E.J. Dionne Jr. asks an important question — the right question, as far as I’m concerned — about the Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright: “Is he as far outside the African American mainstream as many of us would like to think?”
The answer, as Obama said on Tuesday, is no. And we ignore this reality at the nation’s peril because we can not find unity and move forward without acknowledging this.
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And one other thing I think we’ve gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say “That’s a terrible statement!”…I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told “you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus…”
And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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We received a couple of complaints today about a cartoon that ran on the editorial page of the South Brunswick Post from the Copley News service.
The cartoon — pictured to the right — by Mike Thompson depicted a Muslim woman in Iraq recounting the trouble that has beset her life thanks to the war. In the fourth and fifth panels the woman says “America’s attack ruined our economy. So I’m jobless, homeless and starving.” followed by, “Sadly, a common plight for someone of my sex.”
The word “sex” is the trigger for the final panel, which depicts an American couple meant to stand in for a public that had no interest in her story. “Sex,” on the other hand — like the Eliot Spitzer saga — is of prime interest.
My sense is that the complaints are based on a final reading of this panel, caused at least in part by our publishing the cartoon in black and white leaving it a bit unclear as to whether the couple were members of the public or members of the military. (One of our reporters read it this way, and I can see how the misreading can happen.)
In any case, here is one of the complaints:
That is the most disgusting, inexcusable piece of garbage you have EVER printed. You insult every man and woman who has ever served in the armed forces. As a matter of fact you insult anyone who lives in this country. You owe everyone who reads your paper an apology. You should be deeply ashamed for printing that slander.
Take this for what it’s worth.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Dispatches is up — my thoughts on Barack Obama’s speech and the comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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My game plan when I hit the treadmill this morning was to get in about five miles with some interval training included. But my legs felt good, so five became six and six became seven. I think I could have gone farther, but the treadmill at the gym maxes out at 60 minutes. I pushed the seven in 59:49 — an 8:33 pace.
My goal was to get in 225 miles by the end of the first quarter and I am close. As of today, I’ve logged 204 miles with tomorrow and next week still to come. The issue is that I’m limited next week because of planned gum surgery on Thursday. That means that, to get to 225 by next Friday, I need to log 21 more miles in four running days.
I’m hoping to get outside in April.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
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Hank Kalet 