Some FACTS and Some Perspective on Obama and the Reverend

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This is a subject I would prefer to just go away already because we should be talking about the issues that face our nation instead of what church any candidate goes to or what pastor they have or have not considered a "spiritual" (NOTE - NOT political) mentor or adviser. But, it's not about to go away anytime soon, at least in the eyes of some Obama detractors. Some in the media have managed to totally distort the truth and, as would be expected, many people have latched onto these reports and repeated them online and through word of mouth and letters to the editor and comment sections of their local papers. Before I get into that, let's first review how the whole Reverend Wright story first got started. First there were the e-mails sent out to I'm sure hundreds of millions about Obama being a Muslim, having been sworn in on the Koran, refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (all totally false) and about him "refusing" to place his hand on his heart during the playing of our National Anthem and to wear a flag pin on his lapel, as if either of those made him "anti-American" or "unpatriotic". Concerning the former, take a look around and tell me it's a universal practice to place one's hand on one's heart during the playing of the Anthem - it's not, some do it but more do not; as for the latter, Obama had addressed the lapel pin "scandal" long ago saying basically that wearing a flag pin does not prove one's patriotism. Anyway, it was because of these accusations of being a Muslim that Obama was forced to speak more about the church he belonged to than he should have had to. He was put in a spot where if he didn't come across as a devout Christian he would be forever marked as a Muslim and therefore, however unfairly, accused of being a terrorist! People seem to assume now that he never missed a Sunday in church during the 20-odd years he was a member and that because he considered Reverend Wright a "friend and spiritual mentor" that meant the two have been virtually joined at the hip and are in total agreement on every issue. Never mind that Obama has probably not been home all that often in the past many years since he became involved in politics. Shortly after the videos of Reverend Wright making these statements which I'm sure we can all agree are horrible (but we all should also be aware that he is far from the first person to say any of those things against our GOVERNMENT, not white people in general) Obama made many statements on many media appearances denouncing these comments and saying he'd never been present when they were made. One thing I don't believe has been brought up is that Reverend Wright had been pastor of this church for, I believe, about 30 years so it can hardly be assumed every sermon was identical or even similar to the ones who have been played by the media 24/7. Fast forward to last Tuesday, March 18 when Obama made what has been called a historic and inspiring speech about race in America. In this speech he said, "Did I ever hear him [Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor] make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church? Yes." This statement was used by many media outlets to make the false claim that Obama had contradicted previous statements. Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends even made this comment: "There you go. Last week he said, 'No, never heard it,' and yesterday he said, 'Yep, I was sitting there and I heard it.' " For many more examples of these false media reports, go here: http://mediamatters.org/items/200803200004 I've been told in various posts to "back up my claims with facts". For those of you who have been echoing these false media claims I say, "Right back atcha!" Annie