Fenian would've had a field day with this one ... Pfleger mess

[Football_Bat]

A subject-line homage with a clear subject.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/29/obama_again_apologizes_for_a_p.html

Reverend Wright ... Father Pfleger .... Who's next to gum up the works for Obama? Fred Phelps?

Now we know the other reason why Hillary remains in the race.

 

[andyouare?]

In other news, someone who wasn't really handicapped parked in handicap parking spot at Trinity United.

Obama has apologized.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

But, I thought Obama was a Muslim?

 

[Italian_Stallion]

Given the past tense reference to Fenian, I have to ask. What happened to him? Did he die? Was he banned? I guess I missed it.

 

[Stoney]

I'm beginning to think Karl Rove is secretly funding that church, as determined as they seem to be to derail Obama's campaign.

Given what's already happened, you'd think they'd have good enough sense to put the whitey-bashing on hold until November.

 

[alleyallen]

I don't get it. What's Obama's connection with this church/preacher?

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Thinking about how something will sound, prior to airing it out in public . . . it's FUN-damental.

 

[Football_Bat]

Given the past tense reference to Fenian, I have to ask. What happened to him? Did he die? Was he banned? I guess I missed it.

Fenian fell to his death 11 days ago into a vat of Guinness, sadly.

It took the undertaker three days to get the smile off of his face.

 

[Bob Cook]

I don't get it. What's Obama's connection with this church/preacher?

In this case, there isn't a direct connection. But post-Wright, McCain and Obama are each forced to apologize or denounce anything any preacher says that isn't lilies and roses.

As for context, Pfleger has been a local activist for forever. My wife, while in college, did a story on him and his church probably 15 or so years ago, and his services are not the usual get-in, get-out Catholic services. Try four-hour masses with long, long, long fiery sermons. Pfleger grew up in the south side Beverly neighborhood, and he's spent his life reacting against the virulent racism he heard in his home and amongst other Irish Catholic/city worker/attorney types that populated the relatively well-to-do neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s. (Actually, that neighborhood still fits that description, though it's more diverse now). Pfleger rescued a beautiful church in a parish that otherwise would have shut down after white flight, and he has done a lot of good for his community through his activism.

The criticism of him -- and justified criticism -- is that he goes way overboard, and that he plays the trick with other, whiter parishes by "attempting" to build bridges, then burning them at the first sign of any (usually predictable) racial trouble -- well, it's not always racial, because sometimes it's based on distaste for Pfleger or an unwillingness to bow immediately to his demands -- so he can tell his parish and anyone who will listen that, "See? White people still hate you!"

Pfleger is like Wright in that he's from a generation that saw extremely violent and virulent racism in Chicago (MLK was shocked by how bad it was), and hasn't recognized that times have changed. I wouldn't argue that the descendents of that time haven't internalized that racism, because I've certainly run into those that have. Anybody who was on either side of the process of a "changing" neighborhood in Chicago from the 1950s through the 1970s has never had those scars completely heal. And while that fire has helped Pfleger accomplish a lot of good, it also causes him to shoot himself in the foot sometimes and alienate people who might otherwise be sympathetic.