Are you hearing this?

Is anybody out there listening to Barack Obama?

I mean really listening to the words that are coming out of Obama's mouth lately. Had I no idea who the man was, you would have had a better chance convincing me that he was a Martian diplomat than an aspiring POTUS.

I will say this: Obama's recent speeches have seemed like they did come from outer space. And damn, has it been refreshing.

First there was his March 18 speech on race at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. His eloquent, magnanimous and rich inquiry into the state of racism in this country was the most moving political speech given since John or Bobby Kennedy. It is a little out of date, but I implore anyone who hasn't seen it to sit down for half and hour and watch it. Reading quotes or transcripts does not do it justice.



Up to this point, "A More Perfect Union" has been the Obama campaign's defining moment. And right it should be. It was eloquent without being long-winded, it was intelligent without being pretentious, it spoke to both sides without once patronizing either, it was concise and powerful. We've certainly come a long way since Richard Nixon told the American people about his dog Checkers.



Put it this way: could you imagine President Bush trying to give a speech like that? Pigs would fly Concordes before that ever happened.

What's most striking about the speech is that it was given by a presidential candidate in the middle of a neck-and-neck campaign. We tend to expect pandering from our presidents, not to be spoken to, as Jon Stewart recently put it, like we're adults.

Racism tends to be a political buzzkill, but Barack went for it anyway. Of course, it was necessitated by the P.R. firestorm created by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, who's heated diatribe/sermons have gone viral on Youtube. Of course, in our media saturated culture, his comments were immediately disseminated on television, where they have been taken out of context and scrutinized for the past month.

Pastor Wright seems to me to be an overzealous, bombastic and polarizing figure. But to call the man a racist or an enemy of unity—and to call Obama the same by extension— as many in the media have suggested, belies a type of ignorance and misunderstanding that's precisely what Barack's speech addresses.

I may disagree with some of the things Wright has said, I might even be offended by others. But that's doesn't give me the right to criticize the man or call him racist. Because the truth of the matter is, I couldn't possibly understand where he's coming from. He's right when he says that Hillary's never been called a nigger. Neither have I and I'm sure most of his detractors haven't either. Perspective is everything.

Let me take you on a trip to the No Spin Zone for an idea. Take a look at how Wright is treated here and then tell me you understand where he's coming from.



I'm not saying that anyone is as obnoxious or disrespectful as Sean Hannity. But his thought that Trinity United is prejudiced because they advertise themselves as a black church is something that many people agree with. But who is Sean Hannity to be calling Wright prejudiced? Who is Sean Hannity to be quoting MLK to a black pastor? It's a shame.

My point is that the issue of race is a complex problem. Debasing it as a public spectacle will only halt the type of dialog that Obama has courageously opened up. Simplifying the idea of race was exactly the problem in the first place.

We have an incredible opportunity to address an issue that has been fundamentally ignored since the 1960's. I know there are other problems in this country right now. Perhaps some of them are more pressing needs than discussing it.

But there may never be a more perfect time than the present to progress race. Barack Obama went out on a limb. Will we follow as well?