Divided We Fail
The Question: Which "ism" is more entrenched in America, sexism or racism? Which should religion address?
I think Americans are certainly more obsessed with sex and sexism and would like to forget racism. When many countries all over the world have had women as prime ministers, the United States still hesitates to elect a woman as president. It is only in the United States that we believe our president is "the Leader of the Free World" -- and only because we have a powerful army and powerful weapons of mass destruction. But in reality we have done nothing tangible to give the free world a moral or ethical direction.
Our status as a superpower is based only on our ability to fight a war and not on our ability to influence nations. We are now faced with the dilemma of electing the first woman president or the first African-American president. I am pretty sure the lobbyists and the media will conspire to change this equation before election day. I can see the subtle attempts to put doubts in the minds of people and there may even be a staged crisis closer to elections to ensure that macho Republicans get voted back to power.
We no longer want to confront racism which is still alive and kicking in our society, we don't want to acknowledge it and, therefore, we do nothing about it. There is a feeling that we have given African Americans equality and civil rights, so what more could they want? Well, we have to acknowledge that this is more than just a legal problem. It is a problem that permeates our social and cultural structure our education and out thinking. We have criticized others for dividing their constituencies by race, or religion but we are guilty of the same thing. Our constituencies are divided; we are constantly talking about the African-American or Hispanic or Asian voting blocs -- as seen in the current campaigns.
By
Arun Gandhi
|
March 28, 2008; 2:25 AM ET
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Posted by: Josh | April 9, 2008 2:08 PM
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But what does Obama say? In many respects he reminds me of starhawk. He speaks and writes with great eloquence but seldom says anything worthy of notice.
Obama's speech following The revelation of Reverend Wright's - shall we engage in euphemism - intemperance no more spoke truth to power -to borrow the left's phrase of the moment - than did the very sermons he condemned. It was in fact little more than a vague attempt to eat his cake and have it too. In short Senator Obama spread out more Pablum for the masses who seem increasingly either unable or unwilling to sort the chaff from the wheat.
Posted by: Garyd | March 29, 2008 12:02 PM
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did it drive your attention, Elder Gandhi, that the direction wheel is on the left. he hits the car to the walls of the palace, then a courier vehicle (servant or god) sits on the british car, and then here you are a royal lion, a lion-horse, or Richard on the Horse, Peugeot!
Posted by: http://360.yahoo.com/vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 7:04 AM
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"then how many authorities shall there be?".
is there one doctor at a hospital, one teacher at a school for all classes?
where are medicine, where are medical instruments? beds, desks? where are books, what is the schedule, how are the shifts?
you can save time and labor with education first, keep the employees healthy before they are diseased. it is more economical!
(what did i say?)
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 6:27 AM
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in the advertorial for a new LCD TV of Siemens, with a man flying in golden red flame on the screen, is "the appearance on the screen shall be united with your room to provide you with the experience of vision that you never lived before".
Elder Gandhi, do you teach these to your children? are there authorities for these languages in India? what is "to put the ashes of deads onto somewhere or someone" in India?
do you give a hen to an authority that shall give you a goose?
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 6:11 AM
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a news on the newspaper is "ashes of deads" shall be taken to the moon, next year, and it is intended to be 5000 of deads.
who are those five saints?
who did break the royal navy bottle for the ships to launch and who did fix it with paper inside holding the pieces adhered on and a paper put in the top of the bottle? who is the corpse under the flag of Britain, Pope Benedictus in CArdinal Black and Red?
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 5:41 AM
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goats dont eat money, Williams Bush. but my leaves are money for them.
USA, make friends with Russia, do not step on us please, we are flowers in the field of history, we are cheer of Earth here.
when we are in debt because of 100 F35, i shall not be able to invite Armenian Woman Poet to Anadolu, for Her to see the flowers from the seeds they had given.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:42 AM
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Williams Bush, we are children here, we are daughters here. we are new here. we are not figures from your history in your mind. we are new springs of the trees, have cheered and been hopeful again recently.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:34 AM
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all directed and managed by THOR North Europe countries, which had been in Israel of JAcob and Anadolu the Heaven, once upon a time
do you know when the carpet and scottish "blanket" over Anadolu shall be taken away? my brothers were used to wrap me breathless.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:30 AM
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one day, electromagnetics, mobile phones, wireless internet, EDGE, Bluetooth on the ears,
shall be announced as brain-dosers, not much fdifferent from BULL-DOSERS, especially in Anadolu.
and with Nicholasless Cola, though its spirit is from a plant in Adana, and tobacco of Britain and USA, daughters shall throat off their mothers and sisters to death as Abraham had been asked to, sheepless, without faith, unity or relativity to the angelness, without any wedding cake sworded,
crying out as this is the end of the world, for energy of life has decreased with smoke, chocolate and cola, electromagnetics overloaded. all are from South America and Indians.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:27 AM
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Williams Bush supports BURSA for NEW YORK but Russia supports Istanbul for New York. in Bursa and Antalya is St Nicholas,
perakendeciler shall earn bit by bit from our headsweat, and toptan toptan shall be given to USA and UK, while there is not any education, while there is not any time to education.
british electronics french spacecraft Vodafone is coming with millions of deers, maybe for European Union, but do you know about St Nicholas? do You know whether the word "deer" is for women for "gifts" or a word for "gays", you recollect from RACA of Bible, known in Vodafone?
TOBB and TUSIAD (businessmen and foundations, women included) supported President, mobile phones and computers, while VAtican asks for the taxs that Ottomans had asked from non-muslims.
shall you send again millions oıf gold for Civilization War? a slap to our faces! at least i am a politeist communist with saints, elders and apostels here in Anadolu. is it different than you, in India, Elder Gandhi of Peace?
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:18 AM
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Persian Mahmud Ahmedinejad shall go to Iraq with one billion of USD, and Turkish Army shall fly Houndless Unready War Planes where children are naked in the region.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:05 AM
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Dear Elder Arun Gandhi
India purchased the cars of England, from Ford. Ford supported Hitler, England fought against Hitler, and You purchased the education and philosophy of England. and Hitler is known with India, and wherever India is.
USA shall give 100 F35 invisible to british radar, but visible to heat-sensitive and ultraviolet watchers, for 250 billions of USD.
Ottomans were in India. Britain had chopped off the head of Muslim-Indian Empire, to have the soup of.
England and USA use electromagnetics and nuclear energy. let me ask for a pardon, what shall we do with the steel, Elder?
shall your children learn why Texas Astex elders were pictured onto papers of history as hairless and clothless, naked?
India is free today, islamless free. there is not any turk or persian islam in India. shall your children learn why Saddam Hussein made war against Iran, why Saddam Hussein was with USA, why today army of Iraq attacks Iranian people in Iraq, why opium is in Iran?
shall your children learn about cast-free priest Hebrew Abraham, from India? we are coming one step behind USA and UK, one day there shall be respect, that is one DAY, GUNAHS shall be discharged to AH appear as SUN in the SKY.
i prefer Cartoons of Williams Bush, from the Scripture of Anadolu, to steel war planes that hounds shall not be able to read, but for generations there shall be debt, stones unreachable, and the nose of Bill Clinton shall be larger, though squeezed.
Posted by: vazifezarife | March 29, 2008 3:03 AM
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So... You're saying, you're bored with Mr Gandhi posting nothing controversial enough for you to try and drive him off... By not posting anything in response to *me,* since I must clearly be trolling in order to get you to post with your capslock, about how.... Bored you are posting here?
If you're so bored, maybe instead of inventing conspiracy theories why there's a Hindu columnist in an interfaith forum, either let's talk about the subject matter instead of your paranoia, or, ...go ahead and do something else.
That's OK, too.
Posted by: Paganplace | March 29, 2008 12:45 AM
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"If you're bored enough to be thinking like that, try adding something intelligent. 'Controversy' is something you can have plenty of from trolls."
BEST ADVICE: DO NOT POST HERE.
WE ARE INDEBTED TO PAGANPLACE, WHO NOT ONLY MAKES OUR POINT BUT EMBODIES IT.
KEEP OFF THIS THREAD. WITH NO ONE TO FIGHT ARUN WILL GO BACK AND PLAY WITH HIS BLOCKS, PAGANPLACE BACK TO BOTTOM FEEDING WITH THE OTHER CAVE-DWELLING TROLLS.
Posted by: Observer12 | March 28, 2008 9:02 PM
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Why is it so hard for people to think that the government didn't invent AIDS? After all, this is the same government that used troops as live targets for nuclear bombs. It's the same government that engaged in forced sterilizations of black and Puerto Rican women. And it's the same government that conducted nclear, biological, and chemical attacks on hundreds of American cities for decades.
Posted by: Malcolm | March 28, 2008 8:15 PM
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Still, I could see coming back in five hundred years and seeing a bunch of Eclati-on monks chanting, 'Thou shalt not hassle me on photons, dude,' and wondering what the requirement for 'low flush toilets' to use five gallons or more of water is for. :)
All in all, you're better off with the photons. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | March 28, 2008 8:06 PM
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Btw, JJ, not so bad, there, as 'Commandments' go.
You could have a few millenia of holy infighting and aggression on 2, ...might wanna work on the language, there, but if you need a list of don'ts for some reason in the first place, that's not too bad as those things go. :)
Posted by: Paganplace | March 28, 2008 8:02 PM
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"There isn't much activity on the blog right now, so my best guess is that Quinn gave this person prominence to drum up controversy."
If you're bored enough to be thinking like that, try adding something intelligent. 'Controversy' is something you can have plenty of from trolls.
Posted by: Paganplace | March 28, 2008 6:41 PM
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GREETINGS ALL:
There isn't much activity on the blog right now, so my best guess is that Quinn gave this person prominence to drum up controversy.
BEST ADVICE: DON'T POST HERE. HOPE FOR THE BEST AND MAYBE SHE'LL SEND ARUN BACK TO HIS ROOM TO PLAY WITH HIS BLOCKS.
Posted by: Observer12 | March 28, 2008 4:13 PM
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I was upset when Arun Gandhi published his antisemitic screed over these pages, but now I see things differently. The man is simply infantile. He has all the reasoning power and all the grasp of reality of a 5-year old, and you can't really be upset with a child when he talks nonsense.
Why is he on the Washington Post panel, however, is completely beyond me. This is presumably a forum for grown-ups. Gandhi's analytical powers could be best used on the advisory board of Barney the Dinosaur.
Posted by: Michael O. | March 28, 2008 2:53 PM
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Both India and China seem to have been fairly united when they fell and began their present climb out of the hole. Could "United we fall" be equally valid as "Divided we fall?"
Does religion unite, divide, both or neither? Is religion a part of all cultures? Is it necessary? Need religion be public or official either one? Will religion spread if it's only private? Can anyone stop anyone else from believing anything? Can government either ignore of forbid the public display of religion and the recruiting of new members?
That last question is a "grabber" isn't it? If government ignores religion then how can religion get tax breaks? If government forbids the public display of faith it doesn't stop faith but tends to stop the spread of faith. Will faith die out in that case? Faith can't be stopped but can it be prevented from starting?
Should a society want to be united or divided? Is unity even possible? What's a good place for a divided society to begin the uniting process? At church or somewhere else? Is religion the solution or the problem?
Posted by: BGone | March 28, 2008 2:17 PM
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I think the Wright thing that the media keeps insisting is more important than what Obama says, even asking the question 'Has Obama, unlike white Religious Right-affiliated candidates, gone far enough to distance himself from a preacher who says things Obama's clearly never advocated or put into policy... For white people to decide if it's OK he has gone to Wright's church?
There's a racism *there,* too. Does a black guy, if he's not being called a Muslim by people who think they have the right to say what his religion 'really' is, have the right to speak for himself, or be labeled by Fox News as *really* about what they'd like to say he's about?
I respect Sen. Clinton a great deal, and also think she's ill-used for being a woman by a media that's insistently out-of-step with the notion that a heartening lot of the people *don't* much care that she's a woman.
If it were that big a problem, the both of them would not have won over Edwards, also a great candidate, never mind have energized the Democratic Party more than we've seen these many years.
There's a bit of the 'power-suit feminist' of the 80's about Hillary, that's not my preferred attitude from a candidate of any race or sex, ...for me, she's too corporate, too much about a way of doing the business of government that even being really good at hasn't really served all the interests she does represent so well in recent years. I'd be proud to have her as my President, but as much as people try to cast this in a context of race, sex, and polarization, it's really just as simple as that I think Obama's kind of leadership is what the country needs more right now, especially after what Bush and the Neocons have *made* of the Presidency. And I do think he's stronger on the diversity and civil rights issues nearest to my heart.
To an extent, the media just loves a horse race, loves polarization, loves to cast things in certain ways.
The fact is, it's not the most important part, and it's an issue the desire for ratings-grabbing campaign coverage has done more to *create* than illuminate.
Posted by: Paganplace | March 28, 2008 1:40 PM
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Dear Arun,
"We no longer want to confront racism which is still alive and kicking in our society, ..."
The Jeremiah Wright videos show racism is a multifaceted problem. Loonies like Wright tell the children that the (white) American government developed AIDS as a means of attacking the black people. Teaching people to harbor paranoid fantasies about their neighbors helps no one. Clearly, blacks and whites both need to improve.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 27, 2008 9:12 PM
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Not at all. I find Nancy Pelosi's political views repugnant, however the only person thus far to find her abrasive is Hillary.
Posted by: Garyd | March 27, 2008 4:47 PM
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Ahhh, GaryD:
Are you trying to say that when a man is vocal and determined about a certain political or social issue he is assertive, but when a woman does the same she is abrasive????
Tsk, tsk!
Posted by: Gaby | March 26, 2008 5:17 PM
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Mr. Ghandi that is almost entirely do not to sexism but to Americas peculiar political dynamic. The women with the best chance to become President are almost all Republican and almost uniformly not exhibitionistic enough to put up with the crap you have to go through to become president of this country. That leaves the Hillary's who for the most part are too far to the left or too polarizing as individuals to appeal to the majority Of voters. It isn't there sex that's the problem it is either there politics their abrasiveness or a combination of the two.
Posted by: Garyd | March 26, 2008 1:20 PM
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