Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[My Fox Orlando]

She’s only 12 years old but Ashleigh Jones is feeling the heat of this election year.  That’s because the seventh grader at New Smyrna Beach Middle School was called a racist by classmates for wearing a pro-Sarah Palin t-shirt.  Jones is volunteering at the Republican Headquarters in New Smyrna Beach. The Palin t-shirt was a gift from her fellow volunteers.

“Some of the students were calling me racist because I was Caucasian,” she said. “I wanted the Caucasian man to win. And I told them that’s not true. It’s my freedom of speech, it’s my opinion.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

I’m hoping this is just a bunch of misguided kids.  But I have a feeling this is going on with adults too on “BOTH SIDES.”  I’m sure there are some who won’t vote for Obama because he is African-American. I guess one could argue that not voting for Palin makes one “sexist.”  This is stupid. I hope we get beyond this.

What do you think?

[JC Floridian]

The Jackson County School Board has taken action against a teacher who apparently made racial commentary on presidential candidate Barack Obama.

According to parents and students in Greg Howard’s seventh-grade social studies class, Howard on Friday, Sept. 26 asked the class a question regarding Obama’s call for change, and proceeded to write out what the letters C-H-A-N-G-E stood for.

“She told me that he wrote on the board ‘Can You Help A (expletive) Get Elected, and then laughed about it,” said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard’s students.

Jackson County Superintendent Danny Sims said that description of this incident was “pretty accurate.”Sims said Howard apparently repeated the action in more than one class, having made the comment in “a couple of periods.” According to a news release from the school board, Howard was suspended with pay on Monday, Sept. 29.

Read more here.

[From me]

It is bad enough to say that to some friends but even worse in a public setting like school.  I don’t care who you are for in this election this kind of stuff has to stop.  We still have a long way to go.

What do you think?

[Yahoo]

Geraldine Ferraro slammed Barack Obama on Thursday for comparing her, during a speech on race relations, with the preacher at the center of a political firestorm. Ferraro, who was forced to quit Clinton’s campaign last week after suggesting that Obama had an advantage because he is black, told a California newspaper her comments were quite different from the incendiary, racially charged sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable,” Ferraro told the Daily Breeze in an interview. “(Obama) gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred.”

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is.”

Read about it here and here.

[From me]

I don’t think so.  But the democrats are beating each other up pretty good.  I don’t know how they can unify after this ugly fight.

What do you think?

[USA Today]

The Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for “acting like he’s white” when it comes to the case of six young blacks who were charged with crimes in Jena, La., according to The (Charleston, S.C.) State.

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition says in a statement that Jackson’s comments were “taken out of context.” USA TODAY’s Mark Memmott reports at On Politics that Jackson didn’t address the accuracy of those comments in a statement that his group sent out earlier this afternoon.

Back in 1984, when he was running for president, Jackson was quoted calling Jews “Hymie” and New York “Hymietown.” He issued a “non-denial-denial” at the time, according to a story about the incident that appeared in American Journalism Review.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Why does Jesse (I won’t call him Rev.) Jackson get away with this drivel? What does it mean to act “white?” If Imus and Rush can get fired why doesn’t Jesse get what he deserves for his racism? How can that be taken out of context?

What do you think?