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Hope and the universality of human imperfection

By James Carroll | Monday, March 24, 2008 | The Boston Globe

“…’We the people, in order to form a more perfect union. . .’ So begins the US Constitution, and so began Senator Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia last week. Those remarks sparked such positive and negative consternation because they broke the cardinal rule of political rhetoric, lifting up a question that can be answered only by a deeper question. Obama’s subject was nothing less than the American paradox: The people who long for perfection are themselves imperfect….”…BS

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/03/24/hope_and_the_universality_of_human_imperfection?mode=PF

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 4:32 AM and filed under Elections/Voting, Media, Politics, Race. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

One Response to “Hope and the universality of human imperfection”

  1. ben stagg said:

    The implication here is that to be perfect, you must be above racism, which in fact none of us are. Furthermore, ‘racism’ is shorthand for ‘black and white’.
    That there is a black and white divide in certain segments of American society is undeniable, but it is in danger of being confused with our natural hesitance towards unfamiliar groups.
    This is more about what we have in common with certain people and not with others.
    For instance, would you treat a black Frenchmen differently from the way you would treat a white Frenchman, and would you treat a yellow Frenchmen in a different way, yet again. I think you would treat them all like Frenchmen.
    I treat New Yorkers differently from the way I treat Californians, because I don’t understand New Yorkers so well.
    I would treat Booker T Jones differently to the way I would treat P Diddy, because I don’t know P Diddy so well.
    What I am trying to say is that we shouldn’t think of ourselves as racist because we see a difference. We should say, reverting to the ‘Frenchmen’ comparison, ‘Vive La Difference!’
    In general, I think we do and this racism tag is overused.

    Posted on 24-Mar-08 at 9:45 am | Permalink

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