appease his war-like spirit and bring peace!
Ted Rudow III,MA
Class of 1996