Bravo!
If Hillary Clinton calls this speech "pretty words", I don't know what I'll do.
It made me weep with relief to hear someone stand behind an American flag and talk so openly, so substantively and with such an eye toward action and change about race. The anger and blank difference that divides black and white people is shamelessly exploited in politics. And that same anger causes such pain in real people's lives.
This is what politicians should be talking about.
hear hear!!!
Posted by: paula | March 19, 2008 at 08:03 AM
Amen! I am actually filled with Hope.
Posted by: Pretty Lady | March 19, 2008 at 12:00 PM
It truly is a relief to hear such open, honest, and nuanced discussion of race, from a politician. I too hope this doesn't get sound-bited into something else.
Posted by: Carla | March 19, 2008 at 12:32 PM
I now have a man-crush. How long has it been since we have had a leader who can speak like that?!
Posted by: cjagers | March 19, 2008 at 02:47 PM
Anyone watching the television? What has this turned into? I'm on a bit of an information diet right now. The Times is full of positivity, but the comments people are leaving on the Times blogs are so outrageously stupid...
Posted by: Deborah Fisher | March 20, 2008 at 07:40 AM
I admit that I've become a bit obsessive about this, and have been reading pages and pages of comments on the Times blog, Salon.com, and responses everywhere from Slate to Andrew Sullivan to National Review online.
The response seems surprisingly positive, with the exception of NRO Corner. There are a few people with such a tin ear that they just don't get it, but the vast majority of people are glad that someone is finally speaking the truth. I've also seen a lot of fence-sitters and even Clintonites who have been wholly converted.
I'm still hopeful.
Posted by: Pretty Lady | March 20, 2008 at 01:38 PM