Reverend Wright: The Whole Story

The Detroit Chapter NAACP’s decision to bring in Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a bold one. Wright has caused a tidal wave of controversy with his comments about Sept. 11th. Many thought those comments would sink Barack Obama’s bid for the Presidency, but the American people are smarter than that.

Even during this week’s Pennsylvania debate ABC News' moderators couldn’t let the Wright issue go. Barack Obama was forced to answer over and over again why he did not leave the church, why he gave money to the church and why he waited so long to react to the comments. Before we all rush to judgment we should realize that Reverend Wright was quoting from a report he heard on Fox News.

Here is the sermon that Reverend Wright made to his congregation after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001

“I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday did anybody else see or hear him? He was on FOX News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators to no end, he pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, he pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, he said Americas chickens, are coming home to roost.”

“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.

“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.

“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.

“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.

“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”

Strong words for sure, but I still believe in the right to free speech. Wright and other preachers should be allowed to express ideas freely from the pulpit without fear of retribution. More people seem outraged about what the Reverend said after Sept. 11^th than the actions President George W. Bush took in leading our country into a war in Iraq on false pretenses. Five years later I wonder which is worse?

Tony Mottley is the producer of American Black Journal